Salon Software
Booksy vs Vagaro vs Fresha: Client Cost in 2026
Part of the guide: Hair Salon & Barbershop Marketing
Take one brand-new client who books an $85 colour. If she finds you through Booksy Boost, the vendor's published fee is 30% of that first visit, so $25.50. On Fresha's marketplace it is 20%, so $17.
On Vagaro's Fill My Books, which launched on 1 July 2026, it is 20% for a new customer, so $17 on the same assumption. If she books from your own link, none of them charges that fee. The monthly subscriptions are the small number here.
The real price of these apps is what you pay each time a marketplace sends you someone new.
$25.50↑
Booksy Boost fee on an $85 first visit
30% of first visit, capped at $100
$17→
Fresha marketplace fee on $85
20%, minimum $6
$17→
Vagaro Fill My Books fee on $85
20% for a new customer
$0↓
Fee on a booking from your own link
Per each vendor's pricing page
Estimates for illustration; actual numbers vary.
This guide is about that second price: how each app charges for discovery, what you get for the fee, how Google booking links fit in, and how to tell whether the fee bought you a client or just billed you for one you already had. It does not cover card processing or reminder features.
Our Fresha vs Square vs Vagaro cost comparison covers card fees, and AI automation for hair salons covers reminders. All vendor figures are US list prices read from the vendors' own pages on 10 October 2026 and can change.
How do Booksy, Fresha and Vagaro charge for new clients?
| Booksy | Fresha | Vagaro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $29.99/month, plus $20 per extra user | $19.95/month (Independent) or $14.95 per bookable team member (Team) | $30/month ($23.99 promo for the first 6 months), plus $10 per extra bookable calendar up to seven |
| Discovery product | Boost, optional | Marketplace | Marketplace listing, Daily Deals, Fill My Books |
| Fee on a new client | 30% of the first visit, capped at $100 | 20% one-time, minimum $6 per client | 20% per booking for new customers through Fill My Books |
| Fee on returning clients | 0% from the second visit | Free | 5% per booking through Fill My Books if promoted to an existing customer |
| Bookings from your own link | Fee is described for Boost clients; ask how a new client on your own link is treated while Boost is on | Free: direct links, Facebook and Instagram | Fee applies only to Fill My Books and Daily Deals bookings, per Vagaro's page |
Sources for the table are the vendors' pricing pages and Vagaro's Fill My Books page, listed at the end. Three details are easy to miss.
Booksy: Boost is free to turn on and the fee is charged only when a client's first visit is booked while Boost is on. Tips are not part of the commission, and Booksy's page says repeat visits carry 0%. The pricing page states the $100 cap but no minimum fee.
Fresha: the pricing page lists the 20% and the $6 minimum and says returning clients are free. It lists direct links, Facebook and Instagram bookings as free. It does not mention Reserve with Google, so how a booking that starts on Google is treated is a question for Fresha, not an assumption to make.
Vagaro: the pricing page lists a free marketplace listing and Daily Deals as included with every plan and states no fee. The newer Fill My Books page changes the picture. It says there is no monthly subscription for Fill My Books, a per-booking fee of 5% for existing customers or 20% for new ones, nothing charged if a promotion produces no booking, and that if you do not use Fill My Books or Daily Deals you pay no booking fees. Vagaro's own 2019 blog post describing Daily Deals as having no added marketing fees predates this, so older comparison articles that call Vagaro's marketplace free are describing the listing, not the promotions.
What do you get for the fee?
A fee only makes sense if it buys visibility you could not easily get elsewhere. Here is what each vendor says it provides.
- Booksy Boost: higher placement on the Booksy Marketplace, recommended galleries, a "Booksy Recommended" badge on your profile and exposure in the Booksy for Customers app. Booksy publishes one owner testimonial on the Boost page: about $930 spent on Boost over three years, $10,010 in sales from 70 new Boost clients and 442 visits. That is one provider's account, chosen by the vendor, not an average.
- Fresha Marketplace: Fresha says listing costs nothing up front and that visibility depends on location, services, availability, pricing, reviews and client demand. It claims 25+ million customers, and on average 26% more clients and a 392% return on investment for marketplace businesses, without giving a method. Treat those as marketing claims to test, not forecasts.
- Vagaro Fill My Books: you set a goal, the maximum discount you will accept, and the services, classes and team members to promote. Vagaro says the listing then appears as sponsored on the Marketplace home page, ranks higher in local search, and goes by Daily Deals and email to Vagaro users within 25 miles who have not visited you. A Last-Minute Openings option promotes availability in the next 72 hours.
A Vagaro help article from 2019 cites surveys saying fewer than 19% of voucher-platform shoppers return. That is a second-hand figure on a different type of platform, so do not use it as a rate for your salon, but it points at the right risk: discount hunters are not the same as regulars.
How does the fee change with ticket size?
The same percentage means very different money depending on the service. The figures below apply each vendor's published percentage to a first-visit price. They use the pricing-page rules only (Booksy: 30% capped at $100; Fresha: 20% with a $6 minimum; Vagaro: 20% for new customers, with no minimum or cap stated on the page).
| First visit price | Booksy Boost | Fresha | Vagaro Fill My Books (new) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20 (kids cut) | $6.00 | $6.00 | $4.00 |
| $40 (cut) | $12.00 | $8.00 | $8.00 |
| $85 (colour) | $25.50 | $17.00 | $17.00 |
| $150 (balayage) | $45.00 | $30.00 | $30.00 |
| $400 (full transformation) | $100.00 (cap) | $80.00 | $80.00 |
Two things to notice. Booksy is the highest or level at every ticket shown, and its 30% reaches the $100 cap at about $333. Fresha's $6 minimum makes it 30% of a $20 service.
At a $500 first visit Fresha's 20% would reach $100, and above that it would exceed Booksy's cap, unless a maximum applies that these pages do not state. Neither Fresha's pricing page nor Vagaro's Fill My Books page states one, so confirm in writing before you promote a very expensive service.
Can Google booking links hide fees?
Many clients start on Google, not in an app. Google's Business Profile help describes two ways to connect booking. You can add your own booking URL (up to 10 links per category, with one marked as preferred), or you can sign up for a provider through Reserve with Google.
Two sentences on Google's provider page matter for fees: your provider may charge you for bookings made through Google, so check with them, and performance data is not available for custom links. Google also notes that some third-party links can appear automatically on Search and Maps, and that you can remove a provider.
So before you connect any app to your Google profile, get the answer to one question in writing: do you pay a fee on a new client who books through that Google button? Fresha's pricing page does not say, and neither do the Booksy or Vagaro pages used here.
Our Google Business Profile guide for hair salons covers the profile itself, and your own link remains the only route where every fee in this article is certain to be zero.
Does a marketplace client pay back?
These are illustrations. The $85 price, the $42.50 cost of delivering the service and the rebooking rates are assumptions, not market statistics. Fee rules are the vendors' published terms from above.
A client who rebooks is assumed to return twice more at full price, and the repeat visits carry no marketplace fee on Booksy or Fresha (their published terms). The Fill My Books fee on repeat bookings is left out, which assumes those visits are booked on your own link.
Contribution means price minus the $42.50 delivery cost (stylist pay and supplies), before rent and software. The deal row assumes a 30% discount (price $59.50, fee $11.90 on that price).
| First-year contribution per new client, after fee | 0% rebook | 30% rebook | 50% rebook | 70% rebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Own link, no fee | $42.50 | $68.00 | $85.00 | $102.00 |
| Fresha marketplace ($17 fee) | $25.50 | $51.00 | $68.00 | $85.00 |
| Vagaro Fill My Books, no discount ($17 fee) | $25.50 | $51.00 | $68.00 | $85.00 |
| Booksy Boost ($25.50 fee) | $17.00 | $42.50 | $59.50 | $76.50 |
| Vagaro Fill My Books, 30% discount ($11.90 fee) | $5.10 | $30.60 | $47.60 | $64.60 |
How to read it:
- A new client who never returns still leaves a profit on all but the discounted deal, which clears only $5.10. Deep discounts plus a fee leave almost nothing on the first visit, so the deal pays only if the client rebooks.
- The fee is a one-time cost, so the rebooking rate is what decides the outcome. Going from 0% to 50% rebooking adds more than any fee difference between the apps.
- The incrementality test: the fee is only well spent on clients you would not otherwise have had. Ten marketplace clients on Fresha cost $170 in fees at $85. If five of them would have booked through your link anyway, you paid $170 to gain five clients, an effective $34 per truly new client. Divide the fee by the share who were genuinely new.
How do you stop paying for clients you already had?
- Ask every new client how they found you. Add it to your booking form or ask at checkout. Compare the answers with the fee line on your statement monthly. Our booking form optimisation guide shows where to add the question.
- Give every first-time client your direct link at the end of the visit. Booksy says that after a Boost client's first visit, later bookings carry no commission, and Fresha says returning clients are free. Rebooking on your terms is where marketplace clients become profitable.
- Cap what you promote. In Fill My Books you choose the maximum discount and the services, so promote only slow-selling services or off-peak slots, not your full books on Saturdays.
- Do not stack discounts and fees on your best service. The 30% discount row above shows how little remains.
- Review monthly, with numbers. If fee dollars rise but total new clients do not, switch the discovery product off for a month and watch what happens to bookings. Booksy and Vagaro describe Boost and Fill My Books as optional; ask Fresha how to pause marketplace bookings.
Which app fits which discovery strategy?
- You get most clients from Instagram, your own link and word of mouth: Fresha's free direct, Facebook and Instagram bookings and low entry subscription fit best, with the marketplace as an extra rather than the plan.
- You want one paid way to be found and a clear per-client cap: Booksy Boost has a published cap and 0% after the first visit, but is the highest percentage. Use it for higher-priced services where the $100 cap does the work.
- You want controls over what is promoted: Vagaro's Fill My Books lets you set the goal and the maximum discount. You pay only when a promotion produces a booking, but read the opt-in terms before running Daily Deals.
For features such as reminders, deposits and reports, read the two companion guides linked above, and for the software side of Fresha see how to automate salon marketing with Fresha or Square.
What should you do today?
- Log into your current app and find the last three months of marketplace or promotion fees. Add them up.
- Count how many of those clients you can identify as brand new, and ask five of them how they first found you.
- Work out your cost of delivering your top three services, then use the fee-by-ticket table to see the fee on each.
- Email or message each app's support and ask for the fee rule in writing for new clients booking from a Google booking button.
- Add your own booking link to your Instagram bio, website and Google Business Profile, and send it to every first-time client after the visit.
FAQ
Q: Is Vagaro's marketplace still free?
A: The marketplace listing is free on every plan, per Vagaro's pricing page. Since 1 July 2026, Vagaro's Fill My Books charges a per-booking fee of 5% for existing customers or 20% for new customers, and the page says you pay no booking fees if you do not use Fill My Books or Daily Deals.
Q: Does Booksy charge a commission on every booking?
A: No. Booksy's pricing page says Boost is optional and the fee is a one-time 30% of a Boost client's first visit, capped at $100. Boost clients' second and later visits carry 0%.
Q: Is Fresha free to list on?
A: Yes, there is no upfront cost to list, according to Fresha's marketplace page. The fee is 20% with a $6 minimum on a new client who books through the marketplace. Returning clients, and bookings from your own link, Facebook or Instagram, are free.
Q: Which is cheapest for a solo stylist who gets most clients from Instagram?
A: On published subscription prices, Fresha at $19.95 a month is lowest. If you use no marketplace products, fees depend on your subscription and card processing rather than discovery fees.
Q: Can I use these apps in the UK or Australia?
A: Prices and fee rules differ by country. Booksy's pricing page says other regions have separate pricing pages, and Vagaro publishes UK and Australian versions of its Fill My Books page. The figures in this article are US list prices only, so check your own country's pages.
Sources
- Booksy Biz: Pricing
- Booksy Biz: Boost
- Fresha: Pricing
- Fresha: Marketplace
- Vagaro: Pricing
- Vagaro: Fill My Books (released 1 July 2026)
- Vagaro blog: Daily Deals, expectations vs reality (1 August 2019)
- Google Business Profile Help: Set up bookings through a provider
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your local business links
Want more of your bookings to come through channels you own? See our hair salon marketing page, the Google Business Profile service or contact DataLatte.
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Nataliia
Local marketing strategist with 10+ years at global agencies — OMD, Dentsu, GroupM, and BBDO. Now helping small businesses get the same data-driven edge. Based in Europe, working with clients in the US, UK, Australia, and beyond.
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