You need a booking system when you want clients to book themselves on a website, when more than one person works in the salon, or when you want to take card deposits. When you book your clients yourself – by phone, on Instagram, in the chair – you need an appointment book that keeps the schedule and writes the reminders. The first is rented monthly. The second can be bought once.
I should say up front that I am not neutral: Reeminder is my appointment book with reminders, and I make it. Which is exactly why this post has a list of what an appointment book can’t do and a system can.
What a booking system does that an appointment book doesn’t
- Online booking. The client picks a service and a time on your page and the booking writes itself. This is the main reason systems exist.
- A marketplace. Fresha, Booksy or Square show you to people searching for “hairdresser near me”. They bring new clients – and take a fee or a commission for it.
- More people. Rosters for several chairs, who is in when, who served whom.
- Payments and deposits. Card at booking, forfeitable deposits, gift vouchers.
- Till and stock. Some bundle a point of sale, colour stock, loyalty points.
If you nodded at two or more, stop reading, open the price comparison and pick a system. This post is for the people who nodded at zero or one.
What a one-chair business actually does
Bookings come by phone, by Instagram message, or get agreed at the till. Clients are mostly regulars. The work with the diary is: write the appointment down, remind the day before, occasionally move one. When I asked my wife what she was missing in her old system, she said nothing – it had too much. For a monthly fee she used two features out of twenty: the calendar and the texts. And paid for every text separately.
That isn’t the systems’ fault. They are built for a salon that grows, and there they make sense. A salon that doesn’t want to grow pays for someone else’s needs.
Five questions that settle it
- How many new clients a month walk in “off the street”, without a referral? Under five: online booking will bring you almost nothing. Over twenty: a marketplace listing pays for itself.
- Who writes the appointments down? If it’s only you, a system adds a website your clients have to learn to visit.
- Do clients want to click, or to text you? Ask ten. The answer is usually: I’ll text you.
- How many of them pay a deposit by card? If none, the payments feature is worth nothing to you.
- How many features of your current system did you use last month? Count them. If it’s two, you are paying for eighteen others.
What both routes cost
I copied every figure from the vendors’ own pricing pages on 11 August 2026; the full comparison, with a link to each page, is on What appointment reminder texts cost.
| Booking system | Appointment book with reminders (Reeminder) | |
|---|---|---|
| For the system | $5 (Setmore, annual) to $49 (Square Plus) a month; $27 (Acuity) and $29.99 (Booksy) in between | €15 once |
| Per text | Included on most plans; Fresha charges per text after 20 a month | Nothing from us; the text goes on your own phone plan |
| Year one | $60 to $588 | €15 |
| Where your clients live | On the vendor’s servers | On your phone; the app has no internet access |
| When you stop paying | The system switches off; data per their terms | Nothing happens, it is yours |
Two things to be fair about. Setmore Pro at $5 a month is a genuinely cheap full booking system, and Square has a $0 tier if you can live within it. If you need what they do, they are good value. The difference isn’t in tens of percent; it is in whether you pay at all after the first time. That is the whole reason I built Reeminder as a one-time purchase and not as another subscription.
Where an appointment book isn’t enough
Fairness to the other side. An app on your phone won’t give you:
- a page where the client books herself – when clients start asking for it, you need a system, or at least its free tier;
- a second chair – Reeminder is one person’s book; the day you have a colleague, you need a shared roster;
- card at booking – deposits are done by bank transfer;
- texts that send themselves on iPhone – Apple allows no app to do that; on iPhone Reeminder prepares the message and you confirm it with one tap.
If you need one of these four, you can pair an appointment book with a system’s free tier (Setmore, Square and Fresha all have one, with email reminders). If you need two or more, buy a system and don’t look back.
How it went for us
My wife books her clients herself and doesn’t want that to change; she has her regulars and doesn’t want more. She was paying for a booking system because of the reminders. Reeminder does only that: a calendar, a text for every appointment that it helps her send from her own number, and a backup to a file that is hers. She uses it every day, and I no longer have to hear about something charging her every month. Try it free for 14 days, then €15 once.
Sources
- What appointment reminder texts cost: the price comparison – Setmore, SuperSaaS, Acuity, Booksy, Square Appointments, Fresha; prices copied on 11 August 2026 with a link to each pricing page.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between a booking system and an appointment book with reminders?
A booking system is a website where the client picks and reserves a slot herself; you pay monthly to keep it running. An appointment book with reminders is an app on your phone: you enter the booking, the app writes a text for it and helps you send it. It does two things – overview and reminders – which is why it can be cheap, or a one-time purchase.
Do I need online booking?
Only if your clients want it and you want strangers to book without talking to you. Most one-chair businesses have regulars who book by phone, by Instagram message or in the chair. Online booking adds nothing there.
What does a booking system cost for one stylist?
As of the vendors' pricing pages on 11 August 2026, the cheapest plan that sends text reminders runs from $5 per month (Setmore, billed annually) through $27 (Acuity) to $29.99 (Booksy) and $49 (Square Plus). That is $60 to $588 a year. Reeminder is €15 once; the texts go on your own phone plan.
Can I move from an appointment book to a system later, when I grow?
Yes, and that is the right direction. An app that exports your clients (Reeminder backs up to one file you keep) doesn't hold your data hostage. The other way round is harder: a system exports what it allows, and the subscription keeps running until you cancel it.
Want the app to write the reminders for you?
Reeminder is an appointment book that prepares a text for every booking and helps you send it from your own number. Free for 14 days, then €15 once – not every month.
Try Reeminder free