Setmore App Guide: iOS, Android, iPad and Desktop, and Where Each Stops

Every platform, and no charge for any of it

Setmore runs on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Windows and Mac, plus a web app at go.setmore.com, and every one of the apps is free on both the Free and Pro plans ^[1]. Your customers get something separate: a branded app that opens your Booking Page. The staff apps cover the daily work, from the calendar and bookings to payments, customers and team chat. Setup work such as reports, merging customers and some Booking Page settings still belongs to the web. That is the one real trade-off.

The pricing makes Setmore unusual among schedulers. A four-person team on the Free plan gets phone, tablet and desktop apps with payments and a cash register without paying anything, and only reaches for its wallet when it wants texts or a fifth user. You pay for Pro, never for the apps. Pro can be bought on the web or inside the mobile app, at different prices covered below. If your account is not built yet, start with our Setmore setup guide and come back here.

Signing in and staying secure

Sign in with email, Apple, Google or Facebook, and pick one method. Sign in with Apple needs an Apple ID with two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication itself is switched on from desktop or web and then covers all devices. Passkeys work on the web app, up to ten per account, and admins can manage them for their team, but they do not work in the mobile app yet. One more catch for phone-first owners. Mobile users who need to change their login email must contact support.

The phone apps: iPhone and Android

The iPhone app handles bookings, payments, customer profiles and notifications. It adds a home-screen widget and, from iOS 16, a lock-screen widget; it can add Zoom meeting links to video services; and in-app chat with support is open day and night. For a barber between cuts, the lock-screen widget is often the most used part of the app. A glance shows who is next. There is no need to unlock the phone, open Setmore or touch the screen with clipped hair on the fingers.

The Android app takes card, digital wallet and cash payments, with Square and Stripe for cards and PayPal for wallet balances. It has its own home-screen widget, lets you text, call or video call customers, and offers 24/7 in-app chat. The app itself runs in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Two differences from the iPhone matter. Reserve with Google cannot be connected from Android, so an Android-only owner needs one session on a computer to set it up. And a Pro downgrade on Android applies immediately, which we come back to below.

Widgets, push and sounds

On both platforms the widget shows upcoming appointments, class sessions, events and time off. It saves opening the app. Push notifications bring activity alerts and appointment reminders once they are allowed in the device settings, and push reminders can be set from five to 120 minutes before an appointment. A reminder fifteen minutes ahead gives a practitioner time to finish notes and prepare the room, without the buzz of reminders an hour ahead that are easy to ignore. Six notification sounds are available, with Chime as the default. A louder sound helps in a noisy salon.

Tablets, desktops and the Mac menu bar

iPad support arrived in Setmore for iOS version 4.0 as a universal app, and the Android app is tablet-compatible. From the iPad, admins can view and edit staff calendars, and classes show available seats in real time, so a yoga teacher can check free seats and take a drop-in payment at the door. Setmore still recommends building the Booking Page in the web app. Treat the tablet as a place to run the day. Setup belongs elsewhere.

The desktop apps for Mac and PC send pop-up notifications and automated reminders, update themselves and take payments through Square or Stripe. They show individual staff calendars and recurring appointments. For a front desk, they are the best seat in the house. Mac owners get one extra: a Calendar Menu Bar that shows the day's appointments without opening the full calendar, where clicking one shows the start time, customer name and location. It is Mac-only. Owners who live in other apps all day will use it constantly.

Running the calendar from your phone

Views for one person and for the team

The mobile app shows Daily, 3-Day and Agenda views and opens in Agenda by default. Agenda suits owners who work through a list of clients, while Daily and 3-Day suit those who think in blocks of time. Try both for a week. Agenda is also where projected weekly income appears once you turn on Show income stats, which tally the service cost of booked appointments. On the web, the views are Day, Week, Month and Team, and Week and Month show one team member at a time.

Team view puts up to ten team schedules side by side. Staff-level users see only their own calendar, while owners, admins and receptionists see the team. A receptionist with Team view open on the desktop app can spot the first free chair and book a walk-in into it while the customer is still standing at the desk. That is the job a front-desk calendar exists for. It does it well.

Booking and changing appointments

Booking from the app is quick: tap a slot, pick the customer, service and staff member, and save. The calendar fills in details from your records, and the customer gets a confirmation email at once. You can change the cost or length of a single appointment without changing the service, which suits an extended session or a loyalty discount. Drag and drop moves an appointment, except one that came from Google Calendar, and the customer receives an updated email. Customers can also reschedule or cancel from their own emails.

Events block time or schedule internal meetings with up to 50 guests, and customers cannot book event time. By default appointments sit inside business hours, but staff can override that on mobile under Settings, Calendar Preferences. It applies to your calendar only. Labels such as Confirmed, Done, No-Show, Paid or Running Late track status. In the mobile app they show only on the Appointment Details screen, while the web shows them on the calendar blocks. The two stay in sync.

Customers and payments in your pocket

Customer profiles hold contact information, notes, appointments and spending habits. Notes stay private to the team, though customer stats are web-only. From a profile in the mobile app you can call, text or email the customer, which is the fastest way to fill a gap left by a cancelation. Set the currency once in the mobile app, before you publish prices; customers then see prices in that currency wherever they are. Do it first. Class payments use the Square, Stripe or PayPal pop-up, and on mobile you can add a discount or extra fee for a guest.

Cards, Tap to Pay and the Square Terminal

Square and Stripe take cards in the app, PayPal handles wallet balances, and Setmore adds no fee. Tap to Pay turns your phone into a contactless terminal through Stripe, with no extra fee from Setmore, Apple or Google. It needs a location connected to your Stripe account and is available only in certain countries. Check yours first. In Square, payments run on a terminal, a card reader or manual entry, and Terminal payments start from the Setmore calendar so bookings and payments stay in sync. Several terminals can be paired, tips are added as a custom amount, and Terminal works in every Square country except Japan.

Cash, quick payments and refunds

The cash register logs cash payments with printable and digital receipts, in the mobile app and on the web, and it is on every plan ^[1]. Quick payments charge cash, Stripe or Square without a booked appointment, in the mobile app only. A salon that sells shampoo or gift items at the counter can ring them up this way, so product sales land in the same payment history as service income instead of in a separate till. Discounts are applied as a percentage at checkout. Refunds take five to ten business days to reach the customer, and the full payment history exports as a spreadsheet only on web or desktop.

Video, sync, sharing and support

From a phone or tablet, video appointments use Google Meet or Zoom. Google Meet links go out in the confirmation email as soon as the appointment is added, but only for one-on-one appointments, so a coach who runs group sessions online will need Zoom or a link added by hand. Teleport links stopped working after September 30, 2026. Free accounts get 1-way calendar sync with Google, Outlook or Apple. Two-way sync is Pro. To share the Booking Page, use the plus button and Share Booking Page to send a QR code, a copied link or a message through other apps.

Connect is Setmore's in-app team chat, with group chats called collabs that support mentions, files and images. Support is reachable from the app at any hour. In-app chat replies are expected within one to three minutes, every conversation is handled by a person, and Pro adds instant video support with screen sharing from inside the app. For an owner stuck between clients, that matters more than any feature list. Help is a tap away.

What still needs a browser

The web app is available to every user and is where most configuration happens. None of the web-only tasks is daily work, but together they mean that an owner who runs the business entirely from a phone should still set aside a short session at a computer each week. These jobs cannot be done in the iOS or Android apps:

• Generating reports, which filter appointments by timeframe, service or staff and download as XLS ^[2].
• Merging duplicate customer profiles; do it after any big import.
• Changing the calendar's start day and time, which defaults to Monday at 8 a.m.
• Reordering services and deactivating online booking.
• Setting up passkeys, and connecting Reserve with Google if you only own an Android phone.

Buying Pro inside the app: when it pays

You can subscribe from the iOS or Android app, but billing then runs through Apple or Google and only on that platform ^[3]. The paid plan still works on web and mobile, and teams over ten staff must contact support. In the app, Pro is sold in bands rather than per user, and prices may vary by region:

The bands only pay off at the top. On annual billing, a team of exactly four pays $229.99 in the app against $240 on the web, six pay $349.99 against $360, and ten pay $599.99 against $600, by our arithmetic. The savings are small. The trap sits at the bottom of a band: two people pay $229.99 in the app against $120 on the web. Our Setmore pricing guide covers the web plans in full.

App Store and Google Play subscriptions must be managed and refunded in the store, and Setmore cannot refund them. The 30-day money-back guarantee covers web upgrades only ^[4]. A business that buys Pro in the app to save a few dollars at the top of a band gives up the easiest way to get its money back if Pro turns out not to fit. Downgrades differ too. On iPhone a downgrade takes effect at the end of the billing period; on Android it applies immediately, so time an Android downgrade for the last day of the period.

The branded app your customers install

Every account gets a branded customer app on any plan. It is a progressive web app that links to your Booking Page, not an App Store or Google Play download. After using the Booking Page, customers are prompted to install it, and tapping its icon opens the page. They sign in with email, Google or Facebook and a one-time code, then see past and upcoming appointments and edit their details. Returning clients book faster. The icon defaults to your logo; Setmore recommends a 512 by 512 pixel PNG, and hiding Setmore branding in the app needs Pro.

The real risk is your URL. Changing your Booking Page URL stops the app opening for customers who installed it. Because they install it once and rarely think about it again, they only find out when they tap it to book their next visit. Choose your URL before you promote the app, and use the QR code pop-up to test the app before launch. Icon and name changes also apply only to new installs, so settle those early as well.

Who the apps suit, and who will miss features

Owners who work on their feet, such as barbers, trainers and mobile groomers, get the most from the phone apps. A mobile groomer can run the whole day from a phone, checking the next address in the widget, taking payment with Tap to Pay at the van, logging a cash tip in the register and texting the next customer when running late. Front desks get the most from the desktop app's Team view. Owners who never sit at a computer will miss the web-only tasks, Android-only owners cannot connect Reserve with Google from the phone, and teams that want passkeys on mobile must wait.

Next to rivals, Setmore's apps are free on the free plan and include payments, a cash register and Tap to Pay. Calendly's free plan also includes a mobile app and browser extension, but it is built for meetings, and Square Appointments ties its app to Square payments. One caution for clinics. The iOS and Android apps use Sentry, Firebase, Intercom and Smartlook, and the Android app tracks behavioral data such as click maps and scrolling. A clinic that handles patient information should read both privacy pages alongside its Setmore Health agreement.

The bottom line

The Setmore apps are free, broad and practical, covering bookings, payments, customers and team chat on every platform. Their limits are a handful of web-only tasks and app-store pricing that only pays off at the top of a band. Most small teams can run the day from a phone. Build on the web, run the day in the apps, and upgrade on the web unless your team sits exactly at the top of an app band, since only web upgrades keep the 30-day money-back guarantee.