10 Best Salon Booking Software 2021: Appointment Apps for Salons

If you own or work in a salon, you know how much getting appointments matters. But manually scheduling appointments (through phone calls or texts) can eat into your valuable time―time that could have been spent with a client in an appointment, making you money.

That’s why more and more beauty salons are turning to salon scheduling software. Salon booking systems make it easy for clients to self-schedule with online booking while still giving you plenty of control over your appointment schedule.

So whether you’re a salon owner at a big studio or a solo stylist renting a booth, let’s talk about the best salon appointment-scheduling software out there.

We’ve previously said that Acuity Scheduling offers the best scheduling software for small businesses―and that’s just as true for hair salons and nail salons as it is for other types of businesses.

But why Acuity Scheduling? It all comes down to its excellent balance of pricing and features.

Acuity Scheduling doesn’t have the cheapest plans out there (see Setmore if you need a budget pick), but its mid- and high-tier plans give you lots of users at a pretty low price. So for a salon with more than a handful of employees, Acuity Scheduling could end up being one of the most cost-effective options out there.

Of course, a good price doesn’t mean much if you’re not getting great features in return. Fortunately, Acuity Scheduling gives you a lot. All plans come with unlimited customer appointments and appointment reminders (through email). They also get you a basic online booking widget for your website, payment processing features, software integrations, and more.

You even get the ability to offer classes (like a training class for stylists, perhaps), coupons, and other advanced offerings that most software charges extra for. And if you get an upgraded plan, Acuity Scheduling gives you more branding tools, text reminders, customer memberships, and all sorts of other features.

Now, Acuity Scheduling wasn’t designed specifically for salons (unlike some other scheduling software on this list). So if you want salon management tools, for example, Acuity Scheduling might not have all the specific features you want.

But when it comes to top-notch appointment scheduling at a fair price, then Acuity Scheduling offers the best software solution for most salons.

Salon Iris offers appointment scheduling and salon management software in one convenient app.

All plans come with essential appointment booking tools. That includes online booking for clients (social media booking too) and easy manual booking for you. And of course, Salon Iris also gives you client appointment reminders. It offers both text and email reminders. (The number of texts and emails you get is determined by your plan.)

But Salon Iris goes beyond booking. Way beyond. The Deluxe plan and above also include everything a salon owner needs to keep things running smoothly―including marketing, payroll, an employee timeclock, and inventory management. Higher-tier plans get you even more salon management tools, like advanced pay rules, budgeting, and more marketing.

All that makes it easy for Salon Iris to pull double-duty as both a booking system and a salon management software―the kind of multipurpose software we love.

Want to build a salon software plan that meets your specific needs? Schedulicity is the app for you.

Other salon software tends to assign features to set plan tiers, which can lead to you overpaying (if, say, you’re a solo stylist who wants an advanced feature found on a plan priced for a dozen users). Schedulicity tries to fix this problem by using a much more à la carte pricing model―meaning you pay for just the features that matter to you.

You’ll start with a free Schedulicity account, which gives you a max of 10 appointments per month (including email appointment reminders). From there, you can add whatever tools you want―whether that’s unlimited appointments, text appointment reminders, the ability to create service packages, marketing services, or other add-on features. But remember, if you don’t want a feature, you don’t have to pay for it. 

If you want a software plan that’s as customized as the haircuts you give, you’ll find a great software solution in Schedulicity.

If you’re looking for a scheduling software that works with the other software you have, you should look at SimplyBook.me.

After all, while scheduling software is important, it’s probably not the only software your salon uses. You may use payroll software, a payment processing software, a website builder, a communication system, or one of the many other kinds of business software out there. The good news? SimplyBook.me integrates neatly with all kinds of software. (And yes, it offers great booking tools too.)

SimplyBook.me has quite a few built-in integrations, like WordPress, social media, and most popular payment processors. But thanks to its compatibility with Zapier, SimplyBook.me can integrate with tons of other software too, like Slack, Mailchimp―and about 2,000 more business apps. Pretty much any app you can think of, in other words.

So for an appointment management software that integrates with the software you already know and love, go with SimplyBook.me.

Looking for the most affordable salon booking system? Let us introduce you to Setmore.

Setmore can handle your beauty salon bookings on a budget. For starters, it offers one of the best free plans we’ve found. You get unlimited appointments for up to four users, complete with (100) email appointment reminders and even payment processing through Square. Sure, that doesn’t give you the most advanced features. But for a salon owner or stylist on a budget, Setmore’s free plan might be enough.

Of course, you can always upgrade to one of Setmore’s budget-friendly paid plans. They get you more features, like unlimited customer reminders through email and text, payment processing through Stripe, and more. And since Setmore uses per-user pricing, its paid plans end up being very, very cheap for smaller teams. (Larger teams might get more value from other software.)

Between the excellent free plan and the low-cost paid plans, Setmore is our favorite scheduling software for budget-conscious salons.

Booker offers everything you’d expect from a salon management app (and then some), like online booking, inventory management, staff scheduling, and more. The most impressive feature, though? Your own branded app.

That’s right, Booker will create an app just for your salon, using your logo, colors, and other branding. Customers can then make appointments through the app. And to be clear, you get a legitimate app that appears in the Apple app store and Google Play store.

Now, the custom app service costs you an extra ($199) fee on top of Booker’s already-pricey plans. But if you’re looking for some next-level salon booking software, it’s hard to top Booker and its custom mobile apps.

Fresha lets you get more clients through your booking software. When you sign up for Fresha Plus, your salon gets listed on the Fresha marketplace. That allows potential customers to find your listing by simply searching for the services you offer in their area.

As an added bonus, you only get charged when Fresha Plus actually works for you―that is, when a client finds and books you through the Fresha marketplace. Fresha takes a one-time commission from new customer bookings. But if you don’t get a new customer, you don’t pay.

Of course, Fresha is far from the only way to find new clients. Still, it offers a convenient way to get both scheduling and client referrals in one easy software package.

When it comes to the booking process, GoReminders offers more customization than most software. If you’re the kind of person who likes to control the little details, GoReminders a great option for your salon.

GoReminders gives you several ways to set up your scheduling tool (such as by appointment slot, staff member, or some other category). You can also customize what happens after customers book, with options for tweaking reminders (the content and the timing). And you can fine-tune labels, fields, and other details.

Note that you’ll need the Silver plan or better to get all the best customization features. But for a little more each month, you’ll get a perfectly customizable scheduling solution.

Booksy has everything you need to schedule appointments. Even better, it has some great reporting tools that can help you get a clear picture of how things are going for your salon.

You can see different kinds of info through Booksy. There’s stats on booking and revenue, for starters. You can also look at individual data for both staff (if you’re the salon owner) or clients. And since Booksy offers marketing help too (like email and social media templates), you can use that data to improve your salon’s performance.

Unlike other software on this list, Booksy offers just one plan. It’s not the most flexible tool out there. Even so, Booksy’s one plan gives you enough data that we’re happy to recommend it.

Square offers lots of business tools (like Square Capital and Square Payroll, among others) that you may already use. And if you’re already in the Square ecosystem, there’s a good chance you’ll like Square Appointments for your scheduling software.

As with most Square products, the big advantages are that Square Appointments is super easy to use, and it integrates perfectly with Square payment processing. (You can even run Square Appointments on the Square Register hardware.)

Sure, Square Appointments doesn’t have the most advanced scheduling or salon management features. But it offers all the essentials in a familiar package. So if you’re a happy Square customer so far, Square Appointments might be the right software for you.

We recommend Setmore as the best free appointment scheduler. Up to four people can use its free plan, which lets you set unlimited appointments.

The cost of salon scheduling software varies widely depending on the features, number of users, and other factors.

You can find free appointment-booking software (like Setmore) or beauty salon software that costs hundreds of dollars per month (like Booker). Of course, Booker gets you way more features (including a custom app for your salon) than a free software does.

Most salon business software falls somewhere in the middle―between $10 and $100 per month, depending on how many users you have.

We think Setmore is the best free appointment-booking software for most businesses (including salons). Its free plan comes with as many appointments as you need for up to four users, plus up to 100 email reminders each month. 

If you want advanced scheduling tools, you’ll need to invest in paid scheduling software. But for basic booking and appointment reminders, Setmore has what you need.

Yes, online booking software is a good idea for most salons. 

Salon scheduling software makes it easier for customers to book (since they don’t have to worry about business hours or waiting on hold to schedule), which means it can help you get more business. 

And booking software frees up the time your staff would otherwise spend manually creating appointments, meaning they have more time to offer services and make money.

If you’re looking for an easier way to book appointments at your nail salon or hair salon, scheduling apps can help. The appointment software above gives you plenty of tools that let clients book time slots, help you manage your schedule, and even give you extra features for salon management and marketing campaigns.

So whether you want an all-around solid scheduling software like Acuity Scheduling or you want a more niche solution like Schedulicity, our rankings above can keep you booked and busy―with less effort on your part. 

Now that you’ve taken care of salon scheduling, get your product inventory in order with the best inventory management software.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.