Compare, honestly

Most comparisons of salon software put the monthly subscription in a table and stop there. That number is the smallest part of what you will pay, and for a busy solo operator it can be less than a fifth of the real total.

Here is the whole bill.

All figures published by each vendor as of September 2026. Verify before deciding; they change frequently.

The four things you actually pay

1. Subscription. The number on the pricing page. $16 to $30 a month for most solo plans, and $130 to $400 for team and enterprise software.
2. Per-staff or per-calendar fees. Booksy adds $20 a month per staff member. Vagaro adds $10 per bookable calendar. Fresha charges $14.95 per bookable team member. Mangomint adds $10 per user. Acuity’s cheapest tier gives you a single calendar.
3. Payment processing. Roughly 2.4% to 3.5% of everything you take by card, depending on the platform, the tier, and whether the card is present. On $6,000 a month of card takings, a one-point difference is $60 a month.
4. New-client commission. The one that actually hurts, and the one nobody puts in the comparison table.

The commission layer

Several platforms run a consumer marketplace and charge you when a client books through it:

What that costs in practice, for a solo taking 15 new clients a month at a $75 average service:

That is on top of the subscription and the processing. And it scales exactly with success: the better your marketing works, the more you pay.

What they don’t tell you about the marketplaces

Even when a marketplace charges no commission, your business is competing for attention alongside every other salon on the platform. A client who originally came looking for you may be shown competing businesses, promotional offers, or lower prices before making their next appointment. 

Over time, customers may become more loyal to the marketplace than to your business, making it harder to maintain direct relationships and control how you attract and retain clients. 

The real cost of a free marketplace may not be what you pay the platform, but how much control you give up over your own customer relationships.

The attribution question nobody asks

Before signing up for anything with a commission, ask exactly what counts as a “new” client and who decides.

The answer usually is not “someone the platform introduced to you.” It is “someone whose first booking with you happened inside the platform’s app.” Those are very different things. A client who found you on Instagram, followed you for six months and then booked through the app can be a chargeable new client.

Guidance circulating among Fresha users is to import your entire existing client list before going live, specifically so your own regulars are not classified as new. That tells you what the default behavior is.

Ask these three questions:

1. What exactly makes a client “new”?
2. If I send someone my own booking link, am I charged?
3. If a client of five years happens to book through your app, am I charged?

Add-ons

Some platforms price the base cheaply and sell the rest separately. Vagaro’s list, $23.99 per month… (As of September 20, 2026)

• Forms +$10, 
• Website +$20, 
• Check-in app +$10, 
• Branded app +$100, 
• Text message credits from $20, 
• Email credits from $10, 
• Payroll +$34 + $5 per additional employee.
• Get Featured + $10

A solo operator who wants intake forms, a website and text reminders, not an extravagant list, is at roughly $74 to $80 a month against a $23.99 headline.

What it adds up to:

Realistic monthly totals for one person with a reasonably busy book:

Assumes $6,000 monthly card billing and 15 new clients at $75. Your numbers will differ. The point is the shape, not the decimal.

How to work out your own number

1. Take your subscription.
2. Add every add-on you actually use.
3. Add per-staff or per-calendar fees.
4. Multiply your monthly card takings by the processing rate.
5. Count your genuinely new clients last month, multiply by your average first-visit ticket, multiply by the commission rate.
6. Add it up, then multiply by twelve.

Most people are surprised by step five.

Which is cheapest?

It depends entirely on where your clients come from.

If most of your new business arrives through the platform’s marketplace, the commission is a customer acquisition cost and might be a good one. Paying $22 to meet someone who spends $2,000 with you over five years is a bargain.

If most of your new business comes from your own Instagram, your own referrals and people walking past your door, you are paying a percentage to a middleman for introducing you to people you introduced yourself. That is where the money leaks.

Count last month’s new clients. Be honest about where each one actually came from. That number decides which column of this article applies to you.

Where we come in

Book Visit Now is free for up to ten active clients, with its app features included and no time limit. Pro is $24.99 per month for unlimited active clients. Book Visit Now does not charge booking commissions or separate per-provider and per-location feature subscriptions.

It supports scheduling, client records, SOAP notes and photos, scanned intake documents, invoices, and business reports on supported Apple devices. You review and send appointment messages through Messages or Mail.

It does not provide online self-booking, payment processing, automated reminders, separate staff logins, inventory management, memberships, or payroll.

Include the cost of separate services if your business needs them. Standard carrier, internet, email, and iCloud storage charges may also apply.

Book Visit Now features that competitors may charge extra for

Book Visit Now includes several features in its $24.99 monthly Pro subscription that competing salon software platforms may charge for separately, restrict to higher-priced plans, or charge per staff member.

Not every competitor charges separately for every feature. Some include these capabilities in their standard subscriptions, while others reserve them for higher-priced plans.

Your customer data belongs to you

With Book Visit Now, your client information, appointment history, and business records remain accessible even if you stop paying for Pro. You can continue using the free version and export your business data without maintaining a paid subscription. Some competing platforms restrict data exports or access to historical records based on your subscription. Your customer relationships and business history should never be held hostage by a monthly software fee.

Appointment and calendar management

Manage your schedule with day, week, and month views, customizable business hours, multiple service bookings, recurring appointments, appointment statuses, time-off blocks, and scheduling conflict detection. Manage multiple providers and service locations without purchasing additional calendar licenses.

Client management and treatment records

Keep client contact information, appointment history, service and product purchases, notes, and photos together in one place. Create and maintain treatment records using SOAP notes, attach before-and-after photos, and access your clients’ history when preparing for their next visit. You can scan a customer’s intake form directly into their profile.

Client communication

Contact clients directly through your Apple device’s phone, Messages, and Mail apps. Use client information and appointment details to communicate without purchasing a separate messaging module or monthly message-credit package.

Services, products, and pricing

Manage your service menu, service durations, pricing, products, and applicable taxes. Record multiple services within an appointment, apply pricing adjustments, and maintain client purchase histories without paying for an additional product-management module.

Business reports and invoicing

Track sales and business activity, review financial reports, generate PDF invoices, and export business data to CSV or Apple Numbers. Reporting and invoicing are included rather than sold as separate upgrades.

Your Apple devices, one subscription

Use Book Visit Now on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, with iCloud synchronization across your Apple devices. Manage appointments at your workstation, review client information on your iPad, and take your schedule with you on your iPhone.

What you do not pay us for

There are no marketplace commissions, payment-processing fees, per-staff subscriptions, additional calendar licenses, or separate charges to unlock the features above. We do not process payments, so you can continue using your preferred payment provider and its applicable fees.

What Book Visit Now does not replace

Book Visit Now does not offer online self-booking, online deposits, a consumer marketplace, automated bulk SMS or email marketing, a website builder, payroll processing, or an Android app. It will not send new clients to your business.

Those distinctions matter. If you depend on marketplace discovery, need clients to book and pay online, or want automated marketing campaigns and payroll in the same system, another platform may provide services that Book Visit Now does not.

But if you already attract your own clients and want to manage your appointments, client records, services, products, and business reporting without purchasing additional software modules, Book Visit Now gives you those tools for one monthly price.

$24.99 a month. Unlimited clients. All included features. No add-on subscriptions.

What you will still need outside Book Visit Now

Book Visit Now provides appointment management, notifications, client records, and business reporting, but it does not replace every service a salon or independent professional may need.

Payment processing: A separate payment provider or point-of-sale system to accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital payments.

You will most likely need a payment solution.

Online deposits and prepayments: A payment or booking service that collects deposits and processes payments before appointments.

With any payment solution, you will likely be able to take deposits, but just not online.

Website and domain: A website builder or hosting provider if you want a dedicated business website.

You might do just fine with social media alone. 

Online booking: A separate booking service if you want clients to schedule their own appointments online. 

You may want to be in control of your appointments and not allow just anyone to make appointments online.

Automated appointment reminders: A separate service for automatically sending SMS or email confirmations and reminders.

Book Visit Now offers a Notification Center that makes it easy for you to pre-populate and sent email or text notifications over Apple Mail or Messages. It’s not automated, but there is no additional cost and it’s easy.

Marketing and customer acquisition: Advertising, email marketing, SMS campaigns, social media promotion, or a marketplace to attract new clients.

You might do just fine with social media alone. 

Digital intake forms: A separate forms service if you need clients to complete and submit intake forms, consent forms, or questionnaires online.

With Book Visit Now, you can scan documents directly into customer profile for no extra charge. The client will have to fill out the form.

Payroll and accounting: Separate software for employee payroll, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and accounting.

Book Visit Now allows all of it’s reporting to be exported using .CSV files, which can be used for these features.

Android access: Book Visit Now is designed for Apple devices, so businesses requiring Android access will need another solution.

You might like your new iPhone. 🙂 

The distinction: You can choose the outside services your business actually needs without paying Book Visit Now for features you do not use.

Compare the alternatives →