Full-Featured Salon Software That Doesn’t Scale Against You

Why Salon Owners Are Switching From Timely

Simple Salon is a Timely alternative with one flat monthly subscription, so adding operators to your team does not push the price up. Reporting, CRM and automated marketing are part of the all-in-one core product, alongside online bookings, POS and rostering, so the tools you need are included as standard. Timely is a capable salon scheduling tool with a clean interface, but its per-staff pricing tiers make it one of the more expensive options as a team grows beyond two or three operators. Owners looking for a Timely alternative often cite the cost at scale and limited product development in recent years, particularly around reporting, CRM, and marketing automation, as the reasons they start evaluating other platforms.

The Real Cost: Timely vs Simple Salon

Your data is yours, always

Some providers make it hard to leave, locking your client list and history behind a paywall, charging you to export your own data, or tying you into long contracts and other strange rules. We don’t play those games. With Simple Salon your clients, bookings and reports are always yours: export everything anytime, at no cost, with no lock-in. If you ever move on, you take it all with you.

The Cost Gap Widens Every Time You Add a Staff Member

Timely prices by the staff member, with rates ranging from $42 to $79 per person per month depending on the plan. A four-staff salon on a mid-tier plan runs A$168-$316/mo. Simple Salon Pro is $34 per operator per month, putting a four-operator salon at $136/mo. That difference, between $136 and $316, represents meaningful overhead for a small business, and the gap only increases with each additional hire.

40+ Reports Included, No Upgrade Required

Simple Salon includes over 40 reports covering KPI dashboards, staff performance, product sales, benchmarking, and more, all in the standard subscription. Timely includes reporting, but the platform’s development focus in 2025-26 has been almost entirely on payments infrastructure (Tap to Pay, terminals, digital wallets) rather than reporting depth or CRM innovation. If detailed business analytics matter to how you run your salon, Simple Salon’s reporting breadth is a tangible advantage.

Your data is yours, always

Some providers make it hard to leave, locking your client list and history behind a paywall, charging you to export your own data, or tying you into long contracts and other strange rules. We don’t play those games. With Simple Salon your clients, bookings and reports are always yours: export everything anytime, at no cost, with no lock-in. If you ever move on, you take it all with you.

Marketing Automation That Runs Without Manual Work

Simple Salon’s Smart Send feature delivers automated marketing campaigns: reminders, win-back sequences, birthday messages, and more, without requiring manual setup each time. Timely’s smart automations are rule-based rather than AI-driven, and its one AI-powered feature, “Textie Bestie,” generates SMS copy suggestions but does not automate campaign execution. For salon owners who want their software to actively support client retention, the difference in capability is meaningful.

BYO Payment Processor: Choose Your Own Rates

Simple Salon works with Tyro, Stripe, Worldline, PIN Payments, Mercury, and KPay. This means you can shop for card processing rates independently and switch processors as your business needs change. Timely’s payment processor options are more limited, which can constrain your ability to optimise processing costs over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Switch to Simple Salon: More Features, More Predictable Pricing

Start a free trial of this Timely alternative and compare the full feature set side by side before committing.