Fresha is one of the biggest booking platforms in the world, and it's showing up more and more in conversations we have with UK mobile detailers. Some are curious about the "free" model. Some have already tried it and want to know what a specialist alternative looks like. This is an honest breakdown of what Fresha actually costs, what it's built for, and where it works — or doesn't — for UK mobile valeting and detailing.
At Automate, we work with UK mobile detailers every day. We're not neutral. But every number below is sourced from Fresha's own pricing and help-centre pages, verified against independent UK reviews. If you'd rather just check the receipts, the links are in-line.
What Fresha actually is
Fresha (formerly Shedul) is a booking and business-management platform built for the beauty and wellness industry — salons, spas, barbers, nail bars, aestheticians. That's who the software, the marketplace, and the marketing are designed around. Its own pricing page and help centre describe the product in those terms, and the public marketplace at fresha.com lists services under categories like hair, nails, waxing, massage and eyebrows.
A handful of UK car-valeting and detailing businesses do use it (you can find a few listed on the marketplace), but they're the exception. There is no vehicle-size pricing, no ULEZ or postcode logic, no technician-on-the-road app, no concept of a service area or travel time. You're using a salon tool for a mobile trade.
Fresha's pricing, in plain English
Fresha was famously "free forever" until 2025, when it introduced mandatory subscriptions. The current UK pricing, verified on fresha.com/en-GB/pricing, has three layers:
- Subscription. £14.95/month for a solo operator (Independent plan), or £9.95/month per bookable team member (Team plan).
- Marketplace new-client commission. A one-time 20% fee on the first appointment value of any client Fresha classifies as a "new marketplace client," with a £4 minimum. Documented in Fresha's own help centre. Non-refundable. Applies even if you cancel the booking on the client's behalf.
- Payment processing (Fresha Pay). 1.19% + £0.20 in person (plus £0.07 per Tap-to-Pay authorisation); 1.40% + £0.25 online; 2.20% + £0.20 for manual card entry.
On top of that, SMS is charged at £0.05 per text after a small monthly allowance (20 per bookable team member), and features most operators would consider basic — advanced analytics ("Insights"), a loyalty programme, structured data export — are paid add-ons. Data Connector, for example, is £190/month per location if you want a real export of your own data.
The marketplace, and where the commission gets uncomfortable
On paper, the 20% new-client commission is a fair trade: Fresha's marketplace has millions of monthly visitors, and a genuine new client acquired for a one-time 20% fee is usually profitable. Some Fresha users report strong returns from it.
The complaint that shows up repeatedly on Capterra, Trustpilot and Reddit is different: the commission gets charged for clients the operator introduced themselves. Someone finds you on Google, ends up on your Fresha URL, and Fresha classifies them as "new marketplace." A regular scans your in-shop QR code (which routes through Fresha's domain) and gets flagged. The help-centre page confirms the fee is non-refundable and only waived if the client cancels their own booking online.
For a salon this is manageable friction. For a mobile detailer whose average job value is £80–£250 rather than a £20 haircut, a 20% first-visit commission on a client you'd have got anyway is a real number.
Fresha vs Automate, side by side
| Fresha | Automate | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Beauty & wellness (salons, spas, barbers, nails) | UK mobile valeting and detailing |
| Pricing model | Subscription + 20% marketplace commission + card fees + SMS + add-ons | Flat subscription. No commission on your bookings. No paywalled analytics or export. |
| Vehicle-size pricing | Not a concept in the product | Native: small / medium / large / XL / commercial |
| Postcode / territory pricing | Single price list per business | Different prices per service area, served by postcode |
| ULEZ / Congestion Charge zones | No UK-specific pricing zones | Build ULEZ / CCZ uplifts into the right postcodes |
| Pre-booking checks (power / water / parking) | Basic consultation forms, no conditional blocking | Conditional questions that can block a bad booking |
| Technician's mobile app | Business-owner calendar app, not built around a mobile day | Native iOS & Android app for the day's jobs, routes and notes |
| Marketplace commission | 20% on first appointment (£4 min), non-refundable | None. Your bookings are your bookings. |
| SMS reminders | 20 free per team member, then £0.05 each | UK SMS included in plan, UK sender IDs |
| Data export / API | Data Connector add-on at £190/mo per location | CSV export included |
| Support | Email/chat (phone on Team plan) | UK team, pick up the phone, know your trade |
| Currency & tax | GBP supported; primary product context is beauty | GBP and UK VAT, natively |
What a UK detailer actually pays on Fresha
Take a realistic solo mobile valeter: 40 jobs a month, average job value £75, 70% paid by card, 15% of monthly bookings from new customers. Using Fresha's published UK rates:
- Subscription (Independent): £14.95/mo → £179/yr
- Card processing (28 transactions × ~£1.09 each on a £75 job at 1.19% + 20p + 7p): ~£30/mo → £366/yr
- Marketplace commission on new clients (6/mo × 20% of £75 = £15): £90/mo → £1,080/yr
- SMS overages (say 40 reminders/mo, 20 free, 20 billable at 5p): £1/mo → £12/yr
Realistic annual cost: ~£1,600, of which two-thirds is marketplace commission. Scale to a two-van operation doing 120 jobs/month and it climbs into the £4,000–£6,000/yr range before add-ons. That's before the operational cost of not having territory pricing, vehicle tiers, or a technician's app — which is much harder to put a number on but tends to be the bigger issue in practice.
A booking system built for UK mobile detailers, not salons.
Flat pricing, no commission on your bookings, vehicle-size tiers, postcode territories, and a technician's app. Fourteen-day free trial. Cancel anytime.
Where Fresha genuinely wins
Two things, honestly.
The marketplace. If you're in a category the marketplace actually promotes — hair, nails, aesthetics — the discovery layer can be genuinely valuable, and the 20% first-visit fee can pay for itself many times over. For mobile detailing, that discovery flywheel is much weaker; customers don't search Fresha for a car valet the way they search it for a barber.
Consumer-grade polish. The client-facing booking experience is clean, modern and well-known. There's a real benefit to a customer recognising the brand at checkout. That benefit is bigger in beauty than it is in automotive.
Where Fresha hurts a mobile detailer
Every operational thing that makes UK mobile detailing different from a salon is invisible to Fresha:
- No vehicle-size pricing tiers. You either build a duplicated service menu or you undercharge the SUVs.
- No postcode-based pricing. A £120 valet in central Bristol is the same booking as one 30 miles out in Wells.
- No ULEZ or Congestion Charge logic. Every London job is a manual quote or a margin leak.
- No pre-booking gate for power, water or parking. Wasted trips are on you.
- No technician's mobile app. You're managing your working day out of a calendar built for a salon front desk.
- Structured data export is a £190/month add-on. Your customer list is not fully yours in any practical sense.
Who should use what
Use Fresha if: you're a salon, spa or barber; the marketplace is the main reason you'd sign up; you're comfortable with the commission model and confident your customers will actually come from Fresha discovery rather than your own marketing.
Use Automate if: you're a UK mobile valeter or detailer; you charge different prices for different vehicles or areas; you cover London or any zone with congestion or emissions charges; you'd rather pay a flat subscription than a percentage of every new booking; you want a technician's app built around a mobile working day.
How to test either without committing
Whichever way you're leaning, don't rely on a demo. Set up your three most-booked services. Send the booking link to three real customers. Take three real payments. Trigger a no-show. Cancel a booking inside and outside your cancellation window. You'll know in a week whether the tool fits the way you actually work.
Automate's free trial is fourteen days, no card required. Our team is in the UK and will tell you honestly if we're not the right fit.
