ChairSlay vs Fresha.

Who the tool is built to make money from.

Fresha’s subscription is cheap to start: a 7-day trial, then about $19.95/mo for one person (as listed in June 2026; Fresha retired its free plan in 2025). But that subscription was never the main event. The question worth asking of any low-priced tool is where the rest of the money comes from. With Fresha, two places. A cut of the first visit for every client its marketplace sends you, and a margin on payments it runs on its own rails, with your revenue landing in a Fresha-managed wallet before it ever reaches your bank.

ChairSlay makes money one way: a flat $39/mo. That’s the whole model. We take 0% of your service revenue, we never run a marketplace that charges you to meet your own clients, and we never touch the money. It goes straight to your own Stripe or Square. The price you see is the price. Nothing is recovered on the back end.

The money story, in your terms.

Here’s the part pros mix up, so let’s be plain. The ~2.9% + 30¢ your card processor charges is unavoidable everywhere. That’s the bank, not the booking tool, and ChairSlay doesn’t add a cent to it. The fee worth getting angry about is the one charged on a client you brought in.

Fresha’s version of that is its new-client fee: around 20% of the first completed appointment for each client its marketplace sources, minimum about $6, one time per client. Credit where it’s due: that’s lower than the ~30% Booksy and StyleSeat have charged, and Fresha only levies it on clients its marketplace actually sends you, not on your regulars. But “lower than 30%” is not zero. ChairSlay’s new-client fee is zero, on every client, first visit and forever, because ChairSlay doesn’t run a marketplace to charge for in the first place.

And there’s the wallet. Even on a booking Fresha had nothing to do with, your money settles into a Fresha balance and pays out to your bank on Fresha’s schedule. ChairSlay never holds your money for a minute. It moves from your client’s card to your own Stripe or Square account, and your payout schedule is yours, set in the processor you already use. (Figures as listed in June 2026; verify current terms, they move.)

Where Fresha genuinely wins.

Discovery. Fresha runs a real consumer marketplace with an international footprint, and for a pro who needs to be found (new in town, building a book from scratch, testing a second service line) that marketplace can put you in front of clients who’d never have searched your name. It does that without taking a third of the first visit the way some platforms do. If marketplace-assisted growth is the thing you most need this year, that’s a real strength, and ChairSlay doesn’t match it: ChairSlay helps you keep and run the clients you have, it won’t go find you new ones.

That’s the honest line in the sand. Fresha is built to get you clients and take a cut when it does. ChairSlay is built so the clients you already have stay yours: your prices, your notes, your link, with nothing skimmed off the top.

Moving your book.

Your book is yours, and on ChairSlay that’s not a slogan. It’s a one-click export. When you come from Fresha, your client contacts and appointment history come over cleanly. The sticky parts are the ones that always are: the photos and formula notes you’ve built per client, which rarely move in bulk from any platform. Budget a couple of hours to rebuild those by hand, and draw down any remaining Fresha wallet balance before you switch so nothing’s stranded.

Then your booking link is live and it’s portable. It follows you to any chair, suite, or room you work from, instead of living on a marketplace profile you don’t control. Your clients, your rates, your money, no cut. That’s the trade.