See what booking fees really cost.

How the math works

Percent of revenue versus a flat subscription.

• The comparison. A percentage booking fee scales with your revenue: book more, pay more. A flat subscription costs the same in your best month and your slowest. The calculator multiplies your yearly booking revenue by the fee percentage and puts it next to BookNox’s $29 a month, flat, plus applicable sales tax, which is $348 a year before tax.
• Worked example. $60,000 in yearly bookings on a platform taking 2% per booking costs $1,200 a year. The same year on a flat $348 subscription leaves $852 with you. At $100,000 of bookings the gap grows to $1,652.
• What this tool deliberately leaves out. Card processing. Every platform passes processing through at roughly similar rates, so it cancels out of a fair comparison; the Stripe fee calculator covers that side. And a booking fee is not a deposit: deposit, retainer, and booking fee compared.
• Where the money actually lands matters too. Some platforms hold client money and pay you out; with Stripe Connect direct charges the deposit lands in your own account from the first dollar. Where deposits actually land walks through the difference.

FAQ

Common questions.

What are the booking costs for a service vendor?

Three things: any booking fee your platform takes from each job, card processing on the payments your clients make, and the software subscription itself. Stripe's standard rate for a domestic card payment is 2.9% plus 30 cents, accurate as of October 6, 2026, from stripe.com/pricing. With BookNox the booking fee is 0% and the subscription is $29 a month, flat, plus applicable sales tax.

How much is a booking fee?

It depends on the platform. Some booking marketplaces and lead platforms charge a percentage of each job, and many booking tools charge none and earn from a subscription instead. Read the rate off your platform's own pricing page, then slide it into the calculator above to see the yearly cost.

What counts as a booking fee?

A booking fee is a cut a platform takes from every job you book through it. Some booking marketplaces and lead generation platforms charge a percentage of each booking. Standard card processing (about 2.9%) is separate and runs at roughly the same rate on any platform, so this tool does not count it.

Is a booking fee the same as a deposit?

No. A booking fee is what a platform charges the vendor per job. A deposit is what a client pays the vendor to hold a date. Vendors mix the terms up constantly, and the difference matters for refunds and contracts.

Does BookNox take a booking fee?

No. BookNox uses Stripe Connect direct charges, so deposits land in your own bank account and BookNox adds a 0% platform fee on top of Stripe's standard processing. You pay $29 a month, flat, plus applicable sales tax, which is $348 a year before tax, and nothing per booking.

How do I use this calculator?

Set the annual bookings slider to your yearly booking revenue, then set the booking fee slider to the percentage your current platform takes from each job. The result shows what that fee costs you over a year versus BookNox's flat $348 a year before tax.

Comparing specific platforms? The BookNox vs HoneyBook and BookNox vs Dubsado pages carry verified, dated pricing for each. For every fee type across the category, read does booking software have hidden fees.