Does Booksy Charge a Commission on New Bookings (and How Do You Avoid It)?

Does Booksy charge a commission on bookings?

Only through Boost, and only on new marketplace clients. Booksy's subscription does not take a percentage of your appointments the way a marketplace cut would. The single place a commission appears is Booksy Boost, an optional feature that charges a one-time fee when the Booksy marketplace delivers a brand-new client to your chair.

That distinction is the whole story, so it's worth being precise. Clients reach you on Booksy two ways: through your own profile, the link you share, your QR code, and Book buttons on Google or Instagram, or through the Booksy marketplace, where people browse for a nearby barber the way they'd browse for a restaurant. Bookings from your own channels are commission-free. Boost touches only the marketplace path.

Booksy's base price is $29.99/month for the first user, with $20/month per additional staff member on top. That subscription is the fixed cost. Boost is the variable one, and unlike the subscription, you can switch it off. If you want the broader head-to-head first, see Lilo vs. Booksy.

How much is the Booksy Boost commission?

A one-time 30% of a new client's first visit, with a $10 minimum and a $100 cap. Booksy calculates it on the total value of the services on that first appointment, with tips excluded and always yours. You're charged once the client completes the visit, not when they book, and a same-day no-show isn't charged.

The cap is what keeps it from running away on a big ticket. A new marketplace client booking a $60 cut costs you $18 in Boost commission. A new client booking $400 of color would be 30%, but the $100 ceiling caps it there. On the floor of the range, a $25 service still triggers the $10 minimum. After that first appointment, every future visit from that client is 100% yours, service and tip (Booksy).

That structure is why Boost reads more like an advertising bill than a permanent cut: you pay once, per new client, to turn a stranger into a regular.

Which bookings trigger the commission, and which don't?

Only a brand-new client booking their first visit through the Booksy marketplace, with Boost turned on. Every other booking is commission-free. The trigger is the source of the client, not the client themselves, so the same person can be free or charged depending on how they found you.

Boost does not apply to:

• New clients who book through your own Booksy profile link, your share feature, or your QR code.
• New clients who arrive through Book buttons on Google, Instagram, or Facebook.
• Any existing client, on any visit, from any source.

So a new client who taps your link in your Instagram bio costs you nothing, while the identical client who instead searched the Booksy app and found you there triggers the commission. Same haircut, same price; the only variable Booksy charges for is whether its marketplace did the work of finding the client.

How do you avoid Booksy's commission?

Three ways, in rough order of effort: send new clients your own Booksy booking link instead of letting them find you in the marketplace, switch Boost off in your settings, or move to software that charges no booking commission at all. The first two keep you on Booksy. The third changes platforms.

Start with the free one. Every booking from a channel you control is exempt, so the more you drive clients to your own link, QR code, and Google or Instagram Book buttons, the less Boost ever fires. Put the link in your bio, on your business card, and in your post captions, and most new clients never touch the marketplace.

Next, turn Boost off if the marketplace isn't earning its keep. It's optional, with no monthly fee, so leaving it on only makes sense when it's delivering clients you couldn't get otherwise. Booksy notes the fee can still apply to a client already attributed to Boost or to a rescheduled appointment, so confirm the live terms at booksy.com.

The structural option is to use a platform that has no booking commission at all. Here is how Booksy's model lines up against a flat, commission-free one.

Verified June 2026Lilo is listed by its own publisher; verify Booksy figures at booksy.com before you buy.

Feature	Booksy	Lilo
Commission on a new marketplace client's first visit	Boost: one-time 30%, $10 minimum, $100 cap (tips excluded)	None
Boost only fires on brand-new clients Booksy's marketplace sends you. Lilo has no marketplace and takes no cut of any booking.
Commission on your own link, Google, or social bookings	None (Boost is marketplace-only)	None
Commission on existing or repeat clients	None	None
Monthly price	$29.99/mo first user + $20/mo per added staff	$20/mo flat (Booth); Pro from $59/mo, unlimited team
In-person card rate	2.49% + $0.10 (reader)	2.50% + $0.30 (Stripe)
The card rates are close; the structural difference is Booksy's marketplace commission, not the swipe fee.
Consumer marketplace (new-client discovery)	Yes (Booksy.com + customer app)	No
Booksy's marketplace is a genuine discovery channel Lilo doesn't have; the Boost commission is what funds it.

Is Booksy Boost worth paying for?

Often yes, if you treat it as advertising you can switch off. Boost has no monthly fee and a $100 ceiling per client, so you only pay when the marketplace delivers a genuinely new client who shows up. Framed as paid acquisition with a hard cap, that's a fair trade for a chair with gaps to fill, and barbershops in particular do well in the Booksy marketplace.

The honest case for Booksy is discovery. Its marketplace is a destination clients already open and search by neighborhood and availability, which a booking link sitting in your bio can't replicate. Paying a capped, one-time 30% to win a client you'd never have reached, then keeping 100% of their visits afterward, is reasonable math.

The trap is leaving Boost on for clients who would have found you anyway. If a regular's friend already has your link, or a client searched your name on Google, paying 30% of that first visit buys you nothing the marketplace earned. Boost is worth it as a switch you flip on to fill slow weeks, not a setting you forget about.

What does no-commission software like Lilo cost instead?

A flat subscription and standard card processing, with nothing taken off the top of a booking. Lilo charges $20/month on the Booth plan or from $59/month on Pro, plus Stripe's standard rates, and no commission on any client from any source. The trade is honest and structural: Lilo has no marketplace, so it won't surface you to strangers the way Booksy can.

On Lilo, a referral, a walk-in who rebooks, and a client your barber friend sent over all cost the same standard Stripe processing (2.90% + $0.30 online, 2.50% + $0.30 in person) and nothing else. There's no version of a Lilo booking where the platform takes a slice of the service. Booksy's base is $29.99/month for the first user plus $20/month per added staff, where Lilo Pro includes unlimited team members at one location for a flat fee. The marketing suite, loyalty, memberships, intake forms, and a built-in Lilo AI assistant come included on both plans.

The marketplace-commission model isn't unique to Booksy. Fresha charges a 20% one-time commission on new marketplace clients too ($6 minimum), per its pricing page. The pattern is consistent: directory apps fund new-client discovery with a commission, and tools without a directory avoid it by not having one to pay for.

So the real question isn't how to avoid a fee. It's what you're buying. Pay Booksy's capped commission when you want its marketplace to hand you clients you couldn't reach yourself. Pay a flat, commission-free price when your clients already come from your own link, Google, and word of mouth. If you're weighing the move, here is how much salon software costs per month and how to switch without losing your clients.