Best Scheduling Apps

Square Appointments is the scheduling app created with Square, the popular payment processor. We like that it integrates directly with Square so that you can get appointments paid for directly in the booking process. You can charge late cancellation and no-show fees to make sure that people take their appointments seriously.

Plus, managing your schedule is easy with the iOS or Android apps that coordinate with you on the go, so you never miss a beat. Customers are able to book appointments directly into your calendar and can even set recurring appointments for regular services.

We like the Instagram and Google integration, making it easy to advertise your services and directly book appointments from outreach and advertising directly into your Google Calendar.

Plans and Pricing:

Square Appointments offers three plans. Keep in mind that unlike most of the best scheduling apps, Square Appointments offer pricing on a per-location basis, rather than a per-user basis. For businesses looking to schedule and manage appointments for multiple users, this can make Square Appointments the more affordable choice.

• Free: The free plan is for a single location. It includes all of Square’s basic features, such as access to the mobile app (Android and iOS), automated text and email reminders, customizable availability, recurring payments and multiple time zones.
• Plus: The Plus plan is geared toward businesses with more than one location. It costs $29 per month per location for all basic features from the Free plan, plus additional features, such as automated text and email appointment confirmations, Google Calendar sync, no-show protection and daily appointment limits.
• Premium: The Premium plan is designed to meet the needs of business with more complex booking needs and larger teams. It costs $69 per month per location. It includes everything from the Plus plan, plus extra features such as custom permissions, resource management, multiple wage rates and custom-tiered staff commissions.

Learn more: Read our full Square Appointments review.

Who should use it:

Square is the perfect solution for business owners looking for a hub to manage clients, take payments and control their calendars.

Setmore is one of the best scheduling apps given its feature-rich premium plans and its inclusion of unlimited appointments with its free plan. This makes it a quality solution for businesses that need a basic scheduling app for managing a high volume of appointments without any costs.

Plans and Pricing:

Setmore offers three plans that are available with monthly billing or annual billing.

• Free: The Free offer Setmore’s basic features, such as unlimited appointments, payment reminders and payments with Square.
• Premium: The premium plan is available for a special promotion of $5 per user, per month, with annual billing (58% off) or $12 per user, per month, with month-to-month billing–for up to two users. It includes everything from the Free plan, plus SMS reminders, calendar sync and additional payment processing options (Square, Stripe and PayPal).
• Pro: Businesses with three or more users can opt for the Pro plan, which also costs $5 per user, per month, with annual billing (44% off), or $9 per user, per month, with monthly billing. It includes everything from the Premium plan, with the difference being that it is geared toward businesses with larger teams.

Learn more: Read our full Setmore review.

Who should use it:

Setmore is an excellent solution for those who are on a budget and need to schedule a high volume of appointments, as well as businesses that want to accept payments through the scheduling app.

Calendly is a leader in scheduling apps with a history of providing solutions to business owners around the world. The free plan comes with a robust set of features that include a web portal, iOS and Android app for convenience. It also allows you to create unlimited one-on-one events. There is automatic event notification, though the text notifications are only available with the paid service.

Calendly integrates with Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Zoom conferencing to give you your preference in meeting hosts. You can even integrate Calendly to Slack and Intercom for better workflows.

Plans and Pricing:

The Standard plan runs $10 per person, per month, with the Teams plan running $16 per seat, per month, if billed annually. You get team event scheduling, links to confirmation pages and metrics and reporting as you move up the platform options. It also increases the calendar connections per person from one in the free plan to six in the paid plans, giving you more options for appointment types.

Learn more: Read our full Calendly review.

Who should use it:

Calendly is a great option for businesses that are looking to accept appointment bookings via email, as well as new businesses that want to scale total appointments and integrations over time.

Zoho Bookings is one of the many business platforms offered by Zoho cloud-based solutions. The Basic plan costs $6 per person per month, if billed annually, but comes with a plethora of features that include two-way calendar synchronization with Zoho, Google, Microsoft 365 and Outlook. It allows users to access online meetings in Zoom or Zoho Meeting directly.

Plans and Pricing:

Zoho Bookings offers three scheduling plans:

• Free Forever: The free plan is available for one user. It includes email notifications and calendar synchronization.
• Basic: Get the features you need for $8 per staff, per month, with annual billing or $6 per staff, per month, with monthly billing. It allows teams to set round-robin appointments, allocating resources equally. There is unlimited Zapier integration so that you can automate your workflow with ease. Customers don’t need to figure out time zone differences as the system automatically converts it for them.
• Premium: For $9 per staff, per month, with annual billing or $12 per staff, per month, with monthly billing, the Premium plan includes everything in the Basic plan plus many additional features. Customers get a sign-up portal, and you can even have a booking page hosted in your own domain. It expands what people can book, moving from just appointments to booking equipment, rooms or other resources.

Who should use it:

We like Zoho Bookings for businesses that book more than just service slots and need a way to book resources conveniently.

Read more:

Read our full Zoho Books review.

Appointy has four plans to choose from. You can start with the Free plan that sets up Google Calendar bookings. It integrates with Square Payments and Point of Sale so that you can take payments immediately. Unlike other free scheduling apps, Appointy allows over 1,000 Zapier integrations to automate your workflow in as many ways as possible.

Plans and Pricing:

Appointy offers four different plans. With its free plan, clients receive automatic reminders, but you are limited to 100 appointments per month. The Growth plan is a better option for busier individuals, though it is a bit pricey at $19.99 per month, if billed annually. It adds live chat and email support to help troubleshoot issues. It allows up to 2,000 appointments per day, which is more than you should need.

The next plan, the Professional plan, is $49.99 per month, if billed annually, and expands usage from one team member to five. Users can purchase gift certificates to give away, and it also allows for resource scheduling. The Enterprise plan is $79.99, if billed annually, and adds text customizations and removes all Appointy branding.

Learn more: Read our full Appointy review.

Who should use it:

Appointy works best for those with a lot of integrations that keep the workflow organized.

Doodle is a scheduling app used by recruiters, freelancers, sales professionals, educators and nonprofits. While it doesn’t offer a free plan, it does offer competitively-priced premium plans which include unlimited group and one-on-one meetings, unlimited booking pages, Zapier integration, calendar sync, group polls and video integrations. It offers a 14-day free trial of its paid plans before you must choose a plan.

Plans and Pricing:

The Pro plan starts with one user who gets unlimited booking pages, group polls and one-on-one meetings. There is custom branding. The system integrates with Microsoft Teams, Webex and Zoom for convenient conferencing options. This plan starts at $6.95 per person, per month.

The next plan, the Team plan costs $8.95 per person, per month, and adds an administration console for easy management. There are roles and permissions that can be granted to different team members based on responsibilities. It also allows you to schedule on behalf of someone, making it perfect for a team that has assistants or schedulers responsible for bookings. Managers can review activity reports to see who their top performers are.

Learn more: Read our full Doodle review.

Who should use it:

Doodle is best for teams that divide responsibilities between schedulers and appointment setters.

SimplyBook.me is a leading scheduling app for businesses operating in the medical industry given its unique inclusion of HIPAA compliance, admin apps and client apps. It offers a simple scheduling process backed with highly customizable booking options, making it a versatile scheduling application.

Plans and Pricing:

SimplyBook.me offers users four plans starting with the Free version. The Free plan limits users to 50 bookings per month with up to five users. An administrative app manages the calendar with a book site devoted to your appointments. A booking widget allows you to add calendar scheduling to websites and social media with ease and professionalism.

The next plan, the Basic plan at $8.25 per month (if billed annually), increases bookings to 100 per month with up to 15 users. It allows you to offer coupons and gift cards and integrates with sales platforms. There is also a client app so that clients can manage their accounts.

The Standard plan and Premium plan are HIPAA-compliant, costing $24.90 per month (if billed annually) and $49.90 per month (if billed annually), respectively. The key difference between these two plans is that the Premium allows for link removal so that you can simplify calendar listings and the number of bookings allowed. The Standard plan allows 500 per month, while the Premium plan allows 2,000 per month. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.

Learn more: Read our full SimplyBook.me review.

Who should use it:

SimplyBook.me is great for medical offices needing to remain HIPAA compliant in all that they do.