Square Appointments pricing 2026: plans, fees, no-shows
2026-10-29 · 8 min read
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It's Tuesday at a three-chair salon. You already take cards on a Square reader, so when someone says "just use Square Appointments for booking," it sounds like the cheap answer. Then you open the pricing page and find three plans, a different card rate on each, and a monthly fee that counts per location. Before you move your book, you want to know what Square Appointments pricing comes to once card fees, no-show charges and texts are in.
I checked Square's Appointments pricing page on October 29, 2026. Every price and rate below comes from that page. Pricing pages change, so look again before you sign up.
Square Appointments pricing at a glance
There are three published plans and one custom tier. The monthly fee applies to each location. Per the FAQ, Plus and Premium each come with a free 30-day trial, and you can cancel or switch plans anytime.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Who it's for, per the page |
|---|---|---|
| Square Free | $0 per location | Solo professionals taking payments and managing schedules |
| Square Plus | $49 per location | Growing teams needing more advanced tools |
| Square Premium | $149 per location | Large salons with complex staff and booking needs |
| Square Pro | Custom, through sales | Businesses processing over $250,000 a year |
Square doesn't publish a Square Pro price. The page says to talk to its team about custom pricing and processing fees if you process more than $250,000 a year.
Every plan, Free included, has unlimited staff calendars ("There is no employee limit"), so adding a stylist won't push you up a tier the way it does with some booking tools. What moves you up is the features you need.
What each plan includes for a salon
This is the part that decides your tier. I've kept to the booking and client features a salon uses day to day.
| Feature | Free | Plus | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online booking site, Book Now on Instagram, Facebook and Google Business Profile | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prepayments, deposits, automatic contracts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text and email appointment reminders | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clients reply to a reminder text to confirm, cancel or change (Square Assistant) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Appointment confirmations by text and email | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cancellation policy and no-show fees | No | Yes | Yes |
| Waitlist | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-staff booking and processing time (for color) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Google Calendar sync | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated business number, call to text, voicemail transcription | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shift scheduling, timecards, tip pooling and commissions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Email marketing and automated campaigns | No | Yes | Yes |
| Resource management (rooms, chairs, stations) | No | No | Yes |
| Future bookings, service cost and team performance reports | No | No | Yes |
The line that matters most for a lot of salons is the no-show fee. On Free you can take a deposit when someone books, but charging a card on file for a late cancellation is a Plus feature. If a no-show policy is the reason you're switching, budget for Plus from day one. I wrote up what that policy should say in no-show policy templates, and the deposit-or-card trade-off in booking deposit vs card on file.
Square card rates by plan
The card rate drops a little as the plan goes up. Here's the table from the page:
| Payment type | Free | Plus | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap, dip or swipe (card present) | 2.6% + 15¢ | 2.5% + 15¢ | 2.4% + 15¢ |
| Online or through an invoice | 3.3% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Manual entry or card on file | 3.5% + 15¢ | 3.5% + 15¢ | 3.5% + 15¢ |
| Afterpay | 6% + 30¢ | 6% + 30¢ | 6% + 30¢ |
| ACH bank transfer on an invoice | 1%, $1 min | 1%, $1 min, $10 cap | 1%, $1 min, $10 cap |
| Cards issued outside the US | Extra 1.5% | Extra 1.5% | Extra 1.5% |
| Cash or check | Free | Free | Free |
Some quick math with those rates:
- An $80 cut paid at the chair costs $2.23 in processing on Free, $2.15 on Plus and $2.07 on Premium.
- A $40 no-show fee charged to the card on file costs $1.55 on every plan, because card-on-file payments are 3.5% + 15¢ no matter which tier you're on.
- Online deposits are where the gap between Free and Plus is widest: 3.3% against 2.9%.
The lower rates on their own rarely pay for an upgrade. Going from Free to Plus saves 0.1% on in-person cards, so you'd need about $49,000 a month in card-present sales before the savings covered the $49 fee. On online payments the gap is 0.4%, which breaks even at about $12,250 a month in online card sales. For most small salons, the reason to pay for Plus is the no-show fees, waitlist and confirmations.
Text marketing and other fees
A few charges sit outside the monthly fee:
| Fee | Free | Plus | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text message marketing | Not available | 500 texts a month included, then 3¢ each | 2,500 texts a month included, then 1.5¢ each |
| Gift card load fee | 2.5% | 2.5% | 0% |
The texts count per account, per the page. A Plus salon that sends 1,500 promotional texts in a month pays for 1,000 of them, or $30. The page lists appointment reminders as a separate feature from text marketing, but it doesn't say whether reminders count toward the 500. Ask before you assume they don't.
What a salon actually pays each month
Subscription only, from the published per-location fees, before card processing:
| Setup | Plan | Monthly fee |
|---|---|---|
| Solo stylist, deposits only, no no-show fees | Free | $0 |
| Three chairs, no-show fees and a waitlist | Plus | $49 |
| Same salon with a second location | Plus x 2 | $98 |
| Day spa booking treatment rooms | Premium | $149 |
If you're comparing booking tools, I priced out the others the same way in GlossGenius pricing and Vagaro pricing.
What Square Appointments leaves to you
Square books whoever gets to the booking page. The clients you lose mostly slip away before they find the link or after they walk out:
- A new client calls while you're mid-foil and gets voicemail. Plus gives you call to text and voicemail transcription, but somebody still has to read it and reply before she books with the salon down the street.
- The comparison table leaves appointment confirmations off Free, so a first-time client who books at 11 at night hears nothing from you until the reminder. My appointment confirmation text post has wording you can use.
- A client checks out without rebooking, and nobody notices until she's overdue by a month.
- Premium's future bookings and team performance reports are there, but on Free and Plus you're counting rebooks and no-shows by hand, if anyone counts them.
Automating around Square without moving up a tier
Most of that list can be handled with small pieces that sit next to the plan you already have, using Square's booking link and your own number:
- A missed-call text back from the salon's number within a minute, with your Square booking link.
- A confirmation text the moment someone books, for salons on Free.
- A rebooking text timed by service, so a trim and a full color don't get the same nudge on the same schedule.
- A Friday summary on your phone: new clients, rebooks, no-shows and cancellations by stylist.
Builds start at $500 one-time, then a flat monthly from $99 after an included run-in period, cancellable. If all you want is no-show fees and a waitlist, Plus at $49 is the cheaper answer and you should take it. A build is for the gaps the plans don't fill. More on how this works for salons is on the salon and med spa automation page.
What stays with a person
Some of this shouldn't run on its own. Charging a no-show fee to a regular of eight years is a judgment call. Square gives you the tool to charge the card on file, but someone should decide before that charge goes through. A color correction consult, a bride who wants a trial at 7 on a Friday, a client upset about last week's cut: those need you or your front desk on the phone. I'd let the system handle the texts and the weekly counting, and keep anything that changes how a client feels about coming back with a person.
Before you switch your book
If you're pricing Square Appointments, or you're already on it and the phone still eats your afternoons, book a free 20 minute process audit. We'll look at where bookings slip in your week and whether the fix is a plan upgrade or a small build next to the plan you have. Book it here.