Pencilbird vs Fresha for UK clinics
Updated 5 November 2026
Fresha is one of the best-known booking platforms for salons, spas and clinics, and its marketplace puts businesses in front of people searching for treatments. Pencilbird is a booking system built for clinics and set up for you, with a fixed monthly fee and payments into your own Stripe account. This page sets out where they differ so you can pick the one that suits your clinic.
Prices and features below were checked on 5 November 2026. Both products change, so check the sources at the end before you decide.
The short version
- Choose Fresha if you want a self-serve tool you can sign up to today, and you want new clients from a large booking marketplace and are happy to pay a commission on them.
- Choose Pencilbird if your clients already find you through your website, social media and word of mouth, and you’d rather pay one fixed monthly fee with no per-booking fees, no commission and payments going straight to your own Stripe account.
Pricing at a glance
| Fresha | Pencilbird | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Per bookable team member. UK guides report £14.95 a month for one person (Independent) or £9.95 per bookable team member a month (Team), excluding VAT | A fixed monthly fee, agreed at setup |
| Fee on new clients | 20% one-time fee on a new client’s first appointment when they find you through the Fresha marketplace (UK guides report a £4 minimum). No fee for direct, returning or imported clients | None |
| Card payments | Processed by Fresha at Fresha’s rates. UK guides report around 1.40% + 25p online and 1.19% + 20p in person | Paid into your own Stripe account. Pencilbird takes 0% of payments; Stripe’s own card fees still apply |
| Extras | Paid add-ons, such as Insights, an AI receptionist, client loyalty and a website builder, plus texts beyond the free allowance | Every feature is included. Text messages are optional, and their cost is agreed at setup |
| Contract | No minimum commitment, 7-day free trial | Agreed at setup, with the setup done for you |
Fresha’s own pricing page currently shows US prices ($19.95 a month for Independent, $14.95 per team member for Team, and a $6 minimum marketplace fee), so the UK figures above come from UK guides that checked Fresha’s UK page. Fresha’s help article confirms how the marketplace fee works: it’s charged once, on the value of the first completed appointment, it has a minimum and a cap, and it isn’t refundable.
Where Fresha is stronger
- New client discovery. The marketplace and app can bring you people who have never heard of your clinic. Pencilbird doesn’t have a marketplace, so it won’t find you new clients on its own.
- Sign up today. Fresha is self-serve with a free trial. Pencilbird is set up for you, so it takes a short onboarding before you go live.
- Breadth. Fresha covers point of sale, card terminals, loyalty, AI call handling and much more for salons as well as clinics. Pencilbird deliberately leaves out inventory, point of sale and memberships.
- Track record. Fresha is used by a very large number of businesses. Pencilbird is new.
Where Pencilbird is stronger
- One predictable bill. A fixed monthly fee, with no per-booking fees, no commission on new clients and no per-team-member pricing to watch as you hire.
- Your money, your Stripe account. Deposits and payments go straight to your own Stripe account. Pencilbird takes 0% of them, and you deal with Stripe directly.
- Built for clinics. Pencilbird has consultation-first treatments, free or paid consultations in clinic, by video or by phone, deposits or full payment per treatment, medical history and consent forms, patch tests with waiting periods, courses, treatment records, before and after photos, aftercare emails and printable receipts for insurer claims.
- A clean booking page in your brand. Clients book in three steps on a page in your clinic’s colours and logo, on your own booking address (for example book.yourclinic.co.uk), with a Book button on your website. Each type of business gets its own wording, so a clinic’s pages talk about treatments and patients, not salon appointments.
- Set up for you. Your services, team, hours, forms and branding are put in for you, and updates are handled for you after launch.
- Your data, kept separately. Each clinic runs on its own deployment and database, and the owner can download everything (patient records, photos, history and settings) as one archive whenever they like.
Consultations and deposits
Both let you take a deposit or full payment and ask questions before an appointment. The difference is in how a clinic’s journey is shaped. In Pencilbird, a treatment can be marked “book the consultation first”, so new patients book the consultation and the clinic books the treatment once it’s agreed. Each service sets what’s paid when booking: nothing, the clinic’s deposit, its own percentage or the full price. Free bookings never ask for a card.
The bottom line
If marketplace bookings are a big part of how you grow, Fresha’s commission may be worth paying. If most of your clients come to you directly, Pencilbird gives you a booking system shaped around a clinic, one fixed fee and payments in your own Stripe account.
Fresha is a trademark of its owner. Pencilbird isn’t affiliated with Fresha. Figures come from the public sources listed below and may have changed since they were checked.