If you have shopped around for salon software in India, you have probably noticed that “pricing” means very different things depending on who you ask. Some charge a flat subscription, some take a cut of your bookings, and some lure you in free then bill you on payments. Here is how to read past the marketing and work out what you will actually pay.
The three pricing models you will meet
Almost every salon platform falls into one of these:
- Flat subscription — a fixed fee per month or year, regardless of how much you earn
- Commission / marketplace — “free” or cheap software that takes a percentage of new-client bookings and/or payments
- Freemium + paid add-ons — a free base plan where the features you actually need are paid extras
Why “free” is usually the most expensive
A 15–20% commission on new-client bookings feels painless per transaction and brutal per year. On a salon doing even modest new-client revenue, that cut routinely adds up to more than a flat annual subscription — often several times more. Run the numbers for your own salon with our savings calculator and the “free” option usually stops looking free.
The costs people forget to add
- Payment fees — is the gateway locked to the vendor at their rate, or can you use your own?
- Per-user or per-location charges that grow as you do
- SMS/WhatsApp message costs for reminders and marketing
- Onboarding or data-migration fees to get started
What fair pricing looks like
The most predictable model for a growing salon is a flat plan with every feature included, your own payment gateway (so you keep 100% of payments), and no commission. That is the approach we take — see the Salonior pricing page for exact numbers. The point is not that flat is always cheapest on day one; it is that you can predict it, and it does not punish you for growing.
How to compare two quotes fairly
Put both on the same one-year basis. Take your realistic monthly bookings and revenue, then add up: subscription + commission + payment fees + message credits + add-ons + onboarding. Compare the totals, not the headline price. The cheapest sticker often has the highest total.
The right question is not “what does it cost per month?” It is “what will this cost me over a year as I grow?”
Want pricing you can actually predict? Start your free Salonior trial — every feature included, 0% commission, no credit card required.