How much does Fresha cost in the UK?

The short answer

At the time of writing (June 2026), here is what Fresha costs a UK business:

• No compulsory monthly subscription for the core booking tools. This is Fresha's headline pitch and it is real.
• Card processing fees on any payment you take through Fresha (around 1.29% plus 20p for online card at the time of writing).
• A one-off 20% fee on the first booking of any new client who finds you through the Fresha marketplace.
• Paid add-ons on top, such as text reminders charged per message, plus newer paid plan features.

So Fresha is free to start, and for a business that brings all of its own clients it can stay very cheap. The cost shows up when you lean on the marketplace to find new clients, and as your card payments grow.

Is Fresha free?

Free to sign up, yes. Free to run, not quite. For a long time Fresha set itself apart by having no monthly subscription, and the core calendar, online booking and client list are still there without a monthly fee. That is a genuine difference from most of the market, and it is fair to call Fresha the most affordable starting point if you only need the basics.

The money comes in two main places instead: a percentage of payments you process through Fresha, and a fee on the new clients its marketplace sends you. Both are easy to miss when you are signing up, because the big "no subscription" message is what you see first.

Card processing fees

If you take card payments or deposits through Fresha, you pay a processing fee, the same way any business pays a card fee. At the time of writing the UK rates are roughly:

This part is normal. Every booking system that handles payments charges a card fee, because the card networks charge one. It is worth knowing it is there, but it is not the fee that makes Fresha expensive.

The fee people miss: the 20% new-client fee

Fresha runs a marketplace, an app and website where clients browse local businesses and book. When a brand new client discovers you there and books, Fresha charges a one-off fee of around 20% of that first appointment. It applies once, for that client's first visit. After that, they are your client and you keep 100% of what they spend.

A worked example. A new client finds you on the Fresha marketplace and books a £60 first appointment:

• Fresha new-client fee: 20% of £60 = £12
• Card processing on the £60: around £0.97
• Total to Fresha for that one new client: roughly £13

Win ten new marketplace clients in a month at that average and you have paid around £120 in new-client fees, plus card fees, with no monthly subscription on top. That is the trade Fresha offers: it has a big marketplace that can genuinely bring you new faces, and it takes a share of the first visit for doing so.

To be fair to Fresha, this is a one-off per client, not a fee on every booking forever, and it never touches the clients you bring yourself. If the marketplace is bringing you real new business, plenty of owners are happy with that deal.

Add-ons and newer paid plans

A couple of things sit outside the "free" core. Text reminders are charged per message, which adds up if you send a lot. Fresha has also added paid plan features over time for more advanced tools. This is the part of Fresha's pricing that changes most often, so the honest advice is to check the current pricing page rather than trust a number you read in a blog, including this one.

A common myth: "Fresha takes 2.19% of every booking"

You will see this figure repeated in a lot of comparison posts, and we have used it ourselves in the past. It is not how Fresha actually works. Fresha does not take a flat percentage of every booking. The real costs are card processing on payments you take, the one-off 20% fee on new marketplace clients, and a few paid add-ons. We are correcting that wherever we have repeated it, because accurate is better than scary.

So is Fresha worth it?

As with most of these tools, it comes down to where your clients come from.

Fresha makes sense if you want to start for free, you are happy living inside its app, and you genuinely rely on its marketplace to find new clients. For a new business with no audience yet, that free start and built-in discovery is a real draw.

Fresha gets expensive if the marketplace becomes your main source of new clients, because the 20% adds up, or if you would rather own your own website and brand than be one listing among thousands. The clients are Fresha's audience first, and yours second.

The 0% commission alternative

This is the gap we built Solovi to fill. Instead of a marketplace that takes a share of new clients, Solovi gives you your own professional website with booking and payments built in, plus local SEO so you show up in Google for your own name and area. You pay a flat monthly fee and nothing else.

The honest trade-off: Fresha has a marketplace that can send you new clients, and Solovi does not. What Solovi does instead is build you a site you own, rank it locally, and take 0% of what you earn. If you already bring most of your own clients, that maths works heavily in your favour. You can see the full side by side on our Solovi vs Fresha page.

Frequently asked

Is Fresha free? Free to start, with no compulsory subscription for the core tools. It is not free to run, because of card fees, the 20% new-client fee, and paid add-ons.

What is Fresha's commission? Around 20% on the first visit of a new client found through the Fresha marketplace, charged once per new client. Your own regulars are not charged a commission.

Does Fresha charge per booking? Not a flat per-booking percentage. You pay card processing on payments and the one-off new-client fee, nothing on every booking.

Related reading: How much does Booksy cost in the UK?, How much does Vagaro cost? and The best free booking website for UK businesses.