Hair salon booking software in New Zealand: the 2026 comparison

Search "hair salon booking software NZ" and what ranks is mostly software directories and listicles written by vendors with something to sell: prices in US dollars that never say so, American tools no New Zealand salon actually uses, and not a word about GST, the Privacy Act 2020 or whether the company will answer the phone in your time zone. Which is odd, because New Zealand is not a backwater of this market. It is the home of two of the biggest names in salon software anywhere: Timely was founded in Dunedin and Kitomba in Wellington. A Kiwi salon owner is choosing between world-class local software and global platforms that may not even operate here.

This comparison is written for a hair salon in New Zealand, whether your chairs are in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin, Queenstown or a smaller town. It is published on the blog of ViteUneCoupe, a free booking system for hair salons that takes no commission, so we are not neutral either. The difference: we checked every claim on each vendor's own website in October 2026, we say which currency each page actually showed us, and we open the detailed reviews with the honest limits of our own product for a New Zealand salon, starting with the fact that our subscription is billed in euros and that our reminders go by email, not text.

One structural finding before we start. Two names that American and Australian listicles push hard are simply not sold here, as far as their own websites show: Square's published availability list does not include New Zealand at all, and Booksy's own country list omits New Zealand too. Phorest lists nine countries on its site and New Zealand is not among them. We cover all three briefly below so you do not waste a trial signup on them.

What changes when you buy software in New Zealand

Five corrections to apply before trusting any comparison written for another market.

The currency. Pricing pages geo-localise: they show a different currency depending on where the visitor appears to be. Checking from Europe in October 2026, Fresha showed us euros, and Simple Salon and Ovatu showed us US dollars, with no New Zealand dollar grid we could confirm. A "$20" that turns out to be US$20 is a materially bigger number in New Zealand dollars before your bank adds a foreign-currency margin. Every figure in this article states the currency the vendor actually displayed to us; where we could not confirm an NZD price, we say so. Before you sign anything, get the price in New Zealand dollars, in writing.

GST. GST in New Zealand is 15 %, per Inland Revenue, and business software prices are normally advertised excluding GST, so add 15 % to know what leaves the account. If your salon's turnover reaches the NZ$60,000 registration threshold you must register, and you can generally claim the GST on software back, but it still changes your monthly cash flow. A vendor billing you from overseas in a foreign currency makes the GST treatment of the invoice a genuine question for your accountant.

Messaging rules. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 covers commercial electronic messages, email and text alike: you need consent, accurate sender identification, and a working unsubscribe facility, as the Department of Internal Affairs' spam guidance sets out. A factual appointment reminder is a different animal from a promotional blast, but the moment a message markets an offer, the full rules apply, and the onus of proving consent sits with the sender. Good software should handle the distinction for you.

Your client records. Here is where New Zealand differs sharply from Australia: the Privacy Act 2020 applies to every business, including sole traders and small businesses, with no turnover-based exemption. Your client database, colour notes and visit history are personal information, and the salon holding them carries the obligations regardless of size. So "where is my data hosted, can I export it, who can see it" are compliance questions in New Zealand, not just hygiene.

Time zone and the calendar. New Zealand runs on NZST (UTC+12) and NZDT (UTC+13), and unlike Australia, daylight saving applies nationwide, from the last Sunday of September to the first Sunday of April. That simplicity is a small gift: what matters more is whether an overseas vendor's support hours overlap with yours, and whether the software handles New Zealand public holidays, regional anniversary days and Matariki without you fighting the settings every year.

How we compared the software

Seven criteria, applied identically to everyone:

• the subscription price, in the currency the vendor actually showed us, with the date we checked;
• commission taken on bookings;
• new-client acquisition fees charged when a marketplace sends you a client;
• payment processing fees, where payments are part of the product;
• the contract: can you leave next month, and with how much notice?
• appointment reminders: email, SMS, and how many are included;
• your data: can you export your client list when you leave?

Never confuse the four kinds of cost: the monthly subscription, a commission on every booking, a new-client fee charged when a marketplace brings someone new, and payment processing fees on money taken through the platform. A tool advertised with "no hidden fees" can still earn plenty from the last two. We break the full maths down, with worked examples in New Zealand dollars, in our guide to the real cost of salon software in New Zealand.

All figures below were checked in October 2026 on each vendor's official website, from outside New Zealand, which is exactly why the currency column matters. Prices change: always confirm on the pricing page, from New Zealand, before you sign.

Comparison table: what New Zealand hair salons actually pay

Now the detail, starting with our own product so you know exactly where we stand.

ViteUneCoupe: free and commission-free, but billed in euros

The free plan of ViteUneCoupe includes unlimited online bookings with 0 % commission, permanently: a personalised booking page for your hair salon, your service catalogue with photos, staff schedules, your client database, your calendar and business hours. It is a real free plan, not a trial: no card details, no countdown. New Zealand mobile numbers in +64 format work normally in the client database, and the interface exists in English and French.

The Standard plan, from 29 € excl. tax per month with no commitment, adds automatic emails (booking confirmation, a reminder before the appointment, a thank-you afterwards) and calendar sync in ICS format with Apple, Google or Outlook calendars. Anti no-show protection by bank card hold is also announced, coming soon in a Standard + Anti No-Show plan at 49 € excl. tax per month.

And the limits that matter for a New Zealand salon, stated plainly:

• The subscription is billed in euros, not New Zealand dollars, so the exact amount on your statement moves with the exchange rate and your bank may add a foreign-currency fee. At 29 € a month the sums are small, but if you want an invoice in New Zealand dollars from a New Zealand company, Timely, Kitomba, Epical and baxus fit that requirement and ViteUneCoupe does not.
• No SMS reminders, on any plan: reminders go by email. New Zealand clients are used to appointment texts, and the local heavyweights include or meter them, so that is a genuine advantage of theirs.
• No payments: no point of sale, no card reader, no EFTPOS integration, no online deposits. ViteUneCoupe manages appointments, not money. If the register and the diary must live in one system, Kitomba, Shortcuts or Epical are built that way.

Who is it for? The stylist or salon that wants 24/7 online booking with zero commission, zero fixed cost and no contract, keeps its existing EFTPOS terminal, and is happy with email rather than text reminders.

Timely: the Dunedin-born specialist, priced per staff member

Timely is the closest thing New Zealand hairdressing has to a default choice: founded in Dunedin, hair-and-beauty specific, with a polished calendar, rebooking prompts and consultation tools. Checked on gettimely.com/pricing in October 2026: three plans, Build, Elevate and Innovate, billed per bookable staff member per month, and the page's own embedded offer data confirms New Zealand pricing starting at NZ$42 per staff member, alongside separate grids for Australia, the UK and the US. Each plan includes a monthly SMS credit allowance that grows with the tier; we could not pin the exact current credit numbers on the public page, so confirm them on the pricing page before you budget.

The honest caution is the arithmetic, not the product: per-staff pricing means the bill grows with every stylist you put on the calendar. NZ$42 excluding GST is a contained cost for a solo stylist in Ponsonby; multiplied across a six-chair Christchurch salon, it is a serious line in the budget, before payment processing. We compare the options in detail in Timely alternatives for New Zealand hair salons.

Who is it for? The salon that wants hair-specific software from a company that genuinely lives here, with SMS built in, and accepts per-staff pricing.

Kitomba: the Wellington veteran that will not tell you the price online

Kitomba has been in New Zealand and Australian salons for over two decades and is strong exactly where spreadsheets fail: targets per stylist, rebooking rates, stock, benchmarking against other salons. Checked on kitomba.com/pricing in October 2026: no prices are published at all. There are four packages, Lite PLUS, Grow PLUS, Pro PLUS and Enterprise, priced per user, with everything going through a questionnaire or a demo. The page advertises a 20 % discount on software fees for salons that adopt Kitomba Pay, its integrated payments, describes complimentary SMS as a limited-time promotion, and lists data migration, live training and some integrations as extra charges. Support is local: there is a dedicated New Zealand freephone.

Quote-only pricing is not a scandal, but it means you cannot budget from the website, a "complimentary" SMS allowance flagged as a promotion deserves the question of what it costs when the promotion ends, and a discount tied to the payment product deserves the other question: what do the processing costs add per year against the terminal you already rent? Our full breakdown is in Kitomba alternatives for New Zealand hair salons.

Who is it for? The established salon that wants deep NZ-specific reporting and benchmarking with local support, and is comfortable negotiating its price on a call.

Epical and baxus: the smaller NZ-built options

Two more New Zealand products deserve a place on a local shortlist, and neither appears in the overseas listicles.

Epical, from a Papakura, Auckland company that states it is 100 % NZ owned and has been writing business software for over 30 years, is one of the rare vendors anywhere publishing a plain New Zealand dollar grid. Checked on epical.co.nz in October 2026: Starter at NZ$10 per week per store (one staff column), Silver at NZ$17 (two columns), Gold at NZ$35 (unlimited columns and users), all excluding GST, paid monthly, with point of sale, client database, stock control and SMS confirmations included, a premium support add-on on top of standard email support, and a 14-day trial. The look is more traditional than the glossy internationals, but the pricing is the most transparent in this comparison.

baxus is the simple, low-cost New Zealand option; its own pricing page describes Kitomba as its "big sister software". Checked on baxus.com/pricing in October 2026: $8 per week per open appointment-book column, with online booking, reminders and a point of sale included, no lock-in contracts and a 30-day free trial with no card required. One caveat from our vantage point: the page did not state a currency code, so confirm the NZD figure when you sign up.

Who are they for? Epical for the salon that wants a long-established NZ vendor, NZD-transparent pricing and a till in the same box; baxus for the small salon that wants something deliberately simpler and cheaper than Kitomba from the same family tree.

Fresha: big marketplace, but confirm your NZD price yourself

Fresha runs the largest consumer marketplace in this comparison and lists New Zealand salons on it. The "free forever" era is over: every business starts a 7-day trial and moves to a subscription per bookable team member. When we checked fresha.com/pricing in October 2026, the page localised to our region and displayed euros (an Independent plan at 14.95 € per month, a Team plan at 9.95 € per member per month), and the New Zealand locale version of the pricing page was gone from the site, so we could not confirm an official New Zealand dollar grid at all: open the page from your salon and get the NZD figure in writing. The structure we can verify: subscription per bookable person, 20 free messages per member per month and then a per-message charge, metered marketing emails, processing fees on payments, and no minimum commitment. The same page currently shows the one-time fee on brand-new marketplace clients as "Free", a policy that has changed more than once over the years, so get the current terms in writing too.

Fresha's strengths are real: polished software, marketplace visibility, per-member pricing that stays low for a duo. The meters are where a busy salon's bill grows: a confirmation plus a reminder for 300 appointments a month is far past the free allowance. Full detail in Fresha alternatives for New Zealand hair salons.

Who is it for? The small team that wants marketplace visibility and per-member pricing, has confirmed its prices in New Zealand dollars, and will watch its message meter.

Shortcuts, Simple Salon, Ovatu: the Australians serving New Zealand

Three Australian-built systems sell across the Tasman, with very different levels of New Zealand commitment.

Shortcuts, the Brisbane front-desk veteran, treats Australia and New Zealand as one region: its site has an AUS/NZ edition and a dedicated New Zealand freephone, 0800 555 650, checked on shortcutssoftware.com in October 2026. No pricing is published anywhere; everything goes through a booked demo, and contract terms are not disclosed online, so ask specifically about the minimum term and notice period before signing.

Simple Salon prices per operator across three plans, Starter, Pro and Max, with the price capped at the 7-operator rate however large the team gets. Checked on simplesalon.com/how-much in October 2026: the region selector explicitly includes Australia/New Zealand, but from our location the page showed US dollars ($20, $34 and $41 per operator per month), so read the grid from New Zealand before budgeting. Pro includes 200 SMS credits per operator per month and Max 300, Starter is pay-as-you-go per message, and there are no contracts, no sign-up fees and a 14-day trial.

Ovatu is popular with independents well beyond hair. Checked on ovatu.com/pricing in October 2026: two plans, Neat and Loaded, priced per business with a small per-extra-staff charge, shown to us in US dollars (Neat US$25 plus US$7 per additional staff member, Loaded US$38 plus US$10), SMS at US$0.04 per message, a 30-day free trial and no lock-in. Whether you are billed in NZD is exactly the question to settle before you subscribe.

Who are they for? Shortcuts for the salon that wants a full front-desk suite with trans-Tasman support and does not mind a sales process; Simple Salon for the small team that wants capped per-operator pricing with SMS credits and no contracts; Ovatu for the independent who wants a lot of product for a flat price and will pin down the currency.

Square, Booksy and Phorest: the names that do not serve New Zealand

This section exists because overseas listicles keep recommending these three to Kiwi readers.

Square Appointments cannot be used by a New Zealand salon at all: Square's own international availability page, checked in October 2026, lists card acceptance as available in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France and Spain, and New Zealand is not on the list. Any "best salon software NZ" article recommending Square has not checked.

Booksy shows no sign of operating here either: its own help-centre country list, as surfaced in October 2026, runs to sixteen countries without New Zealand, and the site has no New Zealand edition. If that changes, it will say so on booksy.com first.

Phorest, the salon-dedicated platform from Ireland, lists nine markets on its site, from Ireland and the UK to Australia and the UAE, and New Zealand is not among them; it publishes no prices (quote-only, no free trial, per-business pricing with unlimited staff). A serious product for bigger teams in the countries it serves; if you want it in New Zealand, ask them directly whether they will take you on and in which currency they would bill.

How to choose: four New Zealand salon situations

You work alone, or you rent a chair. Your priorities are zero fixed cost, your own client list and no contract. ViteUneCoupe's free plan is the zero-dollar starting point; baxus and Epical's Starter tier are the cheapest NZD-billed steps up, and Timely the premium solo choice. The real trade-off between a free plan and a paid one is the subject of our guide to free versus paid salon booking software in New Zealand. Chair renters should make sure the calendar and the client records belong to them, not to the salon's account.

You run a small team, two to five chairs. Per-person pricing decides your bill: Timely and Fresha charge per bookable staff member, Simple Salon per operator, baxus per column, and the gap widens with every hire. Decide whether you want marketplace exposure (Fresha) or your own independent booking page (ViteUneCoupe, Timely, Simple Salon, Ovatu, Epical), and whether SMS credits are worth paying for every month.

You run a busy salon with premium tickets. Kitomba and Shortcuts are the local-support shortlist, Timely's top tier the polished alternative. Both of the first two will make you sit through a demo before quoting; demand every price in New Zealand dollars excluding and including GST, every add-on, the SMS rates after any promotion ends, and the payment processing costs in writing, and weigh how much of it buys features your front desk will really use.

You are leaving another system. Whatever you choose, confirm in writing that you can export your complete client list, do a test export early, and plan the move between appointment cycles. Our guide to switching salon booking software in New Zealand gives you the step-by-step, including what to do about future appointments already sitting in the old diary.

Frequently asked questions

Is there truly free hair salon booking software in New Zealand?

Yes, but the field is thin. ViteUneCoupe's free plan is a real free plan: unlimited online bookings, 0 % commission, a booking page, client database and staff schedules, with no trial clock. Fresha no longer has a free plan, only a 7-day trial, and Square's free tier is irrelevant because Square does not operate in New Zealand. Treat any directory still listing "free forever" tools with suspicion and check the vendor's own pricing page.

How much does salon booking software cost per month in New Zealand?

As checked in October 2026: from $0 (ViteUneCoupe's free plan) through baxus at $8 a week per column and Epical from NZ$10 a week per store, to Timely from NZ$42 per staff member per month, with Fresha priced per team member (euros shown to us, NZD unconfirmed) and Kitomba and Shortcuts quote-only. Add 15 % GST to advertised business prices, then SMS metering and any payment processing on top.

Which salon software companies are from New Zealand?

Timely (founded in Dunedin) and Kitomba (Wellington) are the two NZ-born heavyweights, both now serving salons internationally. Epical (Auckland) and baxus are smaller NZ products with the most transparent local pricing in this comparison. Shortcuts, Simple Salon and Ovatu are Australian-built with trans-Tasman reach; ViteUneCoupe and Fresha are internationals.

Can I use Square Appointments for my salon in New Zealand?

No. Square's own availability page, checked in October 2026, lists the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France and Spain, and New Zealand is not among them. Recommendations of Square in "NZ" listicles are copied from American or Australian content. Booksy's own country list omits New Zealand too.

Does the Privacy Act 2020 apply to a small hair salon?

Yes. Unlike Australia's small-business exemption, the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 applies to every agency, explicitly including small businesses and sole traders. Your client records, contact details and colour notes are personal information, so choose software that tells you where data is hosted and lets you export everything you hold.

Does ViteUneCoupe work for a hair salon in New Zealand?

Yes. The free plan works for New Zealand salons: unlimited online bookings, 0 % commission, a personalised booking page, client database and staff schedules, with +64 mobile numbers handled normally. The limits to know: reminders are sent by email, not SMS, there is no payments or EFTPOS handling, and the paid Standard plan (from 29 € excl. tax per month) is billed in euros rather than New Zealand dollars.