Take payment online, in person, or both
Hold a card to stop no-shows. Take a deposit at booking. Charge a no-show fee automatically. Or just take cash in person like always. We never take a cut of a booking — and paying in person is always free, running alongside whatever card option you choose rather than instead of it.
We never take a cut of your bookings
Most platforms are vague about this, so to be blunt: Atelier charges you a monthly plan. That's it. There is no per-booking fee, no commission on your sales, and no percentage skimmed off a service just because it was booked through us. The only other money that can ever reach Atelier is a card-processing rate — and only on payments you choose to run through our gateway.
Online, in person, or both — and in person is free
- Your own methods — free, and it stacks. Cash, or the card machine you already have behind the counter. The customer books online and settles up at the shop like a regular walk-in. No fee, no cut, we never touch the money. This is not an either/or with the two options below: switch it on alongside whichever card option you pick and your customers choose at checkout. Most shops run both. (Want an Atelier tap-to-pay reader tied to your calendar instead? That's the In-Person Payments add-on — card taps carry your regular Atelier card rate.)
- Your own processor — we add 0%. Connect the Stripe, Square or Clover account you already use. They bill you directly at their published rate; Atelier adds nothing on top and never sees the transaction.
- Atelier Payments — 3.1% + 30¢, all-in on paid plans. Stripe or Square under the hood — your pick, same rate — for operators who'd rather not set up a merchant account at all. Switch it on and you can take cards the same day with nothing to configure — and your monthly plan is lower in exchange. The free Starter plan runs at 3.4% + 49¢ (it's how a $0/mo plan pays for itself); upgrade to any paid plan and the rate drops.
The only real either/or is between those last two, and it's a narrow one: it's just how you'd like to take cards online. Everything else mixes freely — take a deposit online and the balance in person, charge in full at booking for high-ticket services, or take nothing online at all and use Atelier purely for the schedule.
What "all-in" means on Atelier Payments
The quoted rate — 3.1% + 30¢ on paid plans, 3.4% + 49¢ on the free Starter plan — is the entire card cost: Stripe's underlying card-network and processing fees plus our share, quoted as one number so you can compare it against what you pay today without doing arithmetic. On paid plans our share is a fifth of a percent; the rest is Stripe's published rate, and if Stripe's rates ever change the all-in moves with them. If that number is worse than a rate you've already negotiated, connect your own Stripe, Square or Clover instead — the option is on every paid plan, and we would genuinely rather you took it than overpaid.
No-show protection
If you turn it on, customers put a card on file when they book. If they don't show, your no-show fee is charged automatically — no awkward phone call, no chasing, no lost revenue. The percentage and the rule are up to you.
Adjust totals on the fly
Staff can comp a service, add a tip, fix a rounding error, or apply a one-off discount on any open order with a couple of clicks. Everything is logged so you have a clean record at the end of the month. Coupons, packages, and time-based pricing all run through the same checkout.
You own the processor relationship
Bring your own processor and the account is yours end to end: you sign up with Stripe, Square or Clover directly, they bill you at their published rate, and we never touch the money, see the transaction, or add a markup. Some platforms set up a processor account on your behalf and fold the fees into one monthly bill — convenient, but the underlying account belongs to the platform rather than to your business. With Atelier the account stays yours: you can audit it, switch processors without changing platforms, and keep the account and its transaction history if you ever leave us. Atelier Payments (connect Stripe or Square — same rate either way) exists for operators who don't want that job at all — and even then, moving to your own processor later is a settings change, not a migration.
Predictable monthly cost
Free to start; paid plans from $29 a month ($49 with your own processor). Whichever one you pick, it doesn't change if you do five bookings a week or five hundred, or when you hire — the bill is the same number every month, useful when you're trying to plan your overhead.
Four things every Atelier tenant gets, on day one
- A brand-fit URL. Pick a vertical-branded subdomain on day one (yourshop.atelier.salon, .tattoo, .spa, .dance, .fitness, .golf, .dog, .pet, .skin, or seated.studio). Connect a domain you own any time — no upgrade tier.
- Pick a plan, not a parts list. Forms, staff profiles, two-way calendar sync, no-show protection, waitlists, resource scheduling, multi-location support, reviews and in-person card payments — all in the plan, including the free one. Gift cards, packages and text reminders come with every paid plan. That leaves a short list of clearly-priced extras — the Marketing Suite, the AI Suite, window kiosk displays, and branding removal — and the higher plans fold some of those in too.
- Flat as your team grows. Unlimited staff, services, and customers — the same bill with five team members as with fifty, on every plan. Additional locations are a flat $25/month each, with your full plan at each.
- A free directory listing. Every paid plan (Booking Pro and up) is auto-listed in the public Atelier directory. New customers find you there and click straight through to your booking URL — no commission, no per-booking fee, no marketplace cut.
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 after that. Cancel any time. Bring your domain, your brand, even your own Stripe, Square or Clover account. Atelier Booking handles the rest.