Adding a booking plugin to your WordPress site is one of the best ways to improve your customers’ experience and streamline your appointment scheduling process to get more appointments.
Of all the different WordPress booking plugins out there, Amelia is one of the most popular, but there are lots of Amelia alternatives that are worth taking a look at before you settle on an appointment scheduling plugin for your WordPress site.
What Is Amelia?
Much like Webba Booking, Amelia is an appointment booking plugin for WordPress that allows your clients to book appointments 24/7 and make payments at the time of booking, if needed.
The Amelia scheduling platform can work for a wide variety of business types that rely on taking appointments for their day-to-day operations. Examples include:
- Gyms
- Spas
- Salons
- Law consultancies
- Repair shops
- Private clinics
Amelia integrates into your existing WordPress site and features a sleek, modern design that’s intuitive to use on both the front and back ends.
When you connect Amelia to your business site, you create a unique booking page showcasing your service offerings, availability, payment info, and other key details.
Then, when customers visit your site’s booking page, they can select the service they want to book, when they want to book it, and make payments as needed.
Pricing for the premium version of Amelia, which most businesses will want to take advantage of all the platform’s features, starts at $79/year for a one-domain subscription.
5 Best Amelia Alternatives for Your Website:
- Webba Booking – most flexible, customizable WordPress booking plugin
- Booking Calendar – simple, tried-and-true booking plugin
- Booked – super minimalistic, easy-to-use booking calendar
- MotoPress – for building a WordPress booking site from scratch
- BirchPress – can embed a booking form anywhere on your site
Webba Booking
As one of the most flexible booking plugins with payment options built specifically for WordPress, Webba Booking is definitely one of the top Amelia competitors out there.
A big reason you may be looking for an alternative to Amelia is that it doesn’t offer a ton of appearance customization options, meaning it’s harder to make your booking page match your site and brand.
Webba Booking, on the other hand, offers 80+ appearance customization options, including 79 pre-designed templates you can use to get started.
Webba Booking’s two-way Google Calendar integration ensures that all appointment updates are reflected on your business calendar, and the platform also includes an SMS and email notification and reminders system, so you and your clients won’t miss appointments.
When it comes to payment options, Webba Booking integrates with three of the top online payment platforms: Stripe, WooCommerce, and PayPal.
Pricing for Webba Booking Premium starts at $89/year for a one-site plan.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| 80+ appearance customization options and presets | Only works for WordPress sites |
| Two-way Google Calendar integration | Slightly more expensive than Amelia |
| SMS and email notifications and reminders | |
| Stripe, WooCommerce, and PayPal integrations | |
| Built specifically for WordPress business sites | |
| Ideal for all types of service providers |
Who’s It For?
Webba Booking is especially ideal for service providers who require a highly customizable booking plugin with multiple payment integrations for their WordPress sites.
Booking Calendar
Booking Calendar is one of the older WordPress booking plugins out there, but it’s been around for that long for a good reason — it’s simple and gets the job done.
Like other Amelia competitors on our list, Booking Calendar integrates with your Google Calendar to show your availability and automate your appointment scheduling via your WordPress site.
Booking Calendar can work for many different types of businesses, especially service-based and accommodation businesses.
One key difference between Booking Calendar and some of the other Amelia alternatives we reviewed is that it only offers email notifications.
Pricing for Booking Calendar starts at $79 (one-time fee) for the personal version. Business versions run from $149 to $649.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| Simple to set up and use out of the box | No SMS notifications (only email notifications) |
| Only charges a one-time fee | Business versions are much more expensive than Amelia and alternatives |
| PayPal, Stripe, and other payment integrations | Design and interface are a bit outdated |
Who’s It For?
Anyone who wants a simple, tried-and-true WordPress booking plugin that’s ready to use out of the box for booking services and accommodations.
Booked
Booked is a super minimalistic booking calendar plugin that you can embed on your WordPress site using shortcode.
Booked doesn’t offer a ton of different features, integrations, or customization options, instead focusing on providing your customers with the simplest booking experience possible.
You can display appointment availability in either a calendar or list view on different pages of your site, and there are several add-ons for Booked, including a WooCommerce add-on for when you want to accept payments at the time of booking.
Booked charges users a one-time fee of $49 for lifetime use and access to six months of support.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| Super minimal design | Not a lot of customization options |
| Beyond easy-to-use interface for customers | Few integrations |
| WooCommerce add-on available for payments | Have to pay extra to extend access to support |
| Only requires one-time payment | |
| Can be embedded on different pages with shortcode | |
Who’s It For?
Anyone who wants to offer their customers a super minimal, straightforward booking experience and doesn’t need a lot of customization options.
MotoPress
MotoPress is a bit different from other Amelia alternatives we reviewed in that it provides WordPress themes, designed for booking different types of appointments, that you can use to build a new booking site on WordPress.
In other words, instead of embedding a booking calendar in or adding a booking page to your site, you can use MotoPress to set up an appointment scheduling website from scratch.
MotoPress offers themes for hotel booking, hourly appointment booking, and more. There are also WooCommerce-specific themes for taking payments.
MotoPress costs $299/year for access to all themes and use with an unlimited number of sites.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| Allows you to build a booking site from scratch | Allows you to build a booking site from scratch |
| Offers a variety of themes for different business types | Not many integrations |
| WooCommerce integration for payments | Expensive compared to other Amelia competitors |
Who’s It For?
People who don’t have existing business websites and want to build a WordPress site for booking appointments from scratch.
BirchPress
BirchPress is an Amelia alternative that lets you embed a booking form anywhere on your website using a shortcode. This makes it easier to receive booking from any page on your site, not just from a specific booking page.
Another benefit of BirchPress is that it syncs with a variety of popular calendars, including Google Calendar, iCalendar, and Outlook Calendar.
Like Amelia, this competitor also offers various payment options through its PayPal and WooCommerce integrations.
Pricing for BirchPress starts at $99 for a one-site plan with a year of support and updates.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| Can embed a booking form anywhere on your site | Only has email notifications (no SMS notifications) |
| PayPal and WooCommerce integrations | Can only customize fields of booking forms (not design) |
| Can be customized by developers using code |
Who’s It For?
People who want to embed a booking form on various different pages of their website.
Wrapping Up
So, now you know what five of the best Amelia alternatives are that you should consider before you decide which appointment scheduling tool to use for your business site.
Amelia is a nice looking scheduling app with some good features and integrations, but you may find one of the other options in this article is better suited to your unique needs and goals.
