A Phorest Alternative With Transparent Pricing and No Minimums

Why Salon Owners Are Switching From Phorest

Simple Salon is a Phorest alternative with transparent pricing and no staff minimums. You see the flat monthly subscription up front, you can start with a single operator rather than a minimum team size, and you can try it on a free trial with no credit card required. Phorest is a well-regarded salon software platform with a strong feature set, but the path to evaluating it starts with a sales conversation rather than a self-serve trial. There’s no public pricing, a minimum of three staff members required, and SMS messages are billed per send rather than bundled into your plan. For solo operators, small studios, or any team that wants to compare costs openly before picking up the phone, those friction points can make Phorest a difficult fit. Simple Salon is a full-featured Phorest alternative that publishes its pricing, lets you start a free trial immediately, and works for businesses of any size.

The Real Cost: Phorest 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.

See the Price Before You Talk to Anyone

Phorest requires a sales call before you can find out what you’ll pay. Simple Salon’s pricing is public: Starter from $20/mo, Pro at $34/operator/month, Max at $41/operator/month. You can read the plan details, run the numbers for your team size, and start a free trial, all before speaking to anyone. For owners who want to evaluate software on their own terms, that transparency matters.

Built for Solo Operators and Small Salons Too

Phorest sets a minimum of three staff members, which immediately excludes solo stylists, booth renters, and small two-person studios. Simple Salon has no minimum. From a single-chair operator to a 20-seat salon group, the platform scales with your business rather than requiring you to grow into it first.

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.

SMS Included: Not Charged Per Message

With Phorest, every SMS appointment reminder costs between $0.085 and $0.12 on top of your subscription. For a busy salon sending hundreds of reminders each month, that adds up quickly. Simple Salon’s Pro plan includes 200 SMS messages per operator per month as part of the subscription, no surprise overage bills, no per-message accounting.

Marketing Automation That’s Ready on Day One

Simple Salon’s Smart Send feature handles automated marketing without a separate setup: rebook reminders when clients are due back, win-back campaigns for lapsed clients, birthday messages, post-visit follow-ups, and appointment reminders all run automatically once configured. SMS, email via Campaign Monitor or Mailchimp, and WhatsApp are all supported channels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Try Simple Salon Before You Commit to Anything

Start a free trial of this Phorest alternative today, no sales call, no minimum staff count, pricing published upfront.