Choosing a tool
PolishBook keeps the nail record, so the real question is whether you also need the booking, payment and marketing platform wrapped around it.
Most nail software gets judged at the front desk: online booking, deposits, card processing, text reminders. Those are real problems and several products handle them well. PolishBook is built for the part that happens after she sits down, when you need to know she wore a warm nude last time, that it chipped on the free edge at day fourteen, and that her right ring finger is the one you always have to file thin.
The three comparisons below are fit questions, not scorecards. Read each one as: which operator does this product assume you are. A booth renter with sixty regulars, a two chair studio doing structured gel and hand painted art, and a three location group with W2 techs are three different businesses, and the sensible stack is different for each one.
PolishBook vs GlossGenius
GlossGenius is built for the solo beauty professional who wants booking, payments and marketing in one login, and PolishBook is built for the nail record that sits underneath whatever booking you already run.
PolishBook vs Vagaro
Vagaro is built for multi service businesses that need staff scheduling, payroll and a marketplace presence, and PolishBook is built for the tech who needs to know what was on those ten nails last time.
PolishBook vs Square Appointments
Square Appointments comes at the studio from the register outward, and PolishBook comes at it from the client's ten nails inward.
Free tools
Two working calculators for the two questions that decide a nail business: what a set has to cost, and how many hours a tighter rebooking interval would actually take.
Working document
One page per client that holds what you applied, how you prepped it, how it wore and when she is due back, so the next appointment starts with facts instead of memory.
Every comparison on this page turns on the same question: is your booking already handled, and is the thing you keep losing the shade code, the prep and the wear days. If that sounds like your studio, a demo is the fastest way to see it. Bring one regular whose last set you have been reconstructing from memory.