In the bustling world of running a small business, there's no greater skill than staying organized. One small scheduling conflict or forgotten appointment can quickly spiral into sunken costs and time—two things you can't afford to lose.
But what if we told you that there's a way to manage your time better, avoid scheduling clashes and increase productivity all at once? That's where appointment scheduling software comes in.
The right scheduling app enables you to plan ahead, remembers important events and keeps operations running smoothly. With Wix, you can even integrate scheduling tools directly into your business website for maximum efficiency.
In the meantime, let's dive into our curated list of the best scheduling software and apps for 2024.
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Best scheduling software and apps for 2024
01. Wix scheduling software: best overall
Wix scheduling software is designed to streamline the scheduling process across various industries and businesses of all sizes. From your website dashboard, you can handle online bookings, payments and your day-to-day calendar—plus staff and client interactions. This centralized approach allows for a more organized and efficient workflow, helping you manage time effectively.
Among the key Wix features of this scheduling software is the fact that you can connect your website to your Facebook and Instagram pages so that customers can freely book your services from any channel. This makes for a convenient and simple way to turn your social media platforms into lead generation tools.
Wix scheduling also enables bookings through Reserve with Google and ClassPass. These integrations provide different avenues for booking while freeing up your time. Whether you book clients for one-on-one sessions (such as a haircut) or group classes (such as a fitness class), Wix makes the scheduling process easy to manage.
From comprehensive solutions for salon websites to all-inclusive templates for booking sites, Wix provides scheduling solutions that are tailored to your business.
Price: free and premium plans available
02. Zoho Bookings: Best for managing resources
Zoho Bookings is a good scheduling platform on its own, but the real power comes if you already hold a Zoho One subscription. Its synergistic integration with Zoho CRM paves the way for seamless follow-up with leads, transforming potential into success.
The online scheduling software's simple interface makes navigation easy for new and existing users. Zoho Bookings comes with a number of scheduling features, such as customizable booking pages and two-way calendar synchronization. The calendar sync safeguards against double-bookings, streamlining your operations and enhancing overall productivity.
You can set up automated notifications and reminders to reduce instances of no-shows, helping you maximize opportunities and keep your business running smoothly.
Price: available from $6 per staff member per month
03. Google Calendar: best free scheduling software
When you start a business, you have to work within a tight budget to reduce expenses. With Google Calendar, you can save costs with one of the best free scheduling software options available.
Google Calendar has become a popular choice among free booking software options since the ability to schedule appointments was introduced in mid-2021. It's intuitive, easy to use and widely compatible with other tools. For small businesses, it's a strong option if you're on a tight budget but need to automate meeting scheduling.
You can easily share your schedule with clients, and invite others to events and see their availability, which makes it easier to find a suitable time for meetings or appointments.
Google Calendar automatically syncs events, such as meetings scheduled via Gmail, saving you time and ensuring that everything on your schedule is in one place. It also comes with features that many paid tools have, such as automated notifications and reminders. This software allows service businesses of all kinds to thrive thanks to its easy scheduling.
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Price: free
04. Calendly: best for flexibility
Calendly offers an intuitive and visually driven scheduling automation solution for small businesses. The system syncs to your calendar, shows your available slots to the invitees and automatically adds the meeting to both your calendar and the invitee's.
Calendly's flexibility in scheduling is another important feature that supports a wide array of meeting types. The system supports one-on-one meetings, group meetings and collective events. With Calendly forms, users can route and automate scheduling workflows with custom notifications and reminders. Calendly also offers options for multi-person and round-robin scheduling, which allows for efficient pooling of team availability.
One useful Calendly feature is its integrations with Stripe and PayPal, which make it easy for businesses to charge customers right at the time of booking. This feature is useful for businesses that host one-time events, such as seminars or coaching.
Price: free and premium plans available starting from $8 per seat per month
05. Acuity Scheduling: best for automated appointment reminders
When you're figuring out how to start a service business, keeping repeat customers plays a large part in increasing your overall revenue. And when those customers book their next appointment weeks or months in advance, you’ll want to make sure they remember it’s on the calendar. Automation can save you plenty of headaches here by taking the stress out of manually reminding customers that they have an appointment.
Acuity Scheduling offers a user-friendly interface and robust features that handle your scheduling needs with ease. One of Acuity Scheduling's standout strengths is its ability to automate reminders via email and SMS text messages. You can automate personalization in your reminder templates through tags, adding a more human touch to your messages. Sending text messages can also be effective service marketing—it’s reported that the open rate for text message marketing is a whopping 98%. By comparison, email marketing open rates sit at under 20%.
Multi-calendar sync and robust integration support make Acuity Scheduling a versatile tool for businesses of various sizes. The software's automation capabilities, especially in the follow-up process, reduce manual intervention and save a significant amount of time.
Price: starting from $16 per month
06. Appointy: best for integrations
Appointy's wide range of integrations streamlines and automates work processes. You can connect with thousands of popular apps, such as Google Sheets for spreadsheet-related tasks, Microsoft Outlook for email and calendar purposes, and Mailchimp for email newsletters.
Additional integrations include Autopilot Journeys for marketing automation, Formatter by Zapier for document management, Short.io for URL shortening and Zoom for video conferencing.
Moreover, Appointy integrates with a host of other applications like authorize.net, PayPal, Google Analytics 360, Gmail, WordPress, X and Meta for Business. This versatility enables Appointy to cater to a wide range of business needs, from online payment processing to social media engagement and data analytics.
Price: free and premium plans available starting from $19.99 per month
07. YouCanBookMe: best multi-language scheduling software
If your business provides services across multiple locations, you'll need scheduling software that accommodates multiple languages, such as YouCanBookMe. The UK-based company has seamless integration with existing calendars, plus support for 44 languages and over 1,500 popular apps.
The scheduling software helps with multilingual support through its ability to customize booking pages based on language, location and project type.
It's relatively easy to book appointments with clients as you can provide a scheduling link in emails or other correspondence.
Price: free and premium plans available starting from $10.80 per month
08. SimplyBook.me: best for medical teams and services
SimplyBook.me is a good scheduling solution for small businesses across a wide range of industries, but it's a standout option especially for businesses in the medical industry because of its HIPAA compliance. Its comprehensive system meets the stringent standards set by HIPAA, meaning clients and patients can book appointments with the assurance of confidentiality.
Within the medical industry, SimplyBook.me shows its versatility in medical recruitment scenarios. Medical recruiting organizations have used it to schedule interviews, facilitating the pairing of clients with hospitals.
Beyond compliance, SimplyBook.me has custom features that cater to diverse user needs, such as pre-payment options with PayPal, synchronization with Google Calendar and a mobile app for push notifications. All of this contributes to a versatile and user-friendly interface.
Price: free and premium HIPAA-compliant plans available starting from $24.90 per month
09. When I Work: best for managing employee schedules
When I Work stands out as a top employee scheduling software, particularly for types of businesses in the restaurant, retail or hospitality space.
Features include a photo clock-in, a time clock app with GPS tracking for accurate records and helpful clock-in-and-out reminders. The app allows users to store documents, message team members and manage availabilities. When I Work also offers a drag-and-drop scheduler for easy shift changes.
The platform's mobile apps provide flexibility and convenience for employees and managers to stay on track with schedules and hours worked. Employees can use the mobile app to swap shifts, thereby saving managers time and energy.
Price: starting from $2.50 per user
How to choose the best scheduling software
There’s no one-size-fits-all scheduling software. That said, selecting the best booking software solution for your business will come down to several factors.
Ease of use: Basic scheduling is a given, but any scheduling management software should be user-friendly and require minimal training to use effectively. Users should be able to easily schedule meetings and embed links in emails or company websites for convenience. If you've tried a free version and it's taking you longer to learn how to use it than to book clients, it's probably a good indicator to try something with better software design.
Integration capabilities: Choose a scheduling software that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems to make your life easier, since it can work with your already-established digital calendars, customer relationship management (CRM) and communication platforms.
Multi-language and geographical support: If your business operates globally, your scheduling software should be able to handle different languages and multiple time zones.
Customizability: The right software should allow for customization in appointment settings, notifications and booking pages to accommodate your unique business needs. Whether you're looking to customize your calendar and appointment availability or tailor your reminder messages, you should choose the software that helps you personalize your scheduling as deeply as you need.
Team size and structure: Find software that accommodates the size and structure of your team. If you have a large team or operate across multiple departments or locations, you'll need a solution that supports multiple users and can handle complex scheduling scenarios. Good scheduling software allows you to manage team schedules effectively, giving you control over who can see and edit schedules.
Scalability: If you anticipate your team growing in the future, your scheduling software should be able to scale with you. Look for solutions that offer pricing and functionality tiers to match your business' growth.
Group scheduling: In large teams, scheduling group meetings can be a complicated task due to various availabilities and time zones. The scheduling software you select should have robust group scheduling features, enabling seamless coordination of group meetings or events.
Support and customer service: Look for software that provides robust support in case of issues or concerns. This may include online resources, email support or a dedicated support line.
Pricing: The software should offer value for money, including a fair pricing model that scales with your business needs. Beyond being able to set up an appointment, consider the additional features that certain tools offer and weigh how much time it saves you. Many cloud-based scheduling software platforms offer a free trial for you to decide if it's worth subscribing to long-term, so take advantage of these trial periods.
Best scheduling software FAQ
What is a scheduling app?
A scheduling app is a software application designed to help individuals or businesses manage appointments, meetings or reservations efficiently. It allows users to schedule, track and organize their time, appointments and activities in a digital format, often accessible across multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers.