ChairSlay vs GlossGenius.

Who the tool is built to make money from.

Every booking tool has to make money somewhere, and where it makes money tells you who it’s built for. GlossGenius makes its money two ways: a monthly subscription, and a flat 2.6% on every card you run, because every card has to run through its processor. There’s no marketplace and no fee on a client you brought in, which is to GlossGenius’s credit. But you can’t bring your own Stripe or Square. The money moves through their pipes, at their rate, on every ticket, and you can’t shop it down.

ChairSlay makes money one way: a flat $39/mo. That’s the whole business. We take 0% of your service revenue, and your payments go straight to your own Stripe or Square account. We never touch the money, never hold a balance, never sit between you and a payout. The difference isn’t a discount we’re running. It’s a different answer to the question of who the tool works for.

The money story, in plain numbers.

GlossGenius’s processor is a flat 2.6% with no per-transaction fee: clean, simple, and it rides on everything: tap, swipe, card on file, manual entry. On a $5,000 month in card services, that’s about $130 in processing. Standard payouts land the same business day at no charge; want it within minutes, weekends included? Instant payout adds 1.8% on top.

ChairSlay’s number is $39. Your card processing runs at your own processor’s standard rate, somewhere around 2.9% + 30¢, the same rate you’d pay anywhere, because it’s literally your own Stripe or Square account, not a markup we set. We don’t add a layer. We don’t take a cut. A client you booked, served, and got paid by is 100% yours, and the money lands in your account on your processor’s schedule, not ours.

To be fair to the field: GlossGenius is not the villain here. The platforms charging around 30% on a first-visit booking are StyleSeat and Booksy (Fresha’s new-client fee runs lower, nearer 20% — check each platform’s current terms). GlossGenius charges none of that. Its cost story is the forced processor compounding quietly on every ticket, not a boost fee. We name it as what it is.

Where GlossGenius genuinely wins.

The booking page. Full stop. If your business basically is your link in bio, a beautiful, themeable, mobile-polished page that turns a tap into a booked client, GlossGenius has spent years making that the best surface in the segment, and you can see it the moment you open one. The on-brand client experience and the built-in card terminal are genuinely strong, and they let a solo stylist or colorist look premium without ever hiring a designer.

If that polish is the thing you’re buying, buy it with clear eyes. ChairSlay’s booking page is clean, branded, and deposit-ready, but it isn’t the work of art GlossGenius ships. We’d rather tell you that than have you switch for a page and feel shortchanged.

Moving your book.

Your book is yours, and you should be able to walk out the door with it. From GlossGenius, the basics export cleanly: client names, contacts, and service history come out as a CSV. The friction is the part that’s actually hard to rebuild: the photos and the per-client formula notes, which the export tends to leave behind. So if you move, carry those over on purpose; don’t assume the CSV caught them.

On the ChairSlay side, export is one click from your first day: your full book, photos and formula notes included, in a format you can take anywhere. The point isn’t just that it’s easy to leave GlossGenius. It’s that you should never be locked in by your own client list again, including by us.