10 Best POS Systems for Salons of 2026

GlossGenius ranks first because it puts a complete salon checkout within reach of a one-chair business. The Standard plan costs $24 a month billed annually, or $28 month to month, and already includes the booking website, unlimited client notifications, email and text marketing, and inventory and retail management. At the chair, staff can take payments on the GlossGenius card reader, the $49 Tap & Go Reader or Tap to Pay on a phone, and both readers let you set default tip percentages. The vendor publishes an in-person rate of 2.4% + $0.15 and supports Buy Now, Pay Later for larger services. Booth renters can be paid out to separate accounts. The limits show as you grow: Gold, at $48 a month billed annually, targets businesses up to 9 staff and adds forms, a waitlist and time tracking, while chargeback protection and customizable commissions sit on higher tiers. Payroll is an add-on.

Square Appointments is the cheapest way to run a salon checkout, because its free plan costs $0 per location and still includes the online booking site, appointment reminders and unlimited staff calendars. The POS side is broad: clients can pay by contactless card, chip, Apple Pay, Cash App Pay or Afterpay, staff can key in cards from an appointment, and a service and a retail product can be rung up in one transaction. Multistaff appointments close in a single payment with automatic tip splitting, and retail tools cover barcode scanning, multilocation stock and low-stock alerts. Square also documents offline payments. Paid plans add salon features that busy shops need, such as cancellation fees, waitlists and multi-staff booking on Plus at $49 a month, and resource booking for chairs on Premium at $149. Loyalty and marketing cost extra, and the free plan carries the highest in-person rate at 2.6% + 15¢.

Vagaro packs the most included tools into its base price of any system on this list. Every plan covers payments with a free credit card reader for merchant services customers, inventory tracking, memberships, packages and gift certificates, customer loyalty programs, 1,000 free emails a month, invoices and a listing on the Vagaro Marketplace. The vendor sells its own checkout hardware, including PayPro, PayPro Mini, PayPro Duo, a receipt printer and a cash drawer, so a salon front desk can be bought from one company. Payroll and rent collection handle both employees and booth renters. Pricing scales with bookable calendars: each license you add costs $10 (US), and after seven licenses more employees are added at no extra cost, which suits larger salons. We could not load the US plan prices from our location, so check the base fee on Vagaro's US site. The tradeoff for so many features is a busier interface than GlossGenius or Square.

Boulevard is the premium choice for salons where the front desk experience is part of the brand. Its platform covers self-booking, client profiles, loyalty, memberships, payments with Buy Now, Pay Later, marketing messages and reports, and it lists HIPAA, SOC 2 and PCI Level 1 compliance. Pricing is published. Essentials costs $143 a month for a single location with up to 5 providers, 250 free texts and 1,000 free email blasts. Premier, which removes the provider cap, is shown at $234 a month per location on a limited-time fall offer, against a normal $293, and Prestige at $328, normally $410. Annual billing saves 10%. Add-ons raise the total: forms start at $65 a month per location and QuickBooks sync costs $45. For a two-chair nail studio that cost is hard to justify, but a busy salon with several locations gets one of the most complete systems here.

Mangomint has the most thoughtful checkout for salons that run a front desk. An iPad paired with its Bluetooth card reader becomes a client-facing Front Desk Display where the client sees the total, adds a tip, pays, signs and picks a receipt. Client Self Checkout sends a text so a client can tip and pay from their own phone, and the card used is saved for next time. Payments can be routed straight to booth and room renters, which helps hybrid salons. Retail tools are deep: product categories, inventory history, product usage during services, cost of goods reports, purchase orders and per-product commission rates. The rates are published at 2.45% + 15¢ in person and 2.90% + 30¢ online. Pricing is $120 per location plus $10 per user a month with no contracts, but Phone, Marketing and Payroll are add-ons, so a ten-person salon using all three pays far more than the headline.

Fresha is a good fit for salons that want a capable POS without a large flat fee. Its pricing charges for each bookable team member, with an Independent plan for one-person businesses, a Team plan for multiple stylists and custom Enterprise rates above 20 team members, and both self-serve plans start with a 7 day trial. The POS is part of the subscription and sells services, add-ons, products, memberships, packages and gift cards from one cart. Staff can split payments across methods, take deposits and partial payments, and clients can tip digitally, with tips flowing into commission reports. Clients can also pay from their own phone using a link or QR code. Bookings from Facebook, Instagram and returning marketplace clients are free, while brand new clients found through the Fresha marketplace carry a one-time fee. We could not load US dollar prices from our location, so confirm current rates on Fresha's site.

DaySmart Salon is a practical choice for small salons that want a predictable published price. Basic costs $29 a month for one user and includes online booking, confirmations, Instagram and Facebook booking, payment processing and online deposits. Deluxe at $69 adds three users, online gift cards, digital forms, a client loyalty system, basic payroll, email marketing and multi-ticket checkout, which helps when a client books services with more than one stylist. Deluxe Growth at $149 adds text marketing and two-way texting, and Premium at $199 raises the limit to six users with QuickBooks Connect. Every plan includes a kiosk walk-in manager, useful for nail salons that take walk-ins. The vendor says integrated payments fund the next business day. The weak spots are user limits and plan gating: commission tracking, which most commission salons need, sits on the Premium Growth plan, priced by quote.

Phorest suits established salons that want a POS built around retail and loyalty. Staff can check clients out and add upsells from the chair with the PhorestGo app, and PhorestPay hand-held terminals take tap, swipe and phone wallet payments with tip prompting. Checkout handles full or part payments, VIP pay on account, cash, cards, vouchers, deposits and loyalty points. The Treatcard loyalty program prompts staff to offer rewards during checkout, and scanned retail and professional products update stock with re-order prompts. An end-of-day cash up report calculates what should be in the till. Every plan includes unlimited staff and devices, and Phorest promises free training for life and a tailored data migration. The catch is price transparency: Starter, Grow, Complete Advantage and Elite are all quoted on request, and the vendor positions the product for salons with 3 or more staff, so solo stylists will find simpler options above.

Meevo is built for salons and spas that have outgrown simple booking apps. Its MeevoPay processing accepts tap, chip and swipe cards plus Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, with the first terminal free, next day funding and no cancellation or termination fees. Checkout can happen chairside, at the desk or through a contactless Self-Pay link on the client's phone, and MeevoPay handles memberships, recurring payment plans and booking deposits. The vendor also lists a 99.95% or better point of sale uptime guarantee and help with chargeback disputes. Beyond payments, Meevo adds AI advisors for the front desk, marketing and insights, plus add-ons such as walk-in management, eGift and intake forms. Support is 100% U.S.-based. For a small salon, Meevo is more system than needed: it publishes no prices, requires a demo and spreads several features across add-ons, so the setup takes longer than with GlossGenius or Square.

SalonBiz is aimed at multi-stylist salons that care about commission payroll and retail numbers. Pricing starts at $160 a month and depends on team size rather than features: Basic covers 2 to 5 service providers, Essential 6 to 12 and Premium 13 or more, with staff added in blocks of 10 for $55 a month beyond 20 on Premium. Using SalonBiz Payments lowers the subscription by $25 a month on Basic, $35 on Essential and $45 on Premium. The POS takes card-on-file, swipe, chip, Apple Pay and Google Pay from the chair, and SalonBiz surcharging adds a small Visa and Mastercard compliant fee to offset card costs. Reports cover retail sales per ticket, commissions and client retention, and inventory sends reorder reminders. Aveda and Bumble and Bumble salons get direct ordering and Aveda Plus Rewards integration. The downsides are a high entry price, quote-based plan prices and an interface aimed at larger teams.