Timely Review AU 2026 — Pricing & Features

Overview

Timely is nz-made salon booking and payments software for hair and beauty. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Dunedin, New Zealand (offices in Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Europe), it serves Australian businesses.

NZ-made salon booking and payments software for hair and beauty

Pricing (AUD inc. GST)

All prices below are in Australian dollars (GST not included). Pricing verified as of 2026-03-18.

Build

$42/mo

AUD exc GST

Per bookable staff member per month. Includes appointment calendar, client records, online bookings, basic automated marketing, TimelyPay payments, and online support. Best for solo practitioners or small salons getting started.

Staff Members: per bookable staff
Sms Credits: 100
Locations: unlimited
Bookings: unlimited

Pros & Cons

Pros

AUD pricing with genuine Australasian roots — NZ-founded with a Melbourne office, one of few salon platforms with local presence
Flexible payment processing: choose from TimelyPay (Stripe), Tyro EFTPOS, PayPal, eWay, Authorize.Net, or Pin Payments — not locked into one processor
Native integration with Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Online — auto-syncs invoices and payments at no extra cost
Branded online booking page lets clients book without creating a marketplace account, maintaining your salon's identity
14-day free trial is longer than Fresha's 7-day and Acuity's 7-day trial periods
Digital consultation forms with photo uploads on Elevate/Innovate plans support clinical documentation and allergy tracking
30+ built-in reports across staff, financial, stock, client, appointment, and business categories
Surcharging feature lets Australian businesses pass card processing fees to customers, compliant with RBA surcharging rules

Cons

Per-staff pricing compounds quickly — a 5-person team on Elevate costs A$325/month before transaction fees, significantly more than Fresha's A$149.75
TimelyPay in-salon terminal rate of 2.49% + A$0.05 is nearly double Fresha's 1.29% + A$0.26 per transaction
Data hosted on AWS in EU, not Australia — no Australian data sovereignty despite having a Melbourne office
Phone support only available on the most expensive Innovate plan (A$79/staff/month) — Build and Elevate limited to email and chat
No client acquisition marketplace — unlike Fresha's consumer marketplace, Timely relies on you driving your own bookings
Accounting integration is one-way only — changes in Xero/MYOB won't sync back to Timely
No publicly listed security certifications beyond AWS's ISO 27001 — Timely itself does not advertise SOC 2 or equivalent

Who Is Timely Best For?

Salon
Barber
Spa
Beauty Therapist
Wellness Clinic
Small Business

Timely may not be the best fit for:

Data Sovereignty Required
Large Team Cost Sensitive
Marketplace Client Acquisition

Timely Alternatives

If Timely doesn’t quite fit your needs, consider these alternatives for Australian businesses:

Calendly — Market-leading meeting scheduling and appointment booking platform. Free plan available.
Acuity Scheduling — Appointment booking and client scheduling platform by Squarespace. From $20/mo inc. GST.
Fresha — All-in-one salon and spa booking software with built-in payments. From $44.95/mo inc. GST.
Square Appointments — Free booking and POS platform from the Square ecosystem. Free plan available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Timely offer pricing in Australian dollars (AUD)?

Yes. Timely offers AUD pricing for Australian businesses: Build at A$42, Elevate at A$65, and Innovate at A$79 per bookable staff member per month. Prices are believed to exclude GST based on standard SaaS pricing conventions, though this is not explicitly stated on the pricing page. A 14-day free trial is available on all plans.

Is Timely an Australian or New Zealand company?

Timely was founded in 2012 in Dunedin, New Zealand by Ryan Baker, Andrew Schofield, and Will Berger. It was acquired by US-based EverCommerce in July 2021 for approximately US$95 million. Timely maintains offices in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, and Melbourne, making it one of the few salon booking platforms with genuine Australasian roots.

What payment processors does Timely support in Australia?

Timely supports multiple payment processors: TimelyPay (powered by Stripe) for in-salon terminals and online payments, Tyro EFTPOS terminals, PayPal, Authorize.Net, eWay, and Pin Payments. This flexibility is a key differentiator from Fresha, which locks you into its Adyen-powered system. TimelyPay in-salon fees are 2.49% + A$0.05 per transaction; online domestic card fees are 1.75% + A$0.30.

Does Timely integrate with Xero and MYOB?

Yes. Timely integrates natively with Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Online. Invoices and payments auto-sync one-way from Timely to your accounting software at designated times. Payment types can be mapped to specific accounts. The integration is free with no additional cost. This is a significant advantage over Fresha, which has no native accounting integrations.

Where is Timely data hosted — is there Australian data sovereignty?

No. Timely stores all customer data on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers in the European Union, not Australia. The servers hold ISO 27001 certification and all communication is encrypted via SSL/TLS. Timely is GDPR compliant. Despite having a Melbourne office, there is no Australian data sovereignty guarantee.

How does Timely compare to Fresha for Australian salons?

Timely is more expensive per-staff (A$42–A$79/month vs Fresha's A$44.95 solo or A$29.95/member) but offers payment processor flexibility (6 options vs Fresha's Adyen-only), native Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks integration (vs none for Fresha), branded online booking (vs Fresha marketplace-dependent), and a 14-day free trial (vs 7 days). Fresha has lower transaction fees (1.29% vs 2.49% in-salon) and an active marketplace for client acquisition that Timely lacks.