Do I need a website if I'm on Fresha or Treatwell?

Short answer: not always, and I would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need yet.

If Fresha or Treatwell is taking your bookings, filling your day and you are happy, a website is not urgent. It is the next thing, not the first thing. But there is a point where the app starts working against you, and most people hit it without noticing. This is how to tell where you are.

Do I need a website if I'm already on Fresha or Treatwell?

Not straight away. The booking app does the job a website cannot do on its own, which is take money and hold your diary.

What it does not do is belong to you. Your listing sits next to every other salon, barber, therapist and clinic in your town, sorted by whatever the app decides is best today. A customer searching there is choosing between you and forty others. A customer on your own site has already chosen you and is just looking for the button.

So the question is not really "do I need a website". It is "how many of my bookings do I want to pay commission on, and for how long".

What do the booking apps actually charge me?

The software is usually cheap or free. The expensive part is the marketplace, which is the public listing where strangers find you.

Fresha charges a one off commission on a client the marketplace brings you, currently 20 per cent of that first booking with a minimum fee, plus a card processing fee on payments, plus a subscription per bookable team member. Treatwell currently charges 35 per cent on the first booking from a new client it sends you, then nothing on repeat bookings from that person, plus a processing fee on prepayments.

Check both yourself before you decide anything, because these change. The shape is the thing to understand: you pay when a stranger arrives, and you keep them after that. That is a fair deal. It is also why the apps are so good at bringing you your first hundred clients and so pointless once you have them.

A £60 first appointment through Treatwell costs you £21 in commission. Ten of those in a month is £210. That is more than most of my sites cost per year to run.

Who owns the client, the app or me?

The app does, in the way that matters. You have the client's name and their booking history, but the relationship lives inside someone else's software.

If Fresha changes its fees, you take it. If Treatwell reorders its listings, you drop. If you want to move to a different system in three years, you are moving your whole diary and hoping your regulars follow. None of that is a scandal, it is just how renting works. You should know you are renting.

A website is the bit you own. Your name, your address, your prices, your reviews, your photographs, and a booking button that goes wherever you want it to go. If you switch from Fresha to something else, you change one link and nobody notices.

When should I not bother with a website yet?

There are four situations where I will tell you to wait, and I do tell people this on the phone.

You are under six months old and still working out what you charge and what you actually enjoy doing. Build the client list first. A site built around services you drop in March is wasted money.

You are fully booked and have a waiting list. You do not need more enquiries, you need to put your prices up. That is free.

You are mobile only, you work from home, or you rent a chair, and you are not sure you will still be there in a year. Get a Google Business Profile sorted, get your Fresha listing tidy, and spend the money when you have a fixed address.

You have under £400 spare and no cushion. A website is not an emergency. Put the money behind you.

If none of those sound like you, keep reading.

When does a website start paying for itself?

The moment repeat clients start finding you by name, and the moment a stranger wants to check you out before they book.

People do not book a facial, a wax, a rewire or a dog groom cold from a listing. They see you somewhere, then they search your business name, then they look at what comes up. If what comes up is a marketplace profile with three photographs and a paragraph, you are being judged on the same page as your competitors. If it is your own site with your work on it, your qualifications, your actual prices and a map, you have answered every question in their head before they ask it.

That is what happened with Nurse Meicha. She was not struggling. She was an established clinic with a full book who wanted the website to hold the same standard as the consultation, because the site was the first thing a nervous new patient saw. That is a completely different reason to build than "I need more clients", and it is the more common one once you are past year two.

The other trigger is Google. A marketplace profile ranks for the marketplace, not for you. Your own site, done properly, ranks for "hairdresser in St Neots" and for your name and for the treatment you specialise in. When we rebuilt HairBiba, bookings had been going into a paper diary in pen, with no online booking at all and nothing to find on Google. She now takes bookings from people she has never met through Fresha's own marketplace, and she ranks far higher on Google than she did. Both things at once. The site did not replace the app. It fed it.

Can I keep Fresha and have a website too?

Yes, and that is what I build most of the time. You do not pick one.

The booking system stays exactly where it is, with your staff, your services and your card payments untouched. The website sits in front of it and sends people straight into it. Nobody has to learn a new diary and no bookings move.

The practical effect is that you stop paying commission on people who would have found you anyway. Someone who got your card at a wedding fair searches your name, lands on your site, and books through the same Fresha calendar without ever going through the marketplace. Same booking, same diary, no finder's fee, because nobody found you. They already knew.

Nida Thai Massage is the clearest version of this. Fifteen years of practice and a proper reputation, but no way for anyone to book her online at all. We built out her Fresha and gave her a site that pushes people into it. She is booked out most days now.

What do I actually need on the site?

Less than you think. Six things, and you can stop.

Who you are and what you do, in one sentence at the top. Your services with real prices, because hiding them costs you more enquiries than it saves. Photographs of your own work, not stock. A booking button that is visible without scrolling on a phone. Your address, your hours and a phone number that is tappable. Your Google reviews.

That is it. A five page site does the job for most salons, therapists and trades. Anything more is usually the designer padding the invoice. There is a full list of what I include on what you get.

What does it cost with Get Booked?

Starter is £395, Business is £995 and Full Launch is £1,495, and those are on the pricing page rather than hidden behind a discovery call.

Most single operator salons, therapists and trades want Business. Starter suits someone testing the water with one page and a booking link. Care plans run from £50 a month if you want us keeping it updated, and you do not have to take one.

We are a small team and every site is built here in house. No overseas teams, no white labelling, no account manager between you and the person doing the work. We build around St Neots, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Bedford and Peterborough, and if you are local you can see the St Neots page for how we work in your area.

What would I do if I were you?

If you are new, stay on the app and put the money into your skills and your Google Business Profile. Come back in a year.

If you have been going two years or more, have regulars, and you are paying commission on people who already knew your name, build the site. It will pay for itself faster than anything else you spend on marketing, because it is not marketing. It is stopping a leak.

If you are not sure which one you are, ring me and I will tell you straight, even if the answer is wait. We are on 07940 022854, Monday to Saturday, 8 to 6.