Atelier Booking vs Fresha
Fresha (formerly Shedul) built its name on "subscription-free" booking software. That era ended in 2025 — here's what the model looks like now, and what it means for who owns your clients.
| Dimension | Atelier | Fresha |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Free plan · paid from $29/mo ($49 BYO processor) | No longer free — from ~$20/mo solo, ~$15/member on teams |
| Grows with team size? | No — same at any size | Yes — per bookable member |
| Per-location fees | $25/mo per extra — full plan at each | Enterprise quoted |
| Cut of your bookings | Never — $0 per booking, no commission | 20% new-client fee (min $6) on marketplace clients + metered messaging |
| Features | Unlimited staff on every plan; higher plans fold the add-ons in | Deep feature set; AI concierge $99.95/mo extra |
| Your own domain | Day one — no upgrade fee | No — marketplace profile |
| Your own texting number | Yes — two-way; with text reminders on every paid plan | No — one-way texts, replies not received |
| AI receptionist for texts | $39/mo — books by text, staff approve by text | Yes — AI Concierge at $99.95/mo per location |
| Booth renters paid directly | Included — each pro's own account, no extra % | Yes — via their wallet system |
| Whose website ranks? | Yours — full site on your domain, structured data from live booking data | Theirs — rich listing data ranks on fresha.com |
| Payment processor | Atelier Payments (Stripe), or your own Stripe/Square/Clover | Fresha payments |
What Fresha does well
Fresha's platform has matured into one of the deepest feature sets in the industry, its consumer marketplace generates real new-client traffic, and its marketplace listings are impressively engineered. Their AI concierge (an add-on at a published $99.95/month per location) handles calls and messages.
How they price now
Fresha removed its free-forever plan in 2025. Published pricing now starts around $20/month for an independent and roughly $15 per bookable team member on teams, plus card processing, metered client messaging beyond a small monthly allowance, and a 20% new-client fee (minimum $6) on the first appointment of any client acquired through their marketplace. One widely-reported gotcha: if you don't import your existing client list before your regulars find you on the marketplace, the new-client fee applies to people who were already yours. Verify current Fresha pricing and fee terms on their site — these change.
Who owns the client relationship
Fresha's marketplace holds the consumer account — your clients book through Fresha's app and website, your reviews and services build a profile that ranks on fresha.com, and marketplace surfaces show other businesses alongside yours. Text notifications go out one-way; clients can't reply, and there's no per-business texting number. It's a genuinely good marketplace — but the discovery, the data, and the search ranking accrue to the platform.
How Atelier prices
Free Starter plan; paid plans from $29/month ($49 with your own processor) — flat at any team size, with no new-client fees and no messaging meters on paid plans (500 texts a month included, from your own two-way number). Our AI booking assistant is $39/month against their concierge's published $99.95 — ours handles texts and web chat rather than voice calls, which is exactly why it costs less than half as much.
Where Atelier is different
Atelier runs a public directory that feeds new customers to its businesses — but the bookings click through to YOUR URL rather than completing inside the directory, there's no cut on directory-sourced clients, and your reviews, services and prices are published as structured data on your own domain, where they build your search ranking. Discovery without the commission tax, and a client list that lives in your database.
Where Fresha might fit better
If marketplace foot traffic is your main acquisition channel and you're comfortable paying 20% for each new client it brings, Fresha's marketplace is one of the largest in beauty and wellness — that exposure is real, and per-member pricing can suit teams with many part-timers.
Who each is best for
Fresha fits businesses that want maximum marketplace exposure and accept the new-client fees and platform-held client relationships that come with it. Atelier fits businesses that want their clients, reviews, rankings and texting number to belong to them — with directory discovery included and nothing charged per client.
Start free. Take real bookings today.
Free to start — and your first month of any paid plan is free. Paid plans from $29 a month, every team size.