Is Fresha worth it for salons?
Fresha's pitch is that the software costs nothing. That is true, and it is also not the number that decides whether Fresha is worth it — the marketplace commission and the card fees are.
Quick answer
Fresha charges no commission on clients you bring yourself, which is what makes it unusual. You pay 20% on a new client who finds you through the Fresha marketplace, subject to a minimum fee, and that charge applies once — every booking that client makes afterwards is commission-free. Card payments run about 2.19% plus 20c. Subscription is reported at roughly $19.95 a month solo or $14.95 per bookable team member. The honest summary is that Fresha is close to free if you bring your own clients and a paid acquisition channel if you do not, so the question is not whether 20% is high, it is whether you would have found that client any other way.
What one new marketplace client costs, and when it pays back
| Service price | 20% first booking | Cost after 2nd visit | After 5th visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 8 | 4.00 each | 1.60 each |
| 60 | 12 | 6.00 each | 2.40 each |
| 80 | 16 | 8.00 each | 3.20 each |
| 120 | 24 | 12.00 each | 4.80 each |
Step-by-step
- 1
Separate your own clients from Fresha's
Everything else follows from it. A client who books because you sent them your link costs you no commission, ever. A client who found you by browsing the Fresha marketplace costs 20% on their first booking. Before judging the price, work out roughly what share of your bookings actually originate on the marketplace — for most established salons it is small, and for those salons Fresha genuinely is nearly free.
- 2
Treat the 20% as advertising, not as a software fee
Twenty percent of one booking is an acquisition cost with the risk carried by Fresha: you pay only when a real person actually books and shows up. Compared with paid social, where you pay for clicks whether or not anyone books, that is a favourable trade. Judge it against what you currently spend to win a new client, not against your subscription.
- 3
Do the payback arithmetic on your own retention
The table above assumes the client comes back. If your rebooking rate is strong, the commission divides across every future visit and becomes trivial within a few months. If clients come once and vanish, you are paying 20% repeatedly to rent strangers. Your retention rate, not Fresha's pricing, decides whether this is cheap.
- 4
Add the fees that are not in the headline
Card processing at roughly 2.19% plus 20c applies to takings generally, and SMS reminders and marketing are charged per message at a few cents each. Reviews of real accounts put the all-in cost meaningfully above the advertised subscription. None of that makes Fresha expensive, but a plan built on the headline number will be wrong.
- 5
Decide what the marketplace listing is actually for
You can use Fresha purely as booking software and largely ignore the marketplace, and plenty of salons do. Or you can treat the marketplace as a lead source you deliberately buy from during quiet periods. Both are reasonable. Drifting between them without deciding is how salons end up surprised by a commission line.
- 6
Get your own booking link in front of clients
Every client who books through your own website or your own link is a client you never pay commission on. That is the single highest-return thing you can do with Fresha, and it costs nothing — put your booking link on your site, your Instagram bio and your Google Business Profile, and reserve the marketplace for genuine new demand.
Tips & best practices
- The commission is charged once per new marketplace client, not per booking. Anyone quoting it as an ongoing 20% has misread the pricing.
- If most of your clients already know you, Fresha is one of the cheapest serious options available, because your commission bill is close to zero.
- Work out your own cost per new client from whatever you spend now. Without that number you cannot say whether 20% is good value or not.
Common questions
How much commission does Fresha take?
+−
Twenty percent on a new client who books through the Fresha marketplace, subject to a minimum fee, charged on that first booking only. Clients you bring yourself carry no commission at all.
Is Fresha actually free?
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The booking software is free to use, so a salon that brings its own clients and takes payment in person can genuinely run at close to zero. It stops being free once you take card payments through it, send SMS, or accept marketplace bookings.
Do I pay commission every time that client returns?
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No. The new client fee applies to the first booking. Subsequent bookings from the same client are commission-free, which is what makes the payback arithmetic work if you retain people.
Is Fresha cheaper than Treatwell?
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On new-client commission, substantially — 20% once, against a much higher first-visit rate elsewhere. The comparison only holds if you are actually using both as marketplaces; as pure booking software the commission question does not arise.
Is it worth it for a solo stylist?
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Usually yes, because a solo stylist mostly books people who already know them, and those bookings cost no commission. The subscription is modest and the marketplace is optional rather than load-bearing.