For barber shops and walk-in salons
Barber shop queue app. No chair-side hovering.
Free QR walk-in queue for barber shops. Customers scan on arrival, leave the shop if they want, come back when you call. Saturday mornings get easier.
QR on the door
Walk-ins scan on arrival. No staff time at the counter taking names.
Phone number capture
Text customers when their chair's free — they can grab a coffee while they wait.
Live queue on the wall
Project the public queue URL on a screen so customers see their position without asking.
Multi-barber ready
One queue per shop by default. If you want per-barber queues, spin up multiple events — it's free.
No app to install
Runs in any phone browser. No onboarding for customers. No app-store review for you.
Data vanishes after 48h
Names and phone numbers auto-delete. No customer database to manage. UK GDPR-friendly by default.
A busy barber shop on a Saturday morning: three chairs, twelve walk-ins, and everyone hovering near the door to make sure they don't get skipped. The List is a free barber shop queue app that removes the hovering. Customers scan a QR on the door, type their name and phone number, and get a position. They can sit in the shop, go to the coffee place two doors down, or nip to the hardware store — you text them when their chair's free.
It's not a booking system. You won't get SMS reminders, a customer database, or a loyalty program. It's specifically the walk-in queue problem — the gap between "no appointment" and "please form an orderly line". If you also take appointments, use Fresha, Booksy, or Schedulista for those and run this on top for the walk-in chair.
Everything's visible. The barber sees the queue. Customers see the queue. No-one argues about who's next. When a chair opens, tap the top name, wave them in, or text them if they've popped out.
Free forever. Ads fund it on marketing pages like this one — never on the customer signup screen. Data retention is a hard 48 hours, so you're never managing personal information long-term.
A Saturday morning at a 3-chair barber shop
Typical run-of-show
- 1QR on the shop door + a card on each chair back.
- 2Walk-ins scan on arrival, type name + phone.
- 3They see their position. Can leave the shop if they want.
- 4Any barber who frees up taps the top name + texts the customer.
- 5Customer walks in, barber greets by name, chair's ready.
Running one queue or one per barber?
Default: one shared queue. Whoever's next goes to whichever chair opens first. Simplest, fairest, and what most walk-in shops run.
Alternative: one queue per barber if customers request a specific stylist. Spin up a separate event per barber — it's free, it takes 10 seconds, and each barber can manage their own queue on their own phone. Share the QR + admin URL with each barber and you're done.
Hybrid (advanced): one shared walk-in queue for people who don't care who cuts their hair, plus a parallel "request a specific barber" queue for regulars. Two events, two QRs, a bit more to manage. Worth it for busy shops with strong personal followings.
SMS when their chair's ready
Phone numbers are captured at signup. They appear next to every name on your admin dashboard. When someone's up, tap their name to copy-paste into your own SMS app, or set up an iOS Shortcut to one-tap a pre-written "your chair's ready" message. The customer gets the text wherever they are.
We don't auto-send SMS in v1 because per-message fees would break the free promise. If you need fully-automated SMS, TablesReady or Waitwhile does that and charges for it. We kept it free by keeping the SMS manual.
Questions hosts ask
Does this replace Booksy or Fresha?+
No. Those are appointment-booking systems with full customer databases and marketing tools. The List is specifically for walk-in queues — the bit that Booksy doesn't really cover. If your shop is appointment-only, this isn't for you. If you have walk-in chairs alongside appointments, this handles the walk-ins.
Can I print the QR big enough to stick on the shop window?+
Yes — we have a free QR code generator that exports PNG up to 2048px or SVG at any size. Print on A4, laminate, stick it in the window. We recommend Error Correction Level H for printed stickers that get handled.
What if a walk-in doesn't have a phone?+
Rare, but: you can add them manually from the host dashboard — tap Add, type their name, they get a position. No phone number required. They just need to be in the shop when you call them.
Can customers skip the queue by signing up at home?+
Possible loophole if the QR leaks. To prevent it, the host can close signups when the shop closes or when the queue is long enough. Or share the QR only in-shop and change it weekly via a Series.
How long does data stick around?+
48 hours after the queue's last activity, everything auto-deletes. No customer database, no retention. UK GDPR-friendly by default.
Can I run it on a tablet behind the counter?+
Yes. The admin URL works on any device with a browser. Most shops open it on one tablet facing the barbers so anyone can advance the queue.
Ready in 10 seconds.
Tap the button. Share the QR. That's it.
Running something else?