The three models

Almost every booking platform falls into one of three pricing shapes. The sticker price looks different, but the three-year total is what matters.

Model A: per-booking fee, no monthly charge. This is FareHarbor, Peek Pro, and similar platforms. The pitch is “free to use, we only charge when you earn.” The fee is typically 6% of every direct booking, plus payment processing (around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). Some platforms add additional fees for API bookings, website hosting, or premium features.

Model B: monthly subscription plus a smaller per-booking fee. This is Rezdy, Checkfront, and similar platforms. You pay a fixed monthly fee ($49 to $249 per month, depending on the tier) plus a per-booking fee (typically 1 to 3%). Payment processing is usually separate, through your own Stripe or PayPal account.

Model C: self-hosted, no platform fee. This is a booking system you own, running on your own hosting. You pay for hosting (typically $5 to $50 per month), a one-time build cost, and standard payment processing through your own Stripe or PayPal account (2.9% + $0.30). There is no per-booking fee. There is no monthly platform subscription.

The numbers

Here is the three-year total cost for a business doing $300,000 per year in online bookings, assuming roughly 3,000 bookings per year (average booking value of $100). These are realistic numbers for a mid-size tour operator, a busy service business, or a small venue.

Model A: per-booking SaaS (e.g. FareHarbor)

• Booking fee: 6% of $300,000 = $18,000/year
• Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction = roughly $9,600/year
• Monthly fee: $0
• Website hosting (if applicable): $5,000/year (FareHarbor’s current rate)
• Year 1: $32,600
• Year 2: $32,600 (assumes no price increase, which is generous)
• Year 3: $32,600
• Three-year total: $97,800

You own nothing at the end. If you leave, you lose your website and start over. Your customer database may or may not export cleanly.

Model B: monthly subscription SaaS (e.g. Checkfront)

• Monthly fee: $99/month = $1,188/year
• Booking fee: 3% of $300,000 = $9,000/year
• Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction = roughly $9,600/year
• Year 1: $19,788
• Year 2: $19,788
• Year 3: $19,788
• Three-year total: $59,364

Better than Model A, but still significant. You own nothing at the end. Multiple users report unannounced annual price increases of 20 to 25%.

Model C: self-hosted

• One-time build cost: $5,000 to $20,000 (depending on complexity)
• Hosting: $20/month = $240/year
• Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction = roughly $9,600/year
• Maintenance: a few hours per year, or a small retainer
• Year 1: $14,840 to $29,840 (includes the build)
• Year 2: $9,840
• Year 3: $9,840
• Three-year total: $34,520 to $49,520

You own everything at the end. The website, the customer database, the booking history, the code. Year two and beyond, you are paying only hosting and payment processing.

The comparison

| | Model A (per-booking) | Model B (subscription) | Model C (self-hosted) | |-|—|—|—| | Three-year total | $97,800 | $59,364 | $34,520 to $49,520 | | You own at the end | Nothing | Nothing | Everything | | Cost trend | Rises with revenue + platform hikes | Rises with platform hikes | Flat after build | | If you leave | Lose website, partial data export | Data export varies | Take everything |

The numbers shift with your booking volume. At $100,000 in annual bookings, Model A costs about $33,000 over three years. At $500,000, it costs about $163,000. The per-booking model scales against you: the more successful you are, the more you pay.

Model C’s costs barely move with volume. The one-time build is the same whether you do 1,000 bookings a year or 10,000. Payment processing scales with revenue, but that cost is identical across all three models.

What the math does not show

Numbers are the easy part. The harder costs are the ones that do not appear in a spreadsheet.

The cost of price increases you cannot negotiate. SaaS platforms raise prices by email. If you depend on the platform, your negotiating leverage is close to zero. Self-hosted tools do not send price-increase emails.

The cost of lock-in. If your customer database and your website live inside a platform, the real cost of the platform is not the fee. It is the fee plus the cost of ever leaving. That cost grows every year you stay, which is why the fee can grow too.

The cost of not knowing. If you have never run the three-year math on your current platform, you are making a decision by default instead of on purpose. The number might be fine. But you should know what it is.

The honest summary

Over three years, a per-booking platform like FareHarbor costs roughly twice what a self-hosted system costs, and you own nothing at the end. A monthly-subscription platform lands in between, and you still own nothing. Self-hosting has a real up-front cost, but the total is lower, the trend is flat, and you keep everything. The math is not close, and it gets further apart every year. The question is not whether owning is cheaper. It is whether the up-front work is worth it. For most businesses doing enough volume to notice the fees, it is.