Fresha vs Mawaeed
A serious salon platform, and what changes when the salon is in Lebanon
Fresha is a mature, well engineered platform with real depth behind it, and for a salon in London or Dubai it is often the right answer. Nothing below is an argument that it is a bad product, because it is not.
The question worth asking is narrower: what changes when the salon is in Beirut, the client books from an Instagram bio, the deposit has to arrive without an international card, and half the clientele reads Arabic.
Where Fresha is genuinely strong
- Deep, mature feature set built over years, including retail and inventory that a booking page does not attempt.
- A consumer marketplace that can send you clients who were not already yours, which no Lebanese booking page can do.
- Serious reporting, and an ecosystem of integrations that a smaller product will not match.
What tends to hurt in Lebanon
- Payments on international platforms generally assume a card processor that works smoothly with local banking. In Lebanon that assumption is where the deposit story usually breaks, and a booking you cannot hold with money is a booking that can evaporate.
- Reminders typically lean on email and SMS. In Lebanon the message that actually gets read is WhatsApp, and the gap does not show up as a missing feature, it shows up as a no-show rate.
- Support and billing run in a timezone and a currency that may not match your front desk or your takings.
Side by side
| What matters | Fresha | Mawaeed |
|---|---|---|
| How the money reaches you | Card processing, which is the hard part here | Whish, recorded by you; Mawaeed never touches the money |
| How the reminder reaches the client | Email and SMS first | WhatsApp, with email backup |
| Arabic, right to left | Varies by surface | English, French and Arabic, real right to left |
| Who owns the client list | Yours, on their platform and its marketplace | Yours, exportable |
| Marketplace discovery | Yes, a real advantage | No. Your page, your traffic |
| Retail and inventory | Yes | No |
The honest verdict
If you want a marketplace to bring you new clients, or you run retail stock alongside services, Fresha does things Mawaeed does not attempt and you should stay.
If your bookings already come from Instagram and WhatsApp, and what you actually need is deposits that arrive and reminders that get read, the Lebanese plumbing is the whole argument.
Questions fréquentes
- Is there a Fresha alternative for Lebanon?
- Mawaeed is built for the Lebanese market specifically: deposits over Whish rather than an international card processor, WhatsApp reminders, and pages in English, French and Arabic. Fresha remains the stronger choice if you want its marketplace or retail inventory.
- Can I move my client list from Fresha?
- Export your clients from Fresha and add them to Mawaeed. One profile per phone number means returning clients are recognised automatically on their next booking.
- Does Mawaeed have a marketplace like Fresha?
- No, and that is a genuine difference. Mawaeed gives you your own booking page to put in your Instagram bio and WhatsApp; it does not send you clients who were not already yours.
- What does Mawaeed cost compared to Fresha?
- Mawaeed starts with 30 free days on whichever plan you choose, with no card required, and renews by Whish transfer. For Fresha's current pricing check Fresha directly, because it changes and we will not quote it for them.
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