The Fresha alternative for nail salons: one flat fee, no commission.
Sammy Booking is booking software built for nail salons that charges one flat monthly plan sized to your team, from $69, with no commission, no percentage of your payments, and no fee on the clients you already have. Fresha starts cheap, then layers on a 20% commission on every new client who books through its marketplace, plus per-message and add-on fees that grow as your salon grows. Sammy's price never moves with your bookings, and instead of charging you to find clients, our free directory sends you new, clearly-labeled customers at no cost.
Fresha vs Sammy Booking, at a glance
Both tools let you take card payments through a processor, so processing fees are a wash and left out below. What differs is the subscription structure, commission and add-on fees.
| FreshaCanadian pricing · Jul 2026 | Sammy Booking | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription + commission + per-message + add-ons | Flat monthly plan, sized to your team |
| Core subscription | CA$29.95/mo solo, or CA$19.95 per staff member | $69 to $219/mo flat by team size, every feature and 2,000 to 8,000 texts included |
| Commission on new clients | 20% of each new marketplace client (min CA$6) | $0: no commission, ever |
| Cut of your payments | Steered onto Fresha payments (2.29% to 3.30% + fee) | $0: keep your own card processor |
| Sends you new clients? | Yes, but charges 20% for each one | Yes, free, from the Sammy directory |
| AI phone receptionist | AI Concierge add-on, CA$139.95/mo | SammyAI receptionist, from $79/mo (usage tiers) |
| Built for nail salons? | No, generic global beauty platform | Yes, nail-salon first |
| Own your client data? | Export friction reported by owners | Yes, export your list anytime |
| Ad conversion tracking | Google Ads + GA4 integration | GA4 at booking + Google Ads conversions on completed visits |
| Contract | None | None |
All figures are in Canadian dollars, from Fresha's published Canadian pricing, checked July 2026. Fresha localizes prices by country, so US and other regions differ. Prices can change, so check fresha.com/pricing for your country before relying on them. “Fresha” is a trademark of its owner; this is an independent comparison.
Fresha's 20% commission is a tax on your growth
Fresha built its name on being free, and its subscription is still low. The cost that surprises owners is the marketplace commission: 20% of every new client's first booking when they find you through the Fresha marketplace (a minimum of CA$6 each; returning clients are free).
For a busy nail salon bringing in new faces every week, that adds up fast, and many owners feel like they are paying to rent their own clients. Fresha also ended its “free forever” promise and added per-seat subscription fees, which is why “Fresha alternative” is now one of the most-searched terms in salon software.
Sammy Booking is the anti-marketplace. Our free directory lists your salon where locals already search and sends you new customers labeled “came through Sammy”, and we never charge a commission on them.
What a real salon actually pays
A 5-chair nail salon that wants online booking and an AI receptionist, and brings in about 10 new marketplace clients a month (say a $60 first service). Card processing is excluded: you pay a processor either way.
| Monthly line item | FreshaCanadian pricing · Jul 2026 | Sammy Booking |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription (5 staff) | CA$99.75 | $69 flat (Team plan) |
| New-client commission (10 × 20% of $60) | CA$120 | $0 |
| AI receptionist (Growth tier) | CA$139.95 | $129 |
| Monthly total | ≈ CA$360 | ≈ $198 |
Same salon, less than half the monthly cost, and the busier you get, the wider the gap grows, because Fresha's commission scales with your new clients while Sammy Booking's price stays flat.
All amounts in Canadian dollars, using Fresha's Canadian pricing (checked July 2026). Fresha prices differ by country, so check fresha.com/pricing for your region.
When Fresha may fit better
We won't pretend Fresha is bad software. If you run a large multi-location chain, want a single global marketplace listing across many beauty categories, or need deep built-in inventory and enterprise reporting, Fresha's scale and marketplace reach are genuinely strong.
When Sammy Booking wins
You're an independent or small-chain nail salon that wants predictable flat pricing, zero commission, to keep your own clients and data, and a tool built around how nail shops actually work, with friendly, hands-on setup. Every plan includes the full feature set, right down to the review engine that turns fresh visits into 5-star Google reviews.
Move from Fresha in an afternoon
No contract, cancel anytime, and free setup: send us your export and you can go live the same day.
Export your clients from Fresha
Your client list is yours. Pull it from Fresha's Clients export, and we'll walk you through it.
We import everything for you, free
Send us the file and we move your clients, services and calendar into Sammy Booking. Setup is on us.
Share your link and get listed
Put your booking link on Google and Instagram, and get listed in the Sammy directory: new local customers, free.
Fresha vs Sammy Booking FAQ
Is there a Fresha alternative with no commission?+
Yes. Sammy Booking charges a flat monthly plan sized to your team, from $69/month with every feature included, with no commission on any client and no percentage of your payments, unlike Fresha's 20% marketplace commission on new clients.
Does Fresha take a cut of every booking?+
No. Fresha does not take a commission on clients who book through your own link. Its 20% commission applies only to new clients who find you through the Fresha marketplace (a minimum of CA$6 per new client). Fresha also earns from payment processing and paid add-ons.
How much does Sammy Booking cost compared to Fresha?+
Sammy Booking's core booking is a flat monthly plan sized to your team: $69/month for up to 5 staff with 2,000 appointment texts, $129 for up to 10 staff with 5,000 texts, and $219 for up to 20 staff with 8,000 texts, with the full feature set on every plan. An optional AI receptionist is priced in usage tiers starting at $79/month, with a $129/month Growth tier and a spend cap. Fresha stacks a subscription, a 20% new-client commission, per-message fees and add-ons, so a comparable 5-person salon lands near CA$360 a month against about $198 on Sammy.
Will I lose my clients if I switch from Fresha?+
No. Export your client list from Fresha and Sammy Booking imports it for you. Your clients and their history stay yours.
Is Sammy Booking good for Vietnamese-owned nail salons?+
Yes. Sammy Booking is built nail-salon first with friendly, hands-on setup, and its free Ontario directory sends local clients straight to listed salons.
Does Sammy Booking track which ad brought each booking?+
Yes. When you run Google Ads, Sammy Booking records the conversion when the appointment is actually completed — not just booked — and ties each matched online booking back to its ad click, with hashed-email matching as a fallback when the click ID is lost. GA4 purchase events are also sent at booking time so you see revenue immediately. This is a feature most booking apps, including many Vietnamese ones, don't offer.
Keep 100% of your clients. Pay one flat fee.
No commission. No percentage. We even send you customers for free, and we move your data over for you.