Payments
Free and Pro Plans
Last updated 1 June 2026
Free and Pro Plans
OpenChair has two subscription tiers, Free and Pro, so you can start without commitment and unlock advanced features when you're ready to grow.
TL;DR
- Every new venue starts with a 14-day Pro trial, no credit card required. All Pro features are fully accessible during the trial.
- Pro pricing is per active venue and bookable team member, with a cap per venue. Non-bookable owners, managers, front desk, and admin users are free.
- Pro reduces processing fees from 3.0% + $0.50 to 1.8% + $0.30 per transaction.
- Pro-only data (recurring series, forms, resources) is preserved if you downgrade, it becomes active again immediately if you resubscribe.
Overview
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0 | From $34.95 AUD / $24.95 NZD / £19.95 GBP |
| Transaction fees | 3.0% + $0.50 | 1.8% + $0.30 |
| Included SMS | None | 200/month (AU/GB) · 100/month (NZ) |
| AI Sparks | Pay-as-you-go | Included monthly pool + pay-as-you-go top-up |
| Trial access | - | All new venues start on a 14-day Pro trial |
Note
Every new OpenChair venue begins with a 14-day Pro trial: no credit card required. You get full access to every Pro feature during your trial. At the end of the trial you choose whether to subscribe to Pro or continue on Free.
FREE caps (what's limited)
The FREE plan has four hard caps. All other features either work fully or are PRO-locked entirely. Exceeding a cap doesn't delete anything; excess rows are flagged hidden and restore instantly on upgrade.
| Capability | FREE cap | PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Active services | 5 | Unlimited |
| Active products | 5 | Unlimited |
| Published portfolio photos | 12 | Unlimited |
| Bookable team members | 1 | Unlimited (bookable-team pricing applies) |
There's no monthly booking cap on FREE, no automation cap, no integration cap. SMS allocation is zero on FREE (pay-as-you-go via wallet); PRO includes a monthly pool with bookable-team-scaled cap (see SMS allocation and limits).
Cap-swap action
When you're at a cap and want to add a new service, product, or portfolio photo, the Make active action lets you swap one row in for one row out without upgrading. Available on the services, products, and portfolio list pages on FREE when you're at the limit.
The staff cap is different: the active staff pick is made via the Trial Ending Wizard at trial end (or via reselection on FREE), not via a swap button. Reason: changing the active staff member also affects who can sign in.
How locked features look
Five visual primitives signal locked or capped state across the app. Each is deliberately neutral (Move 1: status as data, not warning chrome) rather than aggressive or punitive.
| Primitive | When you see it |
|---|---|
| Upgrade pitch | Whole page or full sheet on a PRO-only feature. Shows what the feature does and a single CTA to upgrade. Owners see the upgrade button; staff see a read-only "Ask your owner to unlock this" line. |
| Cap meter | Inline status above lists: "3 / 5 services" → at cap: "5 / 5 services · cap reached · Upgrade for unlimited". |
| Above plan limit badge | Small lock-icon pill in row trailing slots when you have excess rows (e.g. 7 services on FREE — 2 are flagged "Above plan limit" and hidden from your storefront). |
| Legacy access banner | Sticky info banner at the top of capped list pages when you have above-cap data: "You have 8 services, your FREE plan keeps 5 live on your storefront. Pick which to keep visible, or upgrade to keep them all." |
| Trial ending banner | Global countdown banner from 7 days before trial end. Cadence tightens as the deadline approaches; on the last day it reads "Your trial ends today" with a Decide now button. |
See When Your Trial Ends for the full Trial Ending Wizard flow, and Storefront on FREE for the visual changes on the public booking page when on FREE.
What's Included on Free
Free gives you everything you need to run your day-to-day operations:
- Calendar & bookings: create, edit, cancel, and manage appointments
- Online booking page: your public storefront for client self-booking
- Client management: profiles, history, notes, and contact details
- Services, packages, and products: full service menu management
- Checkout: in-person and online payment collection
- Hardware terminal: Stripe Terminal for card-present payments
- Deposit collection: require deposits for any service
- Gift card issuance: sell and redeem gift cards in person
- Automated reminders: SMS and email reminders sent to clients before appointments
- Basic revenue metrics: booking counts, revenue totals, and team performance summary
- Manual AI copilot: use Sparks (pay-as-you-go) to draft replies, get suggestions, and run one-off AI tasks
What's Included on Pro
Pro includes everything on Free, plus:
Scheduling & bookings
- Recurring bookings: set up repeating appointment series that auto-generate future bookings
- Smart Waitlist (AI gap-fill), automatically offer cancelled gaps to waitlisted clients
- Resources: attach rooms, equipment, and other resources to services to prevent double-booking
- AI booking brief: AI-generated client preparation notes before each appointment
- AI add-on suggestions: service recommendations surfaced during booking
Intelligence & analytics
- Advanced Intelligence cards: deposit performance, portfolio insight, committed series revenue, payment method breakdown, waitlist recovery analytics
- AI narrative & forecasting: plain-English explanations of revenue trends and AI-generated business forecasts
AI & automation
- OpenChair Assistant, helps draft replies, fill scheduling gaps, and prepare actions with review controls
- Business Memory: persistent AI memory of your venue's preferences, rules, and context
- Style Preview: AI-generated hairstyle visualisations to show clients their transformation before the appointment
- Service Audit: AI analysis of your service menu for pricing gaps and optimisation opportunities
- Client History Backfill: import and enrich historical client records with AI assistance
Communications (Engage)
- Dedicated SMS number: a permanent phone number for your venue's two-way client messaging
- Included SMS: 200 messages/month (AU/GB) or 100 messages/month (NZ); additional messages billed from your wallet
- SMS & email campaigns: broadcast marketing messages to client segments
- Loyalty programme: configure points, rewards, and expiry rules
- Birthday & rebooking automations: automated outreach triggered by client events
Team & operations
- Commission tracking: set and track commission rules per team member
- Flexible payout schedules: switch from monthly to weekly, daily, or manual payouts. Manual lets you trigger a payout instantly from the dashboard whenever you choose
Multi-location
- Multi-venue: manage multiple salon locations from a single login, each with its own team, calendar, and Assistant context
Payments
- Lower processing fees: 1.8% + $0.30 per transaction (vs 3.0% + $0.50 on Free)
- Gift card email delivery: send digital gift cards directly to recipients via email
- Bulk gift card generation: create gift card batches for promotions
Feature Comparison Table
The full feature comparison between Free and Pro is shown below.
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar & appointment management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Online booking page (storefront) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Client profiles & history | ✅ | ✅ |
| Services, packages & products | ✅ | ✅ |
| Checkout (in-person & online) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Hardware terminal (card reader) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Deposit collection | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automated reminders (SMS & email) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Basic revenue & booking metrics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gift card issuance (in-person) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Manual AI copilot (Sparks pay-as-you-go) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Recurring bookings (series) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Smart Waitlist (AI gap-fill) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Resources (rooms & equipment) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Custom forms & waivers | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multi-location management | ❌ | ✅ |
| Advanced Intelligence analytics | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI narrative & forecasting | ❌ | ✅ |
| OpenChair Assistant | ❌ | ✅ |
| Business Memory | ❌ | ✅ |
| Style Preview | ❌ | ✅ |
| Service Audit | ❌ | ✅ |
| Client History Backfill | ❌ | ✅ |
| Dedicated SMS number | ❌ | ✅ |
| Included SMS | 0 | 200/mo (AU/GB) · 100/mo (NZ) |
| SMS & email campaigns | ❌ | ✅ |
| Loyalty programme | ❌ | ✅ |
| Birthday & rebooking automations | ❌ | ✅ |
| Commission tracking | ❌ | ✅ |
| Flexible payout schedules (weekly/daily/manual) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Gift card email delivery & bulk generation | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI booking brief & add-on suggestions | ❌ | ✅ |
| Included Sparks (AI credits) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Transaction fees | 3.0% + $0.50 | 1.8% + $0.30 |
Trial Access
All new OpenChair venues start with a 14-day Pro trial. During the trial:
- Every Pro feature is fully accessible, no restrictions
- No credit card is required to start the trial
- Your Sparks wallet is pre-loaded with a $5 trial credit to cover pay-as-you-go AI usage
At the end of the trial, you can subscribe to Pro or continue on Free. If you choose Free, Pro-only features become inactive, but all your data is preserved. If you later subscribe to Pro, your recurring series, forms, resources, and other Pro-only content become active again immediately.
Extending the trial
Owners can extend the trial by 7 days, once per venue. Available from Settings → Plan → Extend trial by 7 days while the trial is still active. The extension is one-time — you won't see the button again after using it, and it can't be used once the trial has already ended.
Founding Member Programme
Venues accepted into the Founding Member Programme receive a 180-day Pro trial with communications (SMS) included. Founding Member status is by invitation only.
Past-due grace period
If a Pro subscription payment fails, OpenChair keeps your Pro access active while Stripe retries the charge (typically up to 7 days). Update your payment method in Settings → Billing to avoid any interruption.
Subscription Pricing
Pro is priced per active venue and billable bookable team member, with a cap per venue so your bill never grows beyond a set maximum for that location.
| Region | Per active venue from | Per additional bookable member | Venue cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | $34.95 AUD | $20.00 AUD | $199 AUD |
| New Zealand | $24.95 NZD | $20.00 NZD | $199 NZD |
| United Kingdom | £19.95 GBP | £10.00 GBP | £99 GBP |
To subscribe, go to Settings → Billing → Subscribe to Pro. Billing is managed through Stripe; subscription changes and cancellation are available at any time from the Billing page.
Settings → Plan vs Settings → Billing
These are two different pages with different jobs:
- Settings → Plan is the narrative home for tier state. It shows what you're on, what changes if you don't upgrade, and the buttons to extend the trial, preview the FREE plan, or restore your full salon. Owner-only.
- Settings → Billing handles the Stripe transaction: subscribe, review bookable team billing, change billing interval, update payment method, cancel. Owner-only.
All in-app Upgrade to PRO CTAs link to Settings → Billing with PRO pre-selected. The Plan page is for understanding the state; the Billing page is for committing.
Tip
The venue cap means a larger bookable team at the same venue pays the same once the cap is reached. Non-bookable access users do not add subscription charges, and shared bookable team members are billed once across a multi-venue account. See Bookable Team Billing.
Transaction Fees
OpenChair processes customer payments through Stripe. The all-in processing fee covers Stripe's fee and OpenChair's platform fee combined, there are no separate charges.
| Plan | Online payments | In-person (terminal) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 3.0% + $0.50 | 3.0% + $0.50 |
| Pro | 1.8% + $0.30 | 1.8% + $0.30 |
The fee saving on Pro can offset a meaningful portion of the subscription cost at typical transaction volumes.
Troubleshooting
Common questions about plan access and subscription management are listed below.
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| I had access to a Pro feature yesterday but it's locked today | Your 14-day trial has ended. Go to Settings → Billing and subscribe to Pro to restore access. All your data from the trial is intact. |
| I upgraded to Pro but a feature still looks locked | Refresh the page or sign out and back in, your browser may have cached your previous plan status. If the issue persists, contact support. |
| I can't set up a dedicated SMS number | SMS provisioning requires Pro. Go to Settings → Billing → Subscribe to Pro, then return to Settings → Communications to provision your number. |
| What happens to my recurring series if I don't upgrade? | Active series stop generating new future bookings. Existing bookings are unaffected. If you subscribe to Pro later, the series becomes active again and future bookings resume. |
| My payment failed, will I lose Pro access immediately? | No. OpenChair keeps Pro access active while Stripe retries the charge (up to ~7 days). Update your payment method at Settings → Billing before the retry window closes. |
| Can I cancel Pro at any time? | Yes. Go to Settings → Billing and cancel. Access continues until the end of the current billing period. Your data is preserved indefinitely, you won't lose client records or history. |
FAQ
What is included in the Free plan?
Free includes calendar, online booking, client management, checkout, deposits, gift cards, automated reminders, basic revenue metrics, and pay-as-you-go AI (Sparks). No credit card required to start.
What does Pro include?
Pro includes everything in Free plus OpenChair Assistant, Intelligence analytics, Engage (SMS campaigns, loyalty, automations), commission tracking, recurring bookings, Smart Waitlist, multi-location management, lower processing fees (1.8% + $0.30), flexible payout schedules (weekly, daily, or manual), and included Sparks credits.
How do I start a Pro trial?
Every new venue automatically starts a 14-day Pro trial with no credit card required. At the end of the trial, go to Settings → Billing to subscribe to Pro or continue on Free. All your data is preserved either way.
How much does Pro cost?
Pro starts at $34.95 AUD / $24.95 NZD / £19.95 GBP per active venue, including the first bookable team member at that venue. Additional bookable team members are $20 AUD / $20 NZD / £10 GBP each, with a cap of $199 AUD / $199 NZD / £99 GBP per venue. Non-bookable access users are free.