20+ Best Apps for Hairstylists to Stay Organized & Grow Business

As the cliché goes — there’s an app for that. 

The life of a hairstylist is go, go, go, and being able to run your business on your phone is crucial. 

Here are the best apps for hairstylists to help keep your business organized, booked, and shining on social media.

20+ Best Apps for Hairstylists

Feel free to scan our list of the best hairstylist apps, or you can simply jump to the type of app you’re looking for with our categories. 👇

Categories:

• Best Booking Apps for Hairstylists
• Best Social Media Apps for Hairstylists
• Best Photo & Video Editing Apps for Hairstylists
• Best Business Management Apps for Hairstylists
• Best Finance Apps for Hairstylists
• Best Hairstylist Apps for Collecting Payments

Best Booking Apps for Hairstylists

Goodbye, salon appointment books!

Online booking for hairstylists is a must, if you want your schedule to stay organized and busy.

Schedulicity

Schedulicity is an all-in-one booking app for hair stylists.

It has an intuitive booking calendar (that’s color-coded!) and a bunch of appointment and client management tools.

Schedulicity also has built-in payment processing, email marketing, and other scheduling features. 

The best part is you get almost every feature in the app. This makes it super easy to switch between the app and your salon’s desktop or iPad –– and still stay organized.

Here’s a few stylist-favorite app features:

• Pay-by-text: Schedulicity offers pay-by-text. This contactless payment option allows you to text a client their bill straight to their phone, eliminating any awkward will-they-won’t-they tipping moment. (Clients can also scan a QR code, and pay via card on file.) 
• Email marketing: Schedulicity’s automated email marketing is so easy. Set up automated emails to welcome new clients, say thank you after appointments, and send out happy birthday messages to clients.
• Promotional tools: Schedulicity’s Deal Manager is a unique feature that allows you to create promotions, or discounts, and share them on social media or via email marketing.

📚 Extra Credit: What’s the best software for stylists? Check out our ultimate comparison between salon apps, like Schedulicity, Acuity, and GlossGenius. 

Vagaro

Built for managing larger salons, Vagaro is still a go-to booking app for many solo hairstylists. 

As a scheduling app, Vagaro offers a few extra features that larger salons might find handy, such as payroll and clock in/clock out capabilities.

Vagaro, like its competitors, has an iOS and Android app for you to run your hair business.

Its advantage is that you can create your own branded app for clients to use to book with you –– if you’re able to spend an extra $200 per month.

GlossGenius

With tools to help manage your clients, calendar, and marketing, GlossGenius targets hustlers and girl bosses in the hair and beauty industry. 

Their app has plenty of go-to features hairstylists need to manage their business on the go, like scheduling, client management, and marketing. 

Here are a few of GlossGenius’ best features:

• Appointment waitlists: Keep your calendar full by opening up last-minute appointments to a waitlist. 
• Easy-to-read reports: Stay on top of your numbers with built-in analytics and revenue data.
• Client notifications: Send appointment reminders, confirmations, and appointment update notifications to keep clients informed. 

(P.S. Schedulicity’s app has all these features, too!)

Best Social Media Apps for Hairstylists

Social media marketing is the way to market your hair business, and there are several social media apps to help you stay engaged with your clients and grow your brand.

Here are a few of the best social media apps for hairstylists:

Instagram for Business

If you don’t already have an Instagram account for your business, you’re missing out on a ton of easy brand awareness and extra revenue.

Instagram for Business is more than a personal Instagram account. It has specific business tools to help hair stylists build relationships and grow their client list. 

It’s the perfect social media app to:

• Share content, like before-and-after photos of clients
• Promote sales and discounts 
• Stay engaged with your followers (aka the clients who already know and love you) 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media scheduling and posting app that functions like a personal assistant.

Hootsuite is built to give hair business owners the ability to manage their social media all in one place.

(We’re talking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest — all manageable through one app.)

With Hootsuite, you can log in and:

• Schedule and post content to all your social media accounts
• Track how well your posts are doing with engagement analytics
• Give a little “boost” to the content that’s doing well
• View all your scheduled and published content together in a calendar setting

Later

Later makes social media management easier for solo hairstylists.

This app gives you the business tools you need to plan, manage, and execute your salon’s social media strategy.

Plus, Later offers a “link in bio” tool for nearly every social media platform out there. 

This makes it easier for your followers to jump from your social media to say…

Your booking page or your website.

And turn social media fans into your actual clients. 

Want to plan out a month’s worth of social media content all at once? Later has you covered.

Tailwind

Are you a hairstylist who loves Pinterest? And daydreaming about your brand’s ~aesthetic~?

Tailwind is the perfect social media app for you.

It’s the most powerful Pinterest-specific scheduling app.

Tailwind schedules out Pins to particular Boards, essentially allowing you to sit back and watch…

Or devote more energy to other parts of your business, such as client retention. 😉

Canva

Canva is more than just a photo-editing app, which we’ll get into below.

It’s an all-around graphic design app that hairstylists can use to create unique social posts.

Canva has a gallery of social media post templates, fonts, and graphics to help you make the perfect Instagram or TikTok post.

You can add your own photos and logos, change colors to match your brand, and so much more. 

They even have templates to help with videos, like Reels and TikTok videos!

While Canva’s paid app has cool additional features, solo stylists can absolutely get everything you need out of their free version.

Best Photo & Video Editing Apps for Hairstylists

As a hairstylist, it’s important to be able to create photos and videos to showcase your work. 

Here are a few of the best photo and video editing apps for hairstylists:

Snapseed

Snapseed provides hairstylists with powerful photo and video editing tools to enhance the details of their work.

Snapseed ensures that the colors and textures of hairstyles are accurately represented.

Bonus: Their selective adjustment tool is particularly useful for highlighting specific features of a hairstyle.

Colorcinch

Colorcinch, formerly Cartoonize, has built-in AI enhancements and color adjustments to help hairstylists create vivid and appealing images of their work. 

Plus, their “Cartoonizer” tool adds a unique, playful touch to promotional materials. 

The Cartoonizer (and other artistic effects from Colorcinch) make your Instagram portfolio stand out in a sea of stylists on the Explore page.

Hair Color Booth

Hair Color Booth is a game-changing app for hairstylists. It allows you to experiment with and showcase different hair color options to clients. 

It’s also great to help clients visualize potential drastic hair changes before you put it all that time and color. 

Hair Color Booth makes it easier for clients to decide on a major new look without commitment.

Canva

Yep, Canva also serves as a handy photo and video editing app for hairstylists. 

Canva’s super simple drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create professional-looking content your clients will love (and probably share to their Stories).

CapCut

If you’re looking for a video editing app to help you edit short videos for Instagram or TikTok, CapCut is the perfect solution.

CapCut is easy to use and social media friendly, and this app helps hairstylists:

• Create compelling before-and-after videos to highlight their skills and show off hair transformations
• Share step-by-step tutorials and hair care tips with visual aids and text overlays.
• Use sound effects, fun visuals, and trending music to make videos more captivating, increasing viewer engagement
• Produce polished promotional videos that can attract new clients and enhance your social media profile

Best Business Management Apps for Hairstylists

Todoist

Looking to boost productivity and track your hair business’s progress?

Todoist is a business productivity app. It’s better known as a digital to-do list.

In this app, you can:

• Set and manage daily and weekly business goals
• Check off smaller to-do items between appointments 
• Visualize your productivity in trends to see which areas of your business you can invest more time into

Evernote

“Tame your work, organize your life.”

Hairstylists are known for jumping from one thing to the next, and maybe even getting a little distracted along the way. 😬 

Evernote is a handy productivity app for hairstylists, because it helps you remember tasks and organize your day.

Looking to put together a new marketing campaign to boost your business? 

Brainstorming a new logo or redesigning your salon brand?

No matter your project, Evernote is there to keep you organized and timely.

Gloss: Save Formulas & Clients

Say goodbye to index cards and sticky notes! 

With the Gloss app (not to be confused with the stylist scheduling app, GlossGenius), you can maintain detailed records of your clients’ color formulas and service history.

On top of recording client color formulas, you can:

• Snap photos for each hair appointment
• Keep track of what you charge each client for each service
• Share photos to social media
• Get a daily reminder to enter formulas
• Keep supplies lists

Charm: Diary of Hairstylist

Charm: Diary of Hairstylist manages client information, hair color formulas, hairstyle before-and-after photos, and more.

It saves you time behind the chair and ensures your clients always get that perfect look from their inspo photo. 

(You can even search their public image gallery during an appointment, if your client forgot an inspo pic!)

Best Finance Apps for Hairstylists

QuickBooks Solopreneur

QuickBooks Solopreneur app is perfect for self-employed hairstylists, like booth renters. 

It simplifies financial management, which allows you to focus more on your craft and less on paperwork. 

Here’s what you can do with this QuickBooks app:

• Automate accounting tasks and reduce the time spent on financial admin stuff
• Track your business expenses and income to ensure accurate financial records (and get the biggest tax refund possible)
• Send prompt and professional invoices to improve cash flow and client management
• Accurately log business travel miles to and from the salon, which are a valuable deduction at tax time
• Get simplified insights and reports to help you make informed business decisions and plan for growth

Wave Invoicing Software

Wave gives you the simple, quick ability to invoice your clients — without the complicated features of robust accounting software.

This financial app offers easy-to-use, accounting-specific features hairstylists will love, making it one of the top apps for small business owners.

Best Hairstylist Apps for Payment Processing

As a hairstylist, your appointments and getting paid go hand-in-hand. 

Finding the right app to manage client payments is key. 

Here are the best apps for hairstylists for smooth, fast payment processing:

Schedulicity

As a scheduling app for hairstylists, Schedulicity keeps payment processing simple.

Schedulicity built payment processing into their app, so you can accept payments in person after an appointment. (Schedulicity even has desktop and mobile credit card readers.)

You can also accept payments online before clients book with you. You can ask for a deposit, card-on-file hold, and prepayments. 

The best part?

Schedulicity offers one of the lowest credit card transaction fees in the hair industry!

2.6% + $0.10 for every type of transaction. No hidden fees.

(Plus no client booking fees, no customer support fees, no cancellation fees.)

And… 

Remember: Schedulicity offers pay by text, so you can text your clients the bill, and they can pay from their phone –– no matter where they are.

Square

Square is one of the most well-known and robust payment processing apps. It’s a great mobile payment tool for hairstylists, and it’s built into many scheduling apps, like Acuity.

With a POS system and inventory management, there’s no doubt Square has the financial tools to help you manage payments and products. 

However, you have to keep track of their varying payment processing fees — instead of a simple flat rate, like Schedulicity. 

Square’s Processing Fees

• 2.6% + $0.10 for credit card dips, swipes, or taps
• 2.9% + $0.30 for e-commerce 
• 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in transactions

📚 Extra Credit: To compare the details for popular payment processors, take a look at our salon credit card processing comparison chart.

Stripe

Stripe is a powerful, flexible payment processing app that offers extensive customization and a range of features.

It’s a great payment app for hairstylists who need a scalable system for handling various payment methods.

They have a simple processing fee — 2.9% + $0.30 — for online and e-commerce transactions. 

But… 

Keep in mind that Stripe doesn’t have card readers, which means you’ll need another solution for in-person transactions. 

Venmo for Business

You’ve likely used Venmo for peer-to-peer payments, like splitting a restaurant tab or sending money for bills to your roommate.

Venmo is also popular for payment processing for business owners.

It’s called Venmo for Business, and it has its perks — such as contactless payments and a relatively low processing fee.

But it also has its disadvantages.

With Venmo, all processing fees are non-refundable. 

That means… 

If a client successfully submits a chargeback or requests a refund, you don’t get your money back — but Venmo gets to keep its share. 😳

Plus, there isn’t a way to automatically include sales tax with Venmo, which, depending on your state, is a necessity as a hairstylist.

Venmo’s Processing Fees

• 1.9% + $0.10 for debit card, Venmo balance, or bank transaction
• 2.29% + $0.10 for contactless payment, like Apple or Google Pay

📚 Extra Credit: Here’s Why You Should Stop Accepting Venmo for Small Business Payments.