Best Fresha Alternative for Med Spas and Clinics in 2026

Qualivo Team · Fri Jul 31 2026

If you run a med spa, aesthetic clinic, or wellness clinic, you already know that margins matter. A $300 laser treatment or $150 filler consultation is a meaningful transaction — and handing 20% of it to a booking platform every time a new client finds you through their marketplace adds up to real money, fast.

That's the reality for Fresha users. Fresha's subscription costs $14.95–$19.95 per month, and on top of that they charge a 20% commission on every booking from a new client found through their marketplace. SMS reminders and payment processing fees come on top of that. For high-ticket med spa services, the true cost of "discovery" through Fresha deserves a hard look.

This guide gives you an honest, side-by-side comparison of the best Fresha alternatives for med spas and clinics in 2026 — what each platform actually costs, what it includes, and where each one falls short.

Why Med Spas and Clinics Are Looking for Fresha Alternatives

Fresha built a strong reputation in salons and barbershops. For med spas and clinics, a few friction points come up consistently:

The 20% new-client commission. At $300 per treatment, a single new client referred through the Fresha marketplace costs you $60 in commission. Ten new clients a month is $600 — before supplies, staff, or rent.
Fees on top of fees. Fresha's monthly fee doesn't cover SMS reminders or payment processing, which are charged separately.
Limited visual discovery. Med spa clients want to see real treatment results before they commit. A text-based service menu doesn't answer that question.
Basic intake workflows. Health history forms, contraindication screening, and consent forms are often essential before aesthetic treatments — and basic form tools don't always cut it.

The Best Fresha Alternatives for Med Spas and Clinics

1. Qualivo — Free Forever, Marketplace Included, No Commission

Qualivo is the most direct answer to Fresha's commission model. It's genuinely free booking software — not a trial, not a freemium bait-and-switch with key features locked away. The Free Starter plan costs $0 forever, with no credit card required and, in Qualivo's own words, "no trial clock."

What you get on the free plan: a claimable business profile and public booking page, unlimited services and pricing, staff and multi-provider scheduling, a client list and booking calendar, two-way Google Calendar sync, and a listing in the Qualivo marketplace where new clients can discover and book you. Qualivo takes no monthly fee and no per-new-client commission on that free marketplace listing. For a med spa that depends on new-client volume, this is a meaningful structural difference from Fresha.

The standout feature for aesthetic and wellness businesses is Book the Look — Qualivo's visual discovery tool. You post a photo or short video of real client results (a skin resurfacing outcome, a body contouring result, a lip treatment, brows or lashes), attach the exact bookable service with price and duration, and it appears in the marketplace. A prospective client sees your actual work, taps "Book this look," and lands directly in your booking calendar. It's inspiration-first discovery — showing real outcomes before asking for commitment — which is how med spa clients actually decide to book.

The Pro plan at $19/month unlocks online payments and deposits, revenue analytics, an AI website widget for lead capture, automated appointment reminders and follow-up campaigns, intake and booking forms, and marketing sends up to 500 recipients per month. There's an optional 30-day free trial on Pro before you're charged anything. If you later decide Pro isn't the right fit, you can cancel and your free features keep working. You can also take online bookings without a separate website — every business gets its own bookable mini-site at yourbusiness.qualivo.app.

The honest caveat: Qualivo is newer and smaller than the incumbents. If you run a multi-location clinic with complex membership billing or need deep enterprise reporting, the more established platforms have a head start. But for single-location med spas and independent clinics, the free-to-start model with a built-in discovery marketplace — and no commission on new clients — is a genuinely different offer.

2. Vagaro — Established, But Costs Stack Up

Vagaro is a well-regarded platform in the spa and wellness space. It starts around $24/month for a solo provider and scales to roughly $84/month for larger teams. The base price is reasonable, but Vagaro is known for paid add-ons: forms, check-in tools, membership management, and marketing features each cost around $10/month extra. A fully-featured Vagaro setup for a small med spa can run $60–100/month before payment processing. Vagaro does have a marketplace, but its discovery features are less visually driven than Qualivo's Book the Look model.

3. Mindbody — Powerful for Larger Clinics, Priced Accordingly

Mindbody is a category leader for wellness businesses, with strong membership management, multi-location support, and robust reporting. It's priced for larger operations, making it overkill for most single-location med spas or independent injectors. If you're running a multi-location wellness brand with complex membership tiers, Mindbody is worth a serious evaluation. For the majority of independent clinics, it offers more than you need at a price that doesn't match the scale.

4. Boulevard — Upmarket Clinical Scheduling

Boulevard is purpose-built for upscale salons, spas, and clinics. It has a polished booking experience and solid client communication tools. Like Mindbody, Boulevard targets established, higher-revenue businesses — premium pricing puts it out of reach for newer med spas or solo practitioners still building their client base.

Side-by-Side: Fresha vs. Qualivo vs. Vagaro for Med Spas

Feature	Fresha	Qualivo	Vagaro
Starting price	$14.95–$19.95/mo	$0 (free forever)	~$24/mo
Marketplace listing	Yes	Yes (free)	Yes
New-client commission	20% per new client	None	None
Visual result showcase	Limited	Yes — Book the Look	Limited
Online payments	Yes (+ processing fees)	Pro ($19/mo)	Yes (add-on)
Intake & booking forms	Basic	Pro ($19/mo)	Add-on (~$10/mo)
Staff & multi-provider scheduling	Yes	Yes (free)	Yes
Client CRM	Yes	Yes (free)	Yes
Own bookable mini-site	No	Yes (free)	No

What to Look for in Booking Software as a Med Spa or Clinic

Beyond price, these are the features that matter most for aesthetic and wellness practices:

Intake and consent forms. Health history collection, contraindication screening, and signed consents before a treatment appointment aren't optional for most med spa procedures.
Deposits and cancellation protection. High-value appointments carry high no-show risk. Deposit collection protects your calendar and your revenue.
Visual result discovery. Med spa clients research outcomes before they book. A platform that lets you showcase real results — and make those results directly bookable — converts better than a plain text service menu.
Marketplace commission structure. A booking tool that surfaces your business to new clients is valuable. The commission model on that marketplace is the question — 20% per new client versus zero is a real number on every appointment.
Multi-provider scheduling. If you have injectors, estheticians, and laser technicians on separate schedules, you need provider-level calendar management from day one.

If you offer lash or brow services alongside med spa treatments, the same platform considerations apply — this breakdown of the best Fresha alternatives for lash and brow studios covers platform differences in that context. And if the commission math is your primary driver, this guide to Fresha alternatives with no monthly fee and no commission goes deeper on what that 20% actually costs over a year.

The Bottom Line

For med spas and clinics that want to get discovered by new clients without paying 20% per booking, Qualivo is the most straightforward alternative to Fresha. The free plan is real — unlimited services, multi-provider scheduling, a marketplace listing, and your own bookable mini-site, with no monthly fee and no commission on new clients. Pro at $19/month adds clinical intake forms, online payments, deposits, automated reminders, and marketing tools that a growing med spa needs to run professionally.

Vagaro is a solid established option if you're willing to pay more and layer on add-ons. Boulevard and Mindbody are worth evaluating seriously if you're a larger multi-location operation. But for independent med spas and small aesthetic clinics weighing the true cost of Fresha's marketplace commission model, starting free on Qualivo — and paying Fresha nothing — deserves a serious look before you sign anything.

Claim Your Free Med Spa Profile on Qualivo

No credit card. No trial clock. No commission on new clients who find you through the marketplace. Claim your free Qualivo profile, upload your treatment results with Book the Look, and start getting discovered — in minutes.

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