Square Appointments for salons, barbers and spas — set up right the first time.

What does Square scheduling actually do for an appointment business?

Square Appointments is the booking side of Square: clients pick a service and a team member online at any hour, your team sees it on a shared calendar, and payment happens in the same system. Want a full website, not just a booking site? See Square’s website builder.

Square recommends that sellers on the older standalone Appointments app move to Square Point of Sale, which runs bookings as one of its modes. Products and services ring up on the same ticket, with inventory tracking.

“Square scheduling” can also mean staff shifts. Shift scheduling, timecards, tip pooling and commissions tracking are Plus and Premium features, and payroll is a separate paid add-on — see Square Payroll.

• Client profiles: preferences, birthdays, documents and images, plus forms and contracts collected at booking.
• Recurring appointments: repeat bookings for standing clients, and recurring classes with a set capacity (classes need Plus or Premium).
• Square Go: a free iOS marketplace where clients find and book beauty and personal care businesses. Square creates your profile automatically when your booking site is on (you can opt out); it doesn’t take payments yet.

How much does Square Appointments cost in 2026?

Square Appointments now lives inside Square’s three plans — Square Free, Square Plus and Square Premium — which also cover point of sale, online selling, staff tools and marketing. The table below shows Square’s published prices and rates for each.

Plus and Premium each come with a 30-day free trial, and Square says you can cancel or switch plans anytime. Features can’t be mixed between plans, and hardware is sold separately. Businesses processing over $250,000 a year can ask Square about custom pricing (Square Pro). See Square fees explained.

Is Square Appointments free? What you get on the Free plan

Yes — Square Free has no monthly subscription; you pay processing only when you take a payment. For a solo stylist or a one-chair barber that covers a lot: the booking site, unlimited calendars, reminders, deposits and prepayments, and Square Assistant. The table shows what starts at Plus and what is Premium only. Free can still add extra locations at no cost; managing bookings across them starts at Plus.

How do you require a deposit on Square Appointments?

Square gives you three ways to protect the calendar: a partial deposit at booking, prepayment for specific services, or a card on file you charge if the client cancels late or doesn’t show. Square’s published pages don’t set a standard deposit amount, so the numbers are your call. Here’s the order we work through with owners:

• 1. Match the plan to the protection. Deposits and prepayments are listed on every plan; no-show fees need Plus or Premium.
• 2. Pick the services that need it. Square sets deposits and prepayment by service, so choose the long or costly ones — color, extensions, multi-hour treatments — not every 20-minute trim.
• 3. Choose deposit, prepayment or card on file for each of those services.
• 4. Put the policy in plain words. On Plus or Premium, set the cancellation window and fee, and use Square’s automatic contracts, which go to clients when they book, so the policy is in writing before you ever charge a fee.
• 5. Test it. Book yourself as a client from a phone, Instagram and Google, and confirm the policy and payment step appear.
• 6. Train the front desk on when to waive a fee for a regular and how to charge one when it’s earned.

Is Square Plus worth it for a salon or barbershop?

Run the arithmetic first. On in-person card sales, Plus is 0.1 percentage point cheaper than Free and Premium is 0.2 points cheaper (Square’s published rates, checked October 2026). In the example below, Free is $19 a month cheaper than Plus.

On rate savings alone, Plus covers its $49 fee at about $49,000 a month in in-person card sales per location ($49 ÷ 0.1%). Premium beats Free at about $74,500 ($149 ÷ 0.2%) and beats Plus at about $100,000 ($100 ÷ 0.1%). At those volumes you’re also past the $250,000-a-year line where Square invites custom-pricing requests, so get Square’s quote and bring it to our free side-by-side cost review.

Below those lines you’re paying for features, not a better rate. If no-show fees or a waitlist recover one unpaid $75 appointment a month, the $19 gap is gone — and each $1,000 in online card payments costs $4 less on Plus. Square’s fee applies to the full amount including tax and tip, so count card tips in your volume. Square’s Tap to Pay pages list 2.6% + 15¢ without naming a plan, so confirm your rate before taking phone payments.

Is Square for salons and barbers a good fit — including nail salons and spas?

Square has dedicated pages and tools for hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, med spas, tattoo studios and day spas. Waitlists, processing time and packages start at Square Plus, and assigning chairs, stations or rooms as bookable resources is Square Premium. Here’s what Square’s feature pages list for each:

• Hair salons: processing time books clients into the downtime while a color sets, and packages let clients prepay a series of services.
• Barbershops: assign chairs and barbers, let walk-ins book the next chair from a printed front-desk QR code, and keep a waitlist. Tips take a percentage or a custom amount.
• Booth and chair renters: Square’s tattoo and piercing page describes chair rental tools for per-chair availability and collecting rent; confirm the plan and fit first.
• Nail salons: assign booths and techs, keep unlimited tech calendars, and ask online clients to prepay or leave card details.
• Med spas: stack services into one appointment, send waivers or contracts with your cancellation policy ahead of time, assign rooms or equipment, and offer Afterpay on purchases from $1 to $2,000.
• Fitness and wellness studios: recurring classes with capacity limits (Plus and Premium) and payment at booking to cover no-shows and late cancellations. Day spas: online prepayments, contracts attached to bookings, and no-show and cancellation fees. See Square for services.
• Gift cards and loyalty: gift card loads carry a 2.5% fee except on Premium, and loyalty comes with Plus and Premium. See Square marketing, loyalty and gift cards.

Square Appointments vs Acuity, GlossGenius or Calendly: how do you choose?

Other companies’ prices change, so get them from the source. Here’s our checklist for comparing booking tools:

• Are payments built in? With Square, booking, deposits, card on file and checkout share one account and one client profile. Some booking tools process payments themselves and others connect to a separate processor — ask which, and what each costs. If you only need a booking link and already take payments elsewhere, a scheduling-only tool can be the simpler choice. Square’s pet-services and recreation pages list Acuity Scheduling as an integration, so Acuity for booking with Square for payments is another option.
• What does no-show protection cost? Check which plan unlocks cancellation fees and what charging a saved card costs.
• Do you sell retail or gift cards? If products are a real slice of revenue, an all-in-one point of sale matters more than calendar features alone.
• Can you bring your history? Square names Acuity, Booker, Fresha, Vagaro, Boulevard and Squire among tools you can switch from. Client lists can be bulk-imported; past and future appointments go through Square’s data-import services.
• Who answers the phone? Square offers chat and email support on every plan; phone support runs 6am–6pm Pacific on weekdays on Plus (and Free for the first 90 days) and 24/7 on Premium. With us, you also have a Dallas / Ft. Worth number.
• Is Square the wrong fit? A medical practice that needs a records system (Square connects to EHR and EMR apps rather than replacing them), a high-volume shop where flat-rate pricing stops being cheapest, or an owner who prefers Clover, which we also sell — its Services Growth plan includes booking, reminders and no-show fees. See Square vs Clover.

What does Lone Star Payments do to set up Square Appointments?

Square accounts are Square accounts: Square handles underwriting, payouts, rates and account decisions. We add the hands-on setup work, and a real person to call afterward at (214) 838-1818.

Square’s implementation page (checked October 2026) lists its own on-site setup in a short list of cities, none in Texas, and says on-site help elsewhere may carry travel fees. Square also sells onboarding and appointment-migration services, priced by quote through its sales team. We install and train on-site across Dallas / Ft. Worth and set up remotely with a live specialist statewide. See Square setup and support or take our find-your-solution quiz.

• Plan and hardware: Free, Plus or Premium based on your real volume, plus the right Square hardware or Tap to Pay.
• Service menu: services, durations, prices, modifiers, taxes and who performs what.
• Booking rules: deposits, prepayment, cancellation policy, reminders and tipping.
• Team permissions: who sees the full calendar, issues refunds or waives a fee (custom permission sets need Plus or Premium).
• Booking channels: your booking site, Instagram, Facebook and Google buttons, and a front-desk QR code.
• Data import and go-live: client lists from your old system where Square supports it, staff training and launch-day help.

Frequently asked questions

Square and related marks are trademarks of Block, Inc., used here to identify the products Lone Star Payments offers. Square pricing and features described on this page are Square’s published information as of October 2026 and can change — confirm current terms when you sign up.