Choosing booking software for your barbershop or beauty salon comes down to what you actually need day-to-day — and what you can afford as you grow. Bober and Fresha both handle online booking and client management, but they take very different approaches to pricing, features, and target audience. Here is a straightforward comparison to help you decide.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Bober | Fresha |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €29/month flat | Free (with commission) |
| Per-seat pricing | No | No |
| Commission on bookings | None | ~20% on new online bookings |
| Multi-branch support | Yes, with network-wide client cards | Yes |
| Online booking widget | Included | Included + marketplace |
| Automated reminders | SMS + WhatsApp | SMS + email |
| POS / payments | Not in MVP | Yes |
| Inventory management | No | Yes |
| Payroll | No | Yes |
| Marketing tools | No | Yes (email + SMS blasts) |
| Languages | 11 (TR, UK, EN, DE, FR, ES, IT, JA, ZH, RU, PL) | 20+ |
| GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes, no card required | Free plan available |
| Contracts | None | None |
What Is Fresha?
Fresha is a global salon and spa management platform used by over 100,000 businesses worldwide. It offers a free core plan that covers scheduling and basic client management, but takes a commission on bookings that come through its online marketplace. Fresha also provides paid add-ons for payment processing, marketing, and team management.
What Is Bober?
Bober is a booking and client management CRM built specifically for barbershops and beauty salons in Europe. It focuses on the essentials — scheduling, client cards, multi-branch management, and automated reminders via SMS and WhatsApp — without the feature bloat that comes with all-in-one platforms. One flat monthly price covers everything, with no commission and no per-seat fees.
Where Bober Wins
Predictable Pricing with No Commission
Bober charges €29/month regardless of how many bookings you take or how many staff you have. There is no commission on online bookings, no per-seat add-ons, and no surprise fees. For a busy shop doing 500+ online bookings per month, this can save hundreds of euros compared to Fresha's commission model.
Multi-Branch Client Management
If you run more than one location, Bober treats your client base as a single network. A client who visits your city-center branch and then books at your second location has one unified card with their full visit history. You do not end up with duplicate records or fragmented data across branches.
No Bloat, Faster Onboarding
Bober does not try to be your POS, your payroll system, and your marketing platform all at once. The interface stays focused on what salon owners use daily: the calendar, client cards, and booking management. Most teams are set up and running within an hour, not a full day.
Where Fresha Wins
Built-In Marketplace for Client Discovery
Fresha's biggest advantage is its consumer marketplace. New clients can discover your business through the Fresha app and website, which acts as a search engine for salons and barbershops. If you are a new shop without an existing client base, this exposure can be genuinely valuable — even accounting for the commission you pay on those bookings.
More Features for Larger Operations
If you need integrated payment processing, inventory tracking, payroll, or built-in email marketing, Fresha offers all of these as part of its ecosystem. For larger salons with 10+ staff who want a single platform covering every aspect of the business, Fresha has more breadth.
Pricing Comparison
Bober: €29/month flat. All features included. No commission on any booking source. No per-seat charges. Free trial with no credit card required.
Fresha: The base plan is free, which covers core scheduling and client management. However, Fresha charges approximately 20% commission on new clients who book through its marketplace. Payment processing fees apply separately (typically 2.19% + €0.20 per transaction). Optional paid features — blast marketing, automated messaging, and team management reports — add to the monthly cost and can bring the total well above €29/month for an active shop.
Example scenario: A barbershop averaging 200 new online bookings per month at €25 per booking through Fresha's marketplace would pay roughly €1,000/month in commission alone. The same shop on Bober pays €29/month total.
The trade-off is clear: Fresha's free entry point is attractive for brand-new businesses with no clients, but the commission model becomes expensive as online bookings grow.
Who Should Choose Fresha?
Fresha is a good fit if you are a new salon that needs help attracting first-time clients, if you want a built-in consumer marketplace, or if you need an all-in-one platform with POS, inventory, and payroll under one roof. It also works well for businesses primarily based in the US or UK where Fresha's marketplace has the strongest consumer traffic.
Who Should Choose Bober?
Bober makes sense if you want straightforward, predictable pricing without commission eating into your margins. It is particularly well-suited for barbershops and salons in Europe and Turkey that operate one to ten branches and want a clean, fast tool for booking and client management — not a sprawling platform with features they will never use. If you already have a client base and generate your own bookings through social media, walk-ins, or your own website, Bober gives you all the tools without the tax on your revenue.
The Bottom Line
Fresha offers more features and a client marketplace, but those come at a cost that scales with your success. Bober keeps it simple: one price, no commission, and a focused toolset that covers what barbershops and beauty salons actually need every day. If you value predictability and simplicity over an all-in-one suite, start a free trial and see for yourself.