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5 Best Barbershop POS Software To Manage Your Shop Like A Boss

The best barbershop POS software should have excellent booking and appointment functionality along with strong inventory management. Which of these options is right for you?

    Erica Seppala
  • UPDATED

Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.

Barbershop software can help with unique challenges of shop owners. You need to stay on top of both scheduling and managing independent contractors, plus take payments securely. Can a point of sale system help? Fortunately, there are plenty of barber shop POS systems that are up to the challenge and can assist with some of the complicated back-end management.

Many of these features will also be useful to have in the best POS systems for salons and beauty shops.

In this piece, we’ll delve a little deeper into some of the best restaurant POS systems that can help out your small business.

Learn More About Our Top Picks

CompanyBest ForNext StepsBest For
Square Appointments

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  • $0-$69/month
  • Best all-around barbershop POS
  • Smart Tips option
  • $0-$69/month
  • Best all-around barbershop POS
  • Smart Tips option

Visit Site

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Franpos

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  • $199-$249/month
  • Best loyalty program
  • Intuitive calendar
  • $199-$249/month
  • Best loyalty program
  • Intuitive calendar

Visit Site

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Lightspeed Retail POS

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  • $69-$199/month (with Lightspeed Payments & annual billing)
  • Best feature set
  • Very deep reporting
  • $69-$199/month (with Lightspeed Payments & annual billing)
  • Best feature set
  • Very deep reporting

Visit Site

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Clover POS

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  • $14.95-$94.85/month
  • Best integrations
  • Expansive Clover Marketplace
  • $14.95-$94.85/month
  • Best integrations
  • Expansive Clover Marketplace

Visit Site

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Shopify POS

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  • $9-$299/month
  • Best eCommerce platform
  • Automatic tax calculations
  • $9-$299/month
  • Best eCommerce platform
  • Automatic tax calculations

Visit Site

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Read more below to learn why we chose these options.

Barbershop Software Features To Manage Your Business

Barbershops can be busy and often a bit chaotic with plenty of things to keep track of. But there are many point of sale systems that can handle all of those needs and may even have a few features you didn’t know existed that can help you be even more efficient. Here are a few things you should look for when considering a point of sale system for your barbershop:

1. Scheduling & Appointment Capabilities: A busy barbershop can be booked from open to close with scores of appointments of varying times. A good POS system can help you manage your calendar and help employees and customers handle their schedules.

2. Strong Inventory Management: Barbershops have plenty of products that always need to be in stock. Point of sale systems can provide low-stock alerts, re-order products automatically, and help manage stock between stores.

3. Good Loyalty Programs & Customer Management: Important in many businesses, drawing repeat customers is especially crucial for barbershops. Customers can be particular about their hair and are always looking for a stylist they can trust. Being able to store customer information and provide discounts for loyalty can help your bottom line tremendously.

4. Employee Management: In many barbershops, stylists or barbers act as independent contractors. Giving them the ability to manage their own schedules is important for both efficiency and morale.

5. Good Tipping Functionality & Tax Help: Gratuity is common and crucial in the barbershop industry and having a good way to track it, whether tips are pooled or kept individually, is extremely important. And during tax season you’ll want good software to help keep your books accurate as well.

5 Best Barber Shop POS Systems

The best barbershop POS software should come with good appointment management functionality, an intuitive interface for employees, and excellent customer management. Some of the top barbershop POS systems include Square, Shopify, Clover, Franpos, and Lightspeed.

1. Square Appointments: Best All-Around Barbershop POS

Square Appointments


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Pricing

$0-$69/month

Contract

None

Equipment Cost

$0-$799

Pros

  • Simple interface
  • Strong mobile app
  • Free plan available

Cons

  • Not customizable
  • Occasional fund holds

square appointments prepayment with tip

Square Appointments Barbershop Software For Booking

Square Appointments comes with a free online booking site that can be accessed by your customers. It also integrates with Google and social media platforms, giving customers the opportunity to lock in an appointment from multiple avenues. The mobile app functions similarly and is also easy to use for both iOS and Android devices.

Another unique feature of Square Appointments is the Square Assistant, which allows you to respond to customers at any time and gives customers access to scheduling 24/7.

Barbershop Software For Inventory Management

Square comes with basic inventory management that should cover most small business needs. Some of the highlights include:

  • Manage inventory by item
  • Automatic restocks
  • Enable bulk inventory
  • View history
  • Downloadable reports
  • Editable modifiers

Barbershop Software Tools To Build Your Business

Square is an all-in-one POS system with loads of additional features that can help your barbershop. A few standout areas include:

  • Integrated payment processing
  • Smart Tips option including prepay
  • Online booking site
  • Commission tracking
  • Square Contracts
  • Team management
  • Customer directory
  • Square Marketing

Square Appointments Pricing

Square Appointments has three pricing tiers. Its free plan is basic for single-location shops. Its Plus plan starts at $29/month and has expanded features and multi-location functionality. The Premium plan starts at $69/month and has extensive reporting and commission tracking.

Hardware Cost

You can use Square Appointments with Square's free reader and its chip reader, which costs $49. You can also run Square Appointments with Square Register, which costs $799 per terminal.

Payment Processing

Square Appointments uses Square's payment processing. The free plan charges 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction and, for the paid plans, you get a slight discount, with fees coming in at 2.5% + $0.10 per transaction.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

One of the biggest perks about Square is that there are no hidden fees or contracts and you can always pay month-to-month.

Get Started With Square Appointments

Read our in-depth review

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2. Franpos: Best Loyalty Program

Franpos


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Pros

  • Multi-store capacity
  • Strong loyalty
  • Good eCommerce platform

Cons

  • Glitchy software
  • Weak offline mode

franpos online bookings

Franpos Barbershop Software For Booking

Franpos has built-in booking functionality at all pricing tiers. Customers can make appointments online and employees can manage those appointments via the intuitive calendar. There is also a check-in and check-out feature for additional tracking. You can also assign employees as service providers which allows them to create their own rates for services.

Barbershop Software For Inventory Management

Franpos is a fully functional POS system with solid back-end features. This includes a decent set of inventory management features like:

  • SKU auto-generation
  • Multi-location transfers
  • Low stock reports
  • Auto-reordering
  • Check inventory remotely

Barbershop Software Tools To Build Your Business

Franpos' full feature set is impressive and many of those features were built specifically with places like salons and barbershops in mind. Here are some of Franpos' best POS features:

  • Extensive reporting
  • Omnichannel selling
  • Loyalty and gift cards
  • Targetted marketing
  • Integrations and open API

Franpos Pricing

Franpos's pricing is simple and upfront. For a single terminal at a single location, the cost is $199/month. For Franpos' franchise plan with additional features, the cost is $249/month per terminal.

Hardware Cost

Franpos offers a convenient hardware bundle for Android that comes with everything you would need to run your business but it does not disclose its pricing upfront.

Payment Processing

Franpos doesn't have its own processing service but it integrates with many companies which should allow you to get a competitive rate. Among those it integrates with are Square, Fiserv, TSYS, Heartland, Elavon, Vantiv, and Worldpay.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

Franpos lets you purchase your software plan on a month-to-month basis without a contract.

Get Started With Franpos

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3. Lightspeed Retail: Best Feature Set

Lightspeed Retail POS


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Pricing

Starts at $89/month ($69/month billed annually)

Contract

None

Equipment Cost

Contact Lightspeed for a quote

Pros

  • Strong loyalty program
  • Excellent eCommerce
  • Multilocation support on every plan
  • Intensive inventory management

Cons

  • Somewhat pricey
  • Early termination fee
  • Must use in-house payment processor

Lightspeed eCommerce website on multiple screen sizes

Lightspeed Barbershop Software For Booking

Similarly to Vend, Lightspeed also integrates with a third party for its booking; in this case, it's Booxi for an added fee.

Through Booxi, you can allow online booking and set up automated reminders, plus have employees and customers view appointments through an automatically synced calendar. Booxi also allows for multilocation booking, and you can set up full or partial payments online.

Within Lightspeed's POS software, there is a very strong built-in loyalty program to help attract and keep customers as well as store their information. Customers can also create their own profiles and use self-check-in kiosks

Barbershop Software For Inventory Management

Lightspeed has extensive inventory management along with its very generous feature set. Here's what you can expect to find:

  • Multistore transferring
  • Purchase order management
  • Customizable tags
  • Item variations
  • Shipping tools
  • In-depth inventory reporting

Barbershop Software Tools To Build Your Business

Lightspeed is a complete POS platform with a loaded feature set that should have you completely covered no matter what your barbershop needs.

Here are some of the areas where it stands out:

  • Receipts
  • Gift certificates and gift cards
  • Discounts
  • Advanced customer loyalty
  • Returns and exchanges
  • Global support
  • Deep reporting

Lightspeed Pricing

Lightspeed Retail has four pricing plans, including a custom Enterprise plan. The other three plans are the following:

  • Lean: $89/month ($69/month billed annually)
  • Standard: $149/month ($119/month billed annually)
  • Advanced: $269/month ($199/month billed annually)

All plans come with one POS register software license. To add more registers to your plan, you'll pay an extra $59/register/month.

If you want to use Booxi for booking, that also has a varied monthly fee.

Hardware Cost

Lightspeed has multiple hardware bundles to fit all of your needs and sells individual items through its website as well. However, you will need to call to get complete pricing details.

Note: Lightspeed Retail now requires all new and existing qualified merchants using Lightspeed Retail in the US and Canada to sign up for Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed's payment processor. If you currently use a card reader from a third-party payment processor, you can't use it anymore. Since you can't use any existing payment terminals (card readers) with Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed is currently running a free terminal replacement promotion for eligible merchants that includes two free Lightspeed POS terminals (card readers) per qualified merchant.

Eligible merchants include business owners that process a minimum of $100/day in credit card payments, as measured by a monthly average. Apple products are not included in this promotion, so you'll still need to source an iPad to take sales.

Payment Processing

Lightspeed has its own processing service that starts at 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments.

Note: Lightspeed will buy out payment processing contracts, paying off merchants' early cancellation fees if you process a minimum of $25,000 in card sales and then submit documentation of your previous payment processing contract that states your early termination fee within six months of meeting this minimum processing amount.

It's important to note that the "paying off" comes in the form of discounted payment processing fees, not a chunk of cash that goes towards your termination fees when you decide to switch to Lightspeed Payments.

If you are a current Lightspeed user and don't apply for Lightspeed Payments within 30 days of receiving a notification email, you'll be charged a fee between $200 and $1,120 per month until you do sign up for Lightspeed Payments.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

Lightspeed allows you to purchase software on a month-to-month basis with no contracts, but it does offer a discounted fee if you sign up annually. You will be charged an early termination fee if you cancel your plan early, so consider signing up for a monthly plan before committing long-term.

If you purchase POS hardware from Lightspeed, you must confirm that you have received your purchase within five business days of receiving it. If you don't, the hardware will not qualify for Lightspeed's 30-day hardware warranty (14 days for Apple products).

Get Started With Lightspeed Retail POS

Read our in-depth review

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4. Clover: Best Integrations

Clover POS


Visit Site

Pricing

Starts at $0/month

Contract

Depends on merchant services provider

Equipment Cost

$49-$1,799 per device

Pros

  • Large app store
  • Intuitive interface
  • Excellent loyalty

Cons

  • Payment processing issues
  • Upfront costs

clover station home screen

Clover Barbershop Software For Booking

Clover is one of the most popular all-in-one POS systems on the market and one of the main reasons for that popularity is its access to Clover Marketplace, which gives you access to hundreds of applications you can download to enhance your business. For booking and other barbershop services, Clover integrates with popular companies like MailChimp, Woo, Time Clock, QuickBooks, and Yelp.

Through these apps you can do things like create promos to encourage repeat business, receive and respond to customer feedback, and run loyalty programs. You can also manage detailed schedules and appointments through the Time Clock app. Customer management is also simple, giving you the opportunity to store customer information and preferences.

Barbershop Software For Inventory Management

Like all things Clover, you can download an app to help with your inventory. Shopventory is one of the more popular inventory management apps and Clover also integrates with Shopify and Square. Through Shopventory you get these inventory benefits:

  • Item variants
  • Invoicing
  • Sales analytics
  • Profitability reports
  • Sales channel management
  • Low stock alerts
  • Auto re-ordering

Barbershop Software Tools To Build Your Business

Clover is a one-stop shop for point of sale needs. Through its app-based software you can get everything you need to run your barbershop and potentially find some things you didn't even know existed that can help you out. Here's what Clover has to offer:

  • Advanced reporting
  • Gift cards
  • Excellent loyalty
  • Customer database
  • Virtual terminal
  • Full customization
  • Multi-store selling

Clover Pricing

Clover has a wide variety of software options depending on what you plan on utilizing and they range from $14.95 to $94.85/month. If you don't want to purchase hardware outright, monthly leasing plans that include hardware and software are also available starting at $50/month.

Hardware Cost

Clover has numerous intuitive and convenient hardware offerings to help you take payments and store information. They offer their Clover Go card reader for $49, Clover Flex payment terminal for $499, Clover Mini mobile POS system for $799, and their complete POS system Clover Station Solo for $1,349 or $1,799.

Payment Processing

Clover is sold in conjunction with a Fiserv merchant account which has a sketchy history with customer service. We recommend going through other Clover merchant providers for processing and through them, you can get a competitive rate. Clover's processing rates will vary depending on the services you use, but for in-person payments, they start at 2.6% + $0.10 and 3.5% + $o.10 for manual-entry payments.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

As mentioned, Clover is sold through Fiserv, which doesn't always have the best reputation in the industry, particularly with customer service. Definitely do your research on Clover and on Fiserve processing before signing any contracts.

Get Started With Clover POS

Read our in-depth review

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5. Shopify: Best eCommerce Platform

Shopify POS


Visit Site

Pricing

Starts at $29/month

Contract

None

Equipment Cost

$0-$500+

Pros

  • Numerous integrations
  • eCommerce platform
  • Multiple payment options

Cons

  • Weak offline mode
  • Complicated pricing

shopify pos hardware

Shopify Barbershop Software For Booking

Shopify is one of best eCommerce platforms available to small business owners and its POS software is also very highly rated. Similarly to Clover, Shopify's product can be enhanced and amplified through a variety of apps. For booking, Shopify has multiple options, most notably Servicify.

Through Servicify you can create your own appointments, set up auto-reminders and sync to Google Calendar. It also makes it easy to manage multiple staff as well as group appointments if necessary. The service is an add-on with a free option for single users and $29/month for the highest tier.

Barbershop Software For Inventory Management

Shopify also runs its inventory management through an add-on app called Stocky. With Stocky, Shopify provides these inventory features:

  • Purchase order
  • Demand forecasting
  • Transfers
  • Low stock reports
  • Inventory analysis
  • Stock adjustments
  • Sale item suggestions

Barbershop Software Tools To Build Your Business

Shopify's POS product is complete and user friendly and its a great addition to your business if you're already using Shopify for eCommerce. Here's a few other ways Shopify POS can help run things smoothly:

  • Custom payment options
  • Multi sales channels
  • Custom receipts
  • Automatic tax calculations
  • Order histories
  • Staff roles
  • Customer profiles
  • Barcode support

Shopify Pricing

Shopify's pricing is a little tricky with multiple pricing ties. They start with a Lite plan that is very basic but is offered for $9/month and there are additional plans ranging from $29/month up to $299/month.

Hardware Cost

Shopify has multiple bundle options available on its website and individual items such as card readers and scanners. You will need to contact them directly for pricing.

Payment Processing

Shopify has its own processing plan that you can use with rates ranging from 2.4% to 2.9% depending on the plan you've chosen. They also integrate with other payment processors, allowing you to shop around. However, if you have the Lite plan, you must use Shopify's in-house processing.

Contract Warnings/Requirements

Like most services, Shopify allows you to purchase its software month-to-month but it does offer discounts for signing up annually.

Get Started With Shopify POS

Read our in-depth review

Jump back to comparison chart

FAQs: Barbershop POS Software

How does a barbershop get more customers?

One of the best ways for barbershops to attract and retain customers is by having a strong loyalty program. This allows the business to store customer preference and keep information or marketing and promotions.

What is barbershop software?

Barbershop software is any software that can help with scheduling appointments, employee management, and customer loyalty. Most good point of sale systems should have these features.

How do I manage my barbershop?

A good point of sale system can help manage your barbershop. A POS with strong booking software, inventory management, and in-depth reporting can help keep you running efficiently.

What is the best barbershop POS software?

The best barbershop POS software should have excellent booking and appointment functionality along with strong inventory management. Some of the best barbershop POS systems are Square, Lightspeed, Clover, Franpos, Shopify, and Vend.

Which barbershop software and pos system is easiest to use?

We think Square is the easiest all-around barbershop software that enables taking payments from day one. You won’t need a credit check or need to have an established business to start with Square. Without this barrier, you can start taking payments immediately right from your mobile device. The software dashboard is very user friendly and simple to navigate, with clear options when it is time to enable other selling features like email marketing, booking, and online payments.

In Summary: 5 Best Barber Shop POS Systems

  1. Square Appointments:
    • $0-$69/month
    • Best all-around barbershop POS
    • Smart Tips option
  2. Franpos:
    • $199-$249/month
    • Best loyalty program
    • Intuitive calendar
  3. Lightspeed Retail POS:
    • $69-$199/month (with Lightspeed Payments & annual billing)
    • Best feature set
    • Very deep reporting
  4. Clover POS:
    • $14.95-$94.85/month
    • Best integrations
    • Expansive Clover Marketplace
  5. Shopify POS:
    • $9-$299/month
    • Best eCommerce platform
    • Automatic tax calculations
Erica Seppala

Erica Seppala

Editor & Senior Staff Writer at Merchant Maverick
Erica began writing on small business topics in 2008. She joined Merchant Maverick in 2018 and focuses on loans, accounting, and POS. She is a Certified ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll. She has been cited in MSN, Reader's Digest, Vox, U.S. News & World Report, and Real Simple. She is a graduate of Limestone University and resides in Greenville, South Carolina.
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