Best Free Salon Booking Software for Small Businesses (2026)

The best free salon booking software for a small business in 2026 is SalonBook Free if you want a booking website with no commission, Square Appointments Free if you already take payments with Square or have more than one staff member, and Setmore Free if you need up to four users and can live without SMS reminders. TimeTailor and Koalendar are also genuinely free with different catches: TimeTailor adds a 3.9% fee to online bookings and Koalendar is a general scheduler, not salon software. Fresha, Booksy, Vagaro and GlossGenius have no free tier at all.

We build SalonBook, so it is listed first; read this with that in mind. Everything else was checked against each vendor's own pricing page or help centre in September 2026. Where a page did not show a figure, or sources disagreed, we say so rather than pick a number.

How we judged "free"

"Free" salon software comes in three kinds: a permanent $0 plan with limits, a trial that ends, and a $0 subscription that earns on every booking through commission or transaction fees. Only the first is free in the sense a small salon means. We scored each product on seven questions.

1. Is there a true $0 tier that never expires, not a trial?
2. Does the vendor take a commission on bookings or new clients?
3. Are there per-client or per-booking fees?
4. How many staff and services before you must upgrade?
5. Can you use your own payment processor?
6. Is a booking page or website included, and on your own domain?
7. Is there a contract, setup fee or minimum term?

At a glance

SalonBook Free

SalonBook Free is our own $0 plan, and it is a plan, not a trial. It covers one staff member and five services, with online booking, a day, week and month calendar, a client list with notes and visit history, booking and cancellation emails, and a public salon website with all 7 layouts, 23 colour palettes and a theme studio for colours, fonts and logo. Clients can book as guests without creating an account. There is no marketplace, so there is no commission, and no per-client fees, setup fee or contract.

• Pros: a real website with booking rather than a bare link; no commission on any booking, ever; you can import your existing clients from a CSV file; upgrading to Pro ($39/mo or $348/yr) is self-service and keeps your data.
• Cons: the one-staff, five-service limit rules it out for teams and long menus; online payments, deposits and SMS reminders are Pro features, so Free bookings are paid in person; no marketplace to send you clients.
• Best for: a solo stylist, lash tech or barber who wants a booking website with no monthly bill and will grow into deposits and reminders later.

Square Appointments Free

Square Appointments has the most generous free plan on this list, and we say that as a competitor. According to squareup.com, verified September 6, 2026 for our comparison page, the Free plan is $0 with unlimited staff calendars, an online booking site and reminders, and there is no commission because there is no marketplace. The cost is processing: 2.6% + 15 cents in person and 3.3% + 30 cents online on Free, and you must process through Square. Plus and Premium are priced per location; Square's page does not render those figures, so we rely on third-party roundups putting them at $49 and $149 a month.

• Pros: no staff limit on Free; reminders included; one account for booking, card reader, point of sale and payouts; phone and live chat support.
• Cons: you are committed to Square as your processor; a custom domain needs a paid Square Online plan; intake forms, deposits and loyalty are limited on Free or live in other Square products.
• Best for: any salon already on Square hardware, and multi-chair salons that need $0 software with no user cap.

Fresha

Fresha appears in most "free salon software" lists because it offered a free subscription for years. That is no longer accurate. According to fresha.com/pricing, verified September 6, 2026, Fresha removed its free tier in 2025; Independent is $19.95 a month for a single person, Team is $14.95 per team member per month, and the trial is 7 days with no card required. New clients who book through the Fresha marketplace carry a one-time 20% commission with a $6 minimum; returning clients are free. Online payments are 2.79% + $0.20, a Smart Website is a $15.95 a month add-on and Client Loyalty is $59.95 per location per month.

• Pros: a large consumer marketplace that genuinely brings first-time bookings, which none of the free tools here will do; a polished app; cheap for one or two people.
• Cons: not free; the 20% new-client commission is a real cost for a salon relying on the marketplace to grow; website and loyalty are add-ons; your presence is a Fresha profile, not a site you control.
• Best for: salons in dense urban markets that want discovery and accept paying $19.95 a month plus 20% of each new client's first visit.

Setmore Free

Setmore is a general appointment scheduler that many small salons use. According to setmore.com/pricing, verified September 18, 2026, the Free plan is $0 for up to four users and includes a custom booking page with your services, availability and branding, email confirmations and reminders, and Square, Stripe and PayPal integrations for payments. The page lists no commission or per-booking fee. Free excludes SMS reminders, recurring appointments, two-way calendar sync and removal of Setmore branding. Pro is listed from $5 per user per month billed annually.

• Pros: four users on a $0 plan is unusual; you connect your own Square, Stripe or PayPal; the paid tier is inexpensive if you outgrow Free.
• Cons: no SMS reminders on Free, which matters for no-shows; Setmore branding stays on your booking page; it is a scheduler, not salon software, so no client card for formulas or allergies; the appointment cap is unclear.
• Best for: a two- to four-person salon that needs $0 software today and can handle reminders by email only.

TimeTailor Free

TimeTailor is salon-specific software with an unusual model. According to timetailor.com/pricing, verified September 18, 2026, it is free for manually entered appointments with unlimited staff, no setup fee and no contract, and card payments are handled by Stripe with payouts in under two business days. Online bookings carry a 3.9% fee on the appointment value, which TimeTailor says is "paid by your client, at checkout", though the salon can absorb it. Add-ons are priced separately: offline no-show protection at $12 a month per user, advanced reporting at $9 a month per bookable expert, and a professional website at $15 a month.

• Pros: no staff limit and no subscription; built for beauty businesses rather than adapted from a generic scheduler; the 3.9% fee can be passed to clients so the salon pays nothing.
• Cons: 3.9% on every online booking is a commission by another name if you absorb it, and a surcharge clients see if you do not; a website is $15 a month extra; processing runs through TimeTailor's Stripe, not your own; no-show protection costs extra.
• Best for: salons whose bookings arrive mostly by phone, text or walk-in, where the online-booking fee rarely applies.

Koalendar Free Forever

Koalendar is a scheduling-link tool in the same category as Calendly, not salon software, but its free plan is generous enough for a solo who just needs clients to pick a time. According to koalendar.com/pricing and its help centre, verified September 18, 2026, Free Forever includes unlimited bookings, booking pages and event types, two calendar connections (Google, Outlook or iCloud), booking notifications, and embedding on your own website. Payments, email and SMS reminders, group sessions and branding removal are Pro features. The pricing page's Pro figures did not render reliably when we fetched them; Koalendar's own August 2026 pricing report lists Pro at $6.99 per seat per month billed annually or $9.99 monthly.

• Pros: truly unlimited bookings at $0; no commission of any kind; embeds cleanly in an existing website; easy calendar sync.
• Cons: no payments, deposits or reminders on Free, and reminders are the feature salons want most; no client records, staff rota or product sales; Koalendar branding on the booking page.
• Best for: a solo who already has a website and only needs a free booking link, not a salon system.

Also consider: Booksy, Vagaro and GlossGenius

None of these three has a free plan, so they do not qualify for this list, but each offers a trial. According to their pricing pages, verified September 6, 2026: Booksy is $29.99 a month plus tax, $20 a month per additional user, 14-day trial, with an optional Boost programme charging a one-time 30% of a new client's first visit; Vagaro is $30 a month per bookable calendar ($23.99 promotional for six months), 30-day trial, no commission on marketplace bookings; GlossGenius is $28 a month ($24 billed annually), 14-day trial, no marketplace. A trial is an evaluation period, not a free plan; compare the paid price against SalonBook Pro at $39 a month for up to three staff.

Which free plan is right for you

• Solo stylist, booth renter or lash tech with a short menu: SalonBook Free gives you a booking website with no commission, and your client list moves with you when you upgrade. If your menu is longer than five services, compare Square Free.
• Two- or three-chair salon: Square Appointments Free has no staff cap if you will process through Square; Setmore Free covers four users with your own processor but no SMS reminders. For deposits, no-show fees and text reminders (through your own Twilio account) in one plan, SalonBook Pro is $39 a month for up to three staff.
• Already on Square for payments or hardware: Square Appointments Free is the obvious choice. You can also run SalonBook for booking and keep Square as the processor; SalonBook adds no markup.
• Want marketplace exposure: no free product here will send you clients. Fresha ($19.95 a month plus 20% per new marketplace client) or Booksy ($29.99 a month, optional 30% Boost) are the paid routes.
• Mostly phone and walk-in bookings: TimeTailor is free for manual appointments with unlimited staff; decide whether you or your clients pay the 3.9% on the occasional online booking.
• Only need a booking link on an existing site: Koalendar Free Forever, with reminders and payments costing extra.

Free software is only free when your growth does not trigger a fee.