BeautiDock vs Booksy: fees, features and who it suits (2026)

BeautiDock and Booksy solve different problems: Booksy is a booking app with a consumer marketplace, SMS and a card reader for $29.99 a month, while BeautiDock is your own booking website with deposits and email reminders that never costs more than $19 a month. If most of your clients already know you, BeautiDock is usually cheaper; if you need the app to find new clients, Booksy is the stronger choice.

Prices below were checked on Booksy's US pricing and features pages in October 2026.

Where Booksy is stronger

• New clients. Booksy runs a consumer marketplace; it says 44 million clients worldwide use it. With Boost turned on, Booksy promotes you and charges 30% of a new client's first visit, capped at $100, only when that client books. BeautiDock has no marketplace at all.
• SMS. Booksy includes unlimited automatic appointment reminders and 2,000 free marketing text messages a month. BeautiDock sends email only for now, which matters if your clients don't read email.
• Payments at the chair. Booksy sells card readers (Stripe Reader M2 at $53.10, S710 at $299), supports Tap to Pay (2.49% + 20¢) and has a POS. BeautiDock has no POS or reader.
• No-show fees on a saved card. Booksy can charge a cancellation fee to a card on file. BeautiDock protects you with deposits, not card-on-file fees.
• Extras: waitlists, gift cards, memberships, packages, custom forms and Google booking are on the Booksy pricing page.

Where BeautiDock is stronger

• Cost that follows your bookings. Your first 30 online bookings are free, then $0.50 each, capped at $19 per professional per month. Bookings you add yourself (walk-ins, phone, DMs) are always free. A slow month costs less.
• Team pricing. A 4-person team pays at most $76 a month on BeautiDock versus $89.99 on Booksy ($29.99 + 3 × $20).
• Your brand first. Clients book on your own site (three templates, your colors, your photos, a page per service, a team page), not on a profile next to nearby competitors. With the optional Pro look ($9/month) you get your own domain and no BeautiDock branding.
• Deposits with automatic refunds. You set a deposit per service and a cancellation window: cancel before it and the deposit is refunded automatically, cancel after and you keep it. The money goes straight to your own Stripe account.
• Retention built in: a loyalty card, rebooking reminder emails and Google review request emails, all included.
• Languages: booking pages in English, French and Spanish.

What it costs: a worked example

Assumptions (labelled, not a quote): one stylist, 80 online bookings a month, average service $70, and 4 of those bookings are new clients Booksy would bring through Boost. Card processing is left out because you pay it on either tool.

Your first month on BeautiDock is cheaper still, because the first 30 online bookings are free.

Two honest caveats. First, the Boost column only makes sense if those 4 clients would not have found you anyway; if each one rebooks ten times, $21 per client is cheap marketing. Second, BeautiDock deposits cost Stripe's fee plus 0.9% (about 3.8% + 30¢ on a US card), which is more per payment than Booksy's card reader rate. If you take a $20 deposit on every booking, that is about $85 a month in fees on BeautiDock, so set deposits only on the services where no-shows hurt.

Switching from Booksy

1. Export your clients. Booksy lets you export your customer list to a CSV file; past appointment history has to be requested from Booksy support, according to Goldie's migration guide.
2. Set up BeautiDock: services with durations and prices, opening hours, deposits and your cancellation window. Import the client CSV.
3. Book yourself on your new page from your phone, then cancel and rebook to see what clients see.
4. Share your new link in your Instagram bio, Google Business Profile and at the chair, and stop taking new online bookings on Booksy the same day.
5. Keep Booksy until the appointments already booked there are done, then cancel (no commitment on Booksy's side).

Want the wider picture first? See our best salon booking software comparison or Fresha and Booksy alternatives. You can start free on BeautiDock, no card needed.

Sources

• Booksy US pricing
• Booksy US features
• Goldie support: Importing from Booksy
• Stripe pricing
• BeautiDock pricing