Having a difficult time managing your appointments? Are you sick of scrawling in your scheduling program? Is everything so confusing? You don’t have to worry anymore because Salon Appointment Book is here! We offer appointment software that can properly schedule and manage appointments.
It is very easy to use and perfect for all types of beauty salons, spas, barbershops and other businesses that receive walk-in appointments.
SimplyBook Me
SimplyBook Me is a free service where you can customise the add-ons you require. Most of the add-ons are paid services, but if you are searching for a simple, free appointment scheduling service, then SimplyBook me is certainly worth looking at.
There is a mobile app for managing your appointments. You can also integrate SimplyBook Me with your Facebook page or Instagram account so your customers and clients can schedule appointments through it.
Reminders are customisable, so you can set a reminder of an appointment for the time you want your clients to be reminded. Most services only offer a 24-hour reminder; with SimplyBook Me, you can set your reminder schedule.
Calendly
Possibly, the most popular scheduling service, Calendly integrates with almost all types of calendar; whether you are using Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple, Calendly will integrate with it. You can also embed Calendly right into your website.
More importantly, today, you can also integrate Zoom and Microsoft Teams with Calendly, so all you need do is click on the start meeting right from Zoom or Teams.
As with Square, this app is perfect for teachers, beauticians, personal trainers and any solopreneur as it allows you to set up your schedule, and your students and clients can pick a time and date that suits them.
You can also set scheduling limits so you don’t get any surprises. For instance, you can set it up so that people cannot book an appointment with you less than a few hours before the time.
Bookafy
Bookafy is another free service that has a lot of power under the hood. You can schedule unlimited appointments and types. Appointment types could be the length of the appointment (30 mins, 60 mins etc.) or, if you are a beautician, the type of service being booked.
Bookafy’s website is beautiful, which is an important consideration for your own business branding. It is intuitive for your clients and makes the whole scheduling experience a joy.
You can make sure your customer or colleagues receive all the meeting login details when they schedule the call, and you can also accept payments from your clients through the Bookafy interface.
Doodle
Price: Free (Basic), $6.95 one user/month (Starter), $44.75 for 5 users/month (Team), contact for enterprise pricing.
Create meeting polls to send to clients and prospects, suggest meeting dates and times, and allow voting on dates that work all with Doodle’s free version. While the free version might be helpful enough for most individuals, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium pricing tier to remove ads from your polls, set a deadline for the poll, and collect contact information from meeting guests.
The paid version of Doodle’s scheduling software helps you find a time to meet that works for all attendees. The meeting host suggests meeting times, invites participants to indicate their availability, then the meeting host picks a final time. When the time is finalized, a calendar event is added to the host and meeting invitees’ calendars. Plus, there’s a dashboard feature where you can manage all the meetings you have.
Nuclino
Nuclino is a collaborative documentation and knowledge sharing platform for teams. It has everything you would expect from a document collaboration tool – real-time collaborative editing, auto-save of changes, version history, comments, and more.
The visual editor of Nuclino is exceptionally easy to use even for non-technical people. It offers only the essential formatting options, enabling an easy and fast editing experience and making your documents look clean and consistent.
What makes Nuclino stand out among many other document collaboration tools is its unique approach to organizing documents. Instead of relying on the traditional folder system, where important documents can easily get lost, Nuclino allows you to link related documents together. It works like your own internal Wikipedia, making it easy to browse and explore.
But Nuclino is more than a simple document collaboration tool. In addition to being able to organize your content in a nested list, you can visualize your documents in a Kanban board, or a mindmap-style graph. This makes Nuclino a great solution for a wide range of use cases beyond simple documentation, including knowledge sharing, employee handbooks, employee onboarding and offboarding, sprint planning, process documentation, and many more.
Nuclino is also tightly integrated with 40+ other apps, allowing you to embed slides, spreadsheets, diagrams, videos, and more directly into your documents.
What users say about Nuclino:
“Anyone trying to organize a series of documents/notes in an organization should check out Nuclino because it fits the bill. The design of the product is so good that it’s actually fun writing new notes/docs in the app. Live multi-user collaboration rounds out the feature set.”
Schedulicity
Best for:
Any salon business from solopreneurs to multi-location chains. Especially great if you want to run your business all in one place from one account and/or the control to mix-and-match features.
Why we’re best for salons specifically:
Look, we can’t write an article on software for salon businesses without covering our own. We happen to think it’s the very best appointment scheduling for salons and stylists because we started in the trenches with businesses just like yours.
Schedulicity was originally built for salons, barbers, and spas, so we know our stuff. We’ve also prioritized customer support from day one, which means that rather than doubling-down on hiring Sales teams like many of our competitors, we’ve instead made sure there’s a friendly team on-hand to answer our customers’ calls any time they run into trouble. (You’d be surprised how uncommon that is.)
Over the last couple of years, we’ve also expanded beyond appointment scheduling. We offer our own built-in payment processor (we’ve got a Stripe integration, too!) for contactless payment, automated marketing tools, plus a brand-new iPad app. And we have big plans to launch even more features in 2021.
All the tools, plus a human touch. That’s us.
Pros:
- We’re an all-in-one platform, so you can run everything from your marketing to your payment processing from one account
- Payment processing at an industry-low rate of 2.5% + 15¢ for every transaction
- A direct line to our full-time support team of Schedulicity Rockstars
- As a salon on our platform, you’ll also get the opportunity to apply for #SchedulicityCares grants, which we provide to businesses that could use some extra support
Features:
- Scheduling: appointment and class scheduling, workshop booking, customizable personal time off, option to manage multiple staff members’ schedules, and more
- Marketing: Instagram Book button integrations, automated email marketing (like birthday discounts), access to our Marketplace where local customers can discover you, our special Fill My Book feature and other customizable incentive and discount programs
- Pay: Built-in payment processing that includes no card reader, access to reports, an industry-low rate, and a Stripe integration for Canadian small businesses
- Automation: Client text and email reminders, online waivers and waitlists, package management, and more
- Apps: We offer both a handy client and consumer app for iOS and Android
Read all about Schedulicity’s features here.
Cost:
Free (up to 10 bookings per month). New businesses can sign up for all our tools for free through 2021. We then offer an Unlimited model, so you can get all our advanced features starting at $34.99 per month.
Square Appointments
Best for:
Proponents of minimalism, salons that already use Square for processing payment, and for individuals who want to dip a toe into online booking with a free appointment scheduling software.
Pros:
- If you’re already on Square, you’ll find that the payment processing is built right in, which certainly keeps things simple
- The free plan is definitely a good “get started” option for new salon business owners, although you’ll pay more for payment processing long-term (see under Cons)
Cons:
- You’re locked into Square’s pricing for payment processing, which is currently 2.6% + $.10 for individuals on the free plan and 2.5% + $.10 for teams of 2-10. (As we mentioned above, Schedulicity Pay starts at 1.99% + $.10.)
Features:
- Allow for multiple employees and calendars
- Set custom hours and block off personal time.
- Built-in payment processing with Square card reader or POS
- Automated text and email reminders
- No-show reduction features (you can charge in advance or charge cancellation fees)
- Google and Instagram integration
See all the Square Appointment features here.
Cost:
30-day free trial, then $50 – $90 per month for 2 or more employees.
Mindbody
Best for:
Fitness studios, particularly those who rely on Classpass for all or part of their client base. That said, Mindbody has recently expanded its features to appeal to salons, hairstylists, and spas.
Pros:
- First off, Mindbody is beautiful. That’s not surprising considering it’s a brand built for yogis and fitness enthusiasts who care a lot about branding. But it’s an added bonus for potential clients who will love the aesthetically-pleasing scheduling app and website search functionality.
- Mindbody also has a partnership with ClassPass, so if you use that for your work (and now many salons and spas do), it’s an option to consider
Cons:
- Mindbody is definitely built for and targeted at businesses that book classes and workshops, which is to say not salons or stylists. We’re curious to see the sorts of features they roll out in 2021.
- Mindbody is also one of the pricier appointment scheduling platforms on the market. So, while you’ll get some amazing features, it could definitely feel like a stretch for a small business (or solo stylist) on a budget.
- Mindbody is known for its strict contracts. That became particularly apparent at the start of the pandemic, when shuttered businesses weren’t able to pause their monthly payments (at Schedulicity, we waived our fees for all of our businesses for six months).
Features:
- Built-in marketing tools
- A native payment processing app (2.75% – 3.5% + $.15 processing fee, depending on whether you’re a qualified business), plus a $15 fee if you process less than $550 a month.
- Option to build your own customizable business app (you can also just list your business on their consumer app)
See all the Mindbody scheduling software features here.
Cost:
Conclusion
Nowadays, there is a wide range of salon booking apps available to run your business and efficiently manage your business. These days, salon booking software has become an important part of all hair and beauty salons.