Best Booking Sites for Estheticians in 2026: Prices and New-Client Fees

Booking sites for estheticians compared

Before you compare prices, list what your facials need. Five things matter more for facials than for a quick service: a deposit or prepayment option for long treatments, buffer time to reset the room, client forms before the first visit, text reminders, and client notes that show what you used last time. Table 1 compares price, the new-client fee, deposits and forms for each site.

Table 1. US prices before tax, billed monthly unless stated, read on each vendor's own pages on October 2, 2026. "None printed" means the pages we read show no such fee. "Not compared" means we did not read that detail. Sources are linked in each section below and at the end of the article; more platforms are on our booking software comparisons page.

Some figures that still circulate in ranking roundups no longer match the vendors' own pages. One list on the first page of Google for this search gives Vagaro's starting price as $25, PocketSuite's paid plans as starting at $19.99 and Fresha as having no monthly subscription; on October 2, 2026, Vagaro's US help center showed $23.99 as a limited-time rate, PocketSuite's beauty plans started at $49.99, and the version of Fresha's pricing page served to us showed monthly plans. GlossGenius's esthetician page says Acuity Scheduling offers a free version; Acuity's own FAQ says it does not offer a free plan.

StyleSeat: a marketplace with a capped new-client fee

StyleSeat's pricing page shows $19 a month after a free trial as a limited-time rate for new pros, or $199 a year, for stylists and salons with up to 15 chairs. Its help center lists a Premium Plan at $35 a month, and neither page says which price applies once the offer ends, so budget for both. The plan lists a marketplace listing, deposits and no-show protection, and intake and consultation forms. Clients pay StyleSeat a $2.35 booking fee when they book, the help center says. Card processing there is 2.5% plus 30 cents with Tap to Pay and 2.6% plus 30 cents for a card on file; the pricing page advertises free payments during the trial, then 1.9% for six months.

Best for: estheticians who want marketplace discovery and charge more than $250 for a first visit, where the $50 cap keeps its fee the lowest of the three priced promotions.

Booksy: one price with forms and a marketplace listing

Booksy costs $29.99 a month plus tax, with $20 a month for each added team member, and has a 14-day trial without a card. Its pricing page says "All features included," listing custom forms and liability waivers, appointment reminders, no-show protection features, waitlists and a free marketplace listing, and says Booksy never charges clients to book. Its No-Show Protection page says you can take a deposit at booking or charge a cancellation fee, set as a percentage of the service cost. Boost is the optional promotion described above. Card processing is 2.49% plus 20 cents with Tap to Pay and 2.69% plus 30 cents for mobile payments and keyed-in cards. Our Booksy pricing page has the full fee breakdown.

Best for: forms, reminders and a marketplace listing at one monthly price, with a discovery fee only when you switch Boost on.

Vagaro: a low base price, with deposits and forms as add-ons

Vagaro's US help center lists $23.99 a month, a limited-time rate, with one calendar included and $10 a month for each added employee calendar, up to seven licenses. Its US marketplace listing is free and also covers Google, Google Maps and Apple Maps. Two add-ons matter for facials: the Online Shopping Cart, at $10 a month, sets up deposits and cancellation fees for online appointments, and Forms, at $10 a month, adds custom forms such as intake forms and liability waivers. With both, one calendar costs $43.99 a month. Card processing is 2.6% plus 10 cents in person for businesses under $4,000 a month in card sales, and 2.29% plus 19 cents above it with a $10 monthly Large Merchant fee; keyed-in payments are 3.5% plus 19 cents, and FANF and Mastercard location fees apply, with amounts not printed. See Vagaro pricing for the price by number of calendars.

Best for: estheticians who want marketplace discovery at the smallest published first-visit percentage of the three priced promotions, with the Fill My Books discount kept small.

Fresha: a marketplace we could not price from the US

Fresha runs a consumer marketplace, and its pricing page describes a one-time commission on new clients it brings you. On October 2, 2026, the page served only Canadian-dollar prices to every method we used, so this guide prints no Fresha figure. Read the US page before you compare it; our Fresha comparison page covers its plans and features.

GlossGenius: a branded booking site with one card rate

GlossGenius is a booking website you share rather than a marketplace, and its esthetician page says it does not show your clients competing providers. On its pricing page, Standard is $28 a month billed monthly or $24 billed annually. Gold, for businesses with up to nine staff, is $56 or $48 and adds Forms & Waivers, Google booking and reviews, an automated waitlist and room and resource management. Platinum is $168 or $148 for teams of 10 or more. Every plan has a flat 2.6% card rate with no Tap to Pay, card-on-file or manual-entry fees, plus login-free booking for clients; instant payouts cost an extra 1.8%. The plan table lists built-in deposits and cancellation and no-show policies. More on GlossGenius pricing.

Best for: estheticians whose clients already find them and who want one card rate; budget for Gold if you need forms.

Square Appointments: a free plan, with no-show fees from Plus

Square Appointments Free costs $0 a month per location and includes an online booking site, appointment reminders and unlimited staff calendars, and Square's feature grid lists deposits and prepayments on every plan. Cancellation policies and no-show fees, multi-staff booking and a waitlist start on Plus at $49 a month per location; resource management, which assigns rooms to services, comes with Premium at $149. Card rates on Free are 2.6% plus 15 cents in person and 3.3% plus 30 cents online; Plus lowers them to 2.5% plus 15 cents and 2.9% plus 30 cents. Manual entry or a card on file is 3.5% plus 15 cents on every plan. See Square Appointments pricing for the full plan comparison.

Best for: starting at $0, if you can wait for Plus before charging no-show fees.

Acuity Scheduling: a booking page with forms on every plan

Acuity's FAQ says it does not offer a free plan; it has a seven-day trial without a card. Starter is $20 a month billed monthly or $16 billed annually, with one calendar, email reminders and custom client forms. Text reminders, a waitlist and appointment packages start on Standard at $34 a month ($27 billed annually), which covers up to six calendars; Premium is $61 ($49) for up to 36. Payments and deposits run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, so the card rate is that processor's. See Acuity Scheduling pricing for more.

Best for: forms on the cheapest plan, if email reminders are enough or you move to Standard for texts.

PocketSuite: a solo-pro plan with a business number, free through ASCP

PocketSuite's beauty pricing lists Premium, for solo pros, at $49.99 a month, Team at $99.99 and Facility at $149.99, each with a free 30-day trial and no card required. Premium lists online booking, digital forms and contracts, automated appointment reminders and a business number for texts and calls, and the plan table lists deposit and prepayment rules. Members of Associated Skin Care Professionals get the ASCP Edition of PocketSuite free with their membership, with paid upgrades optional, according to ASCP's page; the membership price appears only inside ASCP's sign-up flow, which we did not complete. The pricing page does not print a card rate.

Best for: ASCP members, and estheticians who want a business number for texts and calls in their plan.

What does a marketplace charge for a new client?

The three published promotions all take a share of the first visit, but their caps change the answer as your prices rise. Figure 1 plots the fee against the price of that visit.

Table 2. One-time fee on a promoted new client's first visit, from the rules each vendor published on October 2, 2026. Booksy and Vagaro apply the share to the visit or cart total; StyleSeat to the service cost. For Vagaro, the price is what the client pays after the Fill My Books discount, which is a further cost to you.

Up to $166.67, StyleSeat and Booksy take the same 30%, and Vagaro's 20% is the smallest fee. StyleSeat's $50 cap starts at $166.67, so a $200 first facial carries a $50 fee on StyleSeat, $60 on Booksy and $40 on Vagaro. Above $250, Vagaro's 20%, with no cap printed, passes StyleSeat's $50, and Booksy's fee keeps rising until its $100 cap at $333.33.

Vagaro's fee is not its whole cost. Fill My Books promotes your services as deals at a discount you set, and the 20% is charged on the price after that discount, so the discount is a second cost. On a $95 facial offered at 10% off, the client pays $85.50, Vagaro's fee is $17.10 and the discount costs you $9.50, $26.60 in all. At a 12.5% discount, the fee plus the discount equals the 30% that StyleSeat and Booksy take below their caps.

A first-visit fee costs less than it looks when the client comes back. A promoted $95 first facial carries a $28.50 fee on StyleSeat; if that client books four more facials, the fee works out to $5.70 a visit across all five. A client who never returns costs the full $28.50.

What does one month cost a solo esthetician?

Figure 2 prices one hypothetical month: 60 appointments at an average of $95, with eight of them first visits brought by a marketplace promotion. It uses the lowest published monthly price for one esthetician, billed monthly, before tax and card fees.

Table 3. Worked example using prices read on October 2, 2026. The eight promoted first visits apply only to the three marketplaces that price a promotion. With StyleSeat's $35 help-center plan instead of the $19 offer, its month would be $263. Vagaro's fees are 20% of the full $95, before the Fill My Books discount priced below.

On a marketplace, the promotion can cost far more than the subscription: in this example, eight promoted first visits add $152 to $228 in fees, six to 12 times the monthly price. Vagaro's $152 leaves out the discount its promotion gives: at 10% off, the eight visits would cost $136.80 in fees plus $76 in discounts, $212.80 in all.

The cheapest plans are not like for like, either. Square Free leaves out no-show fees, Acuity Starter sends email reminders only, and GlossGenius adds forms from Gold. Price the plan that does what you need: Square Plus at $49, Acuity Standard at $34, GlossGenius Gold at $56, or Vagaro with its deposit and forms add-ons at $43.99.

What do card fees add to each facial?

Table 4. Rates as printed on each vendor's page on October 2, 2026, applied to one $95 facial and rounded to the cent. Vagaro adds FANF and Mastercard location fees, with amounts not printed. Not shown: Acuity Scheduling (the processor's rate applies), PocketSuite (no rate printed on its pricing page) and Fresha (US rates not read).

Card fees vary much less than first-visit fees. At 60 facials of $95 paid in person, the printed rates come to about $148 to $161 a month, a spread of less than $13, using Vagaro's Large Merchant plan and its $10 monthly fee because $5,700 a month is above its $4,000 line. Card-not-present rates matter more if you take deposits or full prepayment online: they run from $2.47 to $3.52 on a $95 facial in this table.

How to set up facial bookings on any booking site

1. List each treatment with its real length plus reset time. A 60-minute facial followed by 15 minutes to change linens and reset the room should block 75 minutes, either as a longer service or with a buffer if your site offers one.
2. Make the first visit its own service. A longer new-client facial or consultation slot gives you time to talk through skin concerns, and lets you price and protect it differently from a regular facial.
3. Take a deposit or full prepayment on long or premium treatments, and show the cancellation window at booking. Our guide to setting a no-show charge covers the amount and the wording.
4. Send questions before the first visit: skin concerns, allergies, product sensitivities and contact preferences. Use your plan's forms if it has them; if not, send the same questions by email and save the answers in the client's notes.
5. Turn on text reminders as well as email. Check which plan includes texts before you compare prices: Acuity starts them on Standard, while Square lists reminders on Free.
6. Use one booking link everywhere people find you: your Instagram bio, your Google Business Profile and your website. On Booksy, sending returning clients to your own profile link keeps them outside Boost's commission, Booksy says.
7. Track first visits by source for a month. If a promoted client costs $28.50 and books again, compare that with what an ad or a referral discount costs you for the same client.

Where Twizzlo fits an esthetician's booking page

Twizzlo gives you a 24/7 online booking page and a booking link per location to share wherever clients find you. Free is $0 a month for up to 150 bookings, with no SMS, and it is free forever, not a trial. Business Pro is $29.99 a month per business, with unlimited bookings, 50 SMS a month and then $0.03 each, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Both plans include unlimited staff and locations. Online payments carry your Stripe processing rate plus a 1.5% Twizzlo platform fee.

For facial work, the parts that matter are on Twizzlo's features page: buffer times and custom booking rules, real-time availability, prepaid bookings on any service, where the client pays the full service price when booking, and no-show fees applied at your discretion. Client profiles keep notes, preferences, allergies and visit history. Clients can reschedule themselves and add a tip when they pay online, and reminders go out by email on both plans and by text on Business Pro. Support is available 24/7 at support@twizzlo.com.

In the worked example above, 60 facials a month fit inside Free's 150-booking limit, with email reminders only. On Business Pro, if each reminder is one text, 60 reminders use the 50 included texts plus 10 more at $0.03, or $0.30. If every facial is paid online, the 1.5% platform fee is about $1.43 on a $95 facial, or $85.50 a month on $5,700, on top of your Stripe rate.

Where it does not fit: Twizzlo's /features/ page does not list a consumer marketplace, so it suits estheticians who already bring in their own clients. The page also does not list intake or consultation forms, packages or memberships; if you need a signed form before the first facial, choose a tool from Table 1 that lists forms. Compare the plans on Twizzlo pricing, or start on the Free plan. Estheticians who also do lashes or brows can see that setup on our lash and brow booking software page.

Which booking site fits which esthetician?

• You need new clients and your first facials cost less than $250: Vagaro's Fill My Books takes the smallest share of the three priced promotions, 20%, but it also gives each new client the discount you set, so keep that discount small. The base is a $23.99 limited-time rate before add-ons.
• You need new clients and charge more than $250 for a first visit: StyleSeat's $50 cap makes it the cheapest of the three; budget for the $35 help-center plan as well as the $19 offer.
• You want forms, no-show protection and a marketplace listing in one price: Booksy at $29.99 a month plus tax, or StyleSeat.
• Clients already find you and you want to start at $0: Square Appointments Free, moving to Plus at $49 when you need no-show fees.
• Clients already find you and forms matter most: Acuity has client forms on every plan, from Starter at $20; GlossGenius needs Gold at $56 for forms but charges one 2.6% card rate.
• You belong to ASCP: check the ASCP Edition of PocketSuite before paying for anything else.
• You want pricing per business rather than per staff member, and online prepayment on your own booking page: see the Twizzlo section above.

If you are pricing software for a studio with several providers, our guide to esthetician software compares plans by staff size, and our list of the best spa management software covers platforms built for larger spas.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• StyleSeat pricing page: $19 limited-time rate, $199 a year, included features and trial payments, read 2026-10-02.
• StyleSeat help center, How much does StyleSeat cost?: $35 Premium Plan, card rates, New Client Connection and client booking fee, read 2026-10-02.
• Booksy pricing page: $29.99 plus tax, $20 per added member, Boost, card rates, included features and trial, read 2026-10-02.
• Booksy No-Show Protection page: deposits at booking and cancellation fees as a percentage of the service cost, read 2026-10-02.
• Vagaro Help Center, plans, pricing and premium features: $23.99 limited-time rate, calendars, add-ons and US card rates, read 2026-10-02.
• Vagaro Help Center, Fill My Books: 20% and 5% booking fees, charged after the deal discount you set, read 2026-10-02.
• Fresha pricing page: marketplace commission described; the page served Canadian prices, so no figure is used, read 2026-10-02.
• GlossGenius pricing page: Standard, Gold and Platinum prices, plan features and card rate, read 2026-10-02.
• GlossGenius esthetician page: statement about not showing clients competing providers, read 2026-10-02.
• Square Appointments pricing page: plan prices, plan features and card rates, read 2026-10-02.
• Acuity Scheduling pricing page: plan prices, plan features, trial and free-plan answer, read 2026-10-02.
• PocketSuite beauty pricing page: Premium, Team and Facility prices and features, read 2026-10-02.
• ASCP, ASCP Edition of PocketSuite: free with ASCP membership, read 2026-10-02.

Vendor prices and offers change. Everything above was read from the vendors' own pages on October 2, 2026; check the live pricing pages before you sign up or switch.