The sticker price is rarely the real price
Most booking platforms charge on at least two axes: a monthly subscription and a cut of every payment taken. A salon doing £8,000 a month through Square Appointments on a mid tier pays the licence plus roughly £150–£200 in transaction fees—before SMS reminders, extra staff seats or removing the vendor’s branding.
| Option | Typical cost | What else you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Square Appointments | £0–£69 / location / month | Plus 1.4%–2.5% per transaction on every booking taken. |
| SimplyBook.me | £8–£50 / month | Bookings capped per tier; branding and SMS cost extra. |
| Calendly Teams | £12–£15 / user / month | Scales with headcount, not with revenue. |
| Custom build (Easy Ticket) | One-time build fee | Unlimited bookings, no per-seat fees, you own the code. |
Indicative UK list pricing at time of writing; check each vendor for current rates.
Where SaaS stops fitting
- Your booking flow needs steps the platform does not support (deposits, resources, multi-day hire, guest QR check-in).
- Costs scale with bookings or staff, so growth is punished rather than rewarded.
- Customer data lives in someone else's account and exports are limited.
- The checkout looks like the vendor's brand, not yours.
The ROI maths on a custom build
A custom booking engine is a one-time build cost with hosting measured in pounds, not hundreds. If your current stack costs £250 a month across subscriptions, seats and transaction fees, that is £3,000 a year—and it rises with every new staff member. Most of our clients reach break-even inside 12–24 months, then keep the saving permanently.
- Zero recurring per-seat or per-booking fees
- You own the code and the customer data outright
- Payments go straight to your Stripe or PayPal account
- Built around your process rather than a template
So which should you choose?
If you take a handful of bookings a week and a generic flow works, stay on SaaS—it is the cheaper answer. Once you are paying three figures a month, employing more than a couple of staff, or fighting the platform to fit your process, a custom system is usually cheaper within two years and better for your customers from day one.
Want the numbers for your business?
We’ll audit what you currently pay and tell you honestly whether a custom build is worth it. See our booking engine and managed IT services or recent projects.