HairConnect vs Optios
Of all the packages on this site, this is the only one we know from the inside: HairConnect is being built for a salon that ran on it for eight years, and we measured that account before writing a line of code.
Optios is a Belgian company based in Lochristi. Their own site says "Slimme software voor groeiende salons" and "Trusted by over 3,500 salons in Belgium and the Netherlands". That is far more salons than HairConnect has ever seen, and an honest comparison should say so first.
Optios does not only serve hairdressers. Their own footer lists: hair salons, barbers, beauty salons, nail studios, pedicurists, spa & wellness, dog groomers and part-time salons. That is a broad back — and at the same time the whole difference in one sentence: a calendar that has to serve eight trades is never the calendar of any one of them.
Their rates are not on their site. The plans are called Business, Business Plus and Pro, and all three carry a "request a quote" button. So we know no more than you do about what Optios costs; that is not a reproach, but it is worth knowing before you compare.
| Subject | Optios | HairConnect |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Not published | Not fixed yet, and the site says so. As soon as it is, it goes on the pricing page. |
| Trades served | Eight: hair, barber, beauty, nails, pedicure, spa, dog grooming, part-time salons | One: hair salons. |
| Processing time in the calendar | Services carry a waiting time; of the 34 services at the salon we studied, 12 had one | An appointment is a series of blocks. A work block occupies the stylist, a waiting block only the chair. |
| Colour formulas | Recorded per visit and printable, as free text | The original text is kept, and is additionally parsed into brand, product, grams and developer — so you can search it and deduct it from your backbar stock. |
| Calendar speed | On the account we measured: ±330 ms per day navigation, 1.8 s to load the calendar | The calendar runs in the browser and does not make a round trip to the server on every click. |
| Registered cash register (GKS) | Not published | The cash journal is append-only from day one, with a hash chain and gapless numbering. Nothing obliges us to today; it saves a rebuild if it ever does. |
| Payment terminal | Optios Pay, their own terminal | Bancontact through the terminal. Which one depends on what your salon already has. |
Where they are stronger
- Three and a half thousand salons. HairConnect has one, and it is still migrating. If you are looking for a supplier that will still exist tomorrow, you are right to weigh that.
- An organisation around the product: support, their own training programme (Optios Academy) and their own payment terminal. You do not build that in a year.
- Their booking app genuinely is modern. It runs as a separate application on its own domain, detached from the rest of the package — and that is exactly the part their customers depend on most.
- They cover eight trades. If you also run a nail studio or a wellness room alongside your salon, that is an advantage we do not have and are not going to have.
Where we do it differently
- With us an appointment is not a time slot but a series of blocks. During the processing time of a colour the chair is occupied and you are free — and the calendar can actually schedule into that, instead of writing off those thirty minutes.
- The colour formula is a structured field, not just a text box. So something can be done with it: searching, deducting from the backbar, showing it on the iPad beside the chair, showing it to the client in her own portal.
- We build eight things that work rather than nineteen that are listed. At the salon we studied, nine of the nineteen licensed modules were empty — paid for, never used.
- Your booking link lives on your own domain. If you ever move, your QR codes do not have to move with you.
- Why name Optios directly?
- Because a hairdresser considering a switch types exactly that question. Nothing here is unverifiable: every claim comes from their own site or from a measurement on a real account, and both are stated.
- Are those speed figures representative?
- They were measured on one account, on 20 August 2026: a salon with 5,989 clients and 34,390 appointments since 2018. One account is not a sample. On a smaller file it will be faster.
- What does Optios cost?
- We do not know, and they do not publish it. Their pricing page shows three plans with "request a quote" and no amounts. We have not fixed our own rates either, so for now this is a comparison without price tags on either side.
- Can I take my Optios data with me?
- Mostly yes. Your clients, appointments and colour formulas come across; deliveries, receipts and clocked hours are harder, because there is no interface for them. The switching page spells out what happens.
Where this comes from
Everything said about the other package on this page comes from these addresses. Rates and terms may have changed since — check them at the source.
- www.optios.net/home retrieved on
- www.optios.net/pricing retrieved on
- www.optios.net/hair-pro retrieved on
- www.optios.net/kassasysteem retrieved on
Still torn between two packages?
Put your situation to us. If another package suits you better, we will say so — that costs us one conversation and saves you a year.