Migrating from Treatwell to self-hosted salon software: the complete guide

What does Treatwell really cost per month?

It helps to understand exactly how Treatwell charges, because the model is fairer than salon owners often assume - and that is precisely why the decision deserves a clear head.

There are three components (Treatwell's published 2026 rates, all fees excluding VAT). One: a flat subscription of €35/month, billed monthly (or annually, at a lower price). Two: a 35% commission, but only on the first booking of a genuinely new client who found you through the Treatwell marketplace. Every repeat booking by that client is 0%, and every booking you generate yourself - phone, WhatsApp, your own site - is also 0%. Three: a 2% processing fee, charged only on online prepayments. So the 35% is an acquisition fee (a finder's fee for delivering a new client), not a tax on every appointment.

Now the honest comparison. Salonnare is a flat fee - Free at €0/month or Pro at €59/month - with no marketplace commission on any booking; the only charge is a 0.5% platform fee (min. €0.30) on each online or card payment. From Starter (€29/month) you connect your own Mollie account, so on top of Mollie's own rates (iDEAL costs roughly €0.29 flat per transaction) only that platform fee is added, well under Treatwell's 2% processing fee on prepayments, and the money lands directly in your bank account. You also get your own commission-free marketplace listing on Salonnare (/salons).

Whether you save money depends on how much you currently lean on Treatwell's marketplace: if that 35% acquisition fee is a meaningful line on your statement, building your own acquisition (Google, Instagram, your own marketplace listing) alongside a flat monthly fee will save money. If you barely use the marketplace and most bookings are repeats or direct, the gain is mainly about ownership - your reviews, your brand, your payment flow - plus a free or predictable flat plan instead of a per-acquisition charge.

What data can you extract from Treatwell?

Before you can move, you need to know what you keep. Treatwell offers an export of your client list. Only an account with Owner rights can run it, in Treatwell Connect on a desktop. Where filled in, the file contains first and last name, phone number, email address, notes from the client card, marketing consent, gender, language, date of birth, the number of bookings in Connect and the date the client was created.

What it explicitly does not contain: booking details (so no treatment history per client) and payment information. Your service menu with prices and your staff schedules are not in the client export either. Reviews clients left on Treatwell are on Treatwell's platform and are not part of the export.

So record what you need yourself before you cancel: an overview of your services and prices, your upcoming appointments and, for regulars, the treatment details you rely on (colour formulas, techniques). An overview or screenshots will do. Plan this early so nothing important is lost on your cancellation date.

Note for EU GDPR: all exported customer data must be re-imported into a system with equivalent data-processing safeguards. Treatwell is UK-based; moving to an EU-native, Netherlands-based alternative keeps your data in the EU, which can simplify your processor register - document the export/import in your audit trail either way.

Exporting data from Treatwell: step by step

Log in to Treatwell Connect on a desktop with an account that has Owner rights. Go to Clients and choose Export. Open the file in Excel or Google Sheets and check it: are all clients in it, are phone numbers and email addresses complete, and did the notes come through? Save it as CSV if needed, so you can import it later.

Then capture what the client export does not contain: your service menu with prices and durations, your staff schedules, your upcoming appointments and any treatment details you want to keep for regulars. An overview or a screenshot per screen is enough; you will re-enter the services yourself anyway.

Store all exports and overviews in at least two places: local machine and a cloud backup (Google Drive, iCloud, etc). You may need these as reference during the first weeks after switching.

Migration to Salonnare (or another EU-native alternative)

Create a free Salonnare account at /free - no credit card, 1 staff member and 50 bookings/month free indefinitely. The onboarding flow offers a CSV importer for your Treatwell client export. You map fields in a visual interface, linking each column in the file (first name, phone number and so on) to the matching Salonnare field. After import, spot-check: search for 10 random clients in Salonnare and verify that contact details and notes carried over.

Because your service menu is not in the client export, you recreate it manually from the overview you made - allow 60 minutes for this. Use the opportunity to add package services or add-ons you did not offer before. Connect your own Mollie or Stripe account via Settings → Payments → Connect. The OAuth flow takes one minute: log in to Mollie, authorize Salonnare, and from that point iDEAL and card payments land directly in your own bank account. Transaction fees are whatever you negotiated with Mollie, plus Salonnare's own platform fee of 0.5% (min. €0.30).

Notify clients and cancel Treatwell

Two weeks before switchover, email your full client list: "Our booking system has been upgraded - from [date] book via this new link." Keep the tone personal - a short explanation that you are managing bookings independently now, plus the new booking-widget link. Salonnare has a campaign module (Pro) to send this to your imported customer list in one click.

Simultaneously add the new booking link to your Google Business Profile as an appointment link (Salonnare can do this for you under Settings → Google Business Profile), and point your Instagram bio link and any WhatsApp Business quick-links at the new widget. Before cancelling Treatwell, check the cancellation terms in your own Treatwell agreement or account, so you know which notice period and end date apply to you. If your terms allow it, keep the old account active in parallel for 30 days so you can look up historical bookings and respond to edge-case client questions ("which color did I get last visit?"). After 30 days, cancel definitively and archive a final client export. Total active work for the migration is typically one working day: four hours for data import and configuration, two hours for client communication preparation, and a day of elapsed time for client emails to land.

What changes in your daily workflow after three months?

Concrete shifts that salons report after moving from Treatwell to self-hosted software.

One: client relationship visibility returns. Your own software provides: automatic rebook reminders based on treatment history, rich per-client notes ("allergic to ammonia", "always orders a cappuccino on arrival"), and segmented marketing campaigns (birthday emails, lapsed-client re-engagement).

Two: your brand becomes visible again. Clients who find you through a marketplace often remember the platform first and your salon second. Post-switch, your name, your design, and your domain appear in every confirmation email and reminder - which often helps you win more direct bookings via Google and Instagram because clients now know your site exists.

Three: no-shows drop significantly. Your own booking-deposit flow collects a percentage or fixed amount upfront via iDEAL, Apple Pay or card at booking time - kept automatically if the client no-shows, credited against the final bill otherwise. You set the rules, so the deposit can be as flexible as your salon needs. Deposits via iDEAL are particularly effective in the Netherlands, where iDEAL is the dominant online payment method. Salons implementing this see their no-show rates drop sharply.

Four: you own your acquisition. Once you stop paying the 35% commission on each new marketplace client and start bringing those clients in yourself, that acquisition spend turns into channels you control. Combined with a flat monthly fee instead of a per-acquisition charge, more of every new client's lifetime value stays in your business - without your gross revenue having to rise.

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