ReserveBee or Fresha: booking without marketplace commission

Fresha is often called "free," and that's no longer accurate: since recent pricing changes, you pay a monthly subscription plus a series of additional costs that aren't immediately visible. As salon, spa and barbershop software, Fresha is functionally strong, but it's worth knowing exactly what you're signing up for before comparing it to a system like ReserveBee.

Three key differences at a glance

What Fresha does well

Fresha offers a complete salon package: calendar management, point-of-sale, inventory management, an online store, quotes and invoices, gift cards, packages, memberships, group bookings and intake forms, all in one environment. The built-in marketplace can deliver new clients who might otherwise never have found your salon, which is effectively performance-based client acquisition. It includes a free monthly allowance of marketing messages (20 SMS, 50 emails) before you pay per message, and there's a mobile app. Consultation forms and client ratings are also included by default, handy for salons that want to track treatment preferences. The headline entry price (€14.95/month for solo professionals) looks low at first glance.

Where ReserveBee makes the difference

Fresha's real cost is higher than that entry price suggests. On top of the subscription, you pay transaction fees on every payment, and 20% commission on the first appointment of every new client who comes through the marketplace, straight from Fresha's own terms: "Fresha only charges a one-time 20% commission on the very first appointment made by a new client who discovers you through the Marketplace." Beyond that, features like an AI receptionist (€94.95 per location/month), customer loyalty (€59.95/month) and expanded reporting (€9.95 per team member/month) all stack on top of the subscription. ReserveBee charges no commission on your revenue and no separate add-ons for essential features: your booking page, payments and reminder emails are included by default. And where Fresha works exclusively for salons, ReserveBee works just as well for sports, rentals or education.

A worked pricing example

Say you're a small, new salon with 20 bookings a month, some of them new clients via the marketplace.

In a quiet starting month, Fresha still charges the subscription, plus commission as soon as new clients come in through the marketplace, plus transaction fees on every payment. ReserveBee costs nothing in that same situation, with no commission on your revenue.

Running a team of 3 stylists with 150 appointments a month? At Fresha you'd pay the Team rate of €9.95 per bookable team member, so 3 × €9.95 = €29.85 a month, before transaction fees. At ReserveBee, that volume on the Professional plan costs €18 plus €0.10 per reservation above the first 100, so €23 a month, regardless of how many staff you add.

Switching from Fresha to ReserveBee

Salons switching from Fresha usually bring an extensive inventory, gift cards and customer base with them. We help you migrate that to ReserveBee for free, including your services and calendar. If you built a client base at Fresha through their marketplace, we talk through upfront how best to replace that visibility, for example through your own SEO-friendly booking page on a subdomain that gets found as your own brand, instead of as a listing on a third-party marketplace. Prefer to start yourself right away? You can: start a free trial and you're live within minutes.

Personal contact instead of a marketplace model

Unlike a support department at an international platform, at ReserveBee, a Dutch company, you talk directly to the small team that builds the system: questions, feature requests and bug reports go straight to the people actually building the next version. ReserveBee also runs on European infrastructure, aiming for full GDPR compliance: your data and your customers' data stay within the EU. Where Fresha's marketplace model delivers clients in exchange for commission, ReserveBee helps you build your own, findable booking page, so clients you acquire yourself (through social media, word of mouth or Google) never cost you anything extra.

Who should choose ReserveBee?

Are you a salon actively looking to acquire new clients through Fresha's own marketplace, and is 20% commission on those first appointments an acceptable price for that visibility? Fresha can be a sensible choice. Would you rather pay no commission on your revenue, work outside the beauty industry, or avoid paying for add-ons just to get basic features? Then ReserveBee is the fairer, more affordable choice. We help you migrate your services, calendar and customers for free.

Also worth a look: ReserveBee vs Salonized or ReserveBee vs SimplyBook.me.