Free Dog Grooming Software: What Each $0 Plan Limits in 2026

What each $0 grooming plan includes and caps

Four of the six $0 plans are priced in US dollars. Figure 1 and Table 2 compare those four on seven points a grooming shop meets every week: the monthly fee, how many groomers can log in, how many bookings fit, which reminders go out, whether clients can pay ahead, no-show fees and what card payments cost.

Table 2. $0 plans compared from each vendor's pricing page, read October 2, 2026; Goldie's card rate is from its payments page. "Not listed" and "No cap printed" describe the page, not the product.

Each of the four trades away something different. Square Free gives a multi-groomer shop the most: every groomer gets a calendar, clients get automatic text and email reminders, and you can require a prepayment or a deposit, but cancellation and no-show fees, a waitlist and appointment confirmations start on Plus. Setmore Free fits up to four groomers who are happy with one email reminder per booking; texts and deposits are on Pro. Goldie Free has the groomer-friendly pieces, including deposits and family and pet profiles, but only 20 appointments a month and reminders you send by hand. SchedulingKit Free is a general scheduler: one person, one bookable service and 50 bookings a month, and no payment collection on the free plan.

Goldie's own payments page gives two card rates: 2.5% plus 30 cents on its feature card and 2.6% plus 30 cents per card transaction in the US and Canada in its FAQ. We print both because the page does not say which is current.

Two more $0 plans surfaced. SimplyBook.me's Free plan allows 50 bookings a month and one provider, with payments and deposits starting on its Basic plan; its prices showed only in Canadian dollars to our reader. Tuft's Essential plan is £0 for one calendar, with email and push notifications and payments and deposits, and Tuft describes itself as built for UK groomers.

How far a free plan's booking cap stretches in a grooming month

A cap of 20 or 50 bookings sounds generous until you count a working month. Table 3 works one example: a solo groomer working 22 days a month at four, six or eight dogs a day, or 88, 132 and 176 grooms. The schedule is hypothetical; put your own dogs a day into the same sum, cap divided by dogs a day.

Table 3. Working days of a 22-day month covered by each free plan's booking cap, read on each vendor's pricing page on October 2, 2026. Worked example with a hypothetical schedule, not measured data; one groom is one booking.

Goldie Free covers about one working week at four dogs a day, so it works as a trial run, not a way to run a shop. SchedulingKit Free lasts longer, but its single service type rules out a menu with a bath, a full groom and a nail trim. Setmore lists unlimited appointments and Square prints no booking cap, so their limits show up elsewhere: reminders and deposits for Setmore, no-show fees for Square.

What you pay once free runs out

Every free plan ends somewhere: at a cap, at a missing feature or, for the tools without a $0 plan, when the trial ends. Figure 2 and Table 4 show the first paid month for one groomer at one location on monthly billing.

Table 4. First paid tier for one groomer, before tax, from each vendor's pricing page read October 2, 2026. "Not printed" means the page shows no annual figure; "Not read" means we did not capture GrooMore's annual view.

Square Appointments: Free or Plus

On a hypothetical $70 groom, Square Free charges $1.97 when the client pays by card in person (2.6% plus 15 cents) and $2.61 when the client pays online (3.3% plus 30 cents). At six dogs a day, 132 grooms, that is $260.04 a month in person or $344.52 online.

Square Plus is $49 a month per location. It cuts the online card rate to 2.9% plus 30 cents and the in-person rate to 2.5% plus 15 cents. Those cuts alone cover the $49 only once online card payments pass $12,250 a month, about 175 grooms at $70, or once in-person card payments pass $49,000. A groomer doing eight dogs a day, all paid online, would save $49.28 a month on rates, just above the fee. The real reasons to upgrade are cancellation and no-show fees, the waitlist and confirmations. Plan-by-plan detail: Square Appointments pricing.

Goldie: Free or Pro

Goldie Pro costs $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year, and removes the 20-appointment cap. It also turns on automated reminders with 500 SMS credits a month and adds no-show protection. At four dogs a day, the free cap runs out in the first working week. Pro Plus, at $39.99 a month or $399.99 a year, is Goldie's plan for more than one groomer.

Setmore: Free or Pro

Setmore Pro costs $12 per user a month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, and adds SMS reminders with 500 credits a month for each Pro team member, deposits and a second reminder per booking. Three groomers fit on Setmore Free; if they need texts or deposits, Pro costs $36 a month on monthly billing or $15 a month on annual billing. Setmore says you can try Pro risk-free for 30 days and ask for a refund. Plan-by-plan detail: Setmore pricing.

SchedulingKit: Free or Standard

SchedulingKit Standard costs $12 per seat a month billed monthly, or $10 billed annually, as the page's own FAQ states, and removes the limits of one service type and 50 bookings a month. It also adds payment processing through Stripe or PayPal and 100 SMS credits a month. A three-groomer shop needs three seats: $36 a month on monthly billing or $30 a month on annual billing.

Tools that are free only for a trial

These tools came up for free grooming software, but their pricing pages, read October 2, 2026, list no $0 plan:

• Cuddles: titles its pages "Free Grooming Software," but its pricing page starts at Starter, $79 a month or $66 a month billed annually, for three users. The page offers a free trial, described as 30 days at the top and 14 days on the Starter card.
• Vev: its grooming page calls it free, while its pricing page says Vev starts at $9.99 a month after a 30-day free trial. After the trial, your page "will remain functional for some time before we remove your page."
• PetPocketbook: one plan at $25 a month, or $23.75 a month billed yearly, after a 30-day free trial that begins at your onboarding session. By default, pet parents who pay through PetPocketbook pay a 5% service fee on top of your price.
• GrooMore: Standard at $49 a month and Premium at $79 (USD); the site's "Start Free" buttons do not state a trial length.
• Lunacal: its blog says it has a free plan that never expires, but its pricing page lists three paid plans, each with a 7-day free trial, and no free plan.

Where Twizzlo fits a groomer who wants to start free

This guide is published by Twizzlo, so we hold our own plans to the same test as every tool above. Twizzlo has two plans, Free and Business Pro, and both include unlimited staff and locations, so extra groomers or a second shop never raise the price. Online payments on either plan carry your Stripe processing rate plus a 1.5% Twizzlo platform fee. If a client misses a prepaid groom, you decide whether to keep or refund the payment. Support is available 24/7 at support@twizzlo.com. Twizzlo's features page lists what the product does, and Twizzlo's pricing page sets out the plan limits.

Twizzlo Free

Twizzlo Free is $0 a month for up to 150 bookings, with no SMS, and it is free forever, not a trial. Clients get their confirmations and reminders by email. For a grooming day, the useful parts are a booking page clients can use at any hour, a calendar for each groomer, buffer times between long grooms, and client profiles that keep visit history, notes, preferences and allergies in one place. Clients can prepay a groom at the full service price through Stripe and add a tip.

Twizzlo Business Pro

Business Pro is $29.99 a month per business for unlimited bookings. It includes 50 SMS a month, then $0.03 each, and every Twizzlo feature with no paid add-ons, including a no-show fee setting you control. Business Pro comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Twizzlo's cost across a 22-day grooming month

Table 5. Twizzlo's plan prices and its 1.5% platform fee, from its pricing page read October 2, 2026, run through Table 3's hypothetical 22-day month at a hypothetical $70 a groom. Stripe's own processing rate comes on top and is left out because we did not read it.

Free's 150 bookings cover the whole month at four or six dogs a day. At eight, they run out partway through the 19th of 22 working days, so that groomer needs Business Pro. When every groom is paid online, Stripe's own rate is added to these totals; the 1.5% platform fee is charged in addition to it, not instead of it. Texting clients needs Business Pro whatever the volume; to try the email-only setup first, start on the Free plan and upgrade when texts start to matter.

Where Twizzlo does not fit

Some grooming businesses should look elsewhere first. Groomers who count on an app to send them new dog owners should know that Twizzlo's features page does not list a client marketplace; your clients book through the link you share on Instagram, your Google Business Profile or your own site. If you check vaccination status at booking, the features page does not list vaccination records. If you board dogs or run daycare, a platform built for overnight stays fits better. And if you want text reminders without paying, Twizzlo Free sends email only.

How to test a free grooming app before clients book

1. Read the pricing page for the word trial. A $0 plan has no end date; a free trial turns into a bill.
2. Set up your actual service menu with real durations, such as a bath, a full groom priced by dog size and a nail trim, then confirm the plan accepts every service you offer.
3. Count last month's grooms and compare them with the plan's booking cap, using the sum in Table 3.
4. List everyone who will take bookings and compare the head count with the plan's user limit.
5. Pretend to be a client: book a large-dog full groom on your phone from the link you plan to share and pay by card. Then find that payment's fee in the payout report and check it against Table 2.
6. Check which reminder arrives, text or email, and when. For timing advice, see our guide to appointment reminders software.
7. Cancel the test groom late and check whether the plan can charge the fee your policy names. For help wording a policy, see how to set a no-show charge.

When a $0 plan stumbles on one of these checks, Table 4 gives the price of fixing it. A tool that clears all seven on its $0 plan stays free for your shop after the first month, not only during a trial.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and methodology

Method: every price, plan limit and trial term in this guide comes from the vendor's own pricing page as it read on October 2, 2026, shown in US dollars before tax unless marked; Tuft prints pounds, and SimplyBook.me showed only Canadian dollars to our reader, so no paid price is printed for it. Prices from pages that print no currency code were re-read through a second, separately hosted fetcher, which showed the same figures. Table 3 and Table 5 are worked examples with a hypothetical schedule (22 working days at four, six or eight dogs a day) and a hypothetical $70 groom. No tool was tested hands-on.

• Square Appointments pricing page: Square Free, Plus and Premium prices, the plan-by-plan feature grid and processing fees, read October 2, 2026.
• Setmore pricing page: Free and Pro limits, monthly and annual Pro prices, SMS credits, reminders and deposits, read October 2, 2026.
• Goldie pricing page: Free (Starter), Pro and Pro Plus limits and prices, read October 2, 2026.
• Goldie payments page: the two card rates printed on the page, read October 2, 2026.
• SchedulingKit pricing page: Free plan limits and Standard prices, monthly and annual, read October 2, 2026.
• SimplyBook.me pricing page: Free plan limits (Canadian view; no price used), read October 2, 2026.
• Tuft pricing page: Essential and Pro Premium plans in pounds, read October 2, 2026.
• Cuddles pricing page: Starter price, users, SMS credits and trial wording, read October 2, 2026.
• Vev pricing page: plan prices, the 30-day trial and what happens after it, read October 2, 2026.
• PetPocketbook pricing page: plan price, trial and service fee, read October 2, 2026.
• GrooMore pricing page: Standard and Premium prices in US dollars, read October 2, 2026.
• Lunacal pricing page: paid plans and 7-day trials, read October 2, 2026.
• Teddy's blog post "Best Free Pet Grooming Software" (dated March 4, 2026), Lunacal's blog post on dog grooming booking systems, Vev's pet grooming page, and the free-software pages of Capterra and GetApp: the quoted descriptions in Table 1, read October 2, 2026.
• Twizzlo pricing page and features page (twizzlo.com/pricing/ and twizzlo.com/features/): Free and Business Pro limits, the 1.5% platform fee and the grooming features named above, read October 2, 2026.

Free plans and trial terms change without notice. Every figure here comes from a vendor page read on October 2, 2026; open the vendor's pricing page again before you move your client list.