Best Dive Shop Software in 2026: 9 Options Compared
For most dive shops the right pick depends on whether more of your money comes from the boat or the counter. EquipDash fits shops running boat and shore dives with rental gear, cert and medical checks, and weather calls (from $29/mo, with waivers and forms from $69/mo, 21-day free trial). Dive Shop 360 suits retail-heavy stores, Dive Admin costs the least of the dive-only systems at a typical volume, and FareHarbor suits dive boats that sell a lot through travel sites.
This guide compares nine options on what a dive shop deals with on a Saturday: cert cards and medical forms, boat seats and buddy pairs, rental kit in the right sizes, regulators due for service, retail at the counter, and a forecast that cancels tomorrow's boat. Every price and fee below comes from the vendor's own site, checked in November 2026. We make EquipDash, so our entry sticks to the same facts as everyone else's, including where it falls short. Starting out? See how to run a scuba diving business.
Dive shop software compared
| Software | Starting price | Booking fee | Free trial | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EquipDash | $29/mo, or $23/mo billed yearly; waivers and forms from $69/mo | 1-2% on direct online bookings, can be passed to the customer | 21 days, no card | Boat and shore dives with rental gear, cert checks and weather calls |
| Dive Shop 360 | $149/mo (Startup); Core and Plus quote-based | Not published | Not stated; demo offered | Retail-heavy dive stores |
| Dive Admin | $39/mo; 2 months free billed yearly | None listed; no setup fees | 14 days | Dive centers that want certs, courses, boats and rentals at a low price |
| DiversDesk | $27/mo billed yearly; $42/mo with scheduling | None listed | Offered, length not stated | Dive resorts moving divers between boats and groups |
| ScubaCloud | $109/mo, or $98/mo billed yearly | None listed | 1 month, no card | Dive schools paying staff commission on courses and sales |
| AbyssOS | Quote-based, one plan | Optional fee paid by divers; rate not published | Demo only | Dive centers and liveaboards that want finance and commissions in one plan |
| Bookeo | AUD 14.95/mo (prices shown in Australian dollars) | No commission | 30 days, no card | Dive schools booking courses on a small budget |
| FareHarbor | No monthly software fee | Paid by the guest; rate not published | Not stated; demo offered | Dive boats selling heavily through travel sites |
| Lightspeed Retail | $89/mo (Basic), one register | Not listed; 1.5% in-person card rate with Lightspeed Payments | Offered, length not stated | Dive retail stores that rent and service gear |
Card processing fees are extra on every option unless noted. Two names that come up were left out: ScubaHub has no product site we could find, and EVE Diving, which Dive Shop 360 bought, has no pricing of its own to check.
What dive shop software has to handle
A dive shop's Saturday starts the night before. The 8:00 two-tank boat has 12 seats. Two Advanced divers booked online, a family of four needs a parent to sign for a 12-year-old, a first-timer wants Discover Scuba, and a diver who hasn't been in the water for three years wants the deep site. Four of them rent full kit in different sizes, two want nitrox, and at 4pm the forecast for tomorrow shows 24 mph wind. The software has to know who's qualified for which dive, what's signed, which kit is free and in service date, and who to text when the boat can't go.
These are the checks that matter most:
- Cert card on file before the dock. Agency, level and card number on the booking, with a flag when a diver's level doesn't match the dive or their last dive was long ago.
- A medical form for every diver. Any yes answer should reach you before the morning, so there's time for a doctor's sign-off.
- Boat seats and a manifest. Capacity per departure, buddy pairs, and tank and nitrox counts, ready on a tablet or printed for the captain.
- Rental gear in sizes, with a deposit. BCDs, regulators, wetsuits and computers counted out and back in, with a hold on the card until they return.
- Service dates on regs and cylinders. Kit past its service or inspection date should stay off the boat.
- Weather calls the night before. When wind or swell crosses your limit, every booked diver gets a new time without 15 phone calls at 6am.
- Courses and retail, if you sell them. Multi-day course schedules, and a counter POS that tracks stock if retail is a big part of the shop.
The 9 options, one by one
1. EquipDash
Best for: dive centers and snorkel operators running boat and shore dives with rental gear, at one dock or several.
Price: $29/mo on Starter, or $23/mo billed yearly, with a 2% booking fee. Waivers and forms, inventory management and Dash Bots start on Growth at $69/mo, or $55/mo billed yearly, with a 1.5% fee. More than one location needs Pro at $149/mo with a 1% fee. The booking fee applies to direct online bookings only, and you can pass it on to customers at checkout. 21-day free trial, no card. See pricing.
What it does for a dive shop: boat dives, shore dives and snorkel sessions each show live seats left, priced by who's on the boat, like a certified diver or someone riding along, with rental gear added in each diver's size. At booking it takes the diver's agency, cert level, card number and a photo of the card, and the medical and waiver are signed on their phone, with any yes on the medical flagged for a doctor's sign-off and a parent signing for kids. Expired or mismatched certs and old last-dive dates get flagged early, and Discover Scuba guests skip the cert step but still sign the medical. The manifest builds itself with buddy pairs and tank and nitrox counts per diver. Gear goes out as a checklist with a deposit held on the card, and walk-ups pay at a dock-side POS. You set wind, swell and lightning limits, Dash checks the forecast every afternoon, and when a boat is blown out it drafts one-tap reschedule offers for your OK, with deposit holds moving to the new time.
Watch out for: EquipDash is newer than most names on this list, so there are fewer independent reviews to read. The dive features most shops need start on Growth, not the $29 plan. It doesn't check a card against PADI or SSI records, and its dive pages don't describe retail stock with vendor catalogs, air cards or multi-day course schedules, which dive-only systems list. More on the scuba diving software page.
2. Dive Shop 360
Best for: dive stores where retail and service sit at the center of the business.
Price: the Startup plan is $149/mo. Core and Plus are quote-based, and a messaging add-on costs $50/mo. No free trial is stated; the site offers a demo.
What it does for a dive shop: a POS with more than 120 preloaded vendor catalogs, unlimited users and products, rentals, repair work orders, courses, and dive travel listed online with reserved seats. Core adds PADI, SSI and SDI/TDI certification tracking, waivers, air cards, loyalty and an online store, and Plus adds multiple locations.
Watch out for: certification tracking and waivers aren't on Startup, so the plan most dive shops need has no published price. Its site doesn't mention boat manifests or weather handling.
3. Dive Admin
Best for: dive centers that want certs, courses, boats and rentals in one system at a low monthly price.
Price: Starter is $39/mo, Professional $59/mo and Premium $119/mo, in USD, with 2 months free when you pay yearly. Lifetime Premium access is a one-time $3,495. No setup fees, 14-day free trial.
What it does for a dive shop: certifications and medicals on the customer record, e-signed liability releases, daily boat lists, rental equipment tracking with sizes per diver, stock control, course management, maintenance schedules, online booking pages, multiple branches on every plan, a mySSI connection, and an AI assistant called Coral.
Watch out for: Starter has no finance tools, so invoicing starts on Professional at $59/mo. Its features page doesn't mention boat capacity, air fills or weather.
4. DiversDesk
Best for: dive resorts that move divers between boats and groups across the day.
Price: in USD and billed yearly: CRM Go at $27/mo, Starter at $42/mo, Pro at $64/mo, and a custom Enterprise plan. A free trial is offered for "a limited period".
What it does for a dive shop: online booking from one link that covers registration, waivers and payment; digital waivers and diver medicals; scheduling across several boats and locations, with boat and group swaps; and a daily manifest.
Watch out for: the $27 plan has no scheduling, manifest or retail, so most dive shops start at $42. Every plan is billed yearly, and the only payment integration named on its homepage is Xendit.
5. ScubaCloud
Best for: dive schools that pay instructors commission on courses and sales.
Price: Starter is $109/mo, or $98/mo billed yearly ($1,177 a year), for up to 200 new customers a month. Growth is $157/mo and Scale $217/mo. Invoices are in USD. One-month free trial, no card.
What it does for a dive shop: divers register themselves by QR code with their certifications, medical history and gear sizes; multi-day PADI and SSI courses with lead and buddy instructors; daily boat rosters; retail with stock tracking; and teaching and selling commissions that land on payslips.
Watch out for: its site doesn't mention waivers, an online booking page for divers, or equipment service.
6. AbyssOS
Best for: dive centers and liveaboards that want bookings, finance and commissions on one plan.
Price: one plan, priced to your size after you contact them. Divers can pay an optional service fee on payments made through AbyssOS, which is credited against your subscription; the rate isn't published. Demo on request.
What it does for a dive shop: online waivers and medicals, multi-day courses, boat and dive site setup in the schedule, equipment assigned to each diver, gear damage logged, a self-service portal for customers, and deposit payments.
Watch out for: with no published price or fee rate, you can't compare costs before a sales call. Its homepage doesn't mention retail or a POS.
7. Bookeo
Best for: dive schools that mostly book courses and want a low fixed cost.
Price: the Classes & Courses and Tours & Activities plans run from AUD 14.95/mo to AUD 119.95/mo, shown in Australian dollars, with no commission on bookings. Standard, at AUD 39.95/mo, covers 1,000 bookings a month. Digital waivers are an add-on from AUD 12/mo. 30-day free trial, no card.
What it does for a dive shop: online booking for courses, with class levels and instructors across several locations, and text and email reminders that cut no-shows. Bookeo's own customer stories include a UK dive school using it this way.
Watch out for: Bookeo has no dive page, waivers cost extra, and its pricing pages don't mention certs, medicals or rental gear.
8. FareHarbor
Best for: dive boats that sell a lot through travel sites.
Price: no monthly software fees and no setup fees. Guests pay a small charge at checkout on confirmed bookings; the rate isn't published.
What it does for a dive shop: its boat page lists dive boats as a vessel type, with digital waivers in the booking, a mobile manifest with a live souls-on-board count, weather holds with rebooking, a dock POS for walk-ups, and over 250 travel-site and API connections, including Viator and GetYourGuide.
Watch out for: without a published fee rate, it's hard to compare costs before a sales call, and its boat page doesn't mention certifications, medical forms or rental gear.
9. Lightspeed Retail
Best for: dive retail stores that also rent and service gear.
Price: Basic is $89/mo, Core $149/mo and Plus $289/mo, each with one register; extra registers and locations cost more, with no amounts shown. In-person card payments through Lightspeed Payments are 1.5%. A free trial is offered.
What it does for a dive shop: its scuba page covers rentals and sales in one system, real-time tracking of tanks, regulators and wetsuits across locations, inspection and service reminders, reorder points and low-stock alerts, and customer profiles with classes and service history.
Watch out for: it's a retail POS first, and its scuba page doesn't mention waivers, certifications or an online booking page for divers.
What it costs at your volume
Here's what the published prices add up to in the first year for a shop taking $60,000 a year in online bookings, about 500 bookings at $120 each, assuming the shop absorbs every booking fee. Card processing is extra. Each vendor is priced on the cheapest plan that lists what a dive shop needs, as far as its site shows.
| Software | Subscription | Booking fees | First-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dive Admin (Starter) | $390-$468 | None listed | $390-$468 |
| DiversDesk (Starter) | $504, billed yearly | None listed | $504 |
| Bookeo (Standard, plus waivers) | AUD 623 | None | AUD 623 |
| ScubaCloud (Starter) | $1,177-$1,308 | None listed | $1,177-$1,308 |
| EquipDash (Growth) | $660-$828 | $900 (1.5%) | $1,560-$1,728 |
EquipDash is priced on Growth because waivers and medical forms start there. If you pass the booking fee on to divers, it comes down to $660-$828. Dive Shop 360 isn't in the table because certification tracking and waivers sit on its quote-based Core plan, and AbyssOS and FareHarbor don't publish enough to include. Lightspeed is priced per register for retail, so it doesn't compare on booking volume.
How to choose
- Most of your money comes from boat and shore dives with rental gear: EquipDash or DiversDesk, then test a blown-out day in the trial.
- You want a dive-only system at the lowest first-year cost: Dive Admin or DiversDesk.
- Courses and instructor pay are the center of the business: ScubaCloud, or Bookeo if you only need course booking.
- Retail is most of your revenue: Dive Shop 360 or Lightspeed Retail.
- You sell most of your boat seats through travel sites: FareHarbor.
Whichever you shortlist, run one real Saturday in the trial: a full 12-seat boat, a minor with a parent's signature, a diver with a yes on the medical, four rental kits in different sizes, and wind over your limit the night before. If the software catches the medical, fills the manifest and moves the boat without a phone call, it'll handle your season. For the paperwork side, see dive waivers and medical forms, and for cert checks at booking, managing dive certifications.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best dive shop software for a small dive center?
It depends on what you sell most. For boat and shore dives with rental gear, EquipDash starts at $29/mo, with waivers and medical forms from $69/mo and a 21-day free trial. Dive Admin starts at $39/mo with a 14-day trial, and DiversDesk at $42/mo billed yearly for its plan with scheduling.
How much does dive shop software cost?
Published prices run from AUD 14.95 a month (Bookeo) to $149 a month (Dive Shop 360 Startup), and FareHarbor charges no monthly fee but adds a fee paid by guests. EquipDash adds 1-2% on direct online bookings, which you can pass on to customers, while the dive-only systems list no booking fee. AbyssOS and the upper Dive Shop 360 plans are quote-based, and card processing is extra everywhere.
Can dive shop software check a diver's certification?
Most dive-only systems store the cert, and none of the sites we checked claim to verify a card automatically. Dive Shop 360 lists PADI, SSI and SDI/TDI certification tracking on Core, and Dive Admin has a mySSI connection. EquipDash takes the agency, level, card number and a photo of the card at booking and flags gaps, but doesn't check the card against PADI or SSI records.
Do I need a separate POS for dive retail?
Not always. Dive Shop 360 and Lightspeed Retail are built around a retail POS with stock and reorder tools, and ScubaCloud and Dive Admin include stock control. EquipDash has a dock-side POS for walk-ups, but its store product limits (5 on Starter, 20 on Growth, unlimited on Pro) suit a few items at the counter more than a full retail floor.
Can dive shop software handle weather cancellations?
Two options here describe it. EquipDash checks the forecast against wind, swell and lightning limits you set and drafts reschedule offers for every booked diver, and FareHarbor has weather holds with rebooking and guest updates. We didn't find weather handling on the other dive software sites or on Lightspeed's scuba page, so test it in a trial.
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