Payments
Your clients pay you. We never stand in the middle of it.
Chairwarden takes deposits through your own Stripe account, as direct charges. No percentage, no per-booking fee, no balance of ours for the money to pass through. This page describes exactly how that works.
Free to try, up to 15 bookings/month · calendar protection included on every plan
The Stripe account is yours, not ours
Connecting payments creates a standard Stripe account in your name. You sign in to it, you see every charge, and you can open it without going through us. If you already have a Stripe account, you connect that one instead.
The money lands in your account first
Deposits are direct charges on your connected account. The money is never routed through a Chairwarden balance and never sits with us on its way to you. Payouts follow your own Stripe schedule.
We attach no fee to the charge
There is no application fee and no transfer on these payments, which is the technical way of saying we take nothing. Stripe charges you its own standard processing rate, the same as it would if you had built the integration yourself.
Card details never touch our servers
The payment form is Stripe's own Payment Element, rendered inside the booking page. The card is tokenised by Stripe; we receive a payment status, not a card number.
A deposit is a share, not the whole price
You choose the percentage per service. A $250 colour with a 50% deposit takes $125 at booking, and the rest is paid at the chair. Early on this charged the full price while every screen promised otherwise; it now charges what the screen says.
Disconnecting is one button
You can unlink Stripe from the Account screen at any time. Your Stripe account, your history and your money stay where they are — you simply stop taking deposits through Chairwarden.
What the difference actually is
Booking tools take their share in different places. The column on the right is the whole of our answer.
Competitor figures come from our own sourced comparison work and were correct when recorded; rates change, so check theirs before deciding. Stripe’s processing fee is set by Stripe and applies either way.
The honest questions
So payments are free?
No, and this is the line we will not blur. Stripe charges you its standard processing rate on every card payment — in the US that is published as 2.9% plus 30¢ at the time of writing, and Stripe sets it, not us. What we are saying is narrower and checkable: Chairwarden adds nothing on top, takes no percentage, and charges no fee per booking.
Do I have to take deposits?
No. Connecting Stripe is optional, and deposits are per service. Plenty of stylists run the whole calendar without one and turn a deposit on only for the long, high-value services where a no-show actually hurts.
What happens to a deposit if the client does not show up?
It is already in your account, so keeping it, refunding it or putting it towards a rebooking is your call and your policy. We take no cut either way, and Chairwarden does not flag anyone as a no-show on your behalf.
Who handles a chargeback?
Your connected account is the merchant of record, so disputes are raised against it and you respond in your own Stripe dashboard. We chose standard accounts deliberately: taking on liability for other people's chargebacks while earning nothing from the payments would not be honest arithmetic.
Is my subscription to Chairwarden also on Stripe?
No. Your own subscription is billed separately, and on iOS it can go through the App Store instead. The Stripe connection described here is only about the money your clients pay you.
The same logic runs through the rest of it. Send another stylist our way and you both get a free month — here is how the referral works.
Take a deposit without giving away a cut
Connect Stripe when you are ready, or never. The calendar works either way.
Start free