How Much Does a Booking System Cost? SaaS vs. Custom in Real Numbers
The short answer: we build custom booking systems from CZK 4,900 per month as a subscription. SaaS tools like Reservio or Booksy cost CZK 2,000 – 6,000 per month for a four-person business — plus payment commissions and SMS surcharges. Similar numbers at first glance. The difference is what you get for them and how the costs evolve as your business grows.
In this article we break down what booking systems really cost — both off-the-shelf and custom — and calculate a concrete TCO (total cost of ownership) for a typical salon over three years.
What SaaS price lists don't say out loud
Booking SaaS pricing pages look friendly: "from CZK 250 per month". Except the basic tier is rarely enough. The real price has several layers:
| Item | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Base plan | CZK 250 – 900/month |
| Extra staff member / calendar | CZK 150 – 500/month per person |
| SMS reminders | CZK 1 – 2 per message |
| Commission on online payments | 1.5 – 3% per transaction |
| Commission on marketplace bookings | up to 20 – 30% of a first visit |
| Custom branding / logo removal | higher tier |
For a sole trader with a few bookings a day, that's still a fair deal. The problem starts when you have more staff, more locations and a decent payment volume. Then every line item scales against you.
3-year TCO: a salon with 4 employees
Let's run a concrete example. A hair salon, 4 employees, roughly 600 bookings a month, half with an SMS reminder, CZK 150,000 in online deposits per month.
Option A — SaaS (mid tier):
| Item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Plan for 4 employees | CZK 2,400 |
| SMS reminders (300 × CZK 1.50) | CZK 450 |
| Payment commission (2% of CZK 150,000) | CZK 3,000 |
| Total | CZK 5,850 |
Over 3 years: CZK 210,600 — and the system isn't yours, your data lives in someone else's platform and the features are the same for everyone.
Option B — custom booking system (subscription):
| Item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Standard subscription (payments, SMS, statistics) | CZK 9,900 |
| Payment commission | CZK 0 (you only pay the gateway rate) |
| Total | CZK 9,900 |
Over 3 years: CZK 356,400 — but that includes development tailored to your operation, ongoing changes, hosting, support and data that belongs only to you.
A difference of CZK 146,000 over three years isn't small. But we're comparing rent against owning your own tool: SaaS never stops charging and never adapts to you. The moment you want memberships, a loyalty program, your own mobile app or an accounting integration, you hit the ceiling — and the switch to custom awaits you anyway, just later and with a data migration on top.
And if your payment volume grows, the curves cross sooner: at CZK 400,000 in monthly deposits, the commission alone is CZK 8,000 — more than half the subscription for a custom system.
Custom booking system prices by scope
A custom price is driven by scope, not headcount. The indicative bands we work in:
| Scope | Monthly subscription | One-time | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential: web booking, calendar, e-mail notifications | from CZK 4,900 | from CZK 49,000 | 1–2 months |
| Standard: online payments, SMS, multiple locations, statistics | from CZK 9,900 | from CZK 119,000 | 2–3 months |
| With mobile app: iOS + Android, push, loyalty program | from CZK 29,990 | from CZK 299,000 | 3–4 months |
The subscription always covers development, hosting, operations and further development — we explain the model in detail in our article on app development as a subscription. You'll find the full feature overview on our custom booking system page.
What pushes the price up
A few factors can move a project into a higher band:
- Complex slot logic — bound resources (room + staff + equipment), group classes, shifts. More rules mean more development and testing.
- Payments and cancellations — deposits, partial payments, automatic refunds, cancellation fees based on timing.
- Integrations — accounting, payroll, CRM, marketing tools. Every integration is extra work, but usually pays for itself quickly in saved manual copying.
- Multiple locations and roles — permissions, separate reports, sharing customers between branches.
- A mobile app — the biggest jump in price, but also in value: your icon on the customer's home screen, free push notifications instead of paid SMS, and a loyalty program people actually use.
What brings the price down
- A clear brief — if you know how your operation works, you save on analysis. Our guide on writing a technical specification helps.
- Launching without nice-to-haves — going live with the essentials in 2 months and iterating on real usage is cheaper than building everything for a year.
- A standard payment gateway — GoPay, Comgate or Stripe instead of exotic options.
When to stay on SaaS
Let's be fair — a custom booking system isn't for everyone:
- You're a one-person business or a small team and the basic features are enough.
- Bookings are a side matter for you, not the core of the business.
- You have no specific processes an off-the-shelf tool can't handle.
In that case SaaS will serve you well and cheaply. A custom system starts making sense when you're paying commissions on a growing volume, running into missing features, or want to own your data and the customer relationship.
How to get a price for your operation
Every operation has different slot logic, volume and integrations — so it pays to calculate specifically rather than guess from a price list. Two ways:
- Configurator — shows you an indicative price in 2 minutes based on your answers.
- Consultation — we go through your operation with a developer and a PM; you get a solution proposal and an exact quote. If you order, the workshop is retroactively free.
Full pricing for all tiers is in our price list. And if you're considering a mobile app too, read how much a mobile app costs — so you have the whole picture in one place.
