Timely vs Kitomba for Australian hair salons: the 2026 head-to-head

Shortlist salon software in Australia and these two names end up circled on the same notepad: Timely and Kitomba. Both were born in New Zealand, both have real teams on this side of the Tasman, and both have been running Australian salon diaries for well over a decade. Yet they could hardly be more different animals, starting with the fact that one tells you its price on its website and the other will not quote you a dollar until you have sat through a demo.

Full disclosure before anything else: this comparison is published on the blog of ViteUneCoupe, a free online booking system for hair salons with 0% commission, so we compete with both companies at the edges. We handle that the only honest way we know. Every claim below was checked on Timely's and Kitomba's own websites in October 2026, with the URL; we state the currency each page actually showed; and when a figure is not published we say "not published" instead of guessing. ViteUneCoupe gets one clearly labelled section near the end, limits included. For the market beyond these two, our guide to hair salon booking software in Australia covers the whole field.

Unless stated otherwise, prices are in Australian dollars. Business software in Australia is normally quoted excluding GST, so confirm the GST treatment on your own quote or screen; the one place GST inclusion is stated explicitly below is Kitomba Pay's rate card.

Two Kiwi companies with real Australian roots

The trans-Tasman salon market is unusual in that its two biggest specialist vendors both started in New Zealand, a decade apart, and both now treat Australia as home turf.

Kitomba is the elder. Founded in Wellington in 2002 by engineer Tom Murphy, its head office is still in the New Zealand capital, with a team based across Australia and New Zealand, including an office in Brisbane at 348 Edward Street (checked in October 2026 on Kitomba's about page and contact page). It grew up as full salon management: appointments plus point-of-sale, stock, staff targets, timesheets and deep reporting. Think of it as the till, the back office and the diary in one.

Timely is the challenger that went global. Founded by three Kiwi entrepreneurs (Andrew Schofield, Ryan Baker and William Berger), it now serves around 55,000 hair and beauty professionals worldwide as part of the US group EverCommerce, and keeps an Australian office in South Yarra, Victoria (checked in October 2026 on Timely's about page and contact page). It is cloud-first and appointment-first, with payments and marketing layered on top. Think of it as the diary that learned to do most other things.

That difference in shape explains nearly every difference that follows, starting with how each one tells you the price.

Pricing: published per stylist vs quote only

This is the sharpest contrast between the two, so let us be precise.

Timely publishes its prices. Checked in October 2026 on gettimely.com/pricing, the page offers Build, Elevate and Innovate plans (a Base plan appears in its payments FAQ), priced per bookable staff member per month. The page geo-localises, so open it from Australia for the full AUD grid, but its own structured data lists an Australian starting price of A$42 per month. Three terms worth knowing from the same page: there are no contracts ("you simply pay month by month"), there is a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and part-time staff cost the same as full-time staff, in the FAQ's own words: "Part-time staff members are currently charged at the same rate as full-time staff members." A Saturday-only stylist is a full price line.

Kitomba publishes no software prices at all. Checked in October 2026 on kitomba.com/pricing, the page lists Lite PLUS, Grow PLUS, Pro PLUS and Enterprise packages with features but not one dollar figure; the FAQ says the price "depends on what package you choose, the features you need, and the number of staff you have", and a Kitomba Business Consultant quotes you individually after a demo. The fine print notes the price per user "is based on 3 staff", so the quote scales with your team too. One published lever does exist: the PLUS packages require using Kitomba Pay, and in exchange Kitomba advertises "Save 20%" on your software fees every month. The same fine print flags paid extras: REACH.ai marketing is in addition to software fees, Xero charges apply, and the Kitomba Pay EFTPOS terminal rental fee "applies and is available in Australia only".

What this means in practice: with Timely you can price a four-chair salon in Geelong from your couch. A clearly hypothetical yardstick: if the A$42 entry rate applies to each bookable staff member, four stylists means around A$168 a month, roughly A$2,016 a year before any SMS overage, and more on the higher plans. With Kitomba you cannot compare anything until you have been through a sales conversation, and you cannot easily check whether the quote you signed three years ago matches what a new salon pays today. Our breakdown of the real cost of salon software in Australia shows how to total either bill honestly.

The head-to-head at a glance

Everything in this table was checked in October 2026 on the vendors' own sites; "not published" means exactly that.

Now the lines that deserve more than a table cell.

SMS reminders: allowance vs promotion

Both platforms send SMS reminders, and in Australia a text is still the surest way to reach a client before a three-hour colour appointment. The commercial terms differ.

Timely bundles a monthly SMS allowance into each plan, renewing on your billing date, with anything above charged at your SMS rate on top of the subscription; its pricing FAQ says plainly that you can keep sending past the allowance and will simply be billed for the excess, with a warning before you go over (checked in October 2026 on Timely's pricing page). Predictable, but worth watching on a busy book where confirmations plus reminders add up.

Kitomba's "complimentary SMS" is, by its own fine print, "a promotion for a limited time", based on the number of users (checked in October 2026 on its pricing page). Its published terms add that the Unlimited Plus plan's "unlimited" SMS is subject to a fair-use policy of 10,000 messages per calendar month, and unused messages do not roll over (Kitomba's terms and conditions, checked in October 2026). Ten thousand texts a month is plenty for almost any salon; the point is to ask, in writing, what SMS costs after the promotion ends, before you sign the quote. For the wider maths on texting clients, our comparison of appointment reminder options for Australian hair salons prices the SMS-versus-email trade-off properly.

Payments: Kitomba Pay vs TimelyPay in Australian dollars

Here Kitomba is the more transparent of the two, a neat reversal of the software pricing situation, and the stakes are higher than they used to be: since 1 October 2026 Australian businesses can no longer add card surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments (ACCC guidance on card surcharges, checked in October 2026), so processing fees now come straight out of your margin.

Kitomba Pay publishes a full Australian rate card (checked in October 2026 on kitomba.com/kitomba-pay): in-person payments at 1.7% per transaction billed in AUD with eftpos included and no per-transaction fee, online payments at 2.5% + 30c, Afterpay at 6%, an international card fee of 2.9%, with the page stating "all rates include GST", next-business-day settlement and free paper rolls for Australian customers. The terminal is a Verifone from A$32.95 a month in Australia (its New Zealand cousins get it from $0, one of the few places the two markets are treated differently). The page also takes a swing at terminal lock-ins: "No long-term contract. Stay because you love it. Not because you're stuck for 36 months." Remember that using Kitomba Pay is what unlocks the 20% software discount on PLUS packages, so price the whole bundle together.

TimelyPay's Australian online rates, per Timely's own help centre, are 1.80% + A$0.30 per domestic transaction (Amex 3% + A$0.30) and 3% + A$0.30 for international cards, included in the Build, Elevate and Innovate plans with no extra software cost beyond processing (checked in October 2026 in Timely's TimelyPay fees article). TimelyPay is also what powers Timely's deposits and cancellation fees, the feature most owners actually shop for: if empty chairs are the reason you are comparing software at all, our playbook for reducing no-shows in an Australian hair salon covers what card-on-file does and does not fix.

On raw percentages, Kitomba Pay's published in-person rate (1.7% incl. GST) and TimelyPay's published online rate (1.80% + 30c) are not measured on the same basis, one is in person and GST-inclusive, the other online with a fixed fee, so compare final GST-inclusive costs on your own card mix and transaction sizes rather than the headlines.

Reporting: good dashboards vs Benchmark

Timely's reporting is solid for an appointment-first tool: dashboards, business performance and appointment reports, staff tracking. For most salons under five chairs it answers the questions that matter.

Kitomba's reporting is deeper, as you would expect from a POS-and-stock suite, and it has one feature nothing else in this market offers: Benchmark, described in Kitomba's own words as "unique to Kitomba, see how your business performs versus others in your industry" (checked in October 2026 on Kitomba's reporting page), alongside rebooking, retention and future-revenue reports. Seeing your rebooking rate against other Australian and New Zealand salons is a genuine reason owners stay. If reporting depth is your deciding factor, Kitomba wins this round outright.

Contracts and leaving: the clause to read before you sign

This is where the two companies differ most, and where the software directories say nothing at all.

Timely: no contract, by design. Month-by-month billing, switch plans anytime, leave anytime, stated plainly on its pricing page. Trialling Timely alongside your current system costs one month and nothing else.

Kitomba: read your agreement. Kitomba's published terms state that a client who cancels "shall be liable for any loss incurred by the Seller including, but not limited to, all fees due for the remainder of the period of the contract" (checked in October 2026 on kitomba.com/terms-and-conditions). No standard minimum term is stated in the terms, which means the term is whatever your individual quote says, and the PLUS discount is conditional on using Kitomba Pay. One genuinely useful detail for Australian owners: the same terms say agreements with Australian clients are governed by the laws of Victoria and the jurisdiction of its courts, so any dispute at least happens under Australian law. Before signing, get the contract length, the exit cost and the post-promotion SMS price in writing, and hold the software quote to the standard Kitomba itself sets on its payments page.

Your data: getting the client book out

Whichever way you lean, check the exit before the entrance.

Kitomba documents a self-serve client list export: download a full or filtered client list as a spreadsheet from the Clients tab in Kitomba 1 (Kitomba's support article on client lists, checked in October 2026). A full-database export covering appointment history is not documented publicly, and the terms place the duty to "retain a copy of all information provided to the Seller" on you, the client. Test the export from your own account before you ever give notice.

Timely documents a full data export by request to support: clients with reward points, appointments, services, client notes, products and purchases, delivered through a secure download site, with requests taking up to 48 hours (Timely's data export article, checked in October 2026). Broader in documented scope than Kitomba's export, but not self-serve.

Either way, the rule from our guide to switching salon booking software in Australia applies: data out first, notice last.

Support: local teams, different windows

Both companies support you from this part of the world, which owners on US-centric platforms quietly envy. Kitomba advertises unlimited phone, email and chat support in all packages, reachable from Australia on 1800 161 101, Monday to Saturday 8am to 9pm New Zealand time with after-hours cover for emergencies (checked in October 2026 on kitomba.com/contact-us). New Zealand runs two to three hours ahead of the east coast depending on daylight saving, so that window opens before your first client and covers Saturday trade, though it closes mid-evening Australian time. Timely routes support through its help centre, a support form and live messaging, with phone support on selected plans. For a salon that does half its week after 5pm and all day Saturday, Kitomba's published phone window is the more generous of the two.

So which one? A decision framework by salon situation

• You run retail, stock and staff targets through your software, or multiple sites: Kitomba. It is built for exactly that, Benchmark is a real edge, and the Kitomba Pay bundle with its 20% software discount can sweeten the total. Just get the quote, the contract term and the post-promotion SMS price in writing first.
• Your software is mostly a diary with reminders and card capture: Timely. Published AUD prices, no contract and a 14-day trial make it the lower-risk choice, and you can leave the month it stops earning its keep. Watch the per-stylist maths as the team grows, especially with part-timers billed at full rate.
• You take most of your money in person over the counter: price the Kitomba Pay route seriously, 1.7% GST-inclusive with the software discount, against TimelyPay plus whatever terminal you currently rent, remembering the A$32.95 monthly Verifone rental on the Kitomba side.
• You cannot get a straight written answer on Kitomba's total cost: that is itself an answer. Quote-based pricing favours the party that sees every quote.
• You are leaving either one: export first, overlap both calendars for a couple of weeks, repoint your Google Business Profile and Instagram booking links, then cancel.

If you settle on Timely but want to pressure-test the choice, our guide to Timely alternatives for Australian hair salons does exactly that; same job on the other side in our Kitomba alternatives guide.

The third option: when neither all-in-one is the real need

A fair number of owners reading a Timely vs Kitomba comparison eventually notice their real need is smaller than either product: an online diary clients can book into around the clock, with zero commission, while payments carry on through the EFTPOS terminal already sitting on the counter.

Inside the payments ecosystem, Square Appointments is the obvious Australian candidate: a free plan for a single location, then Plus at A$40 and Premium at A$90 per month per location, with processing at 1.6% in person and 2.2% online (checked in October 2026 on Square's Australian pricing page). Booking is one module in a payments company's ecosystem rather than a salon-shaped tool, a trade-off our guide to Square Appointments alternatives for Australian hair salons unpacks.

Outside it, there is ViteUneCoupe, the tool whose blog you are reading. The free plan is a real plan, not a trial: unlimited online bookings with 0% commission permanently, a booking page in your salon's name, your service menu with photos, individual staff schedules, a client database (+61 mobiles work fine) and your calendar, with no per-stylist fee ever. The Standard plan, from 29 € excluding tax per month with no commitment, adds automatic confirmation, reminder and thank-you emails and ICS calendar sync. Card-on-file no-show protection is coming soon in a Standard + Anti No-Show plan at 49 € excluding tax per month.

The limits for an Australian salon, stated as plainly as everything else on this page: paid plans are billed in euros, not Australian dollars, so the card statement moves with the exchange rate and your bank may add a foreign-transaction fee; reminders are email only, no SMS, where Timely and Kitomba both hold a genuine advantage; and there are no payments, no EFTPOS integration, no POS, no stock and no deposits. It replaces the appointment book, not the till. If that is the whole job, the price is zero; if you need more than the appointment book, you are back to the head-to-head above.

Frequently asked questions

Is Timely or Kitomba cheaper for an Australian hair salon?

Only Timely lets you answer from its website: its pricing page's structured data lists an Australian starting price of A$42 per bookable staff member per month, and the full AUD grid shows when you open the page from Australia (checked in October 2026). Kitomba publishes no software prices and quotes each salon individually, with a 20% monthly software discount advertised on PLUS packages that use Kitomba Pay. Nobody can call Kitomba cheaper or dearer without a written quote, which is exactly the problem this comparison keeps pointing at.

Do Timely and Kitomba have teams in Australia?

Yes, both. Kitomba's team is based across Australia and New Zealand, with an office in Brisbane and an Australian support line on 1800 161 101; its head office remains in Wellington, where it was founded in 2002. Timely, founded by three New Zealand entrepreneurs and now part of the EverCommerce group, lists an Australian office in South Yarra, Victoria (both checked in October 2026 on the companies' own sites).

Which has better no-show protection for Australian salons?

Both support deposits and cancellation fees through their payment products: Timely via TimelyPay, Kitomba via Kitomba Pay. Timely's help centre lists Australian online processing at 1.80% + A$0.30 per domestic transaction; Kitomba Pay publishes GST-inclusive Australian rates of 1.7% in person and 2.5% + 30c online, with a Verifone terminal from A$32.95 a month. Since the October 2026 surcharge ban those fees come out of your margin, so compare final costs on your own card mix rather than the headline percentages.

Does Kitomba lock you into a contract in Australia?

Its published terms make a cancelling client liable for "all fees due for the remainder of the period of the contract", while stating no standard minimum term, so the real answer lives in your individual agreement; for Australian clients the terms are governed by the laws of Victoria. Get the contract length and exit terms in writing before signing a quote. Timely, by contrast, states on its pricing page that there are no contracts and billing is month by month (both checked in October 2026).

Can I export my client data from Timely or Kitomba?

Both, with different mechanics. Kitomba documents a self-serve client list download to a spreadsheet; a full-database export covering appointment history is not documented publicly. Timely documents a fuller export (clients, appointments, services, notes, products, purchases) but only by request to support, taking up to 48 hours. In both cases, run the export and check what actually comes out before giving notice.

Is there a free alternative to both for an Australian salon?

Two serious ones. Square Appointments has a free plan for a single location in Australian dollars, tied to Square's processing (1.6% in person). ViteUneCoupe has a free plan with unlimited staff, unlimited bookings and 0% commission; its trade-offs are email rather than SMS reminders, no payments or EFTPOS integration, and paid plans billed in euros rather than Australian dollars. Either suits a salon whose only gap is online booking, not one that needs a POS or texting.