SalonIQ alternatives for hair salons in Ireland: the honest 2026 guide

If you run a hair salon in the Republic of Ireland, you have probably seen SalonIQ's marketing by now. Its Irish site, saloniq.ie, opens with "Ireland's No.1 Salon Software For Salons & Clinics", says it is trusted by over 1,000 salons in Ireland, and lists an Irish office at 6 Main Street, Dundrum, Dublin 14, all checked in October 2026. The pitch is confident, the feature list is long, and the headline price, €47 per month, is at least a real number on a public page, which is more than some rivals manage.

What you will not find, anywhere, is much independent writing about SalonIQ for Irish salons. Phorest and Fresha have been compared to death; SalonIQ has review-site listings and its own marketing, and very little in between. So this guide does the homework: everything stated about SalonIQ below was checked on SalonIQ's own websites in October 2026, with the exact source named, and we say plainly when a figure is simply not published. The alternatives that follow are priced the same way, in euros where the vendor publishes euros.

One disclosure before we start. This is the blog of ViteUneCoupe, a free salon booking system with no commission, so we are an interested party. The discipline we offer in exchange is the same as in our guide to Phorest alternatives for Irish hair salons: verified claims, dated checks, and an honest account of where our own tool is not a like-for-like replacement.

Who is SalonIQ, actually?

SalonIQ markets itself hard at Irish salons, and the Dundrum office is real enough to put on the website. The company behind it, though, is British: SalonIQ's own published terms and conditions, checked in October 2026, name Intelligent Salon Software Ltd, trading as SalonIQ, a company registered in England and Wales, based at The Forge, Little Mount Sion, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The main site, saloniq.com, calls the product "The UK's Leading Salon Software" and cites over 2,500 salons and 180+ salon groups across the UK, checked the same month.

None of that is a mark against the product. "Built by salon owners for salon owners" is the company's origin story, the software is a genuine full suite, and a UK company running an Irish office and a dedicated Irish site is taking the market seriously. But it is worth knowing when you weigh "Ireland's No.1" against Phorest, which was founded in Dublin and is headquartered there, and it matters for the contract question below, because SalonIQ's published terms are governed by English law.

What SalonIQ publishes about Irish pricing, and what it does not

Checked on saloniq.ie in October 2026, here is the complete picture an Irish salon owner can verify without talking to sales:

• The entry price is €47 per month. That is the figure shown for a solo stylist, and it is genuinely published, in euros, on the Irish site.
• Every tier above solo is quote-gated. The site asks "How many bookable staff do you have?" with options from 2 up to 15+, and the answer for anything beyond one stylist is a demo or a quote request, not a price. A four-chair salon in Cork cannot budget for SalonIQ from the website.
• No VAT treatment is stated next to the €47 on the Irish site, so confirm whether your quote is plus VAT.
• SMS is advertised, not priced. Marketing campaigns by SMS and email are headline features; what a text costs an Irish salon is not published.
• The AI Receptionist is not priced either. SalonIQ promotes it prominently, including a claim on its own comparison page of €270,000 in appointments booked by it, but the Irish site publishes no price for the feature.
• The UK pricing page fills some gaps, in sterling. saloniq.com/pricing, checked the same month, shows the same from-£47 structure, states that all plans include the complete system "with no feature restrictions", and discloses a setup fee "starting from £175 +VAT" covering installation, unlimited online training and data migration. No euro equivalent of that setup fee is published for Ireland.

So the honest summary on pricing is: partially published. SalonIQ beats Phorest on transparency, because €47 is a real public number and Phorest publishes nothing at all. It still falls short of the fully published euro price lists of Fresha, Booksy or Square below. For a method to total what any of these really costs once SMS, card fees and setup are added, see our guide to the real cost of salon software in Ireland.

"No long contracts" versus the published terms

The Irish homepage says, in exactly these words, "No long contracts. Easy migration. Full support." The UK pricing page FAQ says you can cancel with 60 days' notice. Both checked in October 2026.

Now read the company's own published terms and conditions, checked the same month:

• The initial term is 12 months from first access to the service or the initial payment.
• After that, the contract continues until terminated by the customer giving "not less than 90 days' notice in writing".
• Bulk data exports can carry a fee: standard exports run through the platform, but additional CSV data exports require a written request and an administration fee.
• Your data has a shelf life after you leave: SalonIQ "shall delete or archive all Customer Data 120 days from the date on which the Customer terminates the Contract".
• The contract is governed by English law, with the English courts having jurisdiction.

Is a 12-month initial term with 90 days' written notice a "long contract"? That is for you to judge; it is certainly not month-to-month, and 90 days is a longer notice window than Phorest's two months. It is also three different numbers across three of SalonIQ's own pages (no long contracts, 60 days, 90 days), which is exactly why the only version that matters is the one in the agreement you sign. Before signing, ask in writing: what is my initial term, what notice do I owe, from which date, and do the England-and-Wales terms on saloniq.com apply to my Irish contract? Then diarise the notice deadline the same day.

To be fair to SalonIQ: publishing the full terms openly is to its credit, plenty of vendors make you ask. And nothing above is unusual for full-suite salon software; Phorest's published Irish terms run a year at a time with two months' notice and a paid engineering job to export data. The difference between the marketing and the small print is the point, not the small print itself.

What SalonIQ genuinely does well

The case for SalonIQ is real, and an honest comparison starts there. From its own sites, checked in October 2026:

• A complete suite with no feature gating. Online booking, deposits, integrated payments (IQ Pay) with tipping, SMS and email marketing automation, loyalty and feedback tools, team performance dashboards, a branded client app, e-commerce for product sales and multi-location management. The pricing page states every plan includes the full system with no feature restrictions, which is a refreshingly clean model: you pay per bookable staff member, not per unlocked module.
• Deposits against no-shows, available today. SalonIQ advertises upfront deposits to "reduce no-shows by up to 99%". Treat the percentage as marketing (no methodology is published), but the capability itself is real and live, and for a salon bleeding money to empty chairs that matters. Our guide to reducing no-shows in an Irish hair salon covers what actually moves the number.
• The AI Receptionist. Answering missed calls and enquiries 24/7 is a genuinely distinctive feature; SalonIQ claims to be the only salon software in Ireland offering it. If your front desk misses calls every Saturday, this is a real argument, just get the price of it in writing.
• Hair-industry DNA and training. The company says its team comes from the hair and beauty industry, and its comparison page promises free unlimited training and humans answering calls. Owners switching from bigger vendors often cite exactly this.
• An Irish presence. A Dublin 14 office and a dedicated Irish site with euro entry pricing is more local commitment than most UK vendors show.

If you run a multi-chair salon that will use the marketing automation, deposits, dashboards and a branded app every week, SalonIQ belongs on your shortlist, alongside Phorest, and you should make both of them quote against each other.

SalonIQ vs Phorest: the comparison Irish owners actually search

SalonIQ runs its own SalonIQ vs Phorest page aimed squarely at Irish Phorest customers, so here is the neutral version of that match-up, from both vendors' own published pages in October 2026:

The honest reading: these are two full-suite platforms with more in common than either's marketing admits. Both are strong products, both price the real quote in a sales call, both tie you in for a year at a time, and neither charges a booking commission. SalonIQ's edges are the published entry price, the solo-friendly tiers and the AI receptionist; Phorest's are its Dublin roots, its scale and its depth in stock and reporting. If you are choosing between them, get both quotes in writing for your exact staff count, including SMS, setup, card rates and the notice period, and compare totals, not feature lists.

The alternatives, prices checked in October 2026

If what sent you searching for "SalonIQ alternatives" is the quote-gated tiers, the year-long term or simply paying suite money for a diary, here is the wider field. Every figure was verified on the vendor's own site in October 2026; our full comparison of hair salon booking software in Ireland covers the whole market in more depth.

A note on VAT while you compare: subscription prices here are quoted excluding VAT, and the Irish standard rate is currently 23% per Revenue's published VAT rates. A VAT-registered salon reclaims it; a salon under the threshold pays it as part of the cost.

ViteUneCoupe: free bookings, zero commission, honest about what it is not

Full disclosure first, as promised: ViteUneCoupe is not a like-for-like SalonIQ replacement. SalonIQ is a full management suite; ViteUneCoupe is a booking system. There is no point of sale, no stock, no marketing automation, no branded app, no e-commerce, no payment integrations, no deposits feature, and no SMS: reminders are email only. No AI receptionist either. If those modules are why you shortlisted SalonIQ, ViteUneCoupe alone will not replace it, and we would rather say so here than after your migration.

What it does, it does at a price no €47 tier can match. The free plan gives you unlimited online bookings with 0% commission, permanently, a booking page under your salon's own name, your services catalogue, individual stylist schedules, a client database (Irish +353 mobiles work fine) and your calendar. No card details, no trial clock, no per-staff fee. The Standard plan, at 29 € excluding VAT per month with no commitment, adds automatic emails (confirmation, a reminder before the appointment, a thank-you after it) and ICS calendar sync with Apple, Google or Outlook. Card-on-file no-show protection is coming soon in a Standard + Anti No-Show plan at 49 € excluding VAT per month; until it ships, email reminders and a firm cancellation policy are the honest answer.

Two details that land well against SalonIQ specifically: the subscription is billed in euros, and there is no contract at all, no 12-month initial term, no 90-day notice window, no export fee on the way out. It fits the solo stylist or small salon whose actual problem is the diary and the no-shows, whose payments already run through an existing card machine, and who has no use for a suite; our guide to booking software for solo hairdressers in Ireland covers that profile in detail.

Fresha, Booksy and Square: the published-price field

The three most-quoted alternatives all publish full Irish pricing, which already distinguishes them from SalonIQ's quote-gated tiers:

• Fresha, checked on its pricing page in October 2026 and shown to us in euros: €14.95 per month for an independent, €9.95 per bookable team member for a team, 20 free texts a month then €0.10 per text, integrated payment fees on top, no minimum commitment. Marketplace exposure comes with new-client fees to understand first; we dissected the model in our guide to Fresha alternatives for Irish hair salons.
• Booksy, checked on its Irish business page the same month: €44 per month plus €5 per additional team member, plus VAT, cancel anytime, with marketplace visibility included. Flat, predictable, euro-priced; our guide to Booksy alternatives for Irish hair salons looks at who actually gets value from that package.
• Square Appointments, checked on its Irish pricing page the same month: free for a single location including automated text and email reminders, Plus at €19 and Premium at €49 per month plus VAT, 1.75% in-person card fees. Generalist rather than salon-first, but the free SMS reminders are unmatched at the price; we weigh the trade-offs in our guide to Square Appointments alternatives for Irish hair salons.

If the marketplace model tempts you, Treatwell's commission-funded approach is the other shape entirely: no published monthly fee, 35% on a new marketplace client's first booking.

Which profile suits which tool?

• You want the full suite with deposits, marketing automation and an AI receptionist, and you will use them: SalonIQ, with the quote, the SMS rate, the setup fee and the exact contract terms in writing before you sign, and the notice deadline in your diary.
• You want the Dublin-built heavyweight with maximum depth: Phorest, quoted against SalonIQ for your exact staff count.
• You want published per-stylist pricing with payments and marketplace reach: Fresha, reading the new-client fee terms on your own screen.
• You want flat euro pricing plus marketplace visibility: Booksy.
• You want a free tier with text reminders and card payments in one: Square Appointments.
• Your diary and no-shows are the problem and your payments already work: ViteUneCoupe's free plan, 0% commission permanently, email reminders on the Standard plan, no contract.

Before you leave SalonIQ: terms first, export second, notice last

If you are already on SalonIQ and heading for the door, the order of operations is the same as for any suite. First, dig out your signed agreement and confirm your initial term end date and your notice obligation; under the published terms that notice is 90 days in writing after the first 12 months, so the day you can actually leave is further away than most owners assume. Second, export your data early and check what comes out: the standard in-platform exports are free, a bulk CSV export can carry an administration fee, and the terms give your data a 120-day life after termination, so do not leave it until the account is closed. Names, +353 mobiles, emails, appointment history and colour notes are the assets; screenshot anything that will not export. Third, run the new system in parallel and repoint your booking links before anything is cancelled. The full playbook is in our guide to switching salon booking software without losing clients.

Frequently asked questions

How much does SalonIQ cost in Ireland?

SalonIQ's Irish site, checked in October 2026, publishes one figure: €47 per month for a solo stylist. Pricing for two or more bookable staff is not published and requires a demo or quote. The UK site discloses a setup fee starting from £175 plus VAT; no euro setup fee is published for Ireland, and SMS and AI Receptionist prices are not published either. Get the full quote in writing for your exact staff count.

Does SalonIQ tie you into a contract?

The Irish homepage says "No long contracts", but SalonIQ's published terms and conditions, checked in October 2026, set an initial term of 12 months and then require not less than 90 days' written notice to terminate. The terms are governed by English law. Ask in writing which terms apply to your Irish agreement and diarise your notice deadline on the day you sign.

Is SalonIQ an Irish company?

No. SalonIQ is the trading name of Intelligent Salon Software Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales and based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, per its own published terms. It does operate an Irish office in Dundrum, Dublin 14, runs a dedicated Irish website, and says it is trusted by over 1,000 salons in Ireland, all checked in October 2026. Phorest, by contrast, was founded and is headquartered in Dublin.

Which is better for an Irish hair salon, SalonIQ or Phorest?

They are closer than either's marketing suggests: both are full management suites, both charge no booking commission, both quote the real price in a sales call, and both run year-long contracts, with 90 days' notice at SalonIQ against two months at Phorest per their published terms in October 2026. SalonIQ publishes a €47 solo entry price and offers an AI receptionist; Phorest is Dublin-built with deeper stock and reporting and an entry plan pitched at three or more staff. Get both quotes for your staff count and compare totals including SMS, setup and card fees.

Is there a free alternative to SalonIQ for Irish hair salons?

Two credible ones, with different shapes. ViteUneCoupe's free plan offers unlimited online bookings with 0% commission permanently, staff schedules and a client database, with email reminders on its paid plan but no POS, deposits or SMS. Square Appointments is free for a single location and includes automated text and email reminders, earning instead on card fees of 1.75% in person. Neither replaces SalonIQ's full suite; both replace the diary.