---
title: "Introducing Pay as you go: no monthly fee, pay per team member"
description: "A new way to pay for Bookatu, built for businesses that are just starting out or seasonal. No subscription and no commission. Pay US$8 per team member a month, with a US$5 minimum in any month you have a team, and nothing in a month with no team."
url: "https://bookatu.com/en-nz/blog/introducing-pay-as-you-go"
language: "en"
section: "Blog"
category: "Grow your business"
author: "The Bookatu team"
published: "2026-06-26"
updated: "2026-10-30"
tags: ["pricing", "pay as you go", "small business", "getting started", "announcement"]
---

# Introducing Pay as you go: no monthly fee, pay per team member

A new way to pay for Bookatu, built for businesses that are just starting out or seasonal. No subscription and no commission. Pay US$8 per team member a month, with a US$5 minimum in any month you have a team, and nothing in a month with no team.

> **The short version**
>
> - No monthly plan and no contract: pay US$8 per team member, per month.
> - A seat is an active team member. You pay for the team you have, so the bill never jumps with a busy month.
> - There is a small US$5 monthly minimum in any month you have a team, which simply covers the card-processing fee.
> - A month with no team costs you nothing, and there is 0% commission on bookings. Our monthly plans are still there too: each is free for 90 days, then from US$9 a month.

Not every business wants to start with a monthly subscription. If you are brand new, run a seasonal trade, or have quiet stretches, a fixed fee every month can feel like a risk before the bookings are coming in. So we built a simpler option: pay as you go.

## How it works

There is no monthly plan to pick. You get everything you need to take bookings online, and at the end of each month you pay US$8 for each active team member, which we call a seat. Scale your team up or down and the bill follows. If you have no team in a given month, you pay nothing.

There is one small floor: a US$5 minimum in any month where you have at least one team member. That covers the flat fee our payment processor charges to raise a single invoice, so a small month does not cost us more than it brings in. It is the only fixed part, and it keeps the option honest and sustainable.

![The pay-as-you-go estimator on the Bookatu pricing page, showing a cost of $32.00 a month for 4 team members](https://bookatu.com/help/payg-estimator.png)

*The live estimator on the pricing page: drag the slider to the size of your team and see the monthly cost instantly.*

## What is included

- Your own branded booking site
- Deposits that stop no-shows
- Automatic booking reminders
- Payments straight into your own bank account, with our usual zero booking commission

Two things stay as optional paid add-ons rather than being bundled in: text-message (SMS) reminders, which carry a real per-message carrier cost, and large photo galleries, which use a lot of storage and bandwidth. Keeping those separate is what lets the base rate stay this low.

## Pay as you go or a monthly plan

Pay as you go follows the size of your team, with no commitment. If you would rather commit, our monthly plans are still there: each one is free for 90 days, then runs from US$9 to US$179 a month, and there is 0% commission on bookings either way. You can try the live estimator on the pricing page to see what pay as you go would cost for your team.

If a no-commitment start is what has been holding you back, this is for you. Take a look on the pricing page and start taking bookings today.