Kitomba is the most salon-specific platform on the market — and the most ecosystem-locked. Strong on chair rental, recurring clients, and POS. Weak on integrations with anything outside the Kitomba family. Here’s when that trade-off is fine, and when it isn’t.
Stay on Kitomba if you’re deep in the ecosystem and don’t need integrations outside it.
Switch to custom if you need integrations Kitomba can’t do well (custom PMS sync, marketing tools outside Kitomba Marketing, custom payments logic), or if you’re running a multi-location operation where the per-location subscription is adding up.
| Kitomba | Custom (Qarbi) | |
|---|---|---|
| Build cost | $0 upfront | $8K–$18K |
| Per-booking commission | $0 | $0 |
| Monthly subscription | $50–$150+ per month | $0 |
| Salon-specific features | Strong (chair rental, recurring clients) | Customised to you |
| Third-party integrations | Limited / friction reported | Stripe, Twilio, Xero, anything you need |
| Clinical / medical use | Salon-focused, weak for medical | Strong (PMS sync, treatment notes, consent forms) |
| Branded checkout | Limited | Full control |
| You own client data | Cloud-hosted | Yes |
| Best for | Established salons in the Kitomba ecosystem | Salons / clinics that need integrations Kitomba doesn't do |
Kitomba: $50/mo × 36 → $1,800 over 3 years
Qarbi build: $8K–$10K build
Kitomba: $100/mo × 36 → $3,600 over 3 years
Qarbi build: $10K–$14K build
Kitomba: $150/mo × 2 locs × 36 → $10,800 over 3 years
Qarbi build: $15K–$25K build
"Robust scheduling, but it's a walled garden. Anything that needs to talk to it from outside is a pain." — salon owner, Sydney
"We wanted to add an SMS reminder service that wasn't Kitomba's built-in. Took us months to wire up." — multi-chair salon
"Great for what it does. But \"what it does\" hasn't expanded much in years." — salon group ops manager
Kitomba is genuinely strong inside its ecosystem. The reason to leave is not that Kitomba is bad — it’s that you need something Kitomba can’t connect to.
Different. Kitomba is more sophisticated for salons specifically — chair rental, marketing automation, point-of-sale — but its third-party integration story is weaker. If you need it to talk to systems outside the Kitomba ecosystem, it's painful.
Kitomba is an ecosystem play. They want you using Kitomba Marketing, Kitomba Pay, Kitomba Connect, and so on — and those products integrate well with each other. Third-party integrations are where the friction shows up. For owners who need Cliniko PMS sync, custom Xero rules, or marketing tools outside the Kitomba family, the walled-garden approach gets in the way.
Yes. Multi-chair scheduling, recurring clients, package balances, chair rental commission splits, loyalty programs — all standard in a custom build. Plus the integrations Kitomba can't do well.
Kitomba supports CSV exports plus targeted API access. We migrate clients, products, services, staff schedules, and booking history. Zero downtime. Most painful part is reconciling Kitomba's product catalog with the new system if you sell retail products through the salon.