Appointment scheduling apps optimize your time, automate your business’s scheduling, and improve your customers’ satisfaction. But, with so many different tools out there, how do you know what the best booking app for your business is?
To make your decision easier, we reviewed a ton of different online appointment scheduling apps and compiled the below list of our top 10.
As you read about the different apps we reviewed, make sure to keep in mind the type of business you have and evaluate how the pros and cons of each tool can make it work — or not work — for you.
What To Look for in an Appointment Scheduling App?
The first thing you should look for when trying to decide on an online appointment scheduling tool for your business is compatibility with your business website. For example, if your site is built on WordPress, you want an app designed for WordPress.
After that, you should look for features that complement your business type and your scheduling needs. For instance, if you’re a service provider and you need to take payments at the time of booking, look for a tool that lets you do this.
Although many scheduling apps may work for businesses in a variety of industries, some are more tailored towards certain types of companies. So, pay attention to who and what these apps are best for to help you decide on the right one.
10 Best Appointment Scheduling Apps
Here are the 10 appointment schedulers we reviewed:
- WEBBA Booking – best for service providers
- Calendly – best for team scheduling
- SimplyBook.me – best for managing many branches
- Square Appointments – best for businesses that use Square POS and payment apps
- Doodle – best for scheduling group meetings
- Amelia – best for event-based businesses
- Acuity Scheduling – best for businesses with very simple site designs
- Setmore – best budget website appointment scheduler
- OnceHub (ScheduleOnce) – best for setting sales appointments with qualified leads
- Appointy – best for booking appointments through Facebook
WEBBA Booking
WEBBA Booking is a WordPress booking plugin designed especially for service providers and full of handy features that will make you and your customers’ lives easier.
Since it’s built specifically for WordPress, WEBBA Booking is extremely easy to integrate into any WordPress business site. There are also dozens of appearance customization options and presets to choose from to make the booking app fit your site’s theme.
WEBBA Booking also has a fully responsive design, meaning it looks great on any device or web browser.
The platform’s two-way Google Calendar integration automatically updates your business’s calendar when a customer books an appointment, and your WEBBA Booking calendar gets updated if you make any changes from your business calendar.
There are tons of other features that make WEBBA Booking the best booking app for service-based businesses, including customizable email and SMS notification systems and the option to receive secure online payments via Paypal, Stripe, and WooCommerce.
WEBBA Booking offers a free version with basic features, and pricing for the Premium plans starts at $89/year for a one-website subscription.
Pros:
- Built specifically for WordPress
- Highly customizable appearance
- Fully responsive for web and mobile
- Two-way Google Calendar integration
- Customizable email and SMS notifications
- Secure online payments through Paypal, Stripe, and WooCommerce
Cons:
- Only works for WordPress sites
- Intended mainly for service providers/booking appointments for services, may not be the best solution for other scheduling purposes
Who is it for?
WEBBA Booking is for service providers who want an extremely flexible scheduling app for their WordPress sites.
Calendly
Calendly is an online appointment scheduling app geared towards enterprise teams and designed to help reduce and eliminate all the back-and-forth via email when setting appointments for things like sales meetings and internal meetings.
A notable feature of Calendly that makes it ideal for sales teams and other client-facing teams is its routing forms.
These routing forms ask website visitors questions when they book appointments via your site, which pre qualify them and route the appointment to the right team member.
Another feature that teams are sure to love is Calendly’s meeting polls. These allow everyone on your team to vote on the best time to hold internal meetings, ensuring that everyone (or at least most people) are happy with the meeting time.
Calendly has a basic free version and pricing for the Professional version, which comes with all the features teams need, is $12/month/seat.
Pros:
- Eliminates email back and forth
- Routing forms send appointments to the right team members
- Meeting polls for internal appointments
Cons:
- Designed mainly for professional teams in certain office-based industries, may not work well for service providers, restaurants, and other small businesses
- Limited appearance customization options
Who is it for?
Calendly is for enterprise teams, such as sales, recruiting, marketing, customer success, and IT teams, who want to automate their team scheduling processes.
SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook.me is appointment scheduling software built for managing multiple branches of a business.
The software’s headquarter dashboard gives top management easy access to booking and sales info for all branches, and provides regional/local managers with access to only the branches they cover.
SimplyBook.me can work for businesses of different sizes and in different industries, and as such it is not optimized for a single sector or business type.
Pricing for SimplyBook.me starts at $8.25/month for the Basic version, and there is also a free version with less features and fewer bookings allowed.
Pros:
- Good for managing multiple locations
- Provides each level of management with the access they need
- Can work for different business types
Cons:
- Not optimized for one industry or sector, may lack specialized features that some businesses want
Who is it for?
SimplyBook.me is for top-level managers who want to keep track of all their locations’ booking stats and provide lower-level managers with only the access they need.
Square Appointments
The Square Appointments app is fully integrated with Square’s POS and payment system apps, and as such is ideal for business owners who already use Square.
You can manage your availability, create customer profiles, and manage your team all from the Square Appointments app.
If you don’t already have a website, the app can even provide you with a simple booking site to help customers find your business and book appointments online.
Pricing for Square Appointments starts at $29/month/location for the Plus plan, and there is a free plan available for a single location.
Pros:
- Integrated with Square POS and payment apps
- Intuitive to use for those who already use other Square products
- Provides a simple booking site if you don’t have one already
Cons:
- May not be suitable for large enterprise businesses
Who is it for?
Square is for businesses that already rely on Square for their POS system and sales and want an integrated appointment scheduling app.
Doodle
Doodle is another scheduling app that’s ideal for enterprise teams who hold a lot of group meetings.
Like Calendly, Doodle offers group polls that you can send out to find a meeting time that works for most people on your team, making it ideal for internal team scheduling.
This cuts down on the time spent talking back and forth with different team members to find a time to meet, allowing everyone to focus on more important tasks at hand.
Doodle also lets you send out meeting polls to clients and other external parties, which is great if you tend to hold group meetings with various people outside your company.
Pricing for Doodle starts at $6.95/month/user for the Pro version. There’s also a free version that allows unlimited group polls and one booking page.
Pros:
- Meeting polls for team members and external parties
- Good for enterprise organizational scheduling
- Integrations with other major enterprise tools
Cons:
- Intended for corporate users, not geared towards small businesses or service-based businesses
Who is it for?
Doodle is for corporations who want to automate their organizational scheduling, especially for group meetings.
Amelia
Amelia appointment scheduling software for WordPress is designed for event-based businesses, such as those that take appointments for classes. It can work well for businesses like yoga studios, gyms, personal trainers, and photographers, for example.
Users can set up a step-by-step booking wizard, which allows customers to choose a parameter at each step to complete their booking. For instance, the customer could select a date, a time, and a certain instructor.
Amelia also offers an insightful analytics dashboard and reporting, so you can track how your business is doing in terms of bookings.
Pricing for Amelia starts at $79/year for a one-domain subscription.
Pros:
- Ideal for event-based businesses
- Customers can set multiple parameters for appointments
- Useful analytics and reporting dashboard
Cons:
- No free version
Who is it for?
Amelia is best for event-based, small- to medium-sized businesses that want to allow customers lots of options when booking appointments.
Acuity Scheduling
Those who have business sites with very minimal design may find Acuity Scheduling (by Squarespace) to their liking.
Like its parent company’s web builder, Acuity Scheduling is intuitive to use and allows you to create a simple, elegant booking page for your business website.
Other than its design, a standout feature of Acuity Scheduling is the option to offer gift certificates, packages, memberships, and group classes.
Although Acuity Scheduling is made by Squarespace, it works for sites built on any web hosting service.
Acuity Scheduling costs a minimum of $14/month for the Emerging plan, and there’s a seven-day free trial available to try before you buy.
Pros:
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Can offer gift certificates, packages, memberships, or group classes
- Elegant minimalist design
Cons:
- May be too simple for some business/website types
Who is it for?
Acuity Scheduling is best for businesses with minimalist site designs.
Setmore
The Setmore appointment scheduling app allows you to create a custom online booking page to showcase services, availability, and reviews.
Setmore is not industry specific, and could work for a variety of different business types. It also lets you take both one-on-one and group bookings.
Setmore offers a free version, and paid plans start at just $5/user/month, making it a good choice for anyone on a tight budget.
Pros:
- Very affordable
- Allows individual and group bookings
- Lets you show customer reviews on booking page
Cons:
- Not tailored to certain business or website types
Who is it for?
Setmore is good for small businesses on a budget in a variety of industries.
OnceHub (ScheduleOnce)
OnceHub, formerly known as ScheduleOnce, is a scheduling app built specifically for sales teams.
The platform incorporates chatbots and forms to help qualify website visitors and route their appointments to the right team members.
OnceHub also integrates with other major marketing and sales platforms, including HubSpot and Salesforce.
Pricing for OnceHub starts at $10/user/month for the Growth plan, and there is a free version for up to three users.
Pros:
- Captures and qualifies leads
- Automates meeting scheduling between leads and team members
- Designed for marketing and sales teams
- Has chatbots, forms, and live chat
Cons:
- Not a good solution for service providers or small businesses
Who is it for?
OnceHub is the best booking app for sales teams looking to set more appointments with qualified leads.
Appointy
Appointy is a piece of appointment scheduling software that has all the basic booking features you may need for your business, and more than many businesses might need.
One feature that stands out about Appointy is that you can use it to convert Facebook into a booking platform.
The Appointy app can create a tab on your business’s Facebook page that allows visitors to book appointments right from Facebook.
This makes Appointy a great appointment scheduling solution for any type of business that receives a lot of traffic to its Facebook page.
Appointy costs a minimum of $19.99 for the Growth version, or there’s the free version with more limited functionality.
Pros:
- Has all basic appointment booking features
- Can turn your Facebook page into a booking platform
- Can work for businesses in most industries
Cons:
- May be overly complicated for businesses with simple needs
Who is it for?
Appointy is for businesses that get a lot of Facebook traffic and want to let customers book appointments from their Facebook page.
Final Thoughts
Although we’ve only covered 10 of the best booking apps for businesses above (out of the dozens or more out there), we’re confident that there’s a solution on this list for any business type.
While we can’t tell you what scheduling app to choose without knowing what type of business you run, we will say that, for service providers and WordPress users, we highly recommend using WEBBA Booking Premium for your appointment scheduling solution!
