Fresha vs Booksy (2026): Commissions, Fees & Fit

Fresha vs Booksy for Barbers and Salons (2026)

Fresha and Booksy are the two dominant marketplace-plus-software platforms in hair and beauty. Both give you booking, reminders, payments, and a consumer marketplace that can put new clients in your chair. The difference is how - and how much - you pay for it.

Fresha runs a low subscription and monetizes usage: payment processing plus a one-time commission when its marketplace delivers a brand-new client. Booksy charges a meaningfully higher subscription per staff member, and its Boost discovery feature takes a larger one-time cut of a new client's first visit. Which model costs less depends on one number more than any other: how many of your new clients actually come from the marketplace.

Prices below are US list prices at the time of writing - verify current pricing at fresha.com and booksy.com before deciding.

The Two Models, Concretely

Fresha: pay-as-you-grow

• Subscription: roughly $19.95/month for an independent professional, or about $14.95 per bookable team member on the team plan (verify at fresha.com).
• Marketplace commission: a one-time fee of around 20% (minimum ~$6) on a new client's first booking - only when that client discovered you through the Fresha marketplace. Your own website, Google, and Instagram bookings are commission-free.
• Payment processing: per-transaction rates that differ for in-person, online, and keyed-in payments.
• SMS: messaging costs for reminders and campaigns.

Booksy: higher subscription, bigger Boost cut

• Subscription: around $29.99/month for the first user, plus roughly $20/month per additional team member (verify at booksy.com). A three-chair shop is near $70/month before anything else.
• Boost commission: Booksy's marketplace promotion feature takes around 30% of a new client's first visit - only on clients Boost brings you, and only once per client. Boost is optional; without it you keep the subscription and organic profile.
• Payment processing: per-transaction rates that vary by how the card is taken.

The asymmetry worth noticing: Booksy's higher fixed cost buys per-staff structure many barbershops like (each barber gets a proper calendar and profile), while Fresha's lower fixed cost means the marketplace commission does more of the revenue lifting when discovery matters.

Cost Sketch: Three Shop Profiles

Profile	Fresha (typical)	Booksy (typical)
Solo barber, full book	Low subscription + processing; commissions rare	~$29.99/mo + processing; Boost off
3 chairs, growing	Team plan + commissions on marketplace clients	~$70/mo + Boost cuts on promoted clients
New shop, needs discovery	Commissions on most new clients	Boost's 30% first-visit cut on most new clients

Both columns exclude hardware and taxes and use US list pricing - model your own client-acquisition mix, and verify current pricing at each vendor before purchasing.

The last row is the interesting one. A brand-new shop that leans on marketplace discovery pays real acquisition costs on either platform - around 20% of a first booking on Fresha versus around 30% of a first visit through Boost. Whether either is "expensive" depends on client lifetime value: a client who rebooks every three weeks for two years makes a one-time 30% cut trivial; a one-and-done discount hunter makes it painful. Track rebooking rates from marketplace clients specifically - it's the only way to judge.

Beyond Price

Marketplace strength is local. Fresha and Booksy have different consumer footprints in different cities and countries. Before weighing commissions, check which app actually has active users searching in your area - a commission on clients who never arrive costs nothing and earns nothing.

Client ownership. On both platforms, exported client lists give you contacts and history - but not the marketplace relationship. Clients who found you in the app keep living in the app, along with your reviews and ranking. That's the structural lock-in of any marketplace, and it's the price of discovery.

No-show protection. Both support deposit-style prepayment tied to their payment stack. If no-shows are your main leak, test the exact flow - which services can require a deposit, and what the client sees at booking. Our guide to appointment deposit policies for salons and barbers covers how to set the policy itself.

Per-staff structure. Booksy's per-team-member pricing maps naturally onto barbershop chairs - each barber gets their own bookable profile. Fresha's team plan does the same at a lower per-head price. For booth renters, check each platform's current stance on individual accounts.

When Fresha Is the Better Fit

• You want the lowest fixed monthly cost and accept usage-based fees.
• Marketplace commissions only on genuinely new discovery feels fair to you.
• Your team is price-sensitive on per-head costs.

When Booksy Is the Better Fit

• Booksy's consumer app is strong in your city - especially for barbers, where its footprint is historically deep.
• You want per-barber profiles and calendars with a predictable subscription.
• You'd rather keep Boost off and treat the marketplace as optional.

Where Tregovia Fits

Full disclosure: this blog is published by Tregovia, so read this section as our positioning rather than neutral ground.

Tregovia is a CRM and operations platform for service businesses - barbershops and salons included - with a flat EUR 47/month base plan covering client records, appointments, SMS and email reminders (SMS charged per message via credits), online booking, and billing. Two staff accounts are included; extra seats come in EUR 10/month packs of five. Deposits and payment collection are available with the Online Payments add-on (EUR 15/month), and gift cards with the Gift Cards add-on (EUR 8/month).

There is no marketplace and no commission - the same trade-off as with any standalone platform. If Booksy's or Fresha's discovery feed fills your chairs, Tregovia doesn't replace that. If your clients come from Instagram, Google, walk-ins, and referrals, you keep the whole first visit and your client list lives in your own CRM. See the detailed comparisons on our Fresha alternatives and Booksy alternatives pages, or our guide to gift card software for salons.

The Bottom Line

Count where your last twenty new clients came from. If most came from a marketplace app, you're choosing between Fresha's ~20% first-booking commission and Boost's ~30% first-visit cut - and the winner is whichever app actually has users in your city. If most came from your own channels, you're mostly comparing subscriptions and features, where Fresha's lower fixed cost competes with Booksy's per-barber structure - and a commission-free standalone platform becomes worth pricing too.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the main pricing difference between Fresha and Booksy?

Fresha keeps the subscription low (around $14.95–$19.95/month) and charges a one-time commission (around 20%, minimum ~$6) on new clients from its marketplace, plus payment processing. Booksy charges a higher subscription (around $29.99/month for the first user, ~$20/month per additional team member) and its Boost marketplace feature takes around 30% of a new client's first visit. Verify current pricing at fresha.com and booksy.com.

Is Booksy Boost worth the 30% first-visit commission?

It depends entirely on client lifetime value. Boost only charges on the first visit of a client it brings you - if your average new client returns monthly for a year, a 30% one-time cut of one visit is cheap acquisition. If most Boost clients are one-and-done discount hunters, it's expensive. Track rebooking rates from Boost clients specifically before judging.

Which is cheaper for a solo barber?

At subscription level, Fresha (around $19.95/month) undercuts Booksy (around $29.99/month). Both then charge payment processing per transaction, and both take a marketplace cut on new clients they bring you. For a solo barber with an established book who rarely needs marketplace discovery, the lower subscription usually wins. Verify current pricing at both vendors.

Do I lose my clients if I leave a marketplace platform?

You can export your client list from both platforms, but the marketplace relationship isn't exportable - clients who found you through the app keep using the app, and your profile's reviews and ranking stay in that ecosystem. Before committing, test the export and check what actually comes out: contacts and history usually do, marketplace presence doesn't.

Can I require deposits on both platforms?

Both platforms support prepayment or deposit-style protection in some form, tied to their own payment processing. If no-shows are your biggest leak, test the exact deposit flow on the plan you'd buy - where it lives, which services it can attach to, and what the client sees - rather than relying on a feature checklist.

Where does Tregovia fit in this comparison?

Tregovia - the platform behind this blog - is a CRM for service businesses with a flat EUR 47/month base plan (2 staff included, extra seats in EUR 10/month 5-seat packs), online booking, SMS/email reminders, and billing included, with no marketplace and no commission. It fits barbers and salons whose clients come from Instagram, Google, and referrals; it does not replace marketplace discovery.