What UK barbers, salons and trades pay for booking and missed-call tools in 2026
Booking apps, job apps, lead sites and missed-call services charge in different ways: a monthly fee, a share of each new client, or a fee per lead or per call. Here is what each one costs, with a source for every figure, so you can add up what you’d pay.
By Keep Booked · Published · Prices checked 1 October 2026
The short answer
These tools don’t all do the same job, so the prices below are grouped by what each one does. Here they are in brief.
- A solo barber or beauty business
- Each booking app here starts at £0 to £40 a month: Square Appointments (one location) and Setmore (up to 4 users) are free, Fresha’s Independent plan is £14.95 and Booksy is £40. Treatwell doesn’t publish its fee. Apps with a client marketplace also take 20% to 35% of a new marketplace client’s first booking.
- A solo tradesperson
- Each job app here has a paid plan for one person at £25 to £39 a month, from ServiceM8 to Fergus, and ServiceM8 also has a free plan for 30 jobs. Finding the work costs extra: Checkatrade’s Approved plan is £30 a month + VAT on a 12-month contract, MyBuilder charges a shortlist fee from £7, and Bark credits cost about £1.20 to £1.80 each.
- Missed-call text-back on its own
- From £6.49 a month for 50 text-backs (TextTheCaller) to £97 a month (Call2SMS’s top plan). Having a person answer instead is £2.20 a call + VAT with Answer.co.uk.
- Keep Booked
- Starter £39 a month, Solo £75 a month and Team £149 a month, with texts included, and no commission, no lead fees or card fees, as it doesn’t take payments.
Booking apps and their commission
Appointment booking apps for barbers, hairdressers and beauty businesses. Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell also list you on a marketplace where new clients can find you, and their commission is the fee for a client that marketplace sends you. The others charge a monthly fee only.
| App | What it is | Monthly price | New-client commission | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresha | Booking app and client marketplace | £14.95 a month (Independent), or £9.95 per team member | 20% of a new marketplace client’s first booking, minimum £4. Returning clients: none | fresha.com |
| Booksy | Booking app and client marketplace | £40 a month, plus £5 per extra staff member | Boost, which is optional: 30% of the first visit, minimum £5 | biz.booksy.com |
| Treatwell | Salon software and client marketplace | Not published | 35% of a new marketplace client’s first booking | treatwell.co.uk |
| Timely | Salon booking software | £22, £34 or £39 per staff member a month | None listed | pabau.comThird-party figure |
| Square Appointments | Booking with card payments | £0 for one location, or £29 or £69 per location a month | None listed. Card fees 1.4% to 1.75% | squareup.com |
| SimplyBook.me | Online booking | £12.90, £25 or £55 a month | None listed | simplybook.me |
| Setmore | Online booking | Free for up to 4 users. Pro: $12 per user a month (about £9 at $1.32 = £1 on 30 Sep 2026) | None listed | setmore.com |
| Acuity Scheduling | Online scheduling | $20, $34 or $61 a month (about £15, £26 or £46 at $1.32 = £1 on 30 Sep 2026) | None listed | acuityscheduling.com |
What the commission comes to on one booking: on a £25 first booking from a new marketplace client, Fresha’s 20% is £5, Booksy Boost’s 30% is £7.50 and Treatwell’s 35% is £8.75. On a £15 booking the minimums apply instead: £4 on Fresha (20% would be £3) and £5 on Booksy Boost (30% would be £4.50).
Trades: job apps plus lead costs
Job apps run the work: quotes, jobs, scheduling and invoices. Lead sites find the work, and charge for it separately, so a trade that uses both pays for both.
Job apps
| App | What it is | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tradify | Job management | £34, £37 or £44 per user a month | tradifyhq.com |
| ServiceM8 | Job management | £0 (30 jobs), £25, £59, £119 or £269 a month, ex VAT | servicem8.com |
| Fergus | Job management | From £39 or £45 a month | fergus.com |
| Powered Now | Job management | £28 a month for one user, then £32 or £40 per user | powerednow.com |
| YourTradebase | Job management | £29 a month, plus £15 per extra user | yourtradebase.com |
| Jobber | Job management | $49, $139 or $199 a month (about £37, £105 or £151 at $1.32 = £1 on 30 Sep 2026) | costbench.comThird-party figure |
Lead sites
| Site | What it is | How you pay | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkatrade | Trade directory with reviews | Free profile. Approved: £30 a month + VAT. Growth: from £59 a month. 12-month contracts | join.checkatrade.com |
| MyBuilder | Jobs posted by homeowners | No subscription. A shortlist fee from £7 a job | localadder.co.ukThird-party figure |
| Bark | Leads marketplace | Credits, about £1.20 to £1.80 each (sources differ) | nobleleads.ukThird-party figure |
| Rated People | Trade leads site | Closed to tradespeople after the company entered liquidation on 16 Sep 2026. Checkatrade Group bought the brand | ratedpeople.com |
Missed-call text-back and answering services
A missed-call text-back service sends a text to a caller you couldn’t answer. An answering service picks the call up for you instead.
| Service | What it is | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call Catchers | Missed-call text-back | £35 a month, plus texts | callcatchers.co.uk |
| Call2SMS | Missed-call text-back | £37, £67 or £97 a month | call2sms.co.uk |
| TextTheCaller | Missed-call text-back | £6.49 a month for 50 text-backs | textthecaller.com |
| Answer.co.uk | Call answering | £2.20 a call + VAT with a person answering. AI receptionist: £10 a month + 85p a call | answer.co.uk |
Where Keep Booked fits
Keep Booked is for a business whose customers ring it. When you can’t answer, the caller gets a text straight back with your booking link and books a time that’s really free. It sends confirmations and reminders, writes your voicemails down, asks for Google reviews, sends quotes that follow themselves up, and sends invoices. With the AI assistant it books people in from their voicemails; the assistant is included on Team. Starter has the text-back, booking page, reminders and review requests; quotes, invoices, voicemail and the AI assistant are on Solo and Team.
It isn’t a marketplace, so it won’t send you new clients, and it charges no commission on the ones you have. It doesn’t take payments, so there are no card fees: the money goes from your customer to you the way it does now. It doesn’t sell leads.
Who it suits
- A barber, salon or trade that already gets calls, and loses some of them while working.
- Someone who’d rather pay a fixed monthly price than a share of each new client.
- A trade that wants quote visits booked, and quotes chased, without answering the phone up a ladder.
Who it doesn’t
- A new salon that wants a marketplace to send it clients: Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell do that.
- A business that wants card payments or deposits taken when someone books.
- A trade that needs a supply of new leads: that’s what the lead sites sell.
Our prices are on the pricing page.
How we checked
We checked every price on 1 October 2026 on the company’s own website, except the ones marked third-party: those companies don’t publish the figure, so we’ve linked the site we took it from. Prices are given as each page gives them; where a page says a price is plus VAT or ex VAT, so do we. Dollar prices are as published, with a rough conversion at $1.32 to £1, the rate on 30 September 2026.
Prices change, so check the company’s own page before you buy. Seen a figure that’s wrong or out of date? Email shane@keepbooked.co.uk or talk to us, and we’ll correct it.