10 Best Appointment Scheduling and Online Booking Tools in 2022

Today’s marketplace has complex workflows; hence it gets tricky for businesses to keep with the ever-increasing customer service demands. And the tedious manual appointment scheduling maximises the burden even more. On top, the modern customer also doesn’t prefer to spend time waiting for on-premises.

So when traditional pen-and-paper manual scheduling is prone to errors and problems, what’s the solution then?

An appointment booking tool or website is the lubricant that can help keep the process running smoothly. Also, being highly flexible and customisable, automated scheduling tools come with a ton of integration. Be it an automobile company or educational institution, any organization that makes client appointments can benefit from online scheduling and booking tools.

What does an appointment booking tool do?

An appointment booking tool or what is also known as appointment scheduling software or online appointment booking software, is ultimately a web-based tool or mobile application that helps professionals and businesses automate scheduling tasks and arrange meetings, appointments, or bookings efficiently. From calendar integration to automated appointment reminders, payment processing to revenue processing, this digital solution can build a stellar experience for both businesses and customers.

There are multiple ways of how the tool works. But in general, most of the appointment booking tools work in this way:

• Clients are allowed to self-book, cancel and modify the meeting or appointment using any convenient devices.
• The online calendar lets the clients know about your business hours, length of services, holidays, staff availability, and other resources.
• They can pick a particular business hour and day and their preferred staff and services.
• Prior to the appointment date, clients will receive a reminder message followed by a check-in link.
• Using the following link, they can do self-check-in and get a mobile online ticket to help them locate their place in the appointment sequence.

What makes a great appointment or booking system?

Now that you have learned how an online scheduling tool works, you might ask its purpose. An effective appointment tool/website can streamline your process while providing a bunch of undeniable advantages.

Excellent booking feature: Best online scheduling tools come with awesome booking features, including automated notifications and reminders, automatic customer and staff scheduling, cancelling and rescheduling, real-time automated engine, best support team and many other built-in automation capabilities.

Faster payments: Advance scheduling tools have an integrated payment system that makes it easier to get paid for your services easily. You get the flexibility to request money prior to the meeting day or immediately after the meeting. Also, depending on the services, you can set your own refund rules so that your business isn’t a complete loss if someone doesn’t show up.

Flexible calendar: An online scheduling software that is intuitive and user-friendly can offer you a flexible calendar that is super simple to navigate. You can easily find your business’s scheduled appointments, add or edit the existing ones, view client details, and coordinate meetings enabling several other features of your calendar.

Offer a seamless customer journey: The best scheduling tool can let you offer the one-to-one tailored experience to your clients that most of them crave. It also allows you to customise how you want your booking processing to work. And this can help you to market your services more effectively and let you attract and retain more customers as your customers enjoy a great user experience.

So, mentioned points are some of the many advantages that an excellent appointment booking tool can provide. But now, in choosing the best appointment scheduler, how will you pick the right one that comes with the combination of outstanding features?

You have to do some research among the popular appointment scheduling apps to get not only the best but also the right scheduling tool that is right for your business.

The 10 best online scheduling software to consider in 2022

Are you ready to discover some of the best appointment scheduling software on the market? Because when it is about online scheduling tools, it is crucial to find the right tool with the right kind of features.

WebCommander Appointments

You can add an online scheduling or booking system to your website with WebCommander in no time. And once enabled, you can easily create and customise the booking pages from the site dashboard, view appointment schedules, assign your staff, notify clients and staff about the scheduled appointments and get expert assistance while WebCommander automates the rest.

Pricing

WebCommander charges $110 per month.

Notable features

Highly customisable: WebCommander, one of the best online reservation systems, is highly customisable. The built-in automation capabilities make the process much simpler. For example, you can customise your booking page, the page URL, add photos, and other information such as service details and fees. There are also many other features where you can customise your forms and management schedules.

Automatic staff management: You can organise your staff automatically with WebCommander. From setting office hours to staff working hours to break time to assign appointments, you can set every process with the assistance of WebCommander.

Flexibility: You can provide your clients with the flexibility to make their payments either by using credit cards or PayPal. Also, they are allowed to cancel the appointment anytime. However, you also have the flexibility to set a cancellation period applied to your clients.

10to8

A simple, easy-to-use appointment scheduling tool trusted worldwide. It comes with a web-based booking calendar including a bunch of unique features, which includes 24/7 appointment booking, SMS and Email notification, over 1500 app integration, live reporting, polish transaction, free WordPress plugin and more. From large to small, businesses of any industry and size can use this customise booking website to schedule their sessions. Customers are also free to schedule, reschedule and cancel their appointments as needed.

Pricing

10to8 has several pricing editions. It offers a free forever plan that small businesses can use at zero cost. Other plans, Basic, Grow and Bigger Business, are three paid plans that cost $9.6, $20, and $40 accordingly. And the Enterprise plan has the option of bespoke pricing.

Notable features

10t08 accessibility suite: The accessibility suite of 10to8 works as one empowering tool for businesses and provide a fully automated and hassle-free scheduling experience both for online and offline customers. That means not only customers can book meeting via online, but customers with no internet access can also easily book their slot via phone call.

App integration: Users can integrate the 10to8 online booking system with any of their favourite apps to automate more tasks. From MailChimp, Insightly to WordPress and Zoom Video Conferencing, you can select apps as per your choices to create your very own quick integration.

Online free booking calendar with 2-way sync: With 10to8, you can set up a 2-way sync with any of your external calendars, be it Google, iCal, Exchange or Outlook. All you have to do is decide the appointment you want to sync into your 10to8 calendar and then sync your 10to8 calendar to your favourite external calendar app.

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling is another popular online appointment scheduling software that can be used to offer to book directly through the website. Acuity can handle the busy work for any small or mid-size businesses and also for individual professionals. In addition, it allows worldwide or local customers to easily schedule their appointments online without difficulty offering real-time availability. The scheduling feature set of Acuity includes customisable intake forms, embedded calendars, third-party app integration, group scheduling, etc.

Pricing

There is a free version in Acuity Scheduling. You will also get three paid pricing plans, and those are Emerging ($14/month), Growing ($23/month) and Powerhouse ($45/month).

Notable features

Responsive scheduling page: You can create a responsive scheduling page that you can manage from any device, be it mobile, laptop or desktop. Using the scheduling page options panel of Acuity, you can enable your scheduling features. You can also bring customise the appearance in the template and change the URL of your general scheduling page.

Automated appointment scheduler: Neither you need to think of your back and forth email grunt work, nor are you required to bother about adjusting time zones. The automated system ensures 24/7 online services providing all the flexibility to do scheduling work for you while auto-adjusting the time zone and sending automated reminders to keep clients prompt.

Customisable: From the landing page to the payment method to the add ons for specific services, all are customisable in Acuity. Whether you have several offices that run on different schedules or you need to create different plans for multiple staff, you can customise anything as per your choices.

SimplyBook.me

SimplyBook.me offers one of the best online booking tools for any service-based industry. Since the booking pages of SimplyBook.me is available in multiple languages, this platform is popular among international businesses. It provides a booking site where users can offer channels for 24/7 to book online, send out promotions, send email and SMS appointment reminders to the guests, select services and customise options. Also, this dynamic booking and business management software provides over 60 custom features that you can utilise to manage your business like a pro.

Pricing

There is a free version in SimplyBook.me. The Basic pricing plan starts with $9.90/month, including three custom features. And the popular Standard program takes $29.9/ month, providing eight custom features, whereas the Premium plan comes with unlimited custom features costing $59.9/month.

Notable features

Promising booking widgets: SimplyBook.me let you integrate some booking channels, including Iframe widgets, Button widgets, WordPress widgets, Facebook & Instagram and Google. Such as, you can use Iframe to create predetermined service lists, client information and timelines or use the Button widget to add effective booking and contact widget where your clients can easily book their appointment.

Personalisation of booking website: With SimplyBook.me, you get the feature to personalise your booking website with your photos through a Photo Gallery. In the Photo Gallery custom feature, you can automatically upload images of your choice and share your Instagram photos on the Booking site, adding some fun stuff for your visitors.

Standalone promotion system: The promotion system of SimplyBook.me is specially designed to turn the promotion much more effortless. You can use the Rewards and Referrals Social Promotion System to offer your clients a promotion or to reward your clients for advertising your promotions.

Setmore

Setmore is a free online scheduling platform where one can manage all the appointments through one simple, sleek calendar system that helps users and their clients connect anywhere. From creating a personalised booking page to displaying the services and real-time availability to maxing out the calendar making connections across channels, all features are available needed to provide a memorable customer experience. You can discover magical solutions for any industry, be it beauty, education, creativity, or trade.

Pricing

Setmore has three pricing levels, Free, Premium and Pro. You can choose from Premium and Pro plan to access advanced features, which cost $9 and $5 per user/month accordingly.

Notable feature

Sector-specific solutions: With Setmore, you can explore sector-specific solutions to deliver sensational service to a broader audience. From hair salon, tutor scheduling, personal training, consulting, and counselling, you can create a personalised online booking experience for any sector.

Powerful integration system: You can create a long-lasting connection by integrating any of your favourite apps. Social media, payment, website booking, calendar sync, marketing, sales and CRM, business app, and video meeting all sort of app integration are possible with Setmore.

Insightful guides: Setmore also offers insightful guides with step-by-step tutorials to help users create meaningful experiences. You can explore how Setmore takes your appointments 24/7, handles the scheduling process by automating your front desk, keeping multiple calendars in check, enabling customer self-scheduling, and accepting booking and payment through any device.

Calendly

Calendly is one of the simple online schedulers to use. Already recognised as one of the intuitive scheduling platforms, more than 10 million people and 5000 companies are using Calendly worldwide. From individuals to businesses, Calendly works for everyone. No matter if you work solo, Calendly can work as your personal assistant by automating all your administrative tasks. Or, if you run a big team, you can rely on Calendly’s intuitive scheduling platform to standardise your scheduling process with no hassle.

Pricing

You can pick the basic plan, which is entirely free or choose between three affordable plans, Essentials ($8/seat/month), Professional ($12/seat/month) and Teams ($16/seat/month). And if you have a larger organisation that needs advanced security or support, you can select the Enterprise plan.

Notable features

Automatic assignment: All you need to do is let Calendly know your availability preferences to make the work done. Calendly can automatically route the right meetings to the right people based on the conditions you set.

Flexible features: You can streamline your scheduling process and automate your manual works utilising the flexible features of Calendly. Such as, you can use Calendly’s ‘Workflows’ feature to automate your routine communication before and after your meeting or add the Embed options to get booked directly from your website.

Customisation option: You can maximise your scheduling abilities using Calendly’s customisation option. Such as, you can incorporate your branding into your scheduling page, define limits on meetings, set scheduling notices to avoid last-minute requests.

Zoho Bookings

Zoho Bookings is an online scheduling platform with plenty of features and integrations. Some of its features include calendar sync, multi-location booking, admin access, automatic scheduling, time-off management, CRM update, notifications and reminders. So whether you have a recruitment process to finish or need to set your next important meeting, Zoho Bookings can reduce your scheduling headaches by managing your digital calendar and dynamic schedules. It comes with affordable price plans to suit various needs. It also emphasises self-customer service where clients can schedule their own appointment and pay for them with no additional help.

Pricing

Zoho Bookings has one free and two paid plans, and it offers a free trial. You will get the basic plan for $9.31 per staff/month and the Premium plan for $31.96 per staff/month.

Notable features

Impactful mobile app: The Zoho Booking app can make more appointments with fewer disappointments. It lets the staffs manage their day to day activities, check the workload, modify details of completed and upcoming bookings, browse customer details and appointment history. It also lets customers schedule one-on-one time with the staff.

Industry based solutions: You can try Zoho Bookings to organise your availability for sectors such as professional services, education, wellness, fitness, healthcare, real estate or home services. You can easily customise your booking page, collect payment when you want and download the mobile app to monitor your bookings.

Multi-location scheduling: Zoho Bookings allows multi-location scheduling, where businesses with several locations can run a single scheduling platform. Also, the customisable features of Zoho Bookings let the users adjust the platform the way they want while managing their service appointments at multiple locations.

Square Appointments

It is one simple booking tool where your clients can easily view your services, availability and book appointments. Features needed for staff management, customer relations, scheduling, retail and inventory all are available on this platform. Square Appointments also have partner application integration which can provide you with a variety of design templates, automate reporting, create online forms and simplify your payroll prep processes.

Pricing

There is a free version in Square Appointments. The other two flexible plans, Plus and Premium, costs $29 and $69 accordingly. Custom pricing plan businesses are also available where you can avail more add-on features for your clients.

Notable features

Simplify scheduling: Using the web-based scheduling software and mobile app for both iOS and Android, you can provide 24/7 online services. And through the Google calendar sync, you can automatically block personal events and avoid double bookings.

Multi-staff appointment: With Square Appointments, you can let your clients book a single meeting with your business that contains multiple services. You can navigate and locate the appointment in your event dashboard, enable smart reporting and automatically spit the tips proportionally, which turn the process even more wholesome.

Secure payments: You can make secure payments with no hidden fees through Square Appointment’s Point of Sale (POS) system. And the plan includes contactless payment, professional invoices, data security compliance and other advance payment features.

HubSpot Meetings

HubSpot has a suite of meeting scheduling app features that helps book meetings efficiently and flexibly. The meeting scheduling solutions fit anyone’s need being designed from the ground up, considering small to mid-sized businesses in mind. It also provides a bunch of customisation features to keep the scheduling process easy both for the users and clients.

Pricing

HubSpot is a free meeting scheduler, so you can use it for free. However, the Starter ($45/month), Professional ($800/month), and Enterprise ($3200/month) pricing plan of HubSpot offers multiple advanced features, which you can use to automate more tasks and close more deals.

Notable features

App integration: HubSpot works great with Google Calendar, Office 365 calendar and HubSpot CRM. So you can connect the free scheduling software to any calendar hosted on these apps and sync your availability automatically.

Group meeting availability: You can create a one-on-one scheduling page as well as a group scheduling page using HubSpot’s meetings tool. Suppose your prospects want to book a group meeting. In that case, they can easily select a time because your contacts will see the specific times as HubSpot will automatically check the custom availability against all your integrated calendars.

A task management software: You can store, track, manage and report your tasks with HubSpot without scrambling between tools. HubSpot’s task management software showcases all the prospect details in the same place; also, the embedded reporting makes it easier to track prospects’ activities and task performance.

Picktime

The free online scheduling software is known as a one-stop solution for any kind of business. Be it an event on education or about wellness, business event or personal, Picktime has got your back. From team management to multiple location management, easy payment and invoicing, to video meeting integration, Picktime offers all services needed for businesses to schedule appointments.

Pricing

Picktime offers a free solution with tons of free features. And to avail of the paid plans, you will get the Starter plan for $9.99/month and the Pro plan for $19.99/month.

Notable features

Recurring appointment: With Picktime, you can rebook all your returning customers for future appointments while saving time and effort. And to activate the process, all you require to do is to turn on the “recurring appointment” feature option as per your preferences and availability.

Booking widget: You can turn your website into an appointment booking engine by installing the booking widget of Picktime. It enhances the chances of turning your prospects into customers since it lets your customer’s book appointments directly from your website without making any phone call or email contact.

Smart reporting: The dashboard of Picktime offers you all the insights you will need to run your business in a better way. You will get detailed end-to-end reports of the business activities from your total earned revenue to the booking scenario on particular services.

Wrapping Up

So whether you run yoga classes or provide financial services, in order to save both time and money, automating your day-to-day operations should be your top priority. And to help you out in this scene, nothing works greater than an appointment booking tool. But out of hundreds of options available, selecting the best online booking system is one big task.

Hence you need to make sure that the software you choose meets your business needs, fits your business type and size and offer all features and services you’d want.