Who owns the client? Marketplace fees for Canadian salons, from the platforms' own pages
Several booking platforms sell two things at once: software to run your diary, and a marketplace that sends you strangers. The second is often priced as a share of a new client's first visit. Whether that is a bargain or an expensive habit depends on one number most salons never measure — and on who ends up holding the relationship.
Try a commission-free diary for 14 daysWhat the platforms' own pages said on 10 November 2026
Read on the platforms' Canadian or main pricing pages. Where a page left something out, we say so rather than fill the gap from somewhere else.
Fresha
Its pricing page describes a one-time 20% fee on each new client the Fresha marketplace brings you, with a minimum of £4, and says no fee applies to returning clients. The page we were served showed every figure in pounds and did not mention Canada, so we could not confirm the Canadian-dollar terms.
Booksy
Booksy's Canadian pricing page lists a monthly subscription and a charge for each additional staff member, without saying which currency they are in, and names no marketplace commission. Booksy runs a separate promotion called Boost; the address that should show its Canadian terms sent us to the American pricing page instead, so we print no Boost figure here.
Vagaro
Vagaro's Canadian pricing page includes a free listing on the Vagaro Marketplace and states no commission on clients who book through it.
The arithmetic of a first-visit commission
Take a C$80 first visit from a client the marketplace found for you. At a 20% rate — the figure on Fresha's page, if it applied unchanged in Canada — the fee would be C$16. If she comes back four more times that year at the same price, you will have earned C$400 from her and paid 4% of it to meet her: cheap, by the standards of any advert. If she never returns, you worked the appointment for C$64 and paid the rest for a single visit.
So the price of a marketplace fee is not really on the platform's pricing page. It is your rebooking rate: the share of first-time clients who return within, say, ninety days. Count it for the last few months before you decide anything. It decides whether the commission is a fair introduction fee and whether any other marketing you pay for is working.
Where an introduction turns into a dependency
A one-off fee for a genuinely new client is a reasonable trade. What matters is what happens on the second visit. If your regulars rebook inside the platform's own consumer app, the platform holds the reminder, the notification and the habit of opening that app, and over time your client list looks more like theirs.
Three questions help. Can you export your full client list, with notes and history, whenever you want? Does a returning client book through your own link, or through the marketplace's search page where competitors appear beside you? And when you leave, which of the clients you served will still find you?
In Canada there is a further point that is easy to miss: marketing e-mail to clients needs consent under the Anti-Spam Legislation. Clients who booked you are your clients for that purpose, but only if you hold their details and the record of their visits. A platform that keeps the relationship also keeps the consent.
What the commission-free model costs instead
The alternative is plain: a subscription you pay every month whether or not anyone new arrives, with no share taken from any booking. It suits a salon whose clients mostly come from its own Instagram, its Google profile and word of mouth, because it does not charge for the introductions you made yourself.
Slotora is built that way in Canada. There is no commission on any booking, gift card or pass. Card payments go to your own Stripe account at Stripe's standard Canadian rates — 2.9% + CA$0.30 for a domestic online card payment, 2.7% + CA$0.05 for most cards in person and CA$0.15 for an in-person Interac payment — and Slotora adds nothing on top. Your client list, notes and visit history can be exported at any time.
Slotora's subscription in Canada
A flat monthly plan counted by the people clients can book, and nothing taken from what they pay you.
| For one bookable person | C$19 a month |
|---|---|
| Every further bookable person | + C$10 a month |
| From 6 people | C$69 a month at most |
Prices in Canadian dollars. No GST/HST is added at present. Commission on bookings: none. Card fees are Stripe's, paid to Stripe.
When a marketplace is the better choice
Because a commission-free diary does not suit everyone.
- If you need strangers more than software
- A new studio in a neighbourhood where nobody knows it may genuinely benefit from a large marketplace's traffic. Slotora's own directory is new in Canada and will not send you many clients for some time.
- If your rebooking rate is high
- When most marketplace clients return, a first-visit fee works out small per visit. Measure before you switch away.
- Our reminders are e-mail and app only
- Several platforms bundle text reminders into the plan; for a Canadian salon, Slotora has no text reminders at all yet, only e-mail and the app.
Questions about marketplace fees
Does Fresha charge Canadian salons 20% on new clients?
Fresha's pricing page describes a one-time 20% fee on new marketplace clients with no fee on returning clients, but the version we were served on 10 November 2026 showed pounds and did not mention Canada. Check the terms Fresha shows you when you sign up.
Does Booksy charge a commission in Canada?
Its Canadian pricing page names none. Booksy runs a separate promotion called Boost; we could not open a Canadian page for its terms, so ask Booksy directly.
Does Vagaro charge for marketplace bookings?
Its Canadian pricing page lists a free marketplace listing and states no commission on marketplace clients.
Does Slotora take a share of any booking?
No. Slotora is a monthly subscription in Canada with no commission on bookings, gift cards or passes. Card fees are Stripe's own, charged by Stripe.
How do I work out whether a marketplace fee is worth it?
Count how many first-time marketplace clients came back within ninety days, and what they spent over the year. Divide the fees paid by that total spend.
Sources
Each platform's fact above comes from its own page, read on the day shown; our card fees are Stripe's Canadian page.
- Fresha — Pricing — https://www.fresha.com/pricing · Read on Served in pounds; no mention of Canada.
- Booksy — Pricing (Canada) — https://booksy.com/biz/en-ca/pricing · Read on No currency code; no marketplace fee listed.
- Vagaro — Pricing (Canada) — https://www.vagaro.com/en-ca/pro/pricing · Read on
- Stripe — Pricing for Canada — https://stripe.com/en-ca/pricing · Read on
Keep the client, and the whole of what she pays
Your own booking link on Instagram and Google, your own client list, and no share of any appointment. The plan is billed monthly in Canadian dollars after the trial.