Lilo vs. Booksy: Which Is Better for Barbers and Independent Pros?

Lilo vs. Booksy: which fits a barber or solo pro?

Booksy is the better choice if you want a marketplace actively sending you new clients; Lilo is the better choice if you'd rather own your pricing and pay no commission on anyone you book. That's the real fork, and it matters more than any single feature.

Booksy's honest strength is discovery. It runs a consumer marketplace, Booksy.com and the Booksy for Customers app, that clients already open and browse the way they'd browse for a restaurant. For a barber in a busy city, that's a genuine source of new chairs you won't get from a booking link sitting on your Instagram bio. Booksy is also a recognized name, which buys trust at the door.

The cost of that channel is a commission. When Booksy's marketplace sends you a brand-new client, Booksy Boost takes a one-time 30% of that client's first visit. Lilo has no marketplace, and it also has no commission of any kind. The rest of this guide weighs both fairly so you can decide on your own book. If you want the broader field first, see the best software for booth renters.

What does Booksy do well?

Booksy earns its place, and a barber shouldn't dismiss it. Its biggest advantage is the marketplace: a search destination where clients actively look for a cut, find an open slot, and book without ever knowing your name first. That's real top-of-funnel discovery, and barbershops tend to do well there because clients search by neighborhood and availability.

Boost, the paid version of that discovery, has no monthly fee. You only pay when it delivers, so it behaves like advertising you can switch on and off rather than a fixed cost. For a chair that has empty slots to fill, a channel that charges only on results is a fair proposition.

Booksy also puts everything in one plan. There's a single subscription at $29.99/month for the first user with all features included, a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and 2,000 free marketing SMS each month. No tier-hunting to find the feature you need is a genuine convenience.

How does Booksy's commission actually work?

Booksy Boost charges a one-time 30% commission on the total value of all services on a new marketplace client's first visit, with a $10 minimum and a $100 cap per client. Tips are excluded and always yours. Understanding exactly when it fires is the whole game.

The commission applies only when both conditions are true: Boost is turned on, and a brand-new client (someone not already in your client list) books their first appointment through the Booksy marketplace. It does not apply to:

• New clients who book through your own Booksy profile link, your built-in share feature, or your QR code.
• New clients who arrive via Book buttons on Google, Instagram, or Facebook.
• Any existing client, on any visit.

You're charged once that new client completes the first visit, not when they book, and a same-day no-show isn't charged. After that first appointment, 100% of every future visit from that client is yours, service and tip alike. The fee can still apply if you turn Boost off afterward or the appointment is rescheduled, so read the live terms at booksy.com before you flip it on.

So Boost is best understood as paid client acquisition with a hard $100 ceiling, not a permanent cut. The risk isn't the model, it's leaving it running for clients who would have found you through your own link or a Google search anyway.

Where does Lilo's pricing differ?

Lilo charges no per-booking commission and no new-client commission on any plan, on any booking, from any source. That's the single sharpest contrast with Booksy, and the table makes it concrete.

Verified June 2026Lilo is listed by its own publisher; verify Booksy figures at booksy.com before you buy.

Feature	Booksy	Lilo Booth
Monthly price	$29.99/mo first user + $20/mo per added staff	$20/mo flat, full suite included; Pro from $59/mo
Per-booking / new-client commission	Boost: one-time 30% of a new marketplace client's first visit ($10 min, $100 cap)	None on any booking, ever
Boost is optional and only fires on brand-new clients Booksy's marketplace sends you. Lilo never takes a cut of any booking, just standard Stripe processing.
Marketing & loyalty	Included in the single plan; 2,000 free marketing SMS/mo	Email + loyalty + memberships included; SMS via a $10/mo number
Online card rate	2.69% + $0.30	Stripe 2.90% + $0.30
Processing rates are close; the structural difference is Booksy's marketplace commission, not the card rate.
Mobile app	Mobile-first for daily ops; cash registers, inventory, selling packages and memberships, and advanced reporting are web/tablet-only	Full parity, run the entire business from the iOS/Android app
Built-in AI	Not stated in our sources	Natural-language Lilo AI, included
Consumer marketplace	Yes (Booksy.com + customer app)	No
Booksy's marketplace is a genuine discovery channel Lilo doesn't have; the Boost commission is what funds it.
HIPAA	Not stated in our sources	Available via signed BAA

On Lilo, you pay a flat $20/month on the Booth plan for a solo pro, or Pro from $59/month for a team at one location, plus standard Stripe card processing: 2.90% + $0.30 online and 2.50% + $0.30 in person, with no Lilo markup. A referral, a walk-in who becomes a regular, a client your barber friend sent over, they all cost the same processing fee and nothing more. There is no version of a Lilo booking where the platform takes a slice of the service.

Booksy's base is $29.99/month for the first user, with $20/month for each additional staff member on top, where Lilo Pro includes unlimited team members at one location for a flat fee. Neither model is automatically cheaper; it depends on where your clients come from. If most arrive by word of mouth, your own link, or Google, Lilo's flat, commission-free price usually wins the math. If you depend on the marketplace to fill the chair, Booksy's Boost commission is the cost of that channel, and you should weigh it as such.

How do features and payments compare?

The two are closer on features than on pricing structure, because both bundle their core tools into one subscription rather than gating them behind tiers. Booksy's single plan includes its feature set with 2,000 free marketing SMS a month. Lilo includes email marketing with automations (SMS via a $10/mo number), a loyalty points program, memberships with recurring billing, referrals, digital intake and consent forms, before-and-after photo galleries, and a built-in assistant on both Booth and Pro.

On payments, they sit in the same range, and hardware is close because both run on Stripe Terminal devices. Booksy processes online and card-on-file payments at 2.69% + $0.30, Tap to Pay on phone at 2.49% + $0.20, and its reader at 2.49% + $0.10, and it sells a Stripe Reader M2 around $53 and a BBPOS WisePOS E around $220, with free next-business-day payouts. Lilo runs on Stripe at a flat 2.90% + $0.30 online and 2.50% + $0.30 in person, and supports the same class of Stripe Terminal smart readers plus phone Tap to Pay. For a barber taking payment chair-side, both handle the job, so hardware isn't the deciding factor; the Boost commission is. Confirm Booksy's current rates and hardware prices at booksy.com.

Then there's the assistant. Lilo AI is built into every page: ask in plain English which regulars haven't rebooked in 60 days, where revenue is trending, or to draft a client text in your tone, and it returns the list, chart, or message instantly. Your data stays siloed and is never used to train it. Our sources don't state a comparable built-in assistant for Booksy. For the rare barber doing anything that touches health records, Lilo supports HIPAA through a signed Business Associate Agreement arranged by going through Lilo, not a self-serve toggle; our sources don't state Booksy's HIPAA posture, so confirm it directly if that matters. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

So which should you choose?

Choose Booksy if marketplace discovery is your priority and you want a recognized name actively sending new clients to your chair, and you're comfortable paying Boost's one-time 30% commission (capped at $100) as the cost of that channel. For a barber in a competitive market with chairs to fill, that reach is a real, honest advantage Lilo doesn't offer.

Choose Lilo if you'd rather pay one flat $20/month, keep every dollar of every booking minus standard Stripe processing, and have marketing, loyalty, memberships, intake forms, and an AI assistant already in the box. It fits the pro whose clients come from word of mouth, their own link, and Google, where a marketplace commission buys you nothing. If you're switching, plan the move so your history comes with you: here is how to switch without losing data, and you can see the full feature set on the Lilo Booth page. Both are fair tools. The line between them is whether you're paying for discovery or paying for a flat, commission-free home for the book you already own.