Leave Square for software built for barbershops
Square Appointments is a solid all-rounder, but barbershops need more than general scheduling. Setora is £39/month flat, purpose-built for barbershops.
The real numbers
What you actually pay each month
Note: Square’s booking pages show “Powered by Square” branding.
Solo barber - 1 location
Square
£0/mo
+ 1.75% processing, no no-show protection
Setora
£39/mo
No per-staff fees. No commission.
Square’s free tier is genuinely cheaper for solo. But no-show protection and SMS cost extra.
3 barbers - 1 location
Square
~£50-80+/mo
£29 Plus + marketing £9 + loyalty £25 + staff £20
Setora (all-in)
£39/mo
No per-staff fees. No commission.
Save £130-490+/year
5 barbers - 2 locations
Square
~£130-180+/mo
£58 (2x Plus) + add-ons across locations
Setora (all-in)
£78/mo (2 locations)
No per-staff fees. No commission.
Up to £1,200+/year
Square pricing: Free (1 location), Plus £29/location, Premium £69/location. Add-ons: Marketing from £9/mo, Loyalty from £25/mo, Advanced Access £20/mo. Setora: £39/mo per location excluding VAT. SMS billed separately. All figures from public pricing pages, February 2026.
Client relationships
Owning your client relationships
Generic scheduling vs barbershop workflows
Square treats your barbershop the same as a restaurant or retail store. Service duration can’t vary by barber, walk-in queues don’t exist, and the booking experience is generic.
Your brand, not “Powered by Square”
Square’s booking pages show “Powered by Square” branding. Custom domains require workarounds through Square Online. Setora gives you a clean, branded booking page.
Great data portability
Credit where it’s due - Square has the best data export and API access of any competitor. If you switch, your data comes with you easily. Need help? See our data portability guide.
What’s different day-to-day
Booking page
Branded for your shop, not “Powered by Square”
Processing
Stripe rates, no per-transaction surprises
Workflows
Barbershop-specific, not generic scheduling
What Square does well
We’re not going to pretend Square is a bad product. Here’s where credit is due:
- Unbeatable free tier. A solo barber can run online booking, payment processing, and customer management at £0/month. No other competitor comes close for a single-person operation.
- Best data portability. Self-service CSV export of all data, plus the most comprehensive API of any booking platform. Your data is genuinely yours.
- Transparent processing. 1.75% flat with no per-transaction pence fee is clean and predictable. Plus and Premium get 1.6% - competitive across the board.
- Strong integrations. Native Xero and QuickBooks integrations, plus an open API ecosystem. If accounting sync matters, Square delivers today.
Square is the right choice if you’re a solo barber who wants free booking software, or if you need accounting integrations right now. But if you’re a growing barbershop that wants purpose-built tools and a branded experience, Setora is built for exactly that.
No card required. Cancel anytime.
Three steps. One day. Done.
Export your data from Square
Under GDPR, Square must let you download your client list, booking history, and service data. We’ll show you exactly how.
Set up your Setora account
Add your services, staff, and opening hours. Customise your booking page. Takes about 20 minutes.
Import clients and go live
Upload your client data, share your new booking link, and start taking appointments. Same day.
Before you switch
Square has excellent data portability. You can self-export all customer and transaction data as CSV, and they have a comprehensive API. We’ll help you import everything into Setora.
For a solo barber, Square’s free tier is genuinely hard to beat - £0/month with basic booking and 1.75% processing. But it lacks no-show protection, SMS confirmations, and advanced staff management. As you grow, Plus at £29/location plus add-ons adds up quickly.
Square’s accounting integrations are a genuine strength. Setora’s Xero integration is on the roadmap. If Xero sync is critical today, Square may be the better choice until we ship ours.
Square Plus charges £29 per location. Two shops cost £58/month, three cost £87. Setora charges £39 per location - comparable for single sites, but the barbershop-specific features make the difference.
Square is built for all appointment-based businesses. It lacks barbershop-specific workflows like walk-in queues, and you can’t customize service duration per barber (a 30-minute cut for one barber, 45 for another requires duplicate services).
Cancel anytime. No exit fees. Export all your data - clients, bookings, everything - at any time, for free.
Ready for booking software built for barbershops?
£39/month. Unlimited barbers. Every feature included. Try it free for 14 days.
No card required Cancel anytime Setup in minutes
Pricing and feature information for Square Appointments was sourced from their public pricing page at squareup.com/gb/en/appointments/pricing, last verified February 2026. Setora pricing excludes VAT. If anything has changed, let us know and we’ll update this page.
Comparing other platforms? Booksy · Fresha · Nearcut · Resurva · Setmore · Squire · Timely · Treatwell · Vagaro