Fresha is a booking and business platform for salons, spas and beauty and wellness businesses, notable for offering its core booking software free. Founded in 2015 and formerly known as Shedul, it lets these businesses take appointments online, manage staff, calendars and clients, process payments, and market to customers, without a subscription fee for the software itself. Instead, Fresha makes money from payment processing, optional marketing features, and new client fees from its consumer marketplace, where people discover and book beauty and wellness services.
Fresha's distinction is the free software model plus a consumer marketplace. Unlike subscription tools, its booking, calendar and client management are free, which has driven huge adoption in the beauty and wellness sector, and its marketplace helps businesses attract new clients. For salons and spas, that combination of free core software and new client discovery is highly attractive, reflected in its top ratings.
Fresha is best for salons, spas, barbershops and beauty and wellness businesses that want free booking software plus payments and a client marketplace to attract new customers. It suits businesses from solo practitioners to multi location salons in that sector. It is a weaker fit for non beauty service businesses or pure meeting scheduling, where Acuity or Calendly fit, since Fresha is tailored to beauty and wellness.
The core strengths are free online booking, calendar and staff management, client records, and integrated payments, plus a consumer marketplace where new clients discover and book services. Fresha offers automated reminders, marketing tools like promotions and campaigns, point of sale, inventory and reporting, all tailored to beauty and wellness. Its free core software plus marketplace and payments are its defining advantages.
Fresha's core booking software is free, with no subscription for appointments, calendar and client management. It makes money through payment processing fees on payments taken, optional paid marketing features, and a new client fee when the marketplace brings a first time client. This model means the software costs nothing up front, with costs tied to payments and growth features. Details are on the Fresha pricing page.
Fresha is an all in one platform for beauty and wellness rather than a tool reliant on many integrations, bundling booking, payments, POS, marketing and inventory. It connects to its consumer marketplace and offers hardware for in person payments, serving as the complete system for a salon or spa, which is central to its appeal.
Beyond free booking, Fresha helps businesses grow through its marketplace, where consumers find and book services, and through marketing tools for promotions, campaigns and reviews. This focus on bringing new clients and driving repeat business, alongside free core software, is what sets Fresha apart in the beauty and wellness sector.
Fresha is easy to use and tailored to beauty and wellness, with a consumer grade experience that staff and clients find natural, reflected in its very high ratings, and it offers support and resources. Its G2 reviews praise the free model, marketplace and ease, with the payment and marketing based costs the main consideration.
For a salon, spa or beauty and wellness business that wants free booking software plus payments and a marketplace to attract new clients, Fresha is one of the best and most popular choices, and the free core software makes it easy to adopt. The main caution is that it is tailored to beauty and wellness, so other service businesses or those needing pure meeting scheduling should look at Acuity or Calendly, but in its sector Fresha dominates.
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