Fresha Alternative Without the 20% New-Client Fee: Qualivo vs. Fresha (2026)

Qualivo Team · Fri Jul 31 2026

The Fresha Commission That's Eating Your Revenue

Fresha built its name on "free" booking software — and for basic scheduling, it largely delivers. But the fine print has always been the marketplace commission: 20% on every new client who books you through Fresha's discovery platform. At $70 for a balayage or $80 for a full lash set, that's $14–$16 gone before you've said hello.

For a slow month, that's manageable. For a busy salon or studio pulling in dozens of new marketplace clients, it compounds quickly. And once those clients become regulars, Fresha already collected a 20% cut on that first visit — a cost you've permanently absorbed.

If you're searching for a Fresha alternative without that new-client commission, this comparison gives you an honest picture of what Qualivo offers, where Fresha still has the edge, and which platform actually fits your business.

What Is Qualivo?

Qualivo is a free booking platform built for appointment-based service businesses — salons, barbers, nail studios, brow and lash specialists, med spas, massage therapists, tattoo artists, and small clinics. It has two sides: a business dashboard at partners.qualivo.app and a consumer marketplace and booking app (qualivo.app, live on iOS and Android).

What separates Qualivo from most free tools is that the free plan includes a live marketplace listing — new clients can discover and book you without you paying a monthly fee or a per-client commission. Every business also gets its own branded mini-site at yourbusiness.qualivo.app, which helps with local Google visibility even if you have no standalone website.

Qualivo's standout feature is Book the Look — a visual discovery tool where you post photos or short videos of real work (a cut, a nail set, a lash design, a tattoo), attach the exact bookable service with price and duration, and clients tap "Book this look" to lock in that specific result. It's inspiration-first booking: Look → Service → Calendar, rather than scrolling through a text menu of service names.

Fresha vs. Qualivo: Head-to-Head

Feature	Fresha	Qualivo
Starting price	$14.95–$19.95/mo	$0 — free forever
Genuine free plan	No — subscription required	Yes — no trial clock, no credit card
Marketplace listing	Yes — included with subscription	Yes — included on free plan
New-client marketplace commission	20% on new marketplace clients	$0 — no per-client fee
Online payments	Yes (processing fees apply)	Pro plan ($19/mo); standard processing fees via Stripe
Visual discovery / Book the Look	No	Yes — photo/video Looks link directly to bookable services
Google Calendar sync	Yes	Yes — two-way, on free plan
Staff / multi-provider scheduling	Yes	Yes — on free plan
Marketing & automations	Yes (SMS fees charged separately)	Pro ($19/mo); Growth add-on (+$15/mo) for larger sends
Branded mini-site	No	Yes — yourbusiness.qualivo.app on free plan

Where Fresha Still Wins

It's worth being direct: Fresha has been around longer and carries a larger user base. Its marketplace has more established consumer traffic in many markets, which means more eyes on your listing — particularly if you're in a city where Fresha is already the dominant discovery app for beauty services.

The platform is mature. Its POS experience is polished, its inventory management is detailed, and the overall feature depth suits mid-size salons with complex workflows. If the volume of new business Fresha's marketplace sends you more than offsets the 20% commission, and you're already embedded in its ecosystem, there's a real argument for staying. We're not here to pretend otherwise.

Where Qualivo Wins

The core math is simple: on Qualivo's free plan, you pay $0 per month and $0 per new marketplace client. You get:

A live, bookable marketplace listing with no per-client commission
Unlimited services and pricing, staff scheduling, and a client list — all on the free plan
Two-way Google Calendar sync — on the free plan
A branded mini-site that helps you appear in local Google searches
Book the Look visual discovery — post your real work, clients book that exact result
No credit card required, no trial clock, no plan that expires

If you upgrade to Pro at $19/month, you add online payments and deposits, revenue analytics, an AI booking widget for your own website, client automations and reminders, and marketing campaigns. Still no new-client commission. And if you later cancel Pro, your free features stay intact.

If you run a nail studio and want a deeper breakdown by vertical, our best Fresha alternative for nail salons in 2026 guide goes further. For med spas and small clinics, the Fresha alternative for med spas and clinics article covers the specifics of that vertical in more detail.

What About the Other Alternatives?

It's useful to know where the other main options land:

Booksy: $29.99/mo per pro + ~$20/extra staff member — popular with barbers, strong marketplace in some markets, but team costs scale quickly.
Vagaro: ~$24–$84/mo depending on staff, plus paid add-ons at around $10 each. Feature-rich, but the all-in monthly cost adds up.
Square Appointments: Free for solo, ~$49/mo+ for teams. No dedicated beauty or wellness marketplace.
Acuity Scheduling: Solid solo scheduler at ~$16–$49/mo. No marketplace component.
Mindbody / Boulevard / Mangomint: Premium, feature-rich platforms aimed at larger or multi-location operations with correspondingly higher monthly costs.

If avoiding both a monthly fee and a per-new-client commission is the priority, none of these match Qualivo's free-plan offer. For a broader look at that specific angle, see our best Fresha alternative with no monthly fee and no commission (2026) roundup.

Who Should Make the Switch?

Qualivo is the stronger fit if you are:

A solo practitioner or small team where the 20% Fresha commission hits hardest on lower average ticket sizes
Just starting out and not ready to commit to a monthly platform fee before the revenue is predictable
In a visual-first vertical — nails, lashes, brows, tattoos, hair colour — where Book the Look gives you a genuine edge in how clients discover and choose you
Running a med spa or wellness clinic that doesn't want a third party taking a cut of every new patient relationship
Building your online presence from scratch and need a bookable mini-site that helps with local SEO without a separate website build

Fresha may still be the better fit if you're already deeply integrated with its platform, rely on its established marketplace traffic, and find that the 20% pays for itself in consistent new bookings every month.

Try Qualivo With Zero Commitment

If you want to test a marketplace that doesn't charge 20% every time a new client finds you, the barrier to entry with Qualivo is zero. No credit card, no trial clock — claim your profile, set up your services, post a few Looks, and see whether the discovery side works for your business. Pro features are there if and when you need them. If not, the free plan stays free.

Claim your free Qualivo profile at getqualivo.com — no credit card, no expiry, free forever to start.

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