Fresha Fees and Treatwell Fees: What a New Client Really Costs You
Treatwell and Fresha can fill a diary. Here is what each one charges for a new client, which bookings are free, and how to make sure the client ends up on your own list.
TL;DR
- Treatwell charges 35% commission, plus VAT, on a new client’s first booking from its marketplace. Repeat and direct bookings are commission free.
- Fresha fees for a new marketplace client are 20% of the first appointment, minimum £4, plus VAT, charged once per client.
- On a hypothetical £50 first appointment, that is roughly £21 to Treatwell or £12 to Fresha, before card fees.
- The bigger cost is not the fee. It is whether you can reach that client again yourself, with their number and their permission.
- Keep the marketplace for discovery if it works. Put your own website, review asking and follow-up in front of it, so the second visit comes to you.
You do know you’re renting some of your clients? Not all of them, and not forever. But when a new client finds you on a marketplace, you pay to meet them, and the question that decides whether it was worth it comes later: whose list do they end up on? This post sets out Fresha fees and Treatwell fees side by side, using each platform’s own published pages, and then looks at the part the fee tables leave out.
To be honest, both platforms do bring genuine new clients, and plenty of owners are right to use them. The point is to use them on purpose.
What Are Treatwell’s Fees for a New Client?
Treatwell charges 35% commission on the first booking made by a new client it brings you from its marketplace, and VAT is added on top.
That is straight from Treatwell’s UK pricing page, which also says three things that are fair to repeat:
- Repeat bookings from that client carry 0% commission.
- Bookings made directly with you (calls, texts, WhatsApp, or clients you add yourself) are commission free.
- Bookings through the Book Now button on your own website or social media are commission free too.
There is also a plan fee, and a processing fee of 2.5% plus VAT when a client pays online in advance. Treatwell does not print its UK plan prices on that page, so check them with Treatwell directly before you compare.
What Are Fresha Fees in the UK?
Fresha fees for a new client are a one-time 20% of their first completed appointment, with a minimum of £4, and VAT on top.
Fresha’s pricing page describes it as a fee “applied to brand new clients who discover your business via the Fresha marketplace”, and says its rates exclude 20% sales tax. On top of that sits the subscription, listed at £9.95 per team member a month, and card processing fees when clients pay through Fresha.
The detail most owners miss is in the help centre. The fee is not charged if the client is already on your client list. But it can still apply if the client looked at your Fresha marketplace profile first and then booked through your website or social pages. So “they booked on my website” does not always mean “no fee”.
Fresha Fees vs Treatwell Fees: Side by Side
Here is how the two compare on the published UK pages, checked on 13 October 2026. Rates change, so check both pages before you decide anything.
| Treatwell | Fresha | |
|---|---|---|
| New marketplace client | 35% of the first booking | 20% of the first appointment, minimum £4 |
| VAT on the fee | Added on top | Added on top |
| Repeat bookings | 0% commission | No fee once they are on your client list |
| Booked via your own website | Commission free through your Book Now button | Free, unless they viewed your marketplace profile first |
| Monthly plan | Not printed on the UK pricing page | £9.95 per team member |
What Does a New Client Really Cost? A Worked Example
This is an illustration on a hypothetical £50 first appointment, using only the published rates above. It ignores card fees and plan fees.
| Treatwell | Fresha | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee on £50 | £17.50 (35%) | £10.00 (20%) |
| VAT at 20% on the fee | £3.50 | £2.00 |
| Total to the platform | £21.00 | £12.00 |
| What you keep | £29.00 | £38.00 |
If you are VAT registered, talk to your accountant about the VAT line, because it may come back to you. Either way, the first visit is where the cost lands.
So is £12 or £21 a lot to meet a new client? Not necessarily. Harvard Business Review reports research putting the cost of winning a new customer at anywhere from 5 to 25 times the cost of keeping one, depending on the industry. A one-off introduction fee can be a fair price. It only turns into rent if you have to keep paying, in fees or in lost visits, to see the same person again.
Who Owns the Client Afterwards?
You can hold the client’s record, but the relationship only becomes yours when you can reach them directly and have their permission to market to them.
The platforms say different things here. Treatwell’s pricing page says client data “is and remains the property of your establishment”. Fresha’s guidance on marketing consent says clients separately control whether they want marketing from your business, and that you cannot override their choices.
Neither of those is unreasonable. But it means the client’s details in a booking system are not the same thing as a client who will hear from you next month.
Why Does Marketing Permission Matter More Than the Fee?
Because without it, you cannot send the text that brings someone back, and the next time they want a treatment they search the marketplace again, where every salon near you is listed beside you.
The ICO’s rules on texts and emails allow a “soft opt-in” for people who have bought a similar service from you, but only if you gave them a simple way to opt out when you collected their details, and in every message after. In other words, it rewards the salon that collects details properly at the first visit.
The same goes for reviews. 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (that survey is of US adults, but the habit is hardly different here). Google’s own advice on getting reviews is simply to ask, with a link or a QR code. You can only ask someone you can reach.
Is Treatwell Worth It?
Treatwell is worth it when it fills empty slots with people who then come back to you directly, and it is not when they arrive once and drift off.
A quick way to judge it, for either platform:
- Count the second visits. Of the new clients a marketplace sent you in the last three months, how many have booked again?
- Check where they rebooked. On Treatwell repeat bookings are commission free, which is fair. But a client rebooking inside the marketplace app is still shopping in a place full of your competitors.
- Check what you can do next. Do you have their mobile number and a way to ask them back, or ask them for a review?
If the answers are good, keep going. If not, the fee is not the problem. The missing follow-up is.
How to Keep the Marketplace and Own the Relationship
You do not need to leave anything. Keep the booking system you already use. What changes is what sits in front of it.
- Your own front door. A website of yours that ranks for your treatments and your town, with a Book Now button pointing to your own booking link, gives clients a route to you that does not pass through a marketplace first.
- Ask every happy client for a review. An automatic review funnel asks at the right moment, so your Google profile does the discovery work for free over time.
- Follow up yourself. Collect the number and the permission at the first visit, then let lead follow-up do the remembering, so the second visit is booked with you.
This is how I grew CoLaz from one clinic to nine between 2016 and 2022: on our own websites and Google, not on someone else’s platform. And I run review automation across seven clinics today, fed from their own booking systems. Tools do not fix process, but a process that runs without you remembering it does.
It is the same thinking behind the beauty salons sites I build. I build and run the website, the review asking and the follow-up for £297 a month, with no website build fee and no minimum term, and you can cancel any time after month 1. It works alongside Fresha or whatever you use now. The full list is on the pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Fresha fees for a new client in the UK?
Fresha charges a one-time fee of 20% on the first completed appointment of a brand new client who found you through the Fresha marketplace, with a minimum of £4 per client. The rate is quoted before VAT, which is added on top. Clients who are already on your client list, or who find you through your own website or social profiles, do not trigger the fee.
How much commission does Treatwell take?
Treatwell’s UK pricing page says it charges 35% commission on the first booking made by a new client it brings you from its marketplace, and that all commissions and fees are subject to VAT. Repeat bookings carry 0% commission, and so do bookings made directly with you or through the Book Now button on your own website and social media.
Is the Fresha new client fee charged if they book on my website?
Usually not, but there is a catch. Fresha’s help centre says the fee can still apply if the client viewed your Fresha marketplace profile first and then booked through another channel, including your website. A client who is already on your client list when they book is not charged for.
Is Treatwell worth it for a small salon?
It can be, if it brings you clients you would not otherwise have found and you have room in the diary to take them. Judge it on what happens after the first visit: if those clients come back and you can reach them directly, the first-booking commission is a fair price for an introduction. If they drift away and you have no way to ask them back, it is an expensive one.
Can I text marketplace clients to rebook?
Only if you have their number and the right permission. On Fresha, clients control their own marketing preferences and you cannot override them. The ICO’s soft opt-in for texts and emails is built around customers who bought from you, and who were given a simple way to opt out when you collected their details and in every message after.
Want the Second Visit to Come to You?
If you are paying a marketplace to meet clients and then losing touch with them, that is the conversation worth having. It is 30 minutes, I will look at how clients reach you now, and I will tell you straight if it is not a fit. Book a call.
