GlossGenius vs Square: Which Costs Less Once Card Fees Count

What each plan costs

GlossGenius sells three Beauty & Wellness plans, each priced per business. Its pricing page opens on annual billing and states the saving on each card: 14% on Standard and Gold and 12% on Platinum. Square sells three plans, each priced per location, plus Square Pro, where a business processing over $250,000 a year can ask whether it is eligible for custom pricing and processing fees.

Plan prices and descriptions as printed on each vendor's pricing page, read October 2, 2026.

Several pages that rank for this comparison still print Square Plus at $29 and Premium at $69. Square's pricing page listed $49 and $149 per location on October 2, 2026, and Square's help center describes the older, individually priced subscriptions as legacy plans, so an existing Square account may still be on different terms. Check yours under pricing and subscriptions in the Square Dashboard.

How staff and locations change the bill

GlossGenius prices by team size. Its compare grid shows Staff Management and team member profiles only from Gold, where the Staff Management row reads "Teams of less than 10", and Platinum is sold for teams of 10 or more. A business with a second service provider is therefore pricing Gold, not Standard. Square does not price by headcount: Square Free, Plus and Premium all include unlimited staff calendars, and booking several staff into one appointment starts on Plus.

Locations work the other way round. GlossGenius charges each additional location the plan price at a 15% discount. Square charges the plan fee again for every location, and multi-location management starts on Plus.

Monthly subscription only, applying GlossGenius's footnote ("Each additional location is charged the plan price, at a 15% discount") to the price of the billing period shown. Card fees are extra on both. Prices read October 2, 2026.

Billed monthly, GlossGenius Gold costs $7 more than Square Plus at one location, and the gap shrinks by $1.40 with each added location until the two meet at six locations, at $294.00 each. Billed annually, Gold stays below Plus at every count in the table. Square Free stays at $0 at any number of locations, without no-show fees or multi-location management.

Card fees: where most of the difference is

GlossGenius charges a flat 2.6% on every plan, with "no Tap to Pay, card-on-file, or manual entry fees", and its pricing page prints no fixed fee per payment. Square's rate changes with the plan and with how the client pays. Square's fees help article adds two conditions: the fee is taken out of the total of each transaction, including tax and tip, and cards issued in a different country from your Square account carry an extra 1.5%.

Rates as printed on GlossGenius's pricing page and Square's fees help article, read October 2, 2026. Dollar rows are worked examples.

In person, the four rates sit within 20 cents of each other on a $100 payment, and Square Premium is the lowest. The gap opens on payments taken when the client is not at the counter. A booking prepaid online costs $1.00 more on Square Free than on GlossGenius ($3.60 against $2.60), and a charge to a card on file costs $1.05 more on every Square plan.

Payouts differ too. GlossGenius offers free same-day payouts Monday to Thursday and instant payouts at any time for an additional 1.8%. Square transfers funds to an external bank account the next business day for free, or instantly for a fee that its pricing page does not print.

When GlossGenius costs less than Square

Square Free charges no subscription, so GlossGenius Standard has to win back $28 a month, or $24 billed annually, through lower card fees. Each in-person payment saves 15 cents. Each online prepayment saves 0.7% of the payment plus 30 cents, which is 82.5 cents on a $75 booking. Figure 2 turns that into the monthly card volume at which the two cost the same.

Monthly card volume above which GlossGenius Standard billed monthly ($28) costs less than Square Free at one location. Rates read October 2, 2026: GlossGenius 2.6%; Square Free 2.6% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% + 30¢ online. Keyed and card-on-file charges (3.5% + 15¢ on Square) would lower each figure further.

Two patterns stand out. The more of your bookings clients prepay online, the sooner GlossGenius pays for itself: a solo pro with a $75 average and every booking prepaid crosses the line at about $2,545 a month. And the bigger your average ticket, the longer it takes when clients pay in person: at $150, all in person, Standard needs $28,000 a month in card payments to recover its fee.

If you need no-show fees, compare Standard with Square Plus instead. Square Free does not include a cancellation policy or no-show fees; they start on Plus at $49 a month per location. Against Plus, GlossGenius Standard is $21 a month cheaper billed monthly, and its rate is lower online and on keyed payments. Square Plus's in-person rate of 2.5% + 15¢ only undercuts 2.6% on payments above $150. At a $300 average, all in person, Plus saves 15 cents a payment and needs $42,000 a month in card volume to make up the $21.

Two worked months

Subscription plus card fees for one location, at rates read October 2, 2026. Hypothetical businesses, not measured customers; tax, tips, add-ons and hardware are excluded. The salon uses Gold because GlossGenius Standard does not include staff management.

For the solo pro, GlossGenius Standard billed monthly costs $14.30 less than Square Free and $46.20 less than Square Plus. For the salon, Gold billed monthly costs $85.00 less than Square Free and $77.00 less than Square Plus, the cheapest Square plan with no-show fees. At $30,000 a month, Square Plus also costs $8.00 less than Square Free, because its lower card rates save more than its $49 fee.

Features that decide it for appointment businesses

Feature rows as printed in each vendor's plan comparison on October 2, 2026 (GlossGenius Beauty & Wellness grid; Square Appointments grid).

Read the table from the feature you cannot work without. A solo pro who charges no-show fees gets them on GlossGenius's entry plan but needs Square Plus for them. A salon that books treatment rooms or shared stations needs GlossGenius Gold at $56 a month billed monthly or Square Premium at $149 a month per location. And for text campaigns, Square Free does not include text-message marketing, while GlossGenius prints an allowance of 500 text credits on Gold and 2,500 on Platinum.

Which one fits which business

• Solo, paid mostly in person, below the break-even in the table, no need for no-show fees: Square Free costs nothing a month.
• Solo, with clients who prepay online or cards on file you charge later: GlossGenius Standard, once your card volume passes the break-even for your average ticket.
• Solo, and you want to charge no-show fees: GlossGenius Standard at $28 a month ($24 billed annually) against Square Plus at $49 a month per location.
• Two to nine staff at one location: GlossGenius needs Gold for staff management, while Square Free includes unlimited staff calendars at $0 but not no-show fees or several staff on one booking. At a $75 average with 30% prepaid online, Gold billed monthly costs less than Square Free above $11,915 a month in card payments; the worked salon month came out $85 lower on Gold than on Square Free and $77 lower than on Square Plus.
• Treatment rooms or shared stations: GlossGenius Gold rather than Square Premium, unless you need Premium's other rows.
• Several locations, counting the subscription alone: billed annually, GlossGenius Gold costs less than Square Plus at every count in the table; billed monthly, the two meet at six.
• A shop that already runs retail and payments on Square hardware: Square keeps sales and bookings in one account, so price the switch against what you would replace.

If Vagaro is also on your shortlist, our GlossGenius vs Vagaro comparison prices those two by team size; if GlossGenius's plan steps are the problem, see GlossGenius alternatives; and barbershops weighing Square against Booksy can read Booksy vs Square.

Trials and switching

GlossGenius offers new customers a 14-day free trial without a credit card, and a free data transfer service that moves appointments and client information from your current system. Square Plus and Square Premium each come with a free 30-day trial, and Square says you can cancel or switch plans at any time; Square Free has no subscription to cancel. Before you move, run one real week through the new system:

1. Enter your real service menu with durations and processing times.
2. Book a test client online, prepay, and find the fee in the payout report.
3. Charge a test no-show fee under your written policy. If you are writing one for the first time, see how to set a no-show charge.
4. Check which reminders went out, when, and whether they were texts or emails.
5. Price your real team and locations on the vendor's page at the billing period you will use.

Where Twizzlo fits

Twizzlo prices a third way: per business, whatever the team size or location count. Free is $0 a month for up to 150 bookings, with no SMS, free forever. Business Pro is $29.99 a month per business for unlimited bookings, with 50 SMS a month included and $0.03 for each one after that, and it comes with 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.

Clients book on a web booking page that is open 24/7. They can pay online through Stripe when they book, including prepaying the full service price, and add a tip at checkout; staff can also add manual payment records. A no-show fee is a setting you control, and after a no-show you decide whether to keep or refund the money. Reminders go out by email on both plans and by SMS on Business Pro, and support is available 24/7 at support@twizzlo.com.

Where it may not fit: Twizzlo's features page does not list room or resource scheduling or a waitlist, and Twizzlo's pages do not document gift cards, memberships or packages. If one of those is essential, use the feature table above. Plans and fees are on Twizzlo pricing, and you can start on the Free plan and move to Business Pro when you need SMS or more than 150 bookings a month.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• GlossGenius pricing page: Beauty & Wellness plans and billing toggle, compare grid, flat 2.6% rate, payouts, add-ons, the 15% location footnote and the 14-day trial, read October 2, 2026.
• Square Appointments pricing page: plan prices per location, feature grid, fee rows, text-message allowances, support hours and trials, read October 2, 2026.
• Square Support, Learn about Square fees: rates by plan, fees taken from the total including tax and tip, and the 1.5% international card fee, read October 2, 2026.
• Square Support, Switch to the new Square subscription plans: per-location pricing of Plus and Premium and the legacy plans, read October 2, 2026.
• Twizzlo pricing page (twizzlo.com/pricing/) and features page (twizzlo.com/features/): Twizzlo plans, SMS allowance, platform fee and listed features, read October 2, 2026.

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