Switching from Phorest, and what your export actually holds

Phorest is quote led, so there is no published number to hold this comparison to and this page does not invent one. What it can tell you is what leaves with you, what does not, and why the absence of a trial changes how you plan the move.

8 min readUpdated 15 September 2026

There is no price here to compare

Every other page in this section sets a published figure against ours. This one cannot. Phorest names its plans, Starter, Grow, Ultimate and Elite for salons and a separate set for aesthetics, and then asks you to request a quote. No monthly figure appears anywhere on its pricing page, no card processing rate is stated and no VAT treatment is given.

That is a legitimate way to sell software and it is common at the premium end of this market, where setup and training are part of what you are buying. It does mean the only number you can compare is the one on your own invoice, so dig it out before you read any further. Youzse is from £19 a month for the business with extra locations from £15 a month, and card processing is 2.5% plus 35p with the platform fee inside that single rate. Whether that is more or less than you pay now is a question only your invoice can answer.

The other thing their pricing page states plainly is that there is no free trial. That matters more than it sounds and it shapes the whole of the rest of this page.

What moves and what stays behind

Comes acrossWhat to watch
Client recordsNames, contact details and addresses, as far as your export carries themThere is no named column profile for Phorest, so you match the columns yourself on the mapping screen. It takes a few minutes and it is shown to you before anything is written
Appointment historyPast and future appointments, as far back as the export you runPhorest exports from its reporting area rather than from a single button, so set the widest date range you can before you run it
Treatment notesWhere they appear as a column in the exportPhorest holds a lot in client cards that a report may not carry. Check a client you know well before assuming the rest came
Services and pricesTreatment or service list where it exports separatelyPrices arrive as they were on the day, so look again at anything you were about to put up
Loyalty pointsNo. Balances are not importedSet your scheme up in Youzse and credit long standing regulars by hand. Write the balances down before you lose access to them
Saved card detailsNoCard details sit with the payment processor behind your old platform rather than in a spreadsheet, so clients enter a card again the first time they pay through Youzse
Recurring membershipsNo. Payment authority cannot transfer between platformsAnyone on a recurring plan has to authorise it again on Youzse. Plan the message before you plan the date

Export from the Manager or reporting area: the client list report, the appointment history at the widest date range and the treatment list where it is available separately. Phorest support will usually produce an export on request, which is worth asking for rather than assembling reports yourself. Nothing in this table is a claim about what Phorest will hand over on any given day, so look at the export you actually get before you plan around it.

No named column profile, and what that actually means

For some platforms Youzse recognises the file by its column headings and maps everything without being asked. Fresha, Booksy, Vagaro and Square all work that way. There is no named column profile for Phorest, so you match the columns yourself.

That sounds worse than it is. The mapping screen lists your columns on one side and the Youzse fields on the other, you pair them up once, and the preview shows you what the first rows will become before a single record is written. A client list takes a few minutes. It is the same screen the mapped platforms use, with the pairing left to you rather than guessed.

What it does mean is that nobody should promise you a one click import from Phorest, including us. Budget an unhurried hour with the file open rather than a click, and run it on the preview before you commit the batch.

The order to do it in

  • Ask Phorest support for a full data export in writing, before you give any notice, and give them time to produce it
  • Write down your loyalty balances and the details of anyone on a recurring membership, because neither transfers
  • Start the Youzse trial, which runs 30 days with no card, and upload the client file first
  • Match the columns on the mapping screen and read the preview before you commit anything
  • Import services next, then staff, then appointments, because a booking needs its client, its service and its staff member to exist first
  • Rebuild what an export does not carry, which usually means deposit rules, reminder wording, forms and your loyalty scheme
  • Take live bookings on Youzse while the Phorest contract still has time on it, so the diary has a fallback
  • Change your booking links last, and only once the Youzse diary is one you would trust on a Saturday

What actually breaks on the day

  • Recurring memberships stop being collected. Payment authority does not move between platforms, so every client on a plan has to set it up again. On a clinic with a large membership base this is the whole project rather than a detail.
  • Loyalty balances vanish unless you wrote them down. There is no export that carries them and no way to recover them afterwards.
  • Every link you have already given out points at Phorest, and nobody can redirect a web address on a domain they do not own. Your Instagram profile, your Google Business Profile booking link, your printed cards and any QR code you had made all have to be changed by hand.
  • Clients with a card saved will be asked for it again. Say so in the message rather than letting them discover it at the till.
  • Youzse card processing is 2.5% plus 35p with our platform fee inside that single rate. Phorest publishes no card rate anywhere, so the only comparison available is against the rate on your own statements, and it may well be lower than ours.

No trial on their side, so the overlap runs the other way

On every other move in this section the advice is the same: run both systems for a fortnight, put new bookings on the new one and cancel the old only when the last booking made under it has been and gone. That advice assumes you can try the new thing while the old one is still running.

Phorest states on its pricing page that it does not offer a free trial, which means you were never able to test it that way going in, and it means nothing about your Phorest contract flexes to accommodate leaving it. The overlap has to come out of time you have already paid them for. Find out what notice you owe and when your term actually ends, then work backwards from that date rather than forwards from today.

The Youzse trial runs 30 days with no card, so the testing can all happen on our side while Phorest carries on unchanged. Run the import, put a fortnight of real bookings through it and satisfy yourself before you give anyone notice. That sequence costs you nothing and it is the one that protects a Saturday.

Third-party pricing and features on this page were last checked on 14 September 2026. Rival platforms change their plans, so check their own site before you decide.

Clear answers before you switch

The details that usually slow down a move: setup, pricing, bookings, records and how Youzse fits into your day.

Yes, with one difference worth being straight about. There is no named column profile for Phorest, so you match the columns yourself rather than having them recognised automatically as they are for a Fresha or Square file. The mapping screen puts your columns beside the Youzse fields, you pair them once and a preview shows what the first rows will become before anything is written. Allow an unhurried hour rather than a click.

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