Acuity Scheduling charges from $16/month and was designed for generic service businesses. BookMe is purpose-built for beauty professionals — with deposits, WhatsApp, and a portfolio that sells your work.
Built for beauty · Free forever plan · No monthly fee
Acuity was built to handle every kind of service business. That breadth comes at a cost for solo artists.
Acuity's useful features — intake forms, payment collection, reminder customisation — are locked behind paid plans starting at $16/month. BookMe's core features are free.
Acuity was built for spas, coaches, consultants, and medical practices. The settings panel reflects that complexity. Solo beauty artists need 10% of those features and spend hours finding them.
Most beauty professionals run their whole business from a phone. Acuity's interface is desktop-first. BookMe was built phone-first from day one.
| Acuity Scheduling | BookMe | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plans required | From $16/month | Free forever plan |
| Built for beauty professionals | No — generic service tool | ✓ Yes |
| WhatsApp confirmations | No | ✓ Built-in |
| Portfolio photos per service | No | ✓ Yes |
| Mobile-first design | No | ✓ Yes |
| Setup time | 1–2 hours | Under 5 minutes |
| No-show tracking | No | ✓ Yes |
Designed from the ground up for independent hair, nail, lash, brow, and tattoo professionals.
No onboarding docs, no complex configuration. Sign up, add your services, share your link. Your page is live before Acuity has finished loading its settings panel.
Manage everything from your phone — confirm bookings, check deposits, block dates, view today's schedule. No laptop required, ever.
Acuity charges for payment collection. BookMe includes deposits on the free plan — clients pay by bank transfer with a reference code. Simple, direct, free.
Upload work photos to each service listing. A client browsing your page for a lash lift or tattoo sees your real results before they book.
Acuity sends automated emails. BookMe lets you send a pre-written WhatsApp from your real number in one tap. Your clients know it's you.
No intake form builders, no group event scheduling, no conference room booking. Just the tools a solo beauty professional needs — clean, fast, free.
“I spent three days trying to set up Acuity properly. The interface is overwhelming if you're a one-person operation. A friend told me about BookMe and I was live in about ten minutes. It does everything I need and nothing I don't.”
The free plan includes your full booking page, unlimited services, deposit collection, WhatsApp button, and push notifications — up to 15 bookings per month. That covers most artists starting out.
BookMe Pro (£12/month) gives you unlimited bookings, unlimited portfolio photos, waitlist management, and no-show tracking. Acuity's equivalent plan costs $23/month and doesn't include WhatsApp or beauty-specific features.
BookMe has booking instructions — pre/post care notes attached to specific services. Full intake form builders aren't in BookMe because most beauty pros handle consultations over WhatsApp, which BookMe facilitates directly.
Set up your BookMe page, then share your new link with existing clients via WhatsApp or Instagram. Most artists complete the switch in an afternoon.
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