An entire collection of beauty professionals are building their businesses around simplifying and automating daily tasks using salon-dedicated appointment scheduling apps. As you probably guessed it, this call has been driven by the urge to create more time to do what they love. Two of the leaders among the best salon booking software are Salon Life and Styleseat. 

Is one of these online booking salon systems better than the other? Let’s find out by doing a comparison!

  1. Salon Life

Salon Life is a cloud-based salon booking system used by hundreds of salons and spas in over 50 countries around the world. It enables beauticians to set specific appointment lead times as well as manage appointments, clients, preferences, and their employees. Its special features include recurring appointments, creating notes & staff breaks, automatic appointment scheduling, client profiles, reports & statistics, and importing & exporting of data. 

Salon Life comes with a salon calendar that provides salon owners with an online platform from which to add customized headings, descriptions, as well as customer retention-focused content. They can set the salon booking system to automatically send booking reminders, confirmation notes, and thank you messages after a scheduled appointment is fulfilled.    

Platforms

Web 

Salon businesses catered to:

  • Small salons
  • Mid-size salons
  • Enterprise/big salons

Ease of use and customer support (out of 5 stars)

  • Ease of use: 5/5
  • Customer support:5/5

Pricing

Pricing starts at $7/month. 

Free trial

Yes

Free version

Yes

Special Salon Features

  • Access Control
  • Client profiles
  • Employee management
  • Appointment management
  • Automated scheduling
  • Booking management
  • Calendar management
  • Client management
  • Customer history
  • Customizable branding 
  • Data import/export
  • Email marketing
  • Group scheduling
  • Multi-location
  • Multiple users
  • Reporting and statistics
  • SMS integration
  • Social media integration
  • Booth rental management
  • Inventory management
  • loyalty program
  • Payroll management
  • Point of Sale (POS)

Pros

  • Easy to use platform ideal even for novice internet users. 
  • An intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows users to copy and paste bookings, navigate the calendar, and drag appointments in or out of schedule. 

Cons

  • This salon booking system does not come with a mobile app. However, the web platform is fully optimized for seamless performance across all mobile device browsers. 
  1. Styleseat

Styleseat is an online booking salon platform where beauticians and wellness professionals can showcase their services and connect with clients. On their end, clients can use this market place to book appointments online as wells as discover new nail techs, estheticians, hairstylists, and many others.

On top of offering beauty professionals a free platform to showcase their services, Styleseat also offers effective management and business growth solutions. Just like Salon Life, it also features recurring appointments.  

Platforms

Web, iOS app, android app

Salon businesses catered to:

  • Small salons
  • Mid-size salons

Ease of use and customer support (out of 5 stars)

  • Ease of use: 4.5/5
  • Customer support: 4.5/5

Pricing:

The pricing starts at $35/month. 

Free trial

Yes

Free version

No

Special Salon features 

  • Appointment management
  • Booking management
  • Calendar management
  • Client management
  • Customer history
  • Email marketing
  • Multi-location

Pros 

  • Comes with an android and iOS app

Cons

  • Cannot support the operations of large salons
  • Doesn’t offer phone support
  • Doesn’t come with Access Control, automated scheduling, customizable branding, data import/export, group scheduling, booth rental management, employee management, inventory management, loyalty program, payroll management, and Point of Sale (POS)
  • This salon booking software also lacks some key features such as client profiles, multiple users, reporting and statistics, and social media & SMS integration. 

Comparison table

Here is a table that summarizes the differences as well as the similarities of these salon booking systems:

FeaturesSalon LifeStyleseat
Access Control
     X
Client profiles
     X
Employee management
     X
Appointment management

Automated scheduling
     X
Booking management

Calendar management

Client management

Customer history

Customizable branding 
     X
Data import/export
     X
Email marketing

Group scheduling
     X
Multi-location

Multiple users
     X
Reporting and statistics
     X
SMS integration
     X
Social media integration
X
Booth rental management
     X
Inventory management
     X
Loyalty program
     X
Payroll management
     X
Point of Sale (POS)
     X
Free version
     X
Starting Price$7/month$35/month

Expert’s verdict

At a fraction of the price, Salon Life offers almost triple the efficient salon management tools offered by Styleseat. The fact that the latter doesn’t allow users to use the platform for free before subscribing to any of the plans is also very disconcerting.

Marketing your beauty salon yourself can be difficult. For this reason, teaming up with a digital marketing agency to help with pay per click management is the quickest way to grow your beauty salon.

 In summary, Salon life is a way superior and easy-to-use salon booking software that offers business owners free salon management tools and real value for their money after subscribing to any of the plans.  Still, in case none of these two looks interesting to you, you can test another booking software and see if that one does wonders for you.