In short
- Treatwell combines a marketplace with booking software; Treuli is a loyalty program under the salon’s own brand.
- Treatwell lists Starter at €39 per month and Advanced at €49 per month plus €7.50 per month for TSE.
- Treatwell’s FAQ names 35% for a new customer’s first marketplace booking, while the plan overview says the commission depends on location.
- Repeat marketplace bookings are listed at 0%, and online prepayments at 2%.
- The tools can be used together: Treatwell for reach, Treuli for salon-led loyalty.
At first glance it looks like a classic head-to-head: Treatwell, the big salon marketplace across DACH, versus Treuli, the German loyalty system with a booking add-on. But anyone looking closer quickly notices that this is not an "either/or" question. Treatwell and Treuli solve two completely different problems. This comparison clears up the misunderstanding, puts the real costs side by side and shows when each tool, or the combination of both, is the better choice for your salon.
Who is Treatwell?
Treatwell is an online marketplace and salon-management product for hair, beauty and wellness businesses. Customers can search for a salon, compare available services and book an appointment through the marketplace. Partner salons use Treatwell Connect to manage the listing and bookings. That public acquisition surface is the central product difference in this comparison: Treatwell can put a salon in front of people who are already searching, while Treuli starts with the salon's own customer touchpoints.
Treatwell's official partner page lists Starter at 39 €/month and Advanced at 49 €/month, plus 7.50 €/month for the TSE package. Its FAQ names 35 % for the first marketplace booking of a new customer, while the tariff overview says that the concrete new-customer commission depends on the location. Repeat marketplace bookings are listed at 0 %, and online prepayment at 2 %. The individual offer therefore matters: monthly software, first-booking commission and optional payment usage have to be assessed separately instead of being rolled into a fictitious universal total.
Who is Treuli?
Treuli is a multi-tenant loyalty platform from Germany, built for salons, cafés, bakeries and any local business that wants to tie returning customers to its own brand. The core: customers scan the QR code on their receipt (TSE-signed in DE, RKSV in AT), open their loyalty card in the browser without installing anything and collect points toward rewards. Those who want to save the customer card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet get the point balance updated live via push. Anyone who prefers an app on their phone can install the free Treuli app for iPhone and Android. It stays optional, the browser version does exactly the same. New in Treuli: a booking module (39 €/month add-on available on every plan, included in Enterprise) that publishes appointments directly on the salon website, without marketplace listing, without commission.
Treuli hosts verifiably in Germany, provides a digitally signed DPA and only runs salon-owned loyalty programs: a customer who collects with you is tied to your salon name, not to a platform. More on the hair-salon page and the pricing page.
The central misunderstanding
The question that comes up in almost every salon team is: "Are Treatwell and Treuli competitors?" The honest answer: no, not directly, at least. Treatwell solves the problem "How do I get new customers?" through a DACH-wide booking marketplace. Treuli solves the problem "How do I keep customers who have already been with me tied to my brand long term?" through a dedicated, salon-specific point program.
That separation is important for a fair cost comparison. A booking that arrives through Treatwell's marketplace is an acquisition event; a direct repeat visit and an interaction with the salon's own loyalty program are different events. Treuli can complement the marketplace after the visit with a salon-specific card and direct communication. Its own booking module can also cover direct bookings on the salon website without claiming that it replaces Treatwell's marketplace reach.
Feature matrix head-to-head
| Feature | Treuli | Treatwell |
|---|---|---|
| Core task | Loyalty program under the salon brand | Marketplace reach and appointment booking |
| Monthly entry | Free plan €0 | Starter €39/month |
| Advanced | Business €99/month | €49/month plus €7.50/month TSE |
| First marketplace booking | No marketplace | FAQ names 35%; plan overview says the rate depends on location |
| Repeat marketplace booking | No marketplace | 0% |
| Online prepayment | Not part of the loyalty program | 2% |
| Apple Wallet and Google Wallet | ✅ | Not derived from the checked pricing page |
Price comparison
| Item | Treuli | Treatwell |
|---|---|---|
| One-off setup fee | 0 € | Not listed as a standard amount on the checked partner pricing page |
| Monthly SaaS fee (base) | 0 € Free plan · 39 € Starter · 99 € Business | €39/month (Starter, no POS) |
| SaaS with POS | Not integrated (Treuli reads the TSE-QR of external POS systems) | €49/month (Advanced, with POS) · +€7.50/month separate TSE fee |
| Booking module | 39 €/month add-on (available on every plan, included in Enterprise) · 390 €/year · 0 % commission | Included in the SaaS tariff · FAQ names 35 % for a first marketplace booking; concrete rate depends on location |
| Payment fees | None (Treuli does not process payments) | 2 % for online prepayment · further conditions according to the individual offer |
| Real total cost for a typical salon | 0–99 €/month (loyalty) · + 39 € booking module if needed | Depends on tariff, location, first marketplace bookings and online prepayment |
All Treatwell fees and commissions are exclusive of VAT. Treatwell's FAQ names 35 % for the first marketplace booking, but the tariff overview qualifies the concrete new-customer commission as location-dependent. Repeat marketplace bookings are listed at 0 %, and online prepayment at 2 %. Model your own expected first-booking volume against the written offer instead of relying on a generic sample total.
The Treuli booking module in detail
The Treuli booking module is an add-on (activatable on every plan, already included in Enterprise) and costs 39 €/month or 390 €/year. What it can do: your own booking widget on the salon website, staff and service management, appointment calendar, automatic email confirmation, automatic email reminders and buffer times between appointments. The important part: automatic point awards via Treuli as soon as an appointment reaches status "completed". The customer books directly on the salon website, pays on-site as usual and collects loyalty points at the same time.
What it deliberately does NOT do: marketplace listing on an overarching platform (the customer relationship stays with the salon), SMS reminders (email and in-app push only), integrated payment handling inside the booking flow (payment still runs at the salon till as before), POS with TSE (Treuli reads the TSE-QR from your existing till). This deliberate restriction keeps the add-on lean and causes no follow-up costs. Anyone who wants an integrated TSE till simply keeps their existing till and connects it via QR-scan with Treuli.
Treatwell Rewards vs. salon-owned loyalty
Marketplace loyalty and a salon-owned loyalty card should be evaluated as separate product surfaces. The checked Treatwell partner pricing page does not document concrete Rewards point values or redemption rules, so those details should be verified in the currently applicable customer and partner terms before they enter a business case.
Treuli's documented model is salon-specific: the business defines its rewards, the card carries the salon identity, and communication can use the salon's own branding. For a useful comparison, ask where a reward can be redeemed, who configures it, which channel shows the balance and how consent is handled. Those operational questions are more reliable than assuming that every program labelled “Rewards” has the same purpose.
Customer-data ownership
“Who owns the data?” is too broad for a dependable software comparison. The checked pricing page says salon data remains the salon's property, but that sentence alone does not describe every processing role, export route, retention rule or marketing consent. Before signing, review the current contract and data-processing terms and ask which customer fields the salon can export, correct and delete.
Treuli provides a data-processing agreement and export functions for the salon's own loyalty program. That makes the relevant comparison concrete: documented roles, available exports, deletion workflows, consent records and the channels used for direct communication. Keep those items in the procurement checklist for both providers rather than deriving an absolute ownership claim from the product category.
When Treatwell is the better choice
Be honest with yourself: if your main problem today is "I urgently need more new customers, and fast", Treatwell is hard to beat at this specific task. The platform has real marketplace traffic, people actively looking for a salon in their city end up on Treatwell. No loyalty software in the world can conjure new customers out of thin air; a marketplace can.
The FAQ's 35 % reference for a first marketplace booking can make economic sense when that acquisition creates repeat business, but the tariff overview also says the concrete rate depends on location. Repeat marketplace bookings are listed at 0 %. Calculate with the individual offer, average ticket and expected mix of first and repeat bookings. In short: Treatwell addresses the new-customer and booking-discovery problem; it should be evaluated on that job rather than as a generic loyalty replacement.
When Treuli is the better choice
Treuli is the better choice as soon as at least one of these applies to you: you already have returning customers and want to actively retain them, not lose them to a platform. You want transparent DE hosting with DPA. You don't want to pay commission on any booking. You want your customers to communicate under your brand name, receive wallet passes with your logo and redeem rewards only with you.
Particularly interesting: Treuli can run in parallel with Treatwell. You keep Treatwell as a new-customer acquisition channel (and budget the location-dependent first-booking rate from your offer), but as soon as the new customer has been in once, you onboard them into your Treuli loyalty program via the TSE-QR scan on the receipt. On the second visit they collect points for your salon, on the fifth treatment they receive a reward bearing your logo, and they have a real reason to book directly with the salon instead of through Treatwell. Mathematically: the more new customers you convert into returning customers via Treuli, the faster the Treatwell commission pays itself back.
Conclusion
Treatwell and Treuli are not competitors, they are two different tools for two different problems. Our recommendation by salon type:
- New salon without a returning base: Treatwell, to quickly gain first-time customers via the marketplace. Treuli can be added later, once the base is in place.
- Established salon with a returning base: Treuli, to finally bundle the existing customer base under your own brand, GDPR-clean and commission-free.
- Large salon with high throughput: both in parallel, Treatwell for new-customer routing, Treuli for returning-customer loyalty. The combination makes Treatwell more economical and protects the customer relationship long term.
Getting started with Treuli takes five minutes: register for free, try the Free plan, then activate the booking module as an add-on or upgrade to Enterprise (booking module included) when you need it. If you want to compare more broadly, the big 2026 provider comparisonlines up eight more loyalty tools in direct context.