Appointment Scheduling Software for Small Business: 7 Booking Tools Compared on Price

Appointment scheduling software replaces the email back-and-forth with a link. A client opens your booking page, sees the times you are free, picks one, and the appointment lands in your calendar with a confirmation and a reminder. The better tools also take a deposit or full payment at the moment of booking, which does more against no-shows than any reminder.

This guide is for service businesses that sell time: consultants, coaches, agencies, accountants, tutors, therapists and small clinics. Salons and spas need a point of sale, product inventory and staff commissions as well, so they have their own comparison in salon software. Below are seven tools, priced from their own US pages, with what each one charges per person, what the free plan really covers, and how payments and reminders work.

Booking software at a glance

Monthly billing costs more almost everywhere: Calendly Standard is $12 month to month, Acuity Starter $20, Setmore Pro $12 and Zoho Bookings Basic $8. Square Plus is a monthly price.

The chart counts only the subscription. If clients pay when they book, the processor's fee matters more than the gap between $5 and $10 a user: Stripe's standard US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card payment, so on $5,000 a month of bookings that is about $145 plus 30¢ a payment.

Calendly: best for consultants and agencies booking calls

Calendly is the tool most people mean when they say "send me your scheduling link". It is built around meetings rather than appointments: a discovery call, a demo, a strategy session.

Free gives you one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling and a customizable booking page. That is enough for a single "book a call with me" link, but there are no automated reminders and no payments.

Standard costs $10 a seat a month billed yearly, or $12 monthly. It adds unlimited event types, several connected calendars, automated reminders, HubSpot and Mailchimp connections and payments through Stripe or PayPal at booking. Teams costs $16 a seat billed yearly ($20 monthly) and adds round-robin and team scheduling, lead routing, centrally managed event types and a Salesforce connection. Enterprise starts at $15,000 a year for 50 seats.

A seat is needed for every person who connects a calendar and hosts meetings; the people booking you never need an account.

What to watch:

• The AI add-on changes the price. Calendly sells its Notetaker and the Callie assistant as "Plus" versions of each plan: Standard with them is $18 a seat billed yearly ($24 monthly) and Teams $24 ($32 monthly). Check which version you are signing up for.
• Round-robin needs Teams. If leads should go to whichever salesperson is free, Standard will not do it.

Choose it if you book calls rather than appointments, especially with prospects, and want the link people already recognize. An agency routing leads to the right person will need Teams, and its CRM should be one Calendly connects to.

Acuity Scheduling: best for paid sessions, packages and intake forms

Acuity, owned by Squarespace, is built for businesses that sell appointments as a product: a 60-minute coaching session, a package of five, a monthly membership. Every plan takes payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo and includes email reminders and custom intake forms, so a new client can answer your questions and pay before the first session.

Acuity does not charge per user. It charges by plan, and each plan has a number of calendars, one per staff member or location:

• Starter: $16 a month billed yearly ($20 monthly), 1 calendar.
• Standard: $27 a month billed yearly ($34 monthly), up to 6 calendars. Adds text reminders, a waitlist, packages and memberships and gift certificates.
• Premium: $55 a month billed yearly ($69 monthly), up to 36 calendars. Adds a signed BAA for HIPAA compliance, removal of the Acuity logo, separate time zones per staff member and API and CSS access.

That structure makes Acuity cheap for a team: six practitioners on Standard cost $27 a month, where Calendly Standard would cost $60. Our Acuity Scheduling pricing guide works through each plan and the cost per calendar.

What to watch:

• There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial with no credit card.
• Text reminders start at Standard. Starter sends email only.
• Health practices need Premium. The BAA that HIPAA requires is only on the top plan.

Choose it if clients pay for sessions in advance, you sell packages or memberships, or you need intake forms before the first appointment.

Google Calendar appointment schedules: best if you already use Google Workspace

Google Calendar has its own booking pages, called appointment schedules, and many small businesses already pay for them without knowing. Any Google account, including a free personal one, can create a single booking page. Clients pick a slot, and the appointment goes straight into your Google Calendar.

The useful features are reserved for eligible subscriptions: more than one appointment schedule, automatic email reminders, checking availability across several calendars, payments, email verification against spam bookings, schedules on secondary calendars and up to 20 co-hosts. On Google Workspace, Business Starter gets only the single booking page; Google's pricing page lists appointment booking pages from Business Standard, $14 a user a month with a one-year commitment. Business Starter is $7 and Business Plus $22.

Payments go through your own Stripe account. Google says Calendar charges no platform fee on top; refunds are not automatic and are issued from your Stripe dashboard.

What to watch:

• You pay for the whole suite. $14 a user buys email, storage, video meetings and the rest of Workspace. That is good value if you need them, and expensive if all you wanted was a booking page.
• Setup needs a computer. Google says you cannot create an appointment schedule in the Calendar app for Android or iPhone.

Choose it if you already run email on Google Workspace Business Standard or higher, or you need one simple booking page for free. If you are on Business Starter and need reminders, compare the $7 a user upgrade with a $5 or $10 standalone tool.

Microsoft Bookings: best if you already pay for Microsoft 365

Microsoft Bookings is the same idea for companies on Outlook and Teams. It is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, so the cheapest way in is Business Basic at $7 a user a month, paid yearly. Business Standard with Copilot is $23.50 and Business Premium with Copilot $32.

Bookings has two parts. Personal Bookings shares your own availability, like a Calendly link. Shared Bookings is a booking page for a team, with services, staff members, business hours and availability rules, which suits a small office where clients book "any available advisor". Every appointment booked as an online meeting gets its own Teams link, and confirmations and reminders go out by email.

What to watch:

• Text reminders cost extra. Microsoft now includes SMS notifications for virtual appointments in Teams Premium, a separate license, and they reach only US, Canadian and UK phone numbers.
• No payments listed. Microsoft's Bookings pages do not mention taking payment at booking, so plan to invoice separately (see invoicing software).

Choose it if your team lives in Outlook and Teams and you want booking at no extra cost for consultations that are paid for some other way.

Square Appointments: best for in-person services paid by card

Square Appointments makes sense when clients come to you, or you go to them, and pay by card on the spot. Square Free costs $0 and includes an online booking site, text and email appointment reminders and unlimited staff calendars. You pay only the card fees.

Square Plus costs $49 a month per location and adds cancellation policies and no-show fees, multi-staff appointments and a waitlist. Plus also lowers the online card rate. Premium, at $149 a month per location, is aimed at larger salons.

What to watch:

• Online payments cost more on Free. At 3.3% + 30¢, a clinic that takes $4,000 a month in online prepayments pays about $16 a month more on Free than on Plus, before the 30¢ per payment, which is the same on both.
• No-show fees need Plus. Charging a card on file for a missed appointment is a Plus feature.

Choose it if you take card payments in person and want booking, payments and payouts in one account. Our POS system guide covers Square's point of sale in more detail.

Setmore: best for the lowest price per user

Setmore is the cheapest paid option here and has the most generous free plan for a team. Free covers up to 4 users with unlimited appointments, one email reminder per appointment, and online and in-person payments through Square, Stripe, PayPal or LawPay.

Pro costs $5 a user a month billed yearly, or $12 monthly, with unlimited users. It adds 500 SMS credits a month for each Pro team member, two reminders per appointment, deposits, recurring and video appointments, two-way calendar sync, removal of Setmore branding, API access and priority support. Setmore offers a 30-day refund window on Pro.

What to watch:

• Two-way calendar sync is a Pro feature. On Free, appointments made in your Google or Outlook calendar do not block time in Setmore, so double bookings are possible.
• Monthly billing is more than double. $12 against $5 a user billed yearly; pay yearly once you are sure.
• The phone answering service is separate. Setmore's Live Receptionist is a $99 a month add-on, US only. If you mostly need calls answered, compare a virtual phone system first.

Choose it if you have a small team, a tight budget and want payments working from day one, even on the free plan.

Zoho Bookings: best for round-robin booking on a small budget

Zoho Bookings is the low-cost choice for a team that shares incoming bookings. Free covers 1 user with online meetings, email notifications and reminders and two-way calendar sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com.

Basic costs $6 a user a month billed yearly ($8 monthly) and includes round-robin distribution with four methods (load-balancing, priority-based, round-robin or the default), user roles and email reminders, in 1 workspace. Premium costs $9 a user billed yearly ($12 monthly) and adds payments for appointments, WhatsApp and SMS notification workflows and 3 workspaces, for separate locations or departments. Zoho says yearly billing saves over 25%.

What to watch:

• Payments need Premium. Basic does not take payment at booking.
• Zoho One includes it. If you pay for Zoho One, you already have Bookings Premium. Our Zoho CRM pricing guide covers the CRM it connects to.

Choose it if leads should be spread across a team, you already use Zoho apps, or you want round-robin for less than Calendly Teams ($16 a seat yearly).

Free appointment scheduling: what each free plan covers

Acuity and Microsoft Bookings have no free plan. For most service businesses, Setmore Free or Square Free is the strongest starting point; Calendly Free is enough only for a single type of call.

How to choose

1. Booking calls with prospects or clients? Calendly Standard, or Calendly Teams once leads need routing.
2. Selling sessions, packages or memberships paid in advance? Acuity Standard covers up to 6 people for $27 a month billed yearly.
3. Already on Google Workspace Business Standard or Microsoft 365? Use Google appointment schedules or Microsoft Bookings before paying for another tool.
4. Clients pay by card in person? Square Appointments Free, moving to Plus when no-shows cost you money.
5. Smallest budget per person? Setmore (free for 4 users, then $5 a user) or Zoho Bookings ($6 a user, $9 with payments).
6. A salon, barbershop or spa? Use the tools built for it in salon software.