Booking systems are one of the most important tools for any small business. They help you keep track of your appointments, manage customer data and communicate with clients.
When it comes to booking systems, there are two main categories: online and offline. Each category has its own advantages but in this article we will focus on the top 5 free booking software for small businesses.
If you want to know more about booking systems and which one is better for your needs, check out our article: What Is The Best Online Booking System For Small Businesses?
Free Booking Systems For Small Businesses
All appointment scheduling apps have a freemium plan. The idea of a freemium plan is that it helps solopreneurs and small businesses get started with automated appointment scheduling, without worrying about subscription costs. However, not every freemium plan is the same in their capabilities. Businesses should do as much research on them as they do on paid plans.
In your preliminary research, you can see whether the freemium plan has the essential features, like:
Essential features of an appointment scheduling app
Ability to set up work and off hours with flexibility
External calendar sync to eliminate double-booking
Ability to create different types of services, so customers can book the specific service they need
Booking page that lets customers see your availability and book appointments
Notifications and reminders, to keep you and customers updated about appointments
Built-in online meeting, so you can maintain social distancing and book appointments with clients across the globe
iPaaS (Zapier, Zoho Flow) integration, to connect to the other apps you use
Finding the best freemium plan from 50+ appointment scheduling apps based on these requirements is a tedious job. Here, we do that work for you. Today, we’ll find out the appointment scheduling app with the best freemium plan. We’ll be evaluating the free plans based on the following criteria:>
1Are essential features included in the freemium plan? If not, there will be gaps in your appointment scheduling abilities.
2Are there features available beyond the essentials? It’s one thing to provide the bare essentials, but another to add features that support the essentials. For instance, the ability to add available hours is less useful without the additional option to add buffer time between appointments.
3Is the free plan flexible? A common problem that free plans suffer from is having limits (on users, calendar connections, appointments booked, services you can add, etc.). If the limits are too low, you won’t be able to use the app for long.
Now that we’ve seen the criteria of a good free plan, let’s start comparing free plans. We’ll take apps that usually come on the first page of Google results for ‘free appointment scheduling software’.
We’ll include two other apps: Zoho Bookings, to use a benchmark, and Appointlet, featured as a good free app by Zapier. We exclude Square, because Square is not available outside of the US, Canada, and a few other countries.
Although Acuity is a popular appointment scheduling app, we have not included it in our comparison because it doesn’t have a free plan. We do not recommend free apps without an understandable revenue stream. Read about that here.
They apps that we’ll be comparing for the best free plan are:
- Zoho Bookings
- Appointlet
- Appointy
- Calendly
- Picktime
- Setmore
- SimplyBook.me
As part of the study, we went through the website of these apps, took a trial of their free plan, and interacted with their support staff to understand their product.
A brief background on the apps
Top appointment scheduling apps
Zoho Bookings is the online scheduler created to streamline the entire booking and appointment process. It syncs with your calendars while letting customers self-schedule and pay for appointments. You can bid goodbye to double booking, no-shows, endless emails, and delayed payments.
Appointlet was founded by Jared Moses in 2012. Appointlet tries to help business turn more prospects into leads by reducing the email ping pong associated with appointment scheduling.
Appointy was founded by Nemesh Singh in 2006. They’re from Bhopal, India, and have most of their workforce there. They target businesses in the service industry. Appointy has Square payment and Reserve with Google in their free plan.
Calendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails. It’s founded by Tope Awotona in 2013. They’ve been targetting teams in sales, recruiting, and the education industry.
Picktime was started in 2017 with it’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. Initially started as a free appointment scheduling software, they have paid plans now and cater to scheduling needs across businesses with feature updates.
Setmore started in 2011 as an offshoot of parent company Full Creative, seeking an online scheduling solution to address our customers’ need for an online scheduling solution. Bryce Morrow is the CEO of Setmore.
SimplyBook.me appointment scheduling software was created in 2011 by Ingvar Gudmundsson. The company headquarters are now in Cyprus, with three external offices—two in Ukraine and one in Iceland. SimplyBook.me primarily targets businesses in the health and wellness industry.
SimplyBook.me vs Setmore vs Picktime vs Calendly vs Appointy vs Appointlet vs Zoho Bookings
How do the freemium plans fare on essential features?
SimplyBook.me
Setmore
Picktime
Calendly
Appointy
Appointlet
Zoho Bookings
Essentials
Setting up availability
2-way Calendar sync
(optional)
Creating services
Booking page
Email Notifications
Email reminders
Online meeting
(optional)
iPaaS Integration
(optional)
Optional: In the free plan, you can only opt 1 of these features in Simplybook.me’s custom feature list.
All apps offer availability-setting, booking page, services, and notifications in their Free plan. There are differences in the other features. Zoho Bookings is the only app that has all the essential features in its free plans.
SimplyBook.me has all the features, but with a limitation. Two-way calendar sync, online meeting and iPaaS integrations come under custom features, and you can have only one in the Free plan.
Calendly and Picktime don’t allow iPaaS integration and email reminders in their Free plan, and Picktime only offers a one-way calendar sync. Appointlet has all the bases covered, except for its restriction on email reminders in the Free plan.
Setmore and Appointy don’t allow two-way calendar sync in the Free plan. Without the two-way sync, you can’t automatically add new appointments to your Google/O365 calendar or block time on your appointment calendar for events in your Google/O365 calendar. This often leads to double booking and confusion when scheduling appointments. Setmore does offer one-way sync, from their appointment software to your Google/O365 calendar.
Winners of this round: Zoho Bookings
Zoho Bookings wins the first round
How do the freemium plans fare on convenience features?
SimplyBook.me
Setmore
Picktime
Calendly
Appointy
Appointlet
Zoho Bookings
Convenience
Buffer time
Last-minute booking window
Cancellation window
(optional)
Add time off
Automatic time zone conversion for customers
Embed booking page on your website
Add custom fields to the booking form
(optional)
Buffer time: This feature allows you to add a break between appointments to rest, or prepare for the next meeting. This time isn’t shown to the customer. Appointy doesn’t have buffer time as a feature. You need to make your customer slots larger to accommodate your buffer time . Then, you have to choose another setting to hide slot duration from the customers. It’s not straightforward, but you can do it. In other apps, you can add buffer time without making it part of the appointment slot duration.
Last minute booking window: This lets you set a time window between the appointment date and the booking date where customers can’t book your services. This will help you avoid last minute hassles and be fully prepared for the appointment. All apps have included this feature in their free plans, due to the importance of this functionality.
Cancellation window: This allows you to limit the time window during which customers can cancel their appointment. This helps prevent last minute cancellations, which cost you time and money. This feature is present in all apps.
Add time-off: You can mark a leave or a vacation on your schedule with this feature . All of the apps, except for Appointlet, have this feature in their free plan.
Automatic time zone conversion: This lets you show your availability and booking page to customers in the local time zone. This is another fundamental feature, and except for Picktime, it is included in free plans of all other apps.
Embed booking page on your website: All apps allow you to embed your booking page on your website. This provides a seamless booking experience to your customers.
Add custom fields to the booking form: Except for Appointy and Picktime, all other apps allow you to add custom fields to your intake form. With custom fields, you can ask specific questions to customers to qualify and prepare for your appointments.
All apps stand fairly equal in terms of features that add convenience. Picktime, Appointy and Appointlet miss out on one or two, but they have workarounds available. Whereas, Simplybook.me has two features under their custom feature section, and with the free plan you can only opt for one of those features.
Winners of this round: Zoho Bookings, Setmore, Calendly
Zoho Bookings, Setmore, Calendly
How do the freemium plans fare on limits?
SimplyBook.me
Setmore
Picktime
Calendly
Appointy
Appointlet
Zoho Bookings
Limits
Maximum bookings
50
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
100
Unlimited
Unlimited
Users/staff allowed
5
4
3
1
1
1
1
Calendar connections per user
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Event types/services
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
1 event type
5
Unlimited
Unlimited
Email reminders
50 per month
100 per month
–
100 per month
Unlimited
Each app has placed a limit on one or more features. Zoho Bookings and Appointlet offer everything unlimited, except for the number of users.
Calendly has more restrictions. The event types are limited to one. You can only create one type of 1:1 meeting. For example, you can set up 30 minute 1:1 meetings, but then you cannot set up 15 or 60 minute 1:1 meetings. This makes it difficult for people who has multiple meeting types.
SimplyBook.me does not have restrictions on calendars, event types, or reminders. They allow up to five staff/users. However, they’ve capped the maximum bookings to 50. For anyone taking 10 appointments a day, this will be over in five days.
Setmore offers unlimited bookings, up to four staff, two calendar connections, and unlimited event types. However, they have an unusual limit on reminders. That’s an indirect way of limiting the maximum bookings to 100 or less. Any bookings made without reminders are mostly no-shows.
Appointy has limited bookings to 100, staff to one, and event types to five. When compared to the other five apps, there are more limits in Appointy.
Winners of this round: Zoho Bookings, Setmore
Setmore and Zoho Bookings
Comparing seven free appointment scheduling apps
Picktime vs Appointy vs Setmore vs SimplyBook.me vs Calendly vs Appointlet vs Zoho Bookings
Let’s put our findings into a table. Since all apps fared equally on convenience features, those features aren’t in the table.
SimplyBook.me
Setmore
Picktime
Calendly
Appointy
Appointlet
Zoho Bookings
Essentials
Setting up availability
2-way Calendar sync
(optional)
Creating services
Booking page
Email Notification
Email reminder
Online meeting
(optional)
iPaaS Integration
(optional)
Limits
Maximum bookings
50
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
100
Unlimited
Unlimited
Users/staff allowed
5
4
3
1
1
1
1
Calendar connections
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Event types/services
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
1 event type
5
Unlimited
Unlimited
Email reminders
50 per month
100 per month
–
100 per month
Unlimited
Winners of the final round: Zoho Bookings, Setmore
Setmore and Zoho Bookings
The best free appointment scheduling apps are Zoho Bookings and Setmore.
They have all the essential features in their plan, and with fewer limits on their features. That makes them the best apps for small businesses looking to get started with automated online appointment scheduling.
Here are the best free appointment scheduling apps, in order of their usefulness:
- Zoho Bookings
- Setmore
- Appointy
- Appointlet
- Picktime
- Calendly
- SimplyBook.me
We compared the apps objectively for this study. However, the best app for you is subjective. We recommend that you take a trial of these apps, ask questions, and go with the one that fits you.
free online booking system google
Scheduling meetings manually takes a lot of work.
Aside from preparing your agenda, you’ll need to:
Coordinate on availability
Manage time zones
Send reminders and follow-ups to avoid no-shows
This tedious process results in many back-and-forth emails, tedious administrative work, and, frankly, wasted time.
Appointment scheduling tools streamline your scheduling process so you can focus on your business.
How? Scheduling sofwares allows you to make self-booking pages that you can share with others. Meeting participants can then pick their preferred time from your available slots without extensive coordination.
Simply make a booking page and use its shareable link to invite people to book a time with you. You can also embed your appointment calendar on your business website and social channels.
Today, we’ll go through five of the best FREE meeting scheduling software that automatically syncs your appointments with Google Calendar:
Koalendar
Calendly
Schedule Once
Appointlet
Picktime
This way, you can streamline your scheduling process and be in full control of your time without breaking the bank.
Let’s get started.
- Koalendar
Best Free Features:
Easy to use and set up
Unlimited 1:1 and group appointments for free
Automatic reminders
Looks great on any device
Google Chrome extension
Google Calendar and Google Meet integration
Live customer support
Koalendar is a free scheduling platform that lets you make sleek and intuitive self-booking pages in a matter of minutes. Even with a free account, you can book unlimited 1:1 appointments, adjust its durations, and create unlimited booking pages.
It’s effortless to use so your clients and prospects can book appointments even if they’re not tech-savvy.
The booking software automatically updates your availability despite schedule changes so you can avoid double bookings. This is perfect if you’re a teacher managing parent-teacher conferences or a recruiter managing hundreds of interviews.
Koalendar Appointment Scheduling Software
Eliminate the back and forth of meeting scheduling with Koalendar.
No-shows and last-minute cancellations are harmful to many businesses such as salons and health and fitness professionals. With Koalendar, you and your meeting correspondents will receive automated reminders, so you’ll all be on top of your schedules.
Koalendar allows you to expand your business globally. It automatically adjusts its time zone according to the user, and it supports multiple languages.
Seamlessly integrate it into your workflow using easy embed options to your website and social channels and integrations with calendar and video applications. Add your calendar to your website and social media and connect it to Google Calendar, and Google Meet for free.
Koalendar Booking Software Integrations
Koalendar integrates with Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Zoom.
Koalendar works well and looks good on all devices. It also has a Google Chrome extension, so you can quickly access it when you work.
To help you make sure your business always runs smoothly, you’ll receive live support with a real person even if you’re using a free account if you encounter any issue.
A paid subscription to Koalendar grants you customizable pre-booking forms, group meetings, Zoom integration, along with customization options for the look of your booking pages, among other things.
Try Koalendar for free and tell us what you think!
- Calendly
Best Free Features:
Easy for meeting prospects to use
Calendar and video integrations
Automatic reminders
Personalized calendar link
Looks great on any device
Google Chrome extension
Calendly is a powerful scheduling software that lets you work with clients all over the world. A caveat, however, is that its free version has minimal capabilities.
Setting it up requires a bit of a learning curve, but it’s easy to use for clients and meeting prospects. It automatically adjusts according to the user’s time zone and supports many languages.
A free subscription gives you a personalized link to your calendar that you can embed on your emails and public channels. You’ll also receive automated meeting reminders so you can avoid no-shows.
Calendly allows you to integrate your booking page with Google Calendar, Office 365, Outlook, and iCloud for free. You can also use it with video apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and GoToMeet.
Calendly Calendar Interface
Source: calendly.com
Calendly has an iOS app for easy calendar access, an Android app, and a Google Chrome extension.
While these are great, Calendly’s free forever subscription is also quite limiting. If you’re strictly looking into maximizing free tools, it’s best to consider other alternatives.
The free version only lets you create one calendar per user and one event type. This means that all your appointments will have to have the same parameters, duration, and location. It also limits your appointments to one-on-ones. You’ll need a paid subscription if you want to have group events such as tours, webinars, classes, etc.
Other features you’ll get with Calendly’s paid subscription are integrations with Zapier, Salesforce, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Stripe, Paypal, Google Analytics, and others with customizable webhooks. You’ll also enjoy customization, pooled team scheduling, metrics, and reporting, etc.
Finally, Customer service for free users is limited to their help center and email support. A paid subscription, however, will give you access to live chat.
- Schedule Once
Best Free Features:
Unlimited meetings and event types
Multiple calendar integrations
Video integrations
Automatic reminders
Google Chrome extension
Schedule Once is a robust appointment scheduling tool that lets you book unlimited meetings and event types for free.
It’s also rich in calendar integrations: you can use it with G Suite, Office 365, Exchange, Outlook, and iCloud. As for video integrations, the platform lets you create automatic and secure links to video conference rooms for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet.
Like other applications in this list, Schedule Once adjusts according to your user’s time zone, accommodates multiple languages, and sets automatic reminders for your appointments.
ScheduleOnce Calendar Interface
Source: oncehub.com/scheduleonce
Embed your calendar to your webpage and social channels. It works well on mobile, tablet, and mobile. It has a Google Chrome extension, too.
While its booking page is easy to use, it can be tricky to set up. Its user interface is relatively complex and will need time investment. If you prefer straightforward apps that you can set up in minutes, it’ll be good to consider other alternatives.
A paid subscription to Schedule Once allows you to take advantage of more integrations to handle payments, CRM, and others, with the scheduling tool. Team functionalities are also available here. Schedule Once can pool your team’s availability, automatically assign the right person to the requested meeting, and distribute work equally.
This feature is helpful if you’re running a hair or nail salon where each service offering may differ in terms of skill requirements.
Schedule Once has a knowledge base that you can use if you’re a free user in case you encounter issues. A paid subscription will give you access to email and live chat support.
- Appointlet
Best Free Features:
Two-way Google Calendar integration
Unlimited appointments and meeting types
Personalized calendar link
Calendar and video integrations
Google Chrome extension
Unlimited pre-booking form fields
Team management
Appointlet is a Gooogle Calendar scheduling tool that offers two-way sync. This feature lets you modify your Google Calendar using Appointlet or do it the other way around: add appointments in Appointlet through Google Calendar.
For free, Appointment lets you book unlimited appointments and unlimited meeting types with flexible durations. It also gives you a personalized link for free so that it’s easy to type and remember for your clients.
Its interface is easy to use. Some just find the aesthetic to look a bit dated. Automatic reminders for Appointlet, however, comes with a paid subscription, unlike many of its alternatives.
Appointlet Calendar Interface
Source: appointlet.com
It adjusts to time zones and supports multiple languages, so you won’t have to manually compute for time differences if you have meetings with people overseas.
As for integrations, Appointlet syncs Office 365, aside from Google Calendar. It also works with video platforms Go2Meeting, Zoom, Join.me, and Webex.
Team management with limited functionality is also part of the free version of Appointly. Sync your staff’s calendars in the application so you can configure them from one portal.
Finally, the application is optimized on all devices and has a Google Chrome extension for easy access.
The paid version of Appointly grants you customizable branding options, automated meeting reminders, customizable booking confirmations, and the ability to pool your team’s availability. You’ll also get to integrate your calendar with Stripe (for payments), Zapier (for no-code automation), or build your integrations with webhooks.
Customer support for free subscribers is limited to the knowledge base, email, and intercom chat support. A paid account will grant you priority support and onboarding for 5+ members.
- Picktime
Best Free Features:
Two-way Google Calendar integration
Unlimited appointments and meeting types
Recurring appointments
Calendar and video integrations
Google Chrome extension
Team management
The last calendar tool we’ll discuss is Picktime: a robust and free appointment scheduling software with no paid version. It supports different time zones and multiple languages, too, so you can use it for your global business.
Like Appointlet, it offers a two-way Google Calendar sync. This means you can move meetings around through the application or your calendar, and the changes reflect in both platforms.
Book and receive unlimited bookings and different meeting types –multiple durations and individual or group classes. Once meetings are confirmed, you’ll receive notifications and automatic reminders. Picktime also lets you create recurring appointments and manage staff schedules for free.
Picktime’s interface is clean and professional. Your customers quickly pick it up even if they’re not tech-savvy. Setting it up will require a bit of a learning curve, though. But customer service is excellent so you’ll have all the help you need.
Picktime Booking Page
Source: picktime.com
As for integrations, Picktime lets you work with video platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. It also connects to Mailchimp, Stripe (for payments), and more.
Customization is where the application falls short. You can change your main photos, but colors and others will stay the same. This isn’t so bad, but if you’re looking for ways to make your booking page reflect your brand more, other applications mentioned in this list offer that service on paid subscriptions.
Conclusion: What’s the best free scheduling software for Google Calendar?
As you’ve seen, you’ll find many strong appointment scheduling apps in the market for any price range, each with its strengths. It’s good to pay for your subscriptions, but there’s also nothing wrong with making the most of free tools.
Koalendar Best Free Scheduling Software For Google Calendar
If you’re looking for an appointment scheduling software that:
Takes minutes to set up
Easy to use
Looks good on all devices
Lets you book unlimited appointments and create unlimited booking pages
Connects with unlimited calendars
Provides live customer service
All for free, then Koalendar is your best bet.
We’re naturally a bit biased here, but don’t take our word for it.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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