Stop renting.
Run your booking system.
Qarbi builds custom booking engines and clinic websites for Australian spas, clinics, and salons. One-time builds, fully under your control, fee-free forever — the antidote to Fresha’s 20% new-client cut and Cliniko’s per-month-per-seat ransom. Senior engineering, Australian-compliant, no agency overhead.
Five ways to handle your booking system.
Four of them disappoint.
Most clinic owners evaluating a switch are picking from the same menu. Here’s what actually happens with each:
This is why most clinic owners stay stuck on the platform they hate. We built Qarbi to be the option that doesn’t make you choose between bad and worse.
Stay on SaaS vs cheap freelancer
vs AU agency vs Qarbi.
Numbers below assume a typical multi-practitioner clinic at 250 bookings/month at $120 average value. Your math will vary — the audit gives you exact figures.
| Stay on SaaS | Cheap freelancer | AU agency | Qarbi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build cost | $0 upfront | $3K–$8K | $40K–$80K | $8K–$18K |
| Per-booking commission | 2–20% | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Monthly subscription | $50–$200+ | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 3-year total cost (250 bookings/mo) | $25K–$45K | $3K–$8K + breakage | $45K–$95K | $8K–$25K |
| Engineering rigor | Generic / templated | Variable | Senior | Senior |
| Migration & integrations | Limited | DIY | Included | Included |
| You control the engine & own the data | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PMS / payments support | Variable | Often missing | Yes | Yes |
| Ongoing support | Subscription required | Ad-hoc / risky | Retainer required | Optional retainer |
We’re the right fit if...
- You run a spa, clinic, or salon in Australia with at least 2 practitioners and steady demand.
- You’re paying $300+/month in booking commissions or subscription fees and want to stop.
- You want a booking engine that fits your workflow — multi-practitioner, deposits, gift vouchers, package deals — instead of one you have to work around.
- You want senior engineering without the senior agency price tag.
- You want full control: the engine, the data, the branding, every booking.
We’re NOT the right fit if...
- You’re a solo operator just starting out. Free Fresha tier is genuinely fine until you’re doing 50+ bookings a month.
- You want the cheapest possible option. We’re lean and senior, not the $5/hr Upwork option.
- You need a clinical PMS replacement (treatment notes, e-prescribing, etc.). We integrate with Cliniko / Best Practice / MedicalDirector — we don’t replace them.
- You’re looking for a generic ecommerce store. We’re booking-first. (Our ecommerce engineering arm still ships Magento, but it’s a separate offering.)
How an engagement actually works
Free 15-min audit call
Day 1You book a 15-minute call. We review what platform you’re on, what it costs you (subscription + commission + add-ons), what you wish it did. You leave with an exact build cost and savings projection. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you.
Discovery
Week 1We map every appointment type, every practitioner schedule rule, every payment path, every integration. The detail-work nobody else does, because it takes time.
Build
Weeks 2–6Booking flow, admin dashboard, payment integration, SMS/email plumbing, reporting. You see working functionality every 2 weeks.
Launch & Hand Over
Week 7–8Migration with zero downtime. 60-minute team training. We hand over the live system, hosting access, and the data — every booking from this point is yours, fee-free.
Maintain (optional)
From $200/moOptional retainer for updates, monitoring, security, ongoing improvements. Or call us only when you need us. Your booking engine is yours either way.
Don’t take our word for it.
“I’m so proud to see Qarbi grow, and am proud to support this growth as well. There are a lot more opportunities on the horizon and there’s nothing better than tangible evidence and work quality, and Qarbi has demonstrated this time and time again.”
Questions clinic owners ask before working with us
Because there are no juniors to hand it to. Our core team is senior engineers with 5–8+ years each. When we scale up for larger projects, we bring in trusted specialists we’ve worked with for years — not warm bodies from a bench.
It isn’t. We overlap with Australian business hours naturally (Vietnam is GMT+7, AEST is GMT+10/11 — 3-hour overlap minimum). Slack response time is measured in minutes during your business day.
For payments: Stripe, Square, PayPal. For PMS integration: Cliniko, Best Practice, MedicalDirector via API where available. For SMS: Twilio. For accounting: Xero, MYOB. We confirm exact integrations during the audit.
On a Pro retainer, our on-call engineer is paged within minutes. On Standard, we respond within the same business day. Without a retainer, you message us on Slack and we respond within hours. Critical issues during any active engagement get same-day attention.
Yes. Most clinic owners start with the free 15-minute audit and a single landing page or migration project before committing to a full build. We’re happy to scope a small first engagement.
You tell us. If we can fix it, we fix it within the sprint. If we can’t, you stop. No penalties, no awkward contract termination. Whatever we’ve built for you keeps running — your data and configuration come with you.