Salon Software Comparison for Australian Businesses

The table below covers the platforms Australian salons most commonly shortlist. Prices are the cheapest entry point in Australian dollars (GST-inclusive where the platform shows it that way), the pricing model, whether the platform takes a commission on your bookings, whether it bills you in AUD, and the month we last checked each figure against the platform's own pricing page.

Two things stand out. First, the "international software always charges in USD" complaint is mostly outdated — Fresha, Timely, Square and Vagaro all bill Australian salons in AUD today; only the US-native systems (GlossGenius, Mindbody, Boulevard, Mangomint) still leave you exposed to the exchange rate. Second, only one platform on this list charges a commission on your bookings: Fresha, at 20% on new clients who find you through its marketplace.

A one-line honest take on each

• •Fresha — genuinely useful if you want its consumer marketplace to send you new clients and you accept the 20% fee on those bookings. Consider Bella if you already have a client base and would rather not pay a commission to keep it.
• •Timely — a polished, ANZ-built platform that bills in AUD; the cost is per staff member, so it scales up as you hire. Consider Bella if you have a growing team and want a flat price.
• •Square Appointments — hard to beat for a solo operator who already uses Square hardware; the free tier is real. Consider Bella when you outgrow one user and want salon-specific tools (deposits, consent forms, memberships) included.
• •Phorest / Kitomba — strong, established salon systems with deep feature sets and (for Kitomba) Xero integration; both are quote-only, so you cannot see the price without a sales call. Consider Bella if transparent, published pricing matters to you.
• •GlossGenius / Mindbody / Boulevard / Mangomint — capable US platforms, but you pay in USD and support runs on US time. Consider Bella if AUD billing and Australian-hours support matter.

Feature checklists make every platform look similar. These are the axes where they genuinely diverge — and on each, the honest answer to "which is best" is "it depends", so here is what it depends on.

Commission on your bookings

Fresha is the only major platform that takes a percentage of bookings (20% on new marketplace clients). Every other platform here, including Bella, charges 0%. Choose Fresha if you actively want its marketplace to find you new clients and you treat the 20% as a customer-acquisition cost. Choose a zero-commission platform if you already have your clients and would rather not share their bookings.

Team rostering and per-staff cost

Every platform handles individual staff schedules, availability and permissions. The real difference is what a team costs. Per-staff platforms (Timely) are cheapest for one or two people and steadily more expensive as you hire; flat-rate platforms (Bella) cost the same whether you run three chairs or thirteen. Choose per-staff pricing if you are solo or staying small; choose flat pricing if you are building a team.

Payments and EFTPOS terminals

This is one where we are honest about a gap. Bella processes payments through Stripe — including deposits, card-on-file, surcharging and Afterpay — but does not yet sell its own EFTPOS terminal. If you want an all-in-one system where the booking software and the physical card machine are the same product, Square Appointments is excellent, and Timely and Kitomba have terminal integrations. Choose those if integrated in-person hardware is central to how you take payment; choose Bella if online deposits and card-on-file cover most of what you need.

Accounting and Xero

Another honest gap. If deep, automated Xero sync is non-negotiable for you today, Timely and Kitomba offer it and Bella does not yet have a customer-facing Xero integration. Bella gives you GST-inclusive reporting you can hand to your bookkeeper, which covers most small salons — but if your accountant expects transactions to flow straight into Xero, that is a genuine reason to choose Timely or Kitomba over us right now.

SMS reminders

Appointment reminders by SMS are standard in Australian salons, and SMS costs money to send. Most platforms meter it — you pay per message, or per message above a small allowance. Bella includes an SMS allowance in every plan (50 to 500 a month by tier) and sends from a dedicated Australian number on its messaging add-on. Choose on this axis by estimating your monthly reminder volume and asking each platform what that volume actually costs.

Support and time zones

A booking problem at 9am Monday is a different experience depending on where your support team sits. Bella's support is Sydney-based on Australian hours, via chat and email — but not phone, which some owners prefer. Timely and Kitomba also cover ANZ hours. The US-native platforms run on US time, so an urgent Monday-morning issue may wait. Choose on this axis by how time-sensitive your problems tend to be, and whether you want phone support specifically.

A few things matter specifically for running a salon in Australia and are worth checking before you commit.

GST and BAS reporting

If your salon is registered for GST (turnover above $75,000), you need reporting that separates GST for your BAS. AUD-billing platforms generally handle this; US-billed platforms that report in USD leave you doing conversions every quarter. Note that no booking platform here generates a BAS for you — they give your bookkeeper clean, GST-inclusive figures to work from.

Payments

Australian clients expect to pay with local cards, Apple Pay and increasingly Afterpay. Check the platform supports an Australian Stripe (or equivalent) account so payments are not routed through a US entity that adds conversion fees for your clients.

SMS from an Australian number

Clients are more likely to read — and reply to — a reminder from a local mobile number than a US +1 code. Check what number your reminders send from, and what each message costs above any included allowance.

Privacy

You are responsible for client data under the Privacy Act 1988 regardless of where your software is hosted. It is reasonable to ask a platform where client data is stored and how it is protected.

There is no objectively best salon software — only the best fit for your situation. A practical way to decide:

1. 1Write down your non-negotiables — the features you genuinely cannot operate without
2. 2Calculate total monthly cost in AUD for your team size and booking volume across two or three platforms (include SMS, add-ons and transaction fees)
3. 3Start free trials and use the software for real daily operations, not a demo click-through
4. 4Book a test appointment from a client's perspective and see how the booking feels
5. 5Send support a real question and judge the speed and quality of the reply
6. 6Confirm the Australian basics: AUD billing, GST-ready reporting, local SMS

Free trials are the single most useful evaluation tool you have. A feature list tells you what a platform can theoretically do; a trial tells you whether you actually like using it every day — which, since you will be in it constantly, is what matters most.