You're one person with one calendar. Booksy, Fresha and Vagaro all want to be it. Their pricing pages are built for salons with teams, so the number you actually care about (what does one person pay in a normal month?) is buried in the fine print.
Here's that number for a solo pro, read off each company's own pricing page on October 11, 2026, with a worked example so you can swap in your own numbers.
The sticker prices
| App | One pro, per month | Trial | Cancel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booksy | $29.99 plus tax, every feature included | 14 days | Monthly, cancel anytime |
| Fresha | $19.95 (Independent plan) | 7 days | Monthly, no long-term contract |
| Vagaro | $30.00, or $23.99 for the first 6 months | 30 days | "Cancel anytime with no cancellation fees" |
On sticker price alone, Fresha is the cheapest of the three. Booksy and Vagaro land in the same place once Vagaro's six-month promo ends. But the sticker is only the start.
The fee that depends on how clients find you
This is where the three really differ.
- Booksy: no commission on clients who find you online or through your own marketing, and none when Boost is off. With Boost on, there's a one-time 30% fee on a Boost client's first visit, capped at $100. Booksy says to send your own clients your profile link so you aren't charged the fee on them.
- Fresha: a one-time 20% commission on brand-new clients who find you on the Fresha marketplace, with a $6 minimum per client. Fresha says there's no fee on returning clients.
- Vagaro: the pricing page lists a subscription and no per-new-client fee that we could find. It does include a marketplace listing. Check the page yourself, since fees can sit in other places on a site.
What that looks like with real numbers
This is an illustration, not a statistic. Say five brand-new clients find you through the marketplace this month, each on a $50 first visit.
- Booksy with Boost on: 30% of $50 is $15 each, so $75 on top of $29.99. About $105 for the month.
- Fresha: 20% of $50 is $10 each, so $50 on top of $19.95. About $70 for the month.
- Same five clients on a $20 first visit: Fresha's $6 minimum beats 20% ($4), so it's $6 each. Booksy's 30% is $6 each too.
Now take the other kind of month: all five came from your Instagram or a friend's recommendation and booked through your own link. Booksy bills $29.99 and Fresha bills $19.95, and that's it. The fee only fires when the app finds the client for you.
The marketplace fee calculator runs this with your own first-visit price and your own count of new clients.
Texts and card processing
Two more line items show up in a real month.
- Reminder texts. Booksy says appointment confirmations and reminders are always free, with 2,000 free marketing texts a month. Fresha includes 100 free automated texts a month, then lists $0.02 per text. For one pro with a normal book, 100 may cover it. If it doesn't, the overage is small but real. Vagaro lists unlimited notifications and appointment reminders with every plan.
- Card processing. Only matters if clients pay inside the app. Booksy lists 2.69% + $0.30 for mobile and keyed payments. Fresha lists 2.79% + $0.20 for online payments. Vagaro runs its own processing, so read its page for the current rate. If you take payment some other way, you skip this line.
How to pick, in four questions
- Where did your last ten new clients come from? If most found you through an app's marketplace, a new-client fee is the price of that, and the app is working. If most came from Instagram and referrals, you're paying for a feature you aren't using.
- Do you take payment inside the app? If yes, add the processing line to your math.
- How many texts do you send? A packed book needs more than 100 a month.
- What happens if you leave? Your client list can come with you. Saved cards and marketplace reviews usually can't. Our post on switching apps without losing your regulars covers the order to do things in.
For a head-to-head on any one of these, the comparison pages list the figures with sources. If a free tier is on your list too, here's what free actually costs.
Where Morningside fits, and where it doesn't
Morningside is the narrow option: one booking link for one person's book. The booking page is free (the terms are on the claim page), with no commission and no marketplace. Clients who opt in to texts get a confirmation and reminders, can reply C to confirm or CANCEL to cancel, and a no-show gets a text with a link to pick a new time.
Free comes with a cap: 50 confirmation and reminder texts a month. A busy book will run through that before the month's over, so count your bookings first. All three apps above give you more texts than that.
It's the right fit if your clients already know you and the goal is fewer empty slots. It's not the right fit if you want:
- a marketplace that sends you new clients,
- deposits, cards on file or no-show fees, or
- a built-in payment system.
It does none of those. If marketplace discovery is how you eat, one of the three above is the better tool.
Questions people ask
Is Booksy or Fresha cheaper for a solo pro?
On sticker price, Fresha: $19.95 a month against Booksy's $29.99. The gap can close or flip depending on how new clients find you, because both charge a one-time fee on marketplace clients. Check both pricing pages for current terms.
Is Vagaro cheaper than Booksy?
For the first six months, yes, if the $23.99 promo still applies. After that Vagaro lists $30 a month for one person, about the same as Booksy's $29.99.
Do any of them lock you in?
Each page says monthly with no long-term commitment. Read the cancellation terms before you sign up, since this is the kind of thing that changes.
Which one charges a fee on new clients?
Booksy, only with Boost turned on (30%, up to $100). Fresha, on new clients from its marketplace (20%, $6 minimum). We didn't find a new-client fee on Vagaro's pricing page.