This guide is for owners of Australian beauty salons and skin clinics: businesses offering facials, skin treatments, laser, brows, lashes and, in some cases, cosmetic injectables. It is not a guide for hairdressers. The best apps for these businesses split into two layers. For booking, payments and client records, the five platforms most used are Timely, Fresha, Phorest, Kitomba and Shortcuts. Most now include some loyalty: Timely has Rewards, Fresha sells a paid loyalty add-on, Phorest has TreatCard and a Branded App, Kitomba has a loyalty program on higher plans, and Shortcuts has a loyalty program with a guest app. For bringing clients back between visits, a dedicated retention platform adds memberships, points and an app under your own name. If your salon or clinic offers prescription-only treatments, the loyalty layer also has to respect TGA and AHPRA advertising rules, which none of the booking apps is built around.
Updated 15 October 2026
Australian beauty salon and skin clinic owners know their regulars by name. They also know there are clients who book once, love the service, and still don't come back for six months, or at all. The booking app records that gap. It does not do anything to close it. Apps built to fill today's appointments were not designed to answer the harder question: how do you make sure today's client is back next month?
The five most common booking platforms in Australian beauty salons and skin clinics are Timely, Fresha, Phorest, Kitomba and Shortcuts. Each does the operational job well, and most have added loyalty features. None was built around retention for salons and clinics that offer cosmetic treatments. (For clinics weighing up more clinical systems such as Cliniko, see our guide to the best aesthetic clinic software in Australia.)
In short: the best setup for a beauty salon is a reliable booking app for operations, paired with a dedicated loyalty platform to keep clients returning.
What apps do Australian beauty salons use?
Timely and Fresha together account for a large share of AU beauty salon bookings. Timely is NZ-built, widely used across the ANZ salon market, and offers AUD pricing with solid local support. Fresha describes itself as the world's largest booking platform for beauty and wellness, and it charges a monthly subscription plus optional payment processing fees. Phorest is Irish-built but has a real footprint in Australian salons and medi-aesthetic clinics. Kitomba is a long-standing AU/NZ platform built for salons and spas. Shortcuts is another well-established platform used by Australian and New Zealand hair, beauty and nail salons.
All five handle scheduling, appointment reminders and client history. Most include a point-of-sale module and online booking. Where they differ is the client experience between visits: most now offer points and several offer memberships, but only Phorest and Shortcuts let clients see their balance in an app carrying the business's own name, and none designs its loyalty around the rules for cosmetic treatments.
For beauty salons that also offer skin or cosmetic treatments, the gap is larger. The best loyalty program app for clinics and salons needs to handle compliance requirements that generic booking tools never considered.
Do beauty salon booking apps include loyalty programs?
Most now do, in some form. The table below compares the five main booking platforms used by Australian beauty salons and skin clinics against the retention features a loyalty program actually needs.
| Timely | Fresha | Phorest | Kitomba | Shortcuts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online booking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client records & notes | Yes | Basic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| POS & payment processing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AU pricing & local support | Yes (AUD) | Yes | Local support; quote-only pricing | Yes (AUD) | Yes (AUD) |
| Built-in loyalty points | Yes (Rewards) | Paid add-on | Yes (TreatCard) | Yes (higher plans) | Yes |
| Membership tiers with recurring billing | No (packages workaround) | Yes | Yes | Via Salon Pay | Member tiers and payment plans |
| Branded client-facing app | No | No (Fresha-branded) | Yes (Branded App) | No | Yes (guest app) |
| Automated re-engagement campaigns | Rebooking reminders | Rebooking reminders | SMS campaigns | Everyday Marketing | Repeat-visit and lapsed-client automations |
Timely is widely used across Australian beauty salons, laser clinics and cosmetic businesses. It handles scheduling, POS, automated reminders and client history well. AUD pricing, a strong local support presence and regular product updates make it a dependable operational backbone. It has a points-based Rewards feature and rebooking reminders on its higher plans, but no dedicated membership feature and no branded client app. For adding to Timely's loyalty tools, the practical approach is to run a dedicated retention platform alongside it.
Fresha describes itself as the world's largest booking platform for beauty and wellness. It is no longer free to use: its pricing page lists a monthly subscription (charged per bookable team member on the Team plan) plus payment processing fees. It manages scheduling, online payments, basic client records and appointment reminders. The client experience is Fresha-branded, not the salon's brand. Fresha does have a loyalty feature, an optional paid add-on with points, up to five tiers and referral rewards, and it sells memberships, but there is no way to run them under the salon's own name. For a full look at Fresha and loyalty programs, see our guide.
Phorest is the most marketing-oriented of the five. It includes TreatCard, a points scheme redeemed for a free treat, plus SMS marketing tools and automated campaigns. Phorest also sells memberships with recurring billing, and clients can track points in the salon's Branded App through Digital Loyalty. For Australian salons and skin clinics that offer cosmetic treatments alongside beauty services, Phorest's loyalty tools were not designed around AHPRA advertising guidelines or the TGA ban on advertising prescription medicines.
Kitomba is an established AU/NZ platform built for salons, spas and beauty clinics. It covers scheduling, POS, client management and business reporting well, and its plans include a loyalty program (Grow PLUS and above) and memberships through Salon Pay. Kitomba suits a salon that wants a full-service AU/NZ booking and POS system without switching to a more marketing-focused platform.
Shortcuts is a long-standing salon and day-spa platform used across Australia and New Zealand. It handles appointment booking, POS and client records. It also has a loyalty program with member tiers, currency, expiry and payment plans, and clients can view and redeem points in a mobile guest app customised for the business. What it lacks is loyalty designed around AHPRA advertising rules for salons offering cosmetic treatments.
Beauty and skin clients drift, not because they stopped enjoying the service, but because nothing pulled them back. The booking app records the gap. A retention layer closes it.
Which app keeps beauty salon clients coming back?
For client retention, Clinic App is a dedicated loyalty and membership platform built for Australian beauty and cosmetic clinics. It does not replace the booking system: it runs alongside Timely, Fresha, Phorest or whichever platform the salon already uses. Clients earn points on eligible services, hold tiered memberships with automated recurring billing, and access their rewards through a branded app under the salon's own name. The booking workflow for salon staff does not change.
The difference between a booking app and a retention app is simple: the booking app fills today's appointments. The retention app is what brings the client back for the next one. Beauty salons with a strong regular client base almost always have some deliberate retention mechanism: a membership, a loyalty scheme, a reason to come back. Relying on the booking platform to deliver that is relying on a tool that was not designed for it.
How do you add a loyalty program to a beauty salon without switching systems?
Most salon owners consider two routes: switch to a booking platform with loyalty built in, or add a dedicated loyalty app on top of the existing system. In practice, switching booking systems is disruptive and rarely necessary: client history needs migrating, staff need retraining, and the operational system that already works gets replaced in order to access a loyalty feature that is usually basic at best.
A retention platform that runs alongside the existing booking system avoids all of that. We set it up with you, and our 30-Day Launch Guarantee covers the timing: if it is not ready to launch within 30 days of having what we need from your team, we cover the next month. There is no client data migration and no change to how appointments are taken. Staff continue in the platform they know. Clients get a branded loyalty experience (points, membership tiers, offers, a downloadable app) under the salon's own name.
For salons thinking through what a clinic and salon membership model actually looks like in practice (tier structure, billing cadence, what clients see), that guide is worth reading alongside a software comparison. The app is the vehicle; the membership model is the client experience.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app for an Australian beauty salon?
For day-to-day operations, Timely and Fresha are the most widely used booking apps in Australian beauty salons. For client retention (loyalty programs, membership tiers and a branded client app), Clinic App is the dedicated layer that runs alongside whichever booking system the salon already uses.
Do booking apps for beauty salons include loyalty programs?
Most now do. Timely has a points-based Rewards feature, Fresha sells a paid loyalty add-on with points and tiers, Kitomba has a loyalty program on its higher plans, Shortcuts has a loyalty program with member tiers and a customised guest app, and Phorest has TreatCard points, memberships and a Branded App. None of them is designed around AHPRA advertising rules for salons that offer cosmetic treatments.
How do I add a loyalty or membership program to my beauty salon?
The most practical approach is to add a dedicated retention platform that runs alongside your existing booking system rather than replacing it. Clinic App is built for this: your team keeps booking in Timely, Fresha or Phorest while clients earn points, hold memberships and see their rewards in a branded app under your salon name.
What should a beauty salon loyalty app include?
Look for membership tiers with automated recurring billing, a branded client-facing app clients can download, loyalty points on eligible services, and automated re-engagement when a client goes quiet. For Australian salons that offer cosmetic treatments alongside beauty services, AHPRA-aware loyalty design is also important.
