Could Pembee be the Pebble alternative you have been looking for?
Pembee and Pebble Comparison
Pebble sells in the UK only, so this comparison is in pounds. Pembee's prices in your currency are on the pricing page.
| Feature | Pembee | Pebble |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Monthly fee, billed monthly | From£30/month | From£35/month1 |
| Monthly fee, billed annually | £25/monthPaid as £300 a year | £25/month1Paid as £300 a year |
| Fee per card booking | 0.59% + Stripe fees | 3% + Stripe fees1 |
| Fee on Tax-Free Childcare and voucher payments | None | 3% per booking2 |
| Free trial | 30 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
| Payment options | ||
| Tax-Free Childcare at checkout Direct HMRC integration | Built in, no fee | Via PonchoPay, fee applies2 |
| Childcare vouchers | Included | Via PonchoPay, fee applies2 |
| Card payments | Included | Included |
| How payments reach you | Parents pay into your own Stripe accountYou choose daily, weekly or monthly payouts | Into Pebble's Stripe account, fees deducted before transfer to yours3 |
| One basket for several activities | Included | One activity per checkout4 |
| Your brand and your customers | ||
| Your own branding, no Pembee or Pebble logo | Included on Standard | Two brand colours, on Premium5 |
| Booking site address | yourclub | A page on bookpebble |
| Booking on your own website | Included | Included |
| Listed on a parent marketplace | Not included | Included |
| Contact your customers however you like | Included | Agreement restricts contact outside Pebble6 |
| Running your clubs and camps | ||
| Attendance registers | Included | Included |
| Custom forms, medical and consent info | Included | Included |
| Terms, blocks and subscriptions | Included | Included |
| Sibling discounts and discount codes | Included | Included |
| Place limit for individual sessions | Included | Included |
| Waitlists | Automatic spot offers, on Premium | Provider invites each family by hand7 |
| Growing bookings | ||
| Abandoned-cart recovery | Premium | Not advertised8 |
| Meta Pixel ad tracking | Premium | Not advertised8 |
| Zapier integration | Premium | Not advertised8 |
Numbered notes and sources are at the bottom of the page.
The per-booking fee is where the real difference is
Subscriptions are close, but the percentage comes off every booking you take. Put in your own numbers. Estimates only, Stripe fees included on both sides.
Pembee Standard
£175/month all-in
£65 to Pembee, £110 to Stripe.
- Subscription
- £30
- Pembee application fee (0.59%)
- £35
- Pembee fee on Tax-Free Childcare
- £0
- Stripe processing (1.5% + £0.20 per booking)
- £110
Stripe's fee is paid to Stripe directly, and you would pay it on any platform. Pembee's fee applies to Stripe card payments only. Tax-Free Childcare and childcare voucher payments carry no Pembee fee.
Pebble
£415/month all-in
£305 to Pebble, £110 to Stripe.
- Subscription
- £35
- Pebble fee on card payments (3%)
- £180
- Pebble fee on Tax-Free Childcare (3%)
- £90
- Stripe processing (1.5% + £0.20 per booking)
- £110
Month-to-month prices. Pebble's annual option is £10 a month cheaper on either plan but needs a full-year commitment. Pebble's percentage is charged on every booking however the parent pays, and Stripe's fee is charged on top of it, not included in it.
Estimated saving with Pembee: £240 a month, £2,875 a year.
Estimates only. Stripe rates are standard domestic card rates from stripe.com/pricing and vary by card type and country. Roughly 100 card bookings a month at these numbers.
Pembee charges 0.59% on Stripe card payments. Pebble charges 3% per booking on Core and 2.5% on Premium. Stripe's standard UK rate of 1.5% + 20p comes on top with both. So a £60 booking costs about £1.45 in fees on Pembee and £2.90 on Pebble Core. If the parent pays by Tax-Free Childcare instead, Pembee's fee on that booking is nothing at all.
For UK clubs
Tax-Free Childcare is built in, and we don't charge for it
Pembee connects directly to HMRC's Tax-Free Childcare system. Parents pick Tax-Free Childcare at checkout, pay from their HMRC account, and the booking is marked paid automatically. There is no Pembee fee on any of it. A £60 booking paid by Tax-Free Childcare costs you £0 in fees.
Pebble does offer Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers at checkout, which is more than many UK platforms manage. It does so through PonchoPay, a separate payment service. The catch is the fee: Pebble's help centre says PonchoPay's fees are the same as your Pebble booking fee, invoiced to you monthly, so that same £60 Tax-Free Childcare booking still costs you £1.80 on Core or £1.50 on Premium. For wraparound care, after-school clubs and holiday camps, where Tax-Free Childcare is often the first thing parents ask about, that adds up across a term.
Put your own monthly Tax-Free Childcare takings into the estimator above. On Pembee that money costs you nothing in fees. On Pebble every pound of it costs 3% on Core or 2.5% on Premium.
- Direct HMRC integration
- Official Tax-Free Childcare API, no third-party service
- 0% Pembee fee
- You keep 100% of every TFC payment
- Auto-reconciled
- Payments match the right booking without manual steps
Your parents stay your customers
Every Pebble booking page sits inside Pebble's website: Pebble's logo and menu across the top, a “Verified by Pebble” badge next to your name, and an address on bookpebble.co.uk. Branding stretches to two brand colours, as a paid Premium feature, and the address stays Pebble's either way. A Pembee booking site is dressed as your business on the Standard plan: your logo, your colours, your photography, and no Pembee branding anywhere a parent looks. It lives at yourclub.pembee.app, or at your own web address on Premium. That is the link on your flyers and school letters, and it carries your name, not your software's.
The customer relationship works the same way. With Pembee, your parent list is yours to email, message and take with you. Pebble's provider agreement asks providers to communicate with parents through the Pebble platform, and not to offer activities outside it to families the platform introduced. Worth re-reading before your renewal date.
What Pebble has that we don't
Pebble lists your activities on its parent marketplace, which can bring discovery bookings. Pembee is not a marketplace: parents book you directly and see only your business. Our answer is marketing tools that grow bookings you own, such as waitlists with automatic spot offers, abandoned-cart recovery, trial tickets with follow-ups, and Meta Pixel tracking for your own ads. A fair question before renewing: how many bookings did the marketplace bring you last year, and what did the percentage on all your bookings cost you for it?
Testimonials
Trusted to handle thousands of bookings each day
“Using Pembee for my event bookings and registration has cut down my admin time immeasurably. I had got to a point where I felt swamped by the volume of paperwork created by my small but busy business and Pembee has saved the day!”
“Fantastic. Easy to use, support is incredible and we have much happier users.”
“I am blown away by the level of support and service from Pembee, the team have helped me set up the app and tweak it to get it working exactly as I want it. I can't fault any step of the process.”
“So easy to use, great for customers and staff. Clean and crisp front end for parents - easily operated back end for staff. We tried 2 others before this and both were heavily flawed with by support or quality - this system has both.”
“Just absolutely fantastic. I am super impressed with their system and also their customer support.”
“Such an amazing piece of software after trialling a few, Pembee is very easy to use and has solved a problem that we encountered!”
“Amazing app for my business. Helpful and easy to use, plus the online support is amazing from the team.”
“Our previous booking system was going offline and we needed a replacement, Pembee worked with us to ensure their system could offer everything we needed to continue the smooth running of our business. Pembee customer support is second to none. Setting up the system was straightforward and there was always someone on hand to help with any queries we had.”
- Bookings processed
- 900K
- Transactions processed
- £40M
- Total Users
- 230,000+
- Sessions listed
- 600,000+
Switching from Pebble
Onboarding is hands-on, and you don't have to leave Pebble until Pembee is ready to take bookings.
Step 1
Set up in the free trial
Create your activities, ticket types and discounts. 30 days free, no card needed.
Step 2
We help move your data
Export from Pebble and we'll help import your customers, children and active bookings.
Step 3
Switch when you're ready
Share your new booking link with parents, then leave Pebble. On an annual plan, time it to your renewal date.
Questions from Pebble users
- Can you help me move from Pebble?
- Yes. Onboarding is hands-on: if you can export your details from Pebble, we'll help import your customers, children and active bookings. It isn't a one-click import, the team works through it with you. Book a demo and we'll walk through what your move looks like.
- Can I run Pembee alongside Pebble while I switch?
- Yes. The 30-day free trial needs no card, so you can set up your activities and test bookings in Pembee before you leave Pebble. Your booking calendar doesn't have to go dark while you move.
- I'm on Pebble's annual price. When should I switch?
- Pebble's £25 and £35 monthly prices come with a full-year commitment, so check your renewal date first. Start your Pembee trial a few weeks before it, get your activities set up, and move parents over when your Pebble term ends. If you pay Pebble month to month, you can switch whenever suits you.
- Do parents have to re-enter their card details?
- Yes. Saved cards don't transfer between booking platforms, so each family enters their payment details on their first Pembee booking. Switching at the start of a term, when most families are booking fresh anyway, keeps this to a single step for them.
- Can parents pay with Tax-Free Childcare without PonchoPay?
- Yes. Pembee connects directly to HMRC's Tax-Free Childcare system, with no third-party payment service in between. Parents choose Tax-Free Childcare at checkout, the payment is matched to the right booking automatically, and Pembee charges no fee on it.
- What fees does Pembee charge on bookings?
- A 0.59% application fee on Stripe card payments, plus Stripe's own processing fees, which you pay to Stripe. There is no Pembee fee on Tax-Free Childcare or childcare voucher payments.
- Am I tied to a long-term contract?
- No. Standard is £30 a month on a rolling contract and you can cancel at any time. Annual billing is available at £300 a year if you'd rather pay upfront.
Notes and sources
1 Pebble Core plan as published at bookpebble.co.uk/pricing, checked September 2026. The pricing page opens on the annual view, where Core is £25 and Premium £35 a month with a “full year commitment” footnote. Billed monthly the same plans are £35 and £45. Core charges “3% per booking (+ VAT)” and Premium “2.5% per booking (+ VAT)” on either billing option. Stripe's processing fee is charged on top through your connected Stripe account. Prices on both sides exclude VAT.
2 Pebble help centre, “How to accept Tax Free Childcare and Childcare Vouchers on Pebble with Poncho Pay”: Pebble takes these payments through PonchoPay, a third-party payment service, and “The fees are the same as your Pebble booking fee.” Pebble's financial reconciliation guide adds that PonchoPay fees “are calculated at your standard pebble fee rate” and invoiced to you at the end of each month. Checked September 2026.
3 Pebble help centre, “Invoicing”: “Payments are received into Pebble's Stripe account before being transferred to you. Pebble deducts its fee before transferring the payment.” Per “How do I get paid via Pebble?”, funds are available to pay out, less any refunds issued, after three working days. Checked September 2026.
4 Pebble's after-school club set-up guide recommends putting all the clubs at one location into a single activity, so parents can book several clubs from that activity in one transaction. Separate activities are checked out separately: one parent's Trustpilot review (November 2025) describes having to “check out 4 times” to book four activities.
5 Pebble help centre, “Brand Colour Customisation”, checked September 2026: providers can “define two primary brand colours” for the booking journey, a “paid premium feature” switched on by Pebble's support team. Pebble's pricing page lists custom branding under Premium only. Booking links take the form activities.bookpebble.co.uk/supplier/…, per “How to allow your customers to book via Pebble on your website”.
6 Pebble Provider Service Agreement, checked September 2026: providers agree to “always use the Pebble Platform to communicate with Users” and not to “offer activities to Users outside of the Pebble Platform where those Users have been introduced to the Provider via the Pebble Platform”. Pebble's help centre does show providers copying opted-in customers' email addresses and, on request, syncing customer data to Brevo, so this is a contract term rather than a product limit.
7 Pebble help centre, “Waitlist”, checked September 2026: parents join a waitlist when a session sells out, and the provider selects families and sends each an invite to book. The article does not describe places being offered automatically.
8 “Not advertised” means the feature was not listed on Pebble's public pricing or feature pages, and not covered in any article in its provider help centre, when we checked in September 2026. It may be available, so it is worth asking them directly.