Slotora vs Fresha
Fresha is the biggest name in salon software, and its marketplace is a real source of new clients rather than a line in a brochure. The question is what you pay for it. Every figure below comes from Fresha's own pricing page. One warning if you are reading this in Ireland: these are the British figures in sterling. Fresha prices by the visitor's country and served pounds to every request we made, fresha.com/ie returns 410 Gone and /ie/pricing 404s (checked 19 September 2026), so we have no euro list to print. Rather than convert a number we have not seen, we are telling you to open their pricing page yourself from an Irish connection.
Try Slotora free| Comparison | Slotora | Fresha |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription price | £0 | £14.95/mo (Independent, one calendar) or £9.95 per bookable team member/mo (Team) |
| Commission on new marketplace clients | 0% | 20% one-time fee on their first visit, minimum £4 per client |
| Commission on returning clients | 0% | 0% — Fresha charges nothing on repeat bookings |
| Bookings from your own link, Instagram, Facebook and Google | Free | Free |
| Card processing fees | 0% from us — Stripe's own fee applies, paid to Stripe | 1.40% + £0.25 online, 1.19% + £0.20 in person, plus £0.07 per Tap to Pay authorisation |
| Card terminal hardware | None to buy — a QR code at the counter takes Apple Pay, Google Pay or card | From £99 per device |
| Automated text and WhatsApp reminders | Text: pay-as-you-go credit, per-market price published. WhatsApp: built, waiting on Meta's approval of our app. Email reminders unlimited and free | 20 free a month (per team member on Team), then £0.06 per text, £0.05–£0.10 per WhatsApp |
| Marketing emails | Included | 50 free a month, then £0.02 each |
| AI assistant that answers calls and messages | Nita answering your guests on your booking page: free. What she makes for you — posts, campaigns, pictures — runs on credits, per use, priced before it runs. No subscription. AI phone receptionist £49.99 per 100 minutes | AI Concierge £79.95 per location/mo, 200 minutes included, then £0.48 per minute |
| Waitlists | Yes | Yes |
| Consultation forms | Yes | Yes |
| Gift cards, packages and memberships | Yes | Yes |
| Group bookings, processing time, patch tests | Yes | Yes |
| Team size the price depends on | None — unlimited team members at £0 | Every bookable team member; over 20, custom rates on request |
| A free slot advertised by itself — and the post taken down when it fills | Yes, free. The freed time goes to your Facebook Page with a link that books that exact slot, and the post is deleted once somebody takes it. Instagram gets the same post with your logo; deleting an Instagram post needs a Meta permission we have not been granted yet, so the booking page tells anyone arriving late that the time has gone. | Their feature pages name marketing tools, an AI Concierge and stock taking; advertising a freed slot and withdrawing the post is not among them |
| Posting to your own Facebook Page and Instagram from inside the system | Yes, free — live since 22 August 2026 | Marketing tools and marketplace listing are named; publishing to your own Facebook Page or Instagram feed is not |
Their pricing checked on their own site, 2026-08-13. www.fresha.com
Leaving Fresha? Work out what its fees cost you in a year
The honest caveat
If you are opening somewhere nobody knows your name yet, Fresha's marketplace is a real answer and ours is younger: twenty-five million consumers browse it, and the introduction costs a one-time 20% of that client's first visit. Whether that is worth paying is a sum only you can do, with your own prices in front of you. Fresha also runs a retail till and an online product store, which we do not, and it runs payroll in the same system, where our staff wages and commission live in Slotora for busy salons rather than on this plan — a multi-chair salon that wants its whole back office in one system will feel all three. Slotora is for the owner whose clients already know where to find her, and who would rather keep every first visit whole.
Is there a team on your floor?
If several people work in your salon, and somebody else keeps the day running while you are with a client, that is a different job from one diary — and there is a Slotora written for it.
See Slotora for busy salons