Two marketplaces charging for the same thing — the client they found you — in two different ways. Treatwell publishes its commission rates outright; Fresha varies its published pricing by country. Figures below are quoted from their own pages.
Treatwell charges 35% commission on a new client's first booking through its marketplace and 0% on every repeat booking, with no commission on clients who come to you directly. Fresha charges a one-time fee on the same event, plus a subscription per bookable team member. Treatwell is the stronger UK consumer brand; Fresha is the broader software product.
| Fresha | Treatwell | |
|---|---|---|
| New-client commission | One-time fee on first appointment; rate published per country | 35% of the first booking |
| Repeat-booking commission | None | 0%, stated explicitly |
| Commission on direct bookings | None | None |
| Subscription | Per bookable team member | Not published on the partner pricing page |
| Online payment processing | Published separately by country | 2.5% on online prepayments |
| UK consumer brand recognition | Growing, and global | Strong, and specifically British |
| Depth of back-office software | The broader product of the two | Lighter — the marketplace is the point |
| Best fit | A salon that wants one system for everything | A salon that wants UK footfall and will run its own admin |
Marketplace-first platform with a full software suite behind it
A consumer booking marketplace with partner software attached
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changes and some of it varies by country — check the source before you decide, and tell us if you spot something out of date.
These two are closer to each other than either is to a subscription tool, because both make their money the same way: they find you someone new, and they take a cut of that first visit. Everything after that first visit is yours.
So the honest comparison is not really about rates. A 35% one-time fee sounds brutal next to a lower published percentage until you notice they are charged on the same thing — one appointment, once, for a client you did not have. On a £70 first treatment, 35% is £24.50. If that client comes back four times a year for three years, you paid £24.50 to acquire roughly £840 of revenue. Very few marketing channels do better than that.
Where it goes wrong is when the platform classifies someone as "new" who was not, or when a client who would have found you anyway routes through the marketplace because that is where the booking button is. That is the complaint behind almost every angry review of either service, and it is worth asking each of them directly how the classification works before you list.
The other real difference is what you get for it. Treatwell is a marketplace with partner tools; Fresha is a software platform with a marketplace on the front. If you need the back office as well as the footfall, that gap matters more than a few percentage points.
Both are acquisition channels. Neither is built to keep the client once acquired, and that is the expensive half.
A client who came once through the marketplace, had a good time, and never rebooked is the most costly outcome in either model — you paid the fee and got one visit. Nothing in either platform chases them. Aasure does exactly that: it spots the regulars who have gone quiet, runs the win-back, and handles the bookings, deposits, reminders and invoicing alongside it, on a flat monthly fee with no commission on any booking.
The trade, stated plainly: Aasure has no marketplace, so it will not find you anyone. If footfall is the problem you are trying to solve, list on one of these two — that is what they are good at.
Treatwell publishes 35% commission on first bookings made by new clients through its marketplace, and 0% commission on all repeat bookings. Bookings that reach you directly — by phone, text, WhatsApp, social media or your own website — carry no commission at all. Online prepayments carry a 2.5% processing fee.
We are not going to give you a number, because we could not verify one. Treatwell publishes 35% on a new client's first booking and 0% thereafter. Fresha's pricing page varies by country, and the version we could read did not show a UK rate we would be willing to quote. What we can say is that Fresha also charges a subscription per bookable team member where Treatwell publishes none, so the total turns on your team size and on how many new clients each one actually sends you. Open Fresha's pricing page from a UK connection and compare it against the 35% yourself.
No. Treatwell states 0% on repeat bookings, and no commission on clients who book with you directly. The 35% applies once, to a new client's first booking made through the marketplace.
Treatwell is the stronger consumer brand in the UK specifically and has been for longer; Fresha is larger globally. For a salon, the only figure that matters is how much traffic either sends in your postcode, which neither will tell you up front. Ask salons near you which one actually brings people through the door.
Yes, and plenty of salons are. The risk is not the listing fee, it is the diary: two marketplaces writing into one set of availability is how double-bookings happen. Decide which system holds the real calendar before you list on the second.
This is the question to ask before you join. Clients who found you through a marketplace often have the app rather than your number, so the relationship can sit with the platform in practice even where the data is exportable. The mitigation is boring and effective: capture contact details yourself at the first visit and give every client a direct way to rebook that is not the marketplace.
Aasure is a flat monthly subscription with no commission on any booking and no marketplace. The first 200 sign-ups lock in £29, £59 or £89 a month for as long as they stay subscribed.
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