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Believe Websites vs Fresha: what a salon website and booking system really costs in 2026
Fresha charges per team member, adds £12.95 a month for a website and takes 20% of new marketplace clients. Believe Websites is £49 a month flat, 0% commission, with a bespoke site on your own domain.
·9 min read
The short answer
- Believe Websites costs £49 a month flat, whatever the size of your team, and the website itself is designed and built for £0.
- Fresha charges £14.95 a month for one person, or £9.95 per bookable team member on its Team plan, plus £12.95 a month for the Smart Website add-on.
- Fresha is cheaper if you work alone. From four team members upwards Believe Websites costs less, and the gap widens with every chair you add.
- Fresha charges a 20% one-time commission, minimum £4, on every new client who finds you through its marketplace. Believe Websites takes 0% of every booking from everyone.
- With Believe Websites the site is bespoke, built for you, and lives on your own domain. Fresha's Smart Website is a template you set up and maintain yourself.
- Fresha is month to month after a 7-day trial. Believe Websites builds the site free and asks for a 12-month minimum term, after which the site can become yours.
If you run a salon, barbershop or clinic in the UK, Fresha is usually the first name somebody mentions. It is good software, it is everywhere, and a lot of businesses are happy on it. This is not an article arguing that Fresha is bad.
It is an article about two things Fresha's pricing page is quiet about: what you end up paying once your team grows, and what you actually own at the end of it. Those two questions are where Believe Websites is built to win, so that is where we will spend the time.
The short version
Believe Websites is one flat price: £49 a month, with the website designed and built for £0 upfront. That covers the website, your own domain, hosting, maintenance, ongoing changes and your own booking system — for your whole team, however many people that is, with nothing taken out of your bookings.
Fresha is priced per person and per feature. One person is £14.95 a month. After that it is £9.95 for every bookable team member. A website is a separate £12.95-a-month add-on called Smart Website. And when the Fresha marketplace sends you a client you have never seen before, Fresha keeps 20% of that first visit, with a £4 minimum.
What you pay every month
Fresha figures are its own published UK rates, read on 23 October 2026, and are the subscription plus the £12.95 Smart Website add-on, so that every column buys both a website and a booking system. Fresha's rates exclude 20% VAT; the Believe Websites figure is our published monthly price.
| Team size | Believe Websites | Fresha |
|---|---|---|
| Just you | £49website and booking included | £27.90£14.95 + £12.95 website |
| 3 people | £49 | £42.803 × £9.95 + £12.95 |
| 4 people | £49cheaper from here on | £52.754 × £9.95 + £12.95 |
| 5 people | £49 | £62.705 × £9.95 + £12.95 |
| 10 people | £49saves £63.45 a month | £112.4510 × £9.95 + £12.95 |
| 20 people | £49saves £162.95 a month | £211.9520 × £9.95 + £12.95 |
If you work on your own, Fresha is the cheaper monthly bill and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The crossover is at four team members. From there the two lines move in opposite directions: ours stays at £49 whether you have four people or forty, and Fresha's climbs by £9.95 every time you take someone on.
The number that is not on the pricing page: commission
Fresha's marketplace is a genuine source of new clients, and it is not free. Fresha's published rate is a 20% one-time commission on every brand new client who discovers you through the marketplace, with a minimum fee of £4 per client. Returning clients are free, and clients who book through your own link, Instagram or Facebook are free.
That sounds small until you put a number on it. Here is the same five-person salon over a year, in three versions.
£49 × 12. No commission, no per-person fees, no build cost.
£62.70 × 12, before any marketplace commission.
Adds 15 × £8 a month, taking 20% of a £40 first visit.
The third bar is a worked example, not a quote: it assumes 15 brand new marketplace clients a month with a £40 first visit. Your own number depends entirely on how many new clients Fresha sends you and what they spend. The point is that the line exists at all, and that on a flat £49 plan it does not.
The other fees, side by side
| Believe Websites | Fresha | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission on bookings | 0%on every booking, from anyone | 20% on new marketplace clientsminimum £4 per client; returning clients free |
| Extra team members | Unlimited, freeadd the whole team | £9.95 each, every monthper bookable team member |
| A website | Includedbespoke, built for you | £12.95 a monthSmart Website add-on, template-based |
| Text reminders | Coming soonemail confirmations and reminders included today | 20 free a month per personthen £0.06 per text; email free and unlimited |
| Card payments | Coming soonwe will add 0% of our own on top of the card fee | 1.40% + £0.25 online1.19% + £0.20 in person, plus £0.07 per Tap to Pay |
| Reporting and insights | Includedmonthly website report and analytics | £7.95 per bookable team memberInsights add-on |
| Loyalty | Not offered | £49.95 per locationClient Loyalty add-on |
Two of those rows are honest weak spots for us and they are marked as such. Text reminders and card payments are built but not switched on yet, so today your confirmations and reminders go out by email. Fresha does both now. If taking card payments inside your booking system is the thing you cannot work without this month, that is a real reason to choose Fresha.
A website you own, or a profile you rent
This is the part that matters more than the monthly figure, and it is the easiest one to skip past while you are comparing prices.
Fresha's Smart Website is a template. You pick it, you fill it in, you keep it up to date, and it describes your business the way Fresha's template describes businesses. It is quick, and for a lot of one-person businesses it is enough.
What we build is a website designed around your business specifically — your photos, your colours, your treatments and prices, your reviews, your area — on your own domain, something like www.yourbusiness.co.uk. We design it, we build it, we host it, and when you want something changed you message us and we change it. You never touch an editor unless you want to.
- Your own domain. Not a profile page on somebody else's platform with your name at the end of the URL.
- Built for you, not filled in by you. You tell us about the business; the site is designed around it.
- Unlimited small changes, done for you. New treatment, new price, new opening hours, a photo swap — message us, it is included.
- Your best reviews on your own site. Google, Facebook and your booking platform, shown near the top, word for word.
- Yours at the end. After the 12-month minimum term you can take ownership of the website.
Getting found by AI, not just browsed in an app
A marketplace listing works when somebody is already inside that marketplace looking for a salon. That is a real channel, and it is also a channel you are renting on commission.
The way people find local businesses is also shifting. A lot of them now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI overview something like "best salon near me for balayage" and act on the answer. Those systems answer from what they can read and understand on the open web — structured pages about your services, clear information about where you are and what you charge, proper schema markup, real reviews, and content written about your town and your treatments.
That is what every site we build is set up for, and it is the whole reason the company exists. Structured data, individual service pages, clear business information, your reviews, and a new search-and-AI-friendly article about your area and your treatments added to your site every month. You can see the shape of it on our home page, including the AI Search Readiness score you get in your dashboard.
Where Fresha genuinely wins
If this article only listed our advantages it would not be much use to you. Fresha is a serious product and these are real reasons to choose it.
- It is cheaper for one or two people. £27.90 a month with the website add-on against our £49.
- Card payments and text reminders work today. Ours are built but not switched on yet.
- The marketplace brings new clients. You pay 20% for them, but discovery is a real benefit, especially for a new business with no reputation yet.
- Month to month, with a 7-day trial. No minimum term. We ask for 12 months because we build the site for nothing up front.
- Deep salon features. Stock, point of sale, loyalty, an AI concierge, Xero — mostly as paid add-ons, but they exist and are mature.
Everything side by side
| Believe Websites | Fresha | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | £49 flatany team size | From £27.90£9.95 per team member + £12.95 website |
| Cost to build the website | £0designed and built for you | £0but you build it yourself from a template |
| Bespoke design | Yesyour photos, colours, services | Notemplate you configure |
| Your own domain | Yeswe buy and connect it for you | Yesyou buy and connect it yourself |
| Changes after launch | Message us, we do itunlimited small changes, fair use | You do itself-service editor |
| Booking page in your branding | Yeson your own site, every treatment and price | Yes |
| Unlimited bookings | Yes | Yes |
| Commission | 0% | 20% on new marketplace clientsminimum £4 |
| Email confirmations, cancel and reschedule | Yes | Yes |
| Text reminders | Coming soon | 20 free per person, then £0.06 |
| Card payments | Coming soon | Yes1.40% + £0.25 online |
| Monthly SEO and AI article | Yeswritten about your town and treatments | No |
| Schema and AI search setup | Yesbuilt into every site | Not as a product feature |
| Marketplace of browsing clients | No | Yespaid for by commission |
| Minimum term | 12 monthsthen month to month; the site can become yours | None7-day trial |
So which one should you pick?
Fresha, if
- You work alone or with one other person and the monthly bill is the deciding factor.
- You need to take card payments inside your booking system right now.
- You want a marketplace of people browsing for appointments and you are happy to pay 20% of a first visit for each of them.
- You would rather set up and maintain your own site than have one built for you.
Believe Websites, if
- You have four or more people and you do not want your software bill to grow every time you hire.
- You want the whole thing done for you, including the changes afterwards.
- You want a real website on your own domain, built to be found by Google and by AI assistants, not just a booking profile.
- You would rather keep 100% of what every client spends.
Common questions
- Is Believe Websites cheaper than Fresha?
- From four team members upwards, yes. A five-person salon pays £49 a month with us against £62.70 with Fresha once the Smart Website add-on is included, and a ten-person salon pays £49 against £112.45. For a single-person business Fresha is cheaper at £27.90 a month. We also take 0% commission, while Fresha takes 20% of a new marketplace client's first visit.
- Does Fresha include a website?
- Not in the base price. Fresha's Smart Website is an add-on at £12.95 a month, and it is a template you set up and maintain yourself. Believe Websites includes a bespoke website, designed and built for you on your own domain, in the £49 a month price.
- How much commission does Fresha charge?
- Fresha charges a 20% one-time commission, with a minimum of £4, on brand new clients who discover your business through the Fresha marketplace. Returning clients, and clients who book through your own link, Instagram or Facebook, are free. Believe Websites charges no commission on any booking.
- Can I move my bookings to Believe Websites from Fresha?
- Yes. Talk to us about what you have in Fresha before you switch and we will tell you honestly what will carry over and what will not.
- Do I have to sign a contract?
- There is a 12-month minimum term, because the website itself is designed and built for £0 upfront rather than billed as a project. After 12 months the plan continues month to month with no further commitment, and if you leave you can take ownership of your website.
- What does the £49 a month actually include?
- A bespoke website designed and built for your business, your own domain, hosting, SSL, maintenance, unlimited small changes done for you, your own booking system for unlimited team members, email confirmations and reminders, analytics, a monthly website report, an AI Search Readiness score, and a new search-and-AI-friendly article about your area and services each month.
Sources
- Fresha pricing — checked 23 October 2026
- Believe Websites pricing and terms — checked 23 October 2026
Competitors' prices change. Every figure here was read from the company's own public pricing page on the date shown. If something is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.