Fresha Alternatives UK: The Honest 2026 Comparison

Why UK salons are looking for Fresha alternatives in 2026

For years, Fresha won on one simple promise: it was free. No monthly subscription, just pay for the bits you used. That is what made it the default booking system for thousands of UK salons, barbers and beauty businesses. The problem is that the promise has changed.

According to Fresha's own pricing, the platform now charges a monthly subscription per bookable calendar, introduced in 2025, sitting on top of the fees it always had. So a lot of owners who signed up for 'free' have watched their monthly bill quietly grow.

It helps to be clear about where Fresha's money actually comes from, because that is the part most people only half understand. There are three separate charges, and they stack:

• A monthly subscription. Around £14.95 a month for a single-person business, or roughly £9.95 a month for each bookable team member on the team plan, before VAT.
• A marketplace commission on new clients. When someone discovers you through the Fresha consumer app and books, you pay a one-off cut of that first booking (a percentage, with a minimum charge per new client). Returning clients are free.
• Card processing fees. A percentage plus a small fixed amount on every card payment you take, whether online or in person.

None of those is outrageous on its own. The issue is that, added together, the 'free' platform can end up costing a busy salon a meaningful chunk every month.

And because UK and EU rules stop you passing card processing fees on to your clients, you absorb that part yourself. So it is no surprise that 'is there a cheaper option' has turned into a genuine question for a lot of owners this year.

What actually matters when you compare booking platforms

It is easy to get lost in feature checklists. In practice, only a handful of things genuinely change how much a platform costs you and how much control you keep. These are the ones worth weighing before you look at any specific name.

Commission versus flat subscription

This is the big fork in the road. Marketplace platforms charge you a percentage on new-client bookings made through their app, which feels free until the bookings roll in. Subscription platforms charge a fixed monthly fee and take nothing per booking.

If most of your clients come from a marketplace, commission can pay for itself. If you bring in your own clients through Google, social media and referrals, you are often better off paying a flat fee and keeping every penny of each sale.

Do you actually need the marketplace?

A marketplace listing puts you in front of people searching for a salon in your area who have never heard of you.

That is real value if you are new or have spare capacity to fill. But if your diary is already healthy and most of your bookings are regulars, you are paying commission to acquire clients you would have got anyway. Be honest about which camp you are in.

How you take payments

Card processing fees are charged on top of everything else, so the rate matters, and so does whether the platform locks you into its own card reader.

If you already use a payment provider you like, a platform that plays nicely with it can save you both money and hassle.

Who owns the client relationship

This one is easy to overlook and the most important long term. On a marketplace, your reviews, your listing and a chunk of your client relationship live inside someone else's app.

Build your booking around your own website and you own that relationship outright, which is the whole point of a proper booking system that works for you rather than the platform, not against you.

UK support and the boring essentials

Automated reminders, deposits, no-show protection, staff calendars, reporting: most decent platforms do these. What varies is how well, and whether support is on UK time when something breaks on a Saturday morning.

Getting reminders and deposits right is worth more than any feature on the brochure, as we cover in our guide to cutting no-shows below.

Fresha alternatives UK salons are using in 2026

Here are the platforms that come up again and again when UK salons go shopping. We have grouped them by the thing that matters most, the pricing model, because that is what decides whether a switch saves you money or just moves the cost around.

Prices are indicative and correct at the time of writing, so always confirm the current rate on each provider's own site before you commit.

Treatwell: the big marketplace

Treatwell runs the largest beauty marketplace in the UK, so its pull for brand-new clients is hard to match. The trade-off is the cost of that reach: it leans on a commission charged on new-client bookings, and that percentage is on the high side, alongside a subscription for its business tools.

If you have empty chairs to fill and you want a flood of new faces, the discovery can be worth it. If your diary is mostly regulars, you are paying a premium to win clients you might already have. You can see its business side at Treatwell for Business.

Booksy: the barber and salon favourite

Booksy has become the default for a lot of UK barbershops and busy salons, partly because clients genuinely like its app for rebooking.

It works as a subscription, roughly £40 a month for your first user with a smaller fee for each extra team member before VAT, and the marketplace side is optional: you only pay a commission on a new client's first visit if you switch its boost feature on.

That optional model is the bit people like, because you can keep costs predictable and turn discovery on only when you want it. It is strongest if app-based booking and rebooking matters to your clients.

Timely: predictable and no commission

Timely is a straight subscription tool with no marketplace and no cut of your bookings, starting from around £31 a month. You bring your own clients; it handles the scheduling, reminders, deposits, payments and reporting.

For salons that already get found through Google and social, that is often the cheapest route once you do the maths, because there is no per-booking commission eating into every new client. It is also genuinely easy to use, which matters when your team has to live in it daily. Have a look at Timely if predictable monthly cost is your priority.

Square Appointments: hard to beat for solo and small

If you are a solo stylist or a small team, Square Appointments is one of the easiest places to start. The solo plan is free to use, with paid tiers from around £29 a month when you want more, and you pay standard card fees on payments.

The real advantage is that it slots straight into the Square ecosystem, so if you already take card payments with Square, your bookings and your till talk to each other without any extra wiring. No marketplace, so no commission, but also no built-in stream of new clients; you supply those yourself.

Phorest: for established, growth-minded salons

Phorest sits at the premium end. It is built for established salons that take marketing and client retention seriously, with strong tools for reviews, loyalty, targeted campaigns and reporting, typically from around £99 a month with unlimited staff on a quote-based plan.

There is no public marketplace; the philosophy is that it helps you grow and keep your own client base rather than rent one. If you are a single chair watching every pound, it is overkill. If you are a multi-stylist salon ready to invest in marketing, it earns its place.

On a budget, or not strictly beauty?

If you run a service business that books appointments but is not a classic salon (think clinics, therapists, tutors, mobile services), more general tools like Setmore, Acuity Scheduling and SimplyBook.me are worth a look.

They tend to offer free or low-cost tiers, no commission, and flexible scheduling across all sorts of industries. They will not give you the beauty-specific marketplace or the salon-shaped features, but for simple, cheap, no-commission booking they do the job well.

The bigger question: a marketplace, or your own booking page?

Here is the thing most comparison lists skip. The real choice is not Fresha versus one rival. It is whether you want to rent your client relationships from a marketplace, or own them outright.

A marketplace is brilliant at one job: putting you in front of strangers. But the reviews, the listing and the booking journey all happen on their turf, and the day you leave, a lot of that stays behind. Build your booking into your own professionally designed website and every client, review and rebooking is yours to keep.

In practice the smartest setup for many salons is a hybrid. Use a subscription booking tool wired into your own site as the home of your diary, so regulars book directly and you pay no commission on them.

Then, if you genuinely have capacity to fill, switch on a marketplace selectively to top up with new clients, and treat that commission as a marketing cost you can turn off the moment your diary is full.

That way the marketplace works for you, instead of quietly taxing every regular who was always going to come back.

Whatever platform you land on, the features that actually protect your revenue are the same: automatic reminders, deposits and no-show cover. We break down exactly how to set those up in our guide to reducing no-show appointments, and they matter far more to your bottom line than which logo is on your booking button.

How to switch without losing clients or your weekend

Moving booking platforms sounds scary and rarely is, as long as you do it in order rather than in a panic. Here is the sequence we would follow.

1. Export your client list from Fresha first. Your contacts and booking history are yours, so download them before you do anything else.
2. Pick the alternative that fits your payment setup and your reliance on the marketplace, using the table above. Do not switch on price alone.
3. Import your clients into the new platform. Many offer a guided import or a migration service, so use it rather than rekeying everything by hand.
4. Rebuild your reminder, deposit and no-show settings on day one. This is the part that protects your income, so do not leave it for later.
5. Add the new booking link to your website, Google Business Profile and social bios, and make a test booking on your own phone to check the whole journey works before you go live.
6. Run both systems in parallel for a week or two so no in-flight bookings fall through the cracks, then close Fresha down once you are confident.

The one thing you cannot take with you is your marketplace reviews and listing, because those belong to the platform.

That is a good reason to start gathering Google reviews under your own name now, so your reputation is never trapped inside an app you might one day want to leave.

So which Fresha alternative is right for you?

If you want a shortcut, here is the honest steer we would give a salon owner over a coffee:

• Solo stylist or small team, already taking card payments: start with Square Appointments. Cheap, simple, no commission.
• You bring in your own clients and want predictable costs: Timely. Flat fee, no per-booking cut, easy to run.
• Barbershop or busy salon where clients love booking by app: Booksy, with the marketplace boost switched on only when you need new clients.
• Empty chairs to fill and you want maximum new-client discovery: Treatwell, with eyes open about the commission.
• Established salon investing seriously in marketing and retention: Phorest.
• Non-beauty service business on a budget: Setmore, Acuity or SimplyBook.me.

There is no single best Fresha alternative, only the best one for how your salon actually gets its clients and takes its payments. Work that out first, and the choice almost makes itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fresha still free in 2026?

Not in the way it once was. Fresha began life as a subscription-free platform, but since April 2025 it charges a monthly subscription per bookable calendar, on top of its existing marketplace commission on new clients and its card processing fees.

You can still use a lot of it without paying upfront, but calling it 'free' in 2026 is no longer accurate, which is exactly why so many UK salons are weighing up alternatives.

What is the best Fresha alternative for a small UK salon?

It depends on how you take bookings and payments. For a solo stylist or a small team that wants predictable costs and no marketplace commission, a flat subscription tool like Timely, or Square Appointments if you already use Square for payments, tends to make the most sense.

Busy barbershops often prefer Booksy. The right answer is the one that fits your payment setup and how much you rely on a marketplace for new clients.

Do Fresha alternatives charge commission on bookings?

Some do, some don't, and that is the single biggest thing to check. Marketplace platforms like Treatwell and Booksy can charge a percentage on new-client bookings made through their consumer app.

Subscription tools like Timely, Square Appointments and Phorest charge a flat monthly fee instead and take no cut of your bookings. Which model is cheaper depends entirely on your booking volume and how many of those clients are genuinely new.

Will I lose my client data if I switch from Fresha?

Not if you plan the move. Most platforms let you export your client list, and many alternatives offer a guided import or a migration service to bring your contacts and history across.

The thing you cannot easily take with you is your marketplace reviews and listing, since those live on Fresha. That is a strong argument for building your own booking page and review presence so your reputation is never locked inside someone else's app.

Is it worth leaving Fresha just to avoid the fees?

Only if the numbers actually stack up for your business. Add up what Fresha costs you in subscription, marketplace commission and card fees over a typical month, then compare that with a flat-fee alternative at your booking volume.

For salons that get most of their clients from the Fresha marketplace, the commission can be worth it. For salons that bring in their own clients through Google, social and word of mouth, a subscription tool with no per-booking cut is usually cheaper and gives you more control.

Not sure which way to jump? We help salons, barbers and beauty businesses across South Yorkshire choose, set up and get the most out of their booking systems, without the marketplace owning their clients. Book a free Digital Health Check and we will look at how you take bookings today and tell you, plainly, whether switching would actually save you money and win you more clients.