A Booksy alternative without the boost fee

Checked November 2026. Prices change, so confirm on Booksy’s own site before you decide.

Booksy is a big booking marketplace, and for some shops the new clients it sends are worth paying for. This page is for the shop owners who would rather keep their own regulars, keep their whole price, and run a walk-in line next to their bookings.

What Booksy costs

Booksy Biz: about $35 a month, according to one reviewer. We did not find a price we could confirm on their page.
Boost: the marketplace feature takes 30% on new clients it brings you.

What shop owners complain about

These come from reviews we read, not from our own testing.

Payouts are slow, weekend deposits do not arrive on time, and refunds take a while.
The 30% boost fee makes first-time discounts hard to offer. One stylist said she was charged when a referred client booked through her own link.
Support starts with automated replies, and one owner said onboarding calls were not followed up.
When a client’s card on file expires, no-show and cancellation fees fail, and the shop eats the cost.

What BarberShopLine does instead

One chair is free. Up to 10 chairs is $15 a month flat. We take no cut of the haircut.
No boost, no marketplace fee. Your booking link brings in your own clients and you keep all of it.
No card on file. Customers join the line or book without an account, so there is no expired card to chase.
The walk-in line is the center. There is a wall screen for the room, and a printable window sign with a QR code.
Email reminders go out on a schedule, so no-shows get a nudge without a payment step.

What you give up

Be clear about this before you switch. BarberShopLine does not have a marketplace that sends you new clients. It cannot take deposits or charge no-show fees. It sends email, not text messages, and there is no phone app yet, so you run it from a browser. If marketplace discovery is why you pay Booksy, this is not a swap for that.

See the full pricing, or compare with Squire.

BarberShopLine runs your walk-in line and booking page, with no payment cut. Start free for one chair.