Every salon, studio, clinic and trade I build for asks the same question at some point: which booking software should I use, and what is it really going to cost. So here are five, with current published prices, the processing fees underneath them, and the thing that makes these genuinely hard to compare.
These platforms use three different pricing units. Square charges per location. Vagaro, Fresha and Booksy charge per staff member or calendar. Calendly charges per seat. Comparing headline prices without fixing a staff count is meaningless. A five-chair salon pays $0 on Square and $95 a month on Booksy for the same thing.
1. Square Appointments
Free, $49 or $149 a month per location. The free tier is real: unlimited staff, priced per location, and you only pay card processing. Card-present is 2.6% plus 15 cents and online is 3.3% plus 30 cents on Free, improving to 2.5% and 2.9% on Plus, and 2.4% and 2.9% on Premium. Plus includes 500 texts a month, Premium includes 2,500.
Best for: anyone who wants to start without a subscription, and any business with several staff, since you are not paying per person. The trade-off is that Square is a general commerce platform, so some beauty-specific workflows feel less native than they do on the vertical tools.
2. Vagaro
$23.99 a month for a single location, which Vagaro labels an exclusive rate for the first six months, with $30.00 shown alongside. Each additional bookable calendar is $10, up to seven, after which extra employees are free, so a large team effectively caps out. Processing is 2.6% plus 10 cents for swipe, dip or tap under $4,000 a month in volume, improving to 2.29% plus 19 cents above that with a $10 monthly subscription. Add-ons such as forms, check-in and the shopping cart are $10 each, and a branded app is $100 a month plus $100 up front.
Best for: salons, spas and fitness studios with a growing team, because the seven-calendar cap means a ten-person business pays the same as a seven-person one.
3. Fresha
$19.95 a month for Independent, a single calendar column, or $14.95 per team member a month on Team. Processing is 2.79% plus 20 cents online and 2.29% plus 20 cents in person. Fresha no longer has a free subscription tier, which catches people out, since it was free for years.
Fresha is also a marketplace. Clients who find you through Fresha itself cost a 20% one-time commission on that first booking with a $6 minimum, and nothing on returning clients. Bookings through your own link, website or Instagram are free.
Best for: a solo operator or small team who wants the marketplace as a client acquisition channel and is comfortable paying for the first booking.
4. GlossGenius
$24 a month billed annually or $28 monthly for Standard, $48 or $56 for Gold, $148 or $168 for Platinum. There is a separate medspa track starting at $148 annually. Processing is a flat 2.6% with no added fees for tap to pay, card on file or manual entry, which is the simplest structure in this comparison and unusually honest about it.
Best for: beauty professionals who want predictable pricing and hate reconciling three different card rates. Payroll is a $40 a month add-on plus $6 a seat if you need it.
5. Calendly
Free, $10 or $16 per seat a month, with annual billing discounted. Calendly does not process payments itself; it connects to Stripe or PayPal and you pay their rates. Enterprise starts at $15,000 a year with a 50-seat minimum, which tells you who the upper tiers are for.
Best for: consultants, coaches, agencies, lawyers, financial advisors, anyone booking meetings rather than running a treatment chair. It is the wrong tool for a salon and the right tool for a discovery call.
Side by Side
| Platform | Entry price | Priced by | Processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square Appointments | Free | Location | 2.6% + 15¢ in person |
| Vagaro | $23.99/mo | Calendar, caps at 7 | 2.6% + 10¢ in person |
| Fresha | $19.95/mo | Team member | 2.29% + 20¢ in person |
| GlossGenius | $24/mo annual | Plan tier | Flat 2.6% |
| Calendly | Free | Seat | Via Stripe or PayPal |
Two more worth knowing about: Booksy at $29.99 a month plus $20 per extra staff member, popular with barbershops, and Acuity Scheduling at $20, $34 or $61 a month priced by calendar, which suits general service businesses that are not beauty.
How to Choose
- Count your staff first. Then work out the real monthly cost on each pricing unit. This alone eliminates two or three options.
- Add the processing fee to the subscription. At $8,000 a month in card volume, a 0.3% difference in rate is $24 a month, which outweighs most subscription gaps.
- Check deposits and no-show fees. If missed appointments cost you real money, this feature is worth more than the price difference.
- Do not switch just to save $10. Migrating client records, rebuilding services and retraining staff costs more than a year of the difference.
The Part That Actually Affects Bookings
None of these platforms will fill your calendar on their own. They process a booking once someone has already decided. What decides that is whether people can find you, whether the site loads fast enough on a phone to keep them, and whether the Book button is obvious. If your booking numbers are low, the problem is usually upstream of the software, and these are the most common reasons a site does not convert.
Getting found is a separate job again: your Google Business Profile does more for a local service business than any booking platform will.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest online booking software?
Square Appointments has a genuinely free tier with unlimited staff, priced per location rather than per person, and you only pay card processing. Calendly is also free for one event type. Everything else in this comparison charges a subscription.
Should I build my own booking system into my website?
Honestly, no. Booking platforms handle deposits, no-show fees, staff calendars, reminders, rebooking and payouts. Building that from scratch costs several times more and works less well. Use theirs and let your website drive people into it.
Is Fresha still free?
No. Fresha now charges $19.95 a month for its Independent plan or $14.95 per team member a month on Team. It was historically free at the subscription level, so a lot of older advice online is out of date.
How much does Vagaro cost?
Vagaro advertises a single-location rate of $23.99 a month described as an exclusive rate for the first six months, with $30.00 shown alongside it. Additional bookable calendars are $10 each up to seven, after which extra employees are free. Most add-on features are $10 a month each.
Which booking software is best for a salon?
Vagaro, Fresha, Booksy and GlossGenius are all built for the beauty industry, so the answer usually comes down to pricing unit and processing rate rather than features. GlossGenius has the simplest processing at a flat 2.6%, Square has the only real free tier, and Fresha is the only one that also functions as a marketplace that can send you new clients for a commission.
Can a booking platform connect to my website?
Yes, and it should. Every platform here provides a booking link or an embeddable widget. The goal is that a client taps Book on your site and never feels like they left it. That connection is part of what I set up on a build.
On a build, I connect whichever platform you already use so booking feels like part of the site rather than a link that throws people somewhere unfamiliar. If you are still deciding, tell me about your business and I will tell you which of these I would pick in your situation, whether or not you hire me. Prices here are current as of September 2026, and these platforms change them, so confirm on their own pricing pages before committing.