Lauri Kesonen
What actually matters when choosing?
Four things decide the choice, not the monthly fee alone: the pricing model, your own industry, how customers find you, and the total running cost. When you look at these four together, the option that looks cheapest is not always the most economical.
- Pricing model: do you pay a fixed monthly fee or a commission on every booking? This flips the question of cheapness depending on how many bookings you have.
- Industry: some systems are built for the beauty and wellness sector, others suit any kind of appointment booking.
- Where customers come from: do they arrive from your own site and Google, or do you also want to be visible on the system's marketplace?
- Total cost: on top of the monthly fee there are card fees, text messages and commissions. That is where the real price comes from.
Monthly fee or commission? Two pricing models
Booking systems roughly split into two models: a fixed monthly fee, or free basic use where the provider earns from transaction fees or a marketplace commission. Neither is automatically cheaper, it depends on your booking volume and where your customers come from.
A fixed monthly fee is predictable: you know the cost in advance regardless of how many bookings you make. A commission or transaction-based model is cheap in quiet months but grows with volume. The marketplace model in particular is worth understanding closely, because its terms can change: Timma, for example, raised its service fee, which upset some entrepreneurs.
Timma raises its service fee, some entrepreneurs were upset.Yle, 2025 · yle.fi
The lesson is not that any model is bad, but that you should read the pricing model carefully before committing. Always ask: what is the total cost at my typical booking volume, and can the price change along the way?
Vello, Timma and Booksalon compared
Below are the three most common systems in Finland side by side: pricing model, cheapest tier and typical user. The figures are from the providers' own pricing pages as of July 2026, and you should always check the current price before deciding.
| System | Pricing model | Cheapest tier | Typical user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vello | Free basic use + transaction fees | 0 €/month, fees from 0.9% + 0.25 € per transaction | Versatile use, low barrier to start |
| Booksalon | Monthly fee (free to start) | PRO 39 €/month (unlimited users), Basic 20 €/user/month | Beauty and wellness, register + card terminal |
| Timma | Marketplace + commission | Commission on customers gained via the marketplace | Beauty sector wanting visibility in the Timma directory |
Note that a 0-euro monthly fee does not mean zero total cost. Vello's base tier is free, but the provider earns from card and transaction fees (from 0.9% + 0.25 € per transaction) and from text messages (0.08 € each), for instance. With Booksalon, the PRO tier is 39 €/month with unlimited users, and SMS reminders cost 0.10 € each. Vello also has a healthcare-focused, Kanta-compatible tier from 48.90 €/month.
Which system suits whom?
Short answer: for the beauty and wellness sector Booksalon and Timma are strong, while for versatile or light use Vello's free tier is a safe start. Below in more detail, depending on what matters most to you.
- You want to start with no monthly cost: the free tier of Vello or Booksalon. You only pay once you actually use paid features.
- You are in beauty or wellness and need a register and card terminal: Booksalon is built for exactly this, all the tools in one system.
- You want to be visible in an existing stream of customers: Timma's marketplace brings new customers, but remember the commission and that the customer finds you through the marketplace.
- You want to keep the customer relationship fully in your own hands: choose a system whose booking calendar you can embed on your own website, and steer traffic there.
Before you sign, do one calculation for yourself: how many bookings do you make per month, and what is the total cost at exactly that number? Compare that figure, not the monthly fee.
Booking and your own website: whose customer?
The single most important choice is whether the booking happens on your own site or on someone else's platform. When the booking calendar is embedded on your own website, the customer finds you, books from you, and the relationship stays in your name. On a marketplace, visibility is easy, but the relationship with the customer partly stays owned by the platform.
Online booking is no longer an extra feature but an expectation. According to Statistics Finland (Tilastokeskus), around 56% of women and 47% of men had booked a doctor's appointment online, and in younger age groups the share is clearly higher. Customers expect to be able to book the appointment themselves, whenever it suits them.
The use of health-related online services, including online booking, is growing rapidly.Statistics Finland, 2024 · stat.fi
In practice most systems, including Vello, Timma and Booksalon, offer an embeddable calendar or booking link. I build websites where the booking system is added as a visible, easy part of the site, so the system you choose works where your customers already are. The choice of system itself is still yours, and the point of this guide is to make it easier.