We run three tanning salons ourselves, so here’s the short version. For a UK tanning salon, Fresha is the easiest of the three to price from its website, Timely suits a salon that wants a weekly plan with no new-client fees, and Phorest suits a larger team willing to go through a sales quote. A website does a different job from all three, because it is where new customers find you and then follow a link into whichever system you choose.
Prices below were checked on each company’s own website on 30 October 2026. They change, so confirm them before you sign anything. Timely and Fresha list their prices publicly, and Phorest asks you to request a quote.
Start with how your salon really takes customers
Most booking software is built around a person’s diary. A sunbed salon often runs around equipment, walk-ins and prepaid minutes or courses, which is a different shape of day.
Write down three things before you book any demos:
- Which services need an appointment and which are walk-in.
- Whether customers buy minutes, courses or memberships, and how that balance is tracked today.
- What already runs your beds and till, because you may only need booking for part of the business.
If most of your trade is walk-in sunbeds, you may need very little online booking. Our walk-in salon website guide covers that route.
The comparison
| Fresha | Phorest | Timely | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published UK price | £14.95 a month for one bookable team member, or £9.95 per team member a month (before VAT) | None published. Request a quote | From £4, £7 or £9 a week by plan. Price adjusts with bookings |
| Team size pricing | Per team member | Plans described for 3+ staff | Unlimited team members |
| New-client fee | One-off 20% on marketplace new clients, £4 minimum | Says no commission on bookings | Says no new-client fees |
| Card fees | Online 1.40% + 25p, in person 1.19% + 20p | Ask for a quote | Ask before signing |
| Packages | Sells packages, memberships and single sessions | Tracks remaining package or course treatments | Promos and packages on the Boost plan and above |
| Booking from your website | Embeddable booking widget | Booking widget for your website | Booking included, with a branded website on its plans |
| Tanning detail | Stand-up and lay-down beds, session limits and booth scheduling, on its tanning page | None found on its site | No tanning page found. Says rooms and equipment can be reserved |
Fresha’s marketplace fee is the line to read twice. Clients it sends you carry a one-off charge, while returning clients do not. That can be a fair price for a genuinely new customer, but the customer found you beside other salons, on a page you do not control.
Phorest and Timely present themselves as hair, beauty and wellness platforms, and our search of each site found nothing written for tanning salons. We could not confirm from the pages we checked whether either handles minutes or bed-based booking, so treat those as demo questions. Fresha’s tanning page mentions session limits and does not mention minute balances.
Five questions to ask in every demo
- Can a customer book a specific bed or room, or only a member of staff?
- Can you sell and track minutes, or only sessions and packages?
- How do you record a walk-in without disrupting the online diary?
- If you leave, can you export customer records, balances and booking history?
- Which costs apply once card fees, text messages and add-ons are counted?
Ask for the answers in writing and show them your real price list. A demo built around a hair salon diary tells you very little about a Saturday on the beds.
If you already run tanning software
Google’s UK results for tanning salon booking software are mostly tanning-specific products, such as Salon Tracker, Tan-Link and UVION. These are a separate category from the three above, and you may already run one. If yours is Salon Tracker, see how an app fits around it. Our tanning software guide explains what these systems do. Check what yours does before you add a second system. Paying for two diaries, and asking staff to keep both right, is an expensive way to find out you only needed a booking link.
If you run a spray tan studio or go mobile
Spray tans are easier to book than sunbeds in one way, because they’re plain appointments, so most of the systems above will cope. The bits that catch people out are specific to spray:
- Buffer time. Build drying time and booth clean-up into the service length, so the diary can’t stack customers back to back.
- Prep and aftercare messages. Check you can send a different reminder for spray tans, covering what to do before they arrive and how to look after the colour.
- Deposits. A no-show on a Saturday morning is a lost slot, so ask how deposits work for one service and not another.
- Group bookings. Ask how a system handles a bride with four bridesmaids in one go.
- Mobile tanners. Ask whether the diary can allow for travel between addresses, and how a customer gives you theirs. A home visit needs more than a studio slot.
If you only do spray tans, the fee comparison for Fresha, Treatwell and Booksy is the next thing to read, because solo plans vary the most.
What your own website adds
A booking system takes the appointment. Your website carries the things that help someone choose you first: your town, your beds, your prices, your opening hours and the photographs of your actual salon.
The two work together. Your website is the page you control and it links to your chosen booking system, so the customer taps a clear button and lands in the right place. Booking stays in that system, and the website does not change how it runs. We cover the Fresha decision in more depth in your own website vs Fresha, and we set Fresha, Treatwell and Booksy against each other on tanning needs.
Link each button to the specific service, so a spray tan customer does not have to hunt through a full menu. Test every link on a phone before launch, using the launch checklist. If you operate sunbeds, your booking route has to keep under-18s out too, which the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 requires in England and Wales, with similar rules in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
How to decide
- One or two people and mostly appointments: compare Fresha and Timely on your real numbers, including how many new clients you expect from a marketplace.
- A bigger team with spend on retention and marketing tools: add Phorest to the list and get a written quote.
- Mostly walk-in sunbeds: start with what your till or tanning software already does. You may only need a clear website and directions.
- Already happy with your system: keep it. Put a website in front of it and link the two.
Work out a full year’s cost for each option using your own team size and booking numbers, and include card fees. A low monthly figure can look different once you count the per-person charges and the marketplace fee.
Sources
Checked on 30 October 2026:
- Fresha pricing and Fresha for tanning studios
- Phorest pricing, Phorest features and Phorest vs Fresha, which Phorest wrote itself
- Timely pricing and Timely online booking, which says “Reserve rooms and equipment”