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Booking · Walk-ins · Texting · Payments · Marketing

Every customer. Every booking. Every follow-up.

Emerald CX runs the customer side of your shop — online booking, the walk-in line, texting, checkout, reviews and rebooking — in one app, with an AI receptionist that replies to texts, chat and email around the clock.

Start free — 14 daysSee it in action

No card required · Month-to-month · No marketplace commissions

Shown with fictional demo data.

Made for how you work

Your industry, pre-filled.

Pick your industry at signup and Emerald CX sets up your services, wording, reminders and booking page to match. A barber sees “clients and barbers.” A detailer sees “customers and jobs.”

Walk-ins, booth renters and regulars — one chair at a time.

A live walk-in queue that texts people when they're up, Tap to Pay on your phone, tips split by barber, and booth rent tracked without a spreadsheet.

  • Virtual walk-in line

    Clients join by QR code, website or by texting JOIN. They get “You're #3 · about 25 min” and a text when they're up next.

  • Chair-side mode

    One big card for the client in your chair: their notes, Start, Finish & charge, then a one-tap rebook at their usual interval.

  • Booth renters, handled

    Renters get their own booking link and payouts. You get a rent ledger that tracks who's paid this week.

  • Unlimited Cuts Club

    Sell monthly memberships with auto-renew consent, online cancel and member perks applied at checkout.

Emerald CX for barbershops

One login instead of six

Stop paying for tools that don't talk to each other.

When booking, texting, payments and marketing share one database, your follow-ups can react to what actually happened — like texting the people whose fade is three weeks old with their barber's next open slots.

Tools Emerald CX replaces

  • 01

    Texting & reviews app

    e.g. Podium

    Inbox, web chat, reviews, text-to-pay

  • 02

    Booking & POS app

    e.g. Booksy, Square Appointments

    Calendar, booking pages, walk-in queue, checkout

  • 03

    CRM & automation

    e.g. GoHighLevel

    Customers, workflows, campaigns, forms

  • 04

    Estimates & invoicing

    e.g. Jobber lite

    Estimates, invoices, on-site jobs

  • 05

    Retail POS & inventory

    e.g. Lightspeed

    Products, purchase orders, online shop

  • 06

    Answering service & spreadsheets

    front desk, punch cards, payroll sheets

    Ivy, loyalty, team pay & booth rent

One record, start to finish

From first missed call to fifth visit.

  1. 01

    Lead

    Missed call, web chat, Instagram link, form or walk-in

  2. 02

    Texted back

    In under 60 seconds — by Ivy or your team

  3. 03

    Booked

    Online, by Ivy, or at the front desk

  4. 04

    Card on file

    Or a deposit, only where you require it

  5. 05

    Reminded

    Reply C to confirm, R to reschedule

  6. 06

    Checked in

    Or joins the walk-in line from the sidewalk

  7. 07

    Checked out

    Tap to Pay, tip, receipt by text

  8. 08

    Rebooked

    At checkout, at their usual interval

  9. 09

    Reviewed

    Same ask to everyone, public link always shown

  10. 10

    Won back

    If they drift, a nudge goes out on its own

What it does all day

Fewer no-shows. Fuller books. Less phone tag.

Never miss a customer

Missed a call mid-fade? They already got a text.

Every text, web chat, form and missed call lands in one inbox. Missed calls get a text-back within 30 seconds, and Ivy picks up the conversation and works it to a booking.

  • One shared inbox for SMS, web chat and email
  • Missed-call text-back and voicemail transcription
  • STOP, HELP and quiet hours handled automatically

Fill the chair

A walk-in line that texts them when they're up.

Clients join from a QR code, your website or by texting JOIN, see an honest wait time, and get a text when they're next. Cancellations offer the slot to your waitlist automatically.

  • Booking page per business and per team member
  • Live wait times recalculated on every change
  • Waitlist auto-fill — first YES gets the slot

Customers join at emeraldcx.com/q/ridgeline-barber/layton

Get paid in one tap

Tap to Pay on your phone, tips split by who earned them.

Charge with Tap to Pay, a card reader, the card on file or a text-to-pay link. Tips go to the right person, products are taxed, services aren't, and the rebook prompt shows up before they leave.

  • Deposits and no-show fees — your rules, by service
  • Split tender, gift cards, account credit and cash
  • Commissions, tips and booth rent tracked for payroll

Grow on autopilot

Rebooks, reviews and win-backs, switched on in onboarding.

Eighteen ready-made workflows cover the follow-ups you mean to do and don't: reminders that ask for a confirm, a rebook text at each service's interval, a review ask for everyone, and a nudge when a regular drifts.

  • Review requests go to every customer — never only the happy ones
  • Marketing texts only to people who opted in, never after 8 PM
  • Build your own with triggers, waits and if/else

Two AI agents, built in

Ivy works the front desk. Jade works the numbers.

Ivy — for your customers

Answers texts, web chat and email day and night. Quotes prices from your menu, checks real availability, books and reschedules within your policy, and sends deposit links. Never invents a price.

Jade — for you

Ask “who hasn't been back in six weeks?” or “what should I reorder?” and get a real answer from your data. Jade drafts the campaign; nothing sends until you approve it.

Ivy tells every customer it's an AI, hands off to your team on complaints or when asked, and our AI vendor doesn't train on your data. How we use AI

Pricing

Every price, right here.

No demo call to find out what it costs. Per location, month-to-month, 14 days free.

Starter

Solo pros and small shops getting off paper.

$49/ month per location

Start free — 14 days
Team
1–3 bookable team members
Texts
500 texts / mo
AI
Ivy web chat · 100 AI conversations / mo
  • Booking pages & calendar
  • Walk-in queue
  • Checkout + Tap to Pay
  • Card on file & reminders
  • 1 local phone number
  • Review requests
  • Basic reports

Growth

Most shops start here

Busy shops that want marketing on autopilot.

$129/ month per location

Start free — 14 days
Team
Up to 10 team members
Texts
2,000 texts / mo
AI
Ivy on SMS · 500 AI conversations / mo, plus Jade
  • Everything in Starter
  • All workflow templates & campaigns
  • Memberships, packages, gift cards
  • Loyalty & referrals
  • Call tracking & recording
  • Hide “Powered by Emerald CX”

Pro

Multi-chair, multi-location and retail-heavy shops.

$249/ month per location

Start free — 14 days
Team
Unlimited team members
Texts
5,000 texts / mo
AI
Everything in Growth, plus Jade schedules
  • Everything in Growth
  • Booth rent ledger
  • Estimates & invoices
  • Drop-off orders & online shop
  • Purchase orders & reorder forecasting
  • Pipelines & call scoring
  • API, webhooks & multi-location reports
  • Priority support

Month-to-month · No card for the trial · Cancel online any time · No marketplace commissions · Card processing via Stripe at a published rate · Extra texts and AI conversations billed at published per-unit rates.

Compare every feature by plan →

How we compare

Cheaper than Podium. More complete than Booksy.

Full comparison →
Published pricing and business model for Emerald CX and alternatives, as researched October 21, 2026
ProductPublished priceTrialModelSource
Emerald CX$49 / $129 / $249 per location / mo14-day free trial, no cardMonth-to-month, no marketplace commissionThis site
PodiumCore $399/mo · Pro $599/mo (reported)Demo-only; no self-serve trial listedMessaging, reviews & payments focusedSocialPilot pricing overview(opens in a new tab)
Booksy$29.99/mo + $20 per extra staffSee vendor siteBooking + marketplace; processing 2.49% + 10¢Booksy salon software comparison(opens in a new tab)
Square AppointmentsFree · Plus $49 · Premium $149 per location / moFree tierBooking + Square POSBooksy salon software comparison(opens in a new tab)
LightspeedQuote-based — see vendor siteDemo / quote requestRetail, restaurant & golf POSlightspeedhq.com(opens in a new tab)

Competitor prices as researched October 21, 2026 from the sources linked. Some sources are written by a competing vendor; prices change, so check each vendor's site before deciding. Trademarks belong to their owners.

Questions

Straight answers.

Something else? Ask us directly.

Do I need a credit card to start the free trial?

No. The 14-day trial doesn't ask for a card, and it includes every Pro feature so you can try everything. If you decide to stay, you pick a plan and add a card then.

Is there a contract?

No. Every plan is month-to-month, priced per location. You can cancel online from Settings → Billing in fewer clicks than it took to sign up.

Do you take a cut of my bookings?

No marketplace, no commission on your own customers — ever. Card payments go through Stripe at a published processing rate.

What happens when I go over my included texts or AI conversations?

Extra texts and AI conversations are billed at published per-unit rates. You can see usage any time in Settings → Billing → Usage.

Can I bring my customers over from Booksy, Square or Vagaro?

Yes. Import customers, services and upcoming appointments from a CSV export with presets for the common tools. Imported customers keep whatever texting consent they gave you — we don't assume marketing consent.

Is Ivy a real person?

No — Ivy is an AI assistant, and she says so in the first message of every conversation and any time someone asks. She hands the conversation to your team for complaints, refunds, anything she doesn't know, or when a customer asks for a person.

Does Emerald CX work for clinics or medical spas?

Not this edition. Emerald CX is for businesses that don't handle health information. Clinics should look at Emerald EHR, our HIPAA-ready sibling product.

Can I export my data if I leave?

Yes. Full export of customers, appointments, sales and messages is free on every plan.

Your chair's wide open. Let's fill it.

Pick your industry, and your services, reminders and booking page are ready in about fifteen minutes.

Start free — 14 daysSee it in action

No card required · Month-to-month