Prices from 12 vendors' own pages · read October 21, 2026
Salon POS systems compared (2026): card fees, software and hardware
A salon POS (point-of-sale) system is the checkout: it rings up the service and the retail, takes the card, prompts for the tip, and records every line against the person who earned it. In salon software it is almost always the same system as the booking calendar, and the card processing comes with it, at the rate the vendor sets.
That rate is the real price. On the figures the vendors publish, card fees are most of what a salon pays for its POS every month and the software fee is the smaller part, because the rate is charged on every ticket. Below are the card rates and software prices from each system's own pricing page, a calculator that prices them on your own sales (it starts from the $77 median salon ticket), and what to get in writing before you sign.
Card fees are the cost, not the software. For the three salons below, card fees were 82.8% to 92% of what each would pay a month across the 7 systems that publish complete card rates. A cheaper subscription rarely makes up for a higher rate.
A solo stylist taking $6,000 a month by card: lowest is Square Appointments (Square Free) at $173 a month, highest Mangomint at $293.
A 4-chair salon taking $25,000 a month by card with 4 people on the calendar: lowest is Fresha (Team) at $710 a month, highest Mangomint at $837.
A 10-person salon taking $70,000 a month by card with 10 people on the calendar: lowest is Vagaro (over $4,000 a month) at $1,960 a month, highest Timely at $2,171.
The top of the table is close. For the 4-chair salon, 5 systems land within $50 a month of the cheapest, while the full spread is $1,531 a year. Features, the hardware you need and what each plan leaves out decide between the close ones.
Your average ticket changes the order. Each payment also carries a fixed fee of 10¢ to 30¢, which weighs more on small tickets: at a $30 average the 4-chair salon's lowest is Square Appointments, at $150 it is Fresha.
Square's paid plan can cost less than its free one. Square Plus charges $49 a month but takes 0.1 points less in person and 0.4 points less online, so at 10% online it pays for itself above about $37,700 a month in card sales.
Marketplace fees are extra. Fresha: a 20% one-time commission, at least $6, on brand-new clients who find you through the Fresha marketplace. Booksy: Boost, its marketplace promotion, is free to turn on and takes a one-time 30% of a Boost client's first visit, up to $100. None of this is in the estimate, because it depends on how many marketplace clients you get.
Card fee calculator
What each POS would cost your salon a month.
Software and card fees together, at the rates each vendor publishes. It starts from a salon taking $20,000 a month by card at a $77 average with 3 people on the calendar; change any number.
Your salon's card payments
Lowest published cost for your numbers
Fresha: $565 a month
Fresha Team, 2.8% of your card sales in software and card fees together. The most expensive of the 7 costs $1,525 a year more on the same sales.
Estimated monthly software and card fees by POS, cheapest first
Each POS on the cheapest plan its own pricing page offers for your team size, at the card rates it publishes, billed monthly. Not counted: sales tax, card readers, add-ons, international cards, chargebacks and any rate a vendor negotiates. Boulevard, DaySmart Salon, Rosy Salon Software, Phorest, Zenoti do not publish complete card rates, so they are not estimated. How the estimate works
Published rates
12 salon POS systems, side by side.
Software price and card rates as each vendor publishes them, read October 21, 2026. Each system's section below links the page every figure comes from.
Salon POS software prices and card processing rates, read October 21, 2026
Monthly billing, US prices before tax. A card rate is a percentage of the payment plus a fixed fee per payment. “Online” covers deposits, prepaid bookings and charges to a card on file; some vendors price a card typed in by hand separately.
A free plan with unlimited staff calendars, and lower card rates on its paid plans.
Software
Free costs $0, Plus $49 and Premium $149 a month for each location. source
In person
Tap, dip or swipe: 2.6% + 15¢ on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium. source
Online
Online and invoice payments: 3.3% + 30¢ on Free, 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium. source
Also
Card-on-file and typed-in payments: 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan. source
Also
Cancellation and no-show fees charged to a card on file come with Plus and Premium, not Free. source
Hardware
Square Reader for contactless and chip $59. source
Hardware
Square Terminal, with a built-in receipt printer, $299. source
Get in writing:Which features you need sit on Free (cancellation and no-show fees start on Plus), and the custom rate Square offers above $250,000 a year.
A low base price that grows $10 per calendar, with card rates set by how much you take.
Software
$30 a month for one calendar ($23.99 for the first 6 months as an offer). source
Software
Each added bookable calendar costs $10, up to seven; more employees after that cost nothing extra. The calculator reads this as seven calendars in all. source
In person
Under $4,000 a month in card sales: 2.6% + 10¢ per dip or tap, no monthly fee. Above: 2.29% + 19¢ with a $10 monthly fee. Tap to Pay adds 6¢. source
Online
Typed-in payments: 3.5% + 19¢. The page lists no separate online rate, so the calculator uses this one for payments taken without the card present. source
Hardware
A free card reader when you sign up for Vagaro Merchant Services. source
Look at the true cost of processing, not the sticker rate. Compare the effective percentage plus the per-transaction fee, any monthly software fee, and the hardware cost of the terminal. A flat-rate processor is simpler to predict; interchange-plus can be cheaper at volume but harder to read. Ask whether the processing rate is locked in or the vendor can reprice it.
Insist that retail and inventory live in the same POS. Because retail carries roughly 50% margin against about 8% on services and stock is 8 to 12% of revenue, you want back-bar depletion and shelf sales counted at the register, not tracked in a separate spreadsheet you stop updating by March.
Check how it handles payroll and splits. Your staff are 48 to 55% of sales, and most stylists sit in a 50 to 59% commission band with retail commission on top, so the POS should calculate service and retail splits, booth rent, and tip disbursement without you exporting to do the math by hand.
Make tipping frictionless at the terminal. One in five stylists get about 20% of their income from tips, so an on-screen prompt that routes the tip to the right person, and reconciles it against card settlement, is not a nice-to-have for the people working your chairs.
Decide whether it replaces your booking tool or bolts onto it. Some POS platforms are all-in-one; others process payments on top of a calendar you already run. Pick deliberately so you are not forced to abandon a booking setup that works just to change how you take a card.
Confirm the practical realities: how fast payouts land, whether it keeps ringing sales in offline mode when the internet drops, and how gift cards, packages, and refunds are handled. These edge cases are where a POS either saves a busy Saturday or breaks it.
Your POS is a source for sales, deposits, refunds, tips, and product movements. A salon AI plan can connect those records to inventory, reconciliation, client care, and owner reporting. Keep what already works. Connections and automations depend on supported provider access, your account permissions, and the workflow. Check those dependencies and running costs in Founden, then test before activating a connection.
The figures. Software prices, card rates, hardware and payout terms were read on each vendor's own pricing, product and help pages on October 21, 2026, with the page linked beside each figure. Prices are monthly billing in US dollars before tax; several vendors charge less billed yearly or run introductory offers, noted where the page shows them.
The estimate. For each of the 7 systems that publish a complete rate (a percentage and a fee per payment) for both in-person and online payments, the calculator takes the cheapest plan its pricing page offers for your team size and adds: in-person card sales times the in-person rate, online card sales times the online rate, and each rate's fee per payment times the number of payments (card sales divided by your average payment).
The choices it makes. Plans are matched to team size as each vendor describes them (GlossGenius Standard for one person, Gold for up to 9; Fresha Independent for one person, Team per member up to 20; Vagaro $10 per added calendar, read as seven calendars in all). Vagaro's rate tier follows its $4,000-a-month line. Where a vendor lists no separate online rate (Vagaro), its typed-in rate stands in. Payments are taken on a card reader, not Tap to Pay.
What it leaves out. Sales tax, card readers, add-ons, marketplace commissions, international and premium cards, chargebacks, instant-payout fees, and any custom rate a vendor offers larger salons. Treat it as a like-for-like comparison of the published prices, then ask for a written quote on your shortlist.
Not estimated. Boulevard, DaySmart Salon, Rosy Salon Software, Phorest, Zenoti publish their software price but not a complete card rate, or quote both per business. Their published figures are in the table. SalonAI takes no money from any vendor named here.
Questions
Salon POS systems, answered.
What is the cheapest POS system for a salon?
It depends on your card sales, average ticket and team size, because card fees are most of the cost. On the vendors' published rates, Square Appointments came out lowest for a solo stylist ($6,000 a month), Fresha came out lowest for a 4-chair salon ($25,000 a month) and Vagaro came out lowest for a 10-person salon ($70,000 a month). Enter your own numbers in the calculator above; differences of a few dollars a month matter less than the features and terms each plan includes.
How much does a salon POS system cost per month?
For a salon with 3 people on the calendar, the published software prices run from $0 a month (Square Free) to $150 (Mangomint), and some premium systems are quoted. Card fees come on top and are usually larger: at the rates published on October 21, 2026, the same salon taking $20,000 a month by card pays roughly $520 to $577 a month in card fees alone.
Which salon POS has the lowest card processing fees?
The lowest in-person rate each system publishes, lowest first: Vagaro 2.29% + 19¢ (over $4,000 a month), Fresha 2.29% + 20¢, Timely 2.29% + 30¢, Square Appointments 2.4% + 15¢ (Square Premium), GlossGenius 2.4% + 15¢, Mangomint 2.45% + 15¢ and Booksy 2.49% + 10¢. The percentage matters most on big tickets and the fixed fee on small ones, so compare them on your own numbers in the calculator.
Is GlossGenius cheaper than Square for a salon?
GlossGenius charges a lower in-person rate (2.4% + 15¢ against Square Free's 2.6% + 15¢) but a monthly fee, while Square Free has none. On the reference salons: for a solo stylist Square $173 against GlossGenius $190 a month; for a 4-chair salon Square $721 against GlossGenius $730 a month; for a 10-person salon Square $1,977 against GlossGenius $2,054 a month. Square's free plan leaves out cancellation and no-show fees, which start on Square Plus.
Do salon POS systems charge for card readers?
Usually, yes. Square Appointments: Square Reader for contactless and chip $59; Square Terminal, with a built-in receipt printer, $299. Vagaro: a free card reader when you sign up for Vagaro Merchant Services; PayPro terminal $750; PayPro Mini $420. Fresha: terminals from $139 per device. Booksy: Stripe Reader M2 $53.10; Stripe Reader S710 $299 (plus shipping). Tap to Pay on a phone needs no reader, though some systems charge a little more per Tap to Pay payment.
What is the difference between a salon POS system and salon booking software?
Booking software owns the calendar: who is coming in, when, and with which stylist. A POS owns the checkout: ringing up the service and any retail, taking the card, adding the tip, and recording it against the staff member. Many platforms bundle both so a booked appointment turns straight into a ticket, but they are separate jobs, and you can run a POS on top of a booking tool you already like.
Do I need a separate payment processor, or is it built into the POS?
Most salon POS platforms include their own payments processing, so the software and the card handling come as one account and one payout. That is simpler, but it also means the processing rate is set by the vendor. Compare the effective percentage, the per-transaction fee, and how fast payouts land before you commit, since this is a cost you pay on every single ticket.
Why does retail selling matter so much at the POS?
Because the margins are not close. Salon services run on a thin 8.2% net margin, while professional retail products carry roughly 50% margin. A POS that makes it one tap to add a product at checkout, and that tracks the stock behind it, turns retail from an afterthought into a real profit line.
Will a POS handle stylist commissions and tips?
A good one does. With staff at 48 to 55% of sales and most stylists on a 50 to 59% commission band plus retail commission, the POS should calculate service and retail splits, booth rent, and tip payouts for you. It should also prompt for tips at the terminal and reconcile them against card settlement so nobody is chasing cash.
Can SalonAI work with the POS I already use?
Use the free planning tools here to outline your salon's digital work and prepare an editable brief for Founden. Creating a brief does not connect accounts or activate services. Keep what already works. Connections and automations depend on supported provider access, your account permissions, and the workflow. Check those dependencies and running costs in Founden, then test before activating a connection.
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