Salon app development
Your own salon or barbershop booking app on iOS and Android, in your name, with your clients' data on your own backend. Built for salons with several chairs or locations. For a small shop, we will tell you when Booksy or Vagaro is the better deal.
Where we stand on salons
We have not shipped a salon app yet. What we have shipped are booking apps in other fields, and they share much of what a salon needs: priced services, bookings tied to a schedule, online payments, push notifications and an admin. They are below, with links to the live store listings.
What a salon booking app needs
- Services with price and duration, per stylist or barber
- Calendars per person, breaks and time off
- Deposits and no-show rules
- Reminders and push notifications
- Rebooking and client history
- Several locations in one admin
By type of business
Hair salon
Services with price and duration per stylist, colour appointments that need more time, and rebooking after each visit.
Barbershop
Booking by barber, quick repeat visits, and a walk-in list next to the booked chairs.
Spa
Rooms and therapists booked together, packages and gift cards, and intake notes before the first visit.
Nail studio
Add-ons such as nail art priced in the booking, refill reminders, and photos of past sets in the client's history.
What Booksy Boost could cost you
Booksy's published rule: Boost charges 30% of a new Boost client's first visit, up to $100 per client.
Source: Booksy Biz pricing (US), checked
- Per new client
- $18
- A month
- $180
- A year
- $2,160
An estimate from the published rule, not a Booksy invoice. It counts Boost commissions only, on top of the monthly plan, and assumes every one of these clients came through Boost.
What your own app can do
Features we scope in the Blueprint for salons. Each one is a choice for v1 or later, not a fixed package.
Loyalty and memberships
- Points or a free visit after a set number of bookings
- Monthly memberships, billed automatically through Stripe
- Member prices shown in the booking flow
Deposits and no-show fees
- A deposit taken by Stripe when the client books
- The card saved with Stripe, so a no-show fee follows your policy
- Your cancellation window and fees set in the admin
Instagram and WhatsApp booking links
- One booking link for your Instagram bio and WhatsApp replies
- It opens the booking screen in your app, or the store page if the app is not installed
- Links for a single service or stylist, for posts and stories
Own your client list
- Every client, visit and payment on a backend in your name
- Message your clients through your own app's notifications
- Export the list whenever you want; it is your data
Booksy or Vagaro, or your own app?
For a 5-person salon, the subscriptions below cost far less than any custom build in the published ranges. Owning pays at scale, when marketplace commissions add up, or when the brand and the client data matter more than the monthly saving.
Salon, 5 staff
Booksy: $29.99 a month + $20 per extra user
- A month
- $110
- A year
- $1,320
- 3 years
- $3,960
Plus Boost: 30% of a Boost client's first visit, up to $100, when Boost is on.
Source: Booksy Biz pricing (US), checked
Salon, 5 staff
Vagaro: $30 a month + $10 per extra bookable calendar
- A month
- $70
- A year
- $840
- 3 years
- $2,520
Intro price ignored. The Vagaro branded app is extra and has no price on the official page.
Source: Vagaro pricing, checked
Booking apps we have shipped
The production marketplace of Saudi.
A booking marketplace in Riyadh for studios, equipment, locations and crews: a customer app and a provider app, both live on the App Store and Google Play.
Laqtah (customers)
Laqtah Provider
Lawn and snow contracts, run from one app.
Customer app for iOS and Android, a Laravel API and an office dashboard for a landscaping company in Milton, Ontario. Seasonal lawn and snow contracts, Stripe payments and push alerts. Android is live on Google Play; the iOS app is in App Store review.
Week by week, from Blueprint to care plan
The Blueprint takes 2 to 3 weeks. The build has no fixed length on this page: your Blueprint quote sets it.
- Week 1Kickoff and researchA kickoff call, a walk-through of how bookings, crews, pricing and payments work today, and a look at the tools you use now.
- Week 2Prototype and reviewThe clickable prototype of the customer app and the key admin screens, and the feature list split into v1 and later. You review it with your team.
- Week 3Cost sheet and fixed quoteYour review applied, the rent-vs-own cost sheet, the architecture note and the fixed build quote with milestones.
- Set by your quote
Build
Built to the v1 feature list at the fixed price, paid by milestones. The number of weeks is in your Blueprint quote.
- After the build
Store launch
Submitted to the App Store and Google Play on your own developer accounts. Apple and Google set their review times.
- Every month
Care plan
OS and SDK updates, store policy changes, monitoring, backups and small changes, quoted monthly from your build.
You own it
No platform between you and your customers. If you stop working with us, everything below stays yours.
- Code
- The source code of the apps, the API and the admin, in a repository you own once the build is paid.
- Store accounts
- The app is published on App Store and Google Play developer accounts in your name.
- Data
- Customer and booking data sit on a backend and hosting in your name.
- Handover
- Logins, setup notes and the admin accounts are handed to you at launch.
Have you built a salon app before?
Not one that is live yet. Our live booking apps are Lawn By Moe (home services) and Laqtah (a booking marketplace). A salon app needs many of the same parts: priced services, bookings tied to a schedule, payments, notifications and an admin.
Is a custom app worth it for a small shop?
Usually not. For 1 to 5 staff, renting Booksy, Vagaro, Jobber or Housecall Pro costs less than building and keeping an app, even over 3 years. Owning starts to make sense with many seats or locations, high marketplace commissions, or a way of working those tools do not fit.
Whose name is the app in?
Yours. It is published on your own Apple and Google developer accounts, and the customer data sits on a backend in your name.
What does the Blueprint cost?
$3,500, a fixed price, delivered in 14 to 21 days. 50% of it is credited to the build if you sign within 30 days.
Start with a Booking App Blueprint
In 14 to 21 days you get a cost sheet, a v1 feature list, a clickable prototype and a fixed build quote. You keep all of it.
$1,750 comes off your build if you sign within 30 days.