X

13 Best WordPress Booking Plugins Compared (2024)

best wordpress booking plugins

Do you want to make it easy for customers to book appointments and reservations directly on your website?

With a WordPress booking plugin, you can create a fully functional system to schedule appointments, registrations, and reservations.

We’ve listed out the best WordPress Booking plugins that are easy to use, affordable, and feature-rich.

Choosing the RIGHT WordPress Booking Plugin

Not every business has the same needs and not every WordPress booking plugin offers the same features. To make sure you pick a plugin that fits your needs, you need to be clear on what your business goals are.

Do you want to book appointments and reservations? Are you looking to book online sessions? Will customers need to pay online in order to confirm their booking? Do you want to have the option to reschedule?

These are just a few questions you need to ask yourself before you find the right plugin. Added to that, here’s what we recommend you look for:

  • Mobile-friendly booking system that allows customers to seamlessly book appointments on their phone
  • Online payment options to accept payments securely
  • Good booking experience with fast load times
  • Built-in calendar view or calendar integration to manage your appointments easily
  • Automated email notifications, confirmations and reminders

That said, let’s take a look at the best WordPress booking plugins on the market.

Best WordPress Booking Plugins Compared

1. WPForms

wpforms homepage

WPForms is hands down the best WordPress form builder to allow bookings on your site. It’s jam-packed with features that cater to businesses that want to take:

  • Appointments
  • Reservations
  • Event Registrations
  • Room bookings
  • Travel bookings
  • In-person service bookings
  • Online session slots

…and more.

WPForms comes with 1,200+ premade templates for almost every kind of business out there. You’ll find appointment and booking forms for patients, dentists, veterinarians, hair salons, hotels, and more. You name it, you’ll find it.

booking templates in WPForms

Every template is mobile-friendly so your form will look good on any device. You simply need to select the right template to get started. There’s a drag and drop visual builder to easily customize the form to match your brand.

Then WPForms has readymade widgets and blocks for WordPress so you can embed it anywhere on your site with just a click.

With WPForms, you’ll get access to all the features you need such as a date/time picker, list of services, and automated email notifications and confirmations.

Every form comes with built-in spam protection so you’ll receive only genuine requests. And to top it off, you can add payment options like PayPal and Stripe to accept online payments and credit card info before customers can book their appointment.

The only thing WPForms lacks is a built-in calendar view to manage appointments. You get a centralized list with options to view, edit, delete, and add notes to each appointment.

You can, however, connect to Zapier and then integrate with Google Calendar to have your appointments automatically added to your calendar.

Highlights

  • Easiest form builder to use with 1,200+ templates
  • Payment and email integrations
  • Centralized booking management inside the WordPress dashboard
  • Autocomplete address field
  • Instant notifications and page redirects

Cost

The WPForms lite version is a free plugin. The premium plugin starts at $49.50 per year.

Get started with WPForms today!

2. Sugar Calendar

sugar calendar homepage

Sugar Calendar is the best event calendar and booking plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, you can schedule events on your website’s back-end, display sleek event calendars on the front-end, sell event tickets, and more.

Sugar Calendar is a simple, fast, and lightweight solution for your event management needs. It’s easy to set up and comes with many customization options. You can create repeating/recurring events, set start and end times, assign time zones, and add other event details.

You can connect Sugar Calendar with WordPress form builder plugins like WPForms and Ninja Forms to create even more powerful booking forms.

It also integrates with Google Calendar and iCal to help improve your workflow.

Highlights

  • Simple admin interface
  • Multiple calendar widgets
  • Fully localized and translation-ready
  • Allow users to submit their own events
  • Sell and manage event tickets
  • Integrates with Google Calendar, iCal, WooCommerce, and other tools

Cost

Sugar Calendar starts at $49 per year. There’s also a Lite version of the plugin for free.

Get started with Sugar Calendar today!

3. Start Booking

start booking

Start Booking is the best online booking and scheduling plugin that enables your clients to book an appointment with you on your website around the clock. If you’re already using Google Calendar, then you can integrate your booking system with it.

At a glance, your customers can view and select a bookable service on your booking page. After selecting a service, they will be prompted to choose the date and time that works. Then the checkout flow will capture all the essential information from your customer and securely store it within the Start Booking system.

Highlights

  • Create a fully customizable and optimized booking flow
  • High speed and performance
  • Built-in calendar view
  • Comprehensive customer profile and preference management
  • Integrates with Google, Stripe, Zoom, and Mailchimp

Cost

Forever-free plan with unlimited appointments and basic features. The premium plan starts at $79 per month.

Get started with Start Booking today.

4. Bookly

bookly appointment plugin for wordpress

Bookly is a complete WordPress booking plugin that automates the booking and online scheduling of your services. Bookly is best suited for booking services such as salon appointments, health and wellness check-ups, education/tutoring meetings, and other professional services.

It offers seamless mobile integration, making it easy to book appointments on the go for your clients.

It’s one of the most easy-to-use WordPress plugins for appointment booking. The whole appointment booking process can be set from 2 to 6 easy steps.

Bookly is compatible with the WPML plugin, so you can create a multilingual online booking website without hassle. It also lets you manage your client base effortlessly by providing an unlimited, sortable, and searchable customer list.

Also check: How to Create a Multilingual Website.

You can also enhance the core features of the plugin with a lot of different addons like coupons, custom fields, group bookings, chain appointments, and recurring payments.

Highlights

  • Fully customizable booking form
  • Built-in filters, sort by, and search options for booking list
  • Import and export to CSV
  • Unlimited service list and staff members
  • Google Calendar sync

Cost

$89 + taxes with 6 months of support.

Get started with Bookly today.

5. BirchPress

BirchPress

BirchPress is one of the best booking scheduler plugins that allows service businesses to schedule booking and accept payments online.

With BirchPress, booking forms can be easily made using the built-in form editor and then embedded on your pages via shortcodes.

It syncs with your online calendars such as Google Calendar and iCal, so you can quickly view your appointments and availability.

BirchPress also allows you to send highly-customized emails to your clients when an appointment is booked, rescheduled, or canceled. You can also remind your clients about an upcoming appointment without having to use a different email marketing service.

This WordPress schedule plugin comes bundled with PayPal payments. For more payment options, you can integrate your website with WooCommerce.

The BirchPress plugin also comes with thousands of functions and hooks, making it one of the most developer-friendly WordPress appointment plugins in existence.

Highlights

  • Sync with existing calendar
  • Import and export appointments and availability
  • Accept online payments with PayPal
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Developer friendly with action hooks and filters

Cost

Starts at $99 per year.

Get started with BirchPress today.

6. Booking Calendar

The Booking Calendar plugin is a multipurpose plugin that allows you to manage both appointment and reservation bookings from your WordPress site.

This appointment plugin is extremely easy to use with a lot of functionalities, tailored to a wide range of businesses.

Since all bookings and settings are stored in your WordPress database, you don’t need to have a third-party account to manage bookings. However, if you want to import feeds from third-party sources like Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, TripAdvisor, and so on, then you can easily do that as well.

Your booking forms and calendars are responsive. This means they will look great on all devices such as desktop, mobile, or tablets.

Best of all, a wide range of online payment gateways is supported, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and more.

Highlights

  • User friendly frontend and backend interface
  • Works with all versions of WordPress and popular WordPress themes
  • Approve book requests instantly
  • Enable/disable terms and conditions
  • Add booking hours, user permission, page redirects, and more with the pro version

Cost

Free version available. The premium plugin starts at $60.

Get started with Booking Calendar today.

7. WP Simple Booking Calendar

wp simple booking calendar

WP Simple Booking Calendar might be the right booking calendar solution for you if you’re after a simple WordPress schedule plugin that only shows your customers the availability of your holiday home or hotel.

With the free version of this schedule plugin, you get all the basic features you would expect from a booking calendar plugin. For example, you can display a booking calendar widget that shows availability and also accept bookings through a user-friendly interface with multilingual support.

Keep in mind that this plugin doesn’t allow you to accept online payments so you will have to accept payment offline though.

With the premium version, you can easily sync your booking calendars with third-party vacation rental apps, like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Flipkey. Any changes made to your website booking calendar will be automatically reflected on your third-party accounts in real time.

Highlights

  • Display availability dates and legend
  • Simply user-friendly interface
  • Responsive and mobile-friendly
  • Backup/restore calendar and data

Cost

Free version with limited features. The premium version starts at $39.

Get started with WP Simple Booking Calendar today.

8. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the most powerful lead generation plugin for WordPress. It lets you create campaigns like popups, slide-ins, floating bars, and more to prompt visitors to book an appointment or schedule a session with you.

This gives them easy access at any time while they’re browsing your site. They won’t have to look for your booking form page. OptinMonster also has powerful campaign triggers and audience targeting rules.

You can display booking options based on the user’s location, interests, and actions on your site. So instead of having a generic booking form, you can dynamically change the campaign based on which page the visitor is on.

This plugin will not work as a standalone solution to create bookings and online appointments. Instead, you’ll need to pair it up with a form builder like WPForms. Then you can embed your booking form using shortcodes and create stunning campaigns to boost conversions and signups.

Highlights

  • 50+ templates and a drag and drop builder for easy customization
  • Plenty of email integrations
  • Exit intent technology to recover abandoning users
  • Retargeting and followup campaigns

Cost

Starts at $9 per month with a 14-day money back guarantee.

Get started with OptinMonster!

9. The Events Calendar

the-events-calendar

The Events Calendar is a booking plugin that’s designed for online and offline events, ticketing, and appointment scheduling. It’s an all-in-one solution to manage any event from start to finish.

The plugin comes with an events calendar to let users book appointments for your events. They can select a date and time slot for your event and confirm their booking online.

You’ll need to integrate your bookings with your main events calendar and your scheduled times will appear in a calendar view.

With this plugin, you can create multi-day and recurring events and even list your availability. It works great for conferences, retreats, and other events.

Highlights

  • Integrates with Gravity Forms, Elementor, Mailchimp, and more
  • Automatically create a WordPress user account when someone makes an appointment
  • Display your availability by day, time, and type of appointment
  • Add custom fields to collect the info you need

Cost

Starts at $99 per year.

Get started with The Events Calendar.

10. Formidable Forms

formidable forms

Formidable Forms is one of the best form builders for WordPress. You can create all kinds of forms including booking forms.

Plus, the plugin integrates with booking and events software that includes Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Acuity Scheduling, Todoist, and Simply Schedule Appointments.

It comes with datepicker options to date fields so you choose the dates that can be selected.

Once the user books an appointment, you can send an email autoresponder. You can also schedule email notifications and SMS notifications to be sent to users to remind them of their appointments.

All forms are responsive and sized automatically for each device so your booking form will look good for all users.

Formidable Forms also makes it easy to manage form entries, and export the data if you need.

Cost

Starting from $39.50 for the Basic plan.

Get started with Formidable Forms.

11. Amelia

Amelia

Amelia is a simple but powerful automated booking plugin for WordPress. It acts as your assistant to automate interaction with customers. You can take appointments, schedule slots for events, and more.

With this booking system in place, your users can create bookings 24/7 and even make payments online.

The plugin is suitable for services and business owners like lawyers, gyms, spas, private clinics, and repair centers, to name a few.

Highlights

  • Booking, reschedule, and cancellation features
  • Customizable designs
  • Insightful admin panel and admin calendar view
  • Step-by-step booking wizard
  • Search booking widget
  • Email and SMS notifications

Cost

Starts at $49 per year.

Get started with Amelia.

12. Events Schedule

Events Schedule

Events Schedule is a booking plugin that’s designed for events and classes. There are 12 styles of display so you can create a booking system that matches your brand and goals perfectly.

You can create an image carousel along with a timetable for your events or classes. You can even add a daily agenda to your sidebar.

The plugin is ideal for online course websites and those that have a long list of events available. Users can apply filters to easily find the classes or events that they’re looking for.

Events Schedule supports repetitive events but there’s no option for multi-day events.

Highlights

  • Easy visual builder
  • Google Maps integration
  • SEO friendly
  • Fast and high performance

Cost

$39 + taxes with 6 months of support.

Get started with Events Schedule.

13. SeedProd

seedprod landing page builder

SeedProd is the best landing page builder for WordPress. It comes in handy when you want to create a dedicated page for bookings and appointments.

There are 150+ beautiful templates and a visual drag and drop builder to create a centralized landing page where you can send all interested traffic.

SeedProd lets you add countdown timers, giveaways, optin forms, and much more to your page to optimize it for conversions.

It also lets you put your website into coming soon and maintenance mode and display custom booking pages. This means you can take appointments even when your website is under development.

SeedProd comes pre-integrated with WPForms. There’s a contact form block inside the page builder that lets you select any form that you create with WPForms. This makes it incredibly easy to embed appointment forms into your WordPress landing page.

Added to that, SeedProd integrates with WooCommerce. This means you can allow visitors to book their slots and make payments directly from your landing page.

Highlights

  • Email and WooCommerce integrations
  • Subscriber management with visual data
  • Responsive mobile friendly pages
  • Built for speed and performance
  • Developer friendly with CSS and custom scripts
  • Built-in spam protection

Cost

Get the free version in the WordPress repository. Pro plan pricing starts at $39.50 per year.

Get started with SeedProd today!

There you have it! That’s our roundup of the best booking plugins for WordPress. If you’re still undecided on which one is the best, we give you our verdict next.

What is the BEST Booking Plugin for WordPress?

After comparing the top booking plugins, our top 3 choices are:

WPForms lets you create a simple booking form but it’s the most versatile option out there. It works for any business, event, service, or WordPress website. No matter what kind of appointment you want to take, we found that WPForms has a solution for it.

It’s rich with features to create and manage appointments. The only thing we miss is the built-in calendar view, but like many other plugins on this list, you can sync it to Google Calendars and have all your appointments automatically added there.

To get started right away, follow our guide: Create a custom booking form in WordPress.

Our next choice is Sugar Calendar. It lets you quickly add new events, edit events, and view event posts on a monthly, weekly, or daily calendar. You can also display your event calendar on your website easily using multiple event calendar widgets. Plus, you can collect payments for appointments right from your WordPress site.

We also recommend Start Booking. It gives you a full-fledged appointment system for your business. Start Booking comes with a calendar view and easy customer management. Plus, users can book single and multiple appointments together.

No matter what services you’re offering, the plugin is packed with a robust set of functionalities to manage appointments online and grow your business.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress booking plugin for your needs.

Do you want to boost the number of bookings you get? Then you’ll want to check out our resources:

These posts will help you drive more traffic, increase conversions, and build your brand.

Comments   Leave a Reply

  1. Which plugin is the best appointment booking system for hospitals? In which available slots are shown to users and when the appointment is confirmed then the slot occupied slots are automatically unavailable.

    1. Hey Adnan, our top recommendation is the Start Booking plugin. However, you can also read the descriptions of other plugins to see which suits best for your requirements.

  2. Thanks “Editorial Team” for the awesome relief from both the trial + error method and indecisiveness.

    I was scared cause I thought I might be retarded or something.

    I need more! I’m hooked!

    “Put this crystal clear content in your pipe and smoke it…” – Fom Tooley ’21

    1. Hey Fom, we’re glad this article helped you!

Add a Comment

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy, and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

WordPress Launch Checklist

The Ultimate WordPress Launch Checklist

We've compiled all the essential checklist items for your next WordPress website launch into one handy ebook.
Yes, Send Me the Free eBook!