Are you trying to figure out what the best barbershop software is for your business?
Then you’ve landed in the right place.
Deciding among all the salon and barbershop software alternatives is not an easy task. It’s frankly quite overwhelming. At least that’s how I felt when researching the best options in 2024.
It’s a big decision.
Getting your POS system, online booking, and business management right can save you a ton of time and be a big factor in the success of your business.
So today I am sharing what I wish I had found when I started looking at alternatives. I will summarize what I learned during the past several weeks of researching and testing all the top systems and lay it out for you to decide what is right for you.
Here’s a quick look at what we’ll cover:
- My top barbershop software alternatives in 2024
- A brief review of each barbershop software alternative
- A comparison of pricing, user reviews, and features
- My verdict and video reviews
Quick Overview of The Best Barbershop Software Alternatives 2024
Here are the top 7 barbershop software options for 2024. Each has unique features suited for different business sizes and needs. I recommend to scan the entire list before making your choice.
Let’s Double-Click on Each Barbershop Software Alternative
We’ve studied and used all platforms listed. This section provides our overall impressions of each salon software. For details on a specific system and its fit for your business, please see the linked individual reviews.
Let’s Compare the Barbershop Software Options
That’s my top list. You may already know which system is the best fit for your business. But let’s now compare them against each other. I’ll start with an overview of how users of these platforms score them. We’ll then compare pricing before we dive into features.
User Reviews Compared
This is how users of the different barbershop software platforms score their system on the four most common software review sites. Mangomint is known for being the highest-rated platform but all barbershop software alternatives in this list has a strong user satisfaction score.
Pricing Compared
Pricing varies greatly between the different systems and the model for how they charge differs. The intent of this table is to give you a rough idea of the average cost for a mid size business. To fully understand what you will be paying, you should assess the exact plan your bususiness requires and also take into account the payment volume you will be processing.
Mangomint
Average Price
$245 per month
Trial Options
30 day free trial
Minimum contract
Cancel any time
- Essentials: $165 /mo (10 service providers)
- Standard: $245 /mo (20 service providers and advanced features)
- Unlimited: $375/ mo (unlimited service providers)
- Integrated Forms: $50/ mo
- Two-Way Texting: $75/ mo
- Payroll Processing: $50/ mo + $8/ mo per worker
- Marketing: Pay as you go, 1¢ per marketing credit
- In-person: 2.45% + $0.15
- Virtual: 2.90% + $0.20
- Custom rates: Over $50k/mo in volume may qualify for custom rates
GlossGenius
Average Price
$48 per month
Trial Options
Free 14 Day Trial
Minimum contract
Cancel any time
- Standard: $24/month (core features, one user)
- Gold: $48/ month (includes more sophisticated features such as intake forms, waitlist, commission reporting, premium website designs, and multiple users).
- No add-ons. All features are included in the Gold plan.
- 2.6% on all transactions
Fresha
Average Price
$80 per month
Trial Options
Free subscription
Minimum contract
Cancel any time
- No fixed monthly charge
- Marketplace new client fee: 20% (min $6 per new client). This only applies to new clients who book via the Fresha marketplace.
- Automated notifications: $0.01 per text (50 included for free)
- Email blast campaigns: $0.02 per email
- Text blast campaigns: $0.02 per email
- Insights (enhanced reporting): $9.95 per team member
- Card: 2.19% + $0.20 per transaction
- Tap to Pay: $0.10 per authorization
Vagaro
Average Price
$120 per month
Trial Options
30 day free trial
Minimum contract
Cancel any time
- Monthly subscription fee starts at $25 for individuals
- $10 for every additional user
- Everyone after the 7th user is free
- Multi-location businesses require Vagaro’s enterprise platform with personalized prizing.
- Automated text marketing: $20/month
- Website builder: $10/month
- Forms: $10/month
- Cloud storage: $10/month
- Check-in app: $10/month
- Additional visibility at the Vagaro client marketplace: $10/month
- Branded app: $200/month
- SMS marketing: $20/mo for 500 sms and they offer plans up to $400/mo for 20,000 sms.
- Email marketing: 1000 emails/mo are included in your plan. If you need more, you pay $10/mo for 5 000 emails up to $90/mo for 100 000 emails.
- Small merchants (less than $4000/month): 2.75% per swipe, 3.5% + $0.15 per keyed-in transaction.
- Multiple merchants (less than $4000/month): 2.5% + $0.10 per swipe, 3.5% +$0.15 per keyed-in transaction.
- Large merchants (more than $4000/month): 2.2% + $0.19 per swipe, 3% + $0.19 per keyed-in transaction. Monthly cost $10.
Square Appointments
Average Price
$45 per month
Trial Options
Free base tier plan
Minimum contract
Cancel any time
- Free: $0/month (only very essential features)
- Plus: $29 per location (includes core features like client notifications and cancellation policy)
- Premium: $69 per location (includes more sophisticated features like resource management).
- Unlimited calendars on all plans
- Email marketing: $15/month
- SMS marketing: $10/month
- Square loyalty: $45/month
- Square Payroll: $35 + $6 per user/month
- In-person: 2.6% + 10 cents (2.5% + 10 cents on paid plans)
- Online (card): 2.9% + 30 cents
- Manually Keyed-In: 3.5% + 15 cents
Boulevard
Average Price
$425 per month
Trial Options
Must request trial via a demo call
Minimum contract
12 months
- Essentials: entry-level plan – $175 per month
- Premier: most popular plan – $325 per month
- Prestige: upper-tier plan – $455 per month
- Enterprise: custom plan for chains and franchises – pricing is custom
- Forms and Charts – $55 per month per location
- Contact Center – Starting at $25 per month per location
- QuickBooks Integration – $45 per month per location
- Automated Email Campaigns – $2 per completed appointment
- One-Time Blast Emails – specific # included with each plan, $0.01 per email thereafter
With “Offset” Feature
- 3% charged to client, business charged 1%.
Without “Offset” Feature
- In-person transactions: 2.6% + 10¢
- Virtual transactions: 3.5% + 10¢
Squire
Average Price
$250 per month
Trial Options
No free trial
Minimum contract
cancel any time
- Pro Independent Barber: $30 per month
- Pro Complete Barbershop: $100 per month
- Executive: $150 per month
- Titan: $250 per month
The average credit card processing fee, which is taken out of a merchant’s sales revenue, ranges from about 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent. Merchants can negotiate their card processing fees however, the more transactions a merchant has with one bank or processor, the lower its fees will be.
Features Compared
To know which barbershop management software is best for your business, we must ensure the features your business requires are available and work how you want them to work. The below table gives you an overview of how strong features each system offer across the core barbershop software feature categories. If you want more detailed information about features, I recommend you read the individual reveiw of the system.
Calendar
Online Booking
POS
Team Management
Team
Marketing
5
5
5
5
4
3
4
3
2
3
4
2
3
2
4
5
5
4
3
5
4
3
5
5
4
4
5
4
3
5
4
3
3
3
4
Integrations Compared
The more sophisticated systems also allow you to integrate with other platforms to achieve what you want. The extent at which these systems allow for integrations vary greatly so let’s go through the available integrations.
Note
Does the platform allow you to create new integrations to support your business-specific needs?
Note
Built-in integrations that you can activate as needed
Note
On Enterprise plan only.
Comparison Summary
Let’s round up this software comparison with and overview of how I’d score these barbershop software alternatives on design, ease of use, pricing, and customer service.
Ease of use
Design
Customer service
Pricing
5
5
5
4
5
5
3
5
5
3
2
3
3
3
3
5
4
4
3
4
4
4
5
3
3
4
3
3
My Verdict of the Top Barbershop Software Alternatives
Let me summarize what you should consider while choosing between the best barbershop software systems on this list.
Kayle and I have also recorded video reviews of the platforms, which I’m including below if you want to dive deeper.
Mangomint – The Best Option for the Serious Barbershop Business with High Demands
Mangomint is for you who want flexibility, modern design, and smart automations that help simplify your business.
I just love the fact that you can integrate the platform with pretty much anything else. If you want to connect to a Shopify store or use MailChimp for your email marketing, you can. In fact, you can even use what’s called webhooks to connect with any other system that allows for integrations.
They also have a strong support team, and I would even recommend you book a meeting with them before you get started so that they can show you how to get the most out of the tool.
GlossGenius – The Alternative for Solopreneurs
GlossGenius distinguishes itself from the competition by simultaneously providing beautiful design and simple use. It’s my first choice for solo practitioners looking to avoid any technical hassles while maintaining a high degree of professionalism.
When compared to other options discussed, the tool may be restricted in flexibility and functionality for bigger businesses, but it’s a good option for the small barbershops.
Fresha – The Only 100% Subscription Free Barbershop Software
It’s amazing how much value you get for free with Fresha. It’s that good that the first thing on your mind will be, “How do they make money?”
Fresha is a marketplace that connects consumers with salons and barbershops in their community. If you use the Fresha platform to bring a new customer, they will expect 20% of the transaction. You’ll also be charged a credit card processing fee of 2.19 percent + $0.20 for each appointment set up through the site.
The advantage is that there are no fixed costs; all you have to do is pay when you earn money.
The free subscription is not the only advantage of Fresha, it does provide many useful capabilities and is very simple to use.
Vagaro – The Feature-Rich, Affordable, Software for Barbers
The number of features you get with Vagaro is what I see as the main reason you could land on Vagaro. You get a ton of value here at a very affordable cost.
Another distinguishing feature of Vagaro is its client marketplace, which offers simple marketing tools to help you get your barbershop in front of more new people. And in contrast to Fresha, they won’t charge you a big bill for referring new clients from their marketplace.
Square Appointments – The Free-for-Individuals Appointment Scheduler for Barbers
I typically recommend Square Appointments in two different situations.
Either you’re an independent professional looking for a subscription-free yet powerful appointment scheduler.
Or, if you’re a bigger business and want to go all in with Square. That is, use their POS unit, website builder, credit card reader, marketing tools, and payroll software and you want to have that all integrated together.
Boulevard Software – The Marketing-Focused Barbershop Management Software for Larger Businesses
Overall, Boulevard is a rather sophisticated and feature-rich tool for running a barbershop business.
Their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to features and options means you can really dig in with tools that are designed to help you grow your marketing efforts and aid you in building revenue, tracking progress, and laser-focusing on the reporting that matters to your business.
But – and this is a big “but” – there is a pretty narrow niche of businesses that I would recommend Boulevard to.
I wouldn’t recommend Boulevard to solo barbers and most smaller barbershops (less than 5 barbers).
The premium price point (minimum $175/mo.) paired with the inevitable incidental costs that come with onboarding, data migration, and other get-started fees make this a potentially cost-prohibitive option for those leaner businesses.
Boulevard is a good choice for established barbershop businesses with several barbers who want flexible reporting options and also need an all-in-one marketing suite baked right into the software.
Outside of that, several other options on our list might make a better choice and offer almost all the same features at a better price.
Time to Decide
I believe the differences between the tools should start to clear now.
The bigger barbershop business with higher demands on integrations, automations, and design will likely go with Mangomint.
GlossGenius is for the independent professional who wants simplicity and nice design.
If you want a simple and free alternative, I recommend Fresha.
Vagaro is the most feature-rich option at an affordable price.
Square is for you who are just after a cost-effective appointment scheduler or a complete solution where you activate more of the apps from Square.
Boulevard is for larger businesses that absolutely need built-in marketing tools and custom reporting options.
Squire if you need specific barbershop features.
If you want a more detailed comparison of the features of several of these systems, you can take a look at my post on the best salon software.
Summary of The Best Barbershop Software Alternatives 2024
Learn more about each system on the links below