Booksy vs Fresha, without the sales pitch.
Both are marketplace-plus-software platforms, and the feature lists barely differ. The decision is about how each one charges you, and how much of it you can avoid. Figures below are quoted from their own pricing pages.
Run both on your own numbers.
Booksy charges a flat subscription of £40 a month plus VAT and only takes commission if you opt into its Boost marketing feature. Fresha charges per bookable team member and takes a one-time fee on clients who find you through its marketplace. If you bring your own clients, Booksy is the more predictable bill; if you need discovery, Fresha's fee falls due only when its marketplace finds you someone.
Side by side
| Feature | Booksy | Fresha |
|---|---|---|
| Shape of the bill | Mostly fixed: a monthly subscription | Mostly variable: fees on new marketplace clients |
| Commission if you bring your own clients | None, with Boost off | None — the fee applies to marketplace discoveries |
| Commission if the marketplace finds them | 30% of the first visit, minimum £5, only via Boost | A one-time fee on the first appointment; rate published per country |
| How cost scales | With staff count (£5 each) | With bookable team members, and with marketplace-driven growth |
| Card processing | 0.99%–1.29% + 20p + VAT | Published separately by country |
| Who owns the client relationship | Shared — your page plus a Booksy listing | Shared, and the marketplace is the front door by design |
| Best fit | An established chair or small team with its own following | A newer business that needs to be found |
What each one actually charges
Booksy
Salon software with an attached marketplace, sold on subscription
What it costs
- £40 a month for everything, with extra users at £5 a month each, both plus VAT.
- Boost, the optional marketing feature, charges a one-time 30% fee on a brand-new Boost client's first visit, minimum £5. Leave Boost off and there is no commission.
- Card payments: 0.99% + 20p + VAT with Tap to Pay, 1.29% + 20p + VAT for mobile payments. Fast payouts cost 1.5%.
- 500 SMS marketing messages included each month, then 5p each.
- 7-day trial, no card required.
Pick it when
- You want one predictable line on the P&L and are happy to pay for it up front.
- You do not want commission at all, and are willing to leave Boost switched off.
- You have a team — £5 per extra user is cheap next to per-seat pricing elsewhere.
- You want the marketplace listing available but not load-bearing.
Fresha
Booking software with a marketplace attached, sold on subscription plus marketplace fees
What it costs
- Fresha publishes its subscription and marketplace fees on a pricing page that varies by country. We are not reprinting a figure here, because the page we can read does not show one we can verify — check it yourself for your own country before you commit.
- The model is the part that matters and it is not in dispute: a one-time fee on each brand-new client who discovers you through the Fresha marketplace, calculated on the value of their first completed appointment. There is a minimum fee and, Fresha says, a cap for higher-value services.
- Subscription is charged per bookable team member, so the bill grows with headcount rather than turnover.
- Card processing and messaging are billed separately, as everywhere.
Pick it when
- You are newly opened and need the marketplace to find you clients.
- You want the lowest possible starting cost and will pay for discovery when it works.
- You are a solo operator — per-team-member pricing is at its cheapest at one.
- You want payments and inventory in the same system as your bookings.
Where these figures come from
Quoted from each company's own published pages, on the dates below. Pricing changes and some of it varies by country — check the source before you decide, and tell us if you spot something out of date.
- · Booksy UK pricing — checked 6 August 2026
- · Fresha pricing — checked 6 August 2026
- · Fresha help centre: marketplace new client fees — checked 24 October 2026
- · Fresha help centre: types of automated messages — checked 24 October 2026
- · Booksy Biz on the App Store — checked 24 October 2026
- · Booksy UK marketing tools — checked 24 October 2026
The difference that actually decides it
Almost every "Booksy vs Fresha" page compares feature checklists, and it is a waste of everyone's time — both do bookings, deposits, reminders, client records, payments and reports, and have for years. Nobody switches because one has a better calendar.
The real difference is where each company makes its money, because that determines what the product is optimised for. Booksy sells you software and charges you for it monthly; the marketplace listing is included, and Boost is an opt-in you can decline forever. Fresha keeps the entry cost low and earns a fee when the marketplace delivers you someone new.
That makes the choice mostly a question about your own business rather than about theirs. Count what fraction of last month's new clients you found yourself. If it is most of them, a fixed subscription is the cheaper structure and the fee-based one is charging you for something you are already doing. If it is few of them, the marketplace is doing real work and taking a cut of the result is a fair trade.
Work it out on your actual numbers before you switch either way. A 30% one-time fee on a £60 first visit is £18 — trivial if that client rebooks for five years, expensive if they never come back.
What neither of them does
Both platforms make their money around the marketplace and the appointment. Both also offer rebooking reminders and automated win-back messages for lapsed clients.
Where Aasure differs is the bill and the focus. The regular who came every six weeks and has not been in since March is worth more than any new lead. Aasure can send that client a win-back email once you switch it on, alongside the bookings, the waitlist and the email reminders — on a flat monthly fee with no commission on any booking and no marketplace at all.
The honest trade: because there is no marketplace, Aasure will not find you new clients. You still do that yourself. If discovery is the thing you actually need, one of the two above is the better answer and we would rather say so.
Common questions
Is Booksy or Fresha cheaper for a salon?
It depends where your clients come from. Booksy publishes £40 a month plus £5 per extra user, plus VAT. With Boost off, only card fees and extra texts add to that. Fresha keeps its subscription low and charges once per new marketplace client. For a regulars-led diary, the subscription usually wins. For discovery-led salons, the fee model can be cheaper — you only pay when it works.
Does Booksy charge commission?
Only through Boost, its optional marketing feature. Booksy states a one-time 30% fee on a brand-new Boost client's first visit, with a £5 minimum. Boost is opt-in. With it switched off, you pay the subscription plus any card fees and extra texts.
Does Fresha charge commission on my existing clients?
No. Fresha's help centre says the fee applies to brand-new clients who discover you on its marketplace, based on their first completed appointment. Clients already on your Clients list do not trigger it, so import your list first. It can apply when a new client views your Fresha profile, then books on your own site. Some owners complain about how "new" gets classified, so ask Fresha how it decides.
What is Booksy Biz?
Booksy Biz is Booksy's app for businesses. Owners use it to run their calendar, clients, checkout and marketing, while clients book through the separate Booksy consumer app or your booking site, Instagram, Google and Facebook. So comparing Booksy Biz with Fresha means comparing the two platforms' business software, each tied to its own marketplace.
Can I use both Booksy and Fresha at once?
Technically yes, and some salons do use one marketplace purely for discovery while running regulars elsewhere. In practice two calendars for one diary is how double-bookings happen. If you try it, keep one system as the source of truth for availability.
Which is better for a one-chair salon?
If you already have a following, Booksy. The bill is fixed, and per-user pricing does not apply at one chair. If you are newly opened with no client list, Fresha. At that stage discovery is worth more than margin, and per-team-member pricing is at its cheapest.
Can I take my client list with me if I leave?
Ask before you sign up, not after. Ask for the export format, not just whether an export exists. If the platform processes client data on your behalf, UK GDPR says its contract must cover returning or deleting that data at the end. But a returned file and a usable spreadsheet are not the same convenience. Almost nobody asks in time.
Neither one, if you already have the clients.
Aasure is a flat monthly subscription with no commission on any booking and no marketplace. As a launch offer, the first 200 businesses to sign up get a 60-day free trial. After that, every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. Neither needs a card or setup fee. Plans cost £29, £59 or £89 a month, and every plan has every feature — they differ only by how many staff you add. All prices include VAT.
Sign up Or work out your real bill first