BeautySuite vs Fresha: a cheap diary and a voice receptionist
Fresha charges a low fee per professional and adds a marketplace and payments. BeautySuite has no diary and no marketplace: it answers. Pros and cons of both.
Fresha tends to come up as the cheap option, and on fixed fee it is. But in a comparison with BeautySuite the price matters least: they are tools from different families. Fresha runs your diary and, if you want, brings you clients through its marketplace. BeautySuite does neither: it answers the phone and the chat using your treatment menu while you work. What follows comes from Fresha's pricing page and help centre, consulted on 21 October 2026. The page does not say which country its figures are for: they are in euros and before tax, and you should check them in your own account.
What each one is
Fresha is management software for beauty businesses: calendar, online booking, payments, messages to clients, an optional marketplace and paid add-ons such as loyalty or Google reviews. BeautySuite is an AI receptionist that answers by voice and by chat, using your treatment menu, and sends you to book where you already book. It answers by voice from the button on your website or from a voice page. That page can also go on a QR code. It records every conversation with audio, transcript and summary. The link to the voice page is the one you can put in your Instagram bio.
What each one costs
Fresha publishes two plans: Independent, at €12.95 a month for one bookable professional, and Team, at €8.95 a month per member, before tax and with a seven-day trial and no minimum commitment. Online and in-person payments carry 1.29% plus €0.20 per transaction. Automatic notifications by email and through the app are free and unlimited; it includes 20 free SMS a month and then €0.14 per SMS. It also describes a single fee per new client arriving through its marketplace, which depends on the value of the first booking, with a cap and a minimum; its pricing page does not make the amount clear and we do not reproduce it. BeautySuite, on the Entry plan for aesthetics and nails, costs €59 a month excluding VAT, paid annually with the launch offer until 31 December 2026 (€99 at the standard rate).
Pros and cons of Fresha
- Pro: the published fixed fee is lower than the one published by Booksy, with no lock-in and with a trial.
- Pro: diary, payments, messages, add-ons and marketplace in one place.
- Pro: notifications by email and through the app cost nothing extra.
- Con: the extras add up: SMS beyond the 20 free ones, loyalty and Google reviews are paid separately.
- Con: the new-client fee for the marketplace and how it is calculated call for careful reading of the help centre.
- Con: it does not answer by voice when someone rings your centre. On the pages we consulted we did not see an AI receptionist.
Pros and cons of BeautySuite
- Pro: it picks up the phone for you while you work and answers from your menu and in the caller's language (an instruction to the assistant, with no published measurement).
- Pro: it does not replace your diary or require you to migrate anything; no commission per appointment.
- Pro: everything is recorded and summarised in your panel.
- Con: it costs more per month than the fee of a diary like Fresha's, and it adds to it instead of saving it.
- Con: it does not book, take payments, bring new clients or send reminders.
- Con: today the call is made from the browser, without dialling a number.
When to choose Fresha
If you have no diary with online booking, Fresha is a cheap way to start, with the caveat of the extras. If you want a marketplace, first work out how many new clients would reach you and how much you would pay for them.
When to add BeautySuite
If you already book with Fresha (or another tool) and what you lose is calls in the middle of a treatment and time spent answering the same questions, BeautySuite adds on, it does not replace. Take a look at the voice feature from the website and Instagram bio, or at the market pillar to see the three kinds of tool.
The simplest test is a sum you can do in ten minutes. Write down what you pay or would pay for the diary, then what the receptionist would add on top, and set that against the enquiries you know you lose when you are with a client. Only you can put a value on those, because only you know how many of them would have turned into bookings. If the number is small, keep the cheap diary and leave it there. If it is not, the extra fee is easier to justify than it looks, and you can judge the quality of the calls by listening to the recordings.