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coil
Updated · 2026

Coil vs Acuity.
Generic scheduling vs the tattoo trade.

Acuity Scheduling is a general appointments tool owned by Squarespace. It's competent, well-designed, and works for anyone who needs to book one-on-one time slots — therapists, consultants, photographers, tutors, coaches. Some tattooers use it as a thin booking layer on top of a Squarespace site. It does the job at the surface level. What it can't do is the rest of a tattooer's day: qualified inquiries that sort themselves, deposits with two-stage drawing protection, AI healing watch, healed-photo follow-up, the per-artist SMS line for client texts. Acuity is a calendar; coil is what runs the day around the calendar.

The honest read

Acuity is a scheduling tool.

Calendar, payment collection, basic reminders, custom forms. Built for anyone who books time. Not built for tattooers specifically.

Coil is the tattoo operating system.

Same calendar layer, plus the entire tattooer-specific stack: structured inquiries, two-stage deposits, AI features, healing watch, healed-photo bounty, apprentice mode, portability moat.

Pricing is similar.

Acuity runs $20-$61/mo across tiers. Coil is $29 solo, $49/chair shop. Where coil pays for itself isn't the calendar — it's the loss-prevention math on cancellations, drawing time, and tips that Acuity doesn't address.

Pricing

The price difference.

CoilAcuity
  • Solo / entry tier$29/mo~$20/mo
  • Mid-tier$59/mo solo · $98/mo 2-chair shop~$34/mo
  • Top tier$49/chair scales~$61/mo
  • Card processingStripe standardStripe or Square standardAcuity integrates with Stripe / Square. Neither Acuity nor coil takes a software cut on payments.
Feature by feature

What ships on each side.

FeatureCoilAcuity

  • Calendar + booking

    ✓ Ships✓ Ships

  • Custom intake forms

    ✓ Ships✓ Ships

  • Tattoo-specific inquiry form (body location, refs, color, budget)

    Acuity has custom forms but no tattoo-specific defaults.

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Public artist site + portfolio

    Acuity bookings embed on Squarespace; Acuity doesn't ship a portfolio site.

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Two-stage drawing deposit

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Cancellation waitlist auto-fill

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • AI healing watch (vision-model photo reads)

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • AI style-fit + AI pricing coach

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Tattoo-discipline aftercare drip

    Acuity sends post-appointment reminders; not tattoo-cadenced.

    ✓ Ships◐ Partial

  • Healed-photo bounty + touch-up credit ledger

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Tattoo-specific digital consent + waivers

    ✓ Ships◐ Partial

  • Per-artist Twilio number for client SMS

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Apprentice mode (mentor approval queue)

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Portability moat — URL follows artist

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • 60-second IG sync onboarding

    ✓ Ships— Doesn't

  • Squarespace site integration

    — Doesn't✓ Ships

  • Roster + commission splits

    ✓ Ships◐ Partial
When Acuity fits you better

If you already have a Squarespace site you love and just need a competent scheduling layer plugged into it, Acuity is the natural pick because it's the same company. The integration is tight, the calendar is clean, and you don't have to migrate your existing site. If your entire business is one-on-one booked time slots and you don't need any of the tattoo-specific layers (deposits, healing photos, aftercare, consent), Acuity does the job.

When coil is the right call

If you want the full working-tattooer toolkit — not just a calendar — coil is the operating system around the calendar. The cancellation waitlist alone catches what's typically $400-1,200 a month per chair in slot-saves that Acuity can't address. The AI healing watch returns your evenings. The portability moat means an artist on your roster who leaves keeps their URL and clients — and that's the thing that gets the good ones to say yes to your shop in the first place. None of which Acuity does.

Common questions

What people ask.

How much does Acuity actually cost?
Acuity's tiers run roughly $20-$61/mo across the Emerging, Growing, and Powerhouse plans. They don't take a cut of payments — processing rates are paid to Stripe or Square directly. Verify on their pricing page before deciding.
Can I use Acuity with a Squarespace site?
Yes, that's the canonical setup. Both products are owned by Squarespace. If you already have a Squarespace site you love, Acuity is the easiest scheduling layer to add. Coil is the alternative when you want the rest of the tattoo-specific tooling, but you'd replace the Squarespace site too — coil provides yourname.coil.tattoo as your public site.
Does Acuity have an aftercare engine?
Acuity sends post-appointment reminders. It doesn't ship a discipline-aware aftercare drip with day-of, day-3, day-14, and six-week messaging, and it has no equivalent to coil's healed-photo bounty or touch-up credit ledger.
Can Acuity collect tattoo consent waivers?
Acuity has generic intake forms that can be configured for consent capture. It doesn't ship tattoo-specific consent templates with medical-flag tracking, design approval, IP-address capture, and the immutable signed-state snapshot that coil writes for legal evidence.

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