Updated 2026-07-17 · 2 min read
«£59 a month» and «from £29 a month» look comparable. They aren't. Before choosing a virtual assistant for your salon, it's worth understanding how each model actually bills, because the headline price is rarely the one on the invoice.
The bundle model: cheap to start, dear as you grow
Plenty of AI assistants work like mobile tariffs used to: a monthly bundle of conversations, reminders and voice minutes, and top-ups when you go over.
The approach has an uncomfortable catch: your bill goes up the better you're doing. Precisely the month your campaign works, lots of new messages arrive and you send more reminders because your calendar is full… is the month you burn through your allowance and the top-ups kick in. You get penalised for succeeding.
And you have to add the extras that don't always show up next to the big number:
- Setup or onboarding fee: sometimes a one-off payment in the hundreds.
- Cost per minute on the voice side, on top of the bundle.
- Top-ups per conversation or per reminder once you pass the allowance.
The fixed-fee model: you always know what you pay
The alternative is a closed fee with conversations and reminders not metered. You pay the same the month you start and the month your salon is heaving.
The underlying logic is the opposite one: the more clients write to you, the better for you — and for us, because it means ClaudIA is working. That's why with ClaudIA conversations and reminders aren't counted, there's no setup fee and there's no lock-in. The only thing with an included volume is voice, because every minute of a call has a real cost; and even then, if you get close in a given month we tell you: we never cut a call off.
So which one suits you?
Let's be honest, because honesty is what makes you trust us:
- If your salon moves few messages, a small bundle may work out cheaper on paper.
- If your clients genuinely write to you — and if you've read this far, they probably do — the fixed fee protects you from the worst case: the surprise invoice the month you work hardest.
The question isn't «which is cheaper today?» but «which one penalises me when I grow?». We look at it in detail in the full comparison of ClaudIA against Booksy and Fresha.