Comparison · Fresha alternative

The honest Fresha alternativefor independent studios

Fresha is a salon and spa giant with a huge marketplace — and it's expanding into fitness. But its DNA is appointments, not capacity-managed classes. If classes, memberships and punch cards are core to your business, Class Booking runs them natively, on your own brand, with no marketplace commission.

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Studios switching from Fresha typically save the 20% new-client marketplace fee
Plus our team handles your migration

Why studios switch

The most common reasons studios leave Fresha

The marketplace takes a cut of new clients

Fresha is subscription-free, but new clients who find you through its marketplace carry a one-time commission, and card payments run through Fresha's processing. "Free" has a business model.

Classes are an add-on, not the core

Fresha's fitness-and-recovery features are recent. Capacity management, waitlists and class-pack pricing don't have the depth of a system built class-first.

Your clients see your competitors

The Fresha marketplace that brings you clients also shows them every other studio nearby. On Class Booking, your booking page is yours alone.

Memberships built for salons, not schedules

Selling unlimited class memberships, intro offers and punch cards alongside each other is what class businesses live on — and what appointment-first tools handle awkwardly.

Payment lock-in

Many Fresha features assume Fresha-processed payments. Class Booking runs on your own Stripe account — your money, your processor relationship.

Side by side

Class Booking vs Fresha

No spin. Both columns reflect public pricing and published features at the time of writing.

Class BookingFresha
Pricing model€10 / £8 / $13/month flat, 0% booking feesSubscription-free + one-time fee per marketplace client + card processing (per their public pricing, July 2026)
Group classes with capacity & waitlistsNative — capacity, waitlists, auto-promotionRecent addition, appointment-first DNA
Memberships & punch cards for classesUnlimited memberships, class packs, punch cards side by sideGeared to salon services and session packs
1:1 treatments & appointmentsNative — durations, buffers, rooms, intake formsExcellent — Fresha's core strength
Salon POS & retail stockNot our focusDeep (retail, stock, commissions)
Who owns the client relationshipYou — own domain, own brand, no cross-promotionMarketplace also promotes nearby businesses
PaymentsYour own Stripe account (Apple/Google Pay included)Fresha-processed payments power most features
ContractMonthly rolling, cancel anytimeNo subscription to cancel — fees per activity

Honest take

When Fresha is still the right choice

We're not the right fit for everyone. Here's when you should stay with Fresha.

  • Salon and spa depth is real: POS, retail stock, staff commissions and consumer reach that a booking-first tool doesn't match.
  • The marketplace genuinely brings new clients in big cities — if discovery is your bottleneck and commissions are acceptable, that's worth something.
  • Free entry: for a solo therapist with no classes and simple needs, Fresha's zero-subscription model is hard to argue with.
Migration, done for you

Switching from Fresha? We do all the work.

Tell us when you want to switch. We export your members, classes, schedules and active subscriptions from Fresha, import them to Class Booking, sit on a video call with you to verify everything looks right, and switch your domain over the weekend. Your customers don't notice.

  • All members & contact info
  • Active subscriptions (no re-auth needed)
  • Class-pass balances preserved 1:1
  • Historical bookings & attendance
  • Personal handover by a real human
How migration works

Typical migration timeline

  1. Day 1Discovery call — we understand your setup and timing.
  2. Day 2–3We export your data from Fresha and import to Class Booking.
  3. Day 4Walkthrough call — we verify everything looks right with you.
  4. Day 5–7You configure final touches (branding, custom pages).
  5. WeekendDomain cuts over. Your customers wake up Monday on Class Booking.

Switching from Fresha — FAQ

No — and that's deliberate. Class Booking costs from €10/month flat with 0% booking fees and no marketplace commission. Fresha is subscription-free but monetises through a one-time fee on marketplace-sourced clients and payment processing. Busy class businesses usually come out ahead on a flat price.

Yes — we import your clients, their contact details and upcoming appointments. Gift-card balances and packages are recreated so nobody loses what they've paid for.

No. Class Booking has no marketplace — your booking page runs on your own domain and promotes only you. New clients find you through your own site's SEO, not a shared feed that also lists your competitors.

If treatments dominate and you want retail/POS depth, Fresha is a fair choice. The moment classes, memberships or punch cards matter — a weekly stretch class, a course, unlimited members — Class Booking's class-first engine pays for itself.

Yes — pay per hour, per session or per attendee, with one-click export. Commission-based retail pay (a salon speciality) is not something we do.

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Fresha alternative (2026) — Class Booking