Bookr vs Fresha, Treatwell and Booksy

An honest comparison for UK salons, barbershops and studios — including the cases where one of the others is the better choice for you.

Most comparison pages are written by whoever wants your money. This one is too, so here is the thing that actually matters, stated plainly enough that you can go and check it yourself.

That single difference decides which of these is cheaper for you, and it depends entirely on where your clients come from. If you need discovery, a marketplace commission may be worth paying. If your clients already know who you are, it's money for nothing.

What each one charges

Competitor figures read on 16 August 2026 from each provider's own pricing page — Treatwell, Fresha, Booksy. They change them without notice, so check the source before you decide anything. Bookr's own figures are generated from the plan matrix the product enforces at runtime — see /llms.txt and /pricing.

What that means on a £40 new client

A new client books a £40 cut. Purely on commission, before anyone's card processing:

• Treatwell — 35% of £40 = £14 before VAT
• Booksy with Boost switched on — 30% of £40 = £12, once
• Fresha — 20% of £40 = £8, once, on that client's first booking
• Booksy with Boost off — nothing; it's subscription-only unless you opt in
• Bookr — nothing; there is no commission on any booking, ever, and nothing to opt into

Every one of those is charging for an introduction. If they genuinely introduced that client, that's a fair trade and you should take it — Booksy's Boost is honest about this, being off by default and something you deliberately turn on. If the client found you on Instagram and the platform merely took the booking, you paid £8 to £14 for a form.

How Bookr's fee actually works

Three deductions, in this order, on a £100 service on the free Starter plan:

• The customer pays £102.50 — your price plus a 2.5% Booking Protection Fee
• Stripe's card processing comes out: £1.74
• Bookr takes its plan percentage of what's left: £2.52
• You receive £98.24

The Booking Protection Fee is paid by the customer, not you, and it's shown before they pay rather than buried in the price. It funds the 48-hour hold that makes refunds and disputes resolvable without clawing money back out of your account after you've spent it. On a customer cancellation it isn't refunded; if you cancel, it is refunded in full.

Bookr's own cut falls as you move up: 2.5% on Starter down to 1.95% on Chain. There's no minimum fee and no markup on Stripe — you pay what Stripe charges.

Where Bookr is the better answer

• Your clients already know you. Regulars, word of mouth, your own Instagram. You're paying a marketplace for introductions you already made.
• You want your page to be yours. Bookr never lists your competitors beside you and never markets to your clients. A marketplace, by definition, does both.
• You want the fee to be legible. One percentage, disclosed, falling as you grow — rather than a commission that depends on how Fresha classifies a client.
• Your customers shouldn't need an account. They open a link, pick a slot, pay. No download, no signup.

The honest summary

If you need discovery, pay a marketplace for it — that's what it's for. If you need booking software and already have the clients, a marketplace commission is a tax on relationships you built yourself. Bookr is built for the second case, and it doesn't pretend to solve the first.