A fee on a stranger's first cut
A new face books a CA$45 fade through a marketplace, and the app takes a fifth. That is your margin, gone on your newest client.
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You rent the chair. Don't rent your clients back.
You pay weekly rent for the chair, and your regulars follow you from shop to shop. A fee on their first booking is a tax on your own book.
- 0% commission on every booking, including a first booking. CA$29 a month for the Founding 50, then CA$49, one price for the whole team.
- Live in 48 hours from your Fresha export: booking page, calendar and reminders. Card payments start when you are ready: connect Stripe, or keep your current card machine and record payments in Fairbooked.
What gets in the way for chair-renting barbers
Walk-ins against booked slots
Shops with both get an empty chair at three and a queue at five. You need bookable times that leave room for walk-ins.
Rent you cannot win back
One missed fade is small. Ten a week is not. Rent is fixed, so each empty slot costs you income.
How Fairbooked fits chair-renting barbers
Short, exact slots
Set fifteen, thirty and forty-five minute services with a small buffer to sweep up. A fade can never land on top of a line-up.
A link for your bio and mirror
Put your link in your Instagram bio and on a card at the mirror. A regular books the next cut before leaving the chair.
A deposit for the Saturday rush
Ask for a small deposit on busy slots. Add a no-show fee after a notice window you choose. The money goes straight to you.
A starting service list for chair-renting barbers
An example only. Every name, length and price here is a placeholder you change or delete when you set up your own list.
- Skin fade45 minCA$45
- Cut and beard1 hCA$60
- Kids' cut30 minCA$30
- Beard line-up20 minCA$25
- Hot towel shave45 minCA$50
- Regular trim, scissors only30 minCA$38
Your maths, on a CA$55 skin fade and beard trim
Fresha lists 20% on a new marketplace client's first booking (minimum CA$6): CA$11.00. We take 0%. For an in-person card Fresha lists 2.29% + CA$0.20, Interac included: CA$1.46. A Stripe Interac tap is CA$0.15. The calculator below opens on 160 card visits a month and one person; change any number to match yours.
What would Fresha cost you, next to us?
Put in your own numbers. We work out Fresha's monthly bill from its published prices, and ours as Stripe's card rates plus our flat monthly price, and show every line of both. The figures start on an example chair-renting barber.
You would keep
CA$1,062 a year
That is CA$88.51 a month, 32.1% less than Fresha.
- Fresha, per month
- CA$275.54
- With us, per month
- CA$187.03
Rates as of September 2026. Fresha can change its prices. With us means Stripe's published Canadian card rates, paid to Stripe, plus our CA$29 a month. Card reader optional for deposits and no-show fees. For in-person tap checkout, Stripe readers from about CA$79 (Bluetooth) or CA$419 (countertop, S700).
How we calculated this
LineFreshaWith us
Software subscriptionFreshaCA$29.95CA$29.95 (Independent plan)With usCA$29.00CA$29 Founding 50 price, locked 24 months, for the whole team
Card fees, in personFreshaCA$203.012.29% + CA$0.20 on CA$7,650.00 across 139.1 paymentsWith usCA$111.52Stripe, paid to Stripe: 73.6 Interac taps × CA$0.15, plus 2.7% + CA$0.05 on CA$3,600.00 of credit across 65.5 payments
Card fees, onlineFreshaCA$42.582.79% + CA$0.20 on CA$1,350.00 across 24.5 paymentsWith usCA$46.51Stripe, paid to Stripe: 2.9% + CA$0.30 on the same payments
New-client commissionFreshaCA$0.0020% of the ticket (minimum CA$6.00) × 0 new clientsWith usCA$0.000%, never charged on any booking, including a first booking
Total per monthCA$275.54CA$187.03
Savings = Fresha's total minus ours = CA$88.51 a month, times 12 = CA$1,062.12 a year. We assume 85% of card volume is taken in person and the rest online, that 45% of it is Interac debit in person at CA$0.15 a tap, and that the number of payments is card volume divided by your average ticket.
What this does and does not include
- Fresha's prices are the ones on its own pricing page as of September 2026, and it can change them. Check fresha.com/pricing before you decide anything.
- Fresha says its 20% new-client fee applies only to clients who first find you on its marketplace, and that returning clients pay nothing. Enter only the clients you would expect Fresha to count. Fresha also says the fee has a maximum cap that its pricing page does not state, so on large tickets we may overstate it.
- We leave out Fresha's per-tap surcharge, text messages beyond the free allowance, premium support, add-ons and terminal hardware. Every one of those makes Fresha dearer, so leaving them out favours Fresha.
- Taxes are excluded on both sides. Payout timing, chargebacks and your bank's own fees are not modelled.
- The savings estimate uses Stripe's published Canadian card rates (2.7% + CA$0.05 in person, CA$0.15 flat for Interac debit, 2.9% + CA$0.30 online), paid to Stripe directly; we make nothing on card payments. It is modelled on a typical Toronto card mix (45% Interac debit in person, the rest credit), so your real Stripe bill will differ with your own mix. Rates read from stripe.com/en-ca/pricing in September 2026; check the page before you decide.
- Card reader optional for deposits and no-show fees. For in-person tap checkout, Stripe readers from about CA$79 (Bluetooth) or CA$419 (countertop, S700).
- We launch in Toronto first. The savings estimate is modelled with Stripe's Canadian rates, in Canadian dollars. UK and US figures reuse the same Canadian model and the same subscription number in local currency as an indication only. Fresha's UK prices are unverified: we could only read them on two competitor sites.
Questions from chair-renting barbers
Something else? Ask us on the switch form and a person will answer.
Keep what you earn.
Start your own booking page, or ask us to move you over from Fresha. A named person replies on WhatsApp, usually within the hour during business hours.