Most beauty businesses we meet take bookings through Fresha or Booksy, with a separate website that sends people there. That works. It also costs more than the monthly fee suggests, because both charge for new clients who find you through their marketplace.
Here is what each one charges, a worked example for a small studio, and what changes when the booking system is yours.
What Fresha charges
From Fresha's UK pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026. Prices are before 20% VAT.
- Independent: £14.95 a month, for one person taking bookings.
- Team: £9.95 a month for each team member.
- New clients from the marketplace: a one-off 20% of their first appointment, with a minimum of £4 per client. Returning clients cost nothing.
- Online card payments: 1.40% + 25p per payment.
The full list is on Fresha's pricing page.
What Booksy charges
From Booksy's UK pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026. All fees are subject to VAT.
- Subscription: £40 a month, plus £5 a month for each extra member of staff.
- Boost: optional. If you turn it on, Booksy takes 30% of a Boost client's first visit, with a minimum of £5.
- Card payments in the app: 1.29% + 20p per payment.
The full list is on Booksy's pricing page.
A worked example
A lash studio with three people taking bookings. Ten new clients a month find it through the marketplace, and a first appointment is £50.
- Fresha: £29.85 a month for three team members, plus £100 a month in new client fees. That is £1,558 a year before VAT.
- Booksy with Boost on: £50 a month for three people, plus £150 a month in Boost fees. That is £2,400 a year before VAT.
Your numbers will differ. The pattern holds: the subscription is the small part, and the new client fees grow as the business does.
What the apps do well
They are quick to start, the apps are polished, and there is nothing to build. The marketplace can bring you clients you would not have found, and the commission is the price of that introduction.
The question is where your new clients actually come from. If most of them find you on Google, Instagram or through a friend, you are paying a marketplace fee on clients your own reputation brought in.
What changes when the booking system is yours
- No cut of your bookings. New clients book on your own website and Google listing, so nobody takes a share of their first visit. Card fees still apply, as they do with any card provider.
- The client list is yours. Bookings, history and contact details sit in a system you own, not one you rent.
- It looks like your business. The booking is part of your website, in your colours and your words, instead of a page on someone else's app.
- It works the way you do. Which treatments need a deposit, how long each one takes, who can do what: the system follows your rules.
For Aliya's Beauty in South Shields, we built a website where clients choose a stylist, a treatment and a time, with deposits and the staff diary on the same system. You can see it in the Aliya's Beauty case study.
When it starts to make sense
- Most of your new clients already find you without the marketplace.
- You pay for several team members every month.
- You want the website, the booking and the deposits to work as one thing.
- You want to own your client list outright.
If none of those sound like you, there may be nothing to change yet. If you are not sure, ask for a free website review. You get a written reply within two working days, and if your current setup is fine, we will say so.
We build booking websites for beauty and appointment businesses in the North East. We never take a cut of your bookings, and the system we build is yours.