If you already run a WordPress site for a hair salon, barbershop, spa or beauty studio, the shortlist often collapses to two plugins: Salon Booking System and Amelia.
They look similar on paper. Both live on your site, charge 0% commission, and keep client records in your WordPress database. Neither puts competing salons on the booking page.
The real fork is different. Amelia is a general appointments-and-events plugin that also sells to salons. Salon Booking System is a salon plugin that happens to run on WordPress. Colour-plus-cut, processing time, two people on one booking, and “can the whole team use this before I pay?” are the questions that decide it.
This is the long comparison promised on the WordPress salon booking plugin hub. The sibling page is Salon Booking System vs Bookly. If the calendar is not on WordPress at all, start with Fresha alternatives.
Figures below are from official pages and WordPress.org as of 27 August 2026. Amelia’s checkout is often a first-year sale and the dollar amounts are JS-masked, so no Amelia list price is quoted. Check wpamelia.com/pricing the week you buy.
Quick comparison
| Salon Booking System | Amelia | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (1-site salon) | Free forever; Basic €89/year; Business €169/year (2 sites). VAT extra where it applies. | Paid plans exist: Starter, Standard, Pro, Elite (annual; lifetime from Standard up). Live page is often a first-year sale. Uncertain as a list price — check Amelia’s pricing. |
| Commission | 0% | 0% (plugin, not a marketplace) |
| Who owns client data | You | You |
| Free version | Unlimited bookings, staff and services. No Stripe/PayPal. | Lite: one employee, Square payments, limited vs paid. |
| Salon-specific features | Built for salons since 2015: service breaks, secondary services (colour + cut), price per stylist, multi-service / multi-assistant bookings. | Same engine as photographers, clinics, gyms and event organisers. Salon page exists; workflow is generic. |
| Staff | Unlimited on free. Staff mobile web app on Basic+. Several assistants on one service (PRO). | Unlimited staff on paid. Lite = 1 employee. Paid mobile app. Does not assign several employees to a single appointment. |
| Payments | Stripe & PayPal on Basic (deposits, tips, tax). 20+ local gateways + WooCommerce on Business. | Square on Lite. PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, Mollie, Razorpay on paid (tier-dependent). |
| Multi-location | Business plan (Multi-Shops included). | Listed on paid plans; Amelia notes limits can vary by tier. |
| Events / tickets | Not the product. | First-class: events, tickets, waiting lists. |
| Trial | 15-day trial of the paid plugin. Free version has no time limit. | No paid trial. 15-day money-back. Lite is free. |
| Who it’s for | Hair salons, barbershops, spas, nail studios, beauty centres. | Any appointment or event business wanting an all-in-one plugin. |
| WordPress.org (27 Aug 2026) | 4.4/5 from 180 reviews. 750,000+ downloads. On the directory since 2015. 2,000+ active installs. | 4.6/5 from 785 reviews. 90,000+ active installs. On the directory since 2018. |
Those ratings are public WordPress.org scores, not a ranking.
How each product positions itself
Amelia (wpamelia.com, Melograno Venture Studio) is the all-in-one WordPress plugin for appointments and events. The homepage leads with volume: more than 16,000 appointments a week and 20,000 events a month. There are vertical pages for barbershops, massage, healthcare, photography, sports and gyms. The engine is one booking system for many industries, with a step-by-step wizard, a catalogue view, and a full events module. The salon landing calls it “the only WordPress salon plugin.” It is not the only one. It is a general plugin with a salon page.
Salon Booking System (salonbookingsystem.com, Dimitri Grassi, Italy) has been on WordPress since 2015. The free plugin lists 750,000+ downloads, 2,000+ active installs and 4.4/5 from 180 reviews. Support is in English, Spanish and Italian.
If your week is “cut, colour, blow-dry, two chairs, one basin,” that difference shows up in the settings, not the homepage.
Pricing
Neither plugin takes a cut of the booking. The bill is a licence.
Salon Booking System
From the official pricing page:
- Free — €0, one site. Calendar, unlimited services, email notifications. Install from WordPress.org.
- Basic — €89/year, one site. Stripe and PayPal, deposits, advanced staff, staff mobile app, REST API, priority support.
- Business — €169/year, two sites. All add-ons, multi-location, white label, local payment gateways, WooCommerce, AI Setup Assistant.
VAT extra where it applies. 15-day trial, then yearly until you cancel. When a licence expires you keep using the plugin; you lose updates and support.
Agency (€299/year, 10 sites) and Unlimited (€499/year) exist for web agencies. Most single salons never need them.
Amelia
Amelia sells Starter, Standard, Pro and Elite, annual or (from Standard up) lifetime. Official structure from wpamelia.com/pricing:
- Starter — 1 domain. Core booking, wizard, notifications. Many advanced rows (Square, deposits, calendar sync, packages, REST API) sit above this tier.
- Standard — 1 domain. Payments beyond Square, calendar and meeting-tool integrations.
- Pro — more domains. Packages, resources, cart, event waiting list, refunds.
- Elite — more domains. REST API and developer hooks.
On 27 August 2026 the live page was a first-year sale (“up to 50% off first year”) and the checkout numbers were JS-masked, so this page does not quote a Starter or Standard dollar figure as a list price. Amelia writes “no hidden costs or add-ons.” VAT/GST extra. No free trial of the paid plugin; 15-day money-back. Stop renewing and it keeps working; you lose updates and support.
For a one-site salon: SBS Basic is a published €89/year for Stripe/PayPal, deposits and the staff app. Business is a published €169/year for two sites, WooCommerce, local gateways, white label and the add-on set. Amelia Starter can look cheaper on a sale week; whether that tier includes the payments and calendar sync you need is a question for their live pricing page, not for a cached dollar figure. A lifetime Amelia licence can win over several years if that tier actually includes what you use. Amelia itself says calendar sync sits above the entry plan.
The free versions are not equivalent
Salon Booking System free is a working salon calendar: unlimited bookings, services and staff, email (SMS via Twilio, Plivo or iP1), two-way Google Calendar, coupons, customer archive, reports, holidays, buffers, service breaks, secondary services. PRO adds card payments, deposits, tips, tax, the staff app, variable duration, price-per-assistant, several attendants on one service, resources, customer time zones.
Amelia Lite is a working solo calendar. Amelia’s support is clear: no Employees menu; one provider under settings. Square is the Lite payment. Custom notifications, multilingual, extra gateways, calendar sync, packages and locations are paid. Lite tests the form. It does not test a three-stylist floor.
If you want the whole team on the free plugin, that is Salon Booking System. If you are a one-chair colourist who already takes Square, Amelia Lite may be enough to go live.
Salon-specific features
Amelia can schedule a 60-minute haircut and send a reminder. So can every serious booking plugin. A salon is not only a 60-minute haircut.
Salon Booking System (WordPress.org listing and pricing page):
- Service break — colour processes while the chair is free.
- Conditional secondary services — colour + cut as one booking.
- Several services and several assistants in one session — the Friday “cut for me, blow-dry for my daughter.” PRO can require several attendants on one service.
- Price and duration per assistant.
- Exclusive services, service lock, units per session, offset between reservations.
- Staff commission tracking and a staff mobile web app (PRO).
- Fidelity score, review invitations, repeat and reschedule.
Amelia (official feature list):
- Conversion-focused wizard and catalogue cards.
- Recurring appointments, custom durations, extras (paid).
- Packages, resources (rooms, chairs), cart, refunds (higher tiers).
- Events: tickets, waiting lists, public event pages.
- Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
- Google, Outlook and Apple calendar sync (paid, not Lite).
- WhatsApp, webhooks, Elementor/Divi/Gutenberg, employee and customer panels.
Amelia is broader. Salon Booking System is deeper on the chair. Ticketed workshops or Meet links: Amelia was designed for that mix. A 45-minute processing gap that a generic slot cannot model: SBS.
A documented Amelia gap (WordPress.org reviews and long-standing feature requests): several employees on one appointment. SBS PRO lists multiple attendants as a paid feature.
Staff, payments, multi-location
Staff. Both paid products handle hours, days off and services per person. SBS gives you that roster on the free plugin and a mobile web app on Basic. Amelia adds front-end employee/customer panels and a paid native app. Lite remains one person.
Payments. Basic is enough if Stripe or PayPal covers your country. Business is the plan for WooCommerce or a local gateway (20+, including Mollie, Paystack, RedSys, Mercado Pago, Square, Viva Wallet, Swish). Amelia Lite is Square-only; paid Amelia adds PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, Mollie, Razorpay, payment links and (higher tiers) refunds. Deposits exist on both paid products.
Multi-location. SBS Multi-Shops is included in Business. Amelia advertises unlimited locations; its own 2026 articles still say check the tier.
Notifications. Both do email. Both do SMS through a paid provider. Amelia paid adds WhatsApp.
When Amelia is the better fit
Pick Amelia if most of these are true:
- You sell events as well as appointments — ticketed workshops, classes. That module is Amelia’s advantage.
- You want a lifetime licence and you will pay more now to stop the yearly invoice.
- The booking form is part of the brand. Amelia’s wizard, catalogue and Gutenberg/Elementor/Divi blocks are the more designed front end.
- You need Zoom / Meet / Teams, or Outlook/Apple sync as a first-class requirement.
- You are a solo operator who can live with one employee and Square. Lite is then a real product.
- You are an agency putting the same plugin on many sites and you want Elite plus the REST API.
Amelia’s 90,000+ active installs vs SBS’s 2,000+ is not a quality score — only a signal your developer may already know Amelia.
When Salon Booking System is the better fit
Pick Salon Booking System if most of these are true:
- You are a hair salon, barbershop, spa or beauty centre. Processing time, secondary services and multi-assistant bookings are core.
- You want the whole team on the free plugin before you pay. Start with the WordPress.org version.
- You want a 15-day trial of the paid product, not only money-back after you have bought. Start the trial.
- You need a local gateway or WooCommerce on a flat €169/year Business plan, with white label and a second site.
- You want support in Italian, Spanish or English from the people who write the plugin. The team is in Italy.
- You do not need events, tickets or video meetings. Paying Amelia Pro/Elite for modules you will never open is a real cost.
The REST API is on Basic, not locked to Elite.
Also on this site
The hub and vs Bookly sit with this page. Hosted tools already live: Fresha alternatives, Square Appointments, SimplyBook.me pricing, SimplyBook.me alternatives.
FAQ
Is Amelia a WordPress alternative to Salon Booking System?
Both are WordPress plugins. “Amelia WordPress alternative” and “Amelia booking plugin alternative” usually mean “I need something else on the same site.” Leaving a hosted marketplace (Fresha, SimplyBook.me, Square Appointments), either plugin gets you off commission. The alternative to Amelia for a salon is Salon Booking System. The alternative to Salon Booking System if you also sell events is Amelia. The generic-appointments sibling is vs Bookly.
Does the free Salon Booking System limit bookings?
No. Bookings, services and staff are unlimited. You pay for payments, the staff app, priority support and add-ons — not for lifting a cap. Install it from WordPress.org.
Does Amelia Lite support more than one stylist?
No. One employee, configured under provider settings. A second chair means a paid licence.
Which plugin is cheaper for one site?
A salon that needs Stripe/PayPal and a staff app pays €89/year on Basic. Amelia Starter can sit below that on a sale week, but calendar sync and extra gateways sit higher on Amelia’s own matrix. Business at €169/year is often the simpler invoice if you need packages, WooCommerce, white label and two sites. Lifetime Amelia can win on a four-year spreadsheet. Check Amelia’s pricing and Salon Booking System’s plans the week you buy. This page does not quote Amelia dollar figures as list prices.
Can I take deposits to cut no-shows?
Yes on both paid products. Basic includes partial and full payments. Amelia offers deposits on paid plans. Reminders are email on both free products; SMS is extra on both.
Do I need WordPress hosting?
Yes for both. If you do not want to own a WordPress site, look at a hosted tool — Fresha alternatives is the starting point. Exclude the booking page from cache on either plugin.
Verdict
Amelia is the stronger general WordPress booking plugin: events, a polished wizard, lifetime licences, a large install base, and a Lite version that is honest about being for one person.
Salon Booking System is the stronger salon WordPress booking plugin: unlimited staff on the free version, processing-time and multi-assistant logic in the core, a 15-day paid trial, local gateways and WooCommerce on a flat Business plan, and support in EN/ES/IT.
If your calendar is appointments and ticketed events, pick Amelia. If your calendar is chairs, bowls and repeat clients, install the free plugin, run a real week, then use the 15-day PRO trial only if you need to get paid online.
Two plugins, two jobs. Pick the job you actually have.
