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Both are flat-monthly tattoo software with no cut on deposits or tips. That's where the similarity ends. Porter is a tattoo POS — its center of gravity is the card terminal at the front desk, the payroll line item at the end of the month, the inventory count on the needle cabinet. Coil is the operating system the tattooer runs their day on — qualified inquiries, drawing time you actually get paid for, healed-photo follow-up, the AI that handles the eleven-PM 'is this peeling normal' texts, and a URL that follows the artist to any shop for life. Same price band. Different bets.
The honest read
Coil is the specialist for custom tattooers.
Booking deposits, AI healing watch, cancellation waitlist, healed-photo bounty, apprentice mode, portability moat. Built for the working-tattooer day, not the front-desk day.
Porter is the all-in-one for shops with a card terminal.
POS hardware, payroll with 1099 generation, inventory, customer segmentation, smart day-stacking. Stronger if your shop does heavy walk-ins or jewelry sales.
Both are flat monthly, no skim on deposits or tips.
Neither takes a cut of client payments. The pricing argument is per-chair math at 4+ chairs, where coil ($49/chair) crosses Porter's $250 flat at about 5 chairs.
Public artist site + URL
Custom domains
Coil: included on Pro tier only.
Qualified inquiry form (body location, refs, budget)
Stripe-Connect deposits + tips + balances
Pass card processing fee to client
Digital consent + signed waivers
Aftercare drip (day-of, day-3, day-14, six-week)
Public reviews (auto-publish on 4★+)
Two-stage drawing deposit
Coil only. Refundable consult deposit covers drawing time before the booking deposit.
Cancellation waitlist — auto-fills the slot
Coil texts top 5 waitlisted clients; first deposit wins.
Healed-photo bounty (auto-issues credit on submit)
Touch-up credit ledger
AI healing watch (read client photos, auto-reply / escalate)
AI style-fit score + AI pricing coach
Coil trains on your own past jobs.
Per-artist Twilio number for client SMS
Apprentice mode (mentor approval queue)
Portability moat — URL stays yours when you leave a shop
Convention booth QR + lead capture
Porter supports guest-spot travel booking but no booth-specific capture flow.
Referral code system (auto-issued, redemption tracking)
60-second IG sync (OAuth → site auto-generated)
Roster + commission splits (multi-chair)
Monthly payout sheet for shops
1099 form generation for contractors
Porter ships this. Coil tracks commissions + cuts a payout sheet but doesn't issue tax forms.
Full payroll (run paychecks)
In-person POS card terminal hardware
Porter's hardware is a real edge for walk-in / merch-heavy shops.
Inventory management (needles, ink, jewelry)
Customer segmentation by visit + spend
Coil has Client Profile, no cohort builder.
Day-stacking scheduling optimization
If your shop is mostly walk-ins, your front desk takes ten card swipes a day, and you sell jewelry / merch alongside tattoos and piercings, Porter is built for you. The POS hardware, the inventory tracking, the 1099 generation, the day-stacking scheduler — those compound for a shop where the in-person transaction is the center of gravity. Coil doesn't ship hardware and won't pretend otherwise. If you're a 6+ chair shop and the flat $250 is more attractive than coil's per-chair math, Porter wins on price math too.
When coil is the right call
If you do custom work, most clients come in through inquiry forms or DMs, and your day is mostly drawing + sessions + healed-photo follow-ups, coil is built for you. The auto-fill cancellation waitlist alone catches what's likely $400-1,200 a month per chair in slot-saves. The AI healing watch returns your evenings. The portability moat means an artist on your roster who leaves keeps their URL and clients — and that's the thing that gets the good ones to say yes to your shop in the first place. Below 5 chairs, coil is cheaper too.
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