Booking website for tattoo artists: consult deposits, then the quote

Published November 8, 2026 · Comparisons

A booking website for a tattoo artist has two jobs: take a deposit when someone books a consultation, and leave room to name the price after you have seen the idea. Square Appointments (deposits even on its $0 plan), Vagaro and Acuity all take deposits, but Vagaro bills online deposits at its higher keyed-in card rate and Acuity's scheduling page can't sit directly on a domain you own. CloserAccess builds tattoo shop websites where the consultation books with a deposit and the quote comes after, under your shop's name.

CloserAccess wrote this post and is one of the options in it. Every price below comes from each company's own pricing or help pages, checked November 8, 2026.

How a custom tattoo booking actually runs

A barber sells a fade at a known price in a known slot. Custom tattoo work doesn't fit that shape. For most custom pieces the order runs like this:

1. The client books a consultation and pays a deposit to hold the time.
2. They send reference images, the exact placement and a rough size.
3. You look at what they actually want and give a real price.
4. Big work, like a sleeve or a back piece, gets split into sessions.

Inkas Tattoo Shop's website runs exactly that flow. Jhon Inkas works from a private studio on Broad St in Elizabeth, NJ. You book an hour, send reference photos and the placement, and nothing beyond the deposit is charged until you have his quote. Sleeves and back pieces are billed per session, and a cover-up starts with an assessment of the tattoo that is already there. The Inkas story covers how each step works.

So the tool you pick has to take the deposit, let the price come later, put your name on the booking page, and give you somewhere to show your styles and explain your process.

Deposits on each platform, and what the card fee is

Square Appointments lists appointment deposits on every plan, including the Free plan at $0 a month per location. Online card payments on Free cost 3.3% + $0.30. Plus, at $49 a month per location, lowers that to 2.9% + $0.30. Both plans include unlimited staff calendars, which helps a shop with more than one artist.

Vagaro lets you require a deposit when a client books, but only through Vagaro's own card processing, with its online shopping cart switched on. Vagaro's US rate sheet defines keyed-in payments to include online payments and saved cards. That means a deposit paid online is billed at the keyed-in rate, 3.5% + $0.19 for shops under $4,000 a month in card sales, not at the 2.6% + $0.10 in-person rate in the headline. The same sheet lists a monthly FANF fee, a $1.25 monthly Mastercard location fee and a $7.50 first chargeback fee, and it says Vagaro doesn't allow passing processing fees on to customers. Plans start at $30 a month for one calendar, or $23.99 for the first 6 months.

Acuity Scheduling can require a deposit or full payment at booking, or let the client choose, and that is on all three plans. Acuity adds no fee of its own. You connect Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo and pay that processor's rate. Plans run from $20 a month for one calendar ($16 billed yearly) to $69 a month for up to 36 ($55 yearly).

Booksy charges deposits at booking and applies them to the final bill. Its one plan is $29.99 a month plus tax, $20 more per extra team member, and app payments cost 2.69% + $0.30.

CloserAccess has deposits built into booking, including a mode called deposit then quote, covered below. The deposit goes through your own Square account at Square's own rate and settles there, and CloserAccess's platform fee shows as its own line on the transaction. CloserAccess doesn't mark up processing.

Here is what the card fee comes to on a $100 consultation deposit, worked out from the published rates above:

• Square Appointments Free: $3.60. On Plus: $3.20.
• Vagaro, keyed-in rate: $3.69, before its monthly card fees.
• Booksy: $2.99.
• Acuity: whatever your connected processor charges.
• CloserAccess: your own Square account's rate, plus CloserAccess's platform fee, whose rate isn't published.

Per deposit, the gap is small. The bigger difference is the monthly plan you pay to get there.

Deposits or no-show fees

There are two ways to protect your time. Take money up front, or keep a card on file and charge it when someone doesn't show.

• Square Appointments: no-show fees on a saved card need Plus or Premium. The Free plan has deposits only.
• Booksy: a card-on-file fee for late cancels and no-shows, with the percentage and notice window set per service, and an exemption for trusted clients.
• Vagaro: capture a card at booking and charge a cancellation or no-show fee automatically after a cutoff, or charge it by hand.
• Acuity: store card details and charge them later for a cancellation or missed appointment.

For a consultation, the deposit is the simpler tool. The client has committed before they walk in, and there's no charge to explain afterward. Vagaro's own help article makes the same point: deposits are less likely to be disputed than fees charged later. A deposit up front is also how Inkas and the CloserAccess booking flow work.

Pricing after the consult: request-then-quote

CloserAccess booking has more than one mode. A service can book a fixed time slot, the way a barber's fade does. It can also run as request-then-quote, where the client asks, sends what you need, and you come back with a price. Deposit then quote combines the two: the client pays a deposit to book the consultation, and the price for the tattoo itself follows once you've seen the references.

That fits how custom pricing works in practice. Inkas lists a "from" price on each style, such as fine line from $150 or black and grey from $180, and the site is clear that those are floors, not final numbers. You can show starting prices on each service page so clients know the range, and still quote the real number after the consult.

Your shop's name on the booking page

Where the booking page lives decides whose name a client sees and whose link they save.

• Acuity: its help center says a domain you own can't point directly at its scheduling page. You can change the link to YourBusinessName.as.me, or embed the scheduler on a website you already have. Hiding "Powered by Acuity" is Premium only.
• Square Appointments: the Free plan includes a booking site. Connecting a custom domain needs Plus or Premium.
• Vagaro: MySite is a $20-a-month add-on. The default address is mysite.vagaro.com/yourbusinessname, and you can connect your own domain.
• Booksy: your public page is the Booksy Profile, hosted by Booksy and pitched as "No website necessary."
• CloserAccess: the booking lives on your shop's own website. Inkas runs at inkas.closeraccess.com, and the free self-serve site uses a closeraccess.com address like that. A done-for-you build includes your own domain, and the pricing FAQ is plain about it: "Your domain stays yours. Your content stays yours."

Getting found: styles, guides and reviews

Tattoo clients shop by style and by trust. A full website can do things a booking page can't. You can give each style its own page with a short description and a starting price, and you can publish guides that answer the questions people ask before they book.

Inkas does both. Its services page lists each style with a short description and a starting price, and its blog carries guides on what moves a tattoo price up, how a cover-up assessment works, fine-line placements for a first tattoo, and a booking guide in Spanish for clients who would rather book in Spanish. Each guide is a page someone can find through search, and each one leads back to booking a consultation. Read how it all fits together in Inkas's story.

On CloserAccess, a site includes a blog with categories and tags, a gallery with public or members-only albums, and an SEO page in the site editor. Review-request emails go out after a visit, which keeps new reviews coming without you having to ask each client. And if most of your clients find you on Instagram, a links page can put the consultation booking one tap from your bio; our post on a Linktree alternative with booking covers that setup.

Who builds it, and what CloserAccess costs

Square Appointments, Vagaro, Acuity and Booksy are self-serve. You set up the services, the deposit rules and the payments yourself, and each one offers a free trial.

CloserAccess has two ways in:

• Build it yourself, free. No monthly fee, no setup cost and no card to start. A platform fee applies only when a customer pays you, at a rate CloserAccess doesn't publish (ask before you start), shown as its own line on every transaction. You can start from a template and launch the same day.
• Have the team build it. The Starter Website, Premium Website and Digital Master packages each come with a fixed price quoted before any work starts, and the per-sale platform fee is set in that quote. CloserAccess built and hosts the Inkas site, including its booking and quote flow.

Before you choose, know the limits that matter to a tattoo shop:

• No e-signed consent forms. CloserAccess has no e-signature tool for businesses to send to clients, so signed consent or release forms need a separate service.
• No card reader or point-of-sale hardware. Payments in the studio on a reader are better handled by Square, Vagaro or Booksy, which all list in-person rates.
• No drag-and-drop editor. You edit pages through form fields with a live preview, and bigger design changes go to the team.

When Square Appointments or Acuity is the better choice

Square Appointments Free is the better choice if you want deposits at $0 a month and you already take payments in the studio with Square. Unlimited staff calendars suit a shop with several artists, and moving to Plus adds no-show fees on a saved card.

Acuity is the better choice if you already have a website you're happy with and only need a scheduler with deposits dropped into it. You keep your site and pick your own processor from Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo.

Vagaro makes sense if you want a marketplace listing, memberships and packages in one subscription, and you are comfortable with its keyed-in rate on online deposits. Booksy makes sense if you want one flat price and no website to manage. A barber weighing the same apps can read our post on Booksy alternatives for barbers.

CloserAccess is the better fit when you want the whole site, with style pages, guides, consultation deposits and quotes after the consult, built around how you already work. The packages and pricing page explains the done-for-you route.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take tattoo deposits on Square's free plan?

Yes. Square lists appointment deposits on its Free plan, at $0 a month per location. Charging a no-show fee to a saved card needs Plus, at $49 a month per location.

What does Vagaro charge on a deposit paid online?

Vagaro bills online payments at its keyed-in rate, which is 3.5% + $0.19 for shops under $4,000 a month in card sales. Its 2.6% + $0.10 rate applies to in-person payments.

Can Acuity's scheduling page use my own domain?

No. Acuity's help center says you can't point a domain you own directly at its scheduling page. You can use a YourBusinessName.as.me link or embed the scheduler on your own site.

Can a client pay a deposit before I quote the tattoo?

On CloserAccess, yes. The deposit then quote mode lets a client book and pay for the consultation, and you send the price after you've seen their references and placement.

Is a deposit better than a no-show fee for consultations?

Usually, yes. The client commits before they arrive, and Vagaro's own help article notes that deposits are less likely to be disputed than fees charged after the fact.

Does CloserAccess handle tattoo consent forms?

No. CloserAccess has no e-signature tool for businesses, so use a separate service for signed consent or release forms.

Prices checked November 8, 2026, on each company's own pricing and help pages. Plans and fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

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