It works for simple appointment-and-payment businesses, including solo stylists. It is not beauty-native: commission handling is basic, package and membership redemption is limited and there is no back-bar inventory tracking. Salons with staff on tiered commission or prepaid packages typically outgrow it.
Comparison
The Square Appointments alternative built for salons and spas
Square Appointments is the booking layer on Square's payments business: reliable, widely used, and free for individuals who process payments through Square at around 2.6% plus 15¢ a transaction. It is a general appointment tool rather than a beauty platform, and the question for a salon is what that leaves out once there are staff on commission, packages to redeem and a team that does not all work in English.
Quick answer
LABÉAU is a Square Appointments alternative for salons and spas that need beauty-specific workflows. Square Appointments is a general booking and payments tool; LABÉAU is built for beauty businesses, with tiered staff commission at checkout, tip splitting, packages and memberships on every plan, no staff cap and unlimited WhatsApp reminders; stock control starts on Gold and multi-location reporting on Diamond. It costs from RM174.92/month with a 7-day free trial. Square stays cheaper for a solo operator already taking payments through Square.
Last updated 29 September 2026 · Written and maintained by the LABÉAU team, Kuala Lumpur
What Square Appointments does well
Square Appointments is dependable, quick to set up and free for an individual processing payments through Square. It sits inside the wider Square ecosystem of hardware and commerce tools, which is a real advantage for a business already running on Square. For appointment businesses that are essentially "book time, take payment", it does the job with very little effort.
Where Square Appointments can cost you more
Square Appointments is a capable platform. Not every point below applies to every plan or every business, but these are the ones owners raise most often when they compare — check each against your own team size and clients.
Pricing that grows with the team — per staff member, per calendar or per location — or a quote you only see after a sales call.
Client messaging built around SMS and email, with WhatsApp — the app most clients outside North America actually read — missing, sold as an add-on or charged per message.
On marketplace-led platforms, the platform's brand sits in front of your clients, often with a fee on the new clients it introduces.
A narrower set of interface languages, which leaves multilingual front desks and floor staff working in their second language.
No national e-invoicing filed from checkout for Malaysia (LHDN MyInvois) or Singapore (IRAS InvoiceNow), for groups that trade there.
Payment methods weighted to cards, with limited handling of the QR and e-wallet schemes that dominate across Asia.
What LABÉAU does instead
LABÉAU is an all-in-one beauty business management and POS platform used by salons, spas and clinics internationally, covering appointment booking, checkout and payments, inventory, tiered staff commissions, packages and memberships, WhatsApp marketing, loyalty, multi-branch reporting and tax invoicing in one place. It runs in many languages, and where a country operates a national e-invoicing network we support, submission happens at checkout rather than as a separate monthly chore.
Every plan includes the appointment diary, checkout, tiered staff commission, packages and memberships. The client-facing online booking page starts on the Gold plan, and full brand customisation is on Diamond. There is no cap on staff and no per-seat fee on any plan, so the price does not climb as the team grows. WhatsApp confirmations and reminders are unlimited rather than sold in message packs, and there is no commission on the clients you bring in.
It has been built and supported from Malaysia since 2020 and is rated 4.9/5 by 150+ beauty and wellness businesses using it today, priced transparently from RM174.92/month (US$48.98 outside Malaysia) with no setup fee, a 7-day free trial and hands-on one-on-one onboarding rather than a help-centre link.
When you should still choose Square Appointments
If you work alone, already take payments through Square, and have no staff on commission, no prepaid packages and no need for a beauty-specific system, Square Appointments is hard to beat on cost. Its paid tiers are also a reasonable step if the rest of your business already runs on Square.
LABÉAU vs Square Appointments
| Capability | LABÉAU | Square Appointments |
|---|---|---|
| Available worldwide | Yes | Yes |
| National e-invoicing filed at checkout | MY + SG built in | None |
| WhatsApp marketing | Reminders on every plan; campaigns (Gold+) | Varies |
| Interface languages | 12 | Varies |
| Staff cap or per-seat fee | None — one flat price | Varies by plan |
| WhatsApp messages | Unlimited, included | Varies — often add-on or per message |
| One-on-one onboarding | Included | Varies by plan |
| Built for | Beauty & wellness businesses | General appointment businesses |
| Pricing basis | Flat plan, any team size | Free for individuals; paid tiers per location |
| Card processing | Payment integration available | Square, around 2.6% + 15¢ |
| Tiered commission at checkout | Yes | Basic |
| Packages & memberships | Every plan | Limited |
| Back-bar / service inventory | Yes (Gold+) | No |
| Plans | Silver, Gold, Diamond; flat for any team size | Free (solo), Plus (paid per location, from about $49/month per third-party listings), Premium, and custom Square Pro |
| Multi-staff booking | Every plan, no staff cap | Plus and above, with cancellation policies and waitlist |
| Room & resource booking | Yes | Premium |
| Payment processor choice | Payment integration available; every method recorded separately | Square only |
| From (flat, any team size) | RM174.92/mo | Varies by region |
Indicative as of September 2026. Vendors change packaging and pricing frequently — confirm current details directly with each vendor.
The bottom line
Square Appointments is a good general booking tool and genuinely cheap for one person. It is not a salon system: commission is basic, package redemption is limited and there is no back-bar stock. Once those matter, LABÉAU covers them in one place for any team size — commission and packages on every plan from RM174.92/month, back-bar stock from the Gold plan — with unlimited WhatsApp reminders and no marketplace between you and your clients.
Also worth comparing
The Square Appointments alternatives most often compared depend on why you are leaving. For general scheduling, Setmore (a free plan for small teams), Acuity Scheduling (from about $20/month) and SimplyBook.me (a free tier) work with processors other than Square. For beauty businesses, solo operators and small teams weigh GlossGenius, Vagaro and Fresha, while salons that need beauty-native workflows compare Mangomint, Boulevard and LABÉAU. The reasons owners give for leaving Square are consistent: being tied to Square payments, limited customisation, and features such as waitlists, cancellation policies and resource booking sitting on paid tiers.
Frequently asked questions
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Yes, for salons and spas that need beauty-specific workflows. LABÉAU adds tiered commission calculated at checkout, tip splitting, packages and memberships, with no staff cap, from RM174.92/month, plus retail and back-bar inventory from the Gold plan. Groups with outlets in Malaysia or Singapore also get LHDN and IRAS e-invoicing built in.
Because the free plan is for an individual, and the costs it leaves behind are not on the invoice: commission reconstructed by hand each month, packages tracked outside the system, and stock noticed only when a shelf looks empty. For a solo operator none of that applies and free is the right answer; with staff and packages it usually is not.
For general scheduling with a free plan and a choice of payment processor, Setmore, Acuity Scheduling and SimplyBook.me are the usual picks. For beauty businesses, GlossGenius suits solo professionals, Vagaro and Fresha suit price-led small teams, and Mangomint, Boulevard and LABÉAU suit salons with staff on commission and prepaid packages. LABÉAU is one flat price for any team size, from RM174.92/month.
The Free plan is for solo professionals. Teams move to Plus, listed by third parties from about $49/month per location, which adds cancellation policies, multi-staff booking and a waitlist; Premium adds resource management for larger salons, and Square Pro is custom-priced. Card processing runs through Square on every plan. Confirm current prices on Square’s own pricing page.
Yes. The interface runs in 12 languages, including Korean, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Spanish, across separate apps for clients, staff and the owner on iOS, Android and the browser.
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