How Much Does Salon Software Cost?

A solo operator can run on anything from A$0 to A$90 a month (US$0 to US$180). A team of three pays A$40 to A$140 (US$35 to US$180). A six-person salon pays A$40 to A$280 (US$35 to US$300). The spread at every size comes down to one thing more than any other: whether the vendor charges per person. Phorest and Kitomba do not publish prices at all, so they are not in these bands.

Those are the lowest and highest of the published options in the next section, worked out at each team size. The low end of each row is a free tier or a flat plan. The high end is a per-person plan multiplied by your headcount. Neither is hidden: it is on every vendor's pricing page. It just does not show up in the "from A$42" headline.

1. Paying per person

This is the single biggest swing. Timely charges per bookable staff member and states that "Part-time staff members are currently charged at the same rate as full-time staff members", so a Saturday-only junior costs the same as your busiest senior. Six team members on Timely Build is 6 x A$42 = A$252 a month excluding GST, which is A$277.20 including it. Mangomint charges US$120 base plus US$10 per user, so six people is US$180. Ovatu charges US$7 per employee beyond the first on Neat. A flat plan does not move at all when you hire.

2. SMS

Reminders cut no-shows, and almost every platform meters them. Fresha includes 20 free automated SMS a month, then charges A$0.06 per text. Timely includes 100, 200 or 350 per staff member depending on plan, then 12c each. Phorest charges 12c on Grow and 8.5c on higher tiers. Square includes 500 texts a month on Plus, then 3c. Ovatu charges US$0.04 per message with none included. If you send two reminders per appointment across 300 appointments, that is 600 messages a month, and the difference between "included" and "12c each" is around A$72.

3. Payment processing and commission

Processing rates cluster fairly tightly. In Australia, Fresha charges 1.59% + A$0.28 online and 1.29% + A$0.26 in person, Timely charges 1.85% + 30c online and 1.59% + 5c in person, Square charges 2.2% online and 1.6% in person, and Bella Booking charges 2.7% + A$0.30 all in (Stripe's 1.7% + A$0.30 plus a 1% platform fee). In the US, Mangomint charges 2.90% + 30c virtual and 2.45% + 15c in person, and GlossGenius charges a flat 2.6%. On A$10,000 a month of card payments, a half-percent difference is A$50, so this axis is worth a look but rarely decides the comparison on its own.

Commission is the bigger number. Fresha charges a "20% one-time commission" on new clients who book through its marketplace, with a "Minimum fee of A$8 per client applies". Ten new marketplace clients at A$120 each is A$240 in a single month. That trade can still be worth making if the marketplace genuinely brings you people you would not otherwise reach. It stops being worth it once clients you already had start booking through it.

4. Add-ons and tier gates

The plan you price is rarely the plan you need. Fresha sells Client Loyalty at A$89.95 per location per month and an AI Concierge at A$229.95. Boulevard sells Forms from US$65 per location per month and a QuickBooks integration at US$45. Mangomint sells Phone at US$70 per line, Marketing from US$30 and Payroll at US$50 plus US$8 per worker. Phorest sells two-way SMS, memberships, a branded booking app and accounting integrations as separate add-ons. Price the tier that includes everything on your actual list, then add the add-ons, then compare.

5. Locations, contracts and tax

Square, Boulevard, Mangomint, Mindbody and GlossGenius all charge per location at close to full price, so a second site roughly doubles the bill. Annual billing saves money at the vendors that offer it (Boulevard 10%, GlossGenius 12% to 14%, Acuity 20%) and commits you before you know whether the software fits. And in Australia the tax basis differs between vendors: add 10% to anything published excluding GST before you compare it to a GST-inclusive price.

Bella Booking is flat per plan, from A$25 to A$99 a month in Australia (US$25 to US$99 elsewhere). AUD prices include GST. The plan you need is decided by team size and by a handful of Professional-only capabilities, not by booking volume.

• •There is no commission on bookings, on any plan.
• •The team member count is per location, and counts only people who are on the scheduler or bookable online. An admin-only login does not count towards the limit.
• •Payments run through Stripe on every plan. In Australia that is Stripe's 1.7% + A$0.30 plus Bella's 1% platform fee, so 2.7% + A$0.30 all in. In the US it is 2.9% + $0.30 plus 1%, so 3.9% + $0.30. You can optionally pass processing fees to clients as a visible line item, though Australian businesses lose that option on 1 October 2026 when the RBA surcharging ban takes effect (Bella switches it off automatically).
• •One add-on exists: Messages Plus at A$49 a month, which adds a dedicated business number, two-way SMS, campaigns and 100 extra SMS credits. Automated reminders and confirmations do not need it.
• •SMS above your plan allowance is topped up with credit packs of 200, 500 or 1,000. Current prices are on /pricing.
• •Monthly billing with no lock-in contract, an optional annual price on Professional, and a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
• •Free 1-on-1 onboarding and free data migration on Starter and Professional.

What that does not include

There is no free plan, only the 14-day trial. Annual billing is Professional only: A$950 a year against A$1,188 paid monthly, a saving of A$238, or 20%. Solo and Starter are monthly, with no annual option. And a real list of capabilities sits on Professional rather than on every tier: gift cards, memberships, prepaid packages, client credit, digital forms and intake, treatment plans, the loyalty programme, client reviews, service add-ons, attendance tracking, advanced reports, API and MCP access, and multiple locations. If your list includes forms and memberships, price Professional at A$99, not Solo at A$25.

Bella also does not sell its own card terminal yet. You can take online payments, deposits and saved-card charges on every plan, and record payments taken on your own EFTPOS machine against the sale, but a terminal wired into the calendar is not available today.

Current prices for your region are on the Bella Booking pricing page, and the related guides and comparisons below give side-by-side cost workings against Timely, Fresha and Mindbody.