Is there a booking system without commission?

Yes. There are two flavors: software with a flat monthly fee (like Setmore or Salonized), and marketplaces that take a cut per booking (like Treatwell, which charges 35% on new bookings). A booking button on your own website falls into the first category and costs nothing extra per booking. Which one makes sense for you depends on where your customers are coming from right now.

Why this comparison is different

Nearly every comparison of booking systems is written by a provider that ranks its own product first. Fair enough, but that doesn't help much when you just want to understand how the models actually work.

This page comes from a website builder, so there's an interest here too. It's named honestly at the bottom. Every price below comes directly from the providers' own pricing pages, checked in September 2026. Prices change, so click through before you decide.

The two models, side by side

With a commission model, you pay a percentage per booking. Treatwell, for example, charges commission on a new customer's first booking made through their platform; repeat bookings from that same customer are commission-free afterward, according to their own partner page. Through the Salonized integration, that rate is 35% on new bookings.

With a flat-fee model, you pay a set amount per month no matter how many bookings come in. Setmore has a free plan for up to 4 users and a Pro plan at $5 per user per month billed annually. Salonized also works with monthly packages, but their exact amounts aren't shown publicly on the pricing page, so we won't guess at them here.

Run the numbers with your own figures. On a 60 euro treatment, 35% works out to 21 euros, once. If that customer comes back five more times, it evens out. If they book through the platform again next time instead of coming to you directly, the math resets.

When commission actually makes sense

If you just opened and nobody knows your business yet, commission is really buying you visibility. The platform brings in customers you wouldn't otherwise have, and you only pay when someone actually books. No bookings, no cost. For an empty calendar, that's a reasonable deal.

The tipping point comes once your calendar fills up and a good chunk of your bookings are repeat customers. At that point you're paying for visibility on people who already knew you. For how to make that shift gradually without canceling the platform outright, see the guide on becoming less dependent on Treatwell.

What a small salon or practice actually needs

Most comparison tables list dozens of features. In practice, a one- to three-chair salon uses a handful of them.

  • A calendar customers can fill in themselves, even at 10pm on the couch
  • Automatic confirmation and a reminder, because no-shows cost you money directly
  • One master calendar, so you don't end up with double bookings
  • Your own customer data, exportable, so you're never locked into one system
  • Services with different durations, because a trim isn't a color treatment

Booking through your own website: the commission-free route

The third option gets little attention in provider-built comparisons: a booking button on your own site. You pick a system with a flat (or free) plan and put the booking form on your own domain. Customers who google you then book with you directly. No middleman, and you pay zero percent on any booking.

The real difference is who owns the customer relationship. Book through a marketplace, and that person is first and foremost the platform's customer. Book on your own site, and you have their email and phone number, and you decide how you stay in touch.

There's a real limitation, though. Your own site doesn't bring in new customers the way a marketplace does. You have to be findable on your own, through Google, your Instagram, or just your storefront window. For a business that already has customers, that's fine. For a brand-new business with no name recognition yet, it's not enough on its own.

How to choose, in three steps

You don't need to test twenty systems. This order works:

  • Count how many of last month's bookings came from repeat customers. Above roughly half, a flat fee almost always pays off.
  • Pick your model from there: need lots of new customers, add a platform; calendar mostly full of regulars, go with your own site and a flat-fee system.
  • Test one system for two weeks with real bookings before canceling anything. Run old and new side by side for a bit.

Where this page itself stands

Rachel Elz Studios builds websites for local business owners, often including a booking button on their own domain. So this page leans toward the own-website route, and that lean applies mainly to businesses that already have customers. If you don't yet, it's fine to start on a platform and come back once your calendar is filling up.