What people actually leave Fresha over
The free plan is gone, and long-standing users were moved off it
Fresha built its reputation on being free for salons. As of July 2026 there is a seven-day trial and no permanent free plan at any business size. A great many comparison articles still describe Fresha as free, and plenty of operators found out otherwise from an invoice.
The part that stings is not the price change itself — software gets repriced. It is that users who signed up on free-forever terms report being moved onto paid plans, and that this is among the most common complaints about the platform in recent public reviews.
By the time the price arrives, the migration cost is what makes it stick: your client history, your calendar, and your team’s habits already live inside the product. That is the acquire-then-monetize pattern in one move, and it is worth naming plainly.
The commission is mandatory if you want the visibility
Fresha charges 20% of a new client’s first booking through its marketplace, with a $6 minimum. Unlike some competitors, this is not opt-in — if marketplace visibility is on, the commission applies. You can turn visibility off, but then you lose the discovery entirely, which was the reason to be there.
The double-payment problem applies here as it does anywhere with a directory. Your ad creates the demand, the client searches your name, finds you in Fresha, and books. You paid for that client twice, and the second payment is deducted before the money reaches you rather than appearing as a charge.
The re-import trap catches people at go-live
This one is specific and it is expensive. If you do not import your existing client list before going live on the Fresha marketplace, your own regulars can book as new accounts — and the 20% applies as though they were new clients you had never met.
Multiple operators report being caught by exactly this. Import your list first, verify it, and only then switch visibility on. That advice holds whether or not you ever talk to us.
What Fresha publishes
Fresha’s subscription pricing, plus the marketplace commission structure. We are deliberately not publishing a card processing rate — see the note below.
Individual
~$19.95/mo
Solo operator
Team
~$14.95/mo per bookable team member
Scales with headcount
Marketplace commission
20% of a new client’s first booking
$6 minimum; mandatory when marketplace visibility is on
Card processing — in person
2.29% + $0.20
US rate as published July 2026
Card processing — online
2.79% + $0.20
Card processing — keyed
3.30% + $0.20
Free tier
Discontinued
Moved to paid subscriptions in 2025
What Tersavia costs
The booking platform is free forever when you process payments through Tersavia. That processing relationship is the entire business model — there is no subscription, no per-location charge, and no commission on a client you earned.
Booking platform
Free
When you process payments through Tersavia
Forms, charting & consent
Free
Photo & file storage
Free
Memberships, packages & waitlists
Free
Payroll, commissions & time clock
Free
Resource & room scheduling
Free
Confirmations & reminders
Free, unlimited
From your own number
SMS marketing
Segment packs from $9
Email marketing
5,000/mo free, packs above
Per location / per user
No charge
Marketplace commission
None — no marketplace
Side by side
The full feature-by-feature comparison across the whole category lives on its own page, including the platforms not named here.
What’s free here that others charge for
What Fresha does better
For a business with no marketing and no client list, Fresha is a genuinely good answer. The entry price is the lowest in this category by a clear margin, and marketplace discovery does real work when nobody knows your name yet — a directory that puts you in front of people searching for your service in your city is worth paying a commission for.
The commission is also structurally honest in one respect: it is charged on the first booking of a genuinely new client, not on everyone forever. If Fresha introduced you to someone, Fresha gets paid once. That is a defensible model, and it is why the price of entry can be so low.
The math turns when you are established. Once most of your new business comes from your own reputation, your own ads, and word of mouth, you are paying a finder’s fee on people who were never found — and that is the point at which owners start looking at pages like this one.
“Fresha said free forever too”
That is the fairest challenge anyone can put to us, and if you have been moved off a free plan once, you have earned the right to ask it. So here is the structural answer rather than a promise.
Fresha’s free tier had no revenue attached to it. The platform was free and the money had to come from somewhere else later, which is exactly the position that makes a free plan temporary — it is a cost the business is carrying until it decides to stop.
Ours is the opposite arrangement. The platform is free when you process payments through Tersavia, and that processing is the entire business. The free platform is not a loss leader waiting to be converted; it is the thing that produces the revenue. We do better when you take more money, and worse when you take less. That alignment is why we can make the claim — and it is a claim you can test cheaply, because there is no contract, no cancellation fee, and no charge to export your client list and leave.
Standard rates — what you're paying now, or less. Hold that against what you're paying today, before you sign anything.
Switching from Fresha
Export your client list first and confirm it is complete before you do anything else. This is the vertical where an incomplete import costs money directly, because unmatched regulars can be treated as new marketplace clients and charged accordingly.
Client records, appointment history, service menu, staff, and product catalog all come across during setup. If you have been running marketplace visibility, expect a change in new-client flow rather than just a change in software — we send you zero clients by design, so your own marketing carries that weight.
What moves, what doesn’t, and your saved cards
Questions from Fresha users
Is Fresha still free?
No. Fresha moved to paid subscriptions in 2025 and no longer offers a free-forever tier, though a large number of comparison articles still describe it as free. Individual pricing is reported around $19.95 a month, with team pricing around $14.95 per bookable team member.
Can I use Fresha without paying the commission?
Only by turning marketplace visibility off, which removes the discovery the commission pays for. Unlike some competitors, the commission is not an optional feature you toggle while keeping the listing.
Why did my own regular get charged as a new client?
This is a widely reported trap: if your existing client list was not imported before you went live on the marketplace, returning clients can book as new accounts and the 20% applies. Import and verify your list before switching visibility on.
Does Tersavia take a commission on new clients?
Never. We do not run a marketplace, so there is no directory listing your competitors beside you and no cut of a first visit. The corollary is that we send you no clients either — your marketing is your marketing.
What does Tersavia cost by comparison?
The booking platform is free forever when you process payments through Tersavia, with no per-person charge. Fresha’s team pricing scales with headcount; ours does not scale at all.
Wondering what the whole category costs, and how to work out your own number from your own statements?
15 minutes · no card, no contract · free with Tersavia processing
Sources and caveats
Fresha subscription and commission figures are drawn from published pricing and third-party coverage. Card processing rates are US figures as published on fresha.com/pricing in July 2026, corroborated by two independent sources; the 2.19% figure still circulating on comparison sites is retired pricing that no longer appears on their page. Fresha’s rates are geo-served — US rates run roughly double the UK equivalents — so check the rate for your own market rather than the one quoted in a comparison article. Reports that long-standing users were moved off free-forever terms are drawn from recent public reviews.
All Fresha figures are published list prices as of August 12, 2026, not negotiated rates and not drawn from any private account. Vendors change pricing frequently — verify current terms directly with Fresha before making a decision. Where third-party guides disagree with a vendor’s own pricing, we have said so rather than picking the number that suited us.
Our bias, stated plainly. We sell competing software and we want your business. Every figure above is checkable against Fresha’s own pricing or your own invoice, and we would rather you check than take our word.