---
title: "What does it cost to add online booking to your business website?"
description: "Real prices for online booking systems: platforms with a monthly fee, marketplaces that take a commission, and booking built into your own website."
date: "2026-10-31"
category: "Websites for businesses"
keywords: "online booking cost, booking system price, online appointment booking for business, booking platform commissions, website with booking price"
portada: "/portadas/portada-cuanto-cuesta-una-web-con-reservas-online.webp"
---

# What does it cost to add online booking to your business website?

## The maths worth doing before you sign anything

Almost no business argues about whether online booking is worth it. The problem starts when you have to decide how much to pay for it. And that market is a mess: some charge a monthly fee, some charge a commission for every customer who books, and some include it inside a website you had to pay for anyway.

Let's put clear numbers on the table, with the pieces separated, so you can compare without anyone selling you hot air.

## The three pieces that make up the price

Whichever option you choose, every booking system is paid for with three separate pieces.

1. **The booking tool.** The calendar that shows availability, sends confirmations and reminds people about appointments.
2. **The place where the customer books.** It can be your own website, a page on the platform, or a profile on a marketplace.
3. **The upkeep.** Domain, hosting, updates and someone to fix things when they break.

Many comparisons fail because they only look at the first piece. They tell you "the calendar costs €25 a month" and leave out that you also need a website, that you also pay a commission per booking, and that someone has to set it up.

## Option 1: a booking platform with a monthly fee

This is the fastest route. You sign up, set your services and opening hours, and in one afternoon you have a link where your customers can book.

**What it costs:** depending on the sector and the number of staff, it usually sits between €15 and €45 a month per account, with plans that go up when you add workers, locations or SMS reminders. Over a year that is between €180 and €540.

**What it includes:** calendar, confirmations, reminders and usually a simple public page with your details.

**What it does not include:** a real website. That platform page shows services and times, but it does not say who you are, it does not explain your prices in detail, it has neither your photos nor your story, and it competes in the same shop window with dozens of businesses just like yours.

**When it makes sense:** if you need bookings working this week and you have no website yet. You can start like that and switch later.

## Option 2: a booking marketplace with a commission per customer

It works differently: you pay little or nothing for the tool, but every new customer who arrives through its shop window costs you a percentage or a flat fee.

**What it costs:** typically a commission of between 10% and 30% of the booking value for new customers, or flat fees of €1 to €3 per booking. An €18 haircut with a 25% commission leaves €13.50 in your till; and even then the customer may end up comparing your price with five other businesses on the same screen.

**Real advantage:** it brings you people who did not know you. In businesses with high volume and high ticket value it can pay off.

**Risk:** the customer belongs to the marketplace, not to you. You do not have their email to bring them back, you do not control how your business looks, and any commission increase changes your business overnight.

**When it makes sense:** as an extra acquisition channel, never as your only appointment system.

## Option 3: booking built into your own website

Here the calendar is one more part of the website, integrated into your design. The customer sees services, prices, photos, reviews and the booking button on the same screen.

**What it costs:** a business website with integrated booking usually sits between €400 and €1,200 as a one-off payment, depending on whether it includes online payments, several staff members or several languages. On top of that come hosting and the domain, which for a small business rarely exceeds €120–200 a year when there are no booking commissions.

**What changes compared with the two previous options:** you do not pay per booking, the calendar is yours and the customer stays on your website, where they also see everything else you offer. If someone books a massage and on the way discovers you have a three-session voucher, nobody charges a commission on that extra sale.

**When it makes sense:** when the business already exists, has regular customers and wants to stop depending on commissions or on tools it cannot customise.

## Quick comparison

- **Monthly fee:** €180–540 a year. Fast, simple, but the website is not yours.
- **Marketplace with commission:** variable; with 40 new bookings a month at €20 and 25%, that is €200 a month in commission.
- **Own website with booking:** €400–1,200 once plus small hosting costs. No commission per booking.

If you do the maths over three years, your own website almost always wins once you pass a handful of bookings a month. The monthly fee wins on speed and on not having to think about it.

## The costs nobody puts on the invoice

Here is what really escapes the budget:

- **Setup time.** Nobody charges you for the hours you spend entering services, hours and exceptions. If a third party does it, it costs money.
- **Ghost slots.** A badly configured calendar promises appointments that do not exist and wrecks your morning.
- **The double calendar.** If the customer books through the platform but your team writes it down on paper, sooner or later two appointments collide at the same time.
- **The commission that goes up.** Marketplaces start cheap and adjust prices once you depend on them.
- **The customer who does not come back.** Without your own email list there is no way to win back the one who booked once and never returned.

None of this appears on the price list and all of it costs real money.

## How to tell if you are being overcharged

Three simple checks:

1. Divide what you pay per year by the number of appointments you receive through that channel. If each appointment costs you more than €3, look at alternatives.
2. Ask what happens if you leave: do you take your customer data with you, or do you lose the history?
3. Check whether you need a separate website. If the answer is yes, add that cost to the total before deciding.

With those three numbers you can compare options with judgement, instead of picking the one with the prettiest website.

## The order I recommend

If you are starting: a simple, cheap platform so you do not lose bookings while you build your website. If you already have customers who come back: your own website with integrated booking, no commissions, with your data in your hands. And in any case, keep WhatsApp as a quick door for urgent matters, never as an appointment system.

At pedroaren.com we build business websites with a calendar and their own admin panel so you can change services, prices and opening hours whenever you like, without calling anyone. You can [request a free design proposal](/solicita-web/en) and see how yours would look, with the price fixed before we start.

To keep reading, see [how 24-hour online booking works](/blog/en/reservas-online-las-24-horas) and [how much a business website costs](/blog/en/cuanto-cuesta-una-pagina-web-para-negocio).