How much does Fresha actually cost for a UK barbershop?

A three-chair barbershop on Fresha typically pays between £170 and £270+ per month once you add up the Team plan subscription (£29.85 for three calendars), card processing fees (~£140/month on 280 card transactions), marketplace commissions (£100+ on 20 new-client bookings), and a £499 upfront terminal cost. The exact amount varies month to month.

Is Fresha still free for barbers?

No. In 2025, Fresha introduced monthly subscription fees of £9.95 per staff calendar on the Team plan, or $19.95/month (approximately £16) for solo operators. Before that, Fresha marketed itself as subscription-free, but card processing fees and marketplace commissions were always part of the model.

What does Fresha charge for new client bookings?

Fresha takes a 20% commission on any client it classifies as 'new' via its marketplace, with a minimum of roughly £5 per booking. Multiple reviews report being charged for clients who found the business through Google rather than the Fresha marketplace.

Can I switch from Fresha to another booking platform?

Yes. Fresha allows CSV/Excel exports of your client list via Clients > Options > Export. Under UK GDPR, you have the right to data portability. A typical migration to a new platform like Setora takes about 15 minutes once you have your client data exported.

Fresha vs Setora: What UK Barbers Actually Pay

What a three-chair UK barbershop actually pays on Fresha vs Setora - subscription, processing fees, and 20% marketplace commission, all broken down honestly.

Fresha used to be free. Now it isn't. Here's what a typical barbershop actually pays on each platform, and why the gap is bigger than you think.

Short version: A three-chair barbershop on Fresha can easily spend £150 or more per month once you add up the subscription, per-staff fees, card processing charges, and the 20% marketplace commission. On Setora, the same shop pays £39/month. Everything included, nothing hidden. Here's the full breakdown.

Before we start: a note on bias

Full disclosure: we built Setora. We're one of the platforms in this comparison, so we obviously have a horse in this race. What we don't have is a reason to lie to you.

Every pricing figure in this article comes from an official source, verified in February 2026. Every complaint reference comes from a real review on Trustpilot, Capterra, Reddit, or Software Advice. Where Fresha does something well, we'll say so. Where Setora falls short, we'll say that too.

You're a business owner. You can make up your own mind. We just want to make sure you're doing it with the right numbers in front of you.

What happened to "free forever"?

For years, Fresha marketed itself as subscription-free booking software. That was a big deal. It helped them grow to over 450,000 businesses across 120 countries, raise over $180 million in funding, and build genuine market dominance.

Then, in 2025, the model changed.

Fresha introduced monthly subscription fees: £9.95 per staff calendar on the Team plan, or $19.95/month for solo operators. For shops that had built their entire operation around a free platform, this wasn't a small adjustment. A Reddit user running two locations with around 60 staff estimated their new costs would approach $1,000 per month.

The subscription change triggered a wave of frustration across Reddit, Trustpilot, and industry forums. At least seven competing platforms published specific Fresha migration guides within months of the announcement. That tells you something about the scale of the response.

But here's the thing: the subscription fee isn't the expensive part. The fees that were already there are.

What Fresha actually costs

Let's break this down for a typical UK barbershop: one location, three barbers, processing around 400 bookings a month with an average ticket of £25.

The subscription: £9.95 per staff calendar on the Team plan. For three barbers, that's £29.85/month.

Card processing: Fresha charges 1.2% plus 20p per card transaction through their integrated system. If 70% of your 400 monthly bookings are card payments (280 transactions at £25 average), that's £83.60 plus £56 in per-transaction fees. Total card processing: around £139.60/month.

The marketplace commission: This is the big one. Fresha takes a 20% commission on any client it considers "new", meaning anyone who books through the Fresha marketplace. The minimum commission is $6 (roughly £5) per booking. If even 20 of your monthly bookings come through the marketplace, that's £100 or more in commission fees alone.

The hardware: Fresha requires its own proprietary card terminal, which costs £499 upfront. You can't use your existing card machine.

Total estimated monthly cost: Between £170 and £270+, depending on how many clients Fresha classifies as marketplace bookings.

Now let's look at Setora.

Setora: £39/month per location. Unlimited barbers. No per-staff fees. No marketplace commissions. No card processing fees through our platform (you use your own terminal). No proprietary hardware requirement.

That's the entire bill. Every month.

The "new client" problem

The marketplace commission deserves its own section because it's the single most contentious part of Fresha's pricing model.

Here's how it works. Fresha runs a consumer marketplace where people search for local barbers and book directly. When someone books through this marketplace, Fresha takes a 20% cut of the first appointment. On the surface, that sounds reasonable. They found the client, they take a fee. Fair enough.

The problem, according to multiple reviews on Trustpilot and Software Advice, is how Fresha defines "new." One verified director on Software Advice reported being charged hundreds of pounds monthly in marketplace fees for clients who found the business through Google, not through Fresha's platform. The client searched for the barbershop by name, landed on the Fresha listing (which ranks well in search results), and booked. Fresha counted that as a marketplace acquisition.

This is not an isolated complaint. It's one of the most consistent themes in negative Fresha reviews.

To be fair, Fresha advises shops to import their existing client database before enabling the marketplace, which should prevent existing clients from being classified as new. That's good advice. But it puts the responsibility on the shop owner to get this right from day one, and it doesn't help with clients who are genuinely yours but happen to find your Fresha listing via a Google search.

At Setora, there's no marketplace and no commission. Your clients book directly through your booking page. Nobody else gets a cut.

Side-by-side: what a three-chair shop pays

	Fresha (Team plan)	Setora
Monthly subscription	£29.85 (3 calendars x £9.95)	£39 flat
Card processing fees	~£140/month	£0 (BYOT)
Marketplace commission	£100+ (varies)	£0
Terminal hardware	£499 upfront	Use your own
SMS/reminder costs	Additional charges	Credits-based
Typical monthly total	£170-270+	£39

Fresha estimate based on 400 bookings/month, £25 average, 70% card payments, 20 marketplace bookings. Setora SMS reminders are charged as credits and not included in the £39/month price.

The gap is not subtle.

Where Fresha genuinely does well

This wouldn't be an honest comparison if we only talked about costs. Fresha didn't reach 450,000 businesses by accident. Here's what they do well.

The marketplace works. For shops in high-footfall urban areas, Fresha's consumer marketplace genuinely generates new clients. If you're a new shop trying to fill empty chairs, that visibility has real value, even at 20%.

The interface is polished. Fresha's booking flow, calendar, and dashboard are well-designed. It's a mature product with years of iteration behind it. The experience is smooth for both the shop owner and the client.

The ecosystem is comprehensive. Payments, point of sale, inventory, marketing tools, team management, reporting. Fresha covers a lot of ground. For shops that want everything in one place and don't mind paying for it through variable fees, it's a complete package.

Client reviews and profiles. Fresha's client management and review system is robust. It helps shops build reputation and maintain detailed client records.

We respect what Fresha has built. The question isn't whether Fresha is a good product. It's whether the pricing model works for your shop.

Where Setora falls short

We said we'd be honest, so here it is.

No marketplace. Setora doesn't have a consumer discovery platform that sends you new clients. If you're relying on a marketplace to fill chairs, we can't do that for you. We're a booking and management platform, not a lead generation engine.

No payment terminal integration yet. We operate a BYOT (bring your own terminal) model. You keep using your existing card machine and payment provider. We think that's actually a feature, not a bug (you keep your existing processing rates and aren't locked into proprietary hardware), but it does mean we're not processing your payments or offering an integrated POS.

We're newer. Fresha has been around for over a decade and serves hundreds of thousands of businesses. Setora is a new platform with a smaller user base. We have fewer features today. What we don't have is a legacy business model that needs to extract ever-increasing fees from your revenue to satisfy investors.

No client mobile app. Your clients book through a web-based booking page (no app download required, which many barbers actually prefer), but there's no dedicated Setora app for consumers.

SMS reminders are charged as credits. They're not included free in the £39/month price. We're upfront about this because we think hiding costs is exactly the problem we're trying to solve.

The real question: do you want variable or flat?

Strip away the brand names and the marketing and this comparison comes down to a fundamental choice about how you want to pay for your business software.

Fresha's model is variable. Your monthly cost changes based on how many staff you have, how many cards you process, and how many clients the marketplace claims. Some months it's reasonable. Other months, when you're busy and the marketplace is active, it climbs. The one thing it isn't is predictable.

Setora's model is flat. £39/month. Whether you have two barbers or five. Whether you do 200 bookings or 600. The bill doesn't change.

For a three-chair barbershop doing steady business, that difference can be £100 to £200 per month. Over a year, that's £1,200 to £2,400. For a shop already operating on tight margins (and according to the NHBF, nearly half of barbershops are at break-even or worse), that's not a rounding error. That's a barber's wages for a week.

How to switch from Fresha

If you're considering a move, here's what the process looks like. For the full step-by-step walkthrough, see our Fresha to Setora switching guide.

Export your client data. Fresha allows CSV/Excel exports of your client list. Go to Clients, then Options, then Export. You'll need the "Can download clients" permission enabled. Your appointment history and financial reports can also be exported.

Know your GDPR rights. Under UK GDPR, you have the right to data portability. Fresha acknowledges both EU and UK GDPR compliance. Your client data belongs to your business, and you're entitled to receive it in a machine-readable format. We've published a GDPR data portability request template if you need one.

Set up Setora. A typical setup takes about 15 minutes. Import your client list, configure your services and staff, set your opening hours, and your booking page is live. We'll help you through the process.

Tell your clients. Share your new booking link. Most clients don't care which platform their barber uses. They care about being able to book easily. Since Setora doesn't require an app download, the transition for clients is straightforward.

The bottom line

Fresha is a capable platform with genuine strengths, particularly its marketplace reach and polished interface. For shops that need help finding new clients and are willing to accept variable, commission-based pricing, it can deliver value.

But if you already have your clients and you just need reliable booking software that doesn't take a cut of your revenue, Fresha's pricing model is working against you. Every month, a chunk of your earnings goes to a platform for doing what a flat-fee tool can do for £39.

Your shop. Your clients. Your money. We think more of it should stay in your pocket.

This article was written by the Setora team and published in March 2026. We've disclosed our bias upfront, and every pricing claim is sourced and verifiable. If anything in this article is inaccurate, let us know and we'll correct it. That's a standing offer. Last verified: February 2026.