There’s a moment every small business owner knows. You’ve finished with a client, you’re tidying up, and you glance at your phone to see another monthly software bill has landed - for the privilege of letting people book you. On top of that, a cut of some bookings has quietly disappeared in commission, and you’ve been charged, again, for the reminder texts that keep your diary full.
We kept coming back to one uncomfortable truth: the tools that are supposed to help small businesses grow often end up quietly taxing them for it. So we asked ourselves a simple question - what would it take to make a proper booking system that costs the business nothing? Not a stripped-back free trial. Not a teaser that locks the good stuff behind a paywall. Actually free.
This is the story of how we got there, and the thinking behind it.
The problem with “free” software
Most free software isn’t really free. It’s free until you hit a limit, free if you don’t mind the ads, or free in exchange for your data. We didn’t want to build any of those. If we were going to say “free,” we wanted a barber, a nail tech or a dog groomer to be able to run their entire booking operation on it - booking page, deposits, no-show protection, the lot - and never see a bill from us.
The trouble is, running a booking system does have one genuine, unavoidable cost: text messages. The confirmation when a client books. The reminder the day before that stops them forgetting. Those texts aren’t free for anyone - SMS costs money to send, and it’s the single thing that makes a “free” booking app quietly expensive behind the scenes. Most platforms solve this by billing you, the business, for every message. That’s the hidden cost nobody talks about.
The idea that made it work
Here’s where it clicked for us. The reminder text isn’t really your cost - it’s the thing that protects your customer’s appointment. It’s what stops them forgetting and losing their slot (and losing you the income). So what if the person who benefits from the reminder covered the cost of it?
That’s exactly what Rexabook does. When a client books, they pay a small booking fee - 55¢ in the US - and that fee pays for their own confirmation and reminder texts. It’s shown clearly at checkout as a “booking fee,” it’s tiny, and honestly, most people don’t blink at it. Everyone knows texts aren’t free, and a few cents that keeps their appointment on track feels entirely fair.
For you, the result is simple: Rexabook costs you nothing. No monthly fee. 0% commission - we never take a percentage of your bookings. You keep 100% of what you earn. The reminders that stop no-shows are covered. Every feature is included.
So what’s the catch?
We get asked this a lot, and we’d rather just tell you straight: your customer pays a small fee at checkout, and that fee goes to their reminder texts. That’s it. That’s the whole deal. There’s no commission skimmed off the top, no “premium” version of the features that matter, and no bill heading your way at the end of the month.
We think being upfront about this is part of the point. A booking fee that visibly earns its keep - covering the texts that protect the appointment - is honest in a way that a vague “platform fee” never is.
Why free, and not just cheap?
We could have made Rexabook a few dollars a month and called it a bargain. We didn’t, for two reasons.
First, “a few dollars a month” is still a barrier. It’s another subscription, another thing to justify, another reason to put off getting started. Free removes the decision entirely - you can be taking bookings today without reaching for your card.
Second, small businesses are the whole reason we built this. Independent traders are brilliant at their craft and rarely have time for admin or spare cash for software. Giving them a booking system that fights no-shows and looks after their clients - without adding to their costs - is the thing we actually wanted to do. Free isn’t a marketing gimmick for us; it’s the mission.
For when free isn’t what you want
Some business owners would rather take payment in person - cash, or their own card machine - instead of collecting it online. Others simply prefer that their clients aren’t charged any fee at all, however small. That’s completely reasonable, so we built plans for that too: Base and Pro let you take payment your own way and choose an allowance for your booking texts. Same features, different way of covering the costs - you pick what fits.
But if you just want to start taking bookings, beat no-shows, and pay us nothing to do it - that’s the free plan, and it’s ready when you are.
Booking software, now free
No monthly fee, 0% commission, every feature included. Come and see for yourself.
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