If you pay a marketplace a fee on clients who already follow your salon on Instagram, this is for you. It is not for a salon that takes deposits and card payments through its booking tool: stay on Fresha, or another tool with payments, and skip to the table.
What does Fresha charge, and what is free?
Fresha's own price page, read on 14 October 2026, shows US dollars only. The Team plan is USD 14.95 a month for each bookable team member, and a solo stylist on the Independent plan pays USD 19.95. The line that matters is a different one: 20% once, with a minimum of USD 6 a client, on a brand-new client who finds you through the Fresha marketplace. The dirham is pegged at 3.6725 to the dollar, so that minimum is about AED 22.
Returning clients carry no fee. Direct booking links, Instagram bookings and Facebook bookings are listed as free. Online card payments cost 2.79% + USD 0.20.
The subscription is not what separates the tools. For 8 bookable stylists, Fresha Team is USD 119.60 a month. Our page prices the same 8 at AED 430, which is USD 117.09. They sit USD 2.51 apart. What differs is the new-client fee, and what each tool does.
Why do some owners say they pay for clients they brought?
Because the fee depends on how Fresha decides who is new. Its page says the fee applies to new clients from the marketplace, not to your own link, Instagram or Facebook. Some owners say it does not work out that way.
A Trustpilot reviewer, quoted by TimeTailor (the page is undated), wrote: "Fees are charged misleadingly, especially with the New Customer Introduction Fee." A working esthetician on r/Esthetics, quoted by Sort The Clicks, gave the wider complaint: "Fresha is deceptively very expensive, they just use 'it's free to get started' to lure you in." We could not open the Reddit thread, so treat that line as quoted.
These are reviewers' reports, not Fresha's terms, and we have not seen anyone's invoices. Fresha's page also says nothing about Google. Pabau, a rival salon system, wrote on 22 September 2026 that the fee does not apply to bookings through your own website, Google or social channels. That is a rival's reading. If clients find you on Google and then book on Fresha, ask Fresha support in writing which side of the line they fall on.
So the fee is real, and the fight is over who counts as new. That is why the test below uses your own list, not ours.
How do you count it in one hour?
With your diary and last quarter's new clients. No spreadsheet skills needed.
- 01List last quarter's new clients from your diary or from Fresha's client list.
- 02Next to each name, write how they found you: Instagram, Google, a friend, walking past, or only the Fresha marketplace.
- 03Count the clients only the marketplace could have found. Each cost you at least USD 6 (about AED 22), or 20% of the first booking if that is more.
- 04Ask honestly whether those clients would have found you anyway. If most would, the fee is paying for clients you already had.
Do not stop at the fee. Write down what Fresha also does for you: card payments, deposits, point of sale. A tool you leave has to be replaced in those too.
Fresha, your own page or both?
This is our rule of thumb, not a study. Match what you need to the row.
If you landed on the first two rows, close this tab and stay where you are. That is a real answer, and we would rather give it before you pay us.
What does Bookings do for a salon, and what is left out?
Mindcat Bookings is an online booking system we host and run. Each stylist gets a calendar. A client picks the stylist and a free time on their phone, in Arabic or English, from the link in your Instagram bio, and a booked time disappears from the page at once. Hours are set per day with breaks for each person, Saturday is the first day of the week, and you can set different hours on chosen dates such as Ramadan evenings or a public holiday. Receptionists and managers who run the diary are free. Booking data sits on our servers in the UAE, or in Jeddah or Riyadh for a Saudi salon. Our page's screens use sample data.
Here is the one step it changes. Before: a client messages at 9 pm on Instagram or WhatsApp, someone replies in the morning, and two clients end up booked for one chair before a holiday. After: you send the booking link in the reply, or the client uses the link in your bio, and picks a free time without waiting for you. Only free times show, worked out from each stylist's hours, breaks and bookings. Answering the message itself is a different job: if your pain is DMs that sit unanswered, that is Mindcat Inbox, not this.
What it leaves out matters as much:
- No online payments, deposits or point of sale. Clients pay at the salon.
- No marketplace. It books the clients you bring and sends you none.
- The app sends confirmations by email, not reminders. During setup we add WhatsApp confirmations on your own WhatsApp Business account and a reminder email for the day before. From 6 calendars, WhatsApp or SMS reminders go through your own provider. WhatsApp, SMS and email sending fees are billed at cost, so ask us for the current rate for your volume.
- The booking page and emails are in Arabic today, but the layout runs left to right and a few labels stay in English. We switch the layout to right to left and fix the wording during setup.
- Hijri dates, UAE PASS and Nafath are not supported today.
Bookings is for salons and clinics that book by slot. A clinic that also needs patient records is a different product: see Mindcat Clinic.
What would 8 stylists cost?
Our page prices each stylist's calendar: AED 59 a month for calendars 1 to 5, AED 45 for 6 to 15, AED 35 for 16 to 40 and AED 25 above that. For 8 stylists that is 5 × 59 + 3 × 45 = AED 430 a month (USD 117.09), plus 5 percent UAE VAT.
The per-calendar price comes with a monthly minimum, so no one can buy a single calendar at the per-calendar rate. On the shared plan the minimum is AED 399, so a salon with 3 stylists pays AED 399, not AED 177.
Up to 15 calendars, the quick start is a fixed package we set up for AED 2,500 one time. We load your services, prices and each person's hours from our CSV template, set Friday and Ramadan hours and the reminder email, and send recorded training and guides in Arabic and English. The go-live date counts from the day your file arrives. Annual prepay takes 15 percent off.
Set that beside Fresha: USD 119.60 for the same 8, plus 20% on new marketplace clients. A saving exists only if the marketplace was not filling your diary, and only your count in step 3 says so. We will not put a number on it for you.
A salon that wants billing and point of sale in the same tool needs a different product. Easeseat's pricing page (read 14 October 2026) lists billing and POS from AED 299 a month. We do not do point of sale.
What happens in the first working session?
We call the method Every slot visible: every stylist's time open to book, and nothing double-booked. You send how many stylists take bookings and how clients book today: Instagram messages, WhatsApp, the phone. We reply with the setup plan and the monthly price per calendar, in AED. If most of your new clients come from the marketplace, we will say so and point you back to Fresha. If they come from Instagram and word of mouth, tell us your stylist count and we start from your count.
