Med Spa & Aesthetic Clinic Software Comparison for Australian Businesses
An honest look at the booking and management platforms available to Australian med spas and aesthetic clinics — pricing, consent workflows, and no-show protection
In this guide
Med spas and aesthetic clinics sit between beauty and healthcare, and the software market reflects that awkward position. Australian clinics end up comparing salon platforms with consent forms bolted on, enterprise spa suites priced for franchise chains, and clinical practice management tools built for doctors — each solving a different slice of the problem.
This guide compares the major platforms available to Australian med spas and aesthetic clinics in 2026, with particular attention to what matters locally: AUD pricing and GST, deposit protection for high-value treatments, consent workflows, and support during Australian business hours.
We sell Bella Booking, so we have an obvious bias. We will be upfront about where other platforms genuinely do things better and where Bella Booking has limitations — it has no clinical treatment-record module, no prescribing workflows, no Medicare claiming, and integrated EFTPOS terminals are still in development.
What Australian med spas need from software
Aesthetic clinics share the universal needs of any appointment business, plus a set of requirements driven by high-value treatments and consent obligations.
Universal requirements
- •Reliable 24/7 online booking with real-time availability
- •Automated SMS and email reminders to reduce no-shows
- •Client records with treatment history, notes, and photos
- •Team scheduling with individual availability
- •Reports covering revenue, retention, and utilisation
Med-spa-specific requirements
- •Digital consent and intake forms with signatures, sent automatically before the appointment — not handed over on a clipboard at arrival
- •Deposits sized for premium treatments, with cancellation policies that protect consumables and blocked time
- •Practitioner matching, so injectable and laser services are only bookable with qualified staff
- •Processing and buffer time, so rooms are turned over properly between treatments
- •Packages and memberships for multi-session courses and recurring skin programmes
- •Verified client reviews to build trust for high-consideration treatments
A note on clinical records
If your clinic is doctor-led with prescribing workflows and formal clinical documentation requirements, you are shopping in a different category — clinical practice management (Pabau is a common choice in aesthetics) rather than booking software. The platforms in this guide manage consent forms, client notes, documents, and photos; they are not clinical record systems. Our Booking Software vs Practice Management guide covers that distinction in depth.
The main platforms compared
Here is an honest overview of the platforms Australian med spas and aesthetic clinics most commonly evaluate.
Phorest
Phorest is an Irish platform (Dublin, founded 2003, 155,000+ professionals) targeting growing salons, spas, and aesthetic clinics with 3+ staff, and it offers dedicated aesthetics tiers. Strengths include digital consultation forms (pre-sent or completed in-clinic on a tablet), the Treatcard loyalty programme on all plans, and visual consultations with face-mapping as a Premium add-on. Pricing is not published — it is quote-based across three salon tiers and two aesthetics tiers, with no free trial (a personalised demo instead). SMS is charged per message (12c or 8.5c depending on plan), and several features are paid add-ons: two-way SMS, memberships, premium consultations, a branded booking app, and Xero/QuickBooks integration.
Timely
Timely is a New Zealand platform focused on hair and beauty professionals, with local ANZ phone support. Pricing is per staff member — the Build plan is A$42 per staff per month excluding GST (A$46.20 including GST) — with a 14-day free trial and no booking commission. Deposits are supported. Consultation forms are handled through a separate free companion app, Timely Consult, rather than the main platform, and there are no memberships or recurring subscription billing.
Fresha
Fresha (London) prices at A$44.95/month excluding GST for an independent professional or A$29.95 per team member excluding GST on the Team plan. On top of the subscription it charges a 20% commission on new clients acquired through its marketplace, plus payment processing on every transaction (1.29% + A$0.26 in person, 1.59% + A$0.28 online). Its form builder with e-signatures and auto-send before appointments is included, which is genuinely strong for consent workflows. Memberships exist but with limited billing frequencies and no client self-service portal, and loyalty is a separate add-on at A$89.95/month.
Zenoti
Zenoti is a US enterprise platform (Bellevue, Washington, 30,000+ businesses) built for mid-to-large chains, spas, med spas, and wellness franchises. It is the strongest option here for 5+ location operations: enterprise-grade memberships and packages, built-in payroll and commission tracking, HIPAA compliance for medical spas, the Zeenie AI assistant, and deep reporting. Pricing is custom-quoted, typically with annual contracts and implementation fees. For a single-location Australian clinic, the sales process and complexity are usually disproportionate.
Pabau
Pabau is clinic-focused practice management software popular with aesthetics clinics, with an emphasis on consent and clinical records rather than booking-first workflows. Pricing is quote-based. We do not have verified current pricing or a detailed feature audit for Pabau, so we will not make specific claims — if your clinic needs charting beyond consent forms and client notes, it belongs on your shortlist and is worth evaluating directly.
Bella Booking
Bella Booking is Australian-built, with flat AUD pricing inclusive of GST — Solo A$25, Starter A$47, Professional A$79 per month — and no commission on bookings. For aesthetic clinics, the relevant pieces: digital consent and intake forms with signature capture that auto-send when an appointment is confirmed, deposits as a fixed amount or percentage with cancellation policies and automatic Stripe refunds, prepaid packages and memberships clients can purchase online, service variants and add-ons for treatment menus, processing and buffer time for room turnover, verified-appointment client reviews, and SMS reminders included (50–500/month by plan). Honest limitations: no clinical treatment-record module, no prescribing or medication workflows, no Medicare claiming, no Xero integration, and integrated EFTPOS terminals are still in development.
Pricing models and hidden costs
Med spa software pricing splits into three models, and two of them make like-for-like comparison deliberately hard.
Quote-based pricing
Phorest, Zenoti, and Pabau do not publish prices — you get a custom quote after a sales conversation. Zenoti typically involves annual contracts and implementation fees. Quote-based pricing is not automatically bad, but it shifts the work to you: get the all-in number in writing, including add-ons, SMS, payment processing, setup fees, and the contract term.
Per-staff and commission pricing
Timely charges A$42 per staff member per month excluding GST, so costs scale linearly with headcount. Fresha layers three charges: the subscription (A$29.95 per team member excluding GST), a 20% commission on new marketplace clients, and processing fees on every transaction. For a clinic with premium treatment prices, a 20% new-client commission is a significant acquisition cost — check whether your new clients actually come from the marketplace or from your own marketing.
Flat subscription pricing
Bella Booking charges a flat monthly rate per plan (A$25 / A$47 / A$79, inclusive of GST) regardless of booking volume, with unlimited bookable team members on Professional. Deposits are available from the Starter plan; forms, packages, memberships, and reviews are on Professional. Costs stay predictable as the clinic grows.
Hidden costs to watch for
- •Per-SMS charges — Phorest charges 12c or 8.5c per message and Fresha A$0.06–0.25, against platforms with an included allowance
- •Feature add-ons — Phorest prices two-way SMS, memberships, premium consultations, the branded app, and Xero integration separately; Fresha charges A$89.95/month for loyalty and A$15.95/user/month for Insights
- •Marketplace commission — Fresha's 20% on new clients (minimum applies) compounds on high-value aesthetic treatments
- •Implementation fees and annual lock-in — typical with Zenoti's enterprise contracts
- •GST-exclusive advertised prices — Timely and Fresha advertise excluding GST, so add 10% before comparing
Ask every vendor the same question: "What is my total monthly cost in AUD, including GST, for a team of X with Y bookings per month — including all add-ons, SMS, and payment fees?" Then compare those numbers, not the headline prices.
Australian-specific considerations
Most platforms in this market are built overseas. These are the local factors that decide whether one works smoothly in an Australian clinic.
GST and advertised pricing
Timely and Fresha advertise prices excluding GST; Bella Booking's AUD pricing includes it. Quote-based vendors should confirm GST treatment in writing. When you build your comparison spreadsheet, normalise everything to AUD including GST first — a 10% gap is easy to miss and real at year end.
Payments, deposits, and Afterpay
Australian clients expect local cards, Apple Pay, and increasingly Afterpay — relevant for higher-priced aesthetic treatments. Check the platform supports Australian payment processing with transparent rates, and that deposits can be taken at booking time. If you rely on in-clinic terminals, confirm what each platform actually integrates with today: Bella Booking's integrated EFTPOS terminal support, for example, is still in development.
Consent records and privacy
Aesthetic treatments require signed consent, medical history, and allergy disclosures before treatment. Digital forms stored against the client profile beat paper for both compliance and patient flow — and client data should be handled in line with Australian privacy legislation (Privacy Act 1988). Check that forms support signatures, that submissions are stored with the client record, and that forms can be sent automatically rather than relying on front-desk memory.
Support time zones
Phorest is based in Dublin, Fresha in London, and Zenoti in the US; Timely is in New Zealand with ANZ phone support, and Bella Booking's support team is in Sydney. For a clinic with a fully booked injector and a payment problem at 9am on a Tuesday, support that is awake matters.
Feature comparison by category
The table below compares the five platforms we have verified in detail. Pabau is excluded because we have not audited its features and pricing to the same standard — evaluate it directly if clinical records are on your requirements list.
| Capability | Phorest | Timely | Fresha | Zenoti | Bella Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consent & intake forms | Yes — pre-send or on tablet | Via separate Timely Consult app | Yes — e-signatures, auto-send | Yes — digital intake and consent | Yes — auto-send with signatures |
| Deposit collection | Yes — card-secured bookings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — fixed or percentage |
| Memberships & packages | Packages yes; memberships add-on | No | Partial — limited billing options | Yes — full management | Yes — both (Professional plan) |
| Loyalty programme | Treatcard — included | Included | Add-on — A$89.95/month | Yes | Included (Professional plan) |
| SMS costs | 12c or 8.5c per message | SMS credits — pricing varies | A$0.06–0.25 per message | SMS add-ons | Included — 50–500/month |
| Booking commission | 0% | 0% | 20% on new marketplace clients | 0% | 0% |
| Advertised pricing | Custom quote | A$42/staff + GST | A$44.95 solo or A$29.95/member + GST | Custom quote — annual contracts | A$25–A$79 flat, inc. GST |
Consultations and consent
This is the category where med spas should be pickiest. Phorest offers consultation forms plus face-mapping visual consultations (as a Premium add-on). Fresha and Bella Booking both auto-send forms before appointments with e-signatures. Timely's forms live in a separate companion app, which adds friction. Whatever you choose, test the full loop: form auto-sends on booking, client signs on their phone, submission appears on the client record before they walk in.
Revenue features
Multi-session laser courses and skin programmes make packages and memberships core revenue tools, not nice-to-haves. Zenoti is strongest at enterprise scale; Bella Booking includes prepaid packages with online purchase and automatic redemption plus memberships with recurring billing on the Professional plan; Phorest offers packages with memberships as an add-on; Fresha's memberships are limited; Timely has neither.
AI features
Zenoti has the Zeenie assistant, Fresha offers an AI receptionist for phone calls, and Bella Booking includes an AI assistant on all plans plus a weekly AI business digest. Timely has no AI assistant. Useful, but weight this below consent, deposits, and packages for an aesthetics business.
Migration and switching costs
Switching platforms feels riskier for a med spa than a salon because of consent history and treatment documentation. The reality is manageable if you plan the export properly.
What transfers easily
- •Client contact details via CSV export
- •Service menus, durations, and pricing
- •Team member details
- •Basic appointment history
What typically does not transfer
- •Signed consent forms and form submissions — usually need to be exported as documents for your archive, and may need re-collection at the next visit
- •Before-and-after photos (export and re-attach, or archive)
- •Loyalty point balances
- •Gift card balances (require manual recreation)
- •Package and membership states (set up afresh, then honour existing balances manually)
Most platforms, including Bella Booking, support CSV import for clients and services, and Bella Booking includes free data migration with onboarding. Budget a transition window where the front desk runs both systems for a week, and re-collect consent digitally at each client's first visit on the new platform — it is also a natural moment to refresh outdated medical histories.
Export everything before you cancel the old platform — clients, appointments, forms, and photos. Consent records exist to protect the clinic; keep the historical archive even after you have moved on, and confirm export options before you sign with any new vendor.
Making your decision
There is no single best med spa software — there is the best fit for your clinic's size, treatment mix, and documentation needs. A practical framework:
- 1Decide the category first: if you need clinical charting and prescribing records, evaluate clinic practice management (e.g. Pabau); if you are appointment-led, the booking platforms in this guide cover you
- 2List your non-negotiables — for most aesthetic clinics that is consent forms with signatures, deposits, and reminder automation
- 3Calculate the total monthly cost in AUD including GST, add-ons, SMS, commissions, and payment fees for your actual team size
- 4Trial the consent workflow end-to-end: book a test appointment, receive the form, sign it on a phone, and find the submission on the client record
- 5Test the client-facing booking experience for a multi-service visit with a deposit
- 6Ask support a real question and note how long the answer takes to arrive in your time zone
Where free trials exist, use them with real workflows. Note that Phorest offers a personalised demo rather than a self-serve trial, and Zenoti is sales-led — for those, insist on a sandbox session that follows your scenarios, not a scripted demonstration.
Involve your injectors and front desk in the evaluation. The practitioners live with the consent and treatment workflow; the front desk lives with deposits, reschedules, and reminders. Their friction points predict yours.
Key takeaways
- ✓Decide the category first: appointment-led aesthetic clinics are well served by booking platforms; doctor-led clinics needing clinical records and prescribing workflows should evaluate practice management like Pabau
- ✓Consent workflow quality varies sharply — look for signatures, auto-send before appointments, and submissions stored on the client record
- ✓Quote-based pricing (Phorest, Zenoti, Pabau) demands an all-in written number: add-ons, SMS, setup fees, and contract terms included
- ✓Fresha's 20% new-client marketplace commission compounds quickly on premium-priced aesthetic treatments
- ✓Deposits, packages, and memberships are revenue infrastructure for med spas — confirm they are included, not add-ons
- ✓Normalise every price to AUD including GST before comparing — Timely and Fresha advertise GST-exclusive prices
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Last updated: 2026-06-11