Believe Websites vs Phorest: full salon software on a quote, or a flat fee with your website built for you?

Phorest is Irish salon and clinic software used by a lot of established UK hair salons, beauty salons and aesthetic clinics. It is a full business system: calendar, point of sale, stock, staff rosters, marketing, consultation forms, a branded client app on the bigger plans, and a team that sets it all up for you.

We are a narrower thing: a bespoke website on your own domain, built and changed for you, with booking inside it. So this is a comparison of what you pay, what you end up with on the web, and who does the work. Every Phorest detail below was read from Phorest's own UK pricing page on 28 October 2026.

The short version

Phorest does not publish a price. Every plan on its UK pricing page, Starter, Grow, Ultimate and Elite, carries a "Request a quote" button, and the page says the plans are perfect for 3+ staff. Texts are charged on top, from 9.5p each on Starter. There is no free trial; you get a demo and a quote.

Believe Websites is £49 a month flat, whatever the size of your team, and includes a bespoke website designed and built for you, for £0 upfront, on your own domain. We take 0% of every booking. What we do not have yet is text reminders or card payments: both are built but not switched on.

What Phorest's pricing page actually says

Every plan includes unlimited staff and unlimited devices, and Phorest says all of its plans include bespoke set-up of the software for your salon, with your clients, staff, services and products imported and training for the team. That is a real service, and it is one of the reasons Phorest suits a salon that is moving off another system.

On the trial, the page is blunt. It says Phorest does not offer a free trial, and offers a full demo at a time that suits you instead.

What the texts cost

Phorest is one of the few systems whose pricing page publishes a per-text rate while publishing nothing else, so it is the one cost you can work out. A salon sending 500 reminder and confirmation texts in a month would pay this, on top of whatever its quote turns out to be:

The website, and the domain

Phorest's pricing page says you can take bookings via your website, Facebook and Instagram, and its FAQ says the team will add the online booking widget to your website and Facebook page. Ultimate adds a branded booking app your clients download from the App Store or Google Play.

What the pricing page does not offer is the website itself. There is no website builder listed, and no mention of a site on your own domain. So with Phorest you bring a website, built and paid for somewhere else, and Phorest's booking plugs into it.

What the £49 pays for with us

• A bespoke website, designed around your business — your photos, services, prices, reviews and area — not a booking widget dropped onto a site you had to get built elsewhere.
• Your own domain, something like www.yourbusiness.co.uk, bought and connected for you.
• Changes done for you. New prices, new hours, a new stylist: message us. Unlimited small changes, fair use.
• Your booking system inside the site, for unlimited team members, with email confirmations and reminders.
• A price you can see before you speak to anyone. £49 a month, on our home page.
• Analytics, a monthly report and an AI Search Readiness score, so you can see what is in place and how the site is doing.
• A new article every month about your town and your services, written to be read by search engines and AI assistants.
• 0% commission on every booking, from anyone.

The whole offer is on our home page. After the 12-month minimum term it carries on month to month, and the website can become yours.

Being found when people ask an AI

More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI overview which salon to book, and those systems answer from what they can read on the open web: clear pages about what you do, where you are, what you charge, and real reviews. Phorest's Ultimate plan adds Reserve with Google, which helps people book from Google, and its Grow plan has a review manager. Both are useful, and neither is a website that explains your business.

Every site we build is set up with structured data, a page for each service, clear business details and a monthly article, and your dashboard shows an AI Search Readiness score so you can see what is there.

Where Phorest genuinely wins

• It is a complete salon system. Point of sale, stock, rosters, staff targets, memberships, courses and a loyalty programme. We are a website with booking, not salon management software.
• Texts work today. Automated SMS reminders are on every plan, at a published per-text rate, with 500 free a month on Elite. Our confirmations and reminders go by email; text reminders are built but not switched on.
• Payments and deposits work today. Online booking with deposits is on Starter, and PhorestPay handles cards. Our card payments are built but not switched on, so we cannot take a deposit for you yet.
• Consultation forms, sent before the appointment on Grow and above. We do not do these.
• A branded client app and Reserve with Google on Ultimate. We offer neither.
• Someone sets the software up for you and trains your team, on every plan.

Neither of us sends you clients from a marketplace: Phorest's pricing page lists none, and we do not run one. If that is what you want, see how the marketplaces charge for it in Believe Websites vs Fresha and Believe Websites vs Treatwell.

Everything side by side

So which one should you pick?

Phorest, if

• You run a salon or clinic with three or more staff and want one system for bookings, tills, stock, rosters and marketing.
• Text reminders, deposits and card payments matter to you this week.
• You want consultation forms, a branded client app or Reserve with Google.
• You already have a website you are happy with, and just need booking added to it.
• You are comfortable getting a quote rather than reading a price.

Believe Websites, if

• You want to know the price before you talk to anyone, and to keep it the same however big the team gets.
• You want a real website on your own domain and do not want to build it or pay someone else to.
• You would rather message someone to change your prices than log in and do it.
• You want a monthly article and an AI Search Readiness score working on how you are found.
• Email confirmations and reminders are enough for you today.

We also compared Phorest with Fresha, Booksy, Timely, Square and others for salons in the best booking platforms for hair salons. If you want a published price with unlimited staff, see Believe Websites vs Timely.