Starta.one
Acuity gives you a booking link — and stops there: answering clients, confirming, reminding and winning back the ones who drifted off falls to you. In Starta.one, StartaAI takes that work on.
Acuity Scheduling is a solid online booking tool with powerful intake forms, but it hasn't added meaningful business management features since Squarespace acquired it in 2019. No CRM, no financial reports, no loyalty program, no AI. Support has declined too — email only, no phone. It's a scheduling link, not a business platform.
Starta.one takes the client admin work off you — StartaAI does it. The second difference: this is the most honest version of "your feature — someday", seven years without new capability. The roadmap belongs to Squarespace, and your salon isn't a priority in it.
Acuity's intake forms are genuinely strong — the table shows that. The rest of the rows show what happens to a product whose roadmap was reassigned to another priority.
| Feature | Starta | Acuity Scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Who handles client messages | | |
| How you manage your business | | |
| How the product evolves | | |
| AI receptionist for clients | | |
| Intake forms | | |
| Online booking | | |
| Calendar & scheduling | | |
| CRM / client database | | |
| AI assistant | | |
| P&L reports | | |
| Loyalty program | | |
| Salary management | | |
| Inventory | | |
| SMS notifications | | |
| Mobile app | | |
| Free plan | | |
Starta.one Lite — free, unlimited bookings
Starta.one Pro — from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff (annual billing), +€1.26/mo per additional
Emerging $20/mo, Growing $34/mo, Powerhouse $61/mo (annual billing). Monthly: $23/$41/$74
No free plan — 7-day trial only. No CRM, financial reports, loyalty program, or AI. Scheduling-only tool.
Acuity from $20/mo for scheduling only — everything else requires separate tools. Starta.one Lite is genuinely free, Pro from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff — full platform including AI.
Acuity Scheduling prices verified: June 2026
Since the Squarespace acquisition in 2019, Acuity has gained no CRM, no financial reports and no AI. That isn't neglect — the roadmap belongs to the product's owner, not to you, and your salon isn't a priority in it. This is what "someday" looks like viewed across years.
While you work alone, a booking link is enough. Add a second stylist, materials and payroll and you need things that won't arrive here: expense tracking, payout schemes, stock. Each gets covered on the side — and the owner reconciles them by hand.
Acuity reminds you about a booking already in the calendar. It won't answer a client, move a visit or bring back someone who drifted off. StartaAI does that every day itself, then shows you the summary.
StartaAI handles the clients. That leaves you running the business — also by conversation.
A traditional system hands you tools and leaves the work with you. With Acuity there's one more thing: its roadmap belongs to Squarespace, and the product has barely changed since 2019 — so features are missing and the daily client work stays with you anyway.
Starta.one takes the client admin work on itself: StartaAI does it.
Starta.one is assembled from blocks — services, staff, slots, payments, packages, equipment rental, group classes, walk-ins. The assistant composes your configuration from them in a conversation, so most "non-standard" setups come together right away. If a block doesn't exist, you'll hear that straight, not "someday". Message us in the chat before you sign up and we'll tell you whether it already works.
Acuity is a solid online booking tool but lacks CRM, financial reports, loyalty program, payroll management, and AI. It hasn't meaningfully developed since 2019.
Starta.one is a complete business management platform with a built-in AI assistant.
Starta.one Pro — from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff (annual billing), +€1.26/mo per additional, all features included. Lite — free. Acuity: from $20/mo for Emerging, $34 Growing, $61 Powerhouse — scheduling tool only.
No — only a 7-day trial.
Starta.one Lite is genuinely free with unlimited bookings.
Acuity allows exporting your client and appointment data to CSV. After that — import the database and describe your business to the AI, it rebuilds the rest in minutes.