Finally ditched the paper diary — here's what two years with Appointy has taught me
Brodie Page
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👑 VIP
Salon / Hair Studio · Stockport · 4mo ago
I tested four different booking systems back to back last year because I couldn't decide and I thought I might as well be thorough about it. Here's my genuinely unbiased breakdown for a small UK waxing salon.
Timely: Really strong on the client-facing side. The booking page looks polished and professional. The free plan is genuinely usable if you're just starting out. Downsides: the reporting is basic and customer support takes forever to respond.
Vagaro: Best calendar interface of the lot. Really intuitive if you have multiple staff. A bit pricier but the features justify it. Not great if you're a solo operator — feels like it's designed for bigger businesses.
Fresha: Still hard to beat on price (free for everything). The client marketplace gives you extra visibility. The catch is the 1.29% transaction fee on payments, which adds up if your treatments are high-value.
The one I landed on: Timely. For a solo waxing salon in a mid-size UK city, it hit the right balance of price, features, and ease of use. The SMS reminders work reliably, the deposit system is clean, and clients have said the booking experience feels professional.
Happy to answer questions if anyone wants to go deeper on any of these.
Timely: Really strong on the client-facing side. The booking page looks polished and professional. The free plan is genuinely usable if you're just starting out. Downsides: the reporting is basic and customer support takes forever to respond.
Vagaro: Best calendar interface of the lot. Really intuitive if you have multiple staff. A bit pricier but the features justify it. Not great if you're a solo operator — feels like it's designed for bigger businesses.
Fresha: Still hard to beat on price (free for everything). The client marketplace gives you extra visibility. The catch is the 1.29% transaction fee on payments, which adds up if your treatments are high-value.
The one I landed on: Timely. For a solo waxing salon in a mid-size UK city, it hit the right balance of price, features, and ease of use. The SMS reminders work reliably, the deposit system is clean, and clients have said the booking experience feels professional.
Happy to answer questions if anyone wants to go deeper on any of these.
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The no-show stats in this post match my experience almost exactly. I was losing roughly £20 a month to no-shows and cancellations before I introduced deposits. That money was just gone. Now it's protected. The maths on deposits is completely obvious once you see it.
#1
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Vagaro by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#2
Really useful breakdown — thank you. I've been sitting on the fence about SimplyBook.me for months and this has pushed me to just go and do the free trial. Will report back.
#3
I made the same switch and I'd add one thing: tell your clients it's for their benefit, not yours. Frame it as 'you can now book at any time of day without having to wait for me to respond'. That framing works really well and it's also genuinely true.
#4