My Best Salon POS Systems

Last Updated on April 23, 2025 by Ewen Finser

Figuring out the right point-of-sale (POS) system for your salon can be hard; there are dozens of options out there. They all seem to offer nearly the same things, but with different features or additional fees. So, what are the best salon POS systems for small vs. large companies, different products, or team sizes? Let’s compare Boulevard, Mangomint, Square Appointments, Zenoti, Mindbody, and Lightspeed. 

Bottom Line:

The best salon POS system for automations is Zenoti. In terms of availability, though, MindBody is best for any salon outside the U.S. or any salon with customers who speak different languages. If price is your main pain point, Square Appointments has a subscription-free option for independent contractors, but Boulevard has the best all-encompassing option with a lot of bells and whistles, plus, it is the winner for user friendliness, hands down. 

Choice 1: Boulevard – Best for US-based salons that are scaling and want a fully integrated POS with built-in marketing, ecommerce, and inventory

Boulevard: Modern, sleek, and highly user-friendly, Boulevard offers an all-in-one solution built specifically for salons that want to scale efficiently without sacrificing user experience.

Boulevard is a newer POS system for salons that has the most beautiful interface I’ve ever seen. It includes comparable features and automations, meeting a lot of needs that are often overlooked with older POS systems. 

It has a lot of features included in the membership, but while other software might include superfluous features that are overly complex, resulting in salons only using about 25% of their current platform, this platform has comprehensive systems for POS, e-commerce, inventory, email marketing, and more. Nothing that is included in the system is not without purpose. 

Features

• POS
• E-commerce
• Inventory
• Email Marketing
• Automations for campaigns
• Online customer profiles

Availability

Only available in the U.S.

Price

$425/month, everything included

Once you have made sure that the POS system you want is available in your country, you have to make sure it fits within your budget. Nothing is more frustrating as a business owner or a client than processing a payment for a service and finding hidden fees tacked on to the end for things like manual entry of a credit card or features to include printing out receipts.

Boulevard is a more comprehensive, all-in-one solution. Where other options like Square are solely a POS system, Boulevard is so much more, and that’s very important, especially for salons worried about merchant fees and credit card fees. Boulevard can reduce all of these unnecessary fees with benefits like website integration, centralized front desk functions, marketing, and automations. 

Automations

Boulevard has automated bookings, check-in, sales reminders, and marketing.

User-Friendliness

The easiest interface ever, with the best color scheme, layout, and training. Top-tier interface design and onboarding. In terms of user-friendliness, Boulevard takes the cake. It has the best interface I’ve ever seen. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what aspects of the interface make it stand out because everything about it makes it stand out, from the font to the sizing, spacing, borders, and headers, and in particular, the colors.

It has a lot more features than you get with Square Appointments or Lightspeed and a much less headache-inducing color scheme than MangoMint. 

Overall, I’d recommend Boulevard for growing or multi-location salons that want ease of use, deep feature sets, and fast team adoption.

Choice 2: Mangomint – Best for hybrid teams and large salons with independent contractors

Mangomint: A modern POS designed with automations in mind, perfect for salons with booth renters or team members working independently.

Mangomint is a POS system that leverages intelligent automations to help make the booking, check-in, and payment processing aspects of running a salon really simple. The company offers email and text message marketing options and routes payments directly to anyone who rents a room or any independent stylist who rents a chair. This makes it an ideal option for larger enterprises. 

One of the unique features it offers is the intelligent wait list and waiting room option where clients can check in with a front-facing iPad or tablet and from there monitor who all is in front of them for appointments. 

Features

• Intelligent waitlists
• Payments routing
• Gamified UI

Availability

Only the U.S. and Canada. 

Price

$245/month + add-ons

If you look at those in more detail, you’ll notice things like Mangomint offers a 21-day trial, and you can cancel at any point, but they also charge you things like an additional $50 per month if you want integrated forms or an additional $75 per month if you want two-way texting. 

Automations

Mangomint has automations like auto-booking, check-in, and the front desk waiting room. 

MangoMint is a modern POS system for salons. It has a lot of intelligent automations to make most of your administrative processes simple, like the booking process, checking in for appointments, and paying after a service. 

It has an intelligent wait list, so if you have a front-facing screen, when clients come in, they can see how many people are ahead of them on the waitlist, and your internal staff can see a similar list and manage the waiting room.

Another automated feature that comes in handy for staff members is the ability to route payments directly to a stylist who is renting a chair or a room and charge deposits.

User-Friendliness

A very Easter or baby-friendly coloring scheme with a gamified layout. Basically, a bright interface, but less intuitive than Boulevard. 

Recommended for: Salons with independent stylists or room renters, and teams who value intelligent automation tools.

Choice 3: Square Appointments – Best for solo stylists and contractors looking for a free POS option

Square Appointments: Simple and free for individuals, this is the most affordable way to manage bookings, payments, and calendar workflows.

Square Appointments is very modern, designed to enable seamless integration for salon appointment booking and payments. They have other options as well, like the website builder, marketing features, and payroll options, but there are still a lot of limits to these. 

The best component to this salon POS is that it’s free for individuals, so if you are an individual stylist renting a chair, you can use a free version of Square Appointments to personally manage your bookings and your individual payments. 

Features

• Appointments
• Website builder
• Payroll options

Availability

Square Appointments can only be used in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., and Japan.

Price

Free for solo users; $45+/month for teams

Square Appointments offers a free basic service, completely free with no strings attached, and all of the other monthly options give you cancellation at any time. If you choose to incorporate email marketing, that’s another $15 per month, and SMS marketing is another $10 per month. 

All that said, I really like that Square Appointments has a subscription-free option for independent contractors, so if you are a stylist renting a single chair, you can still get the subscription-free option for payment processing and then add services at an a la carte rate.

Automations

There are limits to the emails and booking widgets you can add, so you don’t get a lot of automations 

User-Friendliness

Square Appointments is a great second place behind Boulevard because it recently added a Gantt view option to manage your team workflow and schedule, and to provide better visualization for all bookings. Not all salon POS systems have this option, and everyone processes data a little differently. So, being able to change the visualization for the calendar can prevent you or any of your independent contractors from accidentally double-booking.

Recommended for: Independent stylists or barbers renting a chair and wanting a no-fuss, low-cost solution.

Choice 4: Zenoti – Best for large salons, med spas, and privacy-focused businesses

Zenoti: An enterprise-level tool with HIPAA compliance, smart automations, and an AI-powered phone system.

Zenoti is an AI-powered POS system for salons. It has a somewhat outdated interface; one of the biggest annoyances is that a lot of the menus you click on open in a separate browser, so they don’t just transition smoothly within the same window. 

The best features are the fact that there are intelligent phone systems and a lot of automated marketing options. You won’t be short on features with options for inventory support, mobile app support, memberships, and gift cards.

Features

• Scheduling
• Memberships
• Gift cards
• Emart marketing

Availability

Available in over 50 countries around the world.

Price

~$420/month avg.

Automations

Zenoti has smart marketing automations, inventory management, and scheduling options. 

That’s why my winner for automations is Zenoti, especially for growing businesses. If you are looking for a system that helps automate some of the basic administrative tasks, especially important for small or new businesses, Zenoti has the option for customers to check in independently, for payments to be handled automatically, for follow-up emails to be sent, and for AI-powered phone lines. This can help new salons that are on a tight budget or are trying to handle everything themselves at the front desk. 

User-Friendliness

Somewhat easy to learn, but designed more for larger enterprises with time and money for training. It offers a multi-window interface, best for teams with training resources. 

Recommended for: Medical spas or multi-service businesses that need compliance and intelligent systems.

Choice 5: Mindbody – Best for international salons and multi-language support

Mindbody: An industry staple with the best global availability, excellent for salons with multilingual customers or international reach.

Mindbody is well-known. They have a very functional option for POS in managing payments. It is an easy way to get real-time payment capabilities, but it seems somewhat outdated. They offer things like Apple Pay and contactless payments, but they still have a lot of inefficient and unnecessary menu options for salons as compared to other wellness and health businesses, so it can be a little tricky to navigate. 

Features

• Payments
• Recurring appointments
• Scheduling
• Sync 

Availability

Mindbody has the best availability and is offered in over 130 countries. The best option for any salon that is working with clients or employees who speak multiple languages is by far MindBody, as it is available in over 130 countries and different languages. However, there is a catch; MindBody isn’t available to Independent stylists. It is only available for team members, so it has a much higher price compared to other software as well, because it’s meant to support a much larger salon.

Price

~$470/month

Automations

This option has automations for setting up recurring salon appointments, data syncing, scheduling reminders, and targeted messages sent to your customers, like welcome emails or expiration reminders. 

User-Friendliness

Great marketplace and an easy layout to work with. Easy layout but cluttered menus for salons.

Recommended for: International salons or those serving diverse clientele needing language and location flexibility.

Choice 6: Lightspeed – Best for retail-heavy salons needing inventory and checkout integrations

Lightspeed: A retail-first POS system that shines when integrated with other booking tools, ideal for salons selling products.

Lightspeed is a cloud-based POS. It has AI-driven benchmarking tools and a lot of sophisticated support. It offers strong integration capabilities designed for salons, which cannot be overstated because the tool itself doesn’t have booking functions, so you need to be able to integrate with another booking option.

The best feature here is that Lightspeed is designed as an alternative to salon POS systems that are marketed namely in the United States. 

Features

• Inventory management
• AI Benchmarking
• No built-in booking tool

Availability

Lightspeed has some of the biggest availability, operating in over 100 countries.

Price

$199/month + transaction fees

Lightspeed gives a 14-day free trial, and you can cancel at any time; however, every in-person transaction using a credit card comes with a 2.6% fee plus 10 cents, and every online credit card transaction comes with a 2.9% fee plus 30 cents. 

Automations

Lightspeed has automated inventory management and sales options. 

User-Friendliness

Simple enough to use, but it is really designed more toward retail, so selling products after a service. Designed more for retail than service-based workflows. 

Recommended for: Salons with a big retail operation or those looking for advanced inventory tools.

Final Recommendations

• Best for solo stylists: Square Appointments
  
• Best for international salons: Mindbody
  
• Best for med spas or enterprise teams: Zenoti
  
• Best for scaling salons in the U.S.: Boulevard
  
• Best for booth-rental or hybrid teams: Mangomint
  
• Best for retail-heavy salons: Lightspeed

If you are a solo salon owner in the US, just looking for the basics, then Square Appointments is great. If you are a new or small business and you need something that handles a lot of the front desk features in an automated style, freeing you up to focus on your business, pick Lightspeed. If you are a med spa, go with Zenoti for privacy, HIPAA compliance, and payments. 

If you are located outside of the United States or you need a system that works in multiple languages, consider MindBody. If you have a larger salon with a lot of staff, or multiple locations and you not only need automations but user friendliness with a quick learning curve and a lot of customer satisfaction, then hands down the winner is Boulevard.