4 Salon POS Software Options for Growing & Established Salons

When people talk about point-of-sale (POS) software, they may actually be referring to one of three parts of the payment process:

• The POS software (and the hardware it runs on): This is the part that records the sale. It’s almost always cloud-based, and rings up the service, applies discounts and tips, and ties the transaction to a client and a staff member. The physical terminal and card reader typically come with it.
• The payment processor: This is the financial service that actually moves money from your client’s account into your bank account.
• The salon management software around the sale: Booking, client records, marketing, payroll, and reporting.

A lot of salon platforms include the POS and salon management software, but don’t have an in-house payment processor. They may offer payment processing under their own brand name, which makes it look built in. But behind the label, the actual processing runs through a separate company.

This can be a problem because even an integrated third-party processor creates another potential point of failure. It also puts another company between you and your money. For example, when a client disputes a charge, you’re dealing with the processor to get your money back, not the company whose software you actually use every day, and you often end up getting stuck dealing with the chargeback issue on your own.

Meevo is built with an in-house payment processor called MeevoPay.

MeevoPay delivers industry-leading uptime, so it’s virtually never down. And when a client disputes a charge, we handle the chargeback for you instead of leaving you to fight it alone.

Our chargeback win rate is 53%, compared to the industry average of 35-40%.

In this article, we take an in-depth look at Meevo and how it’s built to help your salon increase profits and run smoothly. Then we look at a few other platforms, from one that gives you just the hardware and a payment processor to one with payment processing that’s integrated but not built in. That way, you can see the difference.

Book a free demo to explore how Meevo combines POS software, payment processing, and salon management tools in one connected platform.

Meevo: All-In-One POS & Payment Processor

Meevo is an end-to-end solution for salons and includes the software and hardware that record the sale, the processor that moves the money, and the day-to-day management software.

• One company handles everything for you. There’s one system that has to stay running instead of two, one team to call for troubleshooting, and when a client disputes a charge, we handle that too.
• Your whole business has one source of truth. Sales, client histories, stock counts, and reports update together automatically, so whatever you’re looking at is live and accurate.
• It improves the client experience. An interconnected system automates a lot of the daily tasks staff would otherwise do manually, so visits feel easy and professional from booking to checkout.

Below, we break down how that works in practice. We start with the POS and MeevoPay, then cover the rest of our tools that work together to keep your chairs full.

In-house Payment Processing with MeevoPay

MeevoPay handles every payment your salon takes. Our POS gets clients checked out in three clicks and a swipe or tap, with paperless receipts sent by SMS or email.

Meevo can also send secure payment links that allow clients to pay from their own device, or store cards on file for a truly seamless checkout experience. This makes the client’s last impression of the visit quick and smooth.

@summitsalonSay hello to the staff of DuBunné Day Spa, where cutting-edge aesthetics meets smart business strategy. 💡 With Meevo’s Online Booking, they’ve seen a 114% increase in add-on sales! That is quite the uptick in revenue from a single feature. Imagine what a whole toolkit can do for your business. 💸 📖 Check out more success stories at the link: https://www.meevo.com/client-success-stories♬ original sound – Summit Salon Business Center

“I don’t think we would be as successful as we are without Meevo. Meevo makes our job as owners, as managers, as front desk employees or service providers, easier.”

– Ty Samples, Owner of DuBunné Day Spa

Because it’s ours, MeevoPay comes with some benefits that a bolted-on processor can’t offer.

• Never leave a client waiting to pay because of downtime. MeevoPay guarantees industry-leading uptime, so you don’t have to worry about your system going down and your whole day going down with it. In the very rare event that an outage does happen, offline mode keeps accepting payments and reconciles them automatically afterward. So, no matter what, you can get on with your day.

• We handle chargebacks for you. When a client disputes a charge, our in-house, US-based team manages the dispute for you. With a third-party processor, you’re the one dealing with a separate company to try to get your money back. MeevoPay wins roughly 53% of chargebacks, compared to the 35-40% industry average, and keeps the overall chargeback rate under 0.02% of all transactions.

• We keep processing fees competitive and transparent. It’s a flat, all-inclusive fee that applies to every payment method: all major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. With no third-party processor in the mix, there’s no separate company with its own pricing and incentives behind the scenes. We’re happy to provide a free rate assessment so you can see how MeevoPay compares to other payment processors.

On top of all that, we provide your first POS terminal for free, and the hardware is compact enough to bring over to clients for chairside checkout.

With MeevoPay, payments stop being a risk (or hassle) for your business. Any issue you have is ours to fix.

Built-in Tipping System That Gets Staff Paid More & Boosts Retention

Tipping runs through our built-in tipping system, MeevoTips. At checkout, the tipping kiosk shows the client suggested tip amounts. MeevoPay sends the tips to the stylist’s digital wallet instantly, which they appreciate. The client covers a small convenience fee, so your salon pays nothing.

This benefits your business in a few ways:

• Your staff earn more. Tips go up by an average of 17%.
• You save money. With clients covering the fee, the processing costs you used to absorb on tips go away (around $3,850 a year for a typical owner).
• You keep your staff longer. Salons using MeevoTips see retention grow by about 20% a year.

Booking & Upselling Tools That Fill Your Chairs

Meevo’s tools help bring in customers with an online booking experience that’s easy for clients and presents your salon as polished and professional. They can self-schedule appointments right on your website, surrounded by your branding and service descriptions. You can also enable “Book Online” buttons on Google Search and Maps that route them straight to your booking page.

Plus, we have features working in the background to fill open slots and guard against no-shows:

• Appointment booking optimization: Meevo has built-in features to keep gaps out of the schedule. Intelli-Booking learns how much time each client typically needs with each stylist and recommends the right appointment length when they rebook. And for short services (like a brow wax), Precision Booking lets you schedule in exact 5- or 10-minute increments instead of rounding up to a standard 30-minute slot.
• Automated wait list: Clients can join the wait list on their own while booking online, or your front desk can put them on it. From there, a cancellation triggers Meevo to go down the list in order, texting one client at a time until someone claims the open slot. No follow-up is needed from your front desk (unless the client marks that they prefer a phone call). Those you label as VIPs can be bumped to the front of the line, so openings reach them before anyone else.

• Deposits and no-show protection: Clients accept your cancellation policy at the time of booking, and you can require a card on file or a deposit up front. Salons using deposits have virtually eliminated no-shows.
• Self-rescheduling and automated reminders: Before an appointment, automated text or email reminders allow clients to confirm with a simple reply. This gives your front desk time to spot unconfirmed appointments, follow up, and fill slots if someone needs to cancel. Between visits, you can also set up reminders to send automatically by email. Both of these messages go out with a self-rescheduling link for easy rebooking.

Meevo also works to increase what each client spends and to lock in their next visit before they leave:

• Upsell prompts and reminders: When a client books online, Meevo can prompt them to add a related service before they confirm. Salons using these prompts see average tickets rise 10-20%. Also, because the software tracks a client’s purchase history, it reminds your staff at the register when a client is due for a reorder, taking the burden off them to remember.

• Rebooking at checkout: Meevo builds the rebooking right into the payment step, showing the stylist’s available openings once checkout finishes. This makes securing the next visit a standard part of the process, so clients book before they walk out the door.
• Memberships & packages with automatic recurring billing: Meevo processes charges in the background, updates expired cards automatically (subject to card issuer), and alerts the team if a transaction fails. Clients can redeem their benefits at any of your salon locations, which adds an extra layer of convenience.

Quick & Easy Experience for Both Clients and Staff

Meevo reduces the steps it takes to check clients in, manage the calendar, and check out. That leaves staff less stressed and gives clients a more organized, professional experience.

“As hairdressers, we are not so focused on tech. We’re more focused on hair. So, it needs to be user-friendly. And Meevo is.”

– Kathie Maconi, Owner of One83 Mane Studio & Luxury Salon

• Every client has a single, complete record in Meevo. Once they’re in the system, everything you need to know lives in their customizable profile: color formulas, stylist notes, retail purchases, lifetime spend. For multi-location businesses, that profile follows the client everywhere. To keep a client’s history from getting split across duplicate records, Meevo’s matching algorithm and Intelli-Merge catch and merge duplicates automatically.

• Clients can check themselves in from their phone on arrival, which notifies staff right away and keeps the reception area from backing up.

• Staff can type or speak a natural command to get anywhere in the platform in seconds using ConvoBar®, Meevo’s patented AI-driven search bar. They can quickly arrive at a client profile, today’s schedule, the register, an open appointment slot, or anywhere else in the system, far faster than clicking through menus manually.

• The color-coded, drag-and-drop calendar makes the appointment book visual and intuitive. Staff can move, reassign, or modify bookings by dragging them to a new time slot, without navigating through submenus or re-entering data. Each appointment block also displays flagged notes and hover-over icons with client details, so on a busy day with several clients checking in at once, the front desk doesn’t have to click into each profile to get oriented.

• Inventory updates at the point of sale. Every retail sale auto-deducts from your stock counts, and purchase orders generate on their own when an item runs low, so you’re not tracking levels by hand or scrambling when something sells out. For multi-location businesses, inventory stays in sync across every site automatically, so each location is always working from accurate counts.
• Employee management tools live in the same system as your appointment book. You can set staff schedules, manage time off, and see who’s clocked in from the same place you manage client appointments. That way, if someone calls out or the day gets busy, you can see who’s available to come in without jumping between tools.
• MeGo, Meevo’s client app, gives clients a convenient way to handle all their salon-related needs from their phone. They can book appointments, buy gift cards and products, chat with your team, check in on arrival, track loyalty program balances, and view their appointment and purchase history. It’s fully branded to your salon, so it looks and feels like your app, not Meevo’s.

These tools help your salon operate more efficiently, reduce staff workload, and create a smoother experience for clients at every touchpoint.

Real-Time Reports Show What’s Earning for Your Salon & What Isn’t

Most salon POS platforms offer reports. But the reporting that actually helps you run your salon comes down to three things: having enough reports to get a real read on the business, the ability to look at those numbers in ways that actually tell you something, and data that updates in real time so what you’re seeing is always current.

Meevo does all three and more:

• More than 150 reports come built in. They track the numbers that show whether the business is actually growing, from how many first-time clients turn into regulars to how booked each provider stays. Almost any question you have about your salon has a report behind it.

• Everything you need to review a stylist or location is in a single report. For stylists, that means sales, rebooking, productivity, and client count all in one place instead of spread across separate reports. For locations, you can compare sites side by side without pulling and piecing together a separate report for each.
• Advanced Dashboards pull related numbers into one place. You see key metrics visualized as charts and trends on one screen, so patterns jump out without running individual reports. They also track movement over time, so you’re acting on real patterns rather than a single week or month in isolation.
• The first thing you see when you log in is a dashboard of the day’s key numbers. This is your customizable Smart Center, and you decide what populates each staff member’s dashboard. A salon owner’s Smart Center might show today’s total bookings and salon-wide sales, whereas a stylist’s might show their own rebooking rate and retail sales. The numbers update throughout the day as appointments are booked and sales ring up, so you’re always looking at the current picture. Since the information is so readily accessible, it becomes a lot easier to catch a problem right away and fix it before it starts to cost you.
• Retention reports use a window you set. You choose whether a client counts as lapsed after three, four, or six months, instead of having just one fixed setting (usually 90 days). For example, a client who comes in every six weeks for a haircut is on a different clock than someone who gets two haircuts a year. Matching the window to real visit patterns gives you an honest read on who’s actually drifting away while you still have a chance to get them back.
• Missed Opportunity tracking keeps a record of clients you couldn’t fit in. When someone joins the wait list without ever getting booked, Meevo logs it. You end up with a list of those clients to reach back out to, plus a running count of the business you didn’t have room for.
• Bookings through your buttons on Google and Maps are tracked automatically. This gives you an accurate picture of how much business your Google presence actually brings in, with no manual work on your end.

Because all of your business data lives together in one system, your reports come straight from accurate numbers in real time. You can quickly see which parts of your business are making money and which aren’t, so you can do more of what’s working and fix what isn’t.

Ready to see Meevo in action? Book a free demo today.

Alternative Types of POS Software

Meevo bundles all three pieces of a POS into one system, but many platforms don’t.

Here are some examples of other definitions of POS software, from just hardware and a payment processor to platforms that have management software, but lease their payment processing from a third party. We also include another option that bundles all three pieces that salons can use, but it focuses more on being a general-purpose solution, so it might not have all the features you need. This list will help you understand the different types of POS systems there are to choose from.

Stripe: POS & Payment Processor, No Salon Management System

Stripe is one of the most widely used payment processors in the world. In fact, many salon platforms that don’t have their own payment processor integrate Stripe into their system to handle payments behind the scenes.

Stripe takes a payment from a client’s card and deposits it into your bank account. Through a Stripe Terminal, it also covers the in-person side of the sale, with certified card readers. In other words, it handles two of the three meanings of POS: the system that records the sale and the processor that moves the money.

What it doesn’t include is the salon management functionality that organizes the business around the sale. A salon using Stripe alone would either have to pay for a separate management system or track bookings, client records, inventory management, payroll, and reporting by hand.

Pairing Stripe with a separate management system means running two systems from two companies, which comes with a few costs:

• More potential downtime: With two separate systems, there’s another potential point of failure. If either system goes down, payments can be disrupted, and you may have to work with two support teams to resolve the issue.
• More manual work: Data has to move between the two systems, so there’s more to enter by hand and more chances to get something wrong or miss it altogether.
• Missed revenue: Because the client’s history isn’t connected inside one system, there are no built-in tools to automatically flag when someone’s due for service and reach out.

None of this means Stripe is a bad choice. It’s reliable and has no monthly software fee, just a per-transaction rate.

For solo beauty professionals with light schedules, Stripe is a common way to start. Once the chair fills up and there’s more to track than one person can hold in their head, that’s when running on Stripe alone starts costing more time than it saves.

Mangomint: Salon POS Platform Without a Built-In Payment Processor

Mangomint is a beauty salon POS software that offers online booking, client records, reporting, and point-of-sale all in one place. Its payment processing isn’t in-house. It’s a third-party integration that actually runs on Stripe.

Integrated payments aren’t the same as built-in. The company you book and check out with isn’t the company actually moving your money, and that gap shows up in a couple of ways:

• More potential downtime: An outage on the payments side can stop you from taking money even when Mangomint itself is working fine, and vice versa. That creates another opportunity for clients to be left waiting at the front desk while you scramble for another way to take payment.
• You handle the chargebacks: Here’s what Mangomint says about chargebacks: “If you choose to fight the dispute, the Mangomint team will work with you to gather evidence and build a strong case that can help increase your chance of winning the dispute.” What that means is, they help you come up with a case, but you’re the one who has to fight it. A fully in-house processor takes the dispute off your plate and handles it for you.

So Mangomint solves the salon management side, but there’s always a second company sitting between you and your money.

Square Appointments: All-in-One System Built for General Retail

Square started with a small card reader that plugged into a phone, built for small merchants who couldn’t otherwise take cards. It bundled the hardware, a simple point-of-sale app, and Square’s own in-house processing.

Later, it added more business tools, including Square Appointments, its business management product that handles things like booking, client records, and reporting, on top of the POS and payment processing.

Square Appointments is a general-purpose platform that can be used by any type of retail operation: coffee shops, stores, beauty businesses, restaurants, and service businesses of every kind. It works for salons and includes the basics, but its salon-specific features are not as robust as software specifically built for industry workflows.

For example:

• Less specialized client records: You can jot details like color formulas or product preferences into a generic notes field, but there’s no dedicated, structured place for them. A client’s formula history doesn’t pull up at a glance the way it does in software built for salons.
• No real memberships: Square sells prepaid packages, like a bundle of five services, but it can’t run a true membership that charges a client automatically every month and tracks what’s included in their plan.
• Less specialized reporting (that costs extra): The retention and rebooking reports that are geared toward salons sit behind the paid Plus or Premium tiers. Even then, Square counts a client as “retained” if they’ve come in within the past year, a window you can’t change. Since hair salon clients generally return far more often, that makes nearly everyone look retained and hides who’s actually stopped coming in.

So Square gives you a complete system with its own payment processor, which is a real advantage. The tradeoff is that it’s not salon-specific. For a solo stylist or a small salon, the basics may be all you need. But as you grow, the salon-specific gaps can start costing you real time and revenue.

Meevo: The Best All-in-One POS & Payment Processor for Salons

Meevo is an all-in-one solution that covers the three essential pieces of a POS: hardware, in-house payment processor, and management software. Everything from booking to checkout to your end-of-month numbers is designed around the unique needs of a salon business, in a connected system with one company behind it.

With Meevo, your salon gets:

• In-house payments through MeevoPay, with stellar uptime and chargebacks we handle for you.
• Booking and retention tools that keep chairs full, from online booking and automated wait lists to deposits, reminders, and rebooking at checkout.
• A more convenient experience for clients, with fast three-click checkout, self check-in, chairside payment, and the MeGo app for booking and messaging from their phone.
• Detailed, real-time reports that show you which services, stylists, and locations are driving revenue, and where there’s room to improve.

Want a firsthand look at how Meevo’s salon POS system streamlines booking, payments, and reporting?Schedule a demo now.