Luminate and Treatwell compared

How Treatwell prices it

Treatwell offers two main plans, Freelancer and Advanced, and both are listed as starting for free on their website. However, they don't publish an actual monthly subscription price. Their FAQ refers to a monthly fee, but you'll have to sign up or contact their sales team to find out what that fee actually is for your business. Because plans and software details change frequently, you should check Treatwell's own pricing page to verify the current details before making any decisions.

A large part of what you pay is based on commission from the clients they find for you. Treatwell charges a 35% commission, plus VAT, on the first booking made by a new client who finds you through their marketplace. That marketplace is huge, with over 150,000 salons across Europe, so it can get you noticed, but that commission takes a significant slice of that first bill. There's no commission on repeat bookings or on appointments made directly with you through your own phone, text, WhatsApp, manual entry, or your direct booking button.

If a client decides to pay online in advance, there's a processing fee of 2.5% plus VAT. This fee applies only to online advance payments, so you don't pay it if the client pays at the counter after their service. Keep in mind that every commission and fee Treatwell charges is subject to VAT, which is worth remembering when you're calculating your total costs.

How Luminate prices it

Luminate keeps its pricing straightforward with a flat rate of £69 per month. There's no contract or exit fees, so you can cancel at any time. Every feature's included in this single price, so you don't pay extra to use staff tools or colour records. You can try the software for free for 30 days without entering a credit card, and the trial includes a free onboarding call to help you set up.

You can add as many staff accounts as you need, and your monthly bill stays exactly the same because Luminate doesn't charge per user. You also get unlimited tills and terminals to run the calendar on multiple iPads or computers at the same time. The flat rate includes 300 SMS credits every month for confirmations, and you'll send unlimited email and WhatsApp messages at no extra cost.

With Luminate, you pay a flat £69 a month to cover all your bookings, staff accounts, and client reminders. Your bill won't change whether you have three stylists or thirty, so your software costs stay exactly the same as your business grows.

For all online payments (including booking deposits), there's a simple card processing cost of 2% plus 20p per transaction. For example, a £20 online payment costs 60p, and a £50 online payment costs £1.20. There aren't any gateway fees or setup costs, and you'll only pay when an online payment is taken. If a booking remains unpaid after 30 minutes, it cancels itself.

Where Treatwell is the better choice

Treatwell's an excellent choice if local people don't know your salon exists. Because they run a massive consumer marketplace where thousands of active users search for appointments, listing your business there gives you immediate exposure. If you've just opened a new salon, or if you've got empty chairs to fill quickly, the marketplace can send you clients who'd otherwise never have found you.

This works well if you view the commission fee as a marketing spend to pay for the introduction to a new customer. If you don't have your own website or a strong social media presence, relying on a large public directory to handle client acquisition's a practical way to build your initial client list.

Where Luminate fits better

Luminate's designed specifically for hair salons managing their own business directly. The features focus on hair-salon realities, starting with multi-service bookings that let clients schedule a complex appointment like highlights, toner, and a cut-and-finish in a single go.

The system includes colour formulas to log mixing details, along with overage billing records so you'll track when you use extra product. For safety, Luminate tracks skin test compliance by keeping a record of tests and flagging when a client's due for a new one before their colour service.

To manage your team, you'll set staff levels and use commission automation to calculate what each stylist's earned based on services and retail sales. The software also handles rostering, leave management, and hours tracking within the same system, so you don't have to piece together spreadsheets to work out payroll.

What moving involves

If you decide to move from Treatwell to Luminate, you won't have to enter all your data by hand. The Luminate support team's ready to run the migration for you to make the move to Luminate clean. To start, you'll email hello@luminate.salon with the details of your current setup.

The team helps you prepare your current salon data as a ZIP file of JSON files. Before anything's written, the team runs a dry-run validation pass to check every record for errors. The actual import runs inside a single database transaction, meaning it either completes perfectly or rolls back entirely so you'll never end up with messy or partial data.

This migration process moves your staff profiles, level settings, roster settings, customer records, badges, and services with deposit rules. Your products, colour catalogue, historical appointments, transactions, shift rosters, signed skin test consent records, and gift vouchers all come over to your new account.

Plan this migration before entering any data by hand, as imports require a fresh Luminate account with only the owner profile set up. Once complete, check that your services have the correct online booking status and your staff are on the roster. You'll be able to use the 30-day free trial to run both systems in parallel while you're getting used to the new calendar.

Questions to ask before you decide

Before you make a decision, it's worth asking a few direct questions about how each system'll affect your business.

• How do my clients find me? If most of your bookings come from regulars, local recommendations, and your own social media, paying a flat rate's a good way to keep your costs predictable.
• What happens to my bills as my team grows? If your software charges per user, it's going to cost you more every time you hire a new stylist.
• Who owns my client list? Check if you'll be able to export your complete customer database, including their historical notes and formulas, if you ever decide to leave.
• What're the rules around booking deposits? Look at whether you'll be able to set custom deposits for specific services to protect your diary, and find out what the processing fees are for online payments.

Making the final choice

Choosing between these systems comes down to what your salon's looking for today. If you need a marketplace to find new clients and you're happy to pay a commission for that reach, Treatwell's built for that job. If you've already got your clients and want a focused hair-salon system with flat monthly pricing, Luminate's ready for you.