Believe Websites vs Timely: a weekly bill that moves with your bookings, or a flat fee with your website built for you?

Timely is a booking and business system from New Zealand, built for salons, spas, barbers and beauty businesses, and widely used in the UK. Its pitch is simple: unlimited team members on every plan, texts included, and a weekly bill that goes up and down with how busy you are.

We are a narrower thing: a bespoke website on your own domain, built and changed for you, with booking inside it. So this is a comparison of what you pay, what you end up with on the web, and who does the work. Every Timely figure below was read from Timely's own pricing page on 27 October 2026.

The short version

Timely starts from £4 a week on Run, £7 on Boost and £9 on Thrive, with unlimited team members and SMS included. The price adjusts with the bookings you take each week. It takes card payments and deposits today, and there is no contract.

Believe Websites is £49 a month flat, whatever the size of your team and however busy you are, and includes a bespoke website designed and built for you, for £0 upfront, on your own domain. We take 0% of every booking. What we do not have yet is text reminders or card payments: both are built but not switched on.

What Timely's pricing page actually says

Run covers online booking and the calendar, SMS, a branded website, client records, automated reminders, in-person payments and online deposits, and reporting. Boost adds Reserve with Google, SMS marketing campaigns, service add-ons, digital consultation forms, post-appointment messages, cancellation fees, client rewards, and promos and packages. Thrive adds VIP services, a branded client experience, automated consultation forms, rebooking reminders, accounting integrations and the connected stock app.

The thing to understand is the billing. Timely asks for the average number of bookings you take in a week to set your first bill, and after that the weekly bill adjusts automatically as you get quieter or busier. The "from" prices are where it starts. The page does not publish the rate per booking, so if you take a lot of bookings, you will need Timely's calculator or sales team to know what you will actually pay.

Card fees and texts

Timely says businesses taking more than 15 bookings a week can discuss a custom in-person rate. Texts are included in every plan, worked out from the bookings you take: one per booking on Run for appointment messages, two on Boost and three on Thrive, which also cover promotional messages.

The website, and the domain

Timely includes a free, customisable mini-website on every plan, and lets you add booking buttons to any website, including Squarespace and Wix, and to Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Its marketing page describes the mini-website as the answer to "no website? no problem".

Neither Timely's pricing page nor its marketing page says whether the mini-website can run on your own domain. If you want www.yourbusiness.co.uk, ask Timely, or plan to build a separate site on Wix or Squarespace and pay for that too.

At its starting prices, every Timely plan costs less than our £49. What changes the sum is how busy you are, which Timely's page does not let you calculate, and whether you want a real website on your own domain on top.

What the £49 pays for with us

• A bespoke website, designed around your business — your photos, services, prices, reviews and area — not a mini-site template.
• Your own domain, something like www.yourbusiness.co.uk, bought and connected for you.
• Changes done for you. New prices, new hours, a new team member: message us. Unlimited small changes, fair use.
• Your booking system inside the site, for unlimited team members, with email confirmations and reminders.
• One price however busy you get. £49 a month whether you take 20 bookings a week or 200.
• 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 when people ask an AI

More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI overview where to book and act on the answer. Those systems answer from what they can read on the open web: clear pages about what you do, where you are, what you charge, and real reviews. Timely's Boost plan adds Reserve with Google, which is useful for taking bookings from Google, and it is a different job from having a full website that explains your business.

Every site we build is set up with structured data, a page for each service, clear business details and a monthly article, and your dashboard shows an AI Search Readiness score so you can see what is there.

Where Timely genuinely wins

• It is cheaper to start. Run starts from £4 a week, around £17 a month, and even Thrive starts below our £49.
• Texts are included. Every Timely plan includes SMS for each booking. Our confirmations and reminders go by email; text reminders are built but not switched on.
• Payments and deposits work today. Card readers, Tap to Pay, online deposits and, on Boost, cancellation fees. Our card payments are built but not switched on, so we cannot take a deposit for you yet.
• Reserve with Google and consultation forms on Boost and above. We do neither.
• More business software. Stock, rewards, packages, rosters, accounting integrations. We are a website with booking, not a full salon management system.
• No contract. Timely says you can cancel with 14 days' notice and offers a 14-day free trial. We ask for a 12-month minimum term, because we build the site for nothing up front.

Neither of us sends you clients from a marketplace: Timely's pricing page lists none, and we do not run one. If that is what you want, compare how the marketplaces charge for it in Believe Websites vs Fresha and Believe Websites vs Booksy.

Everything side by side

So which one should you pick?

Timely, if

• You want the cheapest way in, and your bookings are steady enough that a usage-based bill suits you.
• Text reminders, deposits and card payments matter to you this week.
• You want Reserve with Google, consultation forms or stock management.
• A mini-website is enough, or you are happy to build and pay for your own site separately.
• You do not want any minimum term.

Believe Websites, if

• You want one fixed price that does not rise when you get busier.
• You want a real website on your own domain and do not want to build it yourself.
• You would rather message someone to change your prices than log in and do it.
• 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.

Running a tattoo studio? We compared Timely with Tattoogenda, Porter, Booksy, Fresha, Square and ourselves in the best booking platforms for tattoo studios. For salons, see the best booking platforms for hair salons.