A booking system or your own website?

Below are the publicly available prices as of July 2026. We only put figures in the table that can be found on the provider's own site — which is why some rows say the price is not published. Pricing changes often, so verify before deciding. For a broader picture of what websites cost in Finland, we collected market prices into a separate guide.

Two things where a subscription system clearly beats an owned site, and there is no point dressing it up: marketplace visibility and speed of launch. A system is running in days; a site takes weeks. And if the marketplace brings you customers, an owned site does not replace that.

If you are looking for a comparison of the systems against each other rather than against an owned site, that lives on its own page: Finnish booking systems compared — published prices for Vello, Hallinnoija, Ajas, Book Salon and Diarium, a worked example for a three-person business, and what a Kanta connection costs.

Why some rows have no price

This is a finding in itself, not a gap in the comparison. Not every Finnish booking system publishes its price list, and that affects the buyer's position: you cannot check the price level yourself, and every comparison requires an enquiry and a sales conversation.

About Timma we know the essential part from the company's own help centre: a new customer's first booking through the marketplace is charged at 20% of the booking value, and no commission applies to that customer's subsequent visits. The rate was 15% until 31 May and rose to 20% at the start of June. According to Yle, the increase produced hundreds of pieces of feedback and CEO Lari Mykrä estimated the effect at roughly fifteen euros per month per business.

Figures for Fresha circulate online that we could not confirm on the company's own pricing pages, so we do not repeat them as fact. What Fresha's own help centre does state is more important to the buying decision than price: taking online bookings requires your profile to be listed on the marketplace. If you unlist the profile, all your online booking channels are disabled — including those coming from your own website and social pages. Fresha is therefore not a tool you can run as a purely private calendar without marketplace exposure.

What you pay for with a monthly fee

A monthly fee is not merely rent on software. For some providers it is access to a flow of customers. Platforms that run a marketplace show you to people browsing service providers in their area — and if they find you there, you have gained a customer you would not otherwise have had.

A commission on new customers is therefore precisely the price of acquisition. It is not unreasonable if the platform genuinely brings you new people and they come back. It becomes expensive when your customers arrive from your own site, your Google profile and word of mouth — then you are paying for an engine you do not use.

This is the central question of the whole comparison: where do your customers come from right now? If you do not know, find out before deciding anything.

What you pay for with a one-off

An owned website does not bring you customers by itself. It appears in no marketplace and nobody browses it by chance. Its value is of a different kind.

First, the customer register is yours. When you want to message regulars who have not been in for six months, you can. Second, search authority accumulates on your domain: every article, every link and every search for "barber Tampere booking" grows your site rather than a platform's. Third, a one-off price does not rise when you hire a third member of staff — under per-resource pricing it does.

And fourth, mentioned less often: leaving a platform gets more expensive every month. The longer your customer register sits on someone else's server, the larger the share of your business that lives there. Ask before signing how you can get the data out.

Which suits your situation

Choose a subscription system if: you are starting out and do not yet know whether the concept works; you need a till and card terminal in one package; the marketplace measurably brings you new customers; you have one chair and ten bookings a week.

Choose an owned site if: customer flow is established and comes from your own channels; you want to build search visibility under your own name; you have several resources and per-resource pricing starts to bite; you are planning for years rather than months.

Take both if: you want the marketplace as an acquisition channel and your own site as the place returning customers go directly. Then commission is paid only on new customers, and the established base stays in your hands. For many service businesses this is the most honest answer.

One figure that applies to every option

Across sources, a third to a half of salon bookings are made while the business is closed (Zenoti 32%, Phorest around 30%, Simple Salon's compiled figures 46–50%), and Timma reports that over half of bookings are made outside normal working hours. That is not an argument for any particular system — it is an argument against having no system at all. If the only way to book you is a phone during opening hours, a significant share of demand never reaches you, whoever's software you use.

We wrote a closer comparison of Timma specifically: Timma or your own website — the commission model, the cases where no commission is charged, and a worked example.

Run your own numbers in the calculator — two minutes, and you will see how monthly fees and a one-off investment compare in your situation. Trade-by-trade breakdowns are in the blog, and add-on service prices are on their own page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a booking system cost in Finland?

By published price lists on 21 July 2026: Vello Free €0/month, Hallinnoija and Vello Basic €7.90/month, Ajas from €16/month plus VAT, Evaraus €19.95/month on a 12-month billing period, and Vello Pro from €48.90/month with a Kanta connection. SMS, payment commissions and marketplace commissions are usually charged on top.

How much does Timma cost?

Timma does not publish its monthly price list openly online, so we do not quote a starting price for it. According to the company's own help centre, a new customer's first booking through the marketplace is charged at 20% of the booking value; no commission applies to that customer's later visits. The rate rose from 15% to 20% at the start of June. SMS messages are charged at €0.08 plus VAT per message sent.

Is Fresha free, and what does it cost?

We do not quote prices for Fresha because we could not confirm them on the company's own pricing pages. Third-party sources repeatedly cite Independent at roughly $19.95/month and Team at roughly $14.95/month per bookable team member, plus a one-time 20% commission on new clients from the marketplace — check fresha.com/pricing for current rates. Fresha's own help centre does state that taking online bookings requires your profile to be listed on the marketplace, and that unlisting the profile disables all your online booking channels.

When is a subscription system the better choice than an owned site?

When you are starting out and do not yet know whether the concept works, when you need a till and card terminal in the same package, or when a marketplace measurably brings you new customers. For a one-chair business with ten bookings a week, an owned site may never pay for itself.

When is an owned site the better choice?

When customer flow is established and comes through your own channels, when you want search authority to accumulate on your own domain, or when you have several resources and per-resource pricing starts to multiply. Run both over three years on your own numbers — there is no universal answer.

Can you use both at once?

Yes, and for many businesses that is the most sensible arrangement. The marketplace works as an acquisition channel and your own site owns the customer relationship. They solve different problems and do not exclude each other.

What happens to customer data if I change systems?

Settle this before committing. Ask whether you can export the customer register and in what format. The GDPR gives you a right to the data, but the practical implementation varies by platform, and the longer you have been on one the more expensive leaving becomes.