Nobody searches for Booksy alternatives out of idle curiosity. It is usually one of three moments: the software line has quietly become real money as the team grew; a Boost fee landed on a statement and the size of it stung; or the quieter, bigger question — whose client list is this, actually? This page takes all three seriously, with the numbers read from each vendor's own pricing page on 18 August 2026 — check the linked pages before you decide anything, because pricing pages move.
Disclosure up front: we make VoltsBook, one of the alternatives below. That is exactly why every figure here carries its source.
What Booksy actually costs
Booksy's pricing page is, to its credit, unusually complete. The subscription is $29.99 per month plus tax with everything included, and extra users are $20 per month each. Do the team arithmetic before it does itself: a four-person shop is $29.99 plus three times $20 — $89.99 a month before card processing.
Card processing, according to the same Booksy pricing page, is 2.69% plus $0.30 for mobile and keyed-in payments, 2.49% plus $0.10 through the Booksy card reader, and 2.49% plus $0.20 for tap-to-pay. Plans include 2,000 free SMS marketing messages a month, and the trial is 14 days.
Then Boost, the marketplace program that introduces new clients. According to Booksy's pricing page, Boost carries a "one-time 30% fee based on the total cost of a Boost client's first visit" — a $150 first visit returns $45 to Booksy. Once per client, only for clients Boost brings, and you can leave Boost switched off. Whether it is worth it is a real question with a real answer: if a Boost client rebooks all year, one visit's fee was cheap acquisition; if your books are already full of regulars, it is a program you are right to leave off.
Who should stay on Booksy
An honest alternatives page owes you the case for not moving. Pick Booksy — or stay — if you are opening cold: new shop, new city, no walk-by trade. Its consumer app is real discovery infrastructure, and that is their strength in a way no standalone booking tool below can match; a published one-time fee on a first visit is a price you can reason about, and an empty chair is dearer. The 2,000 included SMS marketing messages are a genuinely generous allowance — texts cost real carrier money everywhere. And the pricing page's completeness is itself worth something: you can compute your bill at any team size without a sales call. If new-client flow is your binding constraint, stay, run Boost deliberately, and revisit when your regulars fill the book.
Fresha — the other marketplace, and no longer free
The other big salon-and-barber marketplace was genuinely free for over a decade, and in most markets it no longer is. According to Fresha's pricing page as captured on 19 July 2026, US pricing is $19.95 a month for the solo Independent plan and $14.95 per bookable team member for Team, with messages and add-ons charged per use on top. The marketplace fee is published: according to that same capture, a 20% one-time commission on brand-new clients it introduces, minimum $6 per client, and no fee ever on returning ones.
Read the currency and the plan carefully before comparing, because Fresha's page is served by country — the Canadian render lists CA$29.95 for Independent and CA$19.95 per team member, and some markets still list both plans as free. We went deep on that field, including when the free plan ended and where it survives, in our Fresha alternatives guide.
GlossGenius — beauty-first, flat everything
GlossGenius's pricing page lists Standard at $28 a month, Gold at $56 for up to nine staff, and Platinum at $168 for teams of ten or more, each cheaper billed annually. Card processing, according to the same GlossGenius page, is a "flat 2.6%" however the card is taken. No marketplace, no introduction fees, and a 14-day trial without a card. The trade: it brings you no clients, and the plan jumps are chunky when you cross a team-size line.
Square Appointments — right if you are already Square
Square Appointments has a genuinely free tier — "for solo professionals taking payments and managing schedules," as its pricing page describes it — with paid Plus and Premium tiers above. Two honest notes. First, when we pulled the page on 18 August 2026, the dollar figures for the paid tiers were served by script rather than printed in the page, so read them live. Second, the ecosystem is the point: booking, hardware and money all run on Square's rails, which is friction-free if that is already your shop's spine, and a commitment if it is not.
Vagaro — the budget line, with a marketplace attached
Vagaro's pricing page starts at $23.99 a month for one bookable calendar, with 1,000 free emails monthly and a 30-day trial. It operates a consumer marketplace of its own, and its pricing page lists no new-client fee; card processing rates are not disclosed on the page either, so get both answers in writing when you evaluate.
VoltsBook — ours; read this section the hardest
We built VoltsBook for the shop that already brings its own clients and wants the machinery around them to be exact. Deposits are set per service — a booking fee on the color, not on the buzz cut; reminder presets, waiting lists and the rest of the no-show machinery are built in, and the playbook we wrote runs on it. Payments go through your own Stripe, PayPal, Square or Mollie account, at your processor's rates, landing directly. Packages, gift cards, loyalty and invoices are in the box. VoltsBook's pricing page lists a Free plan, then Solo at $12, Professional at $29 and Business at $79 a month — flat per plan, not per seat — with a 14-day trial of everything and no card required.
The concession, plainly: there is no marketplace and no consumer app. We will not bring you a single new client. A full-books barbershop loses nothing by that; an empty one should scroll back up.
Side by side
Every figure below is according to the named vendor's own pricing page, read 18 August 2026; processing rates and the Boost fee are quoted in the sections above.
| Platform | Software (solo) | Team growth | New-client fee | Card processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booksy | $29.99/mo + tax | +$20 per user | Boost: one-time fee on a first visit (rate quoted above) | Published per-method rates (quoted above) |
| Fresha | $19.95/mo (US) | $14.95 per team member | One-time commission on new clients (rate quoted above) | Published per-method rates (quoted above) |
| GlossGenius | $28/mo | $56 to nine staff; $168 beyond | None — no marketplace | One flat published rate (quoted above) |
| Square Appointments | Free tier | Paid tiers (prices script-served when pulled) | None listed | Square's own rates |
| Vagaro | $23.99/mo | Not stated on the page | None listed | Not disclosed on the page |
| VoltsBook | Free or $12/mo | Flat plans to $79/mo | None — no marketplace | Your own Stripe/PayPal/Square/Mollie |
How to decide
The full method is eight questions long, and two of them decide most Booksy departures. Do you still need to be found? If yes, a marketplace fee is marketing spend — pay the published one. And can you leave? Get your client export in hand before you commit anywhere, including to us. If the itch is actually no-shows rather than fees, fix policy first — the no-show playbook costs nothing to run.
How much does Booksy cost per month?
According to its pricing page as of August 2026: $29.99 plus tax for one user, with extra users at $20 each per month — so a four-person shop pays $89.99 before card processing.
What is the Booksy Boost fee?
According to Booksy's pricing page, a one-time 30% fee on the total cost of a Boost-introduced client's first visit. It applies only to clients Boost brings, and Boost can be switched off.
Which Booksy alternative is free?
Square Appointments has a free solo tier on Square's rails, and our own Free plan takes bookings with the paid features off. Fresha is the one to be careful with: it was free for over a decade, but according to its pricing page captured on 19 July 2026 the US plans are now $19.95 a month solo and $14.95 per team member — though some markets still list it as free, so check the page from your own country. "Free" differs more in the second sentence than the first.
Will I lose my regulars if I switch?
Regulars follow the barber, not the app — if you hold their contacts and history. Export your client list first, run the new booking page in parallel for a couple of weeks, then move the link in your bio.