Booksy vs StyleSeat: What Each One Charges You, Your Team and Your Clients

What does Booksy cost in 2026?

The Booksy pricing page, read September 25, 2026, lists one plan: $29.99 a month plus tax, including one user, and $20 a month for each additional team member. There are no feature tiers. Booksy's position is that every feature sits in the one subscription, and its included list, read September 24, 2026, names waitlists, online gift cards, custom forms and liability waivers, memberships and packages, and Reserve with Google. The plan is month to month with no commitment, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card.

Three costs sit outside the subscription, and the same pricing page lists all three. Card processing is 2.49% plus 10 cents with the Booksy Card Reader, 2.49% plus 20 cents with Tap to Pay, and 2.69% plus 30 cents for mobile payments and keyed-in cards. Next-business-day payouts are free and 30-minute Fast Payouts cost 1.5%. Hardware is extra: the same page shows the Stripe Reader M2 at $53.10 and the Stripe Reader S710 at $299, each plus shipping. The third cost is Boost, Booksy's optional marketplace promotion, which is covered in its own section below.

Messaging is where Booksy is most generous. It includes 2,000 marketing text messages a month, and appointment confirmations and reminders are free. Booksy also states that it never charges your clients to book with you (pricing page, read September 24, 2026). For the line-by-line version, including a first-year quote for a three-person shop, see our Booksy pricing breakdown.

What does StyleSeat cost in 2026?

StyleSeat prints two subscription prices on its own pages, both read September 25, 2026. The StyleSeat Help Center cost article lists the Premium Plan at $35 a month. The StyleSeat pricing page lists a limited-time rate of $19 a month for new pros after the free trial, or $199 a year, and its FAQ says pros who join while the offer runs keep the $19 rate. Neither page prints an end date for the offer or says whether $35 applies after it ends, so this article shows both figures with their sources.

On team size, StyleSeat is flat. Its pricing page, read September 25, 2026, lists staff calendars at no extra seat cost and describes the plan as being for stylists and salons with up to 15 chairs. StyleSeat's own review page, updated September 4, 2026, and read September 24, 2026, says a small salon can run several calendars on one account, and it is direct about the limits: no commission splits, no payroll and no multi-location management.

Card processing on the Premium Plan is 2.5% plus 30 cents with the card present, including Tap to Pay, and 2.6% plus 30 cents for a card on file, according to the help center, read September 25, 2026. New pros on the current offer get free payments during the trial and then 1.9% for six months, per the pricing page, read the same day; that page does not say whether a fixed per-transaction fee also applies in that period, so no figure here assumes one. The optional extras are Smart Pricing, at 5.5% of the service cost capped at $16.50, and New Client Connection, at 30% capped at $50. One more conflict to check in your own account: the help center lists custom websites as a $10 a month add-on, while the pricing page lists a custom website inside the plan.

Boost or New Client Connection: which costs more per new client?

Between a $33.33 and a $166.67 first visit, neither fee costs more: both take 30%, according to Booksy's help center, read September 27, 2026, and StyleSeat's help center, read September 25, 2026. Below $33.33, Booksy's $10 minimum makes Boost the more expensive fee; above $166.67, StyleSeat's $50 cap makes New Client Connection the cheaper one.

Both marketplaces charge the same headline rate, 30% of a new client's first visit, and nothing on that client's later visits. The difference is at the edges. The Booksy help center, read September 27, 2026, sets a $10 minimum and a $100 maximum per first visit. The StyleSeat help center, read September 25, 2026, sets a $50 maximum and lists no minimum.

That produces three price bands. When a first visit is priced below $33.33, 30% comes to less than $10, so Booksy charges its $10 minimum and StyleSeat charges less. From $33.33 to $166.67 the two fees are identical, because neither limit is reached. Above $166.67, StyleSeat stops at $50 while Booksy keeps charging 30% until it reaches $100 at a $333.33 first visit.

Table 2. Worked examples from the published rates: Booksy help center, read September 27, 2026; StyleSeat help center, read September 25, 2026. Tips excluded on both. Card processing is charged separately.

The rules around the fee differ more than the rate does. Booksy works out the commission for each service in the first visit and adds them together, and it charges only for visits that actually took place, so a new client who no-shows should be marked as a no-show the same day. Booksy calculates Boost on the base price of each service, so add-ons do not count toward the fee (help center, read September 27, 2026). StyleSeat gives you 24 hours to accept a New Client Connection request, may accept it automatically if you do not respond and the time falls within your hours, and says that repeatedly ignoring or declining these requests lowers your marketplace ranking. The first visit runs through automatic checkout one hour after the appointment ends, with a default 20% tip unless the client changes it, and it cannot be settled in cash (StyleSeat help center, read September 24, 2026).

If the first visits your marketplace clients book are mostly color, extensions or long appointments priced above about $167, StyleSeat's cap makes it the cheaper marketplace per new client. If they are mostly quick services under about $33, Booksy's minimum makes it the more expensive one. In between, the fee is the same and the decision rests on everything else in this article.

What does each cost as the team grows?

Booksy adds $20 a month for every team member after the first, so a three-person shop pays $69.99 and a ten-person shop $209.99 a month before tax (pricing page, read September 25, 2026). StyleSeat's pricing page puts staff calendars at no extra seat cost, so its subscription stays at $35 on the help center's Premium Plan, or $19 on the limited-time new-pro rate, up to its own 15-chair ceiling.

Table 3. Monthly subscription by team size. Subscription only, before tax, card processing and marketplace fees. Booksy: $29.99 plus $20 for each added team member. StyleSeat: one account described for up to 15 chairs, with staff calendars at no extra seat cost. Booksy pricing page, StyleSeat help center and StyleSeat pricing page, read September 25, 2026.

A subscription line is not a full bill for either product: Booksy and StyleSeat add card processing and their marketplace fees. Table 4 adds those layers for one example month.

Table 4. One example month for a three-person shop. The volumes are ours; substitute your own. StyleSeat's pricing page does not print a New Client Connection fee for its limited-time $19 rate, so the example uses the $35 Premium Plan from the help center. Booksy pricing page and StyleSeat help center, read September 25, 2026 (Booksy's client-fee line, September 24, 2026); Boost terms, Booksy help center, read September 27, 2026.

StyleSeat's flat price has a boundary worth stating plainly. A shop that pays its team on commission splits, runs payroll through its booking software or has a second location is outside what StyleSeat says it supports (review page, read September 24, 2026). Booksy's pages read for this article do not establish how it bills a second location, so ask Booksy for that quote in writing before you rely on it.

Who pays to book: you or your client?

Booksy states that it never charges your clients to book, and the Booksy app is free for them (pricing page, read September 24, 2026). StyleSeat's help center, read September 25, 2026, lists a $2.35 booking fee paid by the client at the time of booking. StyleSeat presents the fee as a way to reduce no-shows. Either way, a client booking a $60 service through StyleSeat pays $62.35, and a client comparing your price with another pro's may notice the difference. Booksy's own comparison page makes this point against StyleSeat, and StyleSeat's current help center confirms the fee.

StyleSeat also has two optional features that raise what a client pays. Smart Pricing lifts the price on busy slots, and StyleSeat takes 5.5% of the service cost, up to $16.50 (help center, read September 25, 2026). Premium Appointments, per StyleSeat's review page (read September 24, 2026), add 20% to the service when you accept an off-calendar request. Booksy's pages read for this article list no equivalent. Whether that is useful or a problem depends on how price-sensitive your clients are.

How do you stop paying a marketplace fee on clients you found yourself?

Both vendors say they charge only for clients their marketplace brings you, and both publish steps to keep your existing clients out of it. Booksy's comparison page, read September 24, 2026, adds that it charges nothing for new clients who book through your booking link, QR code or Google, Instagram and Facebook integrations, or through the marketplace while Boost is off.

On Booksy

1. Share your Booksy Profile Link on your website and business cards, so your own clients book through it.
2. Route your Instagram and Facebook Book Now buttons to that Profile Link.
3. Add walk-in clients to your client list before they leave.
4. Mark a new client who no-shows as a no-show on the same day, because Boost is charged only on visits that took place.

Those steps come from Booksy's help article on avoiding Boost charges and its Boost pricing article, both read September 27, 2026.

On StyleSeat

1. Ask clients to book through your direct booking link and to stay on your profile until the booking is confirmed. StyleSeat says a client who clicks your link and then navigates away may be tagged as a new client.
2. If a client you already know is flagged as new, choose Decline, then I know this client, and verify their phone number.
3. For an appointment already on the calendar, open it, select the New Client from StyleSeat tag and choose Request Correction.
4. Know the referral exception. Clients who book through StyleSeat's referral program get a 15% discount that StyleSeat pays for, and StyleSeat treats those bookings as connections it made.

Those steps come from StyleSeat's help article on claiming a client, read September 24, 2026. StyleSeat says it will refund the fee for a client who came purely by word of mouth and not through its referral program.

What do the vendors' comparison pages get wrong about each other?

Booksy's page is out of date on StyleSeat's card rates, plans and team use, because it still dates its data to 2024. StyleSeat's page states Booksy's Boost limits correctly, but its own card rate and price conflict with StyleSeat's other pages.

Each vendor publishes its own Booksy vs StyleSeat page, and in a Google US search run for this article on September 24, 2026, those two pages held the first and second places for the query. Each is a reasonable source on its own product. Both are linked here: StyleSeat's page and Booksy's page. Neither should be trusted on its rival's numbers without a check against the rival's own pages. Of the seven claims checked below, three about a rival are out of date, two are confirmed, and two are StyleSeat statements about itself that its own pricing sources contradict or qualify.

Table 5. Each row compares a claim on a vendor's comparison page, read September 24, 2026, with the named vendor's own current pages: StyleSeat's pricing page and help center, read September 25, 2026, and Booksy's help center, read September 27, 2026.

A company updates its comparison page when its own prices change, not when a rival's do, and Booksy's page carries its own 2024 date. Read it as a record of 2024. StyleSeat's page also quotes selected low-rated Booksy reviews and a yearly net-gain figure from its own growth features. Those are marketing claims that no one outside StyleSeat can check, and this article does not use them.

Should you choose Booksy or StyleSeat?

Choose Booksy if your clients should book for free and you work alone or with one other person; choose StyleSeat if several chairs share one account and you do not need payroll or commission splits from your booking software.

Booksy is the better fit if

• You want your clients to pay nothing to book.
• You send a lot of marketing texts, since 2,000 a month are included and reminders are free.
• You are solo or a two-person shop, so the $20 seat charge stays small.
• You want features Booksy lists inside the plan, such as Reserve with Google, custom forms and liability waivers, gift cards, and memberships and packages.

StyleSeat is the better fit if

• You run several chairs under one roof and do not need payroll or commission splits, so the flat subscription works in your favor.
• Your new marketplace clients often book first visits above about $167, where the $50 cap applies.
• You want demand-based pricing and are comfortable that clients pay a $2.35 booking fee.
• You can join while the limited-time $19 new-pro rate runs.

Neither may be needed if your book is already full

Both subscriptions partly pay for a marketplace. If your clients come from your own Instagram, referrals and repeat visits, you may be paying for discovery you do not use, and the comparison becomes plain booking software on subscription, seat pricing and payment costs. The wider list of Booksy alternatives covers that field from Booksy's side, and our StyleSeat alternative comparison prices eight options against StyleSeat's fees at 4 and 10 barbers. For the booking app alone, see apps like Booksy; for Booksy against Square Appointments, see Booksy vs Square. Our guide to scheduling apps for hair stylists by chair type sorts the choice by your chair arrangement.

Where Twizzlo fits next to Booksy and StyleSeat

Twizzlo, the publisher of this page, replaces the booking side of Booksy or StyleSeat, not the discovery side. Business Pro is $29.99 a month per business, and both Twizzlo plans include unlimited staff and locations.

Twizzlo is web-based online booking and appointment scheduling software for appointment-based service businesses, with a public booking page, email and SMS reminders, client records, staff schedules and shifts, and Stripe payments and tips. Business Pro includes unlimited bookings, 50 SMS a month and then $0.03 each, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The Free plan is $0 for up to 150 bookings a month, with no SMS. Because the price does not change with headcount, a three-person team pays $29.99 a month on Business Pro, against the Booksy and StyleSeat figures in Table 3. Plan details are on the Twizzlo pricing page.

Online payments carry your Stripe processing rate plus a 1.5% Twizzlo platform fee. For how those charges work, see our payment processing guide; you can also set a no-show fee as a business setting, covered in our guide to setting a no-show charge.

Twizzlo does not run a consumer marketplace, so it fits businesses that already bring in their own clients. If discovery fills your chair, stay on a marketplace. For how that works day to day, see Twizzlo's salon scheduling software or, for shops, barbershop booking software.

Frequently asked questions

Vendor prices and offers change. The figures above were read on the vendors' own pages between September 24 and 27, 2026; check the live pricing pages before you sign up or switch.