Best Tanning Salon Software for 2026: 10 Options Compared by Use Case

Quick comparison

The best tanning salon software

#1

Vagaro

Best for: Single-location tanning salons that want the most complete booking, payments and marketing toolkit at the lowest monthly price

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (393 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit vagaro.com

Starting price$30/month (1 bookable calendar; $23.99/month for the first 6 months for new customers)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Vagaro is the best fit for most tanning salons because it packs the whole job into the cheapest full subscription here. One bookable calendar costs $30 a month and covers online booking, client records, POS, payment processing and email marketing, plus a marketplace listing. The price grows by $10 a month per extra calendar and caps at $85 a month for seven or more.

The trade-off is the add-on shelf, and the tanning gap. Text marketing, the website builder and the branded app each cost extra, and Vagaro has no bed or session tracking: it books appointments, so the salon still tracks bed time and session packages outside the system. Buy Vagaro for the most complete toolkit at the lowest monthly price; buy TanTrack when bed tracking is the job.

What we like

• Lowest-priced full toolkit here: booking, POS, client records and marketing from $30/month
• Price caps at $85/month for 7 or more calendars, so a growing team stops paying per person
• Marketplace listing puts the salon in front of clients searching nearby, at no extra subscription cost
• No per-booking commission on the subscription itself; card processing is 2.2% to 3.5% per transaction

Watch out for

• Each extra calendar costs $10/month, so a 3-person salon pays $50/month, not $30
• Text marketing, the website builder and the branded app are paid add-ons, not included
• The $23.99 rate is an introductory price for the first 6 months; the list price is $30/month

#2

Fresha

Best for: Solo tanning salons and small teams that want marketplace discovery and will accept a commission on new clients

Visit fresha.com

Starting price$19.95/month (Independent, 1 bookable team member; Team $14.95/month per bookable team member)

Free planNo — 7-day free trial

Fresha is the cheapest way into salon software, and the marketplace is the reason to pick it. Independent costs $19.95 a month for one bookable team member and covers online booking, POS, client management, memberships, packages and gift cards. Team pricing drops to $14.95 a month per bookable team member, so a three-person salon pays $44.85 a month.

The catch is that Fresha is no longer free, despite what older roundups still say: the subscription-free era ended in 2025. On top of the subscription, Fresha takes a 20% commission on new clients found through its marketplace, with a $6 minimum, and phone support costs $14.95 a month extra on Independent. Pick Fresha when the salon is small and wants new clients to find it.

What we like

• Cheapest starting price in this list at $19.95/month for a solo salon
• Large consumer marketplace brings new clients who search and book inside the Fresha app
• Team pricing falls to $14.95 per bookable team member, so a 3-person team pays $44.85/month
• Memberships, packages, gift cards and deposits are included without a higher tier

Watch out for

• Fresha is no longer free: the subscription-free era ended in 2025, so budget the monthly fee
• A 20% commission applies to new clients found through the marketplace, with a $6 minimum
• Phone support costs $14.95/month extra on the Independent plan; reporting is basic

#3

GlossGenius

Best for: Solo providers and small US tanning salons that want a polished, branded booking site with low card fees

Visit glossgenius.com

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

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

GlossGenius is the polished pick for a solo tanning salon or a small US team. Standard costs $28 a month billed monthly, or $24 billed annually, and includes a custom booking website, online booking, payment processing, client and inventory management, and packages and memberships. Clients book on the salon's own branded page, and the in-person card rate is a low 2.4% plus $0.15.

The limits are geography and the team ladder. GlossGenius serves the United States only, so a salon anywhere else cannot use it, and there is no bed or session tracking: it is a booking and payments tool, not a tanning system. The step from Standard to Gold is a jump to $56 a month billed monthly for up to 9 staff. Choose GlossGenius for a small US salon that wants its own branded booking experience.

What we like

• Custom booking website included on the entry plan, so clients book on the salon's own branded page
• Low in-person card rate of 2.4% plus $0.15, with no separate monthly processing fee
• Gold at $48/month billed annually adds forms, waivers, Google booking and a waitlist
• Fast setup aimed at independent professionals, with a 14-day trial and no credit card required

Watch out for

• US only, so salons outside the United States cannot use it at all
• No free plan, and the $24 figure needs annual billing; month to month it is $28
• Gold at $56/month billed monthly covers up to 9 staff, so a 3-person team pays for the tier, not the headcount

#4

Booksy

Best for: Tanning salons that want new clients to discover them in a large consumer marketplace

Visit biz.booksy.com

Starting price$29.99/month (Booksy Biz, 1 user, plus tax; $20/month per additional user)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Booksy sells one plan and nothing else: $29.99 a month plus tax for the first user, with every feature included from day one — online booking, client and staff management, scheduling, marketing tools, no-show protection, POS and a marketplace listing. There is no higher tier to unlock and no long-term contract. The marketplace is the draw: tens of millions of users search for beauty services inside the Booksy app.

The price to watch is headcount. Each extra team member costs $20 a month, so a three-person salon pays $69.99 a month, not $29.99. Optional Boost, which pushes the salon higher in marketplace results, charges 30% of a new client's first visit, between $10 and $100, when switched on. Pick Booksy when new-client discovery matters most.

What we like

• One flat price covers every feature, with no higher tier to unlock tools
• Consumer marketplace with tens of millions of users brings new-client discovery
• No long-term contract: month to month, cancel anytime, with a 14-day trial
• No-show protection with card-on-file deposits is included from the start

Watch out for

• Each extra team member costs $20/month, so a 3-person salon pays $69.99/month
• Optional Boost charges 30% of a new client's first visit ($10 minimum, $100 maximum)
• No annual-billing discount in the US, so the monthly price is the whole story

#5

Square Appointments

Best for: Tanning salons that already take card payments through Square and want booking inside the same system

Visit squareup.com

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

Free planYes — Free plan ($0, 1 location, unlimited staff calendars)

Square Appointments is the only genuinely free plan in this list, and the natural pick for a salon that already takes cards through Square. Free costs $0 for one location and includes a booking website, unlimited staff calendars, text and email reminders, deposits, prepayments and invoices. Booking, payments and POS live in one Square account, so there is no separate processor to set up.

The free plan's gaps are the tools that protect revenue: no-show fees, the waitlist, classes and Google Calendar sync all need Plus at $49 a month per location, and Premium at $149 adds resource management for rooms and beds. Card processing runs 2.6% plus $0.15 in person on Free. Start on Square when the salon already runs on it.

What we like

• A genuinely free plan with unlimited staff calendars and no monthly subscription fee
• Booking, payments and POS live in one Square account, so no separate processor is needed
• Plus at $49/month per location adds no-show fees, waitlist, classes and Google Calendar sync
• Card rates fall with the plan, from 2.6% plus $0.15 in person on Free to 2.4% on Premium

Watch out for

• No-show fees, the waitlist and classes all need Plus at $49/month per location
• Paid plans are priced per location, so a second site doubles the subscription
• No bed or session tracking: it books appointments, it does not run tanning beds

#6

TanTrack

Best for: Tanning-only salons that need bed scheduling, session packages and EFT memberships built in

Visit tantrack.com

Starting price$99.99/month (Starter, one location; Bundle $129.99/month per location)

Free planNo — no free trial

TanTrack is the first tool in this list built only for tanning, and it shows in the workflow. Starter costs $99.99 a month for one location and covers bed scheduling tied to real session check-ins, session packages with expiry rules, memberships and automated EFT drafts, plus integrated card processing and over 300 reports. The Bundle at $129.99 a month per location adds cloud hosting, online bookings with a client portal and extended cloud reporting.

The trade-offs are the platform and the trial. TanTrack is Windows-based, so a Mac-only salon needs a Windows machine or a hosted setup, and there is no free trial: the way in is a demo and a sales conversation. More than one station per location also needs a custom quote. Pick TanTrack when the salon is tanning-only and bed time is the product.

What we like

• Built only for tanning: bed scheduling, session packages, memberships and EFT drafts from day one
• Over 300 built-in reports plus QuickBooks integration, so the books stay close to the till
• The Bundle at $129.99/month adds cloud hosting, online bookings with a client portal and extended cloud reporting
• Unlimited support is included, and the vendor runs data conversions from rival systems

Watch out for

• No free trial, so the only way to test it is a demo and a sales conversation
• Windows-based software, so Mac-only salons need a Windows machine or a hosted setup
• More than one station per location needs a custom quote; the $99.99 Starter covers one location only

#7

Tan-Link

Best for: Tanning salons with T-Max beds that want one flat monthly price and no contract

Visit tan-link.com

Starting price$129/month (Essential Salon, billed monthly; Pro $179/month billed annually, $199 month to month)

Free planNo — demo only

Tan-Link is built only for tanning salon owners, and its headline feature is T-Max compatibility: the bed timers, the sessions and the client records stay in sync instead of living in three places. Essential costs $129 a month, billed monthly, with no contract and live human support included. The $179-a-month tier adds the online store, booking and customer portal, and Pro at $179 a month billed annually unlocks every feature.

The limits are the trial and the ecosystem. There is no free trial published, so the way in is a demo, and a salon that wants the customer portal must pay for the $179-a-month tier rather than Essential. Tan-Link is also a much smaller product than Vagaro or Fresha, so third-party integrations are thinner. Pick Tan-Link when the beds run on T-Max and a flat price with no contract matters.

What we like

• Built only for tanning and fully T-Max compatible, so bed timers and sessions stay in sync
• One simple flat price with no contracts and live human support included
• Essential at $129/month covers the core platform: bookings, packages, memberships and EFT
• Pro at $179/month billed annually unlocks every feature with nothing held back

Watch out for

• No free trial published; the way in is a demo, so budget a sales call before you can test it
• Online store, booking and the customer portal need the $179/month tier, not Essential
• A much smaller user base than the general salon tools, so third-party integrations are thinner

#8

SunLync

Best for: Established tanning salons and small chains that live on EFT memberships and multi-location reporting

Visit sunlync.com

Starting price$150/month (starting price for a single location; the vendor's page does not state the billing period)

Free planNo — demo only

SunLync is the veteran of this list: almost three decades in tanning, backed by JK America, a major maker of tanning equipment. SunLync Pro starts at $150 for a single location and covers faster checkouts, integrated billing, built-in marketing tools and API client portals. Its EFT processing handles recurring membership billing with supplemental fees, and the tan line holds a client when their bed is busy and texts them when it is ready.

The honest caveat is the price itself. The vendor's page states $150 for a single location without naming the billing period, so confirm in writing that it is a monthly figure before signing. There is no free trial published; the way in is a demo with a business consultant. Pick SunLync when the salon is established, runs on EFT memberships, or plans a second site.

What we like

• Built for tanning for almost three decades and backed by JK America, a major tanning equipment maker
• Flexible EFT processing with supplemental fees and surcharge structures built in
• A tan line holds clients when their preferred bed is busy and texts them when it is ready
• Multi-location management and API client portals suit salons that plan to open a second site

Watch out for

• The $150 figure is a starting price for a single location, and the page does not name the billing period; confirm it in writing
• No free trial published; the way in is a demo with a business consultant
• Priced for established salons, so a new single-bed salon pays a premium for scale it does not use yet

#9

Mindbody

Best for: Tanning salons and wellness studios that sell classes and memberships and want marketplace exposure

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

Visit mindbodyonline.com

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

Free planNo — demo only

Mindbody is the pick when the salon is really a wellness studio that sells classes and memberships alongside tanning. Starter costs $99 a month per location and covers scheduling, POS, online payments, unlimited users and branded website widgets, plus a listing in the Mindbody consumer app. Class scheduling, packages and passes are the core of the product, not an add-on, and the reporting runs deep.

The weaknesses are price transparency and the review record. Only the Starter price is published; the higher tiers need a sales quote, and quoted Starter prices are often reported above $99 once features are scoped. Mindbody also carries the lowest G2 score in this list at 3.7 out of 5, with reviewers citing price rises and billing friction. Choose Mindbody for classes and memberships.

What we like

• Strongest class and membership handling here, built for studios that sell packages and passes
• Unlimited users on every plan, so front-desk headcount never raises the subscription
• Large consumer marketplace lists the salon to millions of app users looking for classes and treatments
• Deep reporting and integrations suit multi-service wellness businesses, not just single-service salons

Watch out for

• Priced per location, so a second site doubles the bill before any add-on
• Only the Starter price is published; the higher tiers need a sales quote
• Lowest G2 score in this list at 3.7 out of 5, with reviewers citing price rises and billing friction

#10

Boulevard

Best for: Premium and multi-location tanning salons that want the most polished client booking experience

Visit joinblvd.com

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

Free planNo — demo only

Boulevard is the premium pick in this list, built for salons where the booking experience is part of the service. Essentials costs $159 a month for one location with up to 5 providers, or $143 a month billed annually, and covers online booking, Precision Scheduling, POS, basic reporting and text reminders. Precision Scheduling handles multi-service bookings cleanly, and the client-facing pages are the most polished here.

The price is the obvious barrier: $159 a month is the highest entry price here, with no free plan and no free trial, and Forms cost $65 a month extra on Essentials or Premier while the branded app is an add-on. A solo salon pays a premium price for scale it does not use. Choose Boulevard when the salon is premium or multi-location and the booking experience matters as much as the treatment.

What we like

• Most polished client-facing booking experience in this list, built for premium salons
• Precision Scheduling handles multi-service bookings and provider timing cleanly
• Publishes a price for every standard plan, so the upgrade path is visible before buying
• Strong fit for multi-location groups that need one system across sites

Watch out for

• Most expensive entry price here at $159/month, with no free plan or free trial
• Forms cost $65/month extra on Essentials or Premier, and the branded app is an add-on
• Built for larger teams; a solo salon pays a premium price for scale it does not use

The best tanning salon software does more than take bookings: it runs the beds, the sessions, the memberships and the till in one place, so a small team spends the day serving clients instead of chasing admin. We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a single-location tanning salon with a small team — starting with the cheapest complete options and ending with the premium ones, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 10, 2026.

How to choose the best tanning salon software

• Work out the pricing unit first. Vagaro charges per bookable calendar, Fresha and Booksy per team member, Mindbody and Boulevard per location, and TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync per location for the whole salon. The unit decides the real bill.
• Check whether the tool tracks beds and sessions, not just appointments. TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync are built for tanning: bed scheduling, session packages with expiry rules and EFT memberships. The general tools book appointments and leave bed time to a spreadsheet.
• Count the team on the plan you would actually buy. A 3-person salon pays $44.85 a month on Fresha Team, $50 on Vagaro, $69.99 on Booksy and $56 on GlossGenius Gold — four very different bills from four similar headline prices.
• Check the marketplace fee, not just the subscription. Fresha takes 20% of a new marketplace client's first booking, Booksy Boost takes 30% when switched on, and Mindbody takes 20% capped at $30. A salon that gains many new clients through a marketplace can pay more in commissions than in subscription fees.
• Try the booking flow as a client. Book a session on the trial, cancel it, and rebook it. If the flow feels clumsy to you, it will feel clumsy to your clients too.

A tanning salon also needs to be found online, not just booked. Our guide to spa management software covers the wider spa side, and before you publish new service pages, run your titles through the free SERP snippet preview tool — it shows exactly how the title and description will look in Google.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real sessions before you pay. The trials in this list run 7 to 30 days, which is long enough to run one genuine week — your beds, your staff, your clients — and that week tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that online booking works from a phone without a phone call, and that the reminder system actually sends. Every tool here sends automated reminders, so there is no reason to buy before you have seen one arrive.

Tanning salon software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a 3-person salon at one location that takes most payments in person. On list prices, the subscription costs $44.85 a month on Fresha Team, $49 on Square Appointments Plus, $50 on Vagaro, $56 on GlossGenius Gold billed monthly, $69.99 on Booksy, $99 on Mindbody Starter, $99.99 on TanTrack Starter, $129 on Tan-Link Essential, $150 on SunLync and $159 on Boulevard Essentials.

Over a year, that is $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, $1,199.88 on TanTrack Starter, $1,548 on Tan-Link Essential, $1,716 on Boulevard Essentials billed annually, and $1,800 on SunLync. The same three people and the same one location cost $538.20 a year at the cheap end and $1,800 at the dear end — a $1,261.80 gap that comes entirely from the pricing unit and the tanning features, not from the booking itself.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, card processing: in-person rates run from 2.19% on Fresha and 2.4% on GlossGenius to 2.99% on Mindbody, plus a per-transaction fee on every sale. Second, marketplace commissions: 20% of a new client's first booking on Fresha, 30% on Booksy Boost when it is switched on, and 20% capped at $30 on Mindbody. Third, the add-ons: text marketing on Vagaro, phone support on Fresha Independent, and Forms at $65 a month on Boulevard all sit outside the headline price. If the salon also sells spray tans by appointment, compare the booking side in our guide to salon booking software.

Annual billing cuts the bill on most tools here: GlossGenius Gold drops from $672 to $576 a year, and Boulevard Essentials from $1,908 to $1,716. Vagaro, Fresha, Booksy, Square Appointments, Mindbody, TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync publish no annual discount, so the monthly figure is the whole story. One more cost to check before you commit: a second location is a second subscription on Mindbody, Boulevard, Square Appointments, TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync, so price the second site before you commit to a tool for the first.

Know the difference: tanning salon software vs a booking app

The confusion in this category is between a tool that takes appointments and a tool that runs the beds. A booking app only fills the calendar; tanning salon software adds client records, POS and payments, memberships and packages, marketing and reporting in one system. The three tanning-specific tools go one step further: TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync track the beds themselves — which bed is free, how many minutes a client has left, when a session package expires — and bill the EFT memberships that keep a tanning salon alive through the slow season.

There is a second, quieter confusion: marketplace tools and own-brand tools. Fresha and Booksy bring new clients through their consumer marketplaces, and charge for that discovery — Fresha with a 20% commission on new marketplace clients, Booksy with an optional 30% Boost fee. GlossGenius, Tan-Link and Boulevard put clients on the salon's own branded booking page instead, so the salon keeps the relationship and pays no commission. Neither model is better in itself; the question is whether the salon wants to buy discovery or own the client relationship.

A third distinction worth knowing is the pricing unit. Two tools can both advertise about $30 a month and cost very different amounts for the same team: Vagaro at $30 covers one calendar, so a three-person salon pays $50, while Booksy at $29.99 covers one user, so the same three people pay $69.99. The tanning-specific tools price differently again: TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync charge per location, so the whole team is covered and the bill does not grow with headcount. Always price the tool for your actual team size, at your actual location count, before comparing headline prices.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the headline price alone. A $30 tool can cost $50 or $70 a month once the team is counted. Price the tool for your actual headcount and location count, not for one person.
• Buying a booking app and expecting it to run the beds. Vagaro, Fresha, GlossGenius, Booksy and Square book appointments; they do not track bed time, session minutes or package expiry. If beds are the product, buy TanTrack, Tan-Link or SunLync.
• Forgetting the marketplace commission. Fresha's 20%, Booksy Boost's 30% and Mindbody's 20% capped at $30 apply to new clients found through the marketplace. A salon that gains many new clients that way can pay more in commissions than in subscription fees.
• Taking SunLync's $150 at face value. The vendor's page states $150 for a single location without naming the billing period. Get the monthly figure confirmed in writing before you budget around it.
• Calling Fresha free. Fresha ended its subscription-free era in 2025. Independent now costs $19.95 a month in the US, and older articles that call it free are out of date.
• Buying on the annual price, then paying monthly. GlossGenius Standard is $24 a month billed annually but $28 month to month, and Boulevard Essentials is $143 billed annually but $159 monthly. Compare tools on the billing cycle you will actually use.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 10, 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 single-location tanning salon with a small team — not by brand size. Two prices carry a caveat: Tan-Link's $129 comes from a fresh crawl of its own pricing page, because the page itself blocked a direct read with a bot check, and SunLync's page states $150 for a single location without naming the billing period, so we show it as a monthly figure and say so. One directory lists Mindbody Starter at $79, but Mindbody's own pricing page lists $99, and that is the figure we use. Ratings are shown only where a fresh G2 page gave a clear score and review count on November 10, 2026: Vagaro at 4.6 out of 5 from 393 reviews and Mindbody at 3.7 out of 5 from 519 reviews. Fresha and GlossGenius have too few G2 reviews to mean anything, Booksy and Square Appointments give conflicting review counts across pages, Boulevard's G2 pages disagree with each other, and TanTrack, Tan-Link and SunLync have no G2 listing at all, so all seven carry no rating here. 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 sessions through it. Check that clients can book a bed from a phone without calling, that reminders arrive, and that the EFT run balances at the end of the month before you commit to a year. If the beds are sorted but new customers are not finding you, our local SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to salon booking software. Software runs the business; search brings the customers. See where you rank locally, free.

Sources we checked (12)

• Vagaro pricing — vagaro.com/pro/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Fresha pricing — fresha.com/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• GlossGenius pricing — glossgenius.com/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Booksy pricing — biz.booksy.com/en-us/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Square Appointments pricing — squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• TanTrack pricing — tantrack.com/tantrack-pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Tan-Link pricing — tan-link.com/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• SunLync home page — sunlync.com (checked November 10, 2026)
• Mindbody pricing — mindbodyonline.com/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Boulevard pricing — joinblvd.com/pricing (checked November 10, 2026)
• Vagaro on G2 — g2.com/products/vagaro/competitors/alternatives (checked November 10, 2026)
• Mindbody on G2 — g2.com/products/mindbody/competitors/alternatives (checked November 10, 2026)