Comparison
Phorest is a well-known salon software brand with strong roots in the UK and Ireland, expanding into AU/NZ. It bundles a deep salon-focused feature set into a monthly subscription. Trimsy is the newer, AU-built challenger — leaner, cheaper, with bring-your-own card processing.
For Australian salons that find Phorest pricey for what they actually use, or want their own subdomain and card-processor freedom instead of a closed-loop ecosystem.
Every row is checked against their own published pricing and feature pages, not a summary of them.
| TrimsyAU-built — fixed monthly fee, 0% per-booking commission | PhorestEstablished Irish-built salon platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | AUD $24.99 (1 staff) or $49.99 (3) — extra seats $7/mo | Quote only — no prices published; sold through a demo |
| Per-booking commission | 0% | 0% on direct bookings; PhorestPay processing fee on cards |
| Card processor | Your choice — Stripe Connect or Square Terminal | PhorestPay (their own processor) — limited alternatives |
| Card-processing fee | Your own Stripe / Square rate (~1.7%–2.2%) | PhorestPay rates apply (typically 1.8%–2.5% AU) |
| Walk-in queue + kiosk | Yes — kiosk + live queue board | Limited — appointment-led; weaker walk-in handling |
| Multi-location | Growth plan, no per-location surcharge | Yes — included in higher tiers |
| SMS reminders | Twilio at-cost — no markup | Bundled credits + overage charges |
| Country focus | Built in Australia | Built in Ireland; AU presence smaller than UK/IE |
| Marketing tools | Workflows for rebook, birthday, drip | Strong — Phorest TreatCard, SMS marketing, client loyalty |
| Setup time | <1 hour self-serve | Onboarding consultant — 1-2 weeks typical |
Where Trimsy is the better fit
Where Phorest is
Almost certainly, though Phorest does not publish prices — its Australian pricing page asks you to request a quote, and quotes reported by salons are well into three figures a month. Trimsy is $24.99 AUD a month with one staff member or $49.99 with three, and $7 for each extra, with the price on the pricing page rather than on a sales call.
Yes. Phorest exports clients, services, sales history and staff records as CSVs. Trimsy's onboarding wizard imports them — usually in one step. Recurring TreatCard loyalty balances and complex client notes need manual review; we can help during a free onboarding call.
Yes — and that's actually the point for many salons. With Trimsy you connect your own Stripe Connect or Square Terminal account and pay your processor's standard rate (often lower than PhorestPay's blended rate). The processing fee saving compounds with subscription savings.
If Phorest TreatCard and the dedicated salon-marketing suite are central to how you run, the migration friction may not be worth it. If you mostly use Phorest for bookings, payments, rosters and basic loyalty — and find the price hard to justify — Trimsy will cover the same ground for a fraction of the cost.
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