Pricing · 6 min read
"Free" booking software usually isn't. Here's how the two main pricing models work, and how to figure out which one actually costs you less as you grow.
Many platforms are free to set up and charge a percentage (often around 6%) of every booking, sometimes plus a flat per-order amount. The fee may be passed to your customer at checkout or absorbed by you.
The catch: the fee scales with your success. The more you sell, the more you pay — forever.
A flat-fee platform like Theybook charges one predictable monthly price no matter how much you sell. Your processing cost is just Stripe's standard card rate, paid to your own account.
The fee stays put as you grow, so every extra booking is pure upside.
Take your annual bookings revenue and multiply by the commission rate. On $300,000 of bookings, a 6% fee is $18,000 a year. Compare that to a flat annual subscription — the gap is often five figures.
The more you sell, the more lopsided the comparison becomes in favor of a flat fee.
If you're brand new with very low volume, a pure commission model has no fixed cost. But most operators cross the break-even point quickly — and once you do, flat-fee pricing wins every month after.
Key takeaways
Set up your booking page in minutes — flat monthly fee, 0% commission, payouts to your own Stripe.
Questions, answered
On meaningful volume, yes. 6% of $300,000 is $18,000 per year — usually far more than a flat annual subscription costs.
It depends on the platform and your settings — sometimes the customer at checkout, sometimes you. Either way it's a cut of every order under the commission model.