Luminate and Fresha compared

How Fresha prices it

Fresha charges for its software based on the size of your team. If you're working alone, the Independent plan costs £14.95 a month for a single calendar column, but this basic tier leaves out essential tools like staff login permissions, sales commissions, and individual service pricing. To use those features or to add team members, you must use the Team plan at £9.95 per bookable stylist each month. For a salon with six stylists, paying £9.95 for each person comes to £59.70 a month, and all these rates are exclusive of local sales taxes.

For larger businesses with more than 20 team members, Fresha does not publish a rate for their Enterprise plan. You will need to contact their sales team directly to find out what you'll pay. Bookings made through the Fresha marketplace are free for both new and returning clients, so you don't pay commission on those appointments. If you process client payments online through the platform, you will pay a transaction fee of 1.40% plus 25p for each transaction.

The total cost can increase if you use optional add-ons or send messages to your clients. A client loyalty programme costs £49.95 a month for each location, and advanced insights cost £7.95 monthly for each bookable team member. You also pay for notifications and marketing after you exceed a small limit. On the Team plan, you get 20 free text messages per team member each month, and any texts after that cost 4p each, while marketing texts cost 6p each. Marketing emails are free for the first 50 each month, and then cost 1p each.

When you sign up, the basic migration service imports your client details and product inventory for free, but you must pay for a custom package if you need to transfer more data. Because software plans and features can change over time, you should check Fresha's own pricing page directly to confirm the latest rates before making a decision.

How Luminate prices it

Luminate charges a flat price of £69 per month. Every feature is included, and staff accounts are unlimited. You can add as many stylists as you need without your bill changing.

The price includes unlimited tills and terminals to run the software on multiple devices. You get 300 SMS credits each month, with email and WhatsApp messaging included.

Billing is monthly with no contract or exit fee. You can cancel any time. There's a 30-day free trial with no credit card required to test every feature.

Where Fresha is the better choice

Fresha is built around its consumer marketplace, making it an excellent choice for new salons building a client list from scratch. If you've just opened and don't have regulars yet, the marketplace exposes your business to local searchers.

Listing on the Fresha marketplace costs nothing per booking, so you won't lose a percentage of your revenue every time a client finds you. Instead, you pay a fixed monthly subscription of £14.95 on the Independent plan or £9.95 per bookable team member on the Team plan.

This flat-fee model gives you predictable monthly software expenses, which makes budgeting straightforward. Since bookings from the marketplace are free, you can fill your diary without your bill going up as your business grows.

Where Luminate fits better

Luminate is built specifically for hair salons, focusing on features that regular hair clients and colour specialists need.

When you have regular clients, your focus changes from finding new bookings to managing the relationships you already have. Luminate stores customer profiles and visit analytics in one place, while two-way messaging lets you contact clients directly without an intermediary.

• Colour formulas and overage billing. You can record colour formulas for each client and track overage billing in the client file when a service requires extra colour.
• Skin test compliance. You can't ignore safety, so Luminate tracks and flags skin test records, warning you when a test is missing or has expired before you mix colour.
• Commission automation. Luminate lets you set up staff levels and automates commission based on those staff levels, tracking what stylists earn on services and retail.
• Multi-service bookings. Clients often book a colour, cut, and blow-dry together. Luminate lets them book these multi-service bookings online, placing them back-to-back in your diary.

What moving involves

Moving data from another system can feel daunting, but Luminate does migrate your records. The support team runs the migration, so you don't have to enter history by hand.

To start, contact hello@luminate.salon with details of your current system. The team helps prepare your data as a ZIP of JSON files. Before anything is written, a validation dry run checks every record.

The import runs inside a single database transaction, meaning it either completes or rolls back entirely, so you'll never end up with partial data. Because the import needs a fresh salon, plan the migration before entering anything by hand.

The migration brings across:

Once the import completes, there are two defaults to check. Every service arrives set as bookable online and deposit-free, and each staff member arrives on the roster.

Because Luminate offers a 30-day free trial with no card, you can run both in parallel. This lets you verify the imported data and get comfortable before you switch.

• Staff records. Roster settings, monthly targets, commission bands, profiles, and staff levels.
• Customer details. Records with preferences, badges, tags, and account credit.
• Services and products. Service settings, deposit rules, products, and your colour catalogue.
• Appointments. Bookings, shifts, roster data, and time blocks.
• Transactions. Historic transactions with items and payments.
• Vouchers and tests. Gift vouchers and colour test records with signed consent signatures.

Questions to ask before you decide

Before you choose your next software, you should look beyond the marketing promises and ask questions about how the software fits your daily salon life.

The right software should support your stylists and protect your business from no-shows without your monthly bills getting out of hand. If a system doesn't make your daily work easier from day one, you should keep looking.

• How does the software bill you as your team grows? Ask if you pay a flat rate or if your monthly cost increases with every stylist you hire. If you plan to expand, you need to know how that changes your bill.
• What does a marketplace booking actually cost? Marketplace terms vary between software providers and change over time, so you'll need to ask exactly what a new client booking through their directory will cost. Check too if opting into any promoted listings or search boosts comes with a separate fee.
• How are your colour records and skin tests tracked? Ask if the software stores colour formulas and flags skin tests. Having these attached directly to client profiles is essential for safety.
• Can you export your data if you decide to leave? Ask if you can export your complete database yourself. With Luminate, owners and admins can export the full salon, or one customer, as a ZIP in JSON or CSV.
• Is there an onboarding call to help you get set up? Ask if you'll have to figure out setup yourself or if a person will walk you through the setup. Luminate includes a free onboarding call, tutorials, and docs to start.