How do you take bookings online?

Platforms handle availability, reminders and payments for you, and some list your business in an app where new clients browse. In return they charge monthly, often per staff member, and some take a cut when a new client finds you through them. The client relationship lives in their app, under their brand.

Booksy, one staff member

R399 a month

Booksy, each extra staff member

R89 a month

Booksy Boost

One-time 40% commission on a new client's first visit

Fresha Independent

R134.95 a month, excl. VAT

Fresha Team

R89.95 per team member a month, excl. VAT

Setmore

Free plan for up to 4 users; Pro from US$5 per user a month, billed annually

Clients book on your website, the request reaches you on WhatsApp, and the appointment goes into their calendar. You pay once to build it: a booking request flow is part of our Business package at R8 500, and a full system with availability per person and class capacity starts at R14 000. There is no monthly platform fee and no commission, and the client list is yours.

The trade-off is discovery. Nobody browses your website the way they browse a platform's app, so new clients have to find you through Google, your Google Business Profile and word of mouth.

Missed appointments have been studied most in healthcare. A review of 105 studies found that about 23% of appointments were missed on average. A Cochrane review found that text message reminders raised attendance from 67.8% to 78.6%. Those figures are about clinics, not salons, but the mechanism is the same: a booking in someone's own calendar, with a reminder before it, is harder to forget.