Square Appointments vs Acuity: Plan Prices and Card Rates Compared

By Roger Grekos, founder and editor, Twizzlo. Prices were read first-hand from each vendor's own website between September 8 and September 10, 2026.

Twizzlo publishes this page and competes with the products priced on it. Every competitor price stated here as current is read from that vendor's own website, its pricing page or help center, with the qualifier printed there, or recorded as not published.

Square Appointments vs Acuity comes down to the unit each vendor bills. Square charges $0, $49 or $149 per month per location, with unlimited calendars on all three plans. Acuity charges $16, $27 or $49 per month billed annually on one account, covering 1, up to 6 or up to 36 calendars. Prices read September 8, 2026.

What is the real difference between Square Appointments and Acuity?

Square Appointments and Acuity both take a booking, send a reminder and hold a card. Square Appointments vs Acuity is really one question: what does each vendor count? Square Appointments prices per location. Square's appointments pricing page lists three self-serve plans plus an unpriced fourth, and it states the rule plainly: "With Square Plus and Square Premium, the monthly fee applies to each location you run." Headcount never enters that calculation. Square's own feature table marks "Unlimited calendars" as included on all three self-serve plans, with the note "Add and view as many staff calendars as your business needs. There is no employee limit."

Acuity Scheduling prices per account, then caps calendars. Every plan card on Acuity's pricing page states a ceiling: "1 calendar", "Up to 6 calendars", "Up to 36 calendars". The tooltip under each ceiling defines the unit: "Use separate calendars per employee or location, depending on business needs." One Acuity account can therefore cover several shops, so long as the total calendar count stays inside the cap. A calendar on Acuity can be a person or a shop, your choice. A location on Square is always a shop, and the people inside it add nothing to the subscription.

One disclosure before the numbers start. Twizzlo is our own product, and it appears in the wider price table later in this article, so read the comparison with that in mind. Every vendor price below was read first-party on the vendor's own site on September 8, 2026, unless dated otherwise, quoted with its qualifier, and linked so you can check it yourself. For either side on its own, we keep a running breakdown of Square Appointments pricing and a separate one on what Acuity Scheduling costs.

What does Square Appointments cost?

Square publishes four options on its appointments pricing page: Square Free, Square Plus, Square Premium and Square Pro. Square Free carries no subscription. The page's own FAQ says it: "With Square Free, there are no monthly subscription costs", adding that "you only pay processing fees when you take a payment". Square Plus is "$49/mo. per location". Square Premium is "$149/mo. per location".

Square Pro shows no price at all, only "Get custom pricing". The qualifier printed beside it reads: "If you process over $250,000 per year, talk to our team to see if you’re eligible for custom pricing and processing fees." A note on how those numbers were read. The plan cards at the top fill their prices from a script, and the raw HTML still carries an unreplaced token where the trial length belongs: "Try free for {{sub2_api.num_free_trial_days}} days". The per-location figures above come from the fee table lower down the same page, which is plain HTML.

What separates the tiers matters, and Square marks it in a way you can count. In its feature table an unchecked cell renders as a dash. "Multi-staff appointment booking" carries one dash, against Square Free. "Cancellation policy and no-show fees" carries one dash, again against Square Free. "Resource management", which assigns rooms, chairs and stations, carries two dashes, against Free and Plus, leaving it on Premium only. "Unlimited calendars" carries no dash on any tier.

Square's phone support runs 6am to 6pm PT Monday to Friday for the first 90 days on Free, the same hours with no 90-day limit on Plus, and 24/7 on Premium. Marketing texts are metered: "Not available in Square Free", then "500 texts included, then 3¢ per text" on Plus and "2,500 texts included, then 1.5¢ per text" on Premium. Those allowances are per month per account, not per location. Plus and Premium "each offer a free 30-day trial". Two further costs sit on the same page. Payroll is billed separately, "starting at $35 per month + $6 per person paid", and so is hardware, with "options starting at $59". If those extras pushed you to look around, we keep a list of Square Appointments alternatives.

What does Acuity Scheduling cost?

Acuity's pricing page shows three priced plans, one billing toggle and an unpriced Enterprise offering. Annual billing is the default view, headed "Pay annually" and "Save 20%". Starter is $16 a month billed annually, $20 a month billed monthly, and covers "1 calendar". It includes email reminders, custom client forms, automatic time zone conversion and "Payments via Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo".

Acuity's Standard plan is $27 a month billed annually, $34 a month billed monthly, and covers "Up to 6 calendars". Standard is where text reminders begin, described on the card as "Send automated SMS reminders to reduce no-shows". It also adds the appointment waitlist, "Sell memberships and packages" and "Sell gift certificates". Premium is $49 a month billed annually, $61 a month billed monthly, and covers "Up to 36 calendars". Premium adds the Booking Assistant chat bot, "Sign BAA for HIPAA compliance", "Hide Acuity logo on scheduling page", "Multiple time zones for staff/locations" and "Custom API and CSS".

Above 36 calendars Acuity stops publishing a price, but it does not stop selling. The same page carries an Enterprise question in its FAQ block. The answer reads: "If you're looking for scalable scheduling software with unlimited calendars, VIP account management, unlimited Scheduling Instances, additional APIs, and a centralized dashboard to manage them all, we have you covered." It closes with "Contact our Enterprise team to learn more" and no figure attached. That is the same shape as Square Pro, a real tier with no published number, and we treat the two the same way throughout this article. There is no free plan on that page.

Every Acuity plan card reads "7-day trial, no credit card needed". The page also carries two qualifiers worth keeping: "All prices are in USD" and "Prices do not include applicable taxes." One thing Acuity does not publish is a card rate. It names four processors and gives no rate. We tried to read Stripe's published United States rate first-party on September 8, 2026 and could not, because stripe.com/pricing redirected to the Canadian page and returned Canadian dollar figures. We leave that number out rather than guess at it. Any article printing a single Acuity transaction rate is quoting somebody other than Acuity. For the wider field, our Acuity Scheduling alternative roundup prices these tiers against six other tools.

Square Appointments vs Acuity: which is cheaper at your team size?

Square Appointments vs Acuity is easiest to settle if you fix the business and vary only the headcount: one location, everyone taking bookings, annual billing where offered, subscription only. At one person, Acuity Starter is $16 a month billed annually and Square Free is $0 a month. At three people, Acuity moves to Standard at $27 a month billed annually, because Starter covers one calendar, while Square Free still carries unlimited calendars. At six people, the last headcount Standard covers, Acuity is still $27 a month billed annually. At seven people, Acuity jumps to Premium at $49 a month billed annually, and Square Free has still not moved. At ten, at twenty, at thirty-six people, Acuity holds at $49 a month billed annually and Square Free holds at $0.

On subscription alone, Square is cheaper at every headcount. Read the headcount run honestly, though, because Square Free's $0 subscription comes with dashes. Square Free reaches those headcounts carrying a dash on multi-staff appointment booking and a dash on cancellation policy and no-show fees. A ten-chair salon that wants to charge a late cancellation is on Square Plus, which is "$49/mo. per location", the same headline number as Acuity Premium billed annually. Acuity's compare table, read September 10, 2026, marks "Cancellation fee protections" as included on Starter, Standard and Premium, so on Acuity a cancellation fee does not force an upgrade.

Square Free is $0 a month with unlimited calendars, and Square's pricing page states no Square-imposed monthly booking cap on it. Our own product loses this comparison. Twizzlo's free plan is also $0 a month and permanent rather than a trial, but it is "Capped at 150 bookings per month" and carries "No SMS". A one-chair studio taking more than 150 bookings a month pays us a $29.99 monthly subscription and pays Square no subscription. If a no-show fee does not matter to you, Square Free is the cheaper booking page on subscription, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

For one location, Square charges no subscription until you need a no-show fee or multi-staff booking. Then, from seven to 36 people with Acuity billed annually, the two are level at $49 a month. The interesting question is what happens when you open a second shop, and that is where Square's $49 a month per location and Acuity's $49 a month billed annually stop being the same subscription. Anyone running more than one address should read our notes on multi-location scheduling software first.

Why is Square's $49 a month per location not the same as Acuity's $49 a month billed annually?

No ranking page runs the arithmetic below, so here it is in full. Both vendors print $49 a month (Acuity's is billed annually), the two figures buy different things, and the difference compounds with every door you open. Square Plus, from Square's fee table: "$49/mo. per location", with "Unlimited calendars" in its feature table and, in Square's words, "no employee limit". Acuity Premium, from Acuity's plan card: $49 a month billed annually, "Up to 36 calendars", where a calendar is used "per employee or location, depending on business needs".

Write Square Plus and Acuity Premium as formulas for a business with L locations and a total of C calendars. Square Plus costs 49 x L a month, and staff count is not an input. Acuity Premium costs 49 a month, flat, billed annually, for as long as C stays at or below 36, and location count is not an input.

State one assumption before the numbers, because Acuity's tooltip permits two readings. The runs below count one calendar per employee, which is the reading that flatters Acuity least. Read the other way, four shops need four calendars however many people work in them, and Acuity holds at $49 a month billed annually for longer still. Now run it.

One location, ten staff: Square Plus $49 a month, Acuity Premium $49 a month billed annually, level. Two locations, twenty staff between them: Square is 49 x 2, so $98 a month, while Acuity is $49 a month billed annually. Three locations, thirty staff: Square is $147 a month against Acuity's $49 a month billed annually, a gap of $98 a month or $1,176 a year.

Four locations with nine staff each, exactly thirty-six calendars: Square is $196 a month against Acuity's $49 a month billed annually, a gap of $147 a month or $1,764 a year. That is the last point Acuity's published ladder covers. Add one more person at that fourth shop and Acuity's page stops quoting. Thirty-seven calendars is past "Up to 36 calendars", no higher price appears, and what the page offers instead is the unpriced Enterprise tier described above. Square is still $196 a month and climbing by $49 a month per location. Square Pro is its own unpriced tier, where businesses processing over $250,000 per year can ask whether they are eligible for custom pricing and processing fees. Both vendors publish a ladder and then hand you a contact form.

One shop, three staff: Square Free is $0 a month and Acuity Standard is $27 a month billed annually, which is $324 a year for a booking page Square includes on its $0 plan. One shop, forty staff: Square Free is $0 a month, Square Plus is $49 a month, and Acuity publishes no price that fits, only that Enterprise contact. So the Square Appointments vs Acuity crossover is not a dollar amount. It is a shape. Square's price rises with doors and ignores people. Acuity's rises with calendars, ignores doors, and stops being published at 36. A flat per-business price is a horizontal line through both charts.

Twizzlo Business Pro is $29.99 a month with unlimited employees and locations, which is how our salon scheduling software is priced. At three shops, Square Plus is $147 a month against Twizzlo Business Pro's $29.99 a month. Acuity Standard at $27 a month billed annually still undercuts Business Pro for up to six calendars, however you split them across shops.

What do card payments cost on each?

Square publishes its card rates by plan on its appointments pricing page. Tap, dip, or swipe is "2.6% + 15¢" on Free, "2.5% + 15¢" on Plus and "2.4% + 15¢" on Premium. Online payments are "3.3% + 30¢" on Free and "2.9% + 30¢" on Plus and Premium. Manual entry or card on file is "3.5% + 15¢" on all three. ACH by invoice is "1%, $1 min" on Free, and "1%, $1 min, $10 fee cap" on Plus and Premium. Afterpay is "6% + 30¢". Cash or check is "Free".

Price a real month. A salon takes $20,000 a month in card-present sales across 400 tickets. On Square Free that is 2.6% of $20,000, so $520, plus 400 lots of 15 cents, so $60. Total $580. On Square Plus it is 2.5%, so $500, plus the same $60, giving $560. The upgrade saves $20 a month in fees and costs $49 a month in subscription. There are two break-evens here. On card-present volume, each step down the ladder is worth exactly 0.1%. Free to Plus costs $49 a month and saves 0.001 of card-present volume, so it pays for itself at $49,000 a month. Plus to Premium costs $100 a month more and saves another 0.001, so it pays for itself at $100,000 a month.

Online volume moves on a different step, and it moves four times as far as Square's 0.1% card-present step. Free to Plus takes the online rate from 3.3% to 2.9%, a saving of 0.004, so Plus at $49 a month pays for itself at $12,250 a month of online volume. Plus to Premium saves nothing on the online row, because both sit at "2.9% + 30¢". Plus also adds the "$10 fee cap" on ACH by invoice, which Free does not carry. So work both thresholds against your own mix. A salon billing mostly online crosses into Plus far earlier than a salon taking cards at the chair. Only below both of your own thresholds does the tier become a feature decision rather than a rate decision.

Acuity publishes no card rate to compare with Square's. Its cards say "Payments via Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo" and no rate is given anywhere on the page. Any Square Appointments vs Acuity total cost figure is therefore incomplete on the Acuity side until you pick a processor. Twizzlo sits in the same position, and it is fair to say so plainly. Twizzlo publishes no card processing rate either. Payments run on Stripe, and Twizzlo adds a 1.5% platform fee on top of Stripe's own fees, which we set out in our piece on payment processing.

Where the top-ranking Square Appointments vs Acuity pages get it wrong

Five results surfaced when we searched square appointments vs acuity on September 8, 2026. Four of the five print at least one Square or Acuity price that the vendor's own page contradicts on the same day. We took them in the order the SERP returned them.

wpamelia.com/acuity-scheduling-vs-square-appointments/, the first result, contradicts itself inside one article. Its prose is right: "Plus, at $49/mo per location" and "The top tier, Premium ($149/mo per location)". Its comparison table, further down the same page, prints "Plus $29/mo/location, Premium $69/mo/location". Square's own fee table reads "$49/mo. per location" and "$149/mo. per location". Elsewhere on that page, in prose rather than in the table, it says the free plan "caps you at one user and one location". Square's feature table carries no dash on "Unlimited calendars" and adds "There is no employee limit." The same split runs through its card rates: the prose gives 2.6% plus 15 cents correctly, twice, while a table row gives "2.6% + $0.10 in-person". Square says 15 cents.

thesalonbusiness.com/square-appointments-vs-acuity-scheduling/, the second result, says Acuity is "free for individuals" and that you "will end up paying a minimum of $15/month". Acuity's page shows no free plan at all, only "7-day trial, no credit card needed", and its lowest published price is $16 a month billed annually or $20 a month billed monthly. The same page adds "If you have a team of five, Acuity costs $25/month". No $25 tier exists. Five calendars sit inside Standard at $27 a month billed annually. The third result, calystaemr.com/acuity-scheduling-vs-square-appointments/, prints Acuity as "Starts at $14 per month" against a published $16 a month billed annually, and Square as "2.6% + 10-cent in-person processing fee" against 2.6% plus 15 cents.

quantumbyte.ai/articles/acuity-vs-square-appointments, the fourth result, is the one we do not fault, and it is worth saying why rather than passing over it. We read it the same day and it prints no price figure of any kind, so there is nothing on it for either vendor's page to contradict. That is why the count above is four of five and not five of five. The fifth result, talkspresso.com/blog/acuity-vs-square-appointments-2026, prints "Plus plan: approximately $29/mo per location" and "Premium plan: approximately $69/mo per location", understated by $20 and by $80 a month. It also calls Acuity's tiers "Emerging", "Growing" and "Powerhouse". Acuity's pricing page names them Starter, Standard and Premium.

One pattern is worth naming. The pair $29 and $69 a month per location appears on two of the five ranking pages and nowhere on Square's pricing page on September 8, 2026. We apply that test to our own work, which is why Vagaro vs Square Appointments gets refetched rather than recycled.

How the rest of the market prices the same ten-person salon

Square Appointments vs Acuity is a narrow question, and the answer changes once you widen it.

Here is the same ten-person, one-location salon priced against five more published lists, each read first-party on September 8, 2026. Setmore's free plan is "$0 user / mo" for "Up to 4 users". Pro is "$5* user / mo" for "Unlimited users", where the asterisk resolves to "*Annual pricing", on the Setmore pricing page. Ten people on Pro is $50 a month billed annually.

Calendly's free tier is "Always free" but limited to "One event type" and "One calendar connection". Standard is "$10 /seat/mo" and Teams "$16 /seat/mo", both on the "Billed yearly" default, and "Seats are required for users to connect calendars and host Calendly meetings". Ten seats on Standard is $100 a month billed yearly, as the Calendly pricing page sets out. Booksy is "Get everything for $29.99 per month + tax", then "Add extra users for $20/month each" on the Booksy pricing page. Read that qualifier closely: the $20 a month applies to each extra user, not to each user. Ten people is $29.99 plus 9 lots of $20, so $209.99 a month plus tax. Booksy's Boost marketing feature is "Free to turn on, no monthly fee", with a "One-time 30% fee based on the total cost of a Boost client's first visit with you".

GlossGenius runs Standard at $24, Gold at $48 and Platinum at $148 a month "Billed annually", or $28, $56 and $168 a month billed monthly, on the GlossGenius pricing page. Gold's card reads "businesses up to 9 staff" and Platinum's reads "teams 10+", so ten people land on Platinum at $148 a month billed annually.

Twizzlo Business Pro is $29.99 a month flat per business, with unlimited bookings, employees, locations and customers, "50 SMS free. More? $0.03/msg, pay as you go", and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The free plan is $0 a month and permanent rather than a trial, with "Unlimited Employees" but "Capped at 150 bookings per month" and "No SMS", as the Twizzlo pricing page sets out.

Here is the cheapest published plan that fits ten people at one address, on subscription price alone, assuming more than 150 bookings a month. Square Free $0 a month, Twizzlo Business Pro $29.99 a month, Square Plus $49 a month per location, the tier that adds no-show fees, and Acuity Premium $49 a month billed annually come first. Setmore Pro $50 a month billed annually, Calendly Standard $100 a month billed yearly, GlossGenius Platinum $148 a month billed annually and Booksy $209.99 a month plus tax follow. We have applied no feature test to that ranking.

Square, Acuity, Calendly, Setmore and GlossGenius each publish a plan comparison table, read September 10, 2026, but the tables do not share a feature list, so this article ranks the ten-person plans on subscription price alone. Across the paid options, ten-person subscriptions run from Twizzlo Business Pro at $29.99 a month to Booksy at $209.99 a month plus tax, a seven times spread driven by the counting unit as much as by feature depth.

Here is what Twizzlo does not do. Twizzlo has no retail inventory, no membership autopay or package builder, no payroll or commissions, no POS hardware, no marketing automation suite, no charting, and no published card rate. Several of those are what Square sells. If you move product at the front desk, Square is right and Twizzlo is not. If you bill memberships automatically, Acuity sells packages from Standard up. And if you take more than 150 bookings a month, Square Free still charges no subscription, while our free plan stops at 150.

Prices in this article were read from each vendor's own website between September 8 and September 10, 2026, and they will drift, so check the vendor's page before you buy. If a flat rate fits how you are growing, start with Twizzlo's salon scheduling software and test it on the free plan.