Of all the local businesses we work with, hair and beauty salons have the strongest case for skipping a website entirely. Your work is visual, and Instagram was practically designed for you. Clients share their new colour in their stories, tag your salon, and suddenly half their friend group is in your DMs asking for appointments.
But Instagram only reaches people who already know you exist. When someone moves to a new area, when their regular stylist retires, or when they just fancy a change, they don’t scroll Instagram hoping to stumble across the right salon. They type “hair salon near me” into Google. And if you’re not there, you don’t exist for that person.
The short answer is that most salons benefit from having a website, but it depends on where your clients come from and where you want to grow. Let’s look at the real numbers.
How people actually find hair salons in 2026
There are two completely different client journeys happening, and most salon owners only see one of them.
Existing clients find you through Instagram, word of mouth, and walking past your door. These people already know your name. They follow you, they’ve seen your work, and when they want to book, they message you directly or call. This is the journey you see every day.
New clients - people who’ve never heard of you - behave differently. They search Google. “Hair salon near me”, “balayage specialist [town name]”, “best hairdresser in [area]”. Research from Google shows that 76% of people who search for a local service on their phone contact a business within 24 hours. These are high-intent searchers ready to book.
If your salon doesn’t appear in those results, those clients go to whoever does. You never see the missed appointment because you never knew they were looking.
And even when someone does get a recommendation from a friend, 81% of consumers still Google the business before making contact. They’re checking your opening hours, looking at your work, reading reviews. If they Google your salon name and find nothing, that referral becomes a lot less likely to convert.
Instagram vs a website - an honest comparison
Let’s be fair to Instagram. For salons, it genuinely works better than for almost any other type of local business. A plumber can’t really show off a boiler installation in a way that gets people excited. But a stunning colour transformation or a perfect bridal updo? That content performs.
The problem isn’t that Instagram is bad. It’s that it does one job well and can’t do several others at all.
| Your Own Website | ||
|---|---|---|
| Showcasing your work | Excellent | Good (gallery pages, full control over layout) |
| Reaching existing clients | Strong (if they see your posts) | Moderate (they’d visit directly) |
| Reaching new clients via Google | Almost zero | Strong (with local SEO) |
| You own it | No (Meta controls reach and rules) | Yes (it’s yours) |
| Organic reach per post | 2-5% of your followers | 100% of visitors see your content |
| Online booking | Via DMs (messy, easy to miss) | Integrated booking button |
| Displaying prices and services | Awkward (buried in highlights) | Clean, scannable, always current |
| Gift voucher sales | Not possible | Easy to set up |
| Client email list | Very limited | You build and own it |
We’ve written a detailed comparison of websites and social media pages that covers the ownership issue in depth. The short version: Instagram is rented space where the landlord can change the rules at any time. A website is owned space. Smart salons use both.
The booking platform question - Treatwell, Fresha, and Booksy
Many salon owners we speak to are already paying for a booking platform. These are worth understanding because they affect whether you need a website and what that website should do.
Treatwell lists your salon on their marketplace and handles bookings. The catch is commission: you’ll pay 25-35% of each booking made through their platform. On a £60 colour appointment, that’s £15-£21 going to Treatwell. If you’re doing 20 Treatwell bookings a month, that’s £300-£420 in commission alone.
Fresha (formerly Shedul) offers a free tier for booking management, which is genuinely useful. But their marketplace listings and payment processing come with fees - typically 20% commission on new clients found through Fresha’s marketplace, plus card processing charges.
Booksy charges a monthly subscription (around £30-£50/month depending on features) rather than per-booking commission, which works out better for busier salons.
Here’s the comparison that matters most:
| Treatwell | Fresha Marketplace | Your Own Website | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Free to list | Free to list | £15-£100/month |
| Commission per booking | 25-35% | ~20% (marketplace clients) | None |
| Cost on 20 bookings/month at £60 avg | £300-£420 | ~£240 | £0 commission |
| You own the client relationship | No | Partially | Yes |
| Builds your Google presence | No (builds theirs) | No (builds theirs) | Yes |
| If you leave | Clients stay on the platform | Marketplace listings disappear | Your site and rankings stay |
The platforms aren’t necessarily bad - they can be a useful source of new clients, especially when you’re getting established. But relying on them long-term means paying commission indefinitely and building someone else’s brand instead of your own.
The smartest approach we see from the salons we work with is using a platform as a discovery channel while directing repeat clients to book through your own website or booking system. You pay commission once to acquire the client, then keep 100% on every visit after that.
What a salon website actually needs
Salon websites don’t need to be complicated. The ones that generate the most enquiries tend to be simple, clear, and focused on a handful of things done well.
Services and prices - this is the single most important page on your site. List every service with at least a starting-from price. “Prices available on request” is one of the top reasons potential clients leave a salon website without booking. People want a ballpark before making contact.
A gallery of your work - this is where salons have a natural advantage over other businesses. You already have hundreds of photos on your phone. Put your best work on your website too, organised by service type (colour, cuts, bridal, extensions). Unlike Instagram, a website gallery doesn’t get buried by an algorithm.
Location, hours, and contact details - sounds obvious, but many salon websites make these hard to find. Your address, opening hours, phone number, and a map should be visible within seconds of landing on the site.
Online booking - around 35% of UK salon bookings now happen online, and that figure is growing year on year. A “Book Now” button linked to Fresha, Timely, Square Appointments, or a similar tool takes the friction out of converting a website visitor into a paying client. Many clients prefer booking at 10pm on a Sunday rather than trying to call during your busiest hours.
Reviews and testimonials - social proof matters everywhere, but especially for salons. A new client is trusting you with their appearance. Displaying Google reviews or client testimonials on your site builds that trust before they walk through the door.
Your story - a short about section with photos of you and your team. Salon visits are personal and clients often spend an hour or more in the chair. People want to know who they’re booking with. This doesn’t need to be long - a paragraph and a team photo go a long way.
We’ve built websites for hair and beauty salons across the UK, and you can see the approach we take on our hair and beauty salon page.
How much does a salon website cost?
The cost depends entirely on the route you take:
| Option | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) | £0 | £15-£30/month | You design and build it yourself |
| Freelance designer | £500-£3,000 | £25-£100/month (hosting + maintenance) | Custom design, you manage updates |
| Agency | £3,000-£10,000+ | £50-£200/month (hosting + support) | Full service, but expensive |
| Managed service (like Bink) | £0 | From £59/month | Design, hosting, SEO, updates included |
The DIY route is cheapest upfront but costs you time. Most salon owners we talk to estimate 20-40 hours to build a decent site themselves. If you’d rather be in the salon earning, that time has a real cost.
Want a personalised comparison? Our website cost calculator lets you plug in your situation and see what each option would actually cost over a year.
For a full breakdown of every option with detailed year-one costs, we’ve written a guide on how much a website costs for a small business in the UK.
When you don’t need a website
Not every salon needs one, and we’d rather be honest about that.
You’re fully booked months in advance and not looking to grow. If every chair is full, your waiting list is long, and you’re happy with your income, a website isn’t going to change your life. You’re doing fine without one.
You’re a mobile stylist working exclusively through personal referrals. If all your work comes from a tight network and you never want to expand beyond that, a Google presence matters less. Your Instagram and word of mouth are doing the job.
You’re winding down the business. Investing in a website for a business with a short runway left doesn’t make financial sense.
For everyone else - especially if you want a steady flow of new clients, or you’re currently paying 25-35% commission on bookings through a platform - a website is likely worth it. Even a simple one that ranks for “hair salon in [your town]” can bring in enough new clients each month to cover its cost several times over.
Making the decision
The question isn’t really “do I need a website?” It’s “where do I want my new clients to come from?”
If you’re happy relying on Instagram and word of mouth, and you’re genuinely busy enough, that’s a legitimate choice. But if you want to show up when strangers search Google for a salon in your area - and you’d like to stop handing over a quarter of every booking to a platform - a website is how you get there.
It doesn’t need to cost thousands and it doesn’t need to be complicated. It needs to show your work, list your services and prices, make it easy to book, and appear on Google when someone local is looking for exactly what you offer.
If you’d like to see what a Bink salon website looks like, take a look at what we offer for hair and beauty salons. We’ve also written similar guides for other local businesses - including builders, electricians, and plumbers - if you’re curious how the decision compares across industries. Or if you’d like to chat about whether it makes sense for your situation, get in touch - we’ll give you an honest answer.