Online booking for salons, barbershops and clinics: which option to choose

Taking bookings by phone works until the phone rings while you're with a client. An online booking system takes those calls off your hands, but the options differ a lot in price and fit.

What a booking system has to do

Before choosing, note what you need from this list:

• open slots shown by service and by person (a cut with Andrew, colour with Jess);
• different durations for different services, and breaks between clients;
• an instant confirmation and a reminder before the appointment;
• a link the client can use to reschedule or cancel on their own;
• each team member's calendar on their phone;
• the client's history (what they had last time, notes);
• a deposit or online payment, if you need it;
• no double bookings, even when two clients book in the same minute.

The longer the list, the less a free option fits.

Option 1: the booking page in Google Calendar

Google Calendar has a booking feature called appointment schedules: you set the hours when you take bookings, and Google gives you a page where clients pick a time. On a personal account, one booking page is free, with no limit on the number of bookings.

Paid plans (Google One Premium or eligible Google Workspace plans) add more booking pages, for different services, automatic email reminders, availability checks across several calendars and payment through Stripe at booking.

It fits when: you work alone, with one or two kinds of service, and don't need client history.

It falls short when: you have several people, each with their own services, or rules like "15 minutes' break after a colour treatment".

Option 2: a booking platform

Specialised platforms (for salons, barbershops, clinics, gyms) do everything from day one: calendars per staff member, services with durations, reminders, a phone app, often payments too. Many also run a marketplace app where customers search for salons or clinics, so they can bring new clients. Some have a free plan for solo professionals; Square Appointments, for example, offers one with an online booking site and reminders, while multi-staff booking, cancellation policies and no-show fees come with its paid plans.

What it usually costs:

• a monthly subscription, often per location or per staff member who takes bookings;
• a fee on new clients who find you through the platform's marketplace, with some platforms;
• card processing fees, if you take payments through the platform;
• text messages, billed separately on some platforms.

Questions to ask before you sign up:

1. How much will I pay per month with everyone on the team, not just the first person?
2. Do you charge a fee on clients who would have come anyway, if they book through your app?
3. Can I export my client list and history if I leave?
4. Can bookings happen on my own website, under my name?

Option 3: a custom system on your website

A booking system built for you, as a web app, lives on your domain and follows your rules exactly: who does which service, how long it takes, what breaks there are, which room or machine is used. It can connect to your website, invoicing or CRM.

Advantages: no per-staff subscription and no commission per client; the client list is yours; booking happens on your site, not in an app where the client also sees your competitors.

Disadvantages: it costs more up front and needs someone to maintain it. It won't bring new clients from a marketplace the way some platforms do.

It fits when: you have rules platforms don't cover, several locations, a high volume of bookings, or you want to stop paying commissions.

The comparison

Reminders matter most

No-shows are expensive: a booked hour that goes unused can't be sold again. A 2013 Cochrane review of eight randomised trials with 6,615 participants in healthcare found that text message reminders increase attendance compared with no reminder, work as well as phone call reminders and cost less per attended appointment.

What works in practice:

• a reminder the day before, by text, email or a messaging app;
• in the same message, a link to reschedule or cancel, so the slot is freed for someone else;
• for long or expensive services, a deposit taken at booking.

In the US, reminder texts sent from a regular 10-digit number through software have to be registered with carriers (A2P 10DLC); booking platforms usually handle that for you.

Client data and privacy

Names, phone numbers and booking history are personal data. Whichever option you choose, you need a privacy policy, and in California CalOPPA requires one to be clearly posted on any site that collects personal information from California residents.

Clinics have stricter rules. In the US, a practice covered by HIPAA needs a business associate agreement with any vendor that creates, receives or stores patient information on its behalf, and a booking tool that records who is coming for which appointment does exactly that. Many general-purpose booking tools don't sign these agreements, so check before you choose. In the EU, information about someone's health is a special category of data under GDPR, with stricter rules on who can see it and where it's stored.

How to choose

• You work alone, with one or two services: the Google Calendar booking page or a free plan from a booking app.
• A salon or clinic with a few people, standard services, and you want new clients from an app: a booking platform.
• Special rules, several locations, high volume, or no commissions: a custom system.

Whichever you choose, the booking button belongs on your website's home page and on your Google Business Profile, which has a field for it. Our web development page explains how we build a custom booking system.