10 Best Software for Scheduling for Barbers in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best software for scheduling for barbers

#1

Booksy

Best for: Barbershops that want new clients finding them through a booking marketplace, with every feature in one price

Visit booksy.com

Starting price$29.99/month (Booksy Biz, first staff member; $20/month per additional team member)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Booksy is the barbershop industry's default app, and its pitch is discovery: clients open the Booksy app to find a barber, so listing your shop there is advertising and booking in one. The subscription itself is simple at $29.99 a month for the first chair, with $20 a month for each additional team member, with every feature included — marketing, waitlists, gift cards, memberships, no-show protection and custom forms.

The honest math is the per-chair fee and the Boost program. A three-chair shop pays $69.99 a month before processing fees, and every new client Boost brings you costs 30% of their first visit, capped at $100. Reminders are always free, which kills a major no-show driver. Buy Booksy when new clients finding you matters as much as the diary; buy Square Appointments or Setmore when you already have the clients.

What we like

• The booking marketplace barbers already use: clients search the Booksy app and book without leaving it
• One subscription covers every feature, including no-show protection, gift cards and memberships
• Free unlimited appointment reminders, which cut no-shows without an add-on
• 2,000 free SMS marketing messages a month are included

Watch out for

• Per-staff pricing climbs fast: a five-chair shop pays $109.99/month before processing fees
• Optional Boost charges 30% of a new client's first visit, capped at $100
• No free plan, only a 14-day trial

#2

Fresha

Best for: Solo barbers and small shops that want the lowest subscription and a big marketplace audience

★★★★★★★★★★4.2/5 on G2 (3 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit fresha.com

Starting price$19.95/month (Independent, solo; Team $14.95 per bookable team member/month)

Free planNo — 7-day free trial

Fresha wins the headline-price contest and loses the total-cost contest. The subscription is the cheapest here at $19.95 a month for a solo barber, or $14.95 per team member on the Team plan, and card fees are the lowest, but the 20% commission on every new marketplace client is the real price: 30 new clients a month at a $40 ticket costs roughly $240 in commission on top of the subscription.

What you get is a full system: online booking, POS, client records, email and text marketing, and inventory, plus a marketplace with a large audience looking for barber services. Bookings from your own website, Google or Instagram are free of commission. Choose Fresha when you are starting out and need discovery more than cost predictability; choose Booksy when you want the same marketplace idea with no per-client commission.

What we like

• Lowest subscription here: $19.95/month for a solo barber, $14.95 per team member on Team
• A large marketplace puts your chairs in front of clients already looking for a barber
• Card processing starts at 2.29% + 20c in person, the lowest in-person rate here
• Bookings from your own website, Google or Instagram carry no commission

Watch out for

• The 20% commission on every new marketplace client (minimum $6) can cost more than the subscription
• Loyalty, Google review requests and a custom website are paid add-ons, not included
• The old free plan ended in July 2026, so every account now pays a subscription

#3

Square Appointments

Best for: Barbers already taking Square payments who want booking free and no per-chair fee

Visit squareup.com

Starting priceFree (Free plan; Plus $49/month per location, Premium $149/month per location)

Free planYes — Free plan ($0, 1 location)

Square Appointments is the free pick here, and the free plan is a working diary rather than a demo: online booking, calendar sync, automated reminders and payment acceptance at $0, for one location. Plus costs $49 a month per location and adds multi-staff booking, no-show fees, a waitlist and class bookings; Premium costs $149 and adds resource scheduling for chairs and rooms, time tracking and reporting.

Square charges per location, not per chair, so a five-chair shop pays the same $49 on Plus as a two-chair shop, while Booksy would charge $109.99 and Vagaro $70. The trade-off is discovery: there is no marketplace, so clients have to find you some other way. Pick Square Appointments when you already take Square payments and want the cheapest honest diary; pick Booksy or Fresha when you need the marketplace to bring the clients.

What we like

• The only genuinely free plan here: online booking, calendar sync and reminders at $0
• Unlimited staff calendars on every plan, with no per-chair charge at any tier
• Booking, POS and payments sit in one account, so the till and the diary never disagree
• Plus at $49/month per location adds no-show fees, a waitlist and class bookings

Watch out for

• No-show fees, waitlists and Google Calendar sync need Plus at $49/month per location
• The free plan covers one location only, so a second shop is a second subscription
• No marketplace: clients will not discover your chairs through Square itself

#4

Vagaro

Best for: Small shops that want one cheap base price and to pay only for the add-ons they switch on

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (394 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit vagaro.com

Starting price$30/month (1 bookable calendar; $23.99/month for the first 6 months; $10/month per extra calendar)

Free planNo — free trial

Vagaro charges by bookable calendar: $30 a month for one, $10 a month for each extra calendar, and the subscription stops growing after seven licenses. The page shows $23.99 a month for the first six months, so budget on the $30 list price. A three-chair shop pays $50 a month before add-ons, and a seven-chair shop pays $85 — the cap makes Vagaro cheaper than Booksy past six chairs.

The base plan covers the diary, a marketplace listing, POS, client management and payments, with no per-booking commission. The extras are where the bill climbs: text marketing, intake forms, a website builder and a branded app each carry their own monthly fee. Choose Vagaro when you want a low base and control over which extras you pay for; choose GlossGenius when you would rather have marketing included in one price.

What we like

• Low base price with a cap: $30/month for one calendar, $10 per extra calendar, and no charge after seven
• A marketplace listing comes with every plan, so clients can find and book your shop
• Payroll, memberships, packages and gift certificates all live in the same account
• No per-booking commission on the core subscription

Watch out for

• Text marketing, intake forms and a website builder are paid add-ons on top of the base price
• Each extra bookable calendar costs $10/month, so the bill grows with every chair
• The $23.99 rate is an introductory price for the first 6 months; the list price is $30/month

#5

GlossGenius

Best for: Solo barbers and small teams that want booking, payments and marketing in one polished app

★★★★★★★★★★4.8/5 on Capterra (351 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit glossgenius.com

Starting price$28/month (Standard, billed monthly; $24/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

GlossGenius is the polished all-in-one here: online booking, a free custom booking website, payments, client and inventory management, email and text marketing, and packages and memberships, all in Standard at $28 a month billed monthly or $24 billed annually. Gold costs $48 a month billed annually for teams up to nine; Platinum costs $148 for ten or more.

The rating backs the polish: 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra across 351 reviews, the highest score in this list, with reviewers praising the booking experience and the free migration help. The limits are geography and scope: GlossGenius is US only, Standard covers one person, and online payments cost more than in-person ones. Pick GlossGenius when you want one subscription that does the whole job; pick Vagaro when you want a lower base and are happy to add marketing separately.

What we like

• The highest-rated tool here at 4.8/5 on Capterra across 351 reviews
• A free custom booking website comes with the entry plan, so clients can book without an app
• In-person card processing is 2.4% + 15c on every plan, with no volume tiers
• Email and text marketing, inventory and packages are included from Standard, not gated

Watch out for

• US only, so it is no use to a barber outside the United States
• No free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the entry plan covers one person only
• Online card payments cost 3.4% + 15c, higher than the 2.4% + 15c in-person rate

#6

Setmore

Best for: Small shops that want a real free plan for up to four barbers before paying anything

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (270 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit setmore.com

Starting price$12/user/month (Pro, billed monthly; $5/user/month billed annually)

Free planYes — Free plan (up to 4 users)

Setmore is the rare scheduler whose free plan is a working product rather than a sample. Up to four users get appointments, payments, email reminders and Reserve with Google at $0, with no card required. Pro costs $12 per user a month billed monthly, or $5 per user a month billed annually, and adds SMS reminders, two-way calendar sync, recurring appointments, deposits and API access.

The catch is in the details: the free plan's one-way calendar sync is where double-bookings start, and SMS reminders and recurring bookings all sit behind Pro. There is no waitlist and no packages or memberships at any price. Pick Setmore when the budget is $0 and four chairs is enough; pick Square Appointments when the shop is busier than 200 appointments a month and still wants a free plan.

What we like

• A genuinely useful free plan: up to 4 users, payments and email reminders at $0
• Pro is $5 per user a month on annual billing, the cheapest paid step up here
• Reserve with Google is included on the free plan, so clients can book from search
• Payments run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Tap to Pay, not a locked-in processor

Watch out for

• SMS reminders, two-way calendar sync and recurring bookings all need Pro
• The free plan caps at 200 appointments a month, so a busy shop outgrows it quickly
• No waitlist, packages or memberships at any price

#7

Acuity Scheduling

Best for: Barbershops that want one flat price no matter how many chairs they add, up to six calendars

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (410 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit acuityscheduling.com

Starting price$20/month (Starter, billed monthly; $16/month billed annually; 1 calendar)

Free planNo — 7-day free trial

Acuity Scheduling, owned by Squarespace, charges one flat price per plan rather than per chair, so it gets relatively cheaper as the team grows. Starter costs $20 a month billed monthly or $16 billed annually and covers one calendar; Standard costs $34 billed monthly or $27 billed annually and covers up to six calendars; Premium costs $61 billed monthly or $49 billed annually and covers up to 36 calendars.

A three-chair shop and a six-chair shop both pay $27 a month on Standard billed annually, or $324 a year, against $839.88 for three chairs on Booksy. There is no free plan, only a seven-day trial, and text reminders, packages and memberships all wait for Standard. Pick Acuity Scheduling when the chair count keeps climbing; pick Setmore when the budget is $0 and four chairs is enough.

What we like

• Flat pricing per plan, not per chair: Standard at $27/month covers up to six calendars
• Payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, so clients pay how they like
• Custom intake forms and automatic time-zone conversion come with the entry plan
• Packages, memberships and gift certificates sit on Standard, not a top tier

Watch out for

• No free plan at all, only a 7-day trial, so you pay from the first week
• Text reminders, packages and memberships wait for Standard at $34/month billed monthly
• Hiding the Acuity logo and the AI booking assistant wait for Premium at $61/month

#8

Mangomint

Best for: Growing multi-chair shops that want fast workflows and every feature in one plan

★★★★★★★★★★4.9/5 on G2 (119 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mangomint.com

Starting price$130/month ($120/month per location + $10/month per user)

Free planNo — free trial

Mangomint runs on one simple formula since August 2026: $120 a month per location plus $10 a month per user, so a solo barber pays $130 a month and three chairs cost $150. Everything else is included — Express Booking, the waiting room, memberships, forms, unlimited SMS and email notifications, POS and integrations — with only phone, marketing and payroll as paid add-ons.

Its 4.9 out of 5 on G2 across 119 reviews is the best in this list, with fast workflows and US support the most repeated praise. The price is the honest problem: $130 a month for a solo chair is five times GlossGenius Standard, and Mangomint says the platform is built for teams of two or more. Pick Mangomint when the shop is growing past three chairs and speed matters; pick Vagaro when the budget is tight.

What we like

• The highest-rated tool here at 4.9/5 on G2 across 119 reviews
• One plan with everything included: Express Booking, waiting room, memberships and forms
• Unlimited SMS and email notifications are included, not metered per message
• No contracts and no hidden fees, with integrations included at no extra charge

Watch out for

• $130/month for a solo barber is the dearest starting price in this list
• Phone, marketing and payroll are paid add-ons on top of the $130 base
• Built for teams of two or more, so a solo chair pays for capacity it will not use

#9

Mindbody

Best for: Multi-location barbershops and barber schools that want booking plus classes, marketing and staff management in one system

★★★★★★★★★★3.7/5 on G2 (519 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mindbody.com

Starting price$99/month (Starter, per location)

Free planNo — demo on request

Mindbody is the enterprise end of this list: Starter costs $99 a month per location and covers online booking and scheduling, client management, POS and automated reminders, with a consumer app that lets clients discover and book your chairs. The higher tiers add marketing, a branded app and deeper reporting, but both are quote-only.

The shape suits a shop with more than one location, or a barber school that also sells classes: classes, memberships and training sit in the same system as the cuts, and one dashboard covers every shop. The rating is the lowest here at 3.7 out of 5 on G2 across 519 reviews, with setup effort and support the most repeated complaints. Pick Mindbody when the business is several shops or a school; pick Vagaro or GlossGenius when one shop is the whole business.

What we like

• Clients can discover and book your chairs through the Mindbody app
• Built for multi-location shops: one dashboard across several shops
• Classes, courses and memberships sit alongside cuts, so a barber school can sell training too
• Deep staff management, payroll and reporting for larger teams

Watch out for

• $99/month per location is dear for a solo chair, and Accelerate and the top tier are quote-only
• Setup is heavier than the simpler tools here, with a learning curve reviewers flag
• No free plan and no free trial; a demo is the only way to try it first

#10

Boulevard

Best for: Multi-chair shops that want a polished client experience and can commit to a 12-month term

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (135 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit joinblvd.com

Starting price$159/month (Essentials, billed monthly; $143/month billed annually; 1 location, up to 5 providers)

Free planNo — demo on request

Boulevard is the high-end pick here: Essentials costs $159 a month billed monthly or $143 billed annually, for one location and up to five providers; Premier is $325 and Prestige $455 billed monthly. The page marks some prices as a limited-time fall offer for new customers, and the agreement sets a twelve-month term, so read the terms before you sign.

What the money buys is polish: Precision Scheduling for overlapping services, a client experience built for self-care businesses, its own card processing, and 250 free texts plus 1,000 free email blasts a month. Forms cost $65 a month extra, and onboarding averages three to four weeks. Pick Boulevard when the shop is established, the book is full and the client experience is the selling point; pick Mangomint when you want the same multi-chair power without the twelve-month term.

What we like

• Precision Scheduling handles overlapping services and double-booked chairs cleanly
• 250 free texts and 1,000 free email blasts a month are included on Essentials
• Its own card processing keeps payments, deposits and the diary in one system
• Built for multi-chair teams: Essentials covers one location and up to five providers

Watch out for

• The dearest plan here at $159/month, and it runs on a 12-month agreement
• Forms cost $65/month extra on Essentials, and onboarding takes 3 to 4 weeks
• No free plan and no free trial; a demo is the only way to try it first

The best software for scheduling for barbers does two jobs at once: it keeps the chairs full and the diary straight, without charging you for the privilege of taking a booking. We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a US barbershop with one to five chairs — starting with the marketplace apps that bring new clients and ending with the premium platforms built for multi-chair teams, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 8, 2026.

How to choose the best software for scheduling for barbers

• Count your chairs first. Booksy charges $20 a month per extra chair, Vagaro charges $10 per extra calendar, and Square Appointments charges nothing per chair at all. The per-chair fee is your real starting price.
• Decide whether you need a marketplace. Booksy and Fresha put your chairs in front of clients already looking for a barber; Square Appointments, Setmore and Acuity Scheduling only book the clients you already have.
• Work out the commission, not just the subscription. Fresha takes 20% of a new marketplace client's first booking and Booksy Boost takes 30%. A busy shop can pay more in commission than in subscription.
• Check the free plan's limits. Square Appointments is free with no appointment cap, Setmore Free stops at 200 appointments a month.
• Check the card rate on your busiest day. In-person rates run from 2.29% + 20c on Fresha to 2.6% + 15c on Square Appointments Free, and online payments always cost more than in-person ones.

Scheduling is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the shop also needs to be found online, our guide to barbershop software covers the wider toolkit, and a local SEO audit shows how your shop ranks on Google Maps when clients search for a barber nearby. And before you publish a booking page, run your Google review link through the free Google review link generator — it builds the short link clients tap to leave a review after their cut.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with a real week before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine week — your chairs, your services, your clients — and that week tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that clients can book without calling you, and that the reminders actually go out. Every tool here sends reminders, but only some send them free on the entry plan, so check what the first no-show costs you.

Software for scheduling for barbers pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a three-chair barbershop doing about 300 cuts a month. On list prices, the subscription costs $0 on Square Appointments Free, $36 on Setmore Pro billed monthly, $44.85 on Fresha Team, $50 on Vagaro, $56 on GlossGenius Gold billed monthly, $69.99 on Booksy, $99 on Mindbody Starter, $150 on Mangomint and $159 on Boulevard Essentials. Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real: GlossGenius Standard covers one person, so a three-chair shop needs Gold, and Acuity Scheduling Standard at $34 a month billed monthly covers up to six calendars, so the same three chairs cost $34 there.

Over a year, that is $0 on Square Appointments Free, $180 on Setmore Pro billed annually, $324 on Acuity Scheduling Standard billed annually, $538.20 on Fresha Team, $576 on GlossGenius Gold billed annually, $588 on Square Appointments Plus, $600 on Vagaro, $839.88 on Booksy, $1,188 on Mindbody Starter, $1,716 on Boulevard Essentials billed annually and $1,800 on Mangomint. The same three chairs and the same 300 cuts cost $0 a year at the cheap end and $1,800 at the dear end — a gap that comes entirely from per-chair fees and plan tiers, not from features.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the introductory prices — $23.99 for six months on Vagaro — end, so budget on the list price. Second, card processing on every cut you take by card, which runs about 2.29% to 2.6% in person. Third, the marketplace commissions: a shop gaining 20 new marketplace clients a month at a $40 ticket pays about $160 a month in commission on Fresha and about $240 on Booksy Boost, which is more than the subscription on either tool. If the shop runs a wider beauty business as well, the visibility tools differ too — see our guide to booking software for salons.

Annual billing cuts the bill on most tools here: Setmore Pro drops from $432 to $180 a year for three users, Acuity Scheduling Standard from $408 to $324, and GlossGenius Gold from $672 to $576. Booksy publishes no annual discount, so the monthly figure is the whole story, and Vagaro's $23.99 rate is a six-month introduction rather than an annual price. One more cost to check before you commit: a second shop is a second subscription on every tool in this list except the ones that price per user, so price the second location before you commit to a tool for the first.

Know the difference: subscription vs marketplace commission

The confusion in this category is between two different bills that look like one price. The subscription is what you pay every month for the diary: $0 to $159 across this list. The marketplace commission is what you pay when the platform itself brings you a new client: 20% of the first booking on Fresha, 30% of the first visit on Booksy Boost, and nothing at all on Square Appointments, Setmore, Mindbody, Acuity Scheduling, Vagaro, GlossGenius, Mangomint or Boulevard.

That split is why the cheapest subscription can be the dearest tool. Fresha at $19.95 a month looks cheaper than Booksy at $29.99, but a shop gaining 20 new marketplace clients a month at a $40 ticket pays $160 a month in Fresha commission against $0 in commission on Booksy's standard plan — so the Fresha shop pays $179.95 a month in total and the Booksy shop pays $29.99. The commission only applies to new clients the marketplace sends you, never to repeat clients or clients who book through your own website, Google or Instagram.

There is a second, quieter confusion: a free plan is not the same as a free tool. Square Appointments Free and Setmore Free both cost $0 a month, but they still charge card processing on every payment, and Setmore Free stops at 200 appointments a month. A free plan that caps appointments is a trial with a longer fuse, not a permanent home for a busy shop.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the subscription and forgetting the commission. Fresha's 20% and Booksy Boost's 30% apply to new marketplace clients, and a busy shop can pay more in commission than in subscription.
• Budgeting on the intro price. Vagaro's $23.99 rate lasts six months and Booksy has no annual discount, so compare tools on the list price you will pay in month seven.
• Buying on the free plan, then finding the reminders cost extra. SMS reminders need Pro on Setmore and Plus on Square Appointments, so count the paid plan in the price from day one if reminders matter.
• Paying per chair when the shop keeps growing. A per-chair fee that looks cheap for one chair costs $109.99 a month for five chairs on Booksy, while Square Appointments Plus is still $49 and Acuity Scheduling Standard is still $27.
• Forgetting the second shop. A second location is a second subscription on every tool here, so price the second shop before you commit to a tool for the first.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 8, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a US barbershop with one to five chairs — not by brand size. Fresha's price was verified from fresh search-index copies of its own pricing page, since the page itself did not load directly on November 8, 2026. Schedulicity was left out because it is no longer sold as a separate product: Vagaro bought it in January 2025 and its pricing page now redirects to Vagaro. Two ratings are omitted because the review counts conflicted across sources: Booksy on G2 and Square Appointments on G2 and Capterra. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run one real week of cuts through it. Check that clients can book without calling you, that the reminders go out, and that the card rate on a $40 cut matches what the pricing page promised. If the diary is sorted but new customers are not finding you, compare the wider toolkit in our guide to the best booking app for barbers. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (18)

• Booksy pricing — booksy.com/biz/en-us/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Fresha pricing — fresha.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Square Appointments pricing — squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Vagaro pricing — vagaro.com/pro/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• GlossGenius pricing — glossgenius.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Setmore pricing — setmore.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Mindbody pricing — mindbody.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Acuity Scheduling pricing — acuityscheduling.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Mangomint pricing — mangomint.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Boulevard pricing — joinblvd.com/pricing (checked November 8, 2026)
• Fresha reviews — g2.com/products/fresha/reviews (checked November 8, 2026)
• Vagaro reviews — g2.com/compare/phorest-software-vs-vagaro (checked November 8, 2026)
• GlossGenius reviews — capterra.co.uk/software/174830/glossgenius (checked November 8, 2026)
• Setmore reviews — g2.com/products/setmore/reviews (checked November 8, 2026)
• Mindbody reviews — g2.com/products/fresha/competitors/alternatives (checked November 8, 2026)
• Acuity Scheduling reviews — g2.com/compare/acuity-scheduling-vs-appointy (checked November 8, 2026)
• Mangomint reviews — g2.com/products/mangomint/reviews (checked November 8, 2026)
• Boulevard reviews — g2.com/products/boulevard-labs-inc-boulevard/reviews (checked November 8, 2026)