Bella Booking
Bella Booking
vs
H
Halaxy

Bella Booking vs Halaxy

Booking and payments, without the clinical PMS.

An honest comparison to help you choose the right salon, spa or clinic software for your business - whatever its size.

Last updated: September 2026
Try Bella Booking free

Quick facts at a glance

A side-by-side overview of key differences

Prices shown in USD unless marked A$

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Founded
2021
2012
Headquarters
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Best for
Beauty, Wellness & Health Practices - solo practitioners to multi-location groups
Health practitioners across 90+ professions, from sole practitioners to multi-location groups
Monthly Pricing
Starter/Professional
Per their pricing model
Solo (1 team member)
$25
$0
6 team members
$99
$0
12 team members
$99
$0
Commission
0% (never)
None

Bella Booking: Starter plan for 1-3 team members, Professional for 4+ (unlimited). Competitor pricing from official sources, verified September 2026.

Which is right for you?

An honest look at when each platform makes sense

Consider Bella Booking if...

  • Memberships with recurring Stripe billing, for practices selling ongoing programmes rather than one-off consults
  • Gift cards clients buy online as a present, and redeem at booking
  • A loyalty programme, with your own earning rules and rewards
  • Client reviews tied to a completed appointment, with AI moderation, published on your booking page
  • Deposits set as a fixed amount or a percentage per service, with the cancellation policy that auto-refunds them
  • SMS reminders included in the plan, 50 to 500 a month depending on plan, with top-up packs past that
  • Find a time, gap-fill scoring and three schedule optimisation modes
  • A waitlist that matches open slots automatically and notifies the team
  • Service variants with client eligibility - different price and duration for a first visit versus a return
  • Prerequisite services, so a treatment cannot be booked online before its consultation
  • Native online booking analytics: traffic sources, drop-off and visit-to-booking conversion, with no Google Analytics setup
  • A weekly AI business digest and an AI Assistant you can ask about your schedule, clients and revenue
  • Afterpay and Clearpay on deposits, gift cards and packages
  • Google Calendar two-way sync and an iCal feed included, not a paid subscription
  • Dark mode, dyslexia-friendly fonts, colour themes and density settings
  • Free onboarding on every plan, with free data migration on Starter and Professional

Consider Halaxy if...

  • You claim through Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover or a private health fund
  • Clinical notes, letters and e-prescribing need to live in the same system as the diary
  • You want profession-specific clinical tools such as body charts and validated questionnaires
  • Telehealth is part of how you see patients
  • Software budget is the deciding factor - Halaxy's core is free and Bella's is not

We believe in helping you find the right fit, even if it's not us.

Detailed feature comparison

A comprehensive look at what each platform offers

Available
Partial / Limited
Not available

Clinical & Claiming (where Halaxy is built to win)

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Medicare, DVA, NDIS & health fund rebatesIf you claim, this decides it before anything else on the page. Nothing about booking or payments makes up for re-keying claims into a second system every day.
Not available in Bella Booking. Bella has no Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover or health fund claiming - none, and none planned.
Available in Halaxy. Automated rebates for Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, HICAPS, WorkCover, Comcare and NDIS, charged per claim in credits.
Clinical notes & clinical tools
Partly available in Bella Booking. SOAP note template or a note form you build yourself, filled in by your team (Professional plan), plus client timeline notes, document storage and treatment plans - not a clinical toolset.
Available in Halaxy. 700+ clinical tools and templates, configurable notes including SOAP, referral letters and specialist reports.
AI clinical scribe
Not available in Bella Booking.
Available in Halaxy. AI Scribe transcription and AI patient clinical summaries, charged in credits.
Electronic prescribing
Not available in Bella Booking.
Available in Halaxy. E-scripts as a credit-based add-on; deeper e-script integrations are a paid subscription.
Secure clinical messaging
Not available in Bella Booking.
Available in Halaxy. Credit-based add-on.
Telehealth
Not available in Bella Booking.
Available in Halaxy. Automatic Zoom links from the calendar; telehealth is a credit-based add-on.
Patient health record portal
Partly available in Bella Booking. Clients get a booking portal with their appointments, packages, memberships, gift cards and treatment plan - not a clinical health record.
Available in Halaxy. Patients fill in intake forms, book, update payment details, view clinical notes and open rehabilitation programmes.
Group appointments
Available in Bella Booking. Party bookings with a team member per guest, each guest's own options and add-ons at their own price, and shared-space services with per-attendee pricing.
Available in Halaxy. Group appointments that bill different fees to different patients.
Recurring appointments
Available in Bella Booking. Appointment series: repeat weekly/fortnightly/monthly with availability checks, change or cancel one or all.
Available in Halaxy. Repeat appointments set up from the calendar.

Booking & Client Experience

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Online booking (24/7)
Available in Bella Booking. 24/7 self-service.
Available in Halaxy. Free, with a Halaxy directory listing and the option to hide list prices.
Embeddable booking widget
Partly available in Bella Booking. "Book Now" button + QR code linking to your hosted booking page (no inline booking-flow widget yet).
Available in Halaxy. Embed the full booking page or a booking button on your own website.
Deposits & payment at bookingBoth take money at booking. Bella sets a fixed amount or a percentage per service, and the same screen sets the cancellation policy that refunds it.
Available in Bella Booking. Fixed amount or percentage; part and full payments before the appointment.
Available in Halaxy. Online booking payment settings run from no deposit or payment, through card capture, to requiring payment, and individual fees can be exempted.
Cancellation policies with automatic refunds
Available in Bella Booking. Auto-refunds via Stripe.
Partly available in Halaxy. Cancellation fees can be charged through the patient portal; no published policy-driven automatic refund.
Waitlist management
Available in Bella Booking.
Partly available in Halaxy. Queues patients for the next available slot, then you contact them manually.
Incomplete booking recoveryBoth platforms do this. Halaxy saves the details; Bella also sends the client a resume link and puts the draft in a Waitlist panel.
Available in Bella Booking. Auto-capture + SMS/email reminder + Waitlist panel with "Book for client" action.
Available in Halaxy. Data Capture saves the details of bookings that are started but never finished.
Buffer time before/after
Available in Bella Booking. Before & after - blocks team member and resource for setup/cleanup.
Available in Halaxy. Buffers between appointments.
Resource management (rooms, equipment)
Available in Bella Booking. Capacity controls, auto-assignment, scheduler resource view.
Available in Halaxy. Schedule rooms and equipment, with their own calendar colours.
Find a time wizard
Available in Bella Booking. Availability-first wizard with cross-day browsing and gap-fill scoring (Best fit / Great fit / Good fit).
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.
Schedule optimisation
Available in Bella Booking. 3 modes: Show All, Reduce Gaps, Eliminate Gaps - per location.
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.
Service variants with client eligibility
Available in Bella Booking. Named variations with per-variant pricing, duration, timing, available times, and client eligibility (first-time/returning).
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.
Service add-ons
Available in Bella Booking. Optional or required per service, single/multi-select, price and duration.
Partly available in Halaxy. Linked fees can add a fee before or after another fee.
Prerequisite services (consultation first)
Available in Bella Booking. Require a consult (or any service) before a treatment books online - Completed or Booked mode, Any/All, same-cart unlock in Booked mode; the team can override on the dashboard.
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.

Client Management

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Client records
Available in Bella Booking. Profiles, history, notes, documents.
Available in Halaxy. Lifetime health record holding case notes, referrals, prescriptions, pathology and imaging.
Digital forms (intake, consent)
Available in Bella Booking. Form builder with ten field types including signatures and file upload, auto-send before appointments.
Available in Halaxy. Patient forms and surveys, sent before or after an online booking, with incomplete-form capture.
Treatment plans
Available in Bella Booking. Living, phased plans on the client record - recommended services & homecare, published to the client portal to book & buy from, updated each visit.
Partly available in Halaxy. Clinical treatment planning tools and rehabilitation programmes in the patient portal, rather than a priced plan the client books and buys from.
Family/dependent booking
Available in Bella Booking. Book for children, partners, parents, pets, and more.
Partly available in Halaxy. Reminders can cc or bcc parents and guardians; no published family account linking.
Client reviews
Available in Bella Booking. Verified appointments, AI moderation, Professional plan.
Not available in Halaxy. Patient surveys are the closest published equivalent.
Loyalty programme
Available in Bella Booking. Professional plan.
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.

Payments & Commerce

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Online payments
Available in Bella Booking. All plans, via Stripe.
Available in Halaxy. Auto Payments charge cards in the background so payment sits outside the consult.
Prepaid packages
Available in Bella Booking. Session bundles with online purchase, online redemption, auto-apply at checkout.
Available in Halaxy. Packages built under Finances then sold from the online booking profile.
Memberships & recurring subscriptions
Available in Bella Booking. Recurring plans with Stripe billing, 9 billing cycles, benefits with session tracking, online purchase, pause/resume.
Not available in Halaxy. Invoice payment plans split a single invoice over time; no published recurring membership programme.
Gift cards
Available in Bella Booking. Digital gift cards, both amount-based and service-based, with Stripe payment (Professional plan).
Partly available in Halaxy. Vouchers record a prepaid amount that pays future invoices, rather than a gift card someone buys online as a present.
Discount codes at booking
Available in Bella Booking. Promo codes clients enter at online booking, plus discounts with reasons at checkout and a Discount summary report.
Available in Halaxy. Discount codes patients use when booking appointments or buying packages.
Retail product sales & stock
Available in Bella Booking.
Available in Halaxy. Product inventory records with product sales.
Afterpay / Buy Now Pay Later
Available in Bella Booking. Afterpay / Clearpay BNPL for deposits, gift cards, and packages (AU, NZ, US, CA, UK).
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.
Digital tipping
Available in Bella Booking. Clients tip team members after appointments via Stripe (Professional plan, via the review-and-tip flow).
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.

Marketing & Communication

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
SMS remindersBella includes 50 to 500 messages a month in the plan price and sells top-up packs past that.
Available in Bella Booking. 50-500/month included.
Partly available in Halaxy. Pay-as-you-go credits at A$0.15 to A$0.22 each including GST.
Two-way SMS messaging
Available in Bella Booking. Dedicated number, threaded inbox, auto-handling replies (Messages Plus add-on).
Available in Halaxy. One-way or two-way reminders, with patient replies visible against the appointment.
Dedicated business phone number
Available in Bella Booking. Your own business number - clients see your number, not a platform number (Messages Plus add-on).
Partly available in Halaxy. A dedicated practice number is a paid subscription feature, from 25 credits a month.
Email & SMS campaigns
Available in Bella Booking. Email campaigns with audience filters, branded composer or your own HTML (paste a Canva Email design), open/click tracking - unlimited within Messages Plus (fair use).
Available in Halaxy. Bulk SMS and email campaigns, with any report usable as the audience.
Automated campaigns (birthday, rebook, review)
Available in Bella Booking. Recurring automated messages - birthday greeting and post-appointment follow-up (sending either requires Messages Plus), rebook reminder, review request - email and SMS.
Partly available in Halaxy. Scheduled pre and post appointment messages; no published birthday, rebook or review automation.

Platform & Support

Feature
Bella Booking
Halaxy
Free core softwareHalaxy is free and Bella is not. If budget is the deciding factor, Halaxy wins that comparison and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Not available in Bella Booking. Bella is a paid subscription. Free trial, no credit card required..
Available in Halaxy. Unlimited appointments, practitioners and locations on the free core platform.
Transparent published pricing
Available in Bella Booking. Every plan price published, GST inclusive in Australia - no sales call needed.
Partly available in Halaxy. The free core and the processing rate are published; how many credits each SMS, rebate or AI note costs is not itemised.
Australian support team
Available in Bella Booking. Sydney-based team, with responsive support across multiple timezones.
Available in Halaxy. 24-hour phone and email support, Monday to Friday AEDT.
Two-way calendar sync
Available in Bella Booking. Google Calendar sync with a per-team-member direction choice, plus a read-only iCal feed - included on every plan.
Partly available in Halaxy. Two-way calendar sync is a paid subscription feature, from 25 credits a month.
API access
Available in Bella Booking. Professional plan.
Partly available in Halaxy. The Halaxy API is a paid subscription feature.
Multi-location support
Available in Bella Booking. Per-location databases, copy services between locations.
Available in Halaxy. Unlimited locations, included.
Australian company
Available in Bella Booking. Sydney-based team, with responsive support across multiple timezones.
Available in Halaxy. Melbourne-based since 2012, serving practitioners in more than 70 countries.
AI Assistant for the business
Available in Bella Booking. All plans.
Partly available in Halaxy. AI Scribe and AI clinical summaries work on notes; no business-side assistant in the published feature set.
AI business digest
Available in Bella Booking. Weekly and monthly AI-generated performance summaries with actionable insights.
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.
Online booking analytics
Available in Bella Booking. Native: traffic sources, drop-off funnel & visit-to-booking conversion - all plans, no Google Analytics.
Partly available in Halaxy. Practice tracking and communication reports; no published traffic-source or booking drop-off funnel.
Free data migration
Available in Bella Booking. Starter and Professional.
Partly available in Halaxy. Halaxy documents a practice migration and data import process; what it costs is not published.
Accessibility & personalisation (themes, fonts, density)
Available in Bella Booking. Dark mode, dyslexia-friendly reading fonts, colour themes, density modes, reduced-motion, focus mode.
Not available in Halaxy. Not in Halaxy's published feature set.

Pricing breakdown

What you'll actually pay

Prices shown are starting prices. Bella Booking Starter includes up to 3 team members; Professional includes unlimited team members. Competitor pricing may vary based on team size.

Bella Booking

Solo (1 team member)$25
6 team members$99
12 team members$99
Commission on bookings0%
Payment processing (when used)
Stripe's standard rate for your country + 1%In the US: 2.9% + US$0.30 (Stripe) + 1% (Bella Booking) = 3.9% + US$0.30
SMS reminders50-500/mo included

Solo (1 team): $25/month USD โ€ข Starter (1-3 team): $67/month USD โ€ข Professional (4+): $99/month USD

Halaxy

Solo (1 team member)$0
6 team members$0
12 team members$0
Pricing modelFree core software, then pay-as-you-go credits, processing fees and optional feature subscriptions
CommissionNone
Payment processing (when used)1.5% to 1.9% per transaction plus a 75c to $1 fee on the Silver and Bronze bands

Additional costs to consider

  • โ€ข Payment processing is 1.5% to 1.9% per transaction plus a 75c to $1 fee on the Silver and Bronze bands
  • โ€ข SMS, one-off messages and a fax number run on pay-as-you-go credits at A$0.15 to A$0.22 each including GST
  • โ€ข Funding body rebates (Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, HICAPS, WorkCover, Comcare, NDIS) are charged per claim in credits
  • โ€ข E-scripts, telehealth, secure messaging and AI Scribe are credit-based add-ons
  • โ€ข Two-way calendar sync, white label branding, e-script integrations, the Halaxy API and a dedicated practice phone number are paid subscriptions from 25 credits a month

Pricing information based on publicly available data as of September 2026. Visit each provider's website for current pricing.

What Halaxy does well

We believe in honest comparisons. Here's what Halaxy excels at:

  • 1The core platform is genuinely free, with unlimited appointments, practitioners and locations
  • 2Automated Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover, HICAPS, ECLIPSE, TAC and Comcare rebates
  • 3700+ clinical tools and templates, built out per profession across 90+ professions
  • 4Clinical notes with AI Scribe transcription and AI patient summaries
  • 5E-scripts, secure messaging and telehealth available as add-ons in the same system
  • 6A patient portal that carries intake forms, clinical notes and rehabilitation programmes
  • 7Group appointments that bill different fees to different patients
  • 8Free online bookings, embeddable on your own site, with a directory listing
  • 924-hour phone and email support, Monday to Friday AEDT
  • 10Melbourne-built since 2012, now used by 40,000+ practitioners in more than 70 countries

Halaxy might be better if...

We believe in helping you find the right solution, even if it's not us. Here are some scenarios where other options might serve you better:

  • 1The core platform costs nothing, at any practice size
  • 2Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover, HICAPS and ECLIPSE rebates - Bella has none of this and never will
  • 3Clinical notes, 700+ clinical tools, AI Scribe, e-scripts and secure messaging
  • 4A patient portal holding the clinical record, not just bookings and purchases
  • 5Telehealth consultations, which Bella does not offer

Still not sure? - we'll give you an honest assessment of whether Bella Booking is right for your business.

Rated 5.0 on Capterra

โ€œTry Bella, You Won't Regret It!โ€
Emma W., Owner Operator ยท Capterra review
โ€œGreat support for small businessโ€
Jalpa P., Owner ยท Capterra review
โ€œUser-friendly and reliable booking system with quick supportโ€
Ricky K., Hair Salon Barber ยท Capterra review

Switching from Halaxy?

We make it easy. Free onboarding on every plan, with free data migration on Starter and Professional.

Free data migration on Starter and Professional
Personal onboarding help
No credit card required
Start free trial

See the full guide to switching from Halaxy

How to switch from Halaxy

Step-by-step guide to export your data and move to Bella Booking. We offer free onboarding on every plan, and free data migration on Starter and Professional.

Estimated time: Same business day once we receive your files
  1. 1

    Ask Halaxy to switch data export on

    Full practice export is off until you request it. Email community@halaxy.com from the account owner's address and ask for data export to be enabled. Do this first, because everything below moves faster once it is on.

  2. 2

    Export your practice data

    Once it is enabled, go to Settings > General, and under Data Export click "Export your data now". Pick the data types you want, optionally set a date range, then click Export. The status shows Pending; when it reads Completed, click the download icon to get a zip.

  3. 3

    Export your patient list as a CSV

    On the sidebar, click Patients > Patient List. Use the Columns panel to switch on every field you want carried over (name, email, mobile, date of birth, address, tags), then use Export & Print > Export to CSV. The export only covers what is on screen, so set the list Height to Auto size and take 500 records at a time.

  4. 4

    Capture your fees, packages and vouchers

    Your fee list is exportable: open Finances > Fees and use Export & Print > Export to CSV (any Halaxy list exports this way). Send us that CSV, or a link to your Halaxy online booking page, and we will rebuild your services with prices and durations. List any unredeemed packages and voucher balances before you close the account. Bella has prepaid packages to recreate the packages in, and the Bella team imports vouchers as gift cards with their codes and remaining balances, but only if you have the list.

  5. 5

    Export clinical records you need to keep

    A patient's full clinical record exports one patient at a time: open the patient profile, click Clinical Notes, open any note, then Actions > Print clinical note, choose "All patient notes/files" and Export. The zip arrives under Actions > Download clinical notes.

  6. 6

    Email everything to hello@bellabooking.com

    Send the zip, the CSVs and your fee list from the email address on your Halaxy account. We validate, dedupe and import it for you, free on Starter and Professional, and we will re-run it if something is missing.

A note on appointment history

We generally recommend not importing old appointment history. Importing past appointments can trigger unintended automated messages (reminders, review requests, reminders to rebook, follow-up messages) and cause data inconsistencies. Your clients and services are the essential data for a clean start. If you do want some history carried over, we recommend a tight recent range (e.g. the last 3 months), and our migration team will ensure no notifications are sent accidentally.

Good to know

Two things to plan around. Full practice export is not self-serve: Halaxy's own help guide says to email community@halaxy.com and have the feature enabled for your account, and an account owner has to request it on a team member's behalf. And the patient list exports what is currently on screen, filters and columns included, capped at 500 records a page, so a large list comes out in batches. On the clinical side, Bella imports treatment and SOAP notes as timeline notes on the right client, dated to the appointment and credited to the practitioner who wrote them; completed forms, invoices and photos land as files on the client record. Bella is not a clinical charting system, so claiming history and anything you need in a clinical format should stay with your records archive or your next clinical system.

Official export documentation: Halaxy help centre

Can't export your data?

No problem, we can work with anything. Screenshots of your service list, a link to your public booking page, a photo of your price board, or even a typed-up list. Send us whatever you have and we will build your account from it.

Need help with the migration?

Our team will handle the data import, set up your services, and walk you through everything. Onboarding help is free on every plan, and data migration is free on Starter and Professional. We accept data in any format: CSV, Excel, screenshots, photos, links, or anything else you can send.

Sources: Information gathered from www.halaxy.com, support.halaxy.com. Last verified: September 2026.

Found an error? and we'll correct it promptly.

Important Notice

The information about Halaxy on this page is based on publicly available data as of September 2026 and is provided for general comparison purposes only. Pricing, features, and policies may change at any time without notice. We make reasonable efforts to keep this information accurate, but we cannot guarantee its completeness or current accuracy.

Always verify directly with Halaxy before making any business decisions. This comparison reflects our understanding and may not capture all nuances of their offerings.