Fresha alternatives: 6 honest options for 2026

For years, "Fresha is free" was the standard advice in every salon owners' group. As of 2026 it no longer holds: Fresha now charges $19.95 a month for independents, or $14.95 per bookable team member on the Team plan, and clients who discover you through its marketplace carry a one-time 20% fee on their first visit, with a $6 minimum. None of this makes Fresha a bad product - it is still one of the most polished platforms in the business, with a huge marketplace and strong inventory and POS tools - but it does change the math, and plenty of owners are quietly redoing it.

There is a second, quieter reason people look around: the marketplace that brings you new clients also shows your competitors right beside your page. If most of your bookings already come from your own link, Instagram, or Google, you are paying for a discovery engine you barely use. Here are six alternatives worth a look - what each costs, what each genuinely does well, and who it is not for.

What to look for in a Fresha alternative

Before comparing logos, get clear on four things. They decide which of these tools will actually fit.

• How the price scales - a flat monthly fee stays predictable, per-staff pricing grows every time you hire.
• Whether there is a commission - some platforms take a cut of new-client visits, others charge nothing beyond the subscription.
• Whether you want a marketplace at all - discovery helps new shops, but it usually means sharing the page with competitors.
• What you need around payments - deposits, card-on-file, and POS matter a lot to some shops and not at all to others.

hey.booked: a flat price and no commission

hey.booked is our own product, so read this part knowing that - but the numbers are easy to check. The free plan covers one staff member, three services, and 30 confirmed bookings a month, with email confirmations and reminders, your own booking page, and post-visit reviews, no card required. Pro is $15 a month flat, or $150 a year, and adds unlimited staff, services, and bookings, 100 SMS texts a month, two-way Google Calendar sync, and custom SEO metadata. There are no per-staff fees, no marketplace, and no commission on anything.

Clients book from a link with no account and no app, and handle their own reschedules or cancellations through a magic link in their email. The honest caveat: hey.booked does not process client payments. That means no processing fees ever, but also no deposits, no card-on-file, and no built-in way to charge for no-shows. If you take payment at the chair and want a calm calendar around it, it fits. If built-in payments or POS are non-negotiable, look at Square or GlossGenius below.

GlossGenius: polished all-in-one for beauty pros

GlossGenius bundles booking, payments, cards, and marketing into one polished app, with genuinely beautiful booking sites. Standard is $28 a month ($24 billed annually), Gold is $56, and Platinum is $168, and every plan gets the same flat 2.6% card processing rate - no extra charge for tap or card-on-file. It is a favorite among US beauty professionals for good reason.

Two things to weigh: forms, waivers, and booking through Google only start at Gold, so the $28 plan is lighter than it first looks, and the pricing is built around solo pros - a growing team tends to land you in Gold or Platinum territory.

Booksy: marketplace discovery, especially for barbers

If the reason you joined Fresha was the marketplace, Booksy is the closest like-for-like. Its consumer app brings real discovery - it is especially strong with barbers - and the mobile experience and no-show protection tools are solid. Pricing is $29.99 a month plus tax, then $20 a month for each additional team member.

The trade-offs mirror Fresha's: per-staff pricing climbs as you hire, the marketplace lists competitors alongside you, and Boost, the paid demand engine, takes a one-time 30% of a new client's first visit - which stings when that "new" client already knew you.

Square Appointments: the free plan with payments built in

Square Appointments has the strongest free plan of the payment-capable options: a solo user in a single location pays nothing but processing (2.6% + $0.15 in person on the free tier). The POS and card hardware are first class, and the wider Square ecosystem - invoices, payroll, marketing - is there when you need it.

The jumps are the thing to watch: cancellation and no-show fees need Plus at $49 a month per location, resource scheduling and advanced staff tools need Premium at $149, and beauty-specific features are thinner, because booking is a side of Square's payments business rather than the center of it.

Vagaro: deep features, priced a la carte

Vagaro is the deep end: POS, memberships, packages, marketing, payroll, and mature multi-staff tools, plus its own consumer marketplace. The base price is $30 a month for one bookable calendar, then $10 for each additional calendar up to seven, capping at $90 - calendars beyond that are free.

Budget for the add-ons, because they pile up: text marketing from $20 a month, forms $10, website builder $20, branded app $100, payroll $34 plus $5 per employee, and more. And like Fresha and Booksy, the marketplace shows your listing beside competitors. For a bigger shop that will actually use the depth, the total can still be fair value.

Acuity Scheduling: scheduling logic first

Acuity is the scheduling specialist. Its availability logic handles complicated calendars other tools fumble, intake forms are built in, integrations run deep, and it sits comfortably in the Squarespace ecosystem. Starter is $20 a month ($16 billed annually), Standard $34, Premium $61, covering 1, 6, and 36 calendars.

It is general-purpose rather than beauty-specific, there is no free plan (a 7-day trial instead), text reminders only start at Standard, and there is no marketplace - which, depending on why you are reading this, may be exactly the point.

Side by side

Is Fresha still free in 2026?

No. Fresha moved from its free model to subscriptions: Independent is $19.95 a month for one bookable team member, and Team is $14.95 a month per bookable member. The 20% new-client marketplace fee applies on top of the subscription.

Does Fresha take a commission?

For clients who discover you through the Fresha marketplace, yes: a one-time 20% of their first visit, with a $6 minimum. Returning clients and clients who book through your own link are not charged this fee.

What is the cheapest Fresha alternative?

For a solo pro, hey.booked and Square Appointments both have genuinely free plans. hey.booked stays free up to 30 confirmed bookings a month with no payment processing at all; Square is free with per-transaction processing fees. Among paid plans, hey.booked Pro at a flat $15 is the lowest fixed price here.

Which Fresha alternatives have no marketplace?

hey.booked, GlossGenius, Square Appointments, and Acuity have no consumer marketplace - clients book through your own page, and no competitors appear next to it. Booksy and Vagaro run marketplaces, as Fresha does.

Do these alternatives charge per staff member?

Booksy does, at $20 a month per additional member, and Vagaro charges $10 per additional bookable calendar up to seven. GlossGenius and Acuity use plan tiers, Square prices per location, and hey.booked Pro includes unlimited staff in its flat $15.