Believe Websites vs Setmore: a free booking page, or a booking website built for you?

Setmore is one of the best-known free booking apps, and it has a UK phone line on its site. It gives you an online Booking Page, a calendar, staff scheduling and phone apps, and it starts at nothing. So for a salon, barber or therapist the real question is not whether Setmore works. It does. The question is what you are left needing once your booking page is set up, and who looks after it.

Every Setmore figure below was read from Setmore's own pricing and feature pages on 4 November 2026, and the sources are listed at the bottom.

The short version

If you want the cheapest way to take bookings online, already have a website or are happy with a booking page and your social profiles, and want text reminders or deposits today, Setmore is very hard to beat on price. You set it up yourself.

Believe Websites is £49 a month flat, whatever the size of your team. We design and build a whole website for £0 upfront, with booking inside it, on your own domain, and change it for you when you message. We take 0% of every booking. We cost more than Setmore, and what the money buys is the website and the person who keeps it right.

What Setmore costs

Both plans list unlimited appointments, accepting payments and a branded Booking Page. Pro adds recurring appointments, two-way calendar sync, Google Reviews on your page, the ability to block customers and priority support. Setmore says the Pro billing cycle starts the day you sign up and renews automatically, that you can cancel at any time, and that you can try Pro for 30 days and ask for a refund.

Payments come from someone else

Setmore takes payments and deposits on your Booking Page through Square, Stripe or PayPal. You connect one of them, and that provider charges its own card fees. Setmore's pricing page does not list those fees, so check them with whichever provider you choose.

What a year costs

For a small team on annual billing, Setmore costs a fraction of what we do. Billed monthly, per user, the gap closes as the team grows. Either way, what Setmore's price buys is the booking system. The website is a separate question.

A booking page is not a website

Setmore's Booking Page shows your services, prices, team, availability, reviews and logo, and you can customise its link, add a Book Now button to Google, Instagram and Facebook, and turn on Reserve with Google. Setmore describes it as a page that can stand alone or link to your site. It is built to take a booking, not to be the place someone lands when they search for a salon in your town and want to know who you are, what each treatment involves and why they should pick you.

If you already have a good website, that is fine: Setmore's booking widget can sit inside it. If you do not, you still need one, and someone has to build it, host it and keep it updated. That is the part we do.

What the £49 pays for with us

• A bespoke website, designed around your business: your photos, services, prices, reviews and area.
• Your own domain, something like www.yourbusiness.co.uk, bought and connected for you.
• Booking inside the site for unlimited team members, with email confirmations and reminders.
• Changes done for you. Message us; unlimited small changes, fair use.
• Analytics, a monthly report and an AI Search Readiness score, so you can see what is in place and how the site is doing.
• A new article every month about your town and your services, written to be read by search engines and AI assistants.
• 0% commission on every booking, from anyone.

The whole offer is on our home page. After the 12-month minimum term it carries on month to month, and the website can become yours.

Being found on Google and by AI

Setmore's Reserve with Google integration lets people book from Google Search and Maps, which is genuinely useful. A booking page alone, though, has little to say about your business. Every site we build is set up with structured data, a page for each service, clear business details and a monthly article about your town and services, and your dashboard shows an AI Search Readiness score.

Where Setmore genuinely wins

• It is free for up to 4 users, with unlimited appointments. We have no free plan.
• It is much cheaper on Pro. $5 per user a month billed annually, against our £49 a month flat.
• Text reminders today. Pro lists SMS reminders. Ours are built but not switched on yet, so today we send email confirmations and reminders only.
• Payments and deposits today, through Square, Stripe or PayPal. Our card payments are built but not switched on, so we cannot take a deposit for you yet.
• No minimum term. Setmore says you can cancel at any time. We have a 12-month minimum term because we build the site for £0 upfront.
• Apps and Reserve with Google. iOS and Android apps for you and your team, and booking from Google Search and Maps.

Neither of us runs a marketplace of people browsing for somewhere to book. If you want one, see how marketplaces charge for it in Believe Websites vs Fresha. For another low-cost booking app with an optional website add-on, see Believe Websites vs Square Appointments.

Everything side by side

So which one should you pick?

Setmore, if

• You already have a website you are happy with, or a booking page and social profiles are enough.
• You want the lowest possible cost, or free for a team of up to four.
• You need text reminders or deposits this week.
• You are happy to set it up and keep it updated yourself.

Believe Websites, if

• You do not have a proper website, or the one you have is out of date.
• You want one flat price however big the team gets, with no commission on any booking.
• You would rather send a message than log in when a price or a member of staff changes.
• You want a monthly article and an AI Search Readiness score working on how you are found.
• Email confirmations and reminders are enough for you today.

Setmore is popular with tutors and teachers too. We priced it against the tools built for them in the best booking platforms for tutors in 2026.