Salon Booking App Fees vs Your Own Website: Who Pays for a New Client?

A version of this call reaches me most months, so treat what follows as a composite rather than one person's story. A lash and brow technician in Westmeath finally leaves the rented room at the back of someone else's salon and opens her own place. Two treatment beds, a fresh lease, a diary she wants full by Christmas. Everyone in the trade told her the same thing: get on the booking app, the app brings the clients, you do not need a website.

Six weeks later she is reading her first proper statement. Most of the lines make sense. One does not. A woman who has been coming to her for lashes for years, who followed her from the old salon, sits on the statement as a new client. Commission charged on the full first visit.

She rang to ask whether that was a mistake. It was not. It was the rules working exactly as written, and it is the clearest way I know to explain the real difference between a booking app's marketplace and a website you own.

The finder's fee nobody reads at sign-up

The big beauty booking platforms each run two businesses under one logo. The first is software: a diary, reminders, card payments, a client list. The second is a marketplace, a consumer app where people browse salons near them and book. The software is a subscription. The marketplace is where the commission lives.

That commission is a finder's fee. The platform introduces a client, takes a cut of that client's first visit, and repeat visits are free. If you have read our piece on what table-booking platforms really cost restaurants, the shape will be familiar. Fair enough, as far as it goes.

The trouble sits in two places. How the platform defines "new". And how many of your own clients quietly pass through the marketplace door on their way to you.

Platform	Charge on a new marketplace client	Repeat bookings	Booking through your own website link
Treatwell	35% of the first booking, plus VAT	0% commission	Commission-free through its Book Now button
Fresha	20% of the first booking, €5 minimum, plus VAT	No fee for returning clients	Free, unless the client viewed your marketplace profile first
Booksy (Boost switched on)	30% of the first visit, one time	No commission	Always free, per Booksy

Treatwell

Treatwell's Irish pricing page is blunt about it: a 35% commission on first bookings made by new clients the marketplace brings you, 0% on repeat bookings, and a 2.5% processing fee if a client prepays online ^[1]. The line underneath matters as much as the headline. All commissions and fees are subject to VAT. Treatwell also says bookings made through the Book Now button on your own website and social media pages carry no commission at all.

Put a number on it. On an illustrative €60 lash lift, 35% is €21, and VAT on that commission takes it to roughly €26. Not per year. Per new client, on their very first visit, before you have paid for a single lash.

Fresha

Fresha's published rate is a 20% one-time commission on marketplace new clients, with a minimum fee of €5 per client, and its prices are listed excluding 23% tax ^[2]. On the same illustrative lash lift, that comes to somewhere around €15 once VAT is added.

Its help centre adds the detail that caught our Westmeath technician out. The fee applies when a client first discovers your business on the marketplace and goes on to book online, and it does not apply if the client already exists in your client list when they book ^[3]. Her long-standing regular was never in the list. Nobody had imported her. So, by the rules, she counted as new.

Two more Fresha details are worth knowing before the statement arrives. The fee is non-refundable. And if you or your team cancel on the client's behalf, the fee still applies, whereas a client cancelling online themselves only defers it to their next booking.

Booksy

Booksy works the other way round. Its marketplace commission only applies if you switch on an optional feature called Boost, which charges a one-time 30% based on the total cost of a new client's first visit. Clients who book through your own link, Google or social media are, in Booksy's words, always free ^[4].

Optional is the important word. Boost is a marketing decision you make, not a default you discover on a statement.

How a loyal regular turns into a new client

None of these platforms is hiding anything. It is all published on their own pages. But how many owners read the help centre before they read the statement?

Back to Westmeath. Her regular did not discover her on the marketplace in any sense she would recognise. She had been sent the marketplace profile as "the booking link", tapped it, and booked. On paper, that can look exactly like a marketplace introduction. Whether a particular booking gets flagged depends on each platform's checks, but Fresha's own fee rules spell out the fix: clients imported into your list before their first booking are treated as existing clients and are not charged ^[3].

That is the first repair, and it costs nothing but an evening with a spreadsheet. If you are moving your diary onto any booking platform, load your existing client list first. Not after the first month. Before the profile goes live.

Skip it, and every regular who taps your marketplace profile in those first weeks can land on your statement looking like someone the platform found for you. The people who were always going to book with you, the ones who followed you across town, become the most expensive clients you have that month. Revenue gone before you even knew it was at risk.

The Book button on Google you never added

This is the leak almost nobody checks.

Google's Business Profile help page says links to certain services can automatically appear on your profile in Search and Maps, provided and updated by third-party partners ^[5]. In plain English, the Book button under your business name on Google may point to a booking platform's page for you rather than to your own site, without you ever setting it up.

Google also hands you the control to fix it. Where there is more than one booking link, you can set a preferred link at the top. You can also remove a specific provider's booking link, and according to the same page, the provider must process that removal within five days.

Why does this matter so much for a salon? Because your Google listing is where most local beauty searches finish. Someone types lash lift near me, sees your photos and your reviews, and taps Book. If that tap lands on a marketplace page, she is now browsing a consumer app built to show her options, under that platform's fee rules. If it lands on your own booking page, she is in your shop window, on the route most platforms treat as a direct booking.

Open your Business Profile, go to the Booking section, and look at what is actually listed there. You may be surprised.

Where the marketplace genuinely earns its cut

I am not going to tell you to delete the app. For a lot of people reading this, that would be bad advice.

If you have just opened in a town where nobody knows your name, with no Instagram following and no Google reviews yet, the marketplace is a fair deal. You pay only when someone actually turns up, and Fresha does not charge for a no-show you mark on the same day ^[3]. Compare that with paid ads, where you pay for clicks whether anyone books or not. For a brand-new room with an empty diary, a one-off fee on a client who then rebooks for years can be the cheapest new client you will ever win.

The software side deserves credit too. A busy salon with four or five staff, rotas, deposits and retail stock genuinely needs a proper diary system, and a dedicated beauty platform does that job better than a website ever will. A website is not a replacement for your booking engine. Anyone who tells you otherwise has never run a Saturday with three stylists and a double-booked chair.

So call the marketplace what it is: a paid acquisition channel. Paying for strangers is reasonable. Paying for people who already know you is not. The same logic runs through any business that rents its customers from a marketplace, from craft sellers to tradespeople.

What a proper front door looks like

Strip it back and the job is simple. Clients who already know you, and clients who find you on Google, should book through a door you own. That door needs to do five things:

• Live at an address you control, so the link on your cards, your Instagram bio and your Google profile never has to change, even if you switch booking software.
• Carry the Book button down the commission-free route, whether that is your platform's own website button or a booking plugin of your choosing.
• Show your prices, your work and your policies in your own words, including deposits, patch tests and aftercare, rather than inside someone else's template.
• Tell you where visitors came from, so you can see how many people reach your booking page from Google versus from the app.
• Stay yours, with your content and your client-facing pages not tied to any single booking vendor.

Without that door, every link you share is a link into someone else's shop. The platform decides what your page looks like, what sits around it, and what it costs you when a regular taps it.

A website that meets those five criteria no longer needs a web designer or an agency invoice. With Web60, you describe your business and the AI builder produces a full WordPress site in under a minute. WordPress runs roughly four in ten websites worldwide, with W3Techs putting it just under 40% this month ^[6], and that matters for one practical reason here: the big beauty booking tools all offer a link or button for your own website, and a WordPress page accepts any of them. If you would rather not use a platform at all, the plugin library has dedicated booking plugins too.

The technical pieces map straight onto the list above. Web60 includes privacy-first analytics with no cookie consent required for the tracking, which means you can see how many visitors arrived from Google and reached your booking page without a consent pop-up standing between a client and the Book button. Free SSL is provisioned automatically, so the padlock shows on the page where clients type their phone number. Nightly backups run on Irish infrastructure, so the page with your price list and aftercare notes is never one bad edit away from gone. And Web60's €60/year all-inclusive plan, covering design, hosting, SSL, backups and analytics, costs less than three Treatwell first-visit commissions on that illustrative lash lift.

One honest limitation, because you will hit it. A website does not switch the marketplace fee off. Fresha's help centre is explicit that the fee still applies when a new client views your marketplace profile first and then books through another online channel, including your website or social pages, and that unlisting your marketplace profile disables all your online booking channels ^[3]. Your own site cuts down how often the fee lands on the wrong client. It does not give you a way to keep Fresha's online booking while turning its marketplace off. Know that before you plan around it.

What changed in the lash room

So what did the Westmeath technician, in this composite, actually do? Nothing dramatic, which is rather the point.

1. Imported her client list. Every existing client went into the booking platform before their next online booking, so returning clients are recognised as returning.
2. Built a simple website. Prices, aftercare, a gallery of her own work, her deposit policy, and a Book button using the platform's own website link.
3. Changed every link she shares. Instagram bio, WhatsApp replies, the card she hands over at the end of an appointment: all point at the website now, not the marketplace profile.
4. Fixed the Google button. She opened her Business Profile and set her own booking page as the preferred link.
5. Kept the marketplace switched on. She now reads the new-client lines for what they are, genuine strangers, and weighs that cost against anything else she spends on marketing.

Did the commission lines vanish? No. They changed character. What is left on the statement is the cost of people she would never have met otherwise, which is the only kind of client worth paying a finder's fee for.

If you are in the same spot and want a website up before your next statement lands, the AI builder will have a draft on screen in less time than it takes to make a coffee, and you can put your own booking button on it the same afternoon.

The fee belongs to strangers

A booking app's marketplace is a good place to be found by people who have never heard of you. It is an expensive place to be found by people who already have. The difference comes down to which door each client walks through, and most of those doors are yours to choose: your Instagram bio, your Google profile, the card you hand over after an appointment. Point them at an address you own, import the clients you already have, and let the marketplace earn its cut on the people it genuinely brings you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Treatwell charge commission on repeat clients?

Not according to its Irish pricing page. Treatwell charges a 35% commission on the first booking made by a new client it brings you through its marketplace, and 0% on repeat bookings. All commissions and fees are subject to VAT, and a 2.5% processing fee applies if a client prepays online. Bookings that come through the Book Now button on your own website or social media pages are commission-free, per Treatwell.

Why did Fresha charge a new client fee for someone who already comes to me?

Fresha charges its one-time marketplace fee when a client first discovers your business on the Fresha marketplace and books online, and the client is not already in your Clients list at the time of booking. A regular who was never added to your list, and who found your profile through the marketplace, can meet those conditions. Importing your existing clients before their first online booking prevents it. Fresha says the fee is non-refundable, so raise any genuine misclassification with its support team rather than expecting an automatic credit.

Can I keep Fresha online booking and turn off the marketplace?

Not as a simple switch. Fresha's help centre says unlisting your marketplace profile disables all your online booking channels. What you can control is how clients reach you: clients already in your list are not charged, and new clients who book through your own website link without first viewing your marketplace profile fall outside the fee. Sharing your own website address, rather than the marketplace profile, does most of the work.

How do I change the Book button on my Google Business Profile?

Open your Business Profile on Google Search or Maps and go to the Booking section (on Maps, through Edit profile). Add your own booking page as a link, then use Set preferred link to put it at the top. Google says some booking links are added automatically by third-party partners. You can remove a specific provider's link, and Google says providers must process that request within five days.

Do I still need a website if I am on a booking app?

If you want the clients who already know you to stop passing through a commission route, yes. The app gives you a diary and a marketplace profile. A website gives you an address you own for your Instagram bio, Google profile and business cards, room for prices, aftercare and policies in your own words, and a Book button that sends clients down the commission-free route your platform offers for websites.

Is the marketplace commission ever worth paying?

Often, for genuinely new clients. A newly opened salon with no reviews and no social following can get first-time clients it would not otherwise reach, and Fresha does not charge for a no-show marked on the same day. Treat it as a marketing cost: worth paying for strangers who go on to rebook, poor value when it lands on people who were already your clients.

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