Fresha vs Treatwell: fees, commission and the small print compared

Fresha and Treatwell both give a salon a booking calendar and a listing on a big consumer marketplace, and both charge a one-off commission when that marketplace sends you a new client. The differences are in the numbers and the small print: Fresha publishes a monthly subscription and takes 20% of a new client's first visit; Treatwell doesn't publish its monthly fee and takes 35%. Who counts as "new", what happens when you cancel, and what you can take with you when you leave also differ, and those details can matter more than the headline rate.

Checked on 29 September 2026 against each company's own UK pricing page, partner terms and help centre. Prices and terms change, so each figure links to its source at the end of this article. All amounts are in pounds.

Fresha vs Treatwell at a glance

	Fresha	Treatwell
Monthly subscription	£14.95 a month for one person (Independent), or £9.95 per bookable team member a month (Team). 7-day trial, no free plan.	Two plans, Freelancer and Advanced. No monthly price is published on the pricing page; both plans say "Start for free".
Commission on a new marketplace client	20% of the first completed appointment, minimum £4. There is a cap for higher-value services, but the amount isn't published.	35% on first bookings from new marketplace clients. The plan details add "subject to location".
Repeat clients	No fee	0% commission
VAT	Prices are exclusive of 20% VAT	Commissions and fees are subject to VAT
Card payments	Online 1.40% + 25p; in person 1.19% + 20p (plus 7p per Tap to Pay)	Online prepayment 2.5%; card machine or Tap to Pay 1.1% + 20p (excluding VAT)
Text messages	20 free a month (per team member on Team), then 6p per text	Appointment reminders free; rebooking reminders by text use paid credits, price not published
Leaving	Pricing page: cancel any time. Partner terms: 30 days' written notice.	30 days' notice
Client list export	Excel or CSV. Card details can't be exported.	Owner-only export. Excludes treatment history and payment information.

What a new client actually costs

Take a £45 treatment booked by someone who found you on each marketplace and has never visited before.

• Fresha: 20% of £45 is £9. That is above the £4 minimum, and Fresha's prices are quoted before VAT, so with VAT it's £10.80.
• Treatwell: 35% of £45 is £15.75. Treatwell's commission is subject to VAT, so with VAT it's £18.90.

If you're VAT-registered you may be able to reclaim the VAT, which brings the figures back to £9 and £15.75. Either way, it's worth running the sum over a typical month of new marketplace clients rather than one appointment. On a £20 treatment the gap narrows (£4 against £7 before VAT), and on a bigger booking Fresha's unpublished cap may come into play, so check it with them.

The details that change the maths

Fresha

• A client who found you on the marketplace pays the fee even if they book on your website. Fresha's help centre says the fee covers clients who "view your Fresha marketplace profile first and then choose to book through another online channel including your website or social media pages". Its pricing page separately says you won't be charged for clients who find you through your own website, Instagram or Facebook. The deciding question is where the client first discovered you.
• You can't switch the marketplace off and keep online booking. To take bookings online through Fresha via your website and social media, your profile must be listed on the marketplace. Unlisting it disables all your online booking channels.
• Cancelling on the client's behalf still triggers the fee, and the fee is non-refundable. If the client cancels online, it moves to their next booking; a no-show marked the same day isn't charged.
• A new client is someone not already on your client list when they book, including any clients you imported, and who confirms they haven't visited before.

Treatwell

• "New" is wider than you might expect. A client counts as new if they aren't in your client list, if they book with different details from the ones saved (a different email, or a different phone number and first name), or if they haven't booked with you in the last 12 months. A regular who books under a new email address can be charged as a new client.
• Cancellations: since 1 April 2025, commission is charged if you or your team cancel the booking, and not if the client cancels.
• Bookings you take yourself are commission-free: calls, texts, WhatsApp, clients you add yourself, and bookings through the "Book Now" button on your own website or social media.
• The rate may vary. The pricing page quotes 35%, but the plan details say the commission is "subject to location", and the partner terms say the rate is set in your own agreement with Treatwell and may be amended.
• It won't sync with another system. Treatwell says it does not sync with other management systems, so it expects to be your only diary.

Leaving: notice and your data

Both ask for 30 days' notice in their partner terms. Fresha's pricing page also says you can cancel at any time with no minimum commitment, so if the notice period matters to you, ask which applies before you sign.

What you can take with you differs more. Fresha lets you export your client list as Excel or CSV and your appointments as PDF, CSV or Excel; card details stay behind. Treatwell's client export is limited to the account owner and includes contact details, notes and the number of bookings, but not booking or treatment history or payment information. Its terms let you download your data before you leave, excluding reviews. If your client history matters to you, check what the export contains before you need it, not after.

Which one fits your salon?

• Fresha suits a salon that wants a published, predictable subscription and a large marketplace, and is comfortable with the listing being a condition of online booking.
• Treatwell suits a salon that wants to be found by new clients through its marketplace and app and will use Treatwell as its only diary. Ask for the monthly fee and your commission rate in writing, because neither is fixed on the public pricing page.
• Neither may be the right shape if most of your diary is regulars who already know how to find you. In that case a marketplace commission is paying for discovery you may not need, and it's worth comparing a booking system that isn't a marketplace at all.

Where Appoint Me fits

Appoint Me is a booking system rather than a marketplace: there's no directory where clients browse other salons, and clients reach you through your own booking link, website or social profile. It handles treatment rooms, therapists, multi-treatment visits, deposits and reminders — here's how it works for beauty salons. For a wider view that also covers Booksy and Cliniko, read Fresha, Booksy, Treatwell or Cliniko? How to actually compare booking software, and for a checklist that applies to any system, what to look for in booking software.

Sources

All read on 29 September 2026.

• Fresha: pricing, marketplace new client fees, partner terms, exporting your client list
• Treatwell: pricing, partner terms of business (last updated September 2026), how commission works, cancellations and new client commission, payments, exporting your client list, rebooking reminders