When you launch a new business, whether it is digital or physical, you have a lot of things to take under control. Inventory, payroll, client contact, and calendar are just some of the many aspects that you need to manage and coordinate. If your business is a beauty salon, furthermore, you also need to be up to date with your skills, products, and treatments...
Lucky for you, computer technology today can provide different types of solutions to automate many processes and ease what needs to be done manually.
This is exactly what we'd like to discuss in this article: the best salon management software that can help you make your beauty salon more efficient, that can make you save time, money, and energy.
Salon Management Software
When we speak about hair salon management software we are using a very generic term. Software tools are often created to take care of a particular aspect of a business (bookkeeping, accounting, marketing, inventory, calendar...) and there is no one solution that allows you to take care of everything.
The truth is that you'll need more than one nail salon management software tool and in this section, we're going to discuss what are the best and most important ones.
1.Venere
Venere is a very specific nails salon manager software, meaning that it has been created specifically for beauty salon managers. It allows you to take care of many different aspects of your nail or hair salon from one single place. But let's take a look at its features.
Client management
When you have a beauty salon you don't only need to keep track of your clients' contact, but you need to keep a sort of record for them (you need to know what treatments they have received, especially if their treatment is provided through different sessions).
With Venere, you can create and manage client profiles so that all their information is stored in one place and protected.
Inventory management
In a beauty salon, a lot of tools, products, and different equipment are used. It's important to keep track of anything that you purchase, use and sell. With Venere, you don't need a specific inventory management software tool because there is a built-in feature.
Employee management & payrolls
Without using another software, with Venere, you can keep track of anyone working with or for you. You can also keep track and manage payrolls so that you don't miss a payment.
Marketing
With Venere you also have marketing tools at your disposal. For example, you can create and manage loyalty programs, or discounts.
Calendar
Last but not least, Venere is also a calendar that you can use to schedule your clients' appointments.
Venere: how much does it cost?
You can try Venere for free for 30 days. After the free trial, if you want to keep on using the hair salon management software you'll need to pick one of the available options:
- Basic: €590 (one-time license)
- Gold: €990 (one-time license)
- Luxury: €2290 (one-time license)
Venere: what users think of it
As you can see, Venere isn't cheap at all! On the contrary, it's quite expensive. However, with one expense you can replace at least three or four single-task software: this is what users are particularly appreciating about this nails salon manager software.
2.ChiDesk
This is another nail salon management software developed specifically for this aim. Just like Venere, you can use it to manage different aspects of your salon and this is what makes it one of the best salon management software available.
As we are about to discover, ChiDesk's features are similar to Venere's:
- Client Management: you can keep track of your clients' appointments, treatments, payments, and contacts.
- Stock Control: it's ChiDesk's inventory management feature.
- Automated Scheduling and Calendar: ChiDesk's calendar has some automated features: when you put in an appointment, it automatically adds it to your calendar creating a detailed schedule for your work day.
ChiDesk also has a good time tracking feature: if you charge some treatments depending on the time you spend providing them, this is highly important.
ChiDesk: how much does it cost?
ChiDesk provides a monthly subscription, and you can select one of the following:
- Solo: $40 per month, 1 employee
- Standard: $60 per month, 1-5 employees
- Advanced: $80 per month, 6-12 employees
- Premium: $100 per month, 13-20 employees
- Enterprise: $120 per month, 21-50 employees
ChiDesk: what users think of it
ChiDesk is highly appreciated because it allows managing almost any aspect of your salon from one place. However, it doesn't come for a cheap price.
3.Salon booking
As its name suggests, this is an online salon management software that is specifically aimed at booking management, despite having other features too. This is ideal if you have a salon with many rooms and services going on at the same, and even more useful if you need to manage more than one salon.
Salon Booking is a cloud-based software so that you don't even have to worry about losing your data because they are constantly stored in the cloud.
Clients profile
With Salon booking, you can easily create clients' profiles.
Appointment manager
Schedule appointments and seeing them in your calendar is the easiest thing to do with this software tool: it was born mainly for this.
Notification and reminders
One of the most appreciated features is the possibility of receiving notification reminders for appointments.
Feedback from clients
Salon booking also allows you to easily collect feedback from your customers so that you can constantly improve your service based on your clients' opinions.
Create coupons code or discounts
This is an additional but important feature that you can exploit to retain your clients after their first visit.
Salon Booking how much does it cost?
These are the pricing options available:
- Basic: €69 per year (single small projects)
- Business: €89 per year (single and multiple salons)
- Full Support: €149 per year (for non-technical users)
- Agency: €199 per year (for webmasters and web agencies)
Salon Booking: what users think of it
Salon Booking is a cheaper option than the previous two. It doesn't allow you to manage any aspect of your beauty salon so you'll need other software tools besides this (for example an inventory management software and a bookkeeping one).
4.Bitrix24
Bitrix24 isn't exactly a nails salon manager software but, if you only need a tool that can help you manage your employees, this is a valid option.
Bitrix24 isn't only used in salons, but also in studios and other business areas. It could be cloud or self-hosted, but you should opt for cloud hosting so that you can access your data from everywhere and you never risk losing them.
Features
With Bitrix24 you can have easy management of:
- Tasks: you can assign each employee a different task and monitor their activity.
- Workgroups: you can create and manage workgroups
- Employees: you can have employees profiles
- Communication: you can manage calls and chats without leaving the platform
- Calendar: you can manage your salon's calendar from the software tool
- Time tracking you can track time-based activities.
Bitrix24: how much does it cost?
There si a 30-day free trial available and, after that, you can choose between:
- Cloud Basic: $39/mo
- Standard: $79/mo
- Professional: $159/mo
- On-premise Business: $2990 (one-time license)
- nterprise: $24990 (one-time license)
Bitrix24: what users are thinking of it
If you already have salon manager software but you are lacking an employee management feature, then this is a valid option, even though it doesn't come for cheap.
5.Fresha
This is another software specifically created for business management. For this reason, it can provide every important feature you may need:
- Client profiles: to keep track of every client and their needs.
- Employee management: to help you keep track of who are your employees, their skills, and tasks.
- Inventory management
- Payments: you can receive payments directly with this software without using another specific one.
Fresha: how much does it cost?
Fresha doesn't require any subscription or one-time payment. However, it isn't completely free. It requires a commission on payments (1,29% + 0,20 €) and also a commission on the marketing messages you send through the application (0,10 € for text messages and 0,02€ for emails).
Fresha: what are users thinking of it?
Many small businesses are picking this software because it requires zero initial investment.
6.Mindbody
Last but not least, Mindbody is another best salon management software. Specifically created for beauty salon it has all the features we've just described for Fresha. The payment options are however different because Mindbody requires a subscription.
Mindobosy: how much does it cost?
There are two main options available:
- Standard: $129
- Premium: $349 per month
Mindbody: what are users thinking of it?
If you don't like the idea f paying a commission for every payment received, then you should opt for Mindbody.
Conclusion
The salon manager software we've described is all top-quality. The choice is up to you and should be made according to your needs and budget.
Are you seeking a recommendation about a beauty salon equipment supplier? In this case, we don't need a list but we can provide a straight recommendation: Omysalon is the best option available t the moment because it provides anything you need (equipment, furnishing, products, tools...) and it's focused on providing the best quality at the fairest prices.
