Isn’t it difficult to manage a huge number of appointments on phone calls?
Doesn’t last-minute cancellations/bookings drive you crazy?
Are you stressed-up, if your bookings are unorganized?
The answer to this questions may be “YES”.
The solution to the above problem is – online appointment booking plugin. It can be very rewarding if you want to schedule appointment in a manageable way.
In this digital-savvy world, everything happens at a finger-tips and so do the bookings. However, you need to make sure that your customers can easily take the advantage of your services.
Installing the simple appointment booking plugin on your website will enable your customers to book the appointment at the time of their convenience. Moreover, these booking plugins sync information with your calendar so that you can stay organized and maintain your schedule on-the-go.
There are 57,868 plugins present in the WordPress repository of various categories. Although, you will get a lot more options for appointment bookings but may leave a room for confusion; which to choose from?
Before we jump to the list, let’s jot down few criteria to automate your booking based business.
Some of the required features for booking plugins:
- Should be responsive so that customers can book the service from any device; from anywhere.
- Should provide booking notifications, e-mail confirmations to the admins and customers
- Should sync the information with the Google calendar
- Should be able to allow customer requests within business hours or the available time slots.
- Should be customizable
- Should accept online payments
- Should provide detailed reports to track the conversions
The above-mentioned are some of the basic features, which every plugin may possess to expect from the appointment scheduling plugins.
With thorough research from various sources, we have come up with some of the significant online reservation plugins.
Let’s zero down the best of the 5:
1. Amelia – Events and Appointment Booking Calendar
Amelia is the next-generation handy appointment booking plugin that enables to set up a fully-featured automated booking system. Built with enterprise-level technology, it provides a smooth user experience, and its easy-to-use features make the booking process manageable and organized. Customers can easily use interactive appointment calendars to find an appointment time with the specific staff at a specific time. You can install and configure it in just a few clicks; doesn’t require any training to use.
Key Features
- An insightful dashboard that summarizes business KPIs
- Step-by-step booking process
- Tracks the appointments and conversions
- Searching and Filtering options to make the process easy
- Accepts payments via PayPal or Stripe
- Offer coupons/discounts
- Sends emails or SMS notification
- Syncs with outlook calendar or Google Calendar
As it is reliable, flexible, and user-friendly, it is a must-have for any business.
2. Booking Calendar
Booking Calendar is one of the ideal appointment booking plugin having customizable forms and sleek design. It is a smooth plugin and provides an out-of-box booking experience.In this plugin, data is stored in the WordPress database; thus refrains you from creating third-party accounts. If you want to import feed from third party source like Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc. you can do it easily Having 60,0000 active installs, easy-to-use, and scalable functionalities, it can be a perfect fit for your business.
Key Features
- Prevents double booking for already reserved days and allows multiple booking for the same day in the same calendar
- Provides time-slot booking for specific time slots
- Customizable designs of calendars
- Modern front-end and back-end interface
- Multi-language support
- Sync with Google Calendar
- E-mail notification, searching, sorting makes it easy to manage bookings
This plugin is very easy to integrate; just activate it and insert the booking short code into the post/page, and you’re done. For some advanced features, it is recommended to buy the pro version.
3. Simply Schedule Appointments – Booking Calendar
Simply schedule an appointment is quite comprehensive and another valuable plugin for appointment booking and reservation. Though it is still growing, it has received several accolades in a short time. This plugin has an interactive setup wizard that helps you to quickly guide with set up and other basics in just 5 minutes. You can easily set the minimum time between appointments and even limit the number of daily appointments.
Key Features
- Accepts payments via PayPal or Stripe
- Flexible, fast, and powerful
- Set customizable working hours
- Syncs with google calendar
- Manage multiple locations
- Drag-and-drop functionality
- Integrate with 15 other tools
- New updates keep on rolling
SSA is available for free as well as it has a premium version that provides access to all the advanced features. SSA has all the features you need and is beautifully designed to provide a great user experience.
4. Bookly
Bookly is one of the most renowned and popular appointment booking plugin in WordPress. Because of ease of use, neat design, hassle-free navigation, and new updates rolling throughout the year, it has approximately 40,0000 installs and 1000s of positive reviews. With its powerful admin interface, customer list and appointment calendar can be easily and effectively managed. Being fully responsive, Bookly can be used across any device be it a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Key Features
- Multi-language support
- Fast online booking
- Woo-commerce compatibility
- Unlimited number of booking forms
- Customizable e-mail, SMS notification
- Integration with the PayPal
This plugin has both free and paid versions. It is easy to install and doesn’t require any coding experience. Bookly is the best choice for those who are looking for a premium appointment scheduling solution.
Want to try Bookly before you buy?
5. Appointment Buddy
Lastly, Appointment Buddy is another one of the best plugins that help to book your appointment with ease. This plugin is 100% responsive, compatible with all devices, and displayed on all screen sizes. You can stay more organized and productive by easily monitoring the calendar from a bird view. This plugin enables to manage of bookings from a single place in an organized way. Its’ sleek interface makes the navigation easy and hassle-free.
Key Features
- Unlimited services, Unlimited Bookings, and notifications
- Syncs with Google Calendar
- Easy time-slot management
- Payment Gateway Integration with PayPal and Stripe
- Provides detailed and accurate reports
- Track Conversions
- Multilanguage support
No knowledge of coding is required; just configure it and you are all set to start with an online booking system in no more than 10 minutes. It is packed with useful features and ideally a smart choice for doctors, bakers, spa, salons, clinics, etc.
Why don’t you try before buying? Download it free from Code Canyon – Click Here
Which Plugin to choose from?
When you observe the above-mentioned plugins, one thing is common – all of these plugins provide automated booking solution. All of these plugins use the best tech stack to deliver a great and hassle-free experience. Whatever your business is, the above-mentioned list will provide you out-of-box experience.
However, choosing the plugin for your business depends on your budget, requirements, and size of your company. Every plugin has its merit and demerits; so compare and then decide.
Original Source: https://www.accreteinfo.com/top-5-wordpress-appointment-booking-plugins-offering-the-best-of-online-booking/