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. Powered by Stripe, 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 (powered by Stripe) 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 two clearly-priced extras (the Marketing Suite and the AI assistant), and Website Pro folds the first 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.