Booksy vs Boulevard Compared: Side-by-Side Overview

Last Updated on October 5, 2026 by The Digital Merchant Team

Both Booksy and Boulevard are subscription-based services that offer things like appointment reminders, marketing messages, and, in some cases, comprehensive front desk features, communication tools, and report generation.

I’m going to compare Booksy vs Boulevard for businesses considering some of top business concerns, including:

1. Front Desk/Administrative Help
2. User Interface
3. Calendar Management
4. Bookings
5. Client Management
6. Client Communication
7. Price

So let’s look at these seven top features and see which platform is the best investment for your business.

Front Desk/Administrative Help

If your business is looking to scale, one of the main areas you might be interested in is a feature that consolidates all of your front desk activities and makes it easy to see things like all of your staff members who are currently working, who has checked in or is already on the calendar for the day, and so on.

If this is you, you’re going to want Boulevard. There is no comparison. Booksy doesn’t have this feature; in fact, most software solutions for salons and Med spas fall short when it comes to the front desk function of Boulevard. 

With Boulevard, the front desk is the page that automatically opens when you log in. It easily lays out things like:

• Unconfirmed appointments for the day
• Confirmed appointments
• Walk-ins 
• Customers who have arrived
• Customers who have completed their appointment

If anyone calls your business line to book an appointment, it automatically pops up in this area and with a single click, you can add someone to a calendar or change an existing appointment. 

Boulevard has an AI receptionist named Beau who can answer calls, book appointments, and help with enquiries. Booksy has a similar AI phone booking system.

User Interface

In this regard, I still find myself leaning toward Boulevard as the user because the layout is incredibly easy to use, clear, and direct, and not just because of the front desk feature; booking new clients is made easy with simple pop-ups that do not take up the whole screen. They make judicious use of purple color contrasted by the otherwise mostly black and white background, so the important buttons really stand out.

I don’t like the Booksy layout because I’m very particular about side panels versus headers and about iconography versus typography. 

I want my list of designated areas or functions to be in a header running along the top, just like additional tabs are laid out when you are researching things online, and I prefer written words to designate what each menu item is, rather than icons that aren’t as clear.

So, for me, it’s just difficult to navigate, and when I am pressed for time, the last thing I want is to struggle clicking on every picture until I get to the part I need.

Calendar and Scheduling

When you look at the calendar section on Boulevard, it is laid out with individual columns for each employee with color designations. Boulevard uses Precision Scheduling™ to optimize your schedule and ensure services are booked in the correct order, and you can easily manage schedules from one screen.

Booksy also allows you to manually color-code appointments. Because the user interface is designed with a side panel on the left instead of a header, it has a tiny calendar located directly on the left side of the daily calendar. It offers a “jump by week” function to quickly skip ahead one, two, three, four, five, or even 6 weeks.

When you initially book an appointment with Booksy using the calendar function, it blocks off a 15-minute segment of time. You then have to add each of the services for that respective appointment, and only after you confirm the booking will the calendar feature adjust the amount of time for those services. But this means you end up with a lot of conflicting appointments because the block of time wasn’t originally the correct length.

Booksy allows you to book recurring appointments and send automatic appointment reminders.

This really comes down to the size and scope of your business in terms of which one is best. 

Read our full Boulevard Software Review here!

Client Management

Whether you are just starting out or managing multiple locations, building good client relationships is a critical part of your business.

So, personally, when I go to a salon as a customer, I’m not very picky about who I end up with. What I am picky about is when a stylist has zero memory of who I am or what they did to my hair during my last appointment. 

That’s why it’s critical to have a section in your preferred software or platform where comprehensive client notes can be added.

Those notes should include detailed sections where, as the stylist or other professional, I can annotate exactly what products I used, maybe for how long, as well as upload photos from before and after.

Both Booksy and Boulevard have these options, although admittedly, the user interface and layout for Boulevard is significantly better and easier on the eyes. Navigation is simpler, and the areas for notes/photos/documents and forms are more robust with Boulevard. 

Client Communication

Another reason why I ended up siding with Boulevard is their message center. So, along the top header, one of the sections is called “messages”, and it’s exactly what the name suggests: a place where you can directly communicate with all of your clients.

I love this feature because it keeps all communication centralized, so no matter who might be communicating at any given time with a client, it can be done from one location, and all responses and communication history can also be seen from that same location.

Boulevard sends automatic text message reminders for appointments, and that same number can be used by your customers who are themselves racing to find parking to quickly text you and let you know that they are on their way. 

Within that message center, you can even respond back, letting them know that there’s a parking structure on the corner of 35th and Johnson Street.

Booksy simply doesn’t have anything like this, so if your company is looking to consolidate and manage communication with all of your clients from a centralized location, you won’t have that feature with Booksy. 

Price

Ah, finally, Booksy makes it to the top of the list. 

So, for a lot of businesses, especially small businesses and independents, price is really the name of the game. 

A lot of the features that I think make Boulevard a winner might not be as important for an independent stylist just trying to manage their calendar and not looking for a front desk feature or the world’s most intuitive user interface.

Price is a big concern for a lot of people, and to that end, Booksy is definitely the winner here with a base subscription at only $30 per month. If you start adding team members, you’ll face an additional $20 per month. There are, however, a lot of other fees associated with the things you might use Booksy for, like Payment Processing fees and a 30% Commission on any new clients who book an appointment with you using the Booksy Marketplace. 

Marketplace

This leads me to the other area where I think Booksy has something better to offer compared to Boulevard: their marketplace. 

Now, let me be clear that I don’t exactly like the layout of their respective marketplace, but it is nonetheless a good and inexpensive way to increase your marketing if you are on a tight budget or working as an independent.

When you first set up your account with Booksy, the company will ask you to set up your profile, including your contact information, your business location, and your hours of operation and services. This all gets published, and you can choose to publish immediately or publish a few days from when you sign up. 

Once published, potential customers can find you on the Booksy marketplace by looking at that profile. The downside is, if they complete an appointment with you, Booksy takes 30% commission. 

Summing Up

Realistically, if you are an independent stylist, you probably don’t need all of the comprehensive features that you get with Boulevard, and you can make great use of Booksy’s appointment reminders, easy marketing messages, and appointment confirmations that are included in the basic price.

For that reason, I think the Booksy subscription is well worth it for anyone who is on a budget and doesn’t need to manage a growing company with a focus on building out customer relationships, generating reports, and handling internal administrative components.

By comparison, Boulevard really takes the cake in almost all other areas, including client management, administrative functions, and, most importantly to me, user interface. Boulevard allows you to offer BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later), and its Reporting 2.0 shows you your business insights in one place to help you grow.

So, genuinely consider which one your company needs most and what your company’s goals are. Pick the software that helps you meet those goals most effectively.

Further Read

• Square vs Boulevard Compared: Tools, Features, and Pricing Breakdown
• Boulevard vs Mindbody Comparison
• Boulevard vs GlossGenius
• Mangomint vs Boulevard: How do they Compare?