Best Salon Booking Software in 2026: Honest Comparison of 6 Options

We build SalonBook, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to be fair: every product here is a reasonable choice for some salons, and each has trade-offs that the others do not. Where we quote a price, we verified it on the vendor's public pricing page in September 2026. Where we could not verify a number, we describe the pricing model instead of guessing.

How to compare salon booking software

The feature lists of these six products overlap heavily. All of them offer online booking, a calendar, reminders and card payments. The differences that actually change your monthly bill and your day-to-day work come down to four questions.

1. How is the subscription priced: flat, per staff member, or per location?
2. Does the vendor take a commission on clients who find you through its marketplace?
3. Is a real website with your own domain included, or is your presence a profile page on the vendor's site?
4. Which features are paid add-ons rather than part of the plan?

At a glance

SalonBook

SalonBook is a flat-priced platform that bundles booking, client management, payments, marketing tools and a full website. The Free plan supports one staff member and five services with online booking, calendar, client list, email confirmations and a public website with a theme studio. Pro is $39 a month or $348 a year (about $29 a month billed annually) for up to three staff and adds deposits, cancellation and no-show fees, a waitlist with auto-book, SMS and email reminders, a client portal, intake forms with e-signature, loyalty, referrals, gift certificates, memberships, an online shop, invoices, reports, ten website templates, a custom domain with SSL and an embed widget. Enterprise is $89 a month or $828 a year for unlimited staff, a JSON data API and headless mode.

• Pros: flat pricing that does not rise when you add a stylist within the plan limit; no marketplace commission or per-booking fees; a website on your own domain is included rather than an add-on; 14-day trial, no contract.
• Cons: there is no consumer marketplace, so it will not send you new clients on its own; the Pro plan caps at three staff, so a four- or five-person salon needs Enterprise; payments run through your own Stripe, Square or PayPal account rather than a built-in processor.
• Best for: salons that want predictable costs, own their client relationships and want their website and booking in one place.

Fresha

Fresha is best known for its marketplace and for having offered a free subscription for years. According to Fresha's pricing page (Sept 2026), the Independent plan is $19.95 per month for a single-person business and the Team plan is $14.95 per team member per month. New clients who discover you through the Fresha marketplace carry a one-time 20% commission with a $6 minimum per client; returning clients are not charged. Online card payments are listed at 2.79% + $0.20 per transaction, and features such as client loyalty ($59.95 per location per month) and Google Rating Boost ($14.95 per location per month) are paid add-ons.

• Pros: large consumer marketplace that can bring first-time bookings; polished interface; per-member pricing is cheap for very small teams.
• Cons: per-team-member pricing grows with headcount; the marketplace commission applies to every new client it introduces; loyalty and some marketing tools cost extra; your web presence is a Fresha profile rather than a site you control.
• Best for: salons in dense urban markets that want marketplace discovery and accept paying for it per new client.

Vagaro

Vagaro is a mature all-in-one platform with a broad feature set, including a marketplace it says carries no additional cost. According to Vagaro's pricing page (Sept 2026), the single-user rate is $30.00 per month, with a promotional $23.99 per month for the first six months, and a 30-day free trial. Pricing is selected by number of users from one to seven or more, so the monthly cost scales with staff; the page did not display the per-tier figures for larger teams when we checked, so we are not quoting them. Website builder, forms, text marketing and branded app are presented as separate features and we could not verify their prices.

• Pros: very deep feature set including inventory, payroll and memberships; free marketplace listing; long 30-day trial.
• Cons: pricing increases with each staff member; several capabilities are add-ons with separate pricing; the interface can feel dense for a small salon.
• Best for: larger or multi-service businesses that will use most of what Vagaro offers.

Booksy

Booksy is marketplace-first and popular with barbers and independent stylists. According to Booksy's pricing page (Sept 2026), the subscription is $29.99 per month plus tax with all features included, plus $20 per month for each additional staff member, with a 14-day trial. Its optional Boost programme charges a one-time 30% fee on the total cost of a new Boost client's first visit and has no monthly fee. Card processing is listed at 2.49% + $0.10 with the Booksy reader and 2.69% + $0.30 for mobile and keyed payments. Text marketing includes 2,000 free SMS a month.

• Pros: strong consumer app with real discovery in many cities; generous included SMS; one plan, no feature tiers.
• Cons: $20 per additional staff adds up for teams; Boost commission is high if you rely on it for new clients; no website on your own domain.
• Best for: barbershops and solo stylists in markets where the Booksy app already has an audience.

GlossGenius

GlossGenius is a design-led platform aimed at independent beauty professionals and small teams. According to GlossGenius's pricing page (Sept 2026), plans are flat rather than per staff: Standard is $28 a month ($24 billed annually), Gold is $56 a month ($48 annually) and Platinum is $168 a month ($148 annually). Standard and Gold support teams of fewer than ten; Platinum supports ten or more. The trial is 14 days with no card required, and card processing is a flat 2.6%.

• Pros: flat pricing; attractive booking sites; simple flat processing rate; strong mobile app.
• Cons: the feature gap between Standard and Gold means many salons end up at $56 a month; processing is through GlossGenius rather than your own processor; no marketplace for discovery.
• Best for: image-conscious solo professionals and small teams who value design and simplicity.

Square Appointments

Square Appointments is the scheduling product in the Square ecosystem, which is the main reason to choose it: if you already use Square for payments, hardware or an online store, Appointments fits in without extra accounts. It offers a Free tier described as being for solo professionals with unlimited staff calendars, and Plus and Premium tiers for growing teams and larger salons priced per location. Square's pricing page renders its figures dynamically and we could not verify the tier prices or processing rates at the time of writing, so we are not quoting them.

• Pros: capable free tier; tight integration with Square hardware and payments; per-location rather than per-staff pricing on paid tiers.
• Cons: you are committed to Square as your processor; salon-specific tools such as intake forms and loyalty vary by tier or live in other Square products; no marketplace.
• Best for: salons already running on Square, or solo operators who want a free calendar with built-in payments.

Which one should you pick?

None of these is best at everything, and any comparison that says otherwise is selling something. The decision usually comes down to what you want to pay for.

• You want new clients delivered to you and accept paying per client: Fresha or Booksy, depending on which app is stronger in your city.
• You already run on Square: Square Appointments.
• You want the deepest feature set and will use it: Vagaro.
• You want design-first simplicity as a solo or small team: GlossGenius.
• You want flat pricing, no commissions, and a website with booking on your own domain: SalonBook.

The cheapest booking software is the one whose price does not change when your salon grows.