Best salon booking apps and appointment software in the UK
By Martynas Gecas, Founder, Elite Booker. Updated .
The best salon booking app is the one that fits how clients find you, how many people are on your team and how you take payment. This guide compares five products UK salons often shortlist, using each provider's own published pricing. It is written by Elite Booker, which is one of the five, so it sticks to published facts and links to every source.
How this comparison works
Competitor prices come from each provider's official UK pricing and help pages as published on 10 September 2026. Prices can change, so open the source links before you decide. Unless a cell says otherwise, prices are monthly and before VAT.
The table compares the same four things for each product: the software subscription, fees charged when clients book, and card-payment charges. Messaging, add-ons and contract terms differ more widely, so they are covered in the sections below.
UK salon booking apps at a glance
Read the table with your own booking mix in mind. A fee on marketplace-introduced new clients matters a lot to a salon that relies on a marketplace and very little to one whose clients book through its own link.
Published UK pricing for five salon booking apps, as published on 10 September 2026| App | Software subscription | Fees when clients book | Card payments |
|---|
| Elite Booker | Basic £0. Professional £9.99 a month. Enterprise £49.99 a month. Every plan includes every feature and unlimited staff. | No commission. On Basic your client pays a £0.99 booking fee when they pay online. No booking fee on Professional or Enterprise. | Paid into your own Stripe account. Stripe charges its standard card fees. |
|---|
| Fresha | Independent £14.95 a month. Team £9.95 per bookable team member a month. | 20% once, minimum £4, for eligible new clients introduced by Fresha's marketplace. No marketplace fee on returning clients or direct-link bookings. | UK online card payments listed at 1.40% + £0.25 per transaction. |
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| Booksy | £40 a month plus £5 a month for each additional user. | No commission on standard bookings with Boost off. Optional Boost: 30% of an eligible new client's first visit, minimum £5, plus VAT. | Mobile Payments listed at 1.29% + £0.20 plus VAT per transaction. |
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| Treatwell | Freelancer and Advanced plans. The monthly price is given in a quote. | 35% on first bookings by marketplace-introduced new clients, according to Treatwell's UK FAQ. 0% on repeat bookings. VAT applies. | Online prepayments listed at 2.5% plus VAT. |
|---|
| Phorest | Starter, Grow, Ultimate and Elite plans. Prices are given in a quote. | Not listed on the pricing page. Ask for this in your quote. | Not listed on the pricing page. Ask for this in your quote. |
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Elite Booker
Elite Booker gives each business its own booking page, a team diary, client records, deposits and email reminders. Clients book in the browser, so they do not need to download an app. Every plan includes every feature and unlimited staff; the plans differ in who pays the booking fee, the per-order fee on shop orders and gift cards on Basic, and how much setup help you get.
Signing up starts a 60-day trial with no card, and nothing is charged when it ends. Text reminders are an optional paid add-on. There is no automatic import from another system: during your personal setup we add your services, prices and availability with you.
Fresha
Fresha combines scheduling software with a consumer marketplace. Its Team plan is charged per bookable team member, so count everyone who takes appointments before comparing it with a flat price. The marketplace fee applies once, to eligible new clients Fresha introduces, not to clients who book through your own link.
Fresha's plans include a monthly allowance of automated messages, with a per-message charge after that. Check the allowance against the number of reminders you send in a normal month.
Booksy
Booksy publishes a flat UK subscription with a charge for each additional user, and lists its booking, payment and marketing tools in that subscription. Standard marketplace bookings carry no commission while Boost is switched off.
Boost is optional paid promotion. If you turn it on, the fee applies to the first visit of eligible new clients under Booksy's attribution rules, so model it separately from the subscription.
Treatwell
Treatwell is best known as a marketplace that brings new clients. Its UK FAQ quotes a 35% commission on first bookings by new clients it introduces, and 0% on repeat bookings. Plan notes qualify the new-client commission by location, so ask for the rate that applies to your salon.
Ask for a written quote for the plan you need, and keep marketplace commission, subscription and prepayment fees as separate lines when you compare.
Phorest
Phorest offers four salon plans and asks businesses to request a quote rather than publishing prices. Ask for an itemised quote covering your team, locations, payment processing, messaging and any contract length, then compare it line by line with the other products.
Test each app with three real appointments
Write down three appointments that represent your business: a simple treatment, a service with a deposit, and a booking with a different team member or duration. Book, reschedule and cancel each one in every app you trial. Check what the client sees and what the diary shows after each change.
Separate client discovery from diary management. A marketplace can be worth paying for when you need new clients, while an established salon may mostly need a reliable booking link for returning clients.
Work out a monthly cost you can compare
Count bookable staff, locations, online payments, reminder messages and new marketplace clients in a normal month. Record which costs are fixed, which depend on usage and which are optional, and keep VAT consistent across quotes. Compare full monthly bills, not one provider's subscription with another provider's full bill.
Save the date of each quote and your assumptions so you can repeat the sum when prices or your team change. Ask how cancellation, data export and any remaining credit work before you sign up.
Test the move before moving the diary
Check an authorised export of clients and future appointments. Elite Booker does not import reviews, stored cards, deposits or gift balances, so list them and agree who will reconcile them and when your old booking link will stop taking appointments.
Ask a team member to run the same tests on their own phone, and ask a regular client to try a test booking link. Choose on demonstrated fit, understandable costs and a workable changeover rather than on a feature count.
Sources and further reading
See Elite Booker's salon appointment software