OpenChair and Square Appointments, compared carefully.
Based on Square Australia's public Appointments, pricing, Marketing, and AI pages reviewed on 19 June 2026, Square Appointments is a strong scheduling and payments product with excellent hardware, a free plan, paid scheduling tools, and Square AI. OpenChair is focused on capped per-venue pricing and operator-reviewed salon workflows.
Our Take
Square Appointments is a strong choice when scheduling, payments, and hardware are central to the buying decision. As reviewed on 19 June 2026, Square Australia listed a Free Appointments plan, Plus at $40/location/month, Premium at $90/location/month, 1.6% in-person processing, 2.2% online/manual processing, and paid-plan scheduling tools such as waitlist, processing time, cancellation fees, confirmations, resource management, and commissions. OpenChair's point of difference is a capped salon operating workflow with operator-reviewed AI across replies, gaps, win-back, Style Match, and next-step planning.
Feature Comparison
Fit Notes for Square Appointments
A practical summary of where Square Appointments is well represented publicly, and where OpenChair is positioned differently.
- Square AI's public positioning reviewed on 19 June 2026 is broader business AI; OpenChair's point of difference is salon-specific operator workflow
- Square lists processing time and waitlist on Plus and Premium rather than Free
- Square Marketing pricing in Australia depends on customer-contact count
- Square is a broad POS, payments, hardware, and business-tools ecosystem; OpenChair is narrower salon workflow software
- Best payment hardware in the business (Register, Terminal, Stand)
- Free Appointments plan and clear $40/$90 per-location paid tiers
- Strong AU in-person processing at 1.6%
- Waitlist, processing time, cancellation fees, confirmations, and resource management on paid plans
- Broad Square ecosystem across POS, Online, Marketing, Loyalty, hardware, and business finance
Making the Switch from Square Appointments
Switching software feels daunting — but it doesn't have to be. Here's exactly how the transition works.
Export your clients from Square
Square lets you export client data from your Dashboard > Customers section. Download your client list with contact details and appointment history.
Set up your services and team
Import or rebuild your services in OpenChair, add your staff members, configure commission splits per service and product, and set role-based permissions. This is where the workflow shifts from Square's broad business toolkit to OpenChair's salon operating workflow.
Connect your payments
OpenChair uses Stripe for integrated payments across in-person and online checkout. Square's current AU in-person processing rate is lower, so this should not be sold as a payment-rate switch. The reason to move would be the salon workflow around the payment: AI replies, gap filling, Reconnect, Style Match, commissions, and a branded booking experience.
Update your booking link
Replace your Square Appointments link on your website, Instagram bio, and Google Business Profile when you are ready. Your clients get an OpenChair booking experience with your branding and, on Pro, your custom domain.