6 Best POS Systems for Hair Salons, Ranked (2025)

As a salon owner, you probably gravitated to the beauty industry because you’re creative, artistic, and like helping people look and feel their best. 

Picking the best salon point-of-sale (POS) system may not be the most exciting part of the salon-owning process, but it’s an important one. The right salon POS system can save you time, headaches, and money by streamlining your processes, increasing efficiency, reducing overhead costs, and supporting service and product upsells. 

Since picking a POS that works for all your needs is paramount, here’s what you need to know to pick the best salon POS system for your business. 

What is a POS system?

A POS system is a package of software and hardware that processes retail sales both in-person and online. A quality POS is an all-in-one system that lets you pick from a pricing menu then charges for the specific services, treatments, and/or products your client receives, calculates the total sale after taxes, and accepts payment.

However, that’s not where the benefits of a good salon POS system ends. You can opt for salon POS software with additional features that emphasize selling products, both online and onsite, as well as expedite the service process, such as appointment scheduling and check-in.

6 best POS systems for hair salons

The most effective retail solutions are built on a single platform where in-store and online sales naturally work together. This eliminates the complexity of managing separate systems while giving you a complete view of your business.

The benefits of this unified approach are proven: data from an independent consulting firm found that merchants that use Shopify POS benefit from operational efficiencies that save the equivalent of 0.4 full-time employees per store location. They also see up to a 5% uplift in gross merchandise value, and a 22% lower total cost of ownership relative to the market set surveyed.

But we understand that you might want to compare your options. In that case, we’ve rounded up seven of the best POS systems for hair salons, ranked by their features, use cases, and pricing.

1. Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one solution that lets salon owners sell from anywhere. From multiple locations to an ecommerce website and social media storefronts, all of your data flows back to a central operating system. It is the only platform to do this natively. 

What’s great about Shopify is that it’s completely customizable. New hair salon owners can use Tap to Pay on their smartphone to get up and running quickly. When you’re growing and ready to open another salon, benefit from native payment processing and app integrations to build a customized POS system that grows with your business. 

Best features include:

• Plug-and-play POS hardware 
• Omnichannel selling
• Real-time inventory management
• Unified customer profiles
• Native payment processing 
• Staff management tools
• Unlimited products and SKUs 
• Multi-store management
• Detailed reporting dashboards 
• Over 8,000 compatible apps

“Shopify POS has empowered us to transform our business from an ecommerce seller to an omnichannel retailer practically overnight, with the flick of a switch,” says Anthony Nappa, CEO and chief customer officer at Oz Hair and Beauty. “Because we no longer need extensive developer input and third party POS integrations, we quickly grew the retail side of our business and launched seven stores easily.”

Monthly subscription: From $29 per month.

Payment processing fees: From 2.6% plus 10¢ for in-person transactions, or 2.9% plus 30¢ for online payments. 

2. Square

Square offers multiple POS systems, but the one that may align the best for hair salons is Square Appointments. Salon owners can use the POS to sell products through social media, arrange online bookings with a particular beauty professional, and process payments from clients in your salon. 

Best features include:

• Free booking website
• Gift cards
• Client profiles and notifications
• Cancellation policies and no-show fees
• Range of POS hardware, including a standalone register and mobile app

Monthly subscription: Free plan available. 

Payment processing fees: 2.6% plus 10¢ for card present transactions, or 2.9% plus 30¢ for cart not present transactions.

📝LEARN: How Shopify compares to Square POS

3. Mangomint

Mangomint is specifically designed for salons in the wellness and beauty industry. It provides subscription models that help optimize your salon’s cash flow, and offers built-in integrations with popular tools such as Mailchimp and Shopify. 

Best features include:

• Flexible payment options
• Recurring billing
• Appointment calendar 
• Two-way texting with clients
• Payroll processing 

Monthly subscription: Starting at $165 per month for up to 10 service providers. Premium features, such as integrated forms and two-way texting, have an additional fee.

Payment processing fees: 2.45% plus 15¢ for in-person transactions, or 2.9% plus 20¢ for online transactions.

4. Fresha

Fresha’s POS and appointment booking system is designed for beauty and wellness services. It offers card terminals to accept in-store payments using its native payment processor, and doesn’t charge a monthly fee for its basic POS plan. 

Best features include:

• Mobile app marketplace for discoverability
• Native reviews
• Marketing promotions
• Unlimited appointment bookings
• Loyalty programs 

Monthly subscription: Free.

Payment processing fees: 2.79% plus 20¢ for online transactions, or 2.29% plus 20¢ for in-person transactions. There’s an additional 10¢ fee for Tap to Pay transactions.

5. Clover

Clover is a well established POS company that serves service-based businesses, including hair and beauty salons. It offers native marketing tools such as promotions and gift cards, alongside a robust inventory management to keep track of your products. 

Best features include:

• Inventory management 
• Promotions and gift cards
• Employee and client scheduling
• Accounting and payroll integration
• Virtual terminal for on-the-go payment processing 

Monthly subscription: Clover doesn’t have a monthly plan. Instead, it requires you to pay for the POS device. Prices for the Starter terminal start at $279.

Payment processing fees: 2.6% plus 10¢ for transactions where the card is tapped, swiped, or inserted. If you manually type a customer’s credit card in, the payment processing fee is 3.5% plus 10¢.

📝LEARN: How Shopify compares to Clover POS

6. Mindbody

Mindbody is a POS company that serves retailers in the fitness and wellness industry. Hair salons, in particular, can use its POS system to create their own mobile app, schedule appointments with clients, and take payment for services. 

Best features include:

• Automated marketing
• Staff management
• Appointment booking and scheduling
• Sales reporting
• Branded mobile apps

Monthly subscription: From $79 per month, per location. 

Payment processing fees: Mindbody doesn’t share transaction fees for U.S. businesses publicly. You’ll need to contact its sales team for a custom quote. 

Features to look for in a POS system for hair salons

Mobility

Not all POS systems are fixed to the checkout. Handheld POS devices, whether a standalone terminal or a mobile app on your smartphone, offer greater flexibility and convenience for salons.

For example, if a customer is chatting with their stylist about hair extensions for an upcoming event, the stylist can use a mobile POS to bring up product specifications and pricing within a few seconds. The stylist can book their hair extensions consultation on the device while their existing service is in process, without potentially forgetting about it at the end. 

Shopify’s Tap to Pay feature turns any smartphone into a complete POS system without additional hardware. Stylists can download the Shopify POS app on their smartphone, sign into their account, and process payments from their phone.

Appointment scheduling

Online appointment scheduling lets you manage appointments and project how many clients you’re going to see in the coming weeks, so you can plan your books accordingly. Plus, you can manage your time off and have visibility into your coworkers’ schedules with a few clicks of a button. 

These POS features help you (and your staff) schedule hours for those appointments and walk-ins efficiently. For example, automated reminders and confirmations can be sent to clients a few days before their appointment. 

Appointment scheduling can also extend to your website for a fully integrated online booking experience that provides clarity to clients at home and stylists in the studio. That way, customers can pick their service with their preferred hairstylist and just book online when they’re ready.

Check-in features

Do you know the feeling when you’re wrapping up an appointment and getting ready to start the next one on time, but your second appointment hasn’t checked in yet? Without clear notification, you might take a walk-in to avoid losing money from a no-show—before realizing your scheduled client was waiting in their car the whole time.

These logistical snags are a headache and, at their worst, can leave a client with a negative impression, reducing the odds that they’ll return. That’s why digital check-in features—whether they’re initiated by a salon host or by the client—are key to a positive experience. You know in real time the status of your next client, and there is little confusion in the mix of checking customers in and out.

Payment processing

Many of your clients expect to pay with plastic. Find a salon POS that not only has seamless payment processing software, but also provides a way for customers to choose how much they want to tip their stylist. With it, you can avoid the awkward moment of asking about a gratuity.

Shopify POS, for example, offers native payment processing through Shopify Payments. You can accept a variety of payment options at checkout:

• Debit or credit card
• Mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay
• Buy now, pay later with Shop Pay Installments 
• Gift cards
• Loyalty points (whether earned online or in a salon) 

Product and service catalog

After a haircut or styling, some customers may want to buy products used or recommended by the stylist when getting their hair done. 

To make pricing and checkout easier for you and your clients, find a POS system that supports migration of your product catalog to your POS system. From there, you can ring up all of the items in a customer’s cart within seconds. 

When your POS system is built on the same infrastructure as your online store, customers can buy online and pick up in-store—or even buy online and have you ship it to their homes—when they need more products. 

Employee management

The economics of a salon is typically about the chairs: a common agreement has each stylist paying for their chair each month, just like rent. 

An employee management element included as a part of your POS system offers insights into stylists’ schedules, time-off requests, and financial projections, as well as who’s in demand and thriving within the business and who may be struggling. Information like that can help you guide stylists to update their rates for their services.

💡Pro tip: Shopify apps like EasyTeam and Gusto let you manage your workforce from your POS system. Track sales commission, create operational checklists (such as store closing procedures), and run payroll directly within your Shopify POS dashboard.

Customer profiles 

The relationship your customers build with their stylist plays a huge role in how likely they are to come back. But when you’re serving hundreds of customers per month, it can be easy to lose track of details that are specific to each client. 

Look for a POS system that has a native customer database. Shopify is unique in the sense that it doesn’t just create customer profiles based on POS data alone. When a client purchases a product from your online store, completes a feedback survey, or enrolls in a loyalty program through an app integration such as Smile, all this information is automatically part of their single customer profile.

Having this data available at your fingertips allows stylists to refresh their memory on a customer before they arrive. If the profile shows that on their last visit Sarah mentioned her upcoming wedding, for example, the stylist might offer to double the value of their 250 loyalty points and throw in a free gift as a congratulations.

Reporting and analytics

As opposed to making decisions based on a hunch or gut instinct, POS reports give you hard evidence to prove what is (or isn’t) working. With detailed reporting dashboards and real-time analytics, you can answer questions like:

• Which is our most popular service? 
• Which products do customers buy most often, and how often do we need to replenish this inventory? 
• What percentage of revenue comes from new vs. existing customers? 
• Which payment method do our customers prefer in the salon? 
• Which discounts and sales promotions are most effective at enticing clients to book an appointment? 

Because Shopify unifies data from all sales channels and sources into a single operating system, you can take both a micro- and macro approach to reporting. 

Perhaps you find that clients in your New York store are more likely to buy shampoo, whereas those in Chicago prefer leave-in treatments. This insight lets you fine-tune your approach—like bumping up your safety stock levels for each popular SKU in either location, or expanding your product line and testing it on audiences in locations where the flagship item is already popular. 

Power your hair salon with Shopify POS

Choosing a POS system for your hair salon business is no small feat. Write down your essential features and budget, and start shortlisting potential vendors. Just remember that the best option for your salon now might not be the right one in the long term. Ask for each vendor’s roadmap and determine whether the system has the functionality to grow as your salon does. 

Unlike traditional salon systems that require complex integrations between your website and in-store POS, Shopify provides a single platform where everything naturally works together. This means less time managing technology and more time focusing on what you do best—helping clients look and feel their best.