Fresha Review: The Best Salon & Spa Management Software

Fresha Review. Running any business requires a lot of dedication, hard work, and capable tools to make difficult tasks easier. The salon and spa industry is no exception to this.

On an average day, salons and spas must book multiple customers according to their preferences, create work schedules for employees, send marketing campaigns to keep demand steady, and generate business reports to make informed decisions about purchases, sales, and client acquisition.

While some of the largest chains of salons and spas in the world use their own in-house software platforms to manage their day-to-day sales and operations, most smaller players go with an off-the-shelf software solution. One such solution is Fresha, and the purpose of this review is to determine whether it’s really the best salon & spa management software available.

What Is Fresha?

Fresha describes itself as easy-to-use booking software for salons and spas, but it can also be used by fitness centers and gyms, personal trainers, barbershops, therapy centers, and tattoo & piercing studios.

Since its launch in 2015, it has become the world’s fastest-growing booking platform for salons and spas. Over 250 million appointments are booked using Fresha every year, and the platform’s customer base spans more than 120 countries, with most customers located in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

At the time of writing, Fresha enjoys a near-perfect rating (4.9/5) on Capterra, a company that provides research and user reviews on software applications for businesses.

Is There A Difference Between Fresha And Shedul?

Yes and no. Fresha was formally known as Shedul, but the online booking platform for salons and spas has since then been rebranded to better fit with Fresha.com, a marketplace that generates revenue by charging merchants a small percentage fee on top of bookings.

So, Fresha (the online booking platform) is exactly the same product as Shedul, but Fresha.com (the online marketplace where customers can instantly book salons and spas) is a different product from the same company. When you read older Shedul reviews online, you can consider them to be reviews of the Fresha booking platform.

Why Should Salons & Spas Choose Fresha?

What makes Fresha so attractive, besides its integration with the online appointment booking platform, is the fact that it provides a complete solution for business owners, helping them take care of everything from appointment scheduling to marketing to reporting.

Online Booking

Salon and spa owners who decide to use Fresha can allow their customers to make bookings online through a website, Facebook, or online booking apps. Customers have the option to reschedule existing bookings as they see fit, which helps reduce the number of no-shows and keep staff busy.

Businesses that decide to set up an online profile on Fresha.com gain access to a large existing customer base and several useful features, such as built-in no-show protection. They can also easily collect reviews from verified customers and use them as proof of the quality of their service.

Payment Processing

By upgrading to Fresha Plus, salons and spas can start charging clients’ cards at no additional cost with Pay by App, a payment processor that allows clients to pay for their services through the Fresha app, eliminating the need for a third-party system to manage payments.

Pay by App is currently available in United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, and Ireland, but there are plans to release it in Europe and New Zealand in the near future.

Mobile Apps

During our Fresha review, we noticed they have a set of mobile apps to make its booking platform and online marketplace more accessible to the smartphone generation. Fresha Partner is intended for salons and spas, while Fresha is for customers who want to discover salons and spas nearby and book appointments with instant confirmation and live availability.

More Features To Love

Besides the features we’ve mentioned so far, Fresha also boasts marketing automation capabilities, full integration with barcode scanners, receipt printers, and cash drawers, as well as live performance dashboards and financial reporting, among other things, giving salon and spa owners many reasons to choose it over the competition.

What’s It Like To Use Fresha?

When you log in to Fresha, you’re greeted with a home screen displaying your recent sales, upcoming appointments, top services, and top-performing staff members. You can switch to other screens using the list of options on the left.

The calendar screen is where you’ll spend a lot of time because it lets you easily add new appointments or block specific time slots. You can display appointments of all staff members at once, or you can zero in on a particular person.

If you have a product that you want to sell, all you need to do is switch to the inventory screen and enter information about them. Fresha will help you send purchase orders directly to your suppliers so that you never run out of stock.

From time to time, it’s a good idea to visit the analytics screen, where you can see your total appointments, online appointments, occupancy, total sales, average sale, and client retention. You can also generate detailed reports on everything from your financial performance to your voucher sales or inventory.

By upgrading to Fresha Plus for 2.19% + $0.20 transaction fee, you gain the ability to list your business on the Fresha marketplace, process card payments via the Fresha app or in-store card terminals, boost sales and bookings with intelligent marketing tools, and message clients directly straight from the platform.

For serious salon and spa owners, Fresha Plus is an easy financial decision that can pay for itself in no time. Everyone else can try Fresha Plus for 14 days before making a commitment. The good news is that Fresha Plus is an entirely optional part of the platform, and all essential features remain completely usable even without it.

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Verdict

With its impressive features, excellent usability, and seamless integration with the company’s thriving online marketplace, there is no doubt that Fresha is one of the best salon & spa management software solutions around. If you haven’t yet tried what it has to offer, you can sign up for free right now and test all the features we’ve described in this Fresha review.

Have you given Fresha a try? Let us know your feedback of our Fresha review in the comments below!