What Does Salon Software Cost in NZ?

Pricing pages for salon software are weirdly hostile. Half of them hide the number behind a "book a demo" button. Some advertise "free" but quietly take 20% of every new booking. And per-staff plans have a way of looking reasonable until you do the multiplication for a five-chair salon.

I went through every booking platform with a real presence in New Zealand and worked out what each one would actually cost you. Not the advertised number — the number on your card statement.

Who's in the comparison

Seven platforms: TimeToBook, Timely, Fresha, Booksy, Kitomba, Epical, and Zolmi. For each, I worked out the monthly cost at three sizes: solo stylist, three staff, five staff. Yes, TimeToBook is one of them. I've tried to be honest about where we fit and where we don't.

Monthly cost by team size

All NZD, excluding GST.

Solo stylist (1 staff)

Small salon (3 staff)

Growing team (5 staff)

Platform-by-platform

TimeToBook

• Model: Free for first staff, $15 NZD per additional staff/month
• Commissions: None
• Contract: Month-to-month, cancel anytime
• Free tier: Fully featured, no appointment limits
• Best for: Solo stylists and small salons wanting simple, affordable booking software

What you get is a calendar, an online booking page, SMS reminders, and client management. What you don't get is a POS, payroll, marketing automation, or inventory. That's the deal. If you need a stock module to track every bottle of toner you sell, this isn't for you. If you've been running on a paper diary and a group chat, it probably is.

Timely

• Model: Per staff member, per month ($42–70 NZD depending on tier)
• Plans: Build ($42/staff), Elevate ($65/staff), Innovate ($70/staff)
• Commissions: None
• Contract: Month-to-month
• Free tier: None
• Best for: Larger salons wanting a comprehensive business management suite

Timely is the long-running NZ option, out of Dunedin, with over 55,000 users worldwide. It's properly built and has the features to match. The pricing model is the problem — every staff member you add is another $42 minimum, and a five-chair salon on the cheapest plan is already at $210/month before SMS credits. Owners I've talked to don't tend to complain about the software. They complain about the bill.

Fresha

• Model: $19.95/month (solo) or $14.95 per team member/month
• Commissions: 20% on new client bookings (minimum $6 per booking)
• Contract: Month-to-month
• Free tier: No longer truly free
• Best for: Salons wanting marketplace exposure to attract new clients

Fresha used to be properly free. It isn't anymore. The headline price looks competitive, but the 20% commission on new clients is where the real cost lives — and the definition of "new client acquired through Fresha" has been broad enough that some owners have ended up paying commission on people who found them through Google or a friend's recommendation. Read the terms before you sign up.

Booksy

• Model: ~$50 NZD base (USD $29.99) plus ~$33 NZD per additional staff
• Commissions: 30% Boost commission on new clients
• Contract: Month-to-month
• Free tier: 14-day trial only
• Best for: Barbers in the US and UK markets

Booksy is built for the American market. The pricing's in USD, the marketplace barely exists in NZ, and support reviews are rough. There are better fits if you're based here.

Kitomba

• Model: Contact sales for pricing
• Commissions: Unknown
• Contract: Unknown
• Free tier: None, no free trial
• Best for: Large, established salons wanting enterprise-level features

If a software company won't tell you the price until you've been on a sales call, that tells you who they're built for. Kitomba is the all-in-one premium option with POS, stock, loyalty, and detailed reporting. Worth a look if you're running a multi-location business and you have someone whose job is to learn the system. Probably overkill if you're three chairs in a converted villa.

Epical

• Model: Weekly billing — $10/week (1 staff), $17/week (2 staff), $35/week (unlimited)
• Commissions: None
• Contract: Weekly
• Free tier: None
• Best for: Salons preferring NZ-owned software with POS features

Epical is fully NZ-owned and has been around for thirty-plus years. The weekly billing is the unusual bit — $10/week sounds tiny until you remember there are 52 of them. The unlimited plan works out at $152/month, and premium support is another $16–35/week on top.

Zolmi

• Model: Free (limited), $33/month (Start), $56/month (Pro)
• Commissions: None
• Contract: Month-to-month
• Free tier: Yes, but capped at 50 appointments and 2 staff

The free tier sounds generous until you do the cap maths. A solo stylist doing five appointments a day is at 50 inside two weeks. Fine as a way to try the software. Not realistic as a long-term plan.

The costs nobody puts on the pricing page

Headline prices are the start of the conversation, not the end. Things to check before you commit:

• SMS credits. Almost every platform charges per message. Real costs sit somewhere between 7c and 15c. If you've got 200 bookings a month, that's a line item.
• Card processing. Fresha takes 2.29% + $0.20 per card transaction. Booksy takes 2.6% + $0.30. Compare that to your existing terminal before you switch.
• Premium support. Fresha charges $14.95/month for phone and live chat. Epical's premium tier adds $16–35/week.
• Marketplace commissions. Fresha's 20% and Booksy's 30% on new clients dwarf the monthly fee for most salons that actually get marketplace exposure.

A rough recommendation

There's no single right answer here. There are reasonable answers based on what you're trying to do.

• Solo and don't want a bill: TimeToBook or Zolmi. We don't cap bookings. They do.
• Three to five chairs, want simple: TimeToBook for $30–60/month, or accept Timely if you need the deeper feature set and the price is worth it to you.
• You want marketplace traffic and accept the commission: Fresha, eyes open.
• You're running a multi-location operation and want everything in one place: Kitomba's worth a sales call.

The truthful version is this: the best software is the one you'll actually use every day. If you're still running off texts and a paper diary, almost anything in this list is an upgrade. The decision is mostly about how much you're willing to pay, and how much complexity you're willing to absorb in return.

Pricing was checked in February 2026. These platforms change their plans often — if you spot something out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.