We know running a beauty and wellness business is a lot. Whether it’s figuring out ways to manage client relationships, your schedule, or your team, finding the right software for your needs can feel super overwhelming – especially for small businesses looking to build from the ground up.

That’s why we’re taking two of the most popular beauty and wellness software options on the market today, GlossGenius and Acuity, and diving into their features, pricing, customer support, and reviews to see what’s right for your business.

GlossGenius vs. Acuity Key Takeaways

Acuity Scheduling is an appointment management software used for scheduling and automating processes. It’s mainly built for businesses that need assistance with their calendar management. It doesn’t include many advanced features like a lot of other beauty and wellness software out there. If you just need some basic scheduling features, Acuity might be right for you.

GlossGenius is purpose-built for businesses in the self-care and beauty industries and comes with more features than Acuity. Consumers appreciate GlossGenius’ modern aesthetics, design touches, and ease of use in online reviews. It has features specifically built for the beauty and wellness industry, like processing time for salons. 

GlossGenius still has some features it’s building out but it offers one of the best payment processing rates in the industry – flat 2.6% – with its POS system. Its base subscription plan offers more features than Acuity’s most expensive plan.

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Compare GlossGenius vs. Acuity or your current software to see how much you can save by switching.

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GlossGenius vs. Acuity Subscription Plans

Subscription plans will vary by platform, so reviewing the included features in each plan is crucial. You don’t want to pick a plan that doesn’t have critical features for your business. 

Having different subscription plans to pick from is a plus for both GlossGenius and Acuity. It gives you more options and flexibility for picking the best option for your business and budget needs. 

You can also switch your plan at any time on both GlossGenius or Acuity, so as your business needs grow and change, you can adapt your software.

GlossGenius plan options

GlossGenius’ subscriptions start at $24 per month. The Standard plan includes a lot of the features you need to run an individual beauty or wellness business, including online scheduling, a website builder, calendar management tools, built-in POS, unlimited appointment reminders, and client notes. 

As your business grows, GlossGenius has other subscription plans that include more premium features, such as automated waitlists, built-in forms and waivers, and an AI assistant to help you craft marketing messages. GlossGenius doesn’t charge add-on fees for almost any feature, so with different subscription plans, you’ll automatically unlock all the features associated with the plan at no extra cost.

Acuity Scheduling plan options

Acuity pricing starts at $20 per month for one member/location - prices can go up to $61 per month for up to 36 members/locations. Because it doesn’t come with any in-built payment processing, there are no processing fees. 

Instead, your processing fees will be directly pulled from the POS integration you decide to use - Acuity features integrations with Square, Stripe, and PayPal.

GlossGenius vs. Acuity Feature Breakdown

Features are one of the most important things to consider when picking software to run your beauty or wellness business. What features a software offers and how easy they are to use can be critical to how much time you spend on regular business tasks. 

Think about it: What if your booking system doesn’t have waitlists? Your team can spend hours on the phone trying to fill last minute calendar spaces. If your software does offer a waitlist option but it’s super confusing for your team and/or your clients, that’s even more time and frustration.

Acuity only offers scheduling features. That means that payment processing and advanced marketing features are not supported and must be purchased through third party applications. You can build a website via Acuity's owner, Squarespace, for a separate cost.

Here’s a high-level look at some important features across GlossGenius and Acuity Scheduling:

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When comparing paid plans, GlossGenius’ base plan comes with 24/7 online booking and text reminders for $24 a month. Acuity has some of these in its Growing plan at $34 a month. GlossGenius also comes with advanced email and text marketing features and stylish card readers with its base plan, which Acuity Scheduling does not have these features.

GlossGenius is actually created from the ground up for beauty and wellness businesses. It offers aesthetically important features like the ones listed here. All these are included in your subscription and not as add-ons:

• Stylish credit card readers
• Modern and customizable booking site templates
• Easy-to-use waitlists
• A forms and waivers builder
• Marketing tools

If you’re purely looking for simple calendar and scheduling features, Acuity may be more your speed - but don’t forget things like marketing will require another system. 

GlossGenius vs. Acuity Customer Support

Having a system with reliable customer support is critical. What if you run into an error with your system and need a fix quickly? What if you can’t find a critical feature and you’re trying to book an important appointment. Know your system’s customer support availability before picking one.

Acuity

Acuity offers support through email and chat, with hours from Monday to Friday, 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

GlossGenius

GlossGenius’ customer support is available Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, and Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, through phone and text.

GlossGenius vs. Acuity Review Comparison

GlossGenius reviews

The overall sentiment around GlossGenius is positive. Reviewers are satisfied with GlossGenius – particularly booking and scheduling. Some reviewers ask for specific features they’d like GlossGenius to add as it continues to grow its platform.

Acuity Scheduling reviews

The overall sentiment around Acuity Scheduling is mixed. Reviewers are satisfied with the online booking features Acuity Scheduling has to offer, but feel that it’s ultimately limited in its scope of overall beauty and wellness business features.

Final Thoughts

The key takeaway? The most important differences between GlossGenius and Acuity Scheduling are aesthetics, features, and pricing. 

Acuity is known in the beauty and wellness space, especially because it is owned by Squarespace. Its features pretty much are limited to client scheduling though. Although booking itself is important, by itself, it might be a bit generic for beauty and wellness businesses.

GlossGenius is a growing name in the software space so some of its functionality is still being built out but if aesthetics are important to you, GlossGenius could be it. Their software was built specifically for beauty and wellness businesses and offers a sleek and modern feel that can also be customized to fit your brand. 

If you’re purely looking for booking features and want to save $4, Acuity’s base plan might be your best bet. But again, for $24 a month, GlossGenius offers a plethora of features that are built from the ground up to support your beauty and wellness business needs. When it comes to value and getting the most out of your dollars, it’s hard to beat GlossGenius in this sense.

For customers transitioning from other related software, like Acuity Scheduling, GlossGenius offers free data transfers for new users. GlossGenius will transfer all appointments, client lists, services, and products from your current booking system, no matter what it is, over to GlossGenius for free. GlossGenius also offers a 14-day free trial so you can see how GlossGenius can work for your business without any upfront commitment.

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NOTE: All prices and feature comparisons are as of August 12, 2024. GlossGenius has no affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement with Squarespace, Inc. or its affiliates. 

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‍Gartner Digital Markets reviews are shared across its different brands sites and constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-users based on their own experiences and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates.