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Running a salon, explained simply

Honest comparisons and practical answers for salons and independent beauty professionals.

7 daysfrom paper diary to online booking, with the diary open throughout
How to

From a Paper Diary to Online Booking in Seven Days

The fear is not the technology. It is losing the diary in the middle of a full week, in front of a client. So this plan keeps the paper open the entire time and only closes it once nothing has gone wrong for seven days.

November 3, 2026 · 11 min read
4ways a free plan ends: a cap, a hire, a fee or a date
Roundup

The 5 Best Free Booking Systems for Salons in 2026

Every platform in this category has something called a free plan, and no two of them mean the same thing. One is free until a date, one is free until you hire, one is free until a client arrives. Ranked by where the money actually comes from.

October 22, 2026 · 10 min read
3things one appointment uses: a person, a station, equipment
How to

Scheduling Two or Three Staff Without Double-Booking

Two stylists free at two o'clock and one wash basin between them is a booking system that says yes twice. The problem is not carelessness. It is that most calendars model people and nothing else.

October 15, 2026 · 10 min read
€2,050a month for a new person, before employer costs
Running a salon

Can You Afford to Hire Another Person?

Nobody fills a chair in their first month. So the real question is not whether you can afford the wage, it is whether you can afford the ramp, and how many hours she has to sell before the arithmetic turns.

October 9, 2026 · 11 min read
€36 vs €80an hour: a €90 colour against a €20 treatment
How to

How to Price Salon Services: Per Hour, Not Per Service

Most salon prices are set by looking at the salon down the road. That tells you what somebody else decided, using costs you cannot see. Here is how to build a price from your own numbers, and what usually happens when you do.

October 2, 2026 · 11 min read
€1,200a year on Fresha at ten new marketplace clients a month
Comparison

Fresha Alternatives With No Commission on Bookings

Almost nobody leaves Fresha because of the software. They leave because of the 20%. The list of commission-free platforms is the easy half of this. The hard half is replacing the clients the marketplace was sending you, and that is where most moves go wrong.

September 27, 2026 · 10 min read
Minutesafter the appointment: when clients are most willing to review
How to

How to Ask for Reviews Without It Being Awkward

Nearly every salon knows it should ask for reviews and nearly none do it consistently, because it feels like asking a favour from someone who has just paid you. The fix is timing, and a reframe: she already wants to say something nice.

September 19, 2026 · 10 min read
2 of 5booking apps with a plan that stays free
Roundup

The 5 Best Booking Apps for Independent Beauty Specialists

When you work alone there is no reception, no cover, and no budget line for software. A missed hour is the whole hour's income. These five are compared on the two things that actually decide it: whether the free plan expires, and what happens while your hands are busy.

September 14, 2026 · 10 min read
11bookings lost by a deposit on everything, to stop four no-shows
How to

How to Ask for a Deposit Without Losing Clients

Most salons treat this as one decision: deposits, yes or no. It is four decisions, and getting them right is the difference between protecting your day and driving people to the salon down the road.

September 11, 2026 · 10 min read
€576a year in Square card fees at 720 bookings
Comparison

Square Appointments for a Salon: What Works and What Doesn't

Square is the only platform in this category that is free without an asterisk. The calendar works, the reminders work, and for a lot of salons that is enough. This is where it stops being enough, and why it stops exactly there.

September 9, 2026 · 10 min read
11places your booking link belongs
How to

Your Booking Link: Where to Put It and What It Must Do

A booking link is the shortest path between someone deciding they want an appointment and actually having one. Most salons have one, in one place, pointing at a page that asks for an account. Here is the whole job, done properly, in an afternoon.

September 8, 2026 · 11 min read
12.5×the price for the same working week, when you pay both charges
Comparison

Paying Twice for One Client: Subscription Plus Commission

Every comparison presents these as alternatives: pay a flat fee, or pay a percentage. On more platforms than you would expect, you pay both, on the same appointment, in the same month. Here is how to tell whether you are one of them.

September 7, 2026 · 11 min read
Editorial standards

How we evaluate salon software

The same criteria, every time

Monthly price, commission on a new client, whether the free plan is permanent and where its limit sits, and what the product cannot do. Applied identically to every platform in a comparison.

One of them is ours

Abeautella is our product. We say so inside every comparison that includes it, and we name what it lacks, starting with the fact that we have no marketplace.

Every price is dated

Each table states when the figures were checked. We recheck them quarterly, and we change an article's update date only when something in it actually changed.

Sources at first hand

We link the provider's own pricing page wherever it exists, and add at least one independent source when the subject is commercial.

Corrections

If a number here is wrong, write to the author. We correct it, and the update date moves with the correction.

Mobile app

Your schedule, always in your pocket

Get a notification for every booking, check your appointments between clients and run your day from anywhere. Available on iOS and Android.