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Updated · 2026

coil vs Porter. Two products. Different jobs.

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 runs the tattooer's day: booking requests with the details in, drawing time you actually get paid for, healed-photo follow-up, healing photos checked for you when the eleven-PM 'is this peeling normal' texts come in, and a page that goes with the artist to any shop. Same price band. Different bets.

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The honest read

  • coil is the specialist for custom tattooers.

    Booking deposits, healing photo checks, the cancellation waitlist, the healed-photo reward, apprentice approvals, and a page that goes with you if you change shops. 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. coil is $49 a chair and costs less up to 5 chairs ($245 to Porter's $250). From 6 chairs Porter's flat plan costs less, but coil stops climbing at $392: chair 9 and up are free.

The price difference.

 CoilPorter

  • Solo artist

    $59/mo$35/mo

  • Shop · 2 chairs

    coil: $49 a chair, billed for 8 at most. Porter: flat for any size studio.

    $98/mo$250/mo

  • Shop · 4 chairs

    $196/mo$250/mo

  • Shop · 5 chairs

    $245/mo$250/mo

  • Shop · 6 chairs

    coil costs less up to 5 chairs. Porter costs less from 6.

    $294/mo$250/mo

  • Shop · 8 chairs or more

    Chair 9 and up are free on coil, so $392 is the most any shop pays: $142 more than Porter's flat plan, however big the shop.

    $392/mo$250/mo

  • Cut taken on deposits, tips, balances

    0%0%

  • Stripe card-processing fee

    Both let you pass the processing fee to the client at checkout.

    Stripe standardStripe standard

Feature by feature.

 CoilPorter

  • Public artist site + URL

    YesYes

  • Custom domains

    YesYes

  • Booking form that asks placement, references and budget

    YesYes

  • Stripe-Connect deposits + tips + balances

    YesYes

  • Pass card processing fee to client

    YesYes

  • Digital consent + signed waivers

    YesYes

  • Aftercare drip (day-of, day-3, day-14, six-week)

    YesYes

  • Public reviews (you approve each one)

    YesYes

  • Two-stage drawing deposit

    coil only. Refundable consult deposit covers drawing time before the booking deposit.

    YesNo

  • Cancellation waitlist: texts your top five, first deposit wins

    coil texts top 5 waitlisted clients; first deposit wins.

    YesNo

  • Healed-photo credit (optional, a code on submit)

    YesNo

  • Touch-up credit ledger

    YesNo

  • Healing photos checked for you

    YesNo

  • Style-fit read and a quote suggestion from your past jobs

    coil trains on your own past jobs.

    YesNo

  • A business phone number for every artist

    YesNo

  • Apprentice bookings wait for your approval

    YesNo

  • Your page and clients go with you if you change shops

    YesNo

  • Convention booth QR + lead capture

    Porter supports guest-spot travel booking but no booth-specific capture flow.

    YesPartly

  • Site built from your photos or Instagram

    YesNo

  • Roster + commission splits (multi-chair)

    YesYes

  • Monthly payout sheet for shops

    YesYes

  • 1099 forms for contractors

    coil lists what you paid each artist for the year, ready for your accountant. It doesn't file the forms.

    PartlyYes

  • Full payroll (run paychecks)

    NoYes

  • Card payments at the counter

    coil takes card at the counter by QR on the client's phone. Porter's own terminals are a real edge for walk-in and merch-heavy shops.

    PartlyYes

  • Inventory management (needles, ink, jewelry)

    NoYes

  • Customer segmentation by visit + spend

    coil has Client Profile, no cohort builder.

    PartlyYes

  • Day-stacking scheduling optimization

    NoYes

When Porter fits you better

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. And from 6 chairs up, Porter's flat $250 costs less than coil, which tops out at $392 a month.

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. Instagram DMs get your booking link while you work, and healing photos are read and flagged so the eleven-PM texts stop eating your evenings. If an artist on your roster leaves, they keep their page and clients, and that's the thing that gets the good ones to say yes to your shop in the first place. Up to 5 chairs, coil is cheaper too.

Questions

What people ask.

Does coil have a card terminal like Porter does?
Take payment shows a QR code: the client pays on their own phone by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, tip included, and it lands in Income. Cash and Venmo are logged in a tap. A Stripe card reader runs from the dashboard for some shops today; full support is waiting on Stripe. If you want a terminal on every counter today, Porter ships that.
Does Porter have AI features like coil's healing photo checks?
No. Porter's site doesn't mention AI: no healing photo checks, no style-fit reads, no quote suggestions from your past jobs. That's the biggest single difference between the two.
Can I run a piercer or a piercing chair on either?
coil supports piercers on either plan with a discipline-aware inquiry form (helix, septum, nostril vocabulary), jewelry-material consent forms, and a stretched aftercare cadence (weeks-to-months instead of weeks). Porter's piercer support isn't documented on their feature page; check with their team directly.
What happens to my data if I leave my shop?
On coil, everything follows you: yourname.coil.tattoo, your portfolio, your request history, your deposit records, your reviews, your waitlist, your touch-up credits. The day a shop removes you, your public site stays live and you get 30 days to pick a solo plan. Porter's site doesn't say what happens to an artist's data when they leave; ask their team before signing.
Are the prices in this comparison current?
Last verified October 2026 directly from each company's pricing page. coil is $59 solo and $49 a chair in a shop, and chair 9 and up are free, so a shop pays $392 a month at most. Porter's Artist Essentials is $35/mo, Artist Pro $65/mo, and Studio Pro $250/mo flat for unlimited artists. Both pricing pages can change without notice, so verify directly before deciding.
Can I migrate from Porter to coil?
Yes. Drop in a few photos and coil builds your site in about a minute. Connect Instagram after and new work shows up on its own. Your client list imports from a spreadsheet. The fastest path: keep Porter running for in-person work and use coil for requests, aftercare and healed photos until you decide which one is doing more for you.
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