How much does salon software cost in the UK?

Ask a salon software company what it costs and you will usually hear one number: the monthly subscription. It is the easiest number to compare and the least useful one. For most salons it is a small part of what the system costs over a year.

We make Daviana, so we are one of the companies in this article. Every price for another company below comes from its own UK pricing or terms page, with the date we checked it listed at the end. Where a rival is cheaper, we say so.

What do you actually pay for with salon software?

Almost every salon system bills you through some mix of these seven lines. Put each one in your sums, not just the first.

1. The subscription. A flat monthly or weekly fee, sometimes by plan.
2. Per-person seats. Many systems charge for each bookable team member, so the bill grows with the team.
3. Card processing. A percentage plus a few pence on every card payment, in the salon and online.
4. Text messages. Some reminders are free, then each extra text or marketing message is charged.
5. New-client commission. Marketplaces charge a share of a new client's first booking.
6. Setup and moving your data. A one-off fee on some systems, free on others.
7. Add-ons and hardware. An AI receptionist, a card reader, a colour scale.

Then there is the notice period. A one-year contract that renews automatically is a cost too, because it is what you pay if the system turns out to be the wrong one.

What do the main UK salon systems charge?

These are the published UK prices. Superscripts link to the sources at the end. A dash means the company does not publish that figure on the page we checked.

Two things stand out. Fresha and Booksy charge per person, so a growing team pays more each month, while Timely includes unlimited team members. And the in-salon card rates sit in the same range, around 1% to 1.6% plus a few pence, which on a busy salon's takings adds up to far more than any subscription.

How do you work out a year's cost? A worked example

Here is the sum to run for each system on your shortlist:

• Subscription × 12, including every team member you pay for
• + card fees: your monthly card takings × the percentage, plus the per-payment pence × your number of payments, × 12
• + paid texts beyond the free allowance
• + new-client commission: new marketplace clients a month × average first visit × the rate, × 12
• + setup fee, and any add-ons you will actually use

Now an example. Take a salon with four people, £12,000 a month paid by card in the salon across 300 payments, and 10 new clients a month from a marketplace, each spending £60 on a first visit. Put your own figures in place of ours.

On Fresha's Team plan: 4 × £9.95 is £39.80 a month. Card fees are 1.19% of £12,000 (£142.80) plus 300 × 20p (£60), so £202.80. Commission is 10 × £60 × 20%, so £120. That is £362.60 a month, or £4,351.20 a year, before texts.

On Timely's Run plan: £4 a week is £208 a year. Card fees are 1.59% of £12,000 (£190.80) plus 300 × 5p (£15), so £205.80 a month. There are no new client fees. That is £2,677.60 a year, before texts, and the weekly price can rise as bookings grow.

Notice where the money goes. Card fees come to about £2,450 a year on both, far more than either subscription. The real gap between the two is the £1,440 a year of commission, and that commission buys something: ten new clients a month that Timely, with no marketplace, would not send you. If you need those clients, the commission may be worth paying. If your book is full, it is a cost you can avoid.

For Daviana, the diary and till is £960 a year including VAT. Ask us for the card rate and add it to the same sum, so you are comparing like with like. Our pricing page lists every product.

Which salon software costs are easy to miss?

• Setup and moving your data. SalonIQ lists setup from £175 plus VAT⁴. Ask every supplier what moving your clients, history and colour formulas costs, and who does the work.
• The notice period. Phorest's UK terms are a one-year contract that renews unless you give two months' notice⁹. If you might switch again, that is money at risk.
• An AI receptionist. Most systems now sell one as an add-on: Treatwell's starts at £69 a month¹⁰, and Fresha's AI Concierge is £79.95 a location a month plus VAT¹. Our guide to the best AI receptionist for salons compares them.
• Adding a stylist. On Fresha's Team plan each new bookable person adds £9.95 a month; on Booksy, £5 plus VAT.
• Hardware. A card reader or a colour scale may be bought, rented or tied to the contract. Ask whose it is if you leave. Our guide to salon card machine fees compares readers and rates.
• The calls you miss. Not a fee, but a cost. If the phone rings out while everyone is with a client, those bookings go somewhere else. The free missed call calculator puts a number on it.

Is the cheapest salon software the best value?

Sometimes, yes. If you work on your own and want new clients from an app, Fresha at £14.95 a month is hard to beat. If you want the lowest price without a marketplace, Timely starts at £4 a week. For a small team, both cost less than Daviana, which starts at £25 a month for one person.

The cheapest headline is not always the cheapest year, though, and price is not the only thing you are buying. Daviana makes sense when you would use more than the diary: ColorLab to cost colour to the gram, or Aria, the AI receptionist, to answer the phone and book into the same salon booking system the desk uses. You pay only for the products you switch on, and Bar and Performance come with the diary.

If you are comparing systems side by side, our guide to the best salon software in the UK covers features and fit, and our 12 questions to ask before switching salon software covers what to get in writing.

Questions salon owners ask