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Booksy is horizontal salon-booking software — barbers, hair, lash, brow, nails, and tattoo studios all rent the same tool. Their pricing model is the give-away: $29.99/mo for the base + 2.49–2.69% on every transaction + $0.10–$0.30 per-transaction fee + $20/mo for each additional seat. Coil's pricing is flat: $29/mo Solo, $49/chair Shop, with zero cut on deposits, tips, or balances. At any realistic processing volume, a tattooer pays more on Booksy than on coil — and the savings widen as the shop grows. The bigger difference, though, is that coil is tattoo-specific. Booksy treats you like a hair salon.
The honest read
Coil is flat. Booksy is monthly plus a cut.
Booksy keeps 2.49–2.69% of every deposit, tip, and balance you take through the platform. Coil keeps zero. On $5,000/mo in card volume, that's roughly $135/mo Booksy collects on top of subscription — three times coil's whole bill.
Coil is built for tattooers. Booksy is built for everyone.
Booksy's inquiry form is a salon-booking form. Coil's asks about body location, references, size, color preference, budget — and routes by discipline (tattoo vs piercing). Aftercare, consent, deposit math, and review flow are all built for ink.
Booksy has a bigger consumer marketplace.
Booksy invests heavily in its consumer-side discovery app. Coil's /discover is much smaller. If marketplace traffic is a primary acquisition channel for you, Booksy still has the scale.
Public artist site + URL
Custom domain
Coil ships custom domains on Pro tier.
Consumer marketplace / discovery
Booksy's marketplace is large. Coil's /discover is small.
Tattoo-specific inquiry form
Coil asks body location, refs, size, budget. Booksy's form is salon-generic.
Stripe-Connect deposits direct to your account
Booksy's payment processing routes through Booksy; the cut is built into the flow.
Aftercare SMS drip
Digital consent + signed waivers
AI healing watch (vision-model photo reads)
AI style-fit + AI pricing coach
Cancellation waitlist — auto-fills the slot
Healed-photo bounty + touch-up credit ledger
Two-stage drawing deposit
Apprentice mode (mentor approval queue)
Portability moat — URL follows the artist
60-second IG sync (OAuth → site auto-generated)
Per-artist Twilio number for client SMS
Consumer-side mobile app
Roster + commission splits
If your primary acquisition channel is Booksy's consumer marketplace — meaning a meaningful share of your bookings come from clients who found you by browsing the Booksy app — that traffic is a real moat their pricing buys you. Some neighborhood barbershops and salon-adjacent tattoo studios in larger cities do well on it. If you've never gotten a single client from the Booksy marketplace, you're paying a 2.5%+ cut for a feature you don't use.
When coil is the right call
If your clients find you through Instagram, word of mouth, or your existing site, coil is the cheaper and tattoo-specific tool. The flat-monthly math saves $100+/mo immediately at modest card volume, and the AI healing watch, cancellation waitlist, healed-photo bounty, two-stage drawing deposit, and apprentice mode are all built for tattooers — none of which Booksy offers. The portability moat means if you move shops, your URL and clients travel with you.
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