Booksy vs Fresha: What’s the difference?

Both Booksy and Fresha are popular salon booking software options. However, there are some key differences to consider when choosing the right platform for your business. Here's a breakdown of the two:

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Pricing:

• Booksy: Offers a simple, transparent pricing plan with no hidden fees. You get all the essential features for one low monthly fee.
• Fresha: Offers a free plan with limited features. However, to access advanced features and tools, client reminders, or to send messages to your client, you'll need to pay monthly add-ons or costs per message. Depending on your businesses’ needs, those fees can add up and end up being much more expensive than Booksy's all-inclusive plan.

Features:

• Booksy: Provides a comprehensive suite of features designed specifically for beauty and barber businesses, including online booking, client management, marketing tools, and payment processing.
• Fresha: Offers basic booking and client management features. However, some advanced features may require additional integrations or third-party apps, which can add complexity and cost.

Marketing Tools:

• Booksy: Includes powerful marketing tools to help you attract and retain clients, such as email marketing, social media integration, and loyalty programs. Booksy’s plans include unlimited email marketing messages, up to 2,000 SMS Marketing messages per month
• Fresha: Offers limited marketing features compared to Booksy. You may need to rely on third-party tools for more advanced marketing campaigns.

Customer Support:

• Booksy: Provides excellent customer support with quick response times and helpful solutions. 24/7 live chat support is available, and phone and email support is also available during business hours.
• Fresha: Customer support can be less responsive and may not always be able to address specific needs. Support availability is limited to email.

Overall, while Fresha is a great choice for businesses looking for subscription free scheduling functionality, Booksy is the better choice for most beauty and barber businesses due to its affordable and inclusive pricing, comprehensive feature set, powerful free marketing tools, and excellent customer support.

Free can definitely be tempting, until your software starts charging you to use features that used to be free, or charges you for standard booking app features like appointment reminders and sending messages to clients. Oftentimes, free solutions can end up more expensive than a booking app with a monthly subscription. Before you commit to a booking app, think about the features, functionality and messaging you'll need now and as your business grows. Do the math on the fees and feature add-ons to be sure you're choosing the right partner for your business.

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For example, your Booksy subscription costs $29.99 per month, and includes unlimited marketing email messages and up to 2,000 marketing text messages per month. 2,000 text messages to your clients on Fresha would cost you $160! All transactional messages to clients on Booksy are also free, like appointment confirmations and reminders.

Never - you have unlimited bookings with your Booksy subscription. We won’t charge your clients a booking fee.

• You’ll never be charged for new clients unless you have the optional Boost Marketing feature enabled.
• Booksy does not charge you for any of your existing clients, or any new clients that book you through your booking link, QR code, Google/Instagram/Facebook integrations. You are not charged for new clients that find you through your Marketplace listing when Boost is turned off. 
• The only time you’ll be charged for a client is when you enable our Boost Marketing feature, which promotes your profile and increases the visibility of your business. If a client books you through the Marketplace for the first time while Boost is enabled, you’ll pay a one-time 30% commission of their total service cost. 
• Fresha charges you 20% for any new client that books with you if you have online booking turned on - you cannot opt out.

You’ll never be charged for new clients unless you have the optional Boost Marketing feature enabled.

Booksy does not charge you for any of your existing clients, or any new clients that book you through your booking link, QR code, Google/Instagram/Facebook integrations. You are not charged for new clients that find you through your Marketplace listing when Boost is turned off. 

The only time you’ll be charged for a client is when you enable our Boost Marketing feature, which promotes your profile and increases the visibility of your business. If a client books you through the Marketplace for the first time while Boost is enabled, you’ll pay a one-time 30% commission of their total service cost.