I Book Through Fresha and Instagram. Do I Still Need a Website?

Fresha runs your calendar. Instagram shows your work. Clients book and the reminders go out and the chair stays full most days. So the question is fair: what would a website add that you do not already have?

Sometimes nothing. Here is how to tell.

What Fresha and Instagram already do well

Credit where it is due. A booking tool like Fresha or Booksy takes the back-and-forth out of booking. Clients pick a service and a time at 11pm without messaging you. Reminders cut no-shows. Deposits and card payments are handled.

Instagram does something no website does as well. It shows a stream of your recent work from your own chair, and it lets people who already follow you see that you are busy and good. For a lot of shops it is where the regulars found them in the first place.

Keep both. A website is the piece that connects them to the people who have not found you yet.

Where the gaps are

Your marketplace page shows the competition

Fresha lists your business on its marketplace, where clients browse salons and spas near them. That is useful when it brings someone in. It also means your profile sits inside a platform built to help clients compare. A live Fresha profile we checked in October 2026 included a "Venues nearby" section listing other salons and spas in the area.

Booksy works on a similar idea with its marketplace. Either way, the page is about the platform's whole catalogue, and you are one listing in it.

New clients from the marketplace carry a fee

As of October 2026, Fresha's pricing page lists a one-time fee of 20% on a new client's first booking, with a minimum of CA$6, when that client finds you through the Fresha marketplace. Returning clients carry no fee. The same page says there is no charge for new clients who find you through your own website, Instagram profile or Facebook page.

One caution: Fresha's help centre adds that a client who first discovered you on the marketplace can still count as a marketplace client even if they later book through your own link. Check your own billing settings rather than assuming. The direction is clear, though. Clients who come to you through a page with your name on it cost less than clients the marketplace sends.

Booksy has an optional marketplace program called Boost that works on the same principle.

Instagram is built for photos

Prices, hours, cancellation policy, parking: on Instagram they end up in a highlight called "Prices" from 2023 or a caption three posts down or a reply to the same DM you answered yesterday. Instagram gives a business account one action button. The questions clients actually ask before booking have nowhere permanent to live.

Google needs somewhere to send people

When someone searches for a nail salon or a barber near them, Google shows its map listings, and each listing has a Website button. Without a website, that button points wherever you put it, which is usually an Instagram profile with no prices on it, or a marketplace page with your competitors listed underneath.

You are building on someone else's ground

Accounts get locked, and fees and features change. Stay on Fresha and Instagram, and keep one page that is yours as well. We wrote more about this in do you need a website if you already have a Facebook page, and the same thinking applies to Instagram.

When you do not need a website

Plenty of shops genuinely do not need one. You can skip it if:

• You are fully booked with regulars and have a waitlist.
• You rent a chair or a room in a salon that handles its own marketing, and your clients find you through the salon.
• You plan to stay exactly the size you are, and your current clients book you without asking any questions.

If that is you, put your effort into your Google listing and your reviews instead. Those reach new clients for free.

What the website adds

If you do want new clients, or you are tired of answering the same questions, the site does a short list of jobs:

1. It answers the three questions clients ask before booking: how much, when are you open, how do I book. Prices and hours live in one place, written once.
2. It gives your Google listing a real destination. The Website button lands on a page with only you on it.
3. It sends bookings to Fresha. Your booking button opens your own Fresha link. Nothing about your calendar changes.
4. It reaches the people who are not on Instagram. A client searching Google for somewhere close to work may never open the app.

It does not need to be big. Four or five pages with your services and prices, your team, your hours and a map, and a booking button on every page.

The setup that works

Keep each tool on the job it does best:

• Fresha (or Booksy, Square or Jane) holds the calendar and takes the booking.
• The website answers the questions and holds the booking button, which opens your Fresha link.
• Instagram shows the work, with the bio link pointing at your site or your booking page.
• Your Google listing points its Website button at your site and its booking link at Fresha.

Every path ends in the same calendar, and the one page with your name at the top belongs to you.

Common questions