Welcome to our detailed comparison of the top WooCommerce bookings and appointment plugins. If you run a business that takes reservations, schedules appointments, or rents out items, you know that managing these manually can be difficult. You likely want a better way to handle your bookings. This blog post will help you find the perfect plugin for your needs.
Before we dive into the list, let’s consider what makes a good WooCommerce booking plugin. Several factors are important when you choose the right plugin for your website.
Plugin Selection Criteria
- User Reviews and Ratings: What other users say matters. Their experiences can tell you about a plugin’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Functionality and Utility: The plugin should offer the features you need for your specific business. It should have basic booking features as a starting point.
- Customizability: You should be able to adjust the plugin to match your website’s design and your customers’ needs.
- Ease of Use: The plugin should be simple to set up and manage. A user-friendly interface is crucial.
- Customer Support: Good support is essential if you run into any issues. You want to know help is available when you need it.
- Regular Updates: A regularly updated plugin is more secure and compatible with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce.
- Price: Your budget is an important consideration. Compare the features with the cost to find the best value.
- Design and Responsiveness: The plugin should look good and work well on all devices.
- Integration and Compatibility: It should work smoothly with other plugins you use, such as payment gateways.
Let’s explore some of the best WooCommerce booking and appointment plugins.
List of WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments Plugins
1. WooCommerce Bookings
This is the official booking plugin from WooCommerce. It aims to be a powerful yet simple solution for e-commerce businesses. It helps customers book services directly from your website.
- Key Features: Fixed time slots, buffer between bookings, minimum and maximum participants, multiple resource management, discounted prices, flexible time selection, unbookable time, timezone display, booking cancellation, admin approval, email notifications, hide booked resources.
- Advantages: Native support, integration with add-ons like WooCommerce Deposits, seamless automation.
- Disadvantages: Pricey, received more 1-star than 5-star reviews, some essential features missing according to users, requires multiple subscriptions for multiple sites.
- Price: $249.00 per year for one site.
2. PluginHive
WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments: This plugin offers a cost-effective solution with many features. It helps turn products, services, or time into bookable resources. It is designed to be flexible and pocket-friendly.
- Key Features: Multiple bookings for the same slot, single or multiple appointments, booking for a day or more, email reminders, booking confirmations and cancellations via email, admin approvals, buffer time, dynamic cost calculator, unbookable time, special pricing, pricing rules, automatic or user-based resource assignment, booking cancellations, multi-language support, compatible with WooCommerce product add-ons.
- Advantages: Good customer support, easy setup and customization, cheap price with many features.
- Disadvantage: Not intuitive, requires better tutorials.
- Price: $99/year for a single site, $146/year for 5 sites, $259/year for 25 sites.
3. Booknetic
WordPress Booking Plugin for Appointment Scheduling: This plugin is highly rated on Envato Market. It aims to automate online bookings for various businesses. It integrates with Zoom and payment gateways.
- Key Features: Form builders and templates, plan creation, subscriptions, GDPR compliance, gift cards and coupons, notifications via SMS, email, and WhatsApp, deposit payments, customizable design, group appointments, Google Calendar sync, PayPal, and Stripe integrations.
- Advantages: Awesome customer service, highly configurable and versatile, good documentation.
- Price: $79 for a regular license (personal use), $489 for an extended license (SaaS version).
4. YITH Booking and Appointment for WooCommerce
This is another highly rated plugin for managing rentals and service bookings. It can help create a site similar to Airbnb. It offers features for various booking types.
- Key Features: Unlimited booking products, various booking durations, setting booking prices, advanced price rules, discounts, availability settings, customization, automatic notifications, advanced rules for closures, extra services, and Google Calendar integration.
- Advantage: Full of options and combinations, incredibly flexible, great integrations with WooCommerce products.
- Disadvantage: It is a little tricky to configure.
- Price: €249.99/year.
5. Bookly PRO – Appointment Booking and Scheduling Software System
This plugin is mobile-friendly and customizable. It allows clients to book appointments easily. It supports SMS and email notifications.
- Key Features: Importable client list, integrates with Zapier and online meeting software, unlimited resources, customizable notification templates, online booking management, various appointment lengths, off-days selection, calendar views, Google Calendar sync, and built-in analytics.
- Advantage: High customizability, no huge impact on site loading speed.
- Cons: Requires buying add-ons for full functionality.
- Price: $89 for a regular license with 6 months of support (extended support available). A free version with limited features exists.
6. Bookings for WooCommerce Pro
This plugin aims to turn your WooCommerce store into an effective booking solution. It allows booking WordPress time slots and managing reservations.
- Key Features: Booking list on WC Order Listing panel, define cancellation/processing days, show/hide booking form details, early bird discounts, pre-booking email and SMS reminders, booking order listing calendar, define availability and unavailability, customized email/SMS templates.
- Advantage: Great plugin, fast support, flawless UI/UX.
- Price: $79 for a single site, $159 for 5 sites, $259 for 10 sites.
7. Booking Calendar
This is one of the oldest booking plugins for WordPress. It offers many features for receiving bookings for properties and services. It has a smooth user interface.
- Key Features: Timeslots bookings, view new booking numbers in the dashboard, search and sort bookings, prevent double booking, customizable calendar, Google Calendar integration, single or multiple day selection, set off-days, booking listing pagination, print bookings, discounts, payment gateway integration, visitor booking editing and cancellation, CSV export, shortcodes, responsive design, notification emails, approve/decline bookings.
- Advantages: Import iCal calendar for free, good and quick customer support, versatile and easy to configure.
- Disadvantage: Some coding knowledge is required for better customization.
- Price: Free version available. Premium plans vary based on site number and features, ranging from $79 to $899 for a lifetime license (with limited free updates).
8. Amelia Appointments and Events WordPress Booking Plugin
This plugin allows customers to book and pay online automatically. It suits businesses like beauty salons and clinics. It focuses on easy installation and configuration.
- Key Features: Admin dashboard with insights, step-by-step booking wizard, admin calendar view, booking search widget, shortcodes, business KPIs tracking, email and SMS notifications, double booking prevention, integrates with PayPal, Stripe, and Google Calendar.
- Advantage: Enough functions to make it work, easy to use with diverse modification options, good support team.
- Disadvantage: No hooks are available in the full version.
- Price: Free lite version. Pro annual plans range from $79 to $249. Lifetime plans range from $199 to $589.
9. Tyche Softwares – Booking & Appointment Plugin for WooCommerce
This plugin lets you turn various WooCommerce product types into bookable ones. It supports flexible time bookings and rentals. It integrates with Zoom.
- Key Features: Schedule full-day and overnight appointments/rentals, WooCommerce bookings sync, appointment limitations, Google Calendar/iCal/Outlook sync, manual booking, booking date/time change on checkout, show available slots, email and SMS reminders, WPML compatible, booking confirmation/denial, choose unbookable days, export bookings.
- Advantages: Easy to use, saves hours of coding, fast and responsive customer service.
- Disadvantage: Users might find some bugs, and there is no lifetime deal.
- Price: $119/year for 1 store, $199/year for 5 stores, $249/year for unlimited stores.
10. RnB – WooCommerce Booking & Rental Plugin
This plugin is designed for rental businesses like cars and bikes. It is easy to install and use. It offers a “request for quote” option.
- Key Features: Request for quote, control product availability, unlimited bookable products, manage multiple inventory, order/booking email notifications, invoice system, customer dashboard, various pricing options (hourly, kilometer-based), Google Calendar integration, and PayPal integration.
- Advantages: Good customer support, not expensive, simple, adaptable, and clean.
- Disadvantage: Documentation can be complicated initially.
- Price: $29 with 3 months of support (extended support available).
11. Pinpoint Booking System Pro WordPress Plugin
This plugin allows customers to book anything anytime from your website. It suits accommodations, services, and events. It features an AJAX calendar.
- Key Features: Suitable for small and big companies, intuitive admin area, responsive calendar, booking by days/nights/hours/minutes, various extensions for forms/discounts, WooCommerce integration, Google Calendar Sync API, email/SMS notifications, multiple payment gateways, multi-currency and multilingual support.
- Advantages: It offers shortcodes, gives more control over design, and is easy to set up.
- Disadvantage: Inadequate support documentation, no lifetime deal.
- Price: Personal license $70 for 1 site, Business $140 for 5 sites, Developer $280 for 25 sites (all annual). A free version is available.
12. WooCommerce Appointments
This plugin by Bizz Themes focuses on setting up appointable products. It integrates with WordPress, WooCommerce, and Google Calendar. It allows advance payments.
- Key Features: Weekly/daily calendar view, flexible email notifications, 2-way Google Calendar sync, white label option, built on WooCommerce, shortcode insertion, country-based pricing, REST API, multilingual support, schedule for multiple days, assign multiple resources, timezone conversion, flexible pricing rules.
- Advantage: Easy and quick to set up.
- Price: $89/year for 1 site, $129/year for 5 sites, $299/year for 25 sites (renewal at 50% off). No lifetime deal.
13. BirchPress Scheduler- Premium WordPress Appointment Booking Plugin
This plugin suits small businesses and various service industries. It allows embedding booking forms via shortcodes. It syncs with calendar apps.
- Key Features: Customizable booking form, embed via shortcodes, accept online payments, email notifications and reminders, block holidays, cancel and reschedule appointments (in higher plans), group booking (in higher plans), WooCommerce integration (in highest plan).
- Advantage: It is Good for small business owners, embeddable shortcodes, and developer-friendly.
- Cons: Not available for multiple websites across all plans.
- Price: Personal $99/year for 1 site, Business $199/year for 1 site, Business+ $249/year for 1 site. No lifetime plan.
14. Booked – Appointment Booking for WordPress
Developed by BoxyStudio, this is a simple yet powerful plugin. It is fully responsive. It offers multiple calendars and guest booking.
- Key Features: Custom calendar builder, multiple booking agents and calendars, custom time slots, appointment approval system, shortcodes, customer profile page, managing pending/approved appointments, custom login/registration form, built-in color pickers, lifetime free updates.
- Advantages: Easy to set up, easy to customize, sleek design.
- Price: $49 with 6 months of support (extended support available).
15. Appointment Booking Calendar
This is a freemium plugin that lets you accept bookings online. It allows the design of interactive calendars with time slots. It is suitable for various businesses.
- Key Features: Define booking capacity, set the starting day of the week, block specific dates, Twilio SMS addon (premium), export data to CSV (premium), multiple time slots selection, email notifications, Google Calendar export (premium), customizable emails (premium), multi-page calendar (premium), discount codes (premium).
- Advantages: It is Stable and reliable, with good customer support.
- Disadvantages: Only PayPal in the free version, Captcha verification in the free version, and limited features in the free version.
- Price: Free version available. Premium plans (Professional, Developer, Platinum) range from €49.99 to €149.99.
16. Booking Calendar, Appointment Booking System
This plugin helps build scheduling calendars from scratch. It is user-friendly and responsive. You can customize calendar availability and pricing.
- Key Features: Unlimited calendars/forms/themes, show/hide check-in/out, add info for users/admins, email notifications, minimum/maximum day value, multi-user functionality, single/multiple day selections, payment system integration with a cash option, select unavailable days, discount option (premium), edit reservations (premium), Google reCAPTCHA, PayPal integrated.
- Advantages: Easy to set up and integrate, amazing customer support, flexible refund policy.
- Disadvantage: The Free version’s features are not very useful.
- Price: Free version available. The premium “extended version” (with a payment system) ranges from $60 to $120 (annual). The version without a payment system has reduced prices.
17. WooCommerce Booking & Reservation Plugin
This newer plugin has gained good ratings. It offers unique features like dynamic pricing and Google Map integration. Customers can book products or services based on availability.
- Key Features: Display free/optional services, dynamic pricing based on person types, set price range, set cancellation timeframe, email notifications, pricing for peak days, customize email templates, view bookings from calendar, WPML compatible, fixed/customer-defined duration, allow cancellation, set minimum/maximum persons.
- Advantage: It is extremely affordable, has fast customer support, and has high ratings.
- Price: Regular license $29, Extended license $175 (one-time purchase).
18. MotoPress Appointment Booking
This plugin provides a versatile solution for online scheduling. It allows the creation of multiple services and employee schedules. It supports various payment options.
- Key Features: Online and on-site payments, multiple services booked at once, group booking, full-day bookings, flexible schedules, step-by-step booking widget, appointment reminders, centralized bookings calendar, Google Calendar sync, built-in analytics, customer accounts, customizable form, integrates with Elementor, Gutenberg, and Divi.
- Advantage: Caters to various business needs.
- Disadvantage: The free version has limited functionality.
- Price: Single site $79/year, unlimited sites $199/year. Free version available.
Conclusion
Choosing the best WooCommerce booking plugin depends heavily on your specific business needs and budget. Consider the criteria we discussed and carefully review the features, advantages, disadvantages, and pricing of each plugin. Some plugins, like WooCommerce Bookings, offer native integration but come at a higher cost. Others like PluginHive provide a more affordable yet feature-rich alternative. If you need a simple solution to add a date picker, WooCommerce Product Options might suffice.
For event bookings, The Events Calendar (with add-ons) is a strong contender. Test the free versions or utilize money-back guarantees when available to ensure the plugin meets your requirements. Ultimately, the right plugin will streamline your booking process, improve customer experience, and help your business grow.
FAQs
Is there a free WooCommerce booking plugin?
Yes, some plugins like Booking Calendar, Appointment Booking Calendar, and MotoPress Appointment Booking offer free versions. However, these free versions often have limited features compared to their premium counterparts. You might need to invest in a paid plugin for more robust functionality.
Which is the best WooCommerce booking plugin for rentals?
Plugins like RnB – WooCommerce Booking & Rental Plugin and YITH Booking and Appointment for WooCommerce are specifically designed with rental businesses in mind, offering features like inventory management and flexible pricing. Sales Igniter WooCommerce Bookings also caters well to rental needs.
Can these plugins sync with Google Calendar?
Yes, many of the top WooCommerce booking plugins, including WooCommerce Bookings, PluginHive, Booknetic, YITH Booking, Bookly Pro, Booking Calendar, Amelia, and Tyche Software, offer integration with Google Calendar to help you manage your appointments across platforms.
Do these plugins support online payments?
Yes, most of these plugins integrate with WooCommerce, which supports various payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe. Some plugins like Booknetic and Amelia also offer their payment gateway integrations.
What types of businesses can use a WooCommerce booking plugin?
A wide range of businesses can benefit, including hotels, salons, gyms, clinics, rental services (cars, bikes), event organizers, consultants, and anyone offering bookable products or services. The key is if you offer something that customers need to reserve or schedule in advance.