Fresha vs Vagaro for salons: what a new client costs you

The last comfortable time to change booking software is before holiday color, party nails and gift cards fill the book, which in most salons means by mid-October. Switch in December and the front desk learns a new screen with a full calendar.

Fresha and Vagaro both pair salon software with a consumer app where people find a service nearby and book it, and both take payments and send reminders. What separates them is how each makes money when a new client finds you, who else stays in touch with that client, and where your Google Book button sends people. A day spa with treatment rooms can read this the same way a salon does.

Fresha: a marketplace with a salon system attached

Fresha is a beauty and wellness marketplace with the business software behind it. The monthly subscription has a plan for one-person businesses and a team plan billed per bookable team member. Its pricing page lists your own website and your Instagram and Facebook profiles as free booking channels, plus a one-time fee on each brand-new client who discovers you through the marketplace. Google is not on that free list. Returning clients never carry the fee.

A free channel is not the same as a fee-free client. Fresha’s help center says the fee also applies when someone views your marketplace profile first and then books through your website or social media pages. A client who found you on Instagram can still count as a marketplace client. Fresha’s partner terms add a trap of their own: only Book Now links generated in your own profile skip the fee, links generated anywhere else on Fresha carry it, and Fresha will not refund a fee caused by sharing the wrong link.

The same help article has four more details worth reading twice:

• Import before you list. Clients already on your list are excluded, so Fresha tells owners to import their list before going live on the marketplace.
• Who cancels matters. If your team cancels a marketplace client’s first appointment for them, the non-refundable fee still applies. If the client cancels online, it moves to their next booking.
• Same-day no-shows are spared. Mark a first appointment a no-show on the day and the fee waits for the next booking.
• The marketplace is not optional. Unlisting your marketplace profile, Fresha says, disables all of your online booking channels, website and social links included.

Owners miss that last point, and it reaches Google: the Book button comes from Reserve with Google, an add-on you switch on under Add-ons (check its terms there), and an unlisted profile gets no Book button.

Fresha’s inbox for Google and Fresha reviews comes with every plan. Google review prompts come from Google Rating Boost, a paid add-on described as asking clients after a positive experience, and the reputation page mentions rewarding reviews with loyalty points. Google forbids review incentives and asking only happy clients, so make sure every client gets the same request with no points attached.

Vagaro: a subscription with a marketplace you can pay to be pushed in

Vagaro is an all-in-one subscription that scales with the bookable calendars at a location and includes a free listing on the Vagaro Marketplace, which carries no booking fees. Every plan books through Vagaro, Instagram, Facebook and Apple Maps. Google is less clear: a Vagaro article from February 2024 said its Google Book Online button costs nothing extra, but the current pricing page lists Google booking among its multi-location features rather than among the items every plan includes, so confirm it during the trial. Text marketing, forms and payroll are monthly add-ons, priced location by location.

Paid promotion is optional. In July 2026 Vagaro replaced Get Featured with Vera Fill My Books, where its AI assistant promotes your open times through sponsored placements, Daily Deals, emails and push notifications. No monthly charge: a larger per-booking fee when it books a brand-new client, a smaller one for a client you already have, and nothing if it books nobody. You also set the largest discount Vera may offer, so a promoted booking costs up to that discount plus the fee. Vagaro has to approve you first and does not say how long that takes, so set it up a few weeks before you need it.

Daily Deals sits on the list of features every plan includes, but it is not fee-free. Vagaro’s January 2023 QuickStart Guide said Daily Deals carried no commission; its participation agreement from July 2026 charges the same new-client and existing-client fees on Daily Deals bookings as on Fill My Books. The same agreement settles three things owners usually ask about. Promoted and Daily Deals bookings must run through Vagaro’s card processing. The fee stays after a no-show, or after a cancellation outside your cancellation window by either side, the opposite of Fresha’s same-day no-show rule. And by switching on Fill My Books you vouch that you hold the texting consent the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires for the clients Vera contacts.

Fresha and Vagaro side by side

	Fresha	Vagaro
Suits	Shops that want marketplace traffic and accept a one-time new-client fee	Shops that want no booking fee unless they opt into Fill My Books or Daily Deals
Billing basis	Subscription per bookable team member, plus the marketplace new-client fee	Subscription per bookable calendar at each location, plus a fee on Fill My Books and Daily Deals bookings
Messages and extras	Email and app reminders unlimited; reminder texts and marketing emails have a monthly allowance, then a per-message charge; marketing texts are charged from the first one; Google review prompts, loyalty and AI call answering are add-ons	Unlimited reminders and 1,000 marketing emails a month; text marketing, forms and payroll are add-ons
Google Book button	Reserve with Google add-on, only while your marketplace profile is listed; check its pricing	Listed as included in 2024; confirm on your plan
Fee after a no-show	Waits for the next booking if you mark a first visit a no-show on the day	Kept after a no-show or a late cancellation by either side
Ask in writing	How a first booking from your Google profile is classified	Whether the Google Book Online button is included on your plan

Who else stays in touch with an app client

Clients who book in either app hold an account with that company. Fresha’s partner terms say that for clients who book through Fresha, the salon and Fresha each act as independent data controllers, so Fresha keeps its own record of them. Vagaro’s Fill My Books emails Vagaro users within 25 miles who have not visited you, and with Fill Last-Minute Openings on, your existing clients get its pushes and emails too.

That is normal for a marketplace. Ask each one whether your client records get linked to matching app accounts and how long you have to export your list after you leave. On Vagaro, test an export during the trial.

Pros and cons

Fresha

Pros:

• A large consumer marketplace built around beauty and wellness.
• You pay for a marketplace client once, and never for their return visits.
• A shared inbox for Google and Fresha reviews and Client Connect, where clients message you from their booking, come with every plan.

Cons:

• Online booking of any kind depends on staying listed on the marketplace.
• The fee can reach a client who saw your marketplace profile, then booked through your own link.
• The fee stays when your team cancels a first visit for the client.
• Reminder texts past the monthly allowance and every marketing text are charged, and Google review prompts cost extra.

Vagaro

Pros:

• The marketplace listing carries no booking fee unless you run Fill My Books or a Daily Deal.
• Vagaro said in 2024 that the Google Book Online button costs nothing extra.
• Multi-location syncing and access levels, with payroll and rent collection available.

Cons:

• Fill My Books and Daily Deals also charge on existing clients they book.
• A promoted booking can carry a discount up to the limit you set, as well as the fee.
• The fee stays after a no-show or a late cancellation, and promoted bookings must use Vagaro’s card processing.
• Text marketing, forms and payroll are paid add-ons.

Three shops, three answers

A solo chair renter building a book from scratch. Both marketplaces can fill early gaps, so start with the one your local clients actually open. On Fresha you pay once per marketplace-found client; on Vagaro you pay nothing until a promotion you switched on books someone, and then you can fund a discount too.

A five-chair salon with steady regulars. Both systems can leave regulars fee-free. On Fresha, import the client list before you list on the marketplace and the regulars never carry the fee, so you pay only for first-timers the marketplace finds. On Vagaro, with Fill My Books and Daily Deals off, booking fees stay at zero. If January looks thin, Vagaro has to approve Fill My Books first and gives no timeline, so set it up a few weeks ahead, knowing Fill Last-Minute Openings also reaches regulars who would have booked anyway, now with a discount and a fee. A salon that wants a steady trickle of new faces leans Fresha; one that wants to pay nothing until it asks for a push leans Vagaro.

A group with several locations. Vagaro’s location syncing, access levels and data integrations were built for this; Fresha sells a Data Connector add-on for sending its data to spreadsheets and other systems. Either way, each location needs its own Google Business Profile for its Book button.

What we would check in your system

What a tap on your Google Book button costs depends on the system behind it. On Fresha, we read the client source Fresha records against where you believed each client came from. On Vagaro, we look at who Fill My Books actually booked and whether they would have found you anyway. After any move between the two, we tap the Book button ourselves once the 48 hours Fresha allows have passed, to see where it lands.

For that work in your trade, see hair salons and barbershops or nail salons, and how we handle your Google Business Profile and reviews. We keep the profile in step with the booking system: hours, services and photos that match what the Book button offers, and the same review request to every client, with no loyalty points attached. The profile, the site and the client list stay in your name.

Tell us which of the two runs your book, and the free plan starts there: how many of last quarter’s first visits carried a fee, where your Book button points today, and the profile changes that would bring more first-timers in through channels that carry no fee on your system.