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Serene vs Fresha: built for aesthetics, or built for everyone
Fresha is impressive software for the beauty industry at large. Aesthetic clinics aren't the beauty industry at large, they carry medical records, consent obligations and a brand they've fought to build. Here's where that difference shows up.
At a glance
| Serene | Fresha | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Australian aesthetic clinics only | All beauty & wellness [VERIFY] |
| Pricing | 1.9% of card sales, no monthly fees | Free software + payment processing fees + 20% one-time commission on new marketplace clients [VERIFY current rates] |
| Your clients, your list | Never marketed to, never shown competitors | Marketplace can surface competing venues [VERIFY] |
| Clinical records | Photos, consent, notes, history, structured | General appointment notes [VERIFY] |
| Practitioner credentials & scope | Built in | Not a native concept [VERIFY] |
| AI Clinic Advisor | Included | Not offered |
| Data residency | Australian servers | Global infrastructure [VERIFY] |
| Support & onboarding | Dedicated, included | Self-serve first [VERIFY] |
Comparison based on publicly available information as at July 2026. Fresha is a trademark of its owner; Serene is not affiliated with it.
Free has a price
Fresha's software is free because the marketplace is the business: a 20% commission on each new client it introduces [VERIFY current rate], plus processing fees. That model needs your clients looking at a marketplace, one that lists your competitors alongside you, with every clinic pressed into the same template. Serene charges 1.9% of card sales and has no marketplace at all. Your clients see your clinic, your brand, and nobody else's. When we say your client list is yours, the business model agrees with us.
A salon card is not a clinical record
Fresha was built for salons, and it's good at being that. But an aesthetics clinic records medical histories, stores treatment photos, captures consent, and may one day need to produce all three in order. Serene's client record is built for exactly that, structured notes, consent status, photo timelines, on Australian servers. Retro-fitting that into a salon tool is a workaround, not a system.
Treatments aren't services with longer names
In a generic system, a 'service' has a name, a duration and a price. In Serene, a treatment also has preparation and recovery buffers, a consult-first rule if it needs one, device and room requirements, practitioner scope, its own reminder and aftercare sequence, and TGA-aware naming. That's the difference between software that lists your treatments and software that understands them.
IN FAIRNESS
When Fresha might be the better fit
If you run a lash, hair or nail business and want free software with a marketplace that feeds you new clients, Fresha is a strong choice; the commission is genuinely how you pay for acquisition. Serene is for clinics whose growth comes from their own brand and rebooking, and whose records carry clinical weight.
Moving from Fresha
We export and migrate your client list, treatment menu and upcoming appointments.
We set up your treatments properly, buffers, consult rules, reminder sequences.
You run your first day on Serene with an onboarding specialist on call. [PLACEHOLDER: typical migration timeframe]
See Serene on your clinic's real workflows
A 30-minute demo, tailored to how your clinic runs. No pressure, no obligation.