The best booking apps for lash techs in 2026

A lash book runs on rhythm. A full set takes two hours or more and prices accordingly; a fill takes about an hour, costs less, and comes back every two to three weeks - which means a full book compounds into a wall of standing fill appointments that only breaks when someone vanishes. Almost every client arrives from Instagram, most artists ask for a deposit before holding a two-hour slot, and new clients need a patch test days before the glue ever touches a lash line.

Generic software lists ignore all of that, so this guide compares six booking apps through the lash lens: hey.booked, GlossGenius, Booksy, Goldie, Acuity Scheduling, and Square Appointments - what each really costs, where it fits a lash business, and a one-line verdict. All prices were checked in August 2026.

hey.booked

Full disclosure before anything else: hey.booked is ours, and we would rather tell you exactly where it fits than pretend it fits everyone. It is built around a booking page that lives in your Instagram bio and a calendar that respects real timings. The free plan covers one staff member, three services - a full set, a fill, and a removal map onto it neatly - and 30 confirmed bookings a month, with email confirmations, reminders, and post-visit reviews, no card needed to start. Pro is $15 a month or $150 a year and lifts every limit: unlimited services, staff, and bookings, 100 SMS texts a month, two-way Google Calendar sync, and up to 10 businesses, all at one flat price.

The lash fit is the durations and the link. Each service carries its own length and price, so a 60-minute volume fill can never sit in the slot a 150-minute full set needs, and a client tapping through from your bio picks the right one herself. What hey.booked will not do is touch money: there are no built-in payments, which means no card-on-file and no deposit collected at booking. If a mandatory deposit is house policy - and for many lash artists it rightly is - you would collect it separately over a payment app, or choose GlossGenius or Goldie instead.

Verdict: the flat-price booking link for lash artists who keep deposits and payment outside the booking flow.

GlossGenius

GlossGenius answers the question lash artists ask loudest: how do I make sure a no-show costs the client and not me. Card-on-file and deposits are wired straight into its booking flow, so the moment someone reserves a full set, there is money attached to the slot. Standard is $28 a month ($24 billed annually), Gold is $56 ($48), and Platinum is $168 ($148), with card processing at a flat 2.6% whichever plan you are on.

The tier to actually budget for is probably not Standard. Forms and waivers - the place your adhesive-allergy questions and patch-test record live - only arrive at Gold, and lash work without an intake form is a liability conversation waiting to happen. Growing beyond yourself is handled by tier rather than a per-artist add-on, which points a two-chair studio at Gold money as well. The 14-day trial runs without a card.

Verdict: the strongest deposit machine in the lineup - budget for Gold if intake forms are part of how you work.

Booksy

Booksy costs $29.99 a month plus tax, with each additional team member at $20 a month, and its pitch to a lash artist is the marketplace: people in your city genuinely open Booksy and search for lashes, and a new artist with an empty Tuesday can be found there by strangers. No-show protection and prepayments are built in, and the mobile app holds up through a working day.

Weigh the discovery against what it charges. Boost, the program that promotes you to new marketplace clients, keeps a one-time 30% of that client's first visit - and at lash prices the number stings: a $130 volume set hands over $39. The fee can also land when someone who saw your work on Instagram happens to complete the booking inside Booksy. And your profile sits in a catalogue where the artist across town is one scroll below you, which matters more while your book still has gaps.

Verdict: real discovery while you fill an early book - reread the Boost math once your weeks run on standing fills.

Goldie

Ask a lash group chat what they book with and Goldie comes up before any software reviewer gets a word in. The free Starter plan is honestly useful: online booking, unlimited clients, and deposits included, at a limit of 20 appointments a month on one calendar, with text reminders you send manually. Pro is $19.99 a month ($199.99 a year) and removes the appointment cap, automates the reminders, and includes 500 texts a month; Pro Plus is $39.99 ($399.99) and adds team members and 750 texts. Card processing runs 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction on the paid plans, and 3.5% + $0.30 (minimum $0.50) on Starter.

Do the cadence math on that free cap. Twenty appointments a month is roughly ten regulars on a two-to-three-week fill cycle - a young lash book hits that ceiling within months, which is exactly the moment the $19.99 upgrade starts looking cheap. The deposit tooling is the standout for the price - set a percentage or a fixed amount, keep cards on file, and charge a no-show fee without chasing anyone - though on Starter every deposit clears at the steeper free-tier rate. Payouts take one to three business days on Starter, while the paid plans get same-day.

Verdict: the lash community favorite for good reason - deposits on a genuinely free plan, with a 20-appointment cap a busy book outgrows fast.

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling earns its spot on a lash list with intake forms on every plan. Adhesive allergies, eye sensitivities, patch-test date, when your last fill was and who did it - all answered at booking, days before the appointment, not whispered from the lash bed after her eyes are already taped down. Starter is $20 a month ($16 billed annually) for one calendar, Standard is $34 ($27) for six, Premium is $61 ($49) for thirty-six; there is no free plan, only a 7-day trial.

The scheduling logic is the other half of the case: buffer times for cleanup between sets, minimum notice so nobody books a fill for tonight, and deposits collected through a connected processor like Stripe, Square, or PayPal. What you give up is polish for this industry - text reminders only start at Standard, there is no marketplace, and nothing in the interface knows what a lash fill is.

Verdict: the intake-form and scheduling-rules pick, dressed in office clothes rather than studio ones.

Square Appointments

Square Appointments starts free for a solo artist at one location, with Square's payments underneath at 2.6% + $0.15 per in-person transaction. If your studio already takes cards on a Square reader, the calendar joins the account you have, the payouts you know, and a client checkout that takes seconds between appointments.

The free tier has one gap that lands directly on lash economics: charging cancellation and no-show fees requires Plus, at $49 per location a month ($149 for Premium). A vanished fill is an hour lost; a vanished full set is most of an afternoon - and the free plan can watch it happen without charging a cent. Nothing in the product is shaped for lashes either, because appointments are a branch of Square's payments tree.

Verdict: a free start that makes sense on Square hardware, until protecting long appointments pushes you to the $49 plan.

Side by side

Booking from your bio

For most lash artists the funnel is not a website - it is a set photographed under a ring light, posted to Instagram, and followed by a DM that says "how much for this?". The problem is when the answer lives in your thumbs: you are mid-set with tweezers in both hands for hours at a stretch, and every enquiry you answer at 9pm is unpaid admin. Some of those DMs go cold in the hours it takes you to surface.

A booking link in your bio closes that gap without you touching the phone. The follower who loved the post taps through, sees "classic full set, 2 hrs" and "volume fill, 60 min" with real prices and real openings, and books while the impulse is warm. Your reply to the DM becomes one line: the link. We wrote a full walkthrough of the setup in bookings from Instagram and Facebook, including where the link goes and what to pin.

What is the best booking app for lash techs?

As of August 2026 it splits by priority. Goldie is the lash community favorite with deposits on its free plan and Pro at $19.99 a month; GlossGenius is the strongest for card-on-file deposits from $28; Booksy at $29.99 plus tax brings marketplace discovery; hey.booked is a flat $15 a month for unlimited bookings without payments; Acuity from $20 leads on intake forms; and Square Appointments is free solo with paid no-show protection.

Is there a free booking app for lash artists?

Three real ones as of August 2026. Goldie Starter is free with online booking, deposits, and a 20-appointment monthly cap. hey.booked's free plan covers one staff member, three services, and 30 confirmed bookings a month. Square Appointments is free for a solo artist at one location. On a two-to-three-week fill cadence, note that Goldie's 20-appointment cap fits roughly ten regular clients.

How do lash techs take deposits?

Most collect a percentage or fixed amount when the appointment is booked, held against the service price. GlossGenius, Goldie, and Booksy all take deposits inside the booking flow with a saved card, and Acuity does it through a connected processor like Stripe or Square. Artists on tools without payments, such as hey.booked, request the deposit separately over a payment app before confirming the slot.

Can clients book fills and full sets with different durations?

Yes - every app in this comparison supports a duration and price per service, so a 60-minute fill and a two-and-a-half-hour full set reserve different amounts of calendar. The detail worth testing in a trial is the client side: book a fake fill from your own phone and confirm it cannot land inside time a full set would need, and that your fill-eligibility rules (for example, fills within three weeks only) are stated where clients see them.

What booking app works best with Instagram?

Any app that gives you a clean public booking page works, because Instagram only needs one link in your bio. As of August 2026, hey.booked, GlossGenius, Goldie, and Booksy all provide a linkable page with services, prices, and live availability; Booksy additionally lists you in its own consumer marketplace. The deciding factor is less the integration and more whether the page loads fast and books in under a minute on a phone.

Choose with your own numbers: how many of your slots are long sets, how often a no-show actually hits you, and how many clients arrive from your bio versus a marketplace. If you want to see how hey.booked runs a lash calendar day to day - per-service durations, the booking page, the reminders - our esthetician booking software tour walks the same flow lash and beauty rooms use.