Acuity Scheduling and Square Appointments both let clients book a service online, pay and get a reminder. The difference is the business model behind them. Acuity charges a subscription and lets you pick a payment processor. Square gives the booking tool away for one location and earns from processing fees. That one difference decides most of the comparison below.
This comparison uses the plans, prices and processing fees shown on acuityscheduling.com and squareup.com on 25 October 2026, Acuity's help centre for the Square integration, and public reviews. It also covers Booknetic, which does the same job inside a WordPress site for a flat licence and comes from our own install.
Short answer. Pick Square Appointments if you already take payments through Square, run one location and want a free plan with unlimited staff. Pick Acuity Scheduling if you sell packages, memberships or gift certificates, need intake forms before the appointment, or need a HIPAA agreement. If your business runs on WordPress, Booknetic gives you the Acuity-style booking flow on your own site for a flat yearly price, with no per-location fee and no processor lock-in.
The two tools at a glance
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Pricing side by side
Acuity's prices below are the yearly rate per month with the monthly rate in brackets. Square's prices are per location per month, and Square has no yearly discount.
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For one person at one location, Square is cheaper on paper: $0 against $192 a year on Acuity Starter. The processing fees are similar on both, because Acuity users pay their processor's standard rate too. The gap narrows once you need what Square puts on Plus. No-show fees, a waitlist and multi-staff booking cost $588 a year on Square Plus, while Acuity Standard has a waitlist and packages for $324 a year on yearly billing.
The free plan question
"Is Square Appointments free?" is one of the most searched questions about the tool, so here is what the Free plan includes and what it leaves out, as shown on the pricing and features pages.
Included on Free: an online booking site and widget, unlimited staff calendars, automated email and text reminders, Google Calendar sync and booking buttons on Instagram, Facebook and Google. It also has class booking, card on file, customer profiles and invoices.Not on Free: a cancellation policy with no-show fees, a waitlist, multi-staff appointments in one booking and custom text templates. Those start on Plus at $49 a month per location.Not on Free or Plus: resource booking for rooms and chairs, the future bookings report and service cost tracking. Those are Premium at $149.The real price: every card payment goes through Square at 2.6% plus 15 cents in person or 3.3% plus 30 cents online. You cannot use Stripe or PayPal.Acuity has no free plan. Its pricing FAQ says it does not offer free appointment scheduling, only a 7-day trial. Starter at $16 a month covers one calendar with payments, intake forms and email reminders.
Features head to head
The table uses the plan pages of both vendors. Where a feature depends on the plan, the plan is named.
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Verdict. Acuity is the stronger scheduling tool: more calendar integrations, intake forms, packages and memberships, resources on every plan and a HIPAA agreement. Square is the stronger front desk: free unlimited staff, text reminders on the free plan, a point of sale with hardware, inventory and payroll. If the appointment is the product, Acuity. If the appointment is the start of a sale at a counter, Square.
Can you use Square payments with Acuity Scheduling?
Yes, and this is the combination many salons end up with. Acuity lists Square as one of its payment processors on every plan, next to Stripe and PayPal. You connect a Square account under Acuity's payment settings, and clients pay by card when they book. In person, the Acuity admin app takes payments through a paired Square Reader or Square Stand, or with Tap to Pay on a phone. Acuity's help centre notes that Square card readers work with Acuity in the United States only.
Online Card payments at booking, payment links after the appointment, deposits and saved cards
In person Acuity admin app with Square Reader, Square Stand or Tap to Pay; readers US only
Extras Tips, branded invoices, receipts and Strong Customer Authentication
Plans Available on Starter, Standard and Premium
Fees Acuity charges nothing extra; Square's processing rates apply
This means the choice is rarely "Acuity or Square payments". It is "Acuity's scheduling with Square's processor" against "Square's scheduling with Square's processor". The second option saves the Acuity subscription. The first keeps packages, intake forms and the wider calendar sync.
What a solo stylist and a five-chair salon pay
Yearly subscription totals from the pricing pages read in October 2026, for one person at one location and for a salon with five staff at one location. Processing fees come on top in every row and depend on the processor and the card volume.
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Square wins the subscription line for one location as long as the Free plan covers what you need. Acuity wins once no-show fees and a waitlist matter, because Standard at $324 beats Plus at $588. A flat WordPress licence undercuts both, with no per-location fee and the processor of your choice.
Which is better for your business?
A salon or barbershop in the US that already uses Square hardware: Square Appointments Free, then Plus when no-show fees start to matter.A tattoo or piercing studio that takes deposits: either tool takes a deposit at booking; Acuity adds intake and consent forms, Square adds retail checkout for aftercare products.A clinic, therapist or wellness practice that needs HIPAA: Acuity Premium, which signs a business associate agreement. Square does not.A coach or consultant who sells session packages online: Acuity Standard, with packages, memberships and intake forms. Our Calendly vs Acuity comparison covers the meeting-link side.A salon with three locations: compare Square at $0 or $49 per location with Acuity Premium at $55 for 36 calendars across locations.A business that already runs on WordPress: Booknetic, with the booking flow on your own domain and one yearly price for unlimited staff and locations.An agency setting up booking for clients: Booknetic Premium or Elite with multiple domains; neither Acuity nor Square has a reseller plan.
Booknetic: the third option for WordPress sites
Acuity and Square both host your booking page and bill you every month, one by subscription and one by processing fee. Booknetic is a WordPress plugin, so the booking page, the customer records and the payments live on your own site. The licence is a flat yearly or lifetime price per site, not per calendar or per location. The widget walks a customer through location, staff, service, extras, date and time, their details, a cart with the price and a coupon field, and a confirmation.
The feature list covers what people buy Acuity for: recurring appointments, packages and waiting lists, gift cards, coupons, custom forms, a customer panel, invoices and taxes, multiple locations and user roles. Reminders run through a workflow engine by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram. Google Calendar sync, Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams links and webhooks for Zapier are in the plan list too. Payments go through Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce and other gateways at the processor's rates, so there is no lock-in to one processor.
Type WordPress plugin; customers book on your own domain
Free version Yes, from booknetic.com, with limits and a branding bar
Yearly plans Basic $45 ($89 regular), Standard $99 ($199), Premium $149 ($399), Elite $299 ($599)
Lifetime plans Basic $99 ($199 regular), Standard $239 ($399), Premium $599 ($799), Elite $699 ($1,599)
Staff and locations Unlimited on every plan; licensed per site
Payments Local payment on Basic; Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce from Standard; all 10 gateways on Elite
Guarantee 14-day money-back guarantee
The Booknetic booking plugin was installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end for our tested roundup of booking plugins, so these points come from a real install. The Acuity and Square points above come from their plan pages and public reviews; we did not run paid accounts for this update.
One flat price per site. A five-chair salon pays $99 a year on Standard ($199 regular), against $324 on Acuity Standard or $588 on Square Plus.
No per-location fee and no processor lock-in; a second location on the same site costs nothing extra.
Packages, waiting lists, gift cards, deposits, coupons and custom forms are in the plan list rather than paid add-ons.
The booking page uses your domain and theme, and the customer data stays in your WordPress database.
You need a WordPress site and a host; there is no hosted sign-up and no card reader of its own.
Basic covers local payment and one domain, and the mobile app starts on Standard.
Updates and backups are your job, as with any plugin.
How these tools were checked Acuity Scheduling plans and prices were read on its pricing page on 25 October 2026 with both billing toggles. The Square integration facts come from acuityscheduling.com/partners/square and the Acuity help centre article on accepting payments in person with Square. Square Appointments plans, processing fees and plan features were read on squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing and its features page on the same day. Ratings are from Trustpilot on the same day: Acuity 3.6 from 687 reviews, Square as a whole 3.6 from 7,509. Neither hosted tool was run in a paid account for this update. Booknetic was installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end for our tested roundup of appointment booking plugins; its prices are from booknetic.com/pricing on the same day. Prices change, so check the vendor before you buy.
FAQ
Is Square Appointments free? Yes, for one location. The Free plan costs $0 a month and includes unlimited staff calendars, an online booking site, email and text reminders and Google Calendar sync. Square earns from processing fees of 2.6% plus 15 cents in person and 3.3% plus 30 cents online. No-show fees, a waitlist and multi-staff booking need Plus at $49 a month per location.
How much is Square Appointments per month? $0 on Free, $49 per location on Plus and $149 per location on Premium, billed monthly, plus processing fees on every card payment. Plus and Premium have a 30-day trial.
Does Acuity Scheduling work with Square? Yes. Square is one of Acuity's payment processors on every plan. Clients pay by card when they book, and in person you take payments through the Acuity admin app with a Square Reader, a Square Stand or Tap to Pay. Square readers work with Acuity in the United States only.
Does Square Appointments send reminders? Yes. Automated email and text reminders are on the Free plan. Custom text templates and Square Assistant replies start on Plus. Acuity sends email reminders on every plan and text reminders from Standard.
Is Square Appointments HIPAA compliant? Square does not offer a business associate agreement for Appointments, so it is not a fit for a practice that must sign one. Acuity signs a BAA on its Premium plan. Booknetic runs on your own server, so compliance depends on your hosting and setup.
Which is better for a salon, Acuity or Square? Square, for most US salons that sell products and use card readers: the booking is free, the staff count is unlimited and checkout, tips and inventory live in one app. Acuity, for a salon that sells packages and memberships, needs intake forms or runs on another processor. A salon on WordPress can run Booknetic for a flat licence instead.
Can Booknetic replace Acuity or Square Appointments? For a service business on WordPress, yes: customers pick staff, service and time on your site. They pay a deposit or the full price through Stripe, PayPal or WooCommerce and get reminders by email, SMS or WhatsApp. It does not replace Square's point of sale hardware, so a shop that needs a counter terminal keeps Square for checkout.
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