waivers.tattoo vs Porter: $250 a month for a tattoo studio, or $50 a year for your whole shop

Porter is booking made for tattoo artists, $35 a month for one artist and $250 a month for a studio with all its artists. Ours, waivers.tattoo, is $50 a year for the whole shop. I make it, so read the pages rather than me. Every claim below about Porter links to Porter's own page as it read on 2026-10-29.

What does Porter do well?

Porter knows tattooing. Its booking form asks for the idea, the placement, the size and reference photos, and the artist answers each request with a price: "Choose Fixed, Range, or Hourly, then enter your numbers," its help center says. It does chat by text, checkout links, a POS and commission splits.

Its reminders are generous. Porter sends 2 texts for every confirmed appointment, one "48 hours before the scheduled time (via SMS)" and one an hour before, and "You are not charged for these SMS messages, they are included in all Porter plans by default". A shop that lives inside Porter all day gets a lot for its money.

What does a tattoo shop pay on Porter, and what does it pay here?

Porter's pricing page has 3 prices for one location. Artist Essentials is $35 a month for an independent artist. Artist Pro is $65 a month and adds "Automated liability waivers & consent forms". Studio Pro is $250 a month for unlimited artists and staff, and it is the plan with "General shop booking requests", the request a client sends to the shop with no artist picked. Porter's own article says "General Requests are available for shops on the Studio Pro plan". So a studio pays $3,000 a year.

Here, your booking page comes with your waivers.tattoo account: $50 a year for the whole shop, or $5 a month. Every shop's page has "Any artist" and each artist's own link, and the year covers unlimited waivers, your link page at yourshop.L.tattoo and 1,000 emails a month to your clients. Your first 10 waivers are free.

How does a tattoo client book, and how does the deposit hold it?

On Porter, tattoo work starts as a request, and the artist accepts it with a price and a deposit before the client books. Its booking page lets you "only allow customers who have paid a deposit to lock in their date and time". Porter publishes no card rate on the pages read, and its checkout page offers to "Process for 0% with fees passed to customers".

On your booking page, your client picks the artist, or any artist, then the session, a day and a time from the hours you set, writes one line about the idea, and leaves a name, a phone number and an email. With "Ask first" the request waits for your yes; with "Book straight in" the time is theirs. A session can carry a fixed deposit, and the time is held while your client pays it on your deposit page. The money lands in your shop's own Stripe balance the moment they pay, and Stripe sends it to your bank every week once you add one.

Your client pays our $3.99 fee by default and your share carries Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ and 50¢ toward payouts: a $100 deposit costs your client $103.99 and leaves $96.18 in your balance. Pay the $3.99 yourself and your client pays exactly the deposit. If a no-show disputes a deposit we collected for you, we answer the dispute with the policy they ticked.

When does the waiver get signed, and what does it ask?

On Porter, "Porter will automatically text the waiver link to the client 1 hour before their appointment," its waiver article says, and its waivers page has you "Use your existing waiver as-is, or create a custom digital form." The words on it are yours.

Ours comes with your state's questions. We read the tattoo and piercing rules of all 50 states and DC and wrote what each asks into the form: the ID, the health questions, a parent or guardian where your state and you allow minors, the artist's signature where the rule names it, and the lot numbers of your inks and needles if you want them. Your client signs on their own phone, from your link page before they come in or from your QR code when they arrive. Your state's page has the rule's words. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Your local health department has the final word. Ask them, and bring your records.

Every client who signs lands on your client list with their visit history and gets your thank-you with your aftercare sheet. The ones who tick a box to hear from your shop get the review ask and the emails you write, and the list exports as a spreadsheet any day.

What do you keep, and what do you give up?

You keep "Any artist" without a studio plan, an artist's Google Calendar blocking their times and every booking written to it, and a feed for an artist on Apple Calendar, which Porter says "can’t be connected to Porter directly".

You give up Porter's tattoo intake: its booking form with reference photos, and the quote an artist sends before the client books. You give up its 2 reminder texts, chat by text, its checkout and POS, and the commission splits.

How do you switch your booking link in one sitting?

1. Set up your shop, or sign in.
2. Open "Links", then "Bookings", and turn on your booking page. For custom work, "Ask first" keeps every request yours to accept.
3. Set your hours and sessions, and each session's "Deposit" and amount.
4. Under "Deposits", press "Start taking deposits", give your legal name and tick the terms.
5. Each artist presses "Link your Google Calendar" from their own sign-in.
6. Put yourshop.bookings.tattoo where your Porter link was, or your L.tattoo page, whose "Book now" opens it.

Keep Porter running for the appointments already on it, and the new requests land with you.

Porter charges a studio $250 a month for the shop's whole booking. Here a shop pays $50 a year, and the waiver form asks what your state asks.