A £24 monthly plan and a £48 monthly plan are easy to compare until deposit charges, booking limits and paid extras enter the picture. To compare salon booking software costs fairly, calculate the bill for your own booking pattern and check that each plan supports the work you need to do.
This guide gives you a practical cost worksheet, a worked example using Salonier's published plans, and questions to ask any supplier. The examples are calculations, not a claim about what a typical UK salon spends.
Start with five numbers from your own diary
Write down your monthly appointment count, the number of deposits collected, the average deposit, the number of staff who need access, and the messages you intend to send. Use actual records where possible. For a new business, label the numbers as estimates and try a quieter and a busier month.
Keep appointment value separate from deposit value. If a client pays £15 towards a £60 service, the deposit is £15 and the balance is £45. A fee charged on deposits should be calculated against £15, not against the full service price.
Also separate booking volume from paid transactions. A cancellation, retry, additional payment or refund may affect the payment record differently from the diary. Ask each supplier which events count towards its limits.
The six costs to check before comparing plans
- Subscription: monthly or annual billing, number of locations, and any staff or calendar charges.
- Platform transaction fees: the percentage, the amount it applies to, and whether direct bookings and marketplace bookings are treated differently.
- Payment processing: the processor's percentage and fixed charge, including differences by payment method or card type.
- Messages and optional tools: email allowances, SMS credits, marketing tools and any integrations you actually need.
- Usage limits: what happens when your booking allowance is reached, and whether upgrading is required.
- Switching and exit costs: setup work, data export, overlapping subscriptions and any minimum term.
A feature you never use has little value to your operation. A missing feature that forces daily manual work may matter more than a small difference in subscription price.
A worked Salonier cost example
As checked on 28 September 2026, Salonier's pricing page lists monthly Starter at £24 with a 2% deposit platform fee, Growth at £48 with 1%, and Pro at £96 with 0%. Stripe processing is separate; prices exclude VAT where applicable. The booking allowances are 100, 400 and unlimited respectively.
Consider an illustrative month with 80 bookings, each with a £15 deposit. The total deposited is £1,200. Before Stripe charges and applicable VAT, the subscription plus platform fee would be:
| Plan | Subscription | Fee on £1,200 of deposits | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £24 | £24 | £48 |
| Growth | £48 | £12 | £60 |
| Pro | £96 | £0 | £96 |
All three booking allowances accommodate this example, but their features differ. Growth and Pro list service-level deposit rules. If you need that feature, the cheapest subtotal alone does not settle the choice.
For your own worksheet, use:
Monthly cost = subscription + platform fees + processing charges + paid extras + applicable taxes.
For a processor charging a percentage plus a fixed amount per payment, calculate the percentage on the processed value and add the fixed charge for each applicable transaction. Use the rates in your actual processor agreement. Refund and dispute costs need their own check.
When does a lower deposit fee offset a higher subscription?
On the monthly prices above, Growth costs £24 more than Starter and saves one percentage point on deposit fees. The subscription and platform-fee subtotals are equal at £2,400 in monthly deposits: £24 divided by 0.01.
Pro costs £48 more than Growth and saves one percentage point, so those subtotals are equal at £4,800 in monthly deposits.
These are fee-only comparisons before processing and tax, assuming the same transactions and compatible plan limits. For example, £2,400 collected through 160 deposits of £15 would exceed Starter's 100-booking allowance if each deposit belongs to one booking. That plan would already be unsuitable for that example, regardless of the fee calculation. Annual billing or different feature requirements also change the decision.
Test the experience that produces the bill
Before committing, build one real service and review the client journey on a phone. Check the full price, deposit, remaining balance and confirmation. Make sure staff can identify whether a booking is confirmed or a payment is still incomplete.
Try a reschedule and review how the policy is explained. Check your reporting needs: can you distinguish deposits collected from completed service revenue? A deposit is part-payment, so adding it to the full appointment price would double-count that money.
For the setup itself, see how to explain salon deposit policies. If you are replacing an existing system, allow time to reconcile future bookings and already-paid deposits before changing your public booking link.
Questions to ask before signing up
Is the lowest monthly price the lowest total cost? Only for a particular workload and feature set. Compare the same number of bookings, payment value, staff access and messages across suppliers.
Should I pay annually straight away? First test the workflow and read cancellation and billing terms. A lower monthly equivalent is not useful if the system cannot handle your services.
Can software savings prove a return on investment? No. Track administration time and completed appointments separately, using your own baseline. Do not assume every recovered enquiry becomes a paid visit.
Build a budget, then test a booking
Choose the least expensive plan that covers your essential workflow and realistic volume. Revisit the calculation when your booking pattern changes rather than upgrading solely because a percentage looks smaller.
Compare Salonier's current plans, then start a seven-day trial to test your own services and booking flow. No card is required to start the software trial.