Frequently asked questions

Yes. With pay as you go there is no subscription. You pay 8 dollars per team member each month, with a 5 dollar minimum in any month you have staff, and nothing at all in a month with no team. It follows the size of your team rather than how busy you are, so the price is predictable and you control it: add a team member and you add a seat, remove one and the seat comes off. Text-message reminders and large photo galleries are optional paid add-ons. Once your team settles, a monthly plan usually works out cheaper and we point that out so you never overpay.

After the 90-day free trial you move onto a paid plan, priced by how many active clients you have each month. Plans start at $9 a month for Solo, then $35 for Studio, $79 for Pro and $179 for Scale. Bookatu never takes a commission on your bookings. See the pricing page for the active-client range each plan covers.

An active client is a client who books or visits you during the billing month. Quiet clients sitting in your list don't count toward your plan, so you are charged in line with how busy you actually are, not the size of your contact list.

No. Your plan is based on how many active clients you have, not how many staff or team members you add. You can add your whole team without paying more per person.

Bookatu is free for 90 days. When the trial ends you pick a plan to keep taking bookings. If you are not ready, there is a short grace period and your data is always safe, so you can carry on right where you left off as soon as you subscribe.

Any time, from the billing area in Settings, which opens your secure billing portal. There is no lock-in. Your data stays yours and you can export it before you go.

Yes. If you take photos for clients, you can share a private gallery in each client's booking account. They see low-resolution previews with a baked-in watermark, heart their favourites, and download the full-resolution files once their picks are settled. You can include a set number of photos and charge for extras, and your storage is metered with the option to add more.

Yes. Restaurants can list their dishes as a menu on their public page and take pay-online, collect-in-store orders. Guests add items to a cart and pay, the money goes straight to your own account with no commission, and each order arrives as a ticket to prepare.

Yes. Under Marketing, Website button, you copy a one-line snippet and paste it into your site (Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress or Wix). It shows a Book now button that opens your Bookatu booking page, with no plugin to install.

Yes. As well as one-to-one appointments, you can run fixed-time group sessions: a class or clinic at a set day and time with a limit on spots. People book and pay online, the page shows how many spots are left and marks it full at the limit, and you can set it to repeat each week. It suits tennis clinics, fitness and yoga classes, group coaching, workshops and photographer mini-session days.

Yes. You can make a group class private so it does not show on your public page, then share a link on WhatsApp or in a group chat so only the people you send it to can see the sessions and book. You can copy a link for the whole class or for one specific session, which drops the person straight onto that date to book. It is made for members-only clinics and closed groups.

Yes. Each upcoming group session shows a live weather forecast for that day right on the booking card, so people booking an outdoor class or clinic can see what to expect. If you cancel a rained-off session, everyone who booked is credited back automatically and emailed.

Bookatu is online booking and scheduling software for salons, spas, personal trainers and clinics. You get a branded booking page, a calendar, automatic reminders, deposits and no-show protection, client records, and marketing tools, all in one place.

Clients open your booking page, pick a service, choose a team member or 'any available', select a time that fits your real availability, and confirm. They get an instant confirmation and a reminder before the visit. Booking takes under a minute and works on any phone.

No. Clients can book in seconds with just their name and contact details. No app to download and no password to remember. They can optionally sign in later to view and manage their visits.

Yes. There is a free plan to get started, plus paid plans with more features as you grow. See the pricing page for what each plan includes.

Yes. When you first sign in, your admin dashboard shows a six-step checklist that takes you from sign-up to a live, bookable storefront, and each step only ticks when you have really done it. See the first-run setup checklist help article for a walkthrough.

Yes. The booking page and the whole admin are built mobile-first, so both your clients and your team can book and manage appointments from a phone.

Yes. Bookatu installs straight from your web browser, with no app store. On Android or Chrome, tap the Install app button. On an iPhone or iPad, open the page in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Both you and your clients can install it for one-tap access.

Yes. Your booking page lives at its own web address, and you can add a Book now button or embed the booking widget on your existing website. You can also link to it from your Instagram bio, your Google profile and your email signature, so clients can book wherever they find you.

Yes. You can build a daily checklist of your opening, between-client and closing jobs that your staff tick off on their phones. It records who did what and when, and resets each morning. Salons can load a ready-made list in one tap and edit it. It keeps your standards the same on every shift and helps train new starters.

Yes. A trainee is a login type for juniors and apprentices. When they sign in they see only the team checklist, so they can tick off their jobs, and nothing else: not your calendar, your clients, your money or your settings. It is the safe way to bring a new starter onto the team. You can change their role to give more access later.

You connect your own Stripe account, and payments go straight to you. You can ask for a deposit at the time of booking to reduce no-shows, with the deposit coming off the total on the day. Bookatu does not take a commission on your bookings.

No. Bookatu charges a flat subscription, not a percentage of your bookings. The money your clients pay goes to your own connected payment account.

Email reminders are included on every plan. Text (SMS) reminders are included on the Studio, Pro and Scale plans, and on the Solo plan you can switch them on for a small monthly add-on. Each plan comes with a monthly text allowance, and you can see exactly what is included on the pricing page. Bookatu still never takes a commission on your bookings.

Straight into your own Stripe account, because clients pay you, not us. Stripe then pays the money out to your bank on a regular schedule, often every couple of business days. Your first payout can take a little longer while Stripe verifies your account. Bookatu never holds your money.

Yes. Because payments run through your own Stripe account, you issue refunds from your Stripe dashboard. Find the payment, then refund it in full or in part. Deposits taken at booking can be refunded the same way.

Three ways: automatic reminders before each visit, optional deposits taken at booking, and a no-show shield that asks repeat no-show clients for a larger deposit. Together these cut the empty slots that cost you money.

The slot reopens automatically, and Bookatu offers it to the best-matching client on your waitlist, your highest-value waiting client who fits that service and time, so a cancellation can turn into a re-booking instead of an empty hour.

Your SMS reminders pause for the rest of that month, and your email reminders keep going automatically, so clients are never left unreminded. The allowance is a fair-use limit, not a hard cliff, and it resets at the start of the next month.

Yes. Each team member has their own bookable services, working hours and calendar column. Clients can pick a specific person or let the system find anyone available.

Yes. You can block off time for breaks, holidays or admin (for everyone or one team member), and that time is removed from online availability immediately and shown on your calendar.

Yes. Your business hours drive both the calendar and what clients can book, so people can only book when you are actually open.

Yes. You can email clients who opted in, with a live preview of how the email will look, scheduling, and one-click unsubscribe. Only subscribed clients are ever emailed.

Yes. You set off-peak windows, such as weekday mornings or Sunday afternoons, and a percentage off, shown on your public Deals page. The discount applies automatically to bookings made in those quiet windows, so you fill slow hours without discounting your busy ones. This is separate from typed promo codes.

As well as your own booking page, Bookatu lists you on shared local discovery hubs, pages for your town and for each service, so people searching for what you offer in their area can find a bookable business. Listing is free with no commission and no paid placement. See the local discovery hubs help article for how to appear on the right pages.

Your City or town is what groups your storefront into the right local discovery hub, and your Region (a wider area or state) helps people in your part of the country find you. Set both accurately under Settings, Business details. See the getting found online help article for more.

Yes. Type your domain in the Website field under Settings, Business details, and Bookatu shows a tidy 'Visit our website' link on your storefront's contact card. You can also add extra websites and your social profiles in the same place. This links out to a website you already have; it does not connect your own domain to your Bookatu storefront. See the your business profile, website and social links help article.

Yes. In the Website & social section under Settings, Business details, type your Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, just your @handle is enough, you do not need the full link. Use 'Add another link' for extra websites or other media like YouTube, X, LinkedIn or WhatsApp. Each one you fill in shows on your booking page's contact card with the right icon, and the ones you skip are left out. This links out to the profiles you already have; it does not connect your own domain to your storefront. See the your business profile, website and social links help article.

Salons, spas, nail and beauty studios, barbers, personal trainers and fitness studios, and clinics. The wording and features adapt to your industry. For example, clinics get intake and consent forms, and trainers get workout checklists.

Yes. The whole experience rewords to your trade based on the business type you choose. Trainers see sessions, clinics see treatments and practitioners, studios see classes, and restaurants reserve tables from a menu. Whatever you do, the booking page and client portal read as if they were built for it.

You do. Your client list, notes and history are yours. You can export your data, and each business's data is isolated from every other business on the platform.

You don't have to start from scratch. Export your client list from your current tool as a CSV file, which Fresha and most booking apps can do, then import it into Bookatu under Clients. If the file is messy or you'd like a hand, send it to us and we'll help bring your clients across.

Your data is yours and you can export it any time, including your client list, bookings and payment records, as files you can open in a spreadsheet. It is stored securely, and each business's data is kept separate from every other business on the platform, so you are never locked in.

Yes. You can sell retail and take-home products from a Shop on your booking page. Each product is either shippable, where checkout collects a delivery address, or pay-online-and-collect-in-store. Payment goes straight to your own Stripe account, and you fulfil orders yourself while the order status tracks each one.

Yes. You can sell gift cards, where the value lands in the recipient's wallet, prepaid packages, where a client pays an amount and gets more credit to spend, and recurring monthly memberships. Clients buy them from your booking site and pay through your own Stripe account, and any credit applies automatically at their next visit.

Bookatu has a REST API plus an MCP server that let other software and AI assistants check availability and book on a client's behalf. API and MCP access is available as an opt-in add-on, on request. It is not bundled into the standard plans. Talk to us if you'd like it enabled, and see the technical reference at /developers.