WordPress Appointment Plugins

If you happen to run a business that requires your customers to schedule time with you, you’ve probably noticed that your website needs a tool to manage those appointments. If your goal is to add online booking to your WordPress website, you’re in the right place.

Searching for the perfect WordPress plugin can be time consuming so we’ve done the research for you to provide a detailed review of the best free and premium WordPress appointment plugins available.

In this article

WordPress Appointment Plugins
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The Best Appointment Plugins

Start Booking WordPress Plugin
WP Amelia WordPress Plugin
Bookly WP Plugin

What is an Appointment Plugin?

An appointment plugin is a set of code that you add to your WordPress website that allows you to accept appointments from your customers. As a business owner, you are responsible for the success and growth of your business.

Your ads, content, and website do very little to grow your business if you don’t have the ability for your potential customers to book or schedule time with you. It’s important to note that these appointments can be for an hour or a few days, depending on the type of business you manage.

Why do you need an Appointment Plugin?

Whether you are a personal trainer, hair stylist, or a therapist, easily managing your schedule and client appointment times can make or break your business. Appointment plugins are designed to simplify and streamline your business processes.

Make it easier to gain new business

The goal of an appointment plugin is to give customers or prospects the ability to schedule services with you, on their own time. As a small business owner, you can’t always be physically available to talk to each customer on the phone. Appointment plugins allow your customers to choose a time and date that works for them, on their own time.

Customize your schedule and services

With an appointment booking plugin you should be able to accept customer requests for available time slots on your schedule, giving your customers the freedom of choice. For businesses with multiple employees, like salons and spas, you need the ability to customize hours based on the business and individual employees that offer services.

What Makes a Good Appointment Plugin?

When considering the best appointment plugin for you, it’s important to understand and evaluate how your business—or your clients business— will be operating on a day-to-day basis. Let’s take a look at a barbershop as an example.

Let’s say your barbershop has 4 barbers and 1 receptionist to help check-in and support customers throughout their visit. One of the goals for the barbershop is to have their customers self-service themselves and book their appointments directly on their WordPress website instead of making each customer call and speak with the receptionist. Another goal for the barbershop is to have as many appointments for each barber as possible on any given day. Time and convenience is important to keep the barbershop running smoothly. Due to the nature of the business, it's important that each barber can view their schedule at a glance and be notified when there’s a cancellation or last minute appointment.

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Another important feature for the receptionist is to be able to adjust, reschedule, and manage the barbershops schedule. Many WordPress appointment plugins provide good options for customers to book new appointments but neglect to invest in the management and scheduling of the business.

Additionally, here are some features that make a good WordPress appointment plugin:

  • Flexible availability management
  • Mobile responsive booking and calendar synchronization
  • Email and SMS text notifications
  • Customer profile managment
  • Online payments
  • Powerful integrations
  • Fully customizable calendar
  • Appointment reminders
A booking process without robust staff scheduling abilities just creates frustration and congestion within your business. The day-to-day operations and adjustments are just as important as a new appointment.

The 3 Best WordPress Appointment Plugins

1

Start Booking

Best for businesses

There comes a time with any successful business that you have to invest in software that can scale with you and your business. This makes Start Booking stand out from the rest.

Start Booking is the best WordPress plugin for growing and scaling your business. The Start Booking plugin offers all the features you love from a traditional WordPress appointment plugin that is worry-free and maintenance-free. One of the main differences of Start Booking compared to other WordPress appointment plugins is that it’s more than a plugin, it’s a platform. Because it is a platform instead of a traditional plugin, there is a streamlined interface with many useful features. With powerful integrations like Google, Zoom, Stripe, and Mailchimp, your business will have everything it needs to be successful.

Start Booking is best for non-developers who are not interested in updating the code. Start Booking also offers a 14-day free trial to help you decide if the platform is right for you.

2

WP Amelia

Best for DIY

WP Amelia is a great appointment plugin for a single calendar or small project. It also comes packed with a lot of features for creating a booking form and taking new appointments. The plugin is designed well and offers a robust set of tools to customize your appointment booking flow.

WP Amelia has a great value-based plan that will satisfy anyone looking to test how online appointments work for their business. Some of the challenges for using WP Amelia with a growing or established business is the reliance on the WordPress admin to run and manage your business. WP Amelia also offers Google Calendar Synchronization to help employees keep track of their own schedules.

WP Amelia overall is a great tool if you have the time or ability to DIY, but doesn’t provide the best tool if you want to scale and grow your bookings with a hands off approach.

3

Bookly Pro

Best for tool junkies

Bookly is our third best appointment plugin for your WordPress website. Bookly Pro is a value-based solution if you plan on accessing your WordPress admin to manage your scheduling and if you are an expert at configuring WordPress.

Bookly Pro is a good solution for a developer to manage scheduling for a client as it offers many advanced features that can be configured in the code or WordPress admin. While this plugin is well known and offers many premium features, the price can quickly add up if you need more features to manage your business.

When it comes down to it, Bookly falls a little short in providing a simple and intuitive interface for managing a user's calendar or business. Additionally, it’s not the best solution for a business that wants a more hands off approach or a lower price.

Ready to get started?

Start accepting appointments with the Start Booking plugin.

How Start Booking, WP Amelia and Bookly Compare?

The WordPress appointment plugins we reviewed all have their advantages and disadvantages and ultimately you will need to decide what is most important for your business. When deciding which plugin to choose, there are a few things to consider.

How much do you want to manage? Not all appointment plugins are created equal. Some require that you understand code to bring out their full potential, while others provide a simple tool that can help scale your business with little-to-no experience.

Are you ready to commit? Start Booking offers a convenient 14-day trial period for you to see if you like the tool. Start Booking is designed to provide ease of use for busy business owners who want to scale and grow their business.

Start Booking WP Amelia WordPress Plugin Bookly WordPress Plugin
Management

Global Platform

Admin Branding

IOS App

Android App

User Based Roles

Reporting

Support

Knowledge Base

Email/Tickets

(1 Year) (6 Months)

Live Chat

Booking Types

Services

Classes

(Paid Addon)
Calendar Options

Multiple Users

Resource Views

Customizable Colors

User Filtering

Service Filtering

Class Filtering

WordPress

Gutenberg Block Support

Booking Flow

Translatable

Custom Form Fields

(Paid Addon)

Upsells

(Paid Addon)

Modern Design

Responsive Design

Notifications

SMS Text Messages

(Paid Addon) (Paid Addon) (Paid Addon)

Customizable SMS Text Messages

Emails

Customizable Emails

Integrations

Stripe Payments

(Paid Addon)

Paypal Payments

(Paid Addon)

Google Calendar Two-Way

(Paid Addon)

Outlook Calendar Two-Way

(Paid Addon)

Zoom

Mailchimp

iCal Links

Pricing

Has Free Plan

Has Enterprise/Custom Plan

Base Pricing

$25/Month $59/Year/Domain $89/Year/Site

Top Pricing

$75/Month $249/Year $990/Year/Site

Refund Policy

14 Day 14 Day No Refunds

Frequently Asked Questions

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Ready to start booking more customers?

Time to see how fast and easy managing (and filling!) your schedule can be.

Start a 14-day free trial today and watch how Start Booking propels your business forward.