The short version
- Choose Salon Manager if retail stock, commission tracking or heavy card volume through SalonPay run your salon. The upgrade from iSalon is free.
- Choose Youzse if you have four to ten people and want a lower software bill with no setup fee, plus 0% commission on new clients.
- The deciding number is card turnover: £5,000 a month costs £160 in Youzse card fees, against £69.99 plus VAT for SalonPay Starter.
If you searched for an iSalon alternative, the first thing to know is that iSalon has already changed. The isalonsoftware.co.uk address now redirects to Salon Manager. The company's own history page explains that Salon Software Solutions Ltd owns the Computill, iSalon and Salon Manager brands, with Salon Manager launched in 2023 as the cloud generation. The business is part of Jonas Software and the wider Constellation Software group, and it still runs from Wallingford in Oxfordshire. So if your salon runs on iSalon today, you are making a move either way. The useful question is whether that move should be to Salon Manager or somewhere else. This page answers it on published figures, including the ones that do not flatter us.
The free upgrade is a fair offer, so weigh it properly
Salon Manager's upgrade page is direct about it. The upgrade from iSalon is free, with guided setup, training and UK support. The tools you rely on today carry across: appointments and team diaries, client details and history, stock, checkout and reporting. For a salon holding years of colour notes and client history in iSalon, a free move inside the same company is the least disruptive path. It should be your baseline rather than an afterthought.
What free does not settle is the bill after the move. Salon Manager prices by package and by team member, and online booking is included from Premium, or added to Essentials for £29 plus VAT a month. Ask for your monthly figure in writing for your actual team, with VAT shown, before you treat the upgrade as the whole story.
For a premium salon the deciding factors are usually card volume, retail and how the team is paid. On all three Salon Manager has a real case, and the sections below say where.
Where Salon Manager is genuinely strong
- Retail stock. Minimum and maximum levels, purchase orders, barcode stocktaking on a phone and transfers between sites. Youzse has no retail stock control for salons, so if product sales are a real profit line this counts heavily in their favour.
- Commission tracking calculated from connected sales information. Youzse does not split commission on a ticket, so a team paid on commission is a point to Salon Manager.
- Integrated card terminals through SalonPay, which sends the final bill straight to the terminal, plus integrations with Clover, Dojo and Stripe. For a salon taking most payments by card, the published SalonPay bundles cost less than the Youzse rate, as the table below shows.
- Unlimited training, UK support, unlimited devices, SMS reminders and loyalty points included in every package.
- An AI receptionist connected to the live appointment diary that can answer calls and book, move or cancel appointments. We could not find a published price for it.
- Colleges and teaching salons, plus multi site groups with shared client records and multi currency on Enterprise.
- More than 30 years in UK salon software, from Computill in 1993 through iSalon in 1999 to Salon Manager today.
What a salon pays each month, by team size
| Salon Manager | Youzse | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | Premium £49 plus VAT with online booking, or Essentials £29 plus VAT without it | Essentials £19 a month for one user, online booking included |
| 2 people | Premium £59 plus VAT | Growth £59 a month, up to 10 users |
| 4 people | Premium £79 plus VAT | Growth £59 a month, up to 10 users |
| 6 people | Premium £99 plus VAT | Growth £59 a month, up to 10 users |
| 7 or more people | Premium £109 plus VAT, or £130.80 with it, at the calculator's top setting of 7 or more | Growth £59 a month up to 10 users, then Scale £109 a month with unlimited users |
| A second salon | Multi site sits on Enterprise, priced on application | £15 a month per extra location |
| Setup | £199 plus VAT one off as standard | No setup fee, with an import wizard for client records and appointment history |
| Card payments | SalonPay Starter £69.99 plus VAT a month covers up to £5,000 of card turnover, then from 0.8%. Growth £99.99 plus VAT covers up to £10,000, then from 0.5% | 2.5% plus 35p per transaction on standard UK cards, platform fee included in that rate. Premium and non UK cards cost more |
| Marketplace for new clients | Not advertised on the pages we read | Listed on Youzse Discover with 0% commission on new clients who find you there |
| Trying it first | A free tailored demo | 30 day free trial with no card required |
Salon Manager figures taken from salonmanageronline.co.uk on 1 October 2026, from the price calculator on their packages page and from their SalonPay page. isalonsoftware.co.uk redirects there. Every Salon Manager price is stated plus VAT, so add 20% before comparing with the Youzse column, whose VAT treatment is set out on the Youzse pricing page. In their own words the calculator is an estimate rather than a final quotation. SMS from 6p each and equipment are extra.
Ask these before you sign anything
- Your monthly figure after the upgrade, for your real team size and package, with VAT shown.
- Whether the £199 plus VAT setup fee applies to a move from iSalon or only to new customers.
- The contract length and notice period. We could not find either on the pages we read.
- What SMS will cost at your volume. Salon Manager prices SMS from 6p each, depending on the package.
- The exact SalonPay rate above your included card turnover, because both published rates begin with the word from.
- How you would get your data out later. Salon Manager's own FAQ says data ownership, export and deletion should be confirmed in the service terms, which is good advice for any system, ours included.
Where Youzse fits, and where it costs more
Start with the line that does not flatter us. Youzse charges 2.5% plus 35p per card payment on standard UK cards, with the platform fee inside that rate. A salon taking £5,000 a month by card in £50 payments on standard UK cards pays £160 a month in Youzse card fees. SalonPay Starter covers that same £5,000 for £69.99 plus VAT, which is £83.99 with VAT added. At £10,000 a month the Youzse figure is £320, against £99.99 plus VAT on SalonPay Growth. SalonPay is for Salon Manager customers, so count both subscriptions. Even so, for a busy salon where nearly everything goes through a terminal, Salon Manager with SalonPay will usually cost less overall. If that is your salon, choose it.
Youzse comes out ahead on the software line. Essentials is £19 a month for one user. A team of up to 10 sits on Growth at £59 a month and Scale at £109 a month lifts the cap, all with no setup fee, against £99 plus VAT for six people on Salon Manager Premium. Salon Manager Premium for a team of seven or more is £109 plus VAT, or £130.80 with it, against Youzse Growth at £59 for up to 10 users. Online booking, online deposits and online gift cards are on every Youzse plan, where Salon Manager includes online booking and deposits from Premium and online gift vouchers from Premium+. Quotes, invoices, memberships and forms sit alongside them, and Youzse works out your nine box VAT return figures for you or your accountant to file. It also runs across around 60 business types, which helps if your salon has added aesthetics or a mobile service.
The other difference is new clients. Youzse lists your salon on its Discover marketplace and charges 0% commission on new clients who find you there. It is younger and smaller than the biggest marketplaces, so treat it as a bonus rather than a plan.
Test both properly. Salon Manager offers a free tailored demo. Youzse offers a 30 day free trial with no card required, so you can run a real month of bookings alongside iSalon before anything is switched off.
Third-party pricing and features on this page were last checked on 1 October 2026. Rival platforms change their plans, so check their own site before you decide.
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- Report
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