A color is processing, the phone is ringing, and a walk-in asks who is next.
Clients check in at the door or from your Instagram link, see a wait that knows a color from a trim, and step out until their stylist is ready. Booked color, checkout, tips and suite rent sit in the same place.
$29 a month for your first location, $19 for each extra. 14 days free with every Pro feature. Card needed, not charged until the trial ends.
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TodayA color is processing, the phone is ringing, and two walk-ins ask who is next.
With NextUp Walk-inThe line and the book share one screen, with a wait that knows a color from a trim.
Illustrated example · made-up names
See NextUp Walk-in set up for hair salons.
Saturday at the salon, and the waiting area is full of people who walked in hoping for a chair. Every guest wants a time, and every minute at the desk is a minute away from the floor.
Customers scan a code at the door and join your line from their own phone. No app to download, and no account to make. They can run an errand, and come back when it's their turn.
The TV in your front desk shows who's up next, and an honest wait, so nobody has to ask how much longer.
Dolly calls the next guest with a tap, starts the service, and finishes up, so the desk never turns into a bottleneck.
Start with a list of services made for hair salons, and NextUp Walk-in uses their times to keep every wait honest.
Insights show your busiest days and hours, your average wait, and how many guests you served, so you know when to put another stylist on the floor.
At our demo salon, Dolly's next guest is already on the way, and the front desk stays quiet. Yours can run the same way.
Try our live demo line at nextupwalkin.com/demo, and start your fourteen-day free trial.
An example day, hour by hour, with the line on everyone's phone.
Where the time goes today, before anything changes.
Check-ins, the phone, questions and payments all land on one tired person at the busiest hour.
Someone steps out for coffee and misses their turn, or comes back and stands at the desk asking.
Booth and suite rent, assistant splits and tips get sorted by hand at the end of the week.
What was mixed last time lives on index cards or in one stylist's head, and a new stylist can't find it.
A single-process color, a cut and a blowout take very different times, but walk-ins want one number.
A color sits for 35 minutes while the stylist waits too, and nobody can book into the gap.
A code at the door or a link in your Instagram bio. No app required.
Clients watch the line on their phone and come back right when their stylist is ready.
Weekly or monthly rent is collected from each renter, and online tips are tracked for each stylist.
Hair type, brand, the formula, ratio, processing minutes and patch-test date are kept on the client’s profile and found by phone number.
NextUp Walk-in adds up each client’s own services (cut, color, toner, blowout) and uses each stylist’s own times.
With NextUp Walk-in’s Pro plan, split a color into the active part, the processing wait and the finish. The stylist is free for another client while it processes.
Example: the same day for hair salons, before and after.
What changes once the line lives on a phone, not on paper.
A code at the door or a link in your Instagram bio. No app required.
Clients watch the line on their phone and come back right when their stylist is ready.
Weekly or monthly rent is collected from each renter, and online tips are tracked for each stylist.
Hair type, brand, the formula, ratio, processing minutes and patch-test date are kept on the client’s profile and found by phone number.
NextUp Walk-in adds up each client’s own services (cut, color, toner, blowout) and uses each stylist’s own times.
With NextUp Walk-in’s Pro plan, split a color into the active part, the processing wait and the finish. The stylist is free for another client while it processes.
When walk-ins land between booked color, how long a wait really ran, and what clients ask for.
Each hourBusiest hour
Quoted at the doorHow long it took
The parts of NextUp Walk-in hair salons use most. Each one has its own page, with pictures.
Every feature here is in NextUp Walk-in today. The ones marked Pro come with NextUp Walk-in Pro; the rest are on every paid plan. Compare plans.
Check-in is where a busy front desk loses the most time. Clients check themselves in, from the door, the desk tablet or before they leave home, and the desk only greets them.
Price by experience once, not stylist by stylist, and see what a color leaves after the product that goes into it.
Salons that weigh every bowl should look hard at a dedicated color tool: scale integration and product taken out of stock from a formula. NextUp Walk-in keeps the formula as text on the color record, one line per bowl. You type what a service costs and see its margin, but nothing is weighed and nothing comes off stock. Processing-time gaps and a visit with more than one stylist apply to booked appointments, not to the walk-in line, and a client moves a multi-stylist visit by cancelling and booking again (you move it on the calendar).
What was mixed last time, and her hair type, are on her profile, with a positive patch test flagged first, so a new stylist can repeat it.
Six screens, one system, always in sync — styled the way your customers and team will actually see it.
More specific to hair salons
Related trades
Also built for
See how NextUp Walk-in compares with other booking apps: price per location, texts included, and who each app is actually built for.
Price, the walk-in line and the color tools salons ask about, side by side, with the gaps we have said plainly.
| Feature | NextUp Walk-in Pro | Premium salon suites | All-in-one salon apps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price, salon of four stylists | $69 ($59, plus $10 for the fourth team member) | About $140 to $160, with phone, payroll and marketing priced extra on some (published pricing, published pricing) | About $60 to $70 at the base tier; forms and waitlist sit higher on some (published pricing, published pricing) |
| Walk-in line with a TV board and kiosk | ✓ (every plan) | A waiting room or waitlist; no TV board found | A waitlist |
| Processing time (client under color, stylist takes another) | ✓ on booked appointments (Pro): active, processing and finish times; the stylist is free during the wait | Some schedulers account for it | Not confirmed on their pages |
| Color formula on the client (scale integration is separate) | ✓ A color record for every visit (hair type, brand, formula by bowl, ratio, processing minutes, patch test), each starting from the last formula (every plan); no scale link | On several, with scale add-ons from about $35 to $40 a month on some | Notes on most |
| A different stylist for each service in one booking | ✓ on booked appointments (Pro): a cut with one stylist, then the color with another, one after the other | On some | On some |
| Price by stylist level (Junior, Senior, Master) | ✓ up to five levels you name, with a bulk "set price for every Senior" (every plan) | On some | Not confirmed on their pages |
| Product cost and margin per service | ✓ you type the cost; no scale and no stock deduction (every plan) | Costing from stock or a scale partner on some | On higher tiers of some |
| Color consent and patch-test form | ✓ hair-salon starter, signed on the client’s phone | ✓ | ✓ (some on higher tiers) |
| Suite rent, hybrid renters, assistant splits | ✓ (Pro) | Booth rental and commission tools on some | Multi-location plans or add-ons on some |
| Fee on a client the marketplace brings | None (the card fee still applies) | Not a marketplace | Some take 20% to 30% of a new client’s first visit |
| Card payments | Stripe’s rate plus 0.5% (at most $1 a payment, never on tips) | About 2.4% to 2.5% plus cents | About 2.3% to 2.5% plus cents |
Prices and fees from each vendor’s published pricing page, checked October 26, 2026; the four-stylist totals are our arithmetic from those pages. Named, linked comparisons are on the compare pages.
A salon waitlist app keeps the walk-in line on clients' phones instead of a clipboard or the lobby. Clients check in, see their place and a wait based on the services they picked, and come back when their stylist is ready. NextUp Walk-in also runs the book, checkout and suite rent from the same front desk.
They solve different problems. A waitlist handles clients who walk in; a booking app handles those with an appointment. NextUp Walk-in runs the walk-in line on every plan, and Pro puts booked clients on the same line so the front desk has one list.
Choose the services method, and NextUp Walk-in adds up each client's own services, uses each stylist's own times, and counts how long current visits have been going. Or keep it simple with your average visit time and how many stylists are working. Insights shows how close quoted waits came to real ones.
A client scans the code at your door, taps your Instagram or Google link, or uses the tablet at the desk. They enter a name, pick a stylist or "Anyone" and their services, and see their place and wait on their phone. Booked clients are checked in from the calendar when they arrive.
Yes. Open kiosk mode on any tablet and clients tap in themselves. It clears after each client, so it never shows one client's details to the next.
No. Their place lives on their phone, so they can step out and come back. If someone's called and doesn't come up, tap "Still coming?" and they can answer 2, 5 or 10 minutes away.
Yes. Put your check-in link in your Instagram bio, on your Google profile or on your website. A website snippet can also show whether you're open and about how long the wait is.
Yes. Each client has a color record for every visit under Trade details: hair type, brand, the formula (one line per bowl), ratio, processing minutes and patch-test date. A new record starts from the last formula, labeled with today. Look a client up by phone to see it with their visit history and staff notes, and bring older formula notes over when you import your client list. On Pro, "Last time" adds up to 3 photos and a note per visit. It does not connect to a scale.
Yes. Start from the hair-salon template (color history, allergies and a patch-test acknowledgment). A required form is signed on their phone before they join or book and is filed on their profile.
Yes, with NextUp Walk-in’s Pro plan. Clients book a service, a stylist and a time, and you can ask for a deposit or card on file. A client who cancels before your refund cutoff gets the deposit back automatically.
Yes, with NextUp Walk-in’s Pro plan. Rent is collected weekly, every two weeks or monthly from a saved card or bank account, or off what you owe them. Assistants can get a percentage of a stylist's tips or services.
Yes. Add products with stock at each location. They go on the visit's bill, stock comes off when it's paid, and you can pay a product commission.
No. They join, book and pay in their phone's browser.
Processing-time booking, yes, on Pro: split a service into active, processing and finish time, and the stylist is free for another booked client while color develops. Color formulas are kept as a record on the client, one line per bowl. You can type what a service costs in product and see its margin, but there is no scale link and nothing comes off stock from a formula, so if those run your day, compare a dedicated color tool first. Processing gaps apply to booked appointments, not the walk-in line.
Yes, on Pro. A client books a cut with one stylist and adds the color with another, and online booking offers only the times when each stylist is free for their part. The parts run one after another and show in each stylist's column on the calendar and on the client's confirmation page. Cancelling or moving it takes the whole visit. Parts do not overlap, and a client changes a multi-stylist visit by cancelling and booking again.
Yes. Name up to five levels, put each stylist at one, and set each service's price for the level, or use "Set price for every Senior" to fill the whole level from your shop price in one step. Everyone at the level charges it, and a price you set for one stylist still wins.
Yes. Type the product cost on a service (and on each option, like a longer length) and Services shows its price, cost and margin. The Service Margins report adds what each service sold and kept over any period. The cost is the number you type: nothing is weighed and nothing comes off stock.
Yes. Add the "Hair type" option (straight, wavy, curly, coily) to a service and each type gets its own price and time. A client's hair type on her color record picks the option when she books without choosing one.
Yes. Import your client list yourself in a few minutes (Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, Numbers or contacts, up to 50,000 clients), with formula notes, allergies, birthdays and tags mapped from your columns. You see every row before it saves, and you can undo it for 7 days.
The best salon waitlist app runs the line and the book from one place. NextUp Walk-in lets clients check in from their phone, shows a wait that knows a color from a trim, calls them back when their stylist is ready, and, on Pro, adds booking, deposits and checkout with tips. See how it stacks up in the walk-in waitlist app comparison on our blog.
Both. Walk-ins join the line from their phone or the door tablet, and clients who want a set time book a stylist online with NextUp Walk-in's Pro plan. Walk-ins and bookings share one calendar, so the front desk sees one picture of the day.
The Walk-in plan is $29 a month for your first location and $19 for each additional one, with the TV screen and the door tablet. Pro, at $59 and $39, adds appointments, deposits, memberships, commissions and payroll. Both include 3 team members per location, then $10 a month each. The 14-day free trial includes every Pro feature. A card is needed to start, but nothing is charged until the trial ends, when the plan is charged unless you cancel first. There is also a Free plan: 1 location, 1 team member and 50 check-ins a month, and no card needed.
Set up your first location in about two minutes. Your line can be live before your next walk-in.
