Pick the wrong salon software and you're stuck with it for a year, watching hidden fees creep up while support takes three days to reply and the system freezes every Saturday afternoon.

Plenty of salon owners learn these lessons the expensive way. The questions below get you the answers before you've signed anything.

The real monthly cost

The advertised price is rarely the price you end up paying.

That £25/month on the website is per user, so with six stylists you're paying £150/month. Add SMS fees at 8p each for 400 reminders a month and there's another £32, and online booking is a £20 add-on on top.

Before signing anything:

  • Per user or per salon? Per-user pricing triples your cost the moment you hire.
  • What's locked behind upgrades? Online booking, deposit collection, marketing tools, and proper reporting are often sold separately.
  • What are the SMS rates? 5p vs 12p per message is the difference between £20 and £48 a month, every month.
  • Growth penalties? Some systems charge more when your client list hits certain thresholds. Get those thresholds in writing before the surprise lands on an invoice.

Contract terms and lock-ins

Good software keeps you because you want to stay. The contract matters most on the day you decide to leave, so check these terms before you sign anything:

  • 12-month lock-ins. A lot can change in a year, and you shouldn't need a supplier's permission to adapt.
  • Auto-renewal traps. Buried in clause 14, your contract renews automatically unless you cancel 60 days before it ends, by post, to a specific address. Miss that window and you're in for another year.
  • "Reasonable" price increases. "Reasonable" means whatever they decide it means, and once you're locked in you've got no bargaining power.

Data ownership and export

If you can't take your client list with you when you leave, the list belongs to the vendor, whatever the contract says.

  • Full export available? Names, numbers, emails, appointment history, notes. Everything.
  • Usable format? CSV or Excel you can open anywhere, not some proprietary file only their system reads.
  • Export fees? Some charge £200+ to hand over your own data. That's hostage pricing.
  • Time limit after cancelling? Seven days to export before they delete it all is more common than you'd think.

Evasive answers here tell you exactly how leaving will go.

Testing support before you buy

Everyone claims "award-winning support," so test the claim before you buy.

  • Send a question now. Time how long a real answer takes. Some vendors reply in three hours, others in three days, and you want to know which you're buying.
  • Check their hours. You're open Saturdays, and if they aren't, "we'll get back to you Monday" is no help when the till crashes mid-afternoon.
  • What channels? Email-only with 48-hour response times is support in name only.

The features that matter day to day

Those comparison tables with 47 green ticks are designed to overwhelm you, but you'll only use about six features regularly. Make sure these work:

  • Speed. Time how long it takes to book an appointment during the demo. If it's sluggish when they're trying to impress you, imagine what it'll be like on a Saturday.
  • Online booking with deposits. Pull out your phone and try to book. Does it collect a deposit by card at the point of booking? If not, you're still chasing people for payment before they arrive.
  • Client records. Notes, patch test dates, and preferences need to come up fast.
  • Checkout. Split payments, discounts, retail. If checkout is slow, the queue builds at the desk.
  • Reporting. Daily takings, staff performance, and who hasn't been in for three months should all take seconds to find.

What to ask for in the demo

Interrupt the demo and ask them to show you:

  1. Book a colour appointment for a new client with consultation time
  2. Move that appointment to tomorrow
  3. Split payment: half card, half cash
  4. Pull up a client's notes from six months ago
  5. Show everyone who hasn't visited in 90 days
  6. Export the client list to a spreadsheet

If any of this needs "just a few extra steps," multiply those steps by every busy Saturday for the next two years.

Signs to walk away

  • "Call for pricing." The price is complicated and expensive, and they'd rather explain it on a call so there's no paper trail.
  • No free trial. They already know you won't like what you find.
  • "This offer ends today." Real businesses don't run countdown timers, and the deal will still be there next week.
  • Evasive answers on data export. If they dodge the question now, expect an export fee later.
  • Hidden pricing. Companies confident in their pricing publish it on their website.

Making the decision

You'll live with this software every working day: your staff will use it, your clients will book through it, and you'll stare at it for hours.

The right software makes things easier in the first week, not after a month of training. If that's not what you're seeing, keep looking.