Appointment scheduling software helps small businesses automate calendar management. This software has a wide variety of functions and can be used by small business owners in almost any industry. It can help you be more organized, use your time more efficiently, and make sure you never miss an important meeting again. Appointment scheduling software can also help you view appointments of employees and team members so they can work better together.

There are hundreds of small business appointment scheduling software. We analyze more than a dozen of them before selecting the best candidates. We compare the features they offer, ease of setup, pricing, customer service, and more. Read on to learn more about appointment scheduling software and how it can help your small business.

What is Appointment scheduling software?

Appointment scheduling software solutions are tools that enable professionals and businesses to better manage appointment scheduling and reservations. This type of software is also called appointment scheduling software and online booking software.

Why offer to book an appointment online?

Whether you run a hair salon, be a massage therapist, accountant, or tarot reader, or teach music lessons, you are probably here because you already have many appointments. And the more your business grows, the more difficult it is to keep everything in order manually.

Instead of juggling a paper calendar, taking calls 24 hours a day, and expecting you to keep your appointments correctly, consider taking your business to the next level with an appointment scheduling app or online appointment scheduling software. (After all, we are in 2022!). Online coding platforms are designed to save you time and money and to grow your customer base. Customers can book you whenever they want, without having to make a phone call.

But with dozens of appointment scheduling software and online scheduling apps available, how can you narrow down the best option for your business? We’ve rounded up our favorite planning apps for 2022, breaking down exactly what planning software features you need.

Best Appointment Scheduling Software in 2022

1. Acuity Scheduling

BEST OVERALL

Founded in 2006 as an online appointment scheduling software, Acuity Scheduling has grown five times in three years and was acquired by Squarespace. It is cloud-based and is also available as apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad. It is easy to use and configure and is designed to act as a personal assistant for your business. It can be used by all industries, but it is especially useful for companies by appointment, commercial companies, and companies that offer courses at fixed times.

Some of Acuity’s features include organizing your schedule, organizing customer information, and sending personalized appointment reminders to customers. You can also sync and share your calendar, and you can accept payments online from Stripe, PayPal, and Square. One unique feature is that you can offer gift cards, memberships, and packages.

There is a seven-day free trial with no credit card required. After the trial expires, pricing starts at $ 15 per month for a basic single-user account. For large organizations with multiple locations, there is a $ 25 per month plan that includes six users, and the $ 50 per month plan includes 36 users. A 10% discount is offered for annual payment.

Customer support is included online and over the phone and has positive reviews for agent help and knowledge.

2. Calendly

BEST FOR CALENDAR CUSTOMIZATION

Calendly is headquartered in the Atlanta metropolitan area and was founded in 2013. It is a private company valued at more than $ 3 billion. It was developed as a scheduling software that allows users to optimize their appointment times.

Users can customize calendars based on the preferences they have set, and the software includes time zone detection, which can help avoid mistakes or missed meetings if attendees live in different time zones. It also has a buffering feature between meetings so you can take a break before the next meeting starts, and you can configure other customizations, including secret events, no last minute meetings, and daily limits limiting the number of meetings or appointments. per day.

The software has many features and tools available to users and includes a free plan with basic functionality as well as paid plans with more functionality. The free plan is only valid for one user and only includes calendar integrations, event scheduling with custom links, event notifications, and some integrations. Plans with most of the available features and integrations range from $ 8 to $ 12 per user per month. There is a 14-day free trial available that includes all features.

You can sign in with up to six of your Google, Outlook, Office 365, or iCloud calendars so you never have to book twice. It is cloud-based and offers applications for Android and iPhone.

Users love the large number of features and syncing with multiple calendars.

3. 10 to 8

BETTER FOR INTEGRATION OF PAYMENTS

Over 50,000 businesses around the world use 10to8 as their small business appointment scheduling software. The company was founded in 2011 as an online reservation system designed to be professional, powerful and enable online reservations.

The company offers a free start-up plan for small businesses with limited functionality and up to 100 scheduled appointments per month. The plans then go by level and cost $ 9.60, $ 20, and $ 40 per month. If you have a large company that needs more than 600 appointments per month, you can contact the company directly for a business plan with “tailor-made” pricing.

10to8 can be used by anyone without training and is accessible from any device at any time. You can use it to sync calendars, coordinate with your staff, and seamlessly accept online payments through Stripe and PayPal. It can also be integrated with over 500 other apps including WordPress, Insightly, Zoom, QuickBooks Online, etc.

Customer service is available online. Users appreciate all of the onboarding options and the fact that you can level up your plan as your business grows.

4. Square Appointments

BEST FOR SINGLE OWNERS AND INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

Square was founded in 2009 in Saint-Louis and launched its first app in 2010. Initially, it was a small white card reader that combined business services and mobile payments into one easy-to-use service. . Today, it is a listed company offering points of sale, appointment scheduling software, sales monitoring, inventory management, etc. Square Appointments is part of the Square family and focuses on meeting appointments for individuals, small businesses and freelancers.

The service is easy to set up and free for one user, with two to five users paying $ 50 per month. Six to 10 users cost $ 90 per month, and if your business has more than 10 users, you should contact them directly for personalized pricing.

Square Appointments can be used on your registration app, iPad, Android, or iPhone. It’s cloud-based and works with any business that needs appointment scheduling capabilities. It comes with a free online booking website, automatic email and text reminders, and Google calendar sync. It also creates billable fees for late or missed appointments.

Square is a reputable company with positive reviews for its innovative technology and ability to use all of its products and services together.

5. Appointlet

BEST FOR SALES

Appointlet is a professional online scheduling tool. We help companies book meetings more efficiently with a streamlined booking page that anyone can use. Just plug in your calendar, set your meeting availability, and tell the app what kind of services you’re booking. Our software will take care of the rest. We support the integration of web conferencing, payment collection and Zapier to connect to third-party applications, so you can pass your reservation data to places like a mailing list or CRM. Unlike our competitors, we offer live chat with fast response times, so if you have any questions about how to use the app or get started, we’ll be there to help! Our app is currently rated “Best Free Appointment App” by Zapier.

Appointment appointment scheduling features: appointment reminders, automated scheduling, calendar sync, multiple location, online booking, online payments, room reservation management

6. HoneyBook

HoneyBook is world-class scheduling software with robust booking control and customer management and sales and operational processes from an administrative back-end.

It gets you out of the park when it comes to booking appointments. HoneyBook’s client interface is clean and simple, it can be customized to match your company site, and it syncs with your calendars to ensure accurate and efficient scheduling.

From there, it collects customer information, tracks appointment history, and stores all communications in one easily accessible place. You can even set up highly detailed workflows to send customers automatic reminders and instant confirmations, and you can trigger internal administrative tasks based on customer events.

HoneyBook shines in many categories in addition to its exceptional programming services. From a financial standpoint, you can bill customers electronically and track payments, all from within the app. You can also transfer funds to your account instantly. HoneyBook accepts bank, credit and debit transfers.

From an operational standpoint, HoneyBook enables you to initiate and store contracts, configure workflows, and customize reports. Every task and skill is connected, so you never lose information or context.

The onboarding process is thorough and helpful. HoneyBook takes the time to set up your account for brand cohesion and ease of use. While the entire experience is very easy to use, they also offer an extensive database of resources and 24/7 live help.

Thanks to all its features and intuitive nature, HoneyBook is an excellent software option.

7.  AppointmentPlus

Best features

Rendez-vousPlus offers an intuitive and streamlined solution for planning and booking while driving business operations. He has an innate understanding of the underlying difficulties of business owners, not only with planning, but also with maximizing efficiency.

With an easy-to-use control panel and administration interface, AppointmentPlus makes it easy to view, set and track appointments.

You can integrate it directly into your existing software infrastructure for seamless operations, or add integrations from your marketplace to create the exact type of customization that’s right for your business.

Features such as automated schedule reminders and detailed reports go a long way in maximizing business profitability and efficiency.

Whether you need a complete 360-degree view of your business or a detailed analysis of a day, employee, or customer trend, AppointmentPlus has layers to offer. Tracking trends and necessary adjustments in AppointmentPlus makes business operations smoother and more efficient.

The price of Rendez-vousPlus is a bit higher than the competition. Still, it justifies the expense with its well-designed features, easy-to-use interface, and exceptional customer service.

Integration prepares you for success by allowing you to customize your dashboard and system to your business needs, while giving you the flexibility to grow. From there, you have access to ticketing support, a responsive team, and an extensive library of resources.

For streamlined planning and data-driven operations, AppointmentPlus makes life much easier for business owners, managers, employees and customers.

8. Simplybook.me

Ideal for new users

Simplybook.me is affordable, feature-rich booking software that stands out in a crowded category.

By adapting exceptionally well to small and medium businesses, Simplybook.me increases customer satisfaction, returns and engagement with minimal administrator involvement.

It integrates with email, social media, and personal calendars to ensure appointments are scheduled without overlap. Reservations can be made from different platforms and even allow you to create coupons and promotions that you can email to a list of customers to increase return rates.

Using automatic reminder capabilities, Simplybook.me pings customers to remind them of upcoming appointments to reduce missed bookings.

Plus, you can collect down payments in advance if you want, which helps ensure clients show up for appointments.

It is adaptable to multiple industries, allowing recurring bookings for salons while meeting the privacy requirements of HIPAA compliance for medical practices.

You can also customize the admission forms to ensure that you have all of the customer information collected at the time of booking.

Simplybook.me support is fast and very helpful, so issues are resolved quickly. They even offer a free long-term plan (the basic level) with lots of features, and it’s a great solution for small businesses or individuals just starting out.

With several cool features and an easy-to-navigate interface for admin and clients, Simplybook.me is a great choice when it comes to scheduling software.

9. TimeTrade

For administrators (and some retail and service companies) who value structure and efficiency, TimeTrade offers a robust and operationally efficient scheduling system.

He specializes in bookings of all kinds – internal team meetings, one-on-one appointments, and web video meetings – using time blocking and smart scheduling matches to match appointment requests with the most trusted providers.

Designed to be your CRM’s best friend, TimeTrade seamlessly syncs current and potential customers into your sales funnel for easy customer tracking and information gathering.

It has limited customization options, but it makes the setup process even faster. The interface is clean and uncluttered, so you can easily view calendars, appointment information, and reports.

From the customer’s point of view, the reservation process is straightforward. The forms are concise. After booking, customers can even receive automated reminder emails to make sure they don’t forget their appointments.

There were occasional page loading issues due to Java code, but for the most part, TimeTrade is a smooth experience. Automatically optimized for all devices, you can view your reservations from your mobile phone or laptop.

It offers two custom pricing plans and two basic tiers ($ 6.50 / month per user and $ 29 / month per user) with increasing feature tiers. When it comes to supporting, TimeTrade has a comprehensive online library of documents and videos and a 24/7 customer support team.

Conclusion

We recommend the best appointment scheduling software for small business, and all of our recommendations have valid pros and cons. Some programs are free, some pay, and some offer a free trial period. Features vary, as does the number of users and tools available.

In general, we recommend that you consult Acuity Scheduling. The company has extensive experience, offers affordable plans and lots of useful features, and is easy to set up.