Salonnare vs Fresha - NL-first or international?

Dutch compliance

Salonnare is designed with Dutch regulations in mind: correct VAT rates (21% for services, 9% for retail products), iDEAL as the primary payment method alongside Stripe/Mollie, GDPR compliance via EU servers, and a tax-office-ready POS with full audit trail. Fresha is internationally oriented - iDEAL support is limited or unavailable and VAT must be configured manually.

Support in your own language

Salonnare offers support in Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish with a response time of 24 hours on working days. Fresha support is primarily English via forms, with longer response times for non-US time zones.

Features and pricing

Fresha was free for years, but since 2025 charges, per independent pricing overviews, a paid subscription (around €14.95/month for an individual plan) on top of a transaction fee per payment (per their pricing page from around 1.19% + €0.20^[1]; the exact rate depends on the payment method) and a marketplace commission on new clients. Salonnare has a permanently free plan and lets you use your own Stripe/Mollie account without any additional margin - you only pay the standard Stripe/Mollie fees.

Online booking: Fresha vs Salonnare in practice

Imagine a new client looking for a hair salon in Amsterdam and finding your booking page. With Fresha the client books via the Fresha app or widget, receives a Fresha-branded confirmation and enters the Fresha ecosystem - including offers from nearby competitors.

With Salonnare the client books via your own widget on your website. The confirmation email comes from your salon and the email reminder carries your logo; an automated Google review request under your name is in development. There is no marketplace pushing competitors. Your client stays yours. Discover all the features that make this possible.

Transaction costs compared

Fresha charges a transaction fee per payment (per their pricing page from around 1.19% + €0.20; the exact rate depends on the payment method). At an average treatment price of €45 and 100 payments per month that costs around €73.50 in Fresha fees on top of the standard card processing fee.

With Salonnare you pay €0 extra - only the standard Stripe (1.5% + €0.25) or Mollie iDEAL fee (€0.29 per transaction). With iDEAL payments you save €44 per month on transaction costs alone with Salonnare, not counting the subscription price difference. See the pricing for a complete cost overview.

Migration path from Fresha to Salonnare

Fresha offers data export via their dashboard. Export your clients and appointments as CSV and import them into Salonnare. Tip: also export your product list and service list so you do not have to re-enter them. Set up your booking widget on your website, update your Google Business booking link and inform your clients via a short email.

Most salons are up and running on Salonnare within one working day. Start with the free plan to test everything before you make the final switch.

Fresha's costs: what really sits behind them?

Fresha built its reputation as "the only truly free salon software" - for years with no monthly subscription. Since 2025 that is no longer true: per independent pricing overviews Fresha now charges a paid subscription (around €14.95/month for an individual plan) on top of the transaction fees it always earned on every online payment. Per their pricing page, Fresha charges a transaction fee from around 1.19% + €0.20 per payment (the exact rate depends on the payment method) on top of the standard card processing fee, plus around 20% marketplace commission on new clients who book via the Fresha marketplace.

For a salon with an average treatment price of €45 and 100 online payments per month the transaction fee alone works out to (1.19% × €4,500) + (100 × €0.20) = €53.55 + €20 = €73.55 per month, roughly €880 per year - and since 2025 the subscription comes on top. At higher volumes (200 payments × €60 average) the transaction fee alone rises to €182.80/mo = €2,193/year.

These are real costs that count alongside the subscription. With Salonnare, online payments run through your own Stripe or Mollie account without a Salonnare margin - you only pay the standard provider fees (Stripe ~1.5% + €0.25 or Mollie iDEAL €0.29 flat). You see transparently what your provider charges; Salonnare does not sit in between. Check the pricing for a full cost overview.

NL compliance compared: VAT, POS and tax office

Fresha is built for international scale with the US/UK/AU as core markets. Dutch tax compliance is configurable but not out of the box. Concretely you have to manually: set correct VAT rates per service and product (21% for hairdressing services, 9% for retail products like shampoo and hair care - a detail Fresha does not automatically know), set up a tax-office-compliant POS audit trail (receipt exports in Auditfile format are not standard available), and check GDPR data-processing terms because Fresha partly runs on US infrastructure with potential cross-border transfers.

In a tax audit you assemble reports yourself from Fresha exports. Salonnare has Dutch compliance built in from day one: VAT rates are correct per service type (21% service / 9% retail), the POS exports directly to Auditfile format for the tax office, and data lives on EU servers in Frankfurt and Amsterdam with a GDPR-compliant data-processing agreement. For a Dutch salon this saves several days of configuration and gives peace of mind during audits.

Language and support: 24/7 English vs Dutch working hours

Fresha offers 24/7 support - impressive on paper, but with one important nuance: primarily English, primarily via forms and chat with non-NL time zones in the response loop. For many Dutch salons this means that a question about VAT configuration or iDEAL at Fresha first has to be translated, then lands with a support agent without Dutch tax context, and often receives a generic answer that does not specifically match NL regulations.

Salonnare offers support in Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish - not 24/7 but during working hours (Mon-Fri 9:00-17:00) with response times typically within hours on working days. Crucially: support is delivered by a Dutch developer who knows Dutch salons, Dutch VAT rules, iDEAL integration and tax-office processes from first-hand experience.

For questions that specifically need NL context, that is more valuable than 24/7 English tickets. No 24/7 support is a conscious design choice: a responsive small team that truly understands NL salons rather than an outsourced call centre.

iDEAL integration: native vs external connection

iDEAL is responsible for ~70% of all online transactions in the Netherlands and is the conversion-maker on many Dutch salons' booking widgets. With Fresha iDEAL is not native - it works, but via an external Mollie or Stripe setup you need to set up and maintain yourself: open your own Mollie account, generate API keys, connect it in Fresha's payment settings, and verify at each Mollie API update whether the integration still works.

With Salonnare iDEAL is native in two flavours right after signup: via Stripe Connect and via a direct Mollie integration for iDEAL-first flows. No external setup, no separate API keys, no maintenance. For a Dutch salon this means your booking widget accepts iDEAL payments straight after signup - deposits for no-show protection, prepaid giftcards, POS payments and subscription-based memberships all work with iDEAL as the primary option. See all features.

Frequently asked questions