As a business owner, it’s important to leverage tools that help streamline key tasks. One way to do that is to eliminate the amount of time you have to spend manually scheduling appointments with your customers. Fortunately, WordPress booking plugins can make your job easier. Plus, they can improve the experience for your visitors.
In this post, we’ll introduce you to 15 of the best WordPress booking plugins, discussing their key features and pricing.
What is a WordPress Booking Plugin?
A WordPress booking plugin integrates with WordPress and enables users to create and manage bookings for services or products. It allows you to set up a booking system on your WordPress website, allowing visitors to select a date and time, input their information, and make a reservation directly from your site.
Some of the features that you’ll typically find in a booking plugin are:
- Customizable booking forms
- Availability calendars
- Payment integration
- Automated confirmation and reminder emails
- Customer management tools
- Integration with Google Calendar, iCal, and other calendar systems
To compile this list, we took into account functionality, updates, support, and ratings and reviews.
Let’s dive in!
1. WPForms
If you’ve been using WordPress for a while, you’ve probably heard of WPForms. Along with being a very popular form builder, this freemium plugin can help you schedule bookings through your website. This tutorial goes more in depth on how the plugin works.
It lets you quickly and easily create booking forms using a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder:
You can set certain fields to be “required”, such as the day and time for the appointment. You can also add completed forms anywhere on your site. That includes pages, posts, sidebars, and widget areas.
WPForms Lite is a powerful free version of the plugin that you can use for various forms. However, you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro plan if you want to use the date/time form field features.
Key Features for WPForms:
- Pre-built form templates
- Drag-and-drop form builder
- Required fields
- Spam protection
- PayPal and Stripe integrations
- Integration with Divi
Divi users benefit from seamless integration with WPForms by way of a custom module inside the Divi Builder. This makes it easy to add forms to your posts and pages, then customize them with tons of design settings.
WPForms is for you if…
… you’re looking for a quick and easy way to build your forms. This plugin can help you create many different types, from signup and booking to survey and contact forms.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $49.50 per year | Learn More About WPForms
2. Simply Schedule Appointments
Another simple yet powerful WordPress booking plugin you might consider using is Simply Schedule Appointments. This freemium tool makes accepting appointments through your WordPress site seamless. It’s quick and easy to set up and promises to have you ready to display your availability within minutes.
Simply Schedule Appointments comes in both free and premium versions. While the plugin is feature-rich, it doesn’t come with any unnecessary bloat or confusing settings. The interface is one of the most modern and clean ones included on this list:
You can create appointment types and manage all of your bookings from the back end. This plugin is also ideal for arranging phone calls and meetings. For example, it’s a solid option if you’re a trainer, counselor, or consultant.
Thanks to the interactive setup wizard, you can create a booking form and add it to your site quickly. It also fully integrates with our own Divi Builder, making it all the easier to use.
Key Features:
- Easy setup and installation
- Intuitive and easy-to-use User Interface (UI)
- Interactive setup wizard
- Unlimited appointment types
- Customizable notification emails and styles
- Advanced scheduling options and blackout dates
- One-click support
- Gutenberg Blocks
- Google Calendar and Mailchimp integration (premium only)
- Integration with popular page builders, including Divi Builder
Simply Schedule Appointments is for you if…
… you want a plugin that lets your customers quickly and easily schedule phone calls, meetings, or sessions. It’s perfect if you want a freemium tool that isn’t overly simple or too complex.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $99 | Learn More About Simply Schedule Appointments
3. Hotel Booking Plugin by MotoPress
The Hotel Booking Plugin by MotoPress is a great choice for those wanting to build a hotel booking or rental property website. You can book, list, and manage properties or rooms with ease using any WordPress theme.
The plugin works with any WordPress theme and allows you to create a booking site with ease. Some key features include:
Key Features for WordPress Hotel Booking Plugin:
- Accept reservations
- Integrates with Divi and other page builders
- Mobile-friendly custom forms
- Custom search fields
- Real-time availability calendars
- Collect taxes, offer coupons, and the ability to make multiple reservations
- Integration with multiple payment gateways
Divi users will be happy to know that Hotel Booking integrates with Divi by adding a booking module directly into the Visual Builder. With so many design options at your disposal, you’re able to create beautiful booking pages for real estate, campsites, rentals, and more.
Hotel Booking Plugin is for you if…
…you want a full solution booking platform for real estate, camping, hotels, or any other type of reservation-based website. With Hotel Booking by MotoPress, you’ll be able to create stunning booking pages that match the look and feel of the rest of your website.
Price: $99/yr | Learn More About Hotel Booking by MotoPress
4. Amelia
Amelia is an events and appointments booking calendar plugin geared towards enterprise-level businesses. The feature-rich booking system lets you automate the appointment scheduling process on your site’s back and front ends:
One of this tool’s unique advantages is its performance optimization. For example, Amelia incorporates page preloading and other advanced technologies. This helps it deliver the best experience possible to both you and your customers.
Key Features for Amelia:
- Seamless appointment scheduling
- Front-end booking wizard
- User-friendly UI
- Intuitive calendar view in the admin area
- Flexible appointment management
- Email notifications
- Booking for recurring appointments (premium only)
- Group services and coupons (premium only)
- WooCommerce, PayPal, and Stripe integration (premium only)
Amelia is for you if…
… you want a plugin with a quick installation and setup process. It’s also a handy tool if you want to primarily book in-person appointments and meetings (gyms, salons, etc.). Your customers will be able to pay online (premium only) or offline.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $79 per year | Learn More About Amelia
5. Appointment Hour Booking
Appointment Hour Booking is a freemium WordPress booking plugin that lets you build appointment forms and apply specific times for availability. On the front end of your site, your customers can select from the displayed start times for the chosen service. Then they can submit payments.
Also, the UI is more beginner-friendly when compared to many other WordPress booking plugins on this list:
The Appointment Hour Booking plugin’s visual configuration makes building your calendar and forms straightforward. It also offers a wide range of customization and configuration options that make it flexible enough for small and large businesses alike.
Key Features for Appointment Hour Booking:
- Appointments with start and end times
- Multiple services with different prices and durations
- Definable open hours
- Double-booking prevention
- Automatic price calculator
- Customizable email notifications
Appointment Hour Booking is for you if…
… you’re looking to create booking forms for appointments that have specified start and end times. Therefore, it’s a useful plugin if you offer classes and workshops, events, or meetings.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $7.28 per month | Learn More About Appointment Hour Booking
6. Events Calendar
Events Calendar is one of the best WordPress events calendar plugins, and it can be an all-in-one solution for event ticketing. It lets you easily create and add an events calendar to your website. Your users can then book tickets for those events (whether online or in person):
This feature-rich plugin is highly customizable and extensible. In addition, it is easy to use and comes with a lot of support. That’s especially true if you upgrade to Events Calendar Pro.
Key Features for The Events Calendar:
- Event ticketing and scheduling
- Month/list/day views
- Categories and tags
- Google Calendar and Google Maps integration
The Events Calendar is for you if…
… you run an events website. This powerful tool is an excellent way to sell tickets and book guests.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $99 | Learn More About The Events Calendar
7. WP Simple Booking Calendar
Next on our list, WP Simple Booking Calendar is a popular WordPress booking plugin that lets you streamline renting out your property to customers via your website. Visitors can check your home or room’s availability, and then book it with ease.
You’ll be able to manage calendars and appointments from the back end easily:
The free version comes with standard features for creating a booking calendar and displaying it on your site. However, premium plans are available that unlock more features, including advanced editing, customizing, and publishing options.
Key Features for WP Simple Booking Calendar:
- Booking calendar and calendar legend
- Holiday home bookings
- Simple UI
- Language translation
- Calendar data backup and restoration
- Gutenberg Block
- Syncing with third-party sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com (premium only)
- Unlimited booking calendars (premium only)
WP Simple Booking Calendar is for you if…
… you want a freemium WordPress booking plugin for a property rental website. Whether you’re renting your vacation home, office space, or personal items and equipment, it’s worth checking out. However, keep in mind that it doesn’t let you accept online payments. For that, you would need to switch to WP Booking System.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $39 | Learn More About WP Simple Booking Calendar
8. StartBooking
Next on our list of WordPress booking plugins is StartBooking. This plugin is a bit different than many of the other options we’ll see. First, it’s essentially an all-in-one solution. StartBooking is premium online scheduling software that lets you add a calendar to your WordPress site.
From your site’s front end, your visitors can schedule appointments, view appointment details, and cancel appointments:
StartBooking uses innovative cloud technology to power its managed scheduling system. Plus, it provides you with a collection of handy features and functionality for streamlining your booking process. With this robust tool, you can schedule unlimited appointments and assign specific staff members to individual services.
Key Features for StartBooking:
- Fully managed scheduling system software
- Custom integrations
- Classes and group bookings
- Reminder notifications and customizable emails
- Online payments
- Google Calendar integration
- Booking locations and analytics
- Services and staff management
StartBooking is for you if…
… you’re looking for a scalable scheduling solution for service appointments. Therefore, it’s especially useful if your business offers classes or other services that require group booking.
Price: Plans start at $25 per month | Learn More About StartBooking
9. Bookly
Next, Bookly is a freemium scheduling plugin that automates the online booking process. You can use it to effortlessly accept reservations on your website and manage your services calendar.
The robust, feature-rich, and modern admin panel is easy to navigate. It also offers a plethora of settings and tools for viewing and managing your appointments. This includes a well-organized dashboard that gives you a snapshot of important appointment-related data:
Bookly is a powerful option for many types of businesses, from salons to transportation companies. If you want advanced features such as online payments, you can upgrade to Bookly Pro. However, unlike other premium WordPress booking plugins, this is a one-time fee rather than a monthly or annual subscription.
Key Features for Bookly:
- Intuitive booking management system
- Filter, search, and sort options for the booking list
- Fully customizable booking forms
- Unlimited forms
- Services grouped by category
- Calendar viewable in daily/weekly/monthly formats
- User-friendly interface
- SMS and email notifications
- Staff scheduling and task assignment
- Payment gateway integrations with detailed reports (premium only)
Bookly is for you if…
… you want a reliable and flexible freemium WordPress booking plugin. It’s an excellent choice for salons, health and wellness spas, gyms, and professional services with multiple staff members.
Price: Free, with a premium version available for $62 | Learn More About Bookly
10. BirchPress Scheduler
BirchPress Scheduler is another modern WordPress booking plugin that lets you create and embed a scheduling calendar just about anywhere on your site. It’s aimed largely toward small businesses, making it a quality option for spas, salons, studios, etc.
This premium plugin doesn’t offer a free version. However, the features you get make it a worthwhile investment. This is especially true if you’re looking for a tool to help with staff assignments and accept online payments.
In addition, the interface is clean and easy to use:
You can make bookings for specific times and service durations, as well as assign pricing information. In addition, the plugin offers multiple pricing tiers for you to choose from.
Key Features for BirchPress Scheduler:
- Booking management system
- Built-in form editor
- WooCommerce and PayPal integrations
- Booking availability limitations and restrictions
- Staff assignments
- Google Calendar, iPhone, Android, and Outlook integrations
- Automated email notifications
- Group booking
- Developer-friendly customization features (including thousands of functions and hooks)
BirchPress Scheduler is for you if…
… you run a service-based business, such as a salon or yoga studio, and want a powerful premium booking manager. It’s also a smart choice if you have multiple staff members who handle your services. That’s because this tool lets you leverage helpful staff appointment features. Plus, BirchPress is developer-friendly, coming with a wide range of customization features for advanced users.
Price: Plans start at $99 | Learn More About BirchPress Scheduler
11. Booking Calendar
Booking Calendar is one of the most popular WordPress booking plugins available. It has over 60,000 active installations, and a 4.5 out of 5-star rating. In addition, it’s one of the oldest scheduling tools for the Content Management System (CMS).
This freemium plugin lets you customize calendars and use them to display booking availability for properties and services. It’s also effortless to use, and comes with a clean, user-friendly admin panel:
Your users will be able to select specific days and time slots from the calendar view. Then, both they and you will receive email notifications about the bookings, which you can either approve or deny.
Key Features for Booking Calendar:
- User-friendly interface
- Customizable calendar designs
- Calendars in daily/weekly/monthly formats
- Time-slot bookings with time picker tool
- Booking Calendar Blocks for Gutenberg
- Prevention of double-booking
- Email notifications
- Option to import .ics feeds from third-party sites (Airbnb, Tripadvisor, etc.) via shortcodes
Booking Calendar is for you if…
… you’re looking for a quick and easy way to manage multiple appointments per day. It’s also an excellent option if you want to integrate data from other travel-and-stay websites. That includes Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and Booking.com.
Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $47.40 | Learn More About Booking Calendar
12. WooCommerce Appointments
Most of the WordPress booking plugins we’ve discussed so far are for WordPress in general. However, WooCommerce Appointments by BookingWP is ideal if you’re looking for a premium scheduling tool for your e-commerce store. It offers full integration with WooCommerce, as well as with Google Calendar.
From the front end of your shop, users will be able to view your services. They can also filter appointments by availability, and schedule their preferred times:
You can also let users filter by price or by category. In addition, WooCommerce Appointments enables you to add extra form fields. You can also apply flexible availability and pricing rules, and assign multiple staff members to appointments.
Key Features for WooCommerce Appointments:
- Appointment scheduling software
- WooCommerce and Google Calendar integration
- Options to accept and request payments
- Staff management/login
- Notifications and reminders
- Flexibility pricing and availability rules
- Time zone conversion
WooCommerce Appointments is for you if…
… you’re already a WooCommerce site owner and want a straightforward way of booking appointments. You’ll also be able to request and accept payments. In addition, it’s a more affordable alternative to the other WooCommerce-specific plugin on this list.
Price: Plans start at $89 | Learn More About WooCommerce Appointments
13. Easy Appointments
Easy Appointments is a widely-used and highly-rated WordPress booking plugin. It simplifies the process of scheduling and managing multiple appointments for different locations and services via your website. While the interface can be a little overwhelming, it is packed with helpful features:
All of the settings and configurations are neatly organized. This makes finding what you’re looking for relatively easy.
The free version is sufficient for basic booking forms and calendars. However, there is also a paid extension available if you want access to features such as online payment gateway integrations.
Key Features for Easy Appointments:
- Flexible time management
- Multiple locations, services, and workers
- Email notifications
- Custom form fields
- Date picker localization (77 languages available)
- Google Calendar, PayPal, and WooCommerce integration (premium extension)
Easy Appointments is for you if…
… you have a business that offers multiple services requiring appointments. This includes law offices, cleaning companies, and doctors.
Price: Free, with extension packages available starting at $39 | Learn More About Easy Appointments
14. Booked
Booked is a premium appointment booking plugin for WordPress that is quick to set up and easy to use. Sold exclusively on CodeCanyon, this powerful tool is excellent for letting registered users and guests schedule appointments on your site.
You can use the plugin’s front-end calendar shortcode and widgets to display multiple appointment times per date. In addition, it can be fully integrated with WooCommerce. This makes it easy for your visitors to check out online when booking.
Key Features:
- Appointment management calendar
- Unlimited calendars and booking agents
- Registered and guest booking
- Custom time slots and fields
- Built-in calendar color pickers
- Customer profiles
- Custom login/registration form
- WooCommerce payments
Booked is for you if…
…you have a membership website. Booked also offers a guest booking feature. This means that users only have to provide their names and emails to book appointments.
Price: $49 | Learn More About Easy Appointments
15. WooCommerce Bookings
WooCommerce Bookings is an official WooCommerce extension that lets you add booking and scheduling functionality to your e-commerce shop. With this premium tool, you can easily integrate your booking system into your existing storefront:
WooCommerce Bookings lets you create schedules the same way you would products. Also, you can integrate with various payment gateways for automatic invoicing.
Key Features for WooCommerce Bookings:
- Fixed and “blockable” time slots
- One-on-one appointments or multi-person events
- Flexible and special pricing (groups, events, etc.)
- Localization
- Email notifications
- List and calendar formats
WooCommerce Bookings is for you if…
… you’re looking for a reliable, premium WooCommerce extension for booking appointments through your e-commerce site. It’s especially valuable if your business model involves selling your time. For example, it’s handy if you sell professional services, classes, training sessions, or property, such as a rental home.
Price: $249 per year | Learn More About WooCommerce Bookings
16. Team Booking
Rounding off our list of the best WordPress booking plugins is Team Booking. This premium tool has thousands of sales on CodeCanyon and a nearly 5.0-star rating. In addition, the innovative booking system comes with an impressive range of features for creating appointment and booking calendars.
With Team Booking, all availability plans are made using Google Calendar. First, you can simply create events. Then, those availability slots become visible to your customers on the front end.
Key Features for Team Booking:
- Flexible form builder
- Google Calendar, PayPal, and Stripe integrations
- Dynamic pricing with discounts and promotions
- Customizable email notifications
Team Booking is for you if…
… you want an affordable yet premium booking plugin. In addition to regular appointments and events, you can also use Team Booking for unscheduled meetings. In other words, it’s useful for bookings that don’t require specific time slots (such as support tickets).
Price: $39 | Learn More About Team Booking
Conclusion
As a business owner, you’re tasked with many responsibilities. Fortunately, tools such as WordPress booking plugins can help lighten your workload. By using appointment scheduling software, you can save time for both you and your customers.
As we’ve seen, there are various quality WordPress booking plugins to choose from. Therefore, the best option for you depends on your budget and needs. For an all-around flexible and freemium option, we recommend WPForms. It functions both as a great form plugin as well as a full-featured booking plugin. Not only will it help you schedule bookings, but it gives you the ability to utilize a drag-and-drop builder, as well as integrate with the Divi Theme.
Featured Image Illustration via ivector/shutterstock
The post 16 Best Booking Plugins for WordPress in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
