Hair salon booking software in Singapore: the 2026 comparison

Singapore is the market the global salon software comparisons quietly get wrong. Half the names those articles recommend, Booksy, Vagaro, Square Appointments, do not actually operate here, and most of what ranks for "salon booking software Singapore" is written by a vendor placing itself first. Add a national SMS registry that blocks foreign senders, GST at 9 %, and pricing pages that show a different currency to every visitor, and a Singapore salon owner needs a comparison written for Singapore, not a translated American listicle.

This comparison is written for a hair salon in Singapore, whether your chairs are in an Orchard mall, a CBD basement, a heartland HDB shopfront or a Joo Chiat shophouse. 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 state which currency each page actually displayed to us, and we open the detailed reviews with the honest limits of our own product for a Singapore salon, starting with the fact that our reminders go by email only and our subscription is billed in euros.

What changes when you buy salon software in Singapore

Four corrections to apply before trusting any comparison written for the US, the UK or Australia.

The currency, and the geo-localised pricing page. Most international vendors' pricing pages show whatever currency matches the visitor's location. Checking from Europe in October 2026, Fresha showed us euros with a 20 % sales-tax note that is not Singapore's GST, and its Singapore pricing address, fresha.com/en-sg/pricing, returned an error page rather than an SGD grid. The figures in this article are what each page displayed to us, with the currency named every time: open every pricing page from your salon and get your exact Singapore price in writing before you sign. The local vendors, to their credit, publish plain SGD prices.

SMS is regulated here, and foreign senders lose. Since 31 January 2023, any organisation sending SMS with an alphanumeric sender ID to Singapore numbers must register that ID with the SMS Sender ID Registry, using a Singapore UEN, per IMDA's factsheet on the full SSIR regime; unregistered IDs were channelled to the header "Likely-SCAM". A foreign software company with no Singapore entity cannot simply flip SMS on: Timely's own help centre states that, as a foreign company, it cannot meet the registration requirements and that SMS sent from Timely is blocked in Singapore. This is why reminder channels in Singapore have shifted to WhatsApp and email, and why "unlimited SMS included" claims in global comparisons deserve one hard question: delivered to +65 numbers, under what sender ID?

GST at 9 %. Singapore's GST rate has been 9 % since 1 January 2024, and GST registration is compulsory only once taxable turnover passes S$1 million, per IRAS. Most independent hair salons sit below that threshold, are not GST-registered, and cannot claim anything back, so compare software on the final amount that leaves your account, including any GST or foreign tax the invoice carries.

Your client records and the PDPA. The Personal Data Protection Act applies to organisations of every size, a one-chair salon included, and it makes appointing a data protection officer mandatory even if that officer is you. Your client list, contact details, colour notes and visit history are personal data your salon is accountable for, whichever platform stores them. "Where is the data hosted, can I export everything, who can access it" are compliance questions, not just hygiene, and a vendor that cannot answer them plainly is telling you something.

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;
• messaging costs: what a confirmation and a reminder really cost per appointment;
• the contract: can you leave next month, and with how much notice?
• reminder channels: email, SMS, WhatsApp, and whether they actually work in Singapore;
• your data: can you export your client list when you leave?

Never confuse the different kinds of cost: the monthly subscription, a commission on every booking, a new-client fee charged when a marketplace brings someone new, and per-message or payment fees metered on top. 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 SGD, in our guide to the real cost of salon software in Singapore.

All figures below were checked in October 2026 on each vendor's official website. Prices change, and pages geo-localise: always confirm on the pricing page, from Singapore, before you sign.

Comparison table: what Singapore hair salons actually pay

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

ViteUneCoupe: free and commission-free, with two limits a Singapore salon should weigh first

The honest limits before anything else. Reminders go by email only: no SMS and no WhatsApp, on any plan. In a market where WhatsApp is the default way Singapore clients expect to hear from a business, that is a genuine gap, and Idle Booking in particular handles it better. And the subscription is billed in euros, not SGD: the paid plan will move slightly with the exchange rate, and your card may add a small foreign-currency fee. At 29 € excl. tax a month the sums involved are small, but you should know before the first statement, not after. There is also no payments handling at all: no PayNow, no POS, no deposits, no inventory, no payroll, and no multi-location features. ViteUneCoupe manages appointments, not money.

What you get, permanently free: unlimited online bookings with 0 % commission, a personalised booking page for your hair salon, your service catalogue, staff schedules, your client database and your calendar. It is a real free plan, not a trial: no card details, no countdown, no booking cap. Singapore +65 numbers 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; until it ships, reminders and a clear cancellation policy are what cut no-shows in a Singapore salon today.

Who is it for? The solo stylist or small salon that wants 24/7 online booking with zero commission, zero fixed cost and no contract, keeps PayNow and its card terminal exactly as they are, and accepts email rather than WhatsApp reminders.

Idle Booking: the local pick with WhatsApp reminders at cost

Idle Booking is Singapore-built, and it shows in the two places that matter most here: plain SGD pricing and WhatsApp as the native reminder channel. Checked on idlebooking.com's pricing page in October 2026: a Solo plan at S$15 per month billed yearly (S$18 billed monthly), presented as a limited offer for the first 500 stores, and a Grow plan at S$89 per month billed yearly (S$99 monthly) that adds payroll, inventory, packages, memberships, loyalty and marketing automation, plus a quote-based Custom tier. No commission, no setup fee, no contract, and a 7-day trial without a card.

The WhatsApp model is unusually clean: messages are billed by Meta directly to your own WhatsApp number at Meta's rates, roughly S$0.02 for a confirmation or reminder, with no markup from Idle and a spending cap you set. At that price, reminding 300 appointments a month costs around S$6 in messages. One thing to know when you research them: Idle also publishes "best salon software in Singapore" rankings on its own site that place Idle first, which is its right, but read those pages as marketing, not journalism. The product underneath is a serious local contender.

Who is it for? The Singapore salon that wants WhatsApp confirmations and reminders at cost, SGD billing and local support, and is comfortable with a yearly-billed price for the best rate.

LovingBooking: the cheapest paid plan in SGD, email reminders only

LovingBooking is the minimalist of the local pair. Checked on lovingbooking.com's pricing page in October 2026: a genuinely free plan with 1 staff member, 1 location and 30 bookings a month, and a Plus plan at S$12 per month with unlimited staff, locations and bookings, PayNow QR payments that go directly to you with zero transaction fees, session packages and a custom booking domain. No commission, month to month, cancel anytime.

The free plan's 30-bookings cap makes it a real test drive rather than a long-term home for a working salon chair: a stylist doing six clients a day passes 30 bookings in a week. And reminders are email only, like ours. But at S$12 a month for unlimited bookings with PayNow built in, the Plus plan is the cheapest SGD-priced paid plan we verified anywhere in this comparison.

Who is it for? The budget-conscious salon that wants SGD billing, PayNow collection and simple online booking, and does not need WhatsApp or SMS reminders.

Fresha: the biggest marketplace in Singapore, confirm your SGD figures

Fresha runs the dominant international salon marketplace here, with around 156 verified hair salons listed on its Singapore hair salon marketplace when we checked in October 2026. For a salon chasing walk-in-replacement traffic, that audience is Fresha's real asset, and no local tool matches it.

The pricing is where a Singapore owner has to do their own homework. 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 geo-localised to our location and showed an Independent plan at 14.95 € per month and a Team plan at 9.95 € per member per month, with a 20 % sales-tax note that is not Singapore's GST; the dedicated Singapore pricing address returned an error page, so we could not verify any SGD subscription figure, and neither can any listicle that quotes one without a date. The structure we can verify from the page shown to us: 20 free SMS or WhatsApp messages a month then roughly €0.10 per text, online payment processing at 1.29 % + €0.15, and no minimum commitment. The fee on brand-new marketplace clients was shown as "Free" when we checked, a policy that has changed more than once over the years and that some third-party writeups still describe as a 20 % first-booking fee: get the current Singapore terms in writing before you rely on either version. If the meters or the marketplace model give you pause, our guide to Fresha alternatives for Singapore hair salons maps the options honestly.

Who is it for? The salon that wants marketplace visibility in front of Singapore's largest beauty-booking audience, has confirmed its SGD prices in writing, and will watch its message and payment meters.

Setmore: cheap and generalist, priced in US dollars

Setmore is not salon software, it is appointment software for every kind of business, and that is both its price advantage and its limit. Checked on setmore.com's pricing page in October 2026, in US dollars: a free plan for up to 4 users with unlimited appointments and one email reminder per booking, and a Pro plan at US$5 per user per month billed annually that adds SMS reminders, two-way calendar sync and removal of Setmore branding, cancel anytime.

For a Singapore salon the two checks are obvious by now: the billing is in USD, so your card converts every month, and the Pro plan's SMS reminders deserve the SSIR question before you pay for them: ask Setmore in writing how its texts reach +65 numbers and under what sender ID. There is no salon-specific depth, no colour history, no rebooking prompts, and no marketplace. As a free diary for a solo stylist who mainly needs a booking link, it works; as salon software, it is thin.

Who is it for? The solo stylist who wants a free, simple booking page from a big generalist vendor and does not need salon features or local billing.

Timely and Shortcuts: strong products with a Singapore problem

Two respected names from our other market editions deserve a Singapore-specific warning. Timely, the hair-salon specialist born in New Zealand, prices per bookable staff member; when we checked gettimely.com/pricing in October 2026 the page rendered no retrievable price grid for us and we could not confirm any SGD figure. More decisive: Timely's own help centre states that SMS from Timely is blocked in Singapore because, as a foreign company, it cannot meet the sender-ID registration requirements. Timely without SMS is Timely minus one of its headline strengths, so if you shortlist it anyway, budget around email reminders and get that in writing. Shortcuts, the Australian front-desk veteran, has no Singapore edition: its region selector, checked on shortcutssoftware.com in October 2026, offers Global, AUS/NZ, North America and United Kingdom, and it publishes no prices. In Singapore it is represented by the local consultancy Serixx, which also publishes no pricing, so everything, cost, contract, support and messaging, comes out of a sales conversation. Ask for the full monthly figure, the billing currency, the exit terms and a test data export in an email before any demo charm takes effect.

WESS and Zenoti: the heavyweights, priced by quote

Two more names come up in Singapore shortlists for larger operations. WESS is a Singapore-and-Malaysia platform that says it has served 1,100+ salons since 2012, with POS, packages and commission handling aimed at established multi-staff businesses; it does not publish pricing, so every figure you read about it second-hand is unverified, including by us. Zenoti is enterprise software for chains, also quote-only. Neither can be compared from a website, and for a one-to-five-chair hair salon both are usually more machine than the job needs. If you are big enough to need them, make the sales team compete on paper: total monthly cost in SGD, GST treatment, contract length, and what a full client-data export looks like.

Not available in Singapore: the names to cross off imported listicles

A surprising share of "best salon software" articles aimed at Singapore readers recommend tools you cannot actually buy here. As checked in October 2026: Square Appointments is out, because Square's own help centre lists card payment acceptance as available in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France and Spain and states it does not support payment processing outside those countries, per Square's international availability page. Booksy, Vagaro and Mangomint do not list Singapore among the countries they serve on their own sites, and Phorest, excellent in its home markets, does not name Singapore among its markets either. If a comparison recommends any of these to a Singapore salon without addressing availability, it was not written for you, and the rest of its advice deserves the same scepticism.

How to choose: four Singapore salon situations

You work alone. Your priorities are zero fixed cost, your own client list and no contract. The three real zero-dollar starting points are ViteUneCoupe's free plan (unlimited bookings, 0 % commission, email reminders), LovingBooking's free plan (capped at 30 bookings a month) and Setmore's free plan (generalist, USD). The trade-offs between staying free and paying are the subject of our guide to free versus paid salon booking software in Singapore.

You run a heartland shopfront on tight margins. SGD billing and predictable costs matter more than feature depth. LovingBooking Plus at S$12 and Idle Solo at S$15 to S$18 a month are the two verified low-cost SGD plans; Idle adds WhatsApp reminders at about S$0.02 each, which for most heartland salons is the single feature most worth paying for.

You run a small team with colour and treatment work in Orchard or the CBD. Longer, costlier appointments make no-shows expensive and make reminder quality and deposits strategic. Compare Idle Grow (S$89 a month with packages, memberships and marketing) against Fresha with your headcount's per-member maths confirmed in writing, and decide whether you want marketplace exposure next to your competitors or your own independent booking page.

You are leaving another system. Whatever you choose, confirm in writing that you can export your complete client list, contact details, history and notes included, do a test export early, and plan the move between appointment cycles. Under the PDPA those records are your salon's responsibility whichever platform holds them, and our guide to switching salon booking software in Singapore gives you the step-by-step, including what to do about future appointments already sitting in the old diary.

Frequently asked questions

How much does hair salon booking software cost per month in Singapore?

As checked in October 2026: from S$0 (ViteUneCoupe's free plan, LovingBooking's free plan, Setmore's free plan) through LovingBooking Plus at S$12 and Idle Booking Solo at S$15 to S$18, up to Idle Grow at S$89 per month. Fresha prices per team member but showed us euros, not SGD; WESS, Zenoti and Shortcuts are quote-only. Add messaging meters and payment fees where they apply.

Can booking software send SMS reminders in Singapore?

Only if the sender complies with IMDA's SMS Sender ID Registry, which since 31 January 2023 requires alphanumeric sender IDs to be registered with a Singapore UEN. Foreign platforms without a Singapore entity struggle: Timely's own help centre says its SMS is blocked here. That is why Singapore salons increasingly use WhatsApp reminders (Idle Booking) or email reminders (ViteUneCoupe, LovingBooking) instead.

Is there genuinely free salon booking software in Singapore?

Yes, three different kinds. ViteUneCoupe's free plan has unlimited online bookings with 0 % commission and no trial clock, and earns money only when salons upgrade to the paid email-reminder plan. LovingBooking's free plan is free forever but capped at 1 staff member and 30 bookings a month. Setmore's free plan covers up to 4 users in USD. Fresha no longer has a free plan, only a 7-day trial.

Why is Booksy or Square Appointments not an option for my salon?

Because they do not operate in Singapore. Square's own help centre lists the eight countries where it supports payment acceptance, and Singapore is not one of them; Booksy, Vagaro and Mangomint do not list Singapore among their markets on their own sites, as checked in October 2026. Imported "best of" lists that recommend them to Singapore salons have not checked availability.

Do the advertised prices include GST?

Check each invoice. Singapore GST has been 9 % since 1 January 2024 per IRAS, but foreign vendors bill from abroad under varying tax treatments, and local vendors' advertised SGD prices may be shown with or without GST. Since most independent salons are below the S$1 million registration threshold and cannot claim GST back, always compare the final amount that leaves your account.

Does ViteUneCoupe work for a hair salon in Singapore?

Yes, with two limits stated upfront: reminders are sent by email only, not SMS or WhatsApp, and the subscription is billed in euros, so the paid plan moves slightly with the exchange rate. The free plan works normally for Singapore salons: unlimited online bookings, 0 % commission, a personalised booking page, client database and staff schedules, with +65 numbers handled normally. The paid Standard plan is 29 € excl. tax per month with no commitment.