Best booking platforms for hair salons in 2026

Hair salons are the hardest test for booking software. Appointments are long and expensive, colour needs processing time where the stylist can take someone else, a first visit is often a patch test followed by a big appointment, and most salons have several stylists on different prices. A platform that charges per stylist, or takes a percentage of a new client's first visit, costs a hair salon far more than it costs a nail tech or a barber.

This guide compares seven options on what decides it for hair: what a six-stylist salon pays every month, what a marketplace takes from a first colour appointment, and whether you end up with a website of your own. Every figure was read from each company's own pricing page on 25 October 2026.

The quick answer

• Spending nothing on software: Square Appointments, free for one location with no stylist limit.
• A cheap paid plan with colour processing time and no staff limit: Square Appointments Plus, £29 a month per location.
• Unlimited stylists with SMS built in: Timely, from £4 a week, priced by how many bookings you take.
• A big consumer marketplace, paid per stylist: Fresha at £9.95 per team member, or Booksy at £40 plus £5 per extra team member.
• A UK hair and beauty marketplace: Treatwell, at 35% of a new client's first booking and no published subscription price.
• Full salon management for three or more staff, on a quote: Phorest.
• A salon that wants its own website, built for it, and to keep every penny of every booking: Believe Websites, £49 a month flat for any number of stylists.

The price, side by side

What a six-stylist salon pays a month

Most hair salons are not one-person businesses, so price it at the team you have. This is the subscription alone, before card fees and before any commission.

Square and Timely are cheaper than us on subscription alone, and if a booking calendar is all you need, one of them wins. Fresha and Booksy pass us at five or six stylists because they charge per person. What our £49 carries on top is the website: designed and built for you on your own domain, changed when you ask, with a new article about your town and your services each month.

What a marketplace takes from a first colour

Fresha, Booksy (with Boost on) and Treatwell all charge a one-off percentage of a new marketplace client's first visit, and nothing on that client's repeat visits. In hair, that first visit is often the expensive one: a full head of colour, or a cut and highlights.

A client who then comes back every eight weeks for years can be worth that. A client who books one big appointment and never returns is an expensive way to fill a chair. Know the number before you switch the marketplace on.

Every platform, one at a time

Square Appointments

Free for a single location, with unlimited staff calendars, online booking, a Square Online booking website, text and email reminders, card on file and prepayments. Plus, at £29 a month per location, adds text and email confirmations, waitlists, cancellation fees, Google Calendar sync and processing time, which lets clients book into the gap while a colour develops. Premium, at £69, adds resource management for chairs and basins. Card payments in person are 1.75% on Free and 1.6% on the paid plans; online, 1.4% + 25p for UK cards.

No marketplace and no commission. To put the booking website on your own domain you need Square Online Plus, at £20 a month billed annually. We go through it in detail in Believe Websites vs Square Appointments.

Timely

Run from £4 a week, Boost from £7 and Thrive from £9, billed in GBP, all with unlimited team members, a 14-day trial and no contract — you give 14 days' notice to cancel. SMS is included per booking (one on Run, two on Boost, three on Thrive), with extras at 8p, 5p or 4p. Boost adds Reserve with Google, digital consultation forms and cancellation fees; Thrive adds automated consultation forms and rebooking reminders. In-salon card payments are 1.59% + 5p and online 1.85% + 30p.

Timely says it charges no new client fees and lists a branded website on Run. Because the bill follows booking volume, a salon doing lots of short appointments pays more than the "from" price.

Fresha

£14.95 a month for one person, or £9.95 per bookable team member on Team, excluding 20% tax, with a 7-day trial. Its feature list includes processing and finishing times and patch tests, which matter for colour. You get 20 free texts per team member a month, then £0.06 each; automated email is free and unlimited. Online card payments are 1.40% + £0.25 and in person 1.19% + £0.20. Smart Website is a £12.95-a-month add-on.

Its marketplace charges 20% of a brand new client's first visit, minimum £4, and nothing on returning clients. The full numbers are in Believe Websites vs Fresha.

Booksy

One plan: £40 a month plus £5 per additional team member, with VAT added, no commitment and a 7-day trial. Appointment confirmations and reminders by text are always free, with 500 marketing texts a month included. Card payments are 1.29% + 20p plus VAT, or 0.99% + 20p plus VAT on Tap to Pay.

Boost is optional and has no monthly fee; when it brings a client, Booksy takes 30% of that first visit, minimum £5. You get a Booksy profile and profile link rather than a website on your own domain. More in Believe Websites vs Booksy.

Treatwell

Two plans, Freelancer and Advanced (with unlimited staff members), and no monthly price on the pricing page; its FAQ refers to "your monthly fee" without giving a figure. It does publish its commission: 35% on first bookings made by new clients it brings you from the marketplace, 0% on repeat bookings, and a 2.5% + VAT fee on online prepayments.

Hairdressing is the first business type on Treatwell's sign-up list, and it says it partners with over 150,000 salons across Europe. Its FAQ also says it does not sync with other management systems. More in Believe Websites vs Treatwell.

Phorest

Four plans — Starter, Grow, Ultimate and Elite — and no prices at all: every plan has a "Request a quote" button. Phorest says its plans are for salons and aesthetic clinics with three or more staff, and all include unlimited devices, unlimited staff and what it calls affordable SMS rates. Starter covers online booking with deposits, automated email and SMS reminders, point of sale and stock; Ultimate adds a branded booking app for your clients and Reserve with Google.

It is the most complete salon management system here, and the least transparent about cost. If you are considering it, ask for the quote in writing, with SMS rates and any minimum term.

Believe Websites

Ours. £49 a month flat for any number of stylists, with a bespoke website designed and built for £0 upfront on your own domain. That covers hosting, unlimited small changes we make for you, your own booking system for unlimited team members, email confirmations and reminders, analytics, a monthly report, an AI Search Readiness score, and a new article about your town and your services each month. 0% commission on every booking.

Where we fall short: text reminders and card payments are built but not switched on yet, so today reminders go by email and we cannot take deposits, while Square, Timely, Fresha, Booksy and Phorest all do both. There is no marketplace, so we will not send you anyone browsing for a colourist. And there is a 12-month minimum term, because we build the site for nothing; after that it is month to month and the site can become yours.

What to check before you choose

1. Price it at every stylist you have, including part-timers and anyone renting a chair, because per-person plans count them all.
2. Work out commission on your most expensive first visit, not your cheapest. In hair that is usually a colour.
3. Check processing time and patch tests. If you do a lot of colour, make sure the diary can book into development time and record patch tests before you move over.
4. Decide whether you need deposits and text reminders now. Most platforms here have them today; we do not yet.
5. Ask what happens to your clients if you leave. A marketplace profile stays with the marketplace. A website on your own domain does not.
6. Think about how people find a salon now. More of them ask an AI assistant or Google's AI overview for "a good balayage near me". Those answers come from what can be read on the open web: clear service pages, your location, your prices, real reviews.

Running a beauty salon or nail bar as well? See the best booking platforms for beauty salons and for nail salons.