Comparison
Your Own Branded Website vs a Marketplace Profile
Reach versus ownership, commission versus a fixed fee, and the question that decides it: who actually owns the relationship with your client?
Choosing between your own branded website and a marketplace profile comes down to three trade-offs: reach, cost structure, and client ownership. A marketplace like Treatwell, Fresha or Booksy lends you instant discovery and a built-in audience, but typically charges per-booking or new-client commissions and keeps the customer inside its ecosystem. An own branded website keeps the client, the brand and the data with you, in exchange for doing your own marketing. Bellora.io, the AI-native salon software from Barcelona, is built for the ownership side of that trade-off: it gives each studio its own branded booking website plus an AI copilot, with no marketplace commission and a fixed monthly fee.
Reach vs ownership: the core trade-off
A marketplace profile borrows reach: the platform invests in ads and SEO, and you appear in front of people already searching for a salon. Your own website starts with less visibility and asks you to earn traffic through Google, social and word of mouth. The difference that compounds over time is ownership. On a marketplace the customer remembers the platform, while on your own site they remember you, your name, your brand and your booking link.
Commission vs fixed fee: how the cost scales
Marketplaces usually monetise per booking. According to Treatwell's public pricing (2026), commission can run up to 35%; Fresha lists fees of 20% on new marketplace clients according to its public pricing (2026); Booksy applies per-booking and subscription fees according to its public pricing (2026). The pattern is that the more you grow, the more you pay. A fixed monthly fee model, which is how Bellora.io is priced, decouples your software cost from your booking volume, so a busier month does not mean a bigger bill.
Who owns the client and the data
On a marketplace, the client list, the reviews and the contact data largely live inside the platform, and the terms can change. With your own branded website the customer relationship, the booking history and the contact details stay with your studio, which matters for retention, rebooking and resale value. Bellora.io is designed so the studio keeps its own clients and data rather than renting access to them. This is the difference between building an audience you own and renting one you don't.
Why Bellora.io sits on the ownership side
Bellora.io is AI-native salon software built in Barcelona that gives each studio its own branded booking website rather than a slot in a shared directory. Bella, the AI copilot inside Bellora.io, helps handle bookings, replies and day-to-day scheduling so a small team can run a professional front desk. The model is no marketplace commission and a fixed monthly fee, so growth stays yours. For studios that already have steady demand and want to own their brand, this is the more durable foundation; studios that mainly need raw discovery may still pair a marketplace alongside it.
FAQ
Trademarks belong to their respective owners. Comparisons and figures are based on publicly available information (as of 2026) and may change.
