- Best for creating simple automations: monday CRM
- Best for omnichannel communication: Bitrix24
- Best free CRM for salons: HubSpot
- Best for sales funnel visibility and tracking: Pipedrive
- Best for point-of-sale hardware: Vagaro
From managing customer information, automating appointment reminders, and storing important reports, salons can greatly benefit from implementing CRM software into their business. From general CRM providers with in-market adaptations to software built especially for salons, this guide will help you figure out the best solution for your business.
Top salon CRM software comparison
In addition to the top CRM features you’d expect from any general provider, salon management software should offer holistic customer profiles, allow for appointment booking, help build marketing campaigns, and manage payments.
As an operational software, these solutions assist in managing services from end-to-end so stylists, administrators, and owners can focus on providing exceptional service to their clients.
| Star rating | Starting price* | Customer profiles | Appointment scheduling | Marketing features | Invoice/ Payment processing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| monday CRM | 3.5/5 | $12 per user, per month | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes |
| Bitrix24 | 4/5 | Free starting price | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited |
| HubSpot | 4/5 | Free starting price | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pipedrive | 4.3/5 | $14 per user, per month | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited |
| Vagaro | 3.9/5 | $30 for 1 bookable calendar, per month | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| *Price when billed annually. | ||||||
monday CRM: Best for creating simple automations
monday CRM users can automate repetitive tasks by creating customizable rules and triggers. Through these no-code automations, your notifications, meeting reminders, and task assignments can happen automatically in the background. This leaves you with more time to focus on providing great service to clients. Features like these can be helpful for salons that want to send automated appointment reminders or marketing campaigns to clients, or even process documents.
Why I chose monday CRM
monday CRM is best known for its customization capabilities as a sales platform. Users can customize their dashboards, interfaces, and automations all with no coding experience and an intuitive drag-and-drop kanban view. It’s a great solution for salons looking to automate repetitive tasks and have a centralized place for all customer data.
If you’re interested in a similar tool with more free features and integrations, I recommend considering HubSpot.
For more information, read the full monday CRM review.
Pricing
- Free version: Basic CRM offerings only available for students and nonprofit organizations after submitting an application.
- Basic CRM: $12 per user, per month when billed annually, or $15 when billed monthly.
- Standard CRM: $17 per user, per month when billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly.
- Pro CRM: $28 per user, per month when billed annually, or $33 when billed monthly.
- Enterprise CRM: Contact monday.com for a quote.
Features
- Dashboards: Customize dashboard views to reflect the most important information you and your admins need.
- Team goals: Manage individual and team quotas and track progress over time.
- Whiteboard collaboration: View, edit, and tag team members on a shared, collaborative whiteboard.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 14-day free trial. | Free plan is only available after approvals. |
| Supports unlimited contacts. | No customer relationship features available in the basic plan. |
| Offers up to 1 TB of file storage. | Users mention occasional update delays. |
Bitrix24: Best for omnichannel communication
Bitrix24 promotes productive collaboration and communication through built-in features for chat, online meetings, task management, calendar integration, workflow automation, and document collaboration. Owners, administrators, stylists, or any other person with access can schedule events and organize meetings from a synced calendar. You can also create and co-edit documents online, all while chat history is stored for reference.
Why I chose Bitrix24
Bitrix24 markets itself as an all-in-one solution for task management, e-commerce, HR, automations, and CRM functionality. It offers a free version of the software with limited access to standard CRM features. Bitrix24 also has an on-premise edition with enterprise-grade security that’s designed to be hosted on your own server with full access to the source code and API.
Bitrix24 offers a different pricing structure than most general CRM providers by not having the tiers priced per user but rather per organization. This might be intriguing for small salons looking for a basic provider. But if you want a solution specifically built for salons and have a budget big enough, consider Vagaro.
Read the Bitrix24 review for more information.
Pricing
- Free: Free for unlimited users but only supports up to 5 GB of storage space and limited communication features.
- Basic: $49 per organization for five users when billed annually, or $61 when billed monthly.
- Standard: $99 per organization for 50 users when billed annually, or $124 when billed monthly.
- Professional: $199 per organization for 100 users when billed annually, or $249 when billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Billing starts at $399 per organization for 250 users when billed annually, or $499 when billed monthly.
Features
- Chat: Message other internal employees about client updates, appointment rescheduling, and more.
- AI sales assistant: Generate marketing texts and campaign ideas, and have phone calls transcripted and stored by an AI sales assistant.
- Mobile CRM: Access and manage client information and calendars from your smartphone using the Bitrix24 mobile app.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 15-day free trial. | Users report loss of updates when bugs happen. |
| Offers REST API for integrations. | Premium plans are pricey for smaller businesses. |
| Users praise the intuitive interface once up and running. | Users report poor customer support. |
HubSpot: Best free CRM for salons
While other CRM providers on this list might offer a basic free version, HubSpot’s free CRM contains a robust mix of sales and marketing tools. Popular free features that would benefit a salon include the meeting scheduler, email template builder, and the dashboard and reporting software. All of these powerful tools can help salon employees market their services and manage appointments and customers.
Why I chose HubSpot
HubSpot is a popular CRM platform that offers a mix of free and paid features for marketing and sales teams. With advanced technology, like AI tools for generating content and competitive integration capabilities, HubSpot is a go-to solution for companies across different industries.
HubSpot is an extremely scalable tool, but the premium plans can be pricey for smaller salons. For a more affordable general CRM tool with similar management tools, I suggest checking out Pipedrive.
For more details, head over to the full HubSpot review.
Pricing
- Free CRM: Free for up to five users with contact management, quotes, live chat, and more.
- Sales Hub Starter: $15 per seat per month, billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly.
- Sales Hub Professional: $90 per seat per month, billed annually, or $100 when billed monthly and one-time $1,500 onboarding fee.
- Sales Hub Enterprise: $150 per seat per month, with an annual commitment and one-time $3,500 onboarding fee.
Features
- Meeting scheduler: Allow clients to book meetings while controlling availability with syncs to Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar.
- Live chat software: Connect website visitors in real time with employees to schedule services, answer questions, and provide customer support.
- Company insights: View important individual or business insights like performance ratings, booking rates, revenue, and more.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 14-day free trial. | Users report occasional limitations around user permissions. |
| Has over 1,500 possible integrations. | Higher premium plans can be costly. |
| Offers a suite of marketing, sales, and service software. | Users report a slight learning curve with the platform. |
Pipedrive: Best for sales funnel visibility and tracking
Pipedrive is a CRM solution where users can easily manage and view entire sales pipelines, including goal setting and activity tracking to help create reports. The pipelines can be altered to fit the exact process of a salon with its custom fields, drag-and-drop interface, and intuitive design. In addition to clean data imports, salons can stay organized and build out more effective sales processes.
Why I chose Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a user-friendly CRM solution known for its visual pipelines that help simplify any sales processes, regardless of the type or size of business. Pipedrive is a great option for those in need of a more sales-focused software without any additional marketing tools. Pipedrive can also be adapted for unique or niche industries like healthcare, nonprofit, or automotive sales.
Pipedrive doesn’t offer a native paymenting and invoicing tool, but instead it integrates with Quickbooks to create, view, and send invoices. If you prefer a tool built specifically for payment management, I recommend Vagaro.
For more information, read the full Pipedrive review.
Pricing
- Essential: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 when billed monthly.
- Advanced: $34 per user per month, billed annually, or $44 when billed monthly.
- Professional: $49 per user per month, billed annually, or $64 when billed monthly.
- Power: $64 per user per month, billed annually, or $79 when billed monthly.
- Enterprise: $99 per user per month, billed annually, or $129 when billed monthly.
Features
- Lead management: Import, track, and filter through leads based on criteria with automatic lead qualification, prioritization, and nurturing workflows.
- Email segmentation: Filter your email recipient lists based on campaign data and past interactions to send targeted emails.
- AI sales assistant: Receive insights and suggestions from an AI Sales Assistant that consistently analyzes current and past deals, contacts, and emails.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 14-day free trial. | More sales focused than marketing. |
| Supports international clients. | Doesn’t offer a free-for-life tier. |
| 24/7 customer support. | Limited reporting capabilities compared to others on this list. |
Vagaro: Best for point-of-sale hardware
Vagaro uniquely offers reliable point-of-sale hardware that manages transactions and records operations. The entire suite of tools includes receipt printers, card processor, a scanner, a dual-screen pay desk, cash drawer, and swivel stand. This way, clients can schedule appointments, make secure payments, and leave feedback quickly.
Why I chose Vagaro
Vagaro can handle service transactions from online booking to secure payment processing. It offers an array of features built for curating client experience, back office management, payment processing, and marketing and branding. Some standouts include Vagaro AI, integrations, mobile app, rent collection, and inventory tracking.
Vagaro is a booking software made exclusively for beauty, wellness, fitness, and grooming businesses. Since the pricing breakdown is by bookable calendar, it is the most expensive option on my list. If you’re hoping to try a more affordable option and are okay with a generalized CRM software, I recommend HubSpot or Bitrix24.
Pricing
- One location: $30 per month for one bookable calendar, $40 for two bookable calendars, $50 for three, $60 for four, $70 for five, $80 for six, and $90 per month for seven or more bookable calendars.
- Multiple locations: Contact the enterprise team for a quote.
Features
- Vagaro Pay Desk: Use the fully integrated dual screen point of sale hardware for scheduling, marketing, and payment processing.
- Online booking: Customize all online bookings to accept appointments or require them to be requested with flexibility to accept, reschedule, or deny. Also save credit cards on file for holding online appointments.
- Custom forms: Select from templates or build a custom form such as legal waivers, intake forms, and surveys with responses automatically saved to client accounts.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 30-day free trial. | Pricey compared to others on this guide. |
| Real users praise the easy to learn interface. | Not as feature-rich as other solutions. |
| EMR and HIPAA compliant | Users report occasional glitches. |
How do I choose the best salon CRM software for my business?
I recommend following general best practices to learn how to adapt a salon CRM software to your needs in order to find the best options. Start with the providers on my list above and consider signing up for free trials or product demos to map out their onboarding process.
Here are some questions I suggest asking before choosing salon software:
- Does this CRM tool integrate with all of my existing tech tools?
- Does this CRM tool offer the guest management tools that my business needs?
- Are the core sales features offered by this software equipped enough to streamline my sales process?
- Is the CRM open-source?
- Does this CRM fit my budget, or would a free CRM be better to start with?
- How quick is the onboarding process to get started using this tool?
- Can the CRM software scale up to adapt to my growing business?
- Does this CRM tool have any in-market specialization for salons?
Methodology
Each of the CRM providers on this list was scored using my in-house rubric with criteria and subcriteria that cover CRM software features and business benefits. Next, an algorithm calculated an overall star rating out of 5. Beyond summarizing key features and pricing plans, I also assigned each software an ideal use case.
Each solution above was scored with the following criteria breakdown:
- Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
- Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
- Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
- Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
- Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
- Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.