Square Appointments is the default answer for a huge number of small service businesses, and there are good reasons for that. It is free at the entry tier, the payment processing is genuinely excellent, the hardware is available off the shelf, and if you already use Square for retail the whole thing just connects. Mako is not competing on ubiquity. It is a service-business platform — commissions, inventory tied to services, real financial reporting — for owners who have outgrown a booking calendar attached to a card reader.
Square Appointments: Free at $0/month per location, Plus at $49/month per location, and Premium at $149/month per location. Payment processing is charged separately at Square's standard rates, and businesses processing over $250,000 per year can negotiate custom pricing. Note the per-location wording — on the paid tiers, the monthly fee applies to each location you run.
Mako: Pulse is free. Paid plans are Mako Basic at $139/month, Mako Team at $249/month, and Enterprise at $999/month — roughly 20% less on annual billing at $1,334, $2,390, and $9,588 per year. Basic includes 3 team members, Team includes 15, Enterprise is unlimited. Additional locations on Team are $75/month each; Enterprise includes three.
For a single-location salon, Square Free is unbeatable on price and Square Premium at $149 sits just above Mako Basic at $139. The picture changes with locations: Premium across three sites is $447/month, against Mako Team at $249 plus two extra locations at $75 each, or $399. Both platforms have a free tier, but they are free at different things — Square Free runs the business, Mako Pulse measures whether you are keeping clients.
Square Appointments is built to serve every appointment-based business — salons, dog groomers, tutors, consultants. That breadth is why it is so easy to start with, and it is also the limitation. A salon does not just book appointments. It splits revenue with stylists on tiered commission, sells retail with real margin, consumes product during services, and lives or dies on rebooking rates. Generic scheduling software handles the appointment and leaves the rest to you and a spreadsheet.
Square Appointments: Free tier is a fully functional booking and payments platform for a solo operator.
Mako: Pulse is free but measures retention; the operational platform starts at $139.
Edge: Square, clearly, for running a business at zero cost.
Square Appointments: Best-in-class. Readers, terminals, tap-to-pay, and an ecosystem you can walk into a shop and buy.
Mako: Online payments and invoicing via Stripe. Solid, but not a hardware ecosystem.
Edge: Square, decisively.
Square Appointments: Basic commission support. Complex tiered splits and tip handling get awkward.
Mako: Tiered commission rules, tips, timesheets, and payout tracking as a core feature, with 15 team members included at Team.
Edge: Mako, significantly.
Square Appointments: Strong sales reporting, shaped like retail analytics.
Mako: P&L, cash flow, service-level profitability, LTV, and forecasting, shaped like a service business.
Edge: Mako.
Square Appointments: Paid tiers are charged per location, at full price each.
Mako: $75/month per additional location on Team; three included at Enterprise.
Edge: Mako beyond one site.
Square Appointments: Payroll, banking, loans, marketing — an entire connected suite.
Mako: QuickBooks, Stripe, and Google Calendar, with the business tools built in rather than bolted together.
Edge: Square for breadth of ecosystem.
Pick Square Appointments if:
Pick Mako if:
Your salon is a business. Not a hobby, not a side project, not a calendar with a cash register. It deserves software that treats it accordingly. If your platform cannot tell you whether you are financially healthy, it is not doing its job. And in 2026, you have better options.
See Mako in action — no sales call required
Mako is built for independent service-business owners who would rather spend their time on clients than on demo calls. Open the live demo, poke around, and see exactly how scheduling, billing, and financial intelligence come together in one place.
Try the demo: https://app.makocrm.so/demo
Self-serve. Instant access. No forms, no calendars, no "talk to sales."
