I set up a live booking page on Lunacal, Square Appointments, Setmore, SimplyBook.me, Calendly, Cal.com, GlossGenius, Picktime and Microsoft Bookings, then booked through each one as a customer would. Online booking software is a genuinely crowded market — Grand View Research put the global scheduling apps market at USD 663.1 million in 2025, heading to USD 1,813.1 million by 2033 at a 13.46% compound rate — and most roundups compare feature lists rather than the thing that decides revenue: whether a stranger can find a slot, pay and get a confirmation without calling you. That is what I tested, along with what each one costs once payments are switched on.
Which online booking software should a service business use?
Online booking software compared at a glance
| Tool | Best For | Starting Price | Standout Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunacal | Content-rich booking pages | $9/user/month | Custom domain, 0% commission |
| Square Appointments | In-person retail bookings | Free; $49/month per location | Booking tied to POS |
| Setmore | Small teams, tight budgets | Free; $5/user/month | Four free users |
| SimplyBook.me | Multi-service, multi-language | Free; €11.90/month | Modular custom features |
| Calendly | Meetings and consultations | Free; $10/seat/month | Lead routing forms |
| Cal.com | Developers and technical teams | Free; $12/user/month | Open source, self-hostable |
| GlossGenius | Salons, spas, studios | $28/month | Flat 2.6% card rate |
| Picktime | Rooms, classes, equipment | Free; $2.25/user/month | Resource and class booking |
| Microsoft Bookings | Microsoft 365 organisations | Included with M365 plans | No extra subscription |
What each online booking system charges and supports
| Tool | Public booking page | Payments at booking | Reminders | Multi-staff / resources | Cost model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunacal | Fully customisable page with FAQs, testimonials, video and custom domain | Stripe and PayPal, pay-before-confirm, 0% platform commission | Email and SMS on every plan, plus multi-step workflows | Round robin, collective, multi-service, multi-location | Per user, per month |
| Square Appointments | Free hosted booking site with service menu | Square payments only; processing fees on every plan | Appointment reminders included | Multi-staff booking on Plus; resource management on Premium | Per location, per month |
| Setmore | Hosted booking page; Setmore branding until Pro | Stripe, Square or PayPal deposits on Pro | One email reminder free; SMS on Pro | 4 users free, unlimited on Pro | Per user, per month |
| SimplyBook.me | Booking website plus branded client app from Standard | Deposits and payments as enableable modules | Email and SMS depending on plan modules | 5 providers on Basic, 15 on Standard, 30 on Premium | Per month, capped by bookings |
| Calendly | Meeting-link page with limited styling | Stripe and PayPal, limited invitee currencies | Reminders on paid plans only | Round robin and routing on Teams | Per seat, per month |
| Cal.com | Booking page, embeds and full API control | Stripe and PayPal on the free plan | Email and SMS notifications included | Round robin, collective and managed events on Teams | Per user, per month, or self-hosted |
| GlossGenius | Booking site with service menu and deposits | Built-in processing at a flat 2.6% | Automated reminders and forms | Team features on Gold and Platinum | Per month, flat, not per staff |
| Picktime | Booking page with classes, rooms and equipment | PayPal on the free plan | Email free; SMS from Starter | 3 users free, 10 on Pro, with resources and locations | Per user, per month, billed annually |
| Microsoft Bookings | Bookings page tied to your Microsoft 365 tenant | No native payment collection | Email confirmations and reminders | Staff calendars drawn from Microsoft 365 users | Bundled into a Microsoft 365 licence |
References: Lunacal pricing · Square Appointments pricing · Cal.com pricing · GlossGenius G2 reviews · SimplyBook.me G2 reviews
Each online booking platform examined up close
Lunacal
Lunacal is appointment scheduling built so the booking page carries real decision-making content rather than a bare slot picker, with payments, packages and workflows behind it when the business needs them.
Who is Lunacal best for?
Service businesses whose customers need to understand what they are booking before they pick a time — consultants, clinics, studios and agencies. It suits anyone who wants the booking URL, the page and the confirmation emails to carry their own name.
When is Lunacal a poor fit?
It is not a point of sale. A salon that needs to ring up retail products, run a card terminal and process payroll should look at Square Appointments or GlossGenius instead, and use Lunacal only if booking is the part that matters most.
The booking page is where the difference shows: services, availability and supporting content in one hosted page rather than a calendar grid. Here is that view.
Features
Hosted booking website
Rather than a link, you get a page that can hold services, prices, FAQs, testimonials, images and video. Booking a 90-minute session from it took me four taps on a phone and required no explanation. The screenshot below shows a hosted booking page with services and live availability side by side.
Custom domain
Running bookings on your own domain rather than a vendor subdomain is available, and it does more for customer confidence than any amount of colour matching. Availability can depend on your plan, so check that before you commit to a URL.
Payments and deposits
Stripe and PayPal connect quickly, payment can be required before an appointment is confirmed, and Lunacal charges 0% platform commission on bookings. That last point compounds: a business taking 200 paid bookings a month keeps the difference that a commission-based marketplace would take.
Timezones and languages
Availability shows in the customer’s local time automatically and the booking flow supports 13+ languages. If you sell across borders, this removes the single most common cause of a missed international appointment.
Reminders and workflows
Email and SMS reminders are on every plan and can be chained into multi-step sequences. G2 reviewers repeatedly point to the booking page’s content depth as the reason they moved from a plain scheduling link, and one described switching from Acuity specifically because prospects could see testimonials and past work before booking.
Embedding
The booking experience embeds into an existing website, which is the option I would take for a business with an established site. An AppSumo review noted fast support during custom-domain setup, which is the step most likely to need help.
Pros
- The booking page answers customer questions in place, which cuts the pre-booking enquiry emails a bare slot picker generates.
- 0% platform commission means volume growth does not increase what the scheduler takes from you.
- Custom domain and custom SMTP keep the whole booking journey on your own brand rather than a vendor’s.
- Automatic local-timezone display and 13+ languages make international bookings straightforward.
Cons
- No point of sale, inventory or payroll, so retail-heavy businesses need a second system.
- No consumer marketplace, so it will not generate discovery bookings the way Square or GlossGenius listings can.
- Custom domain availability depends on the plan, so confirm it before building a URL into your marketing.
- Team routing and approval logic take real setup time if your intake questions branch.
Pricing
Standard
- $9 per user, per month; annual billing saves 10%.
- Unlimited calendars and services, Stripe and PayPal payments, SMS and email reminders, booking page customisation.
Teams
- $15 per user, per month.
- Adds team scheduling, multi-session packages, round robin and webhooks.
Enterprise
- $25 per user, per month.
- Adds AI voice agent, complete branding, account manager, premium support and personalised onboarding.
Every tier carries a 7-day free trial. The plan view makes clear where team scheduling and packages begin, which is the only real decision for a business booking through one page.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Lunacal pricing.
Square Appointments
Square Appointments is online booking wrapped around Square’s payments business. The booking site is free, and the money is made on card processing rather than the software.
When should you choose Square Appointments?
Choose it if customers book online but pay in person — barbershops, nail salons, tattoo studios, repair shops. Bookings, checkout, tips and the customer record all sit in one place, which is genuinely useful at a front desk.
Who should avoid Square Appointments?
Avoid it if you already use Stripe or PayPal, or if you operate several locations. Payments are locked to Square, and the $49 and $149 plans are charged per location, so a three-site business pays three times.
The product page leads with booking that stays connected to the point of sale, which is exactly the trade being offered. Here is that page.
Features
Free booking site
The free tier includes a hosted booking site, unlimited staff calendars and appointment reminders. For a solo operator that is a complete online booking system at zero subscription cost, which no other paid-first tool here matches.
Cancellation policies
No-show fees and cancellation policies arrive on the Plus plan and are enforced against a card on file. That enforcement is the point — an MGMA Stat poll published on 8 January 2025 of 622 medical group leaders found practices charging a no-show fee reported more improvement in no-show rates during 2024 (25%) than those without one (16%).
Payments lock-in
All payment flows run through Square, and processing fees apply on every plan including the free one. That is fine if you already run Square, and a genuine obstacle if you do not. A Trustpilot reviewer explained staying with Square precisely because payouts and the wider ecosystem felt dependable; the review is below.
Resource management
Rooms, chairs and equipment can be assigned to bookings on the Premium plan. It works well but $149 per month per location is steep for what several competitors include far lower down.
Support experience
Support was the most uneven part of my testing. Reddit threads in the Square community describe being passed between teams when a booking breaks, and the screenshot below captures one such account. Others report excellent help, so the experience is not consistent.
Pros
- A genuinely capable free plan with a hosted booking site and unlimited staff calendars.
- Booking, checkout, tips and customer history in one record, which removes reconciliation work at the counter.
- Card-on-file enforcement makes cancellation and no-show policies actually collectable.
- Hardware, payroll and retail all connect natively if you grow into them.
Cons
- Payments are locked to Square, so Stripe and PayPal users cannot keep their existing processor.
- Paid plans are billed per location, which multiplies quickly for multi-site businesses.
- Resource management sits on the $149 Premium tier, well above where competitors offer it.
- Support quality varies widely, and routing between teams is a recurring complaint.
Pricing
Free
- $0 per month, per location.
- Online booking site, appointment reminders, unlimited staff calendars. Card processing fees apply.
Plus
- $49 per month, per location.
- Adds cancellation policies, no-show fees, multi-staff booking and waitlists.
Premium
- $149 per month, per location.
- Adds resource management, future bookings reporting, service cost tracking and time tracking.
Square Pro
- Custom pricing for businesses processing over $250,000 annually, with hardware discounts and account management.
Because processing fees are charged separately on every tier, the subscription line is only half the cost picture — the plan page is worth reading alongside your expected card volume.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Square Appointments pricing.
Setmore
Setmore is the cheapest credible route to a working public booking page. A four-user free plan with unlimited appointments covers a surprising amount of a small business’s needs before anything is paid for.
Which teams benefit most from Setmore?
Small teams that need bookings taken reliably without a management platform — tutors, mobile trades, small clinics, two-chair barbershops. Setup is the fastest of the nine; I had a live page taking bookings in under twenty minutes.
Where does Setmore fall short?
Shared-capacity slots, packages and any client-portal work are missing or awkward. It books individuals into individual slots very well and stops there.
The homepage is straightforward about the offer: free scheduling, mobile apps, round-the-clock booking, reminders and payments. Here is that page.
Features
Free plan reach
Four users, unlimited appointments and a public booking page for nothing. The constraints are real — email reminders only, no two-way calendar sync, Setmore branding on the page — but as a way to move a business off phone-only booking it works immediately.
Deposits on Pro
Taking a deposit before confirming needs the Pro plan at $5 per user per month on annual billing. Stripe, Square and PayPal all connect, so unlike Square Appointments you keep your existing processor.
Two-way calendar sync
This is the upgrade that matters most. On the free plan there is no two-way sync, which means a personal-calendar commitment will not block a public booking slot. I created that exact collision during testing and it booked over the top.
Interface changes
A redesigned interface has landed while some longstanding issues remained open — a Trustpilot reviewer made that complaint directly, and the screenshot is below. Day to day the new interface is cleaner, but the criticism is fair.
Sync reliability
Calendar sync is the most repeated criticism across Capterra’s Setmore reviews, alongside notes that automatic emails cannot be customised. Both matched what I found: the booking works, the surrounding communication is rigid.
Pros
- Four free users with unlimited appointments is the most generous free tier of the nine tested.
- Pro at $5 per user per month is the cheapest paid route to SMS reminders, deposits and branding removal.
- You keep your own payment processor rather than being tied to the vendor’s.
- Setup is quick enough that a small business can switch on online booking the same morning.
Cons
- No two-way calendar sync on free, so double bookings are a live risk until you upgrade.
- Confirmation emails cannot be meaningfully customised, which limits how branded the experience feels.
- Shared-capacity or small-group slots need manual workarounds.
- Sync reliability is the most common complaint in the public review record.
Pricing
Free
- $0 per user, per month, up to 4 users.
- Unlimited appointments, one email reminder, Setmore branding, no SMS, no deposits, no two-way sync, no API.
Pro
- $5 per user, per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly, with unlimited users.
- Adds SMS reminders, deposits, two-way calendar sync, branding removal, Google review requests, API access, priority support.
Live Receptionist
- $99 per month add-on for Free or Pro, US only, putting a human on your phone line to take bookings.
Enterprise
- Custom pricing; contact sales.
The free-versus-Pro line is the whole decision here, and two-way sync sits on the paid side of it.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Setmore pricing.
SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook.me gives you a booking website and a library of modules you switch on individually — deposits, memberships, intake forms, approvals, coupons — rather than a fixed feature set per tier.
What does SimplyBook.me suit best?
Multi-service businesses booking across languages and currencies: clinics, driving schools, tour operators, salons outside the US. It handles several providers, several services and several locations without an enterprise contract.
Who needs an alternative to SimplyBook.me?
Anyone with high booking volume. Plans cap at 50, 100, 500 and 2,000 bookings per month, and reaching that ceiling stops bookings rather than simply costing more that month.
The product page leads with round-the-clock self-service booking for service businesses, which is a fair summary. Here is that view.
Features
Modular custom features
Basic allows 3 modules, Standard 8 and Premium unlimited. In practice I spent more time deciding which eight features mattered than configuring them, which is the honest cost of the model. It does mean a simple business is not paying for machinery it never turns on.
Booking website
You get a genuine multi-page booking site rather than a single link, with service categories, provider profiles and a class timetable. For a business with fifteen services this is far easier for customers to navigate than a dropdown. The admin dashboard behind it is shown below.
International handling
Languages, currencies and time zones are handled better than in most US-first competitors, and HIPAA and SAML SSO arrive at the Standard tier rather than an enterprise plan. Fortune Business Insights, in a report last updated 17 August 2026, put North America at 34.10% of the appointment scheduling software market in 2025 — most of the rest of that market is served badly by tools that assume a US phone number and a dollar price.
Setup and support
The onboarding wizard is good and support responded quickly during testing. A Trustpilot reviewer said the same — easy to use, with responsive support. The admin interface itself feels dated next to Lunacal or GlossGenius and takes longer to learn than its feature depth suggests.
Booking caps
The cap is the constraint that actually bites. A salon on Basic doing five bookings a day exhausts 100 monthly bookings in three weeks. G2 reviewers raise this and the upgrade cost repeatedly, and it is the first number I would check before signing up.
Pros
- Modular pricing means you pay for the capabilities you enable rather than a bundled tier.
- A real multi-page booking website suits businesses with long service menus.
- Language, currency and time-zone support is stronger than most competitors here.
- HIPAA and SAML SSO on the mid tier make regulated bookings viable without enterprise pricing.
Cons
- Monthly booking caps constrain busy businesses regardless of which features they use.
- Module counts on Basic and Standard force trade-offs between capabilities you may both need.
- The admin interface is dated and the learning curve is longer than the feature list implies.
- Membership billing cycles cannot be pinned to a fixed calendar date.
Pricing
Free
- €0 per month: 50 bookings, 1 custom feature, 1 provider.
Basic
- €11.90 per month billed annually, €13.90 monthly: 100 bookings, 3 custom features, 5 providers.
Standard
- €24.90 per month billed annually, €29.90 monthly: 500 bookings, 8 custom features, 15 providers, branded client app, HIPAA, SAML SSO.
Premium
- €49.90 per month billed annually, €59.90 monthly: 2,000 bookings, unlimited custom features, 30 providers, Payments PRO, accounting integrations, white-labelled footer.
Enterprise
- Custom pricing with multi-location access, dedicated account manager, full white label and data location selection.
Match your monthly booking volume to a tier before you compare features, because that ceiling decides the plan more often than the feature list does.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against SimplyBook.me pricing.
Calendly
Calendly is the best-known scheduling link in the category, and it is worth being clear about what it is: excellent for booking meetings, deliberately minimal as a customer-facing booking storefront.
Is Calendly right for your business?
Yes if what customers book is your time — consultations, discovery calls, interviews, advisory sessions. Routing forms and round robin on the Teams plan handle lead assignment properly, and integrations are the broadest here.
When should you skip Calendly?
Skip it if customers book a service rather than a meeting. There is no service menu, no resource booking, no class capacity and minimal page styling, so a salon or studio will find it thin.
The homepage frames the product as a scheduling interface rather than a booking storefront, which is an accurate self-description. Here it is.
Features
Reminders on paid plans
The free plan has no reminders, which is the main reason free Calendly users see more no-shows than they expect. A Trustpilot reviewer described no-shows dropping once they enabled reminders on a paid plan; that feedback appears below.
Routing forms
Answers on a short form send a visitor to a different event type and owner. This is the strongest team feature on the list, though at $16 per seat it is priced for whole teams rather than the two people who need it.
Booking limits
Daily caps, buffers and minimum notice give unusually fine control over how much of your week bookings can eat. If you take consultations alongside delivery work, this alone justifies the Standard plan.
Page styling
Branding control is thin even on paid plans, and design-conscious teams say so consistently in G2’s pros-and-cons summaries. If the booking page needs to sell as well as schedule, this is where Calendly loses to Lunacal or SimplyBook.me.
Payment currencies
Invitees can pay in only a handful of currencies through Stripe and PayPal. For a consultancy with clients across Asia or Latin America that is a hard limit rather than an inconvenience.
Pros
- Customers already recognise the interface, so there is no explanation step in the booking flow.
- Booking limits and buffers protect your calendar better than any other tool here.
- Routing and round robin handle team lead assignment properly.
- The integration library is the widest of the nine, which matters if bookings must reach a CRM.
Cons
- No service menu, resource booking or class capacity, so it is a poor storefront for service businesses.
- Reminders are absent on the free plan, which quietly costs you appointments.
- Page styling is limited, and paid plans barely improve it.
- Invitee payment currencies are restricted, excluding some international customer bases.
Pricing
Free
- $0: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling.
Standard
- $10 per seat, per month; yearly billing saves 17%. Unlimited event types, multiple calendars, reminders, Stripe and PayPal payments.
Teams
- $16 per seat, per month; yearly billing saves 20%. Round robin, lead routing, centrally managed event types, admin controls.
Enterprise
- From $15,000 per year, minimum 50 seats. Salesforce routing, SSO and SAML, dedicated account support.
Since reminders sit behind the first paid tier, most businesses should budget for Standard rather than treating the free plan as the starting point.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Calendly pricing.
Cal.com
Cal.com is the open-source answer to Calendly. The hosted product behaves like a conventional scheduler; the difference is that the code is public, the API is first-class and you can run the whole thing on your own infrastructure.
Who is Cal.com best for?
Technical teams and product companies that want booking embedded inside their own application, and organisations with data-residency requirements that rule out a hosted-only vendor. The free plan is unusually complete for a single user.
When is Cal.com a poor fit?
It is a poor fit for a salon, clinic or studio front desk. There is no point of sale, no service menu built for retail booking and no consumer marketplace, and self-hosting only pays off if you have engineers.
The homepage is aimed at developers and teams building scheduling into their own products rather than at walk-in customers. Here is that page.
Features
Free plan depth
Unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, 100+ integrations, Stripe and PayPal payments, and two-way Salesforce and HubSpot sync — on the free tier, for one user. Calendly charges for most of that. For a solo consultant this is the best free plan on this list.
Calendar integrations
Connecting Google, Outlook and Apple calendars took under two minutes and conflict detection was accurate throughout testing. A G2 reviewer made the same point about Google Calendar sync working cleanly; that review is below.
Embedding and API
Booking embeds into an existing site or app in several formats, and the API is genuinely open rather than a paid add-on. A Trustpilot reviewer highlighted exactly this API-first control as the reason for choosing it over a closed competitor. The embedding options are shown below.
Team scheduling
Round robin, collective and managed event types arrive on the $12 Teams plan — four dollars less per user than Calendly’s equivalent — along with routing forms and branding removal. Setting up a round-robin team took me about ten minutes.
Self-hosting
You can run Cal.com on your own servers, which is the deciding factor for organisations with strict data-residency rules. It is not a shortcut to saving money: you take on hosting, upgrades and support yourself.
Pros
- The free plan includes payments, unlimited event types and CRM sync, which is unmatched at zero cost.
- Teams pricing undercuts Calendly’s equivalent tier while covering the same round robin and routing needs.
- An open API and multiple embed formats make it the easiest to build into your own product.
- Self-hosting gives full control over where booking data lives.
Cons
- No point of sale, service menu or marketplace, so it does not suit walk-in service businesses.
- Self-hosting requires engineering capacity that most small businesses do not have.
- Compliance certifications and SSO sit on the $28 Organizations tier.
- The product moves quickly, so occasional rough edges appear after updates.
Pricing
Free
- $0 for one user, permanently.
- Unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, 100+ integrations, Stripe and PayPal payments, Salesforce and HubSpot sync.
Teams
- $12 per user, per month billed yearly (25% saving versus monthly).
- Adds shared availability, round robin, managed and collective event types, recurring events, routing forms, branding removal, booking analytics.
Organizations
- $28 per user, per month billed yearly.
- Adds unlimited sub-teams, custom variable routing, a company subdomain, SAML SSO, SCIM, SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001 compliance, role-based permissions.
Enterprise
- Custom annual pricing with dedicated onboarding, SLA and uptime guarantees, HRIS integrations and a dedicated database.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Cal.com pricing.
GlossGenius
GlossGenius is booking, payments and business management for beauty and wellness businesses, priced as a flat monthly fee rather than per staff member — which is unusual and, for a growing team, significant.
When should you choose GlossGenius?
Choose it for a salon, spa, barbershop or studio where clients book online and pay in person, and where you would rather pay one flat rate than add a subscription for every stylist you hire.
Who should avoid GlossGenius?
Avoid it outside beauty and wellness. It is deliberately vertical, and a consultant, tutor or B2B team would be paying for a service menu, tipping and payout tooling they will never use.
The booking page puts service selection and payment in the same flow, which is the pitch. Here is that view.
Features
Flat card processing
A flat 2.6% rate across card types is the clearest pricing in this category, and it removes the guesswork of tiered interchange. Instant payouts carry an additional 1.8% fee, which is worth knowing before you rely on them.
Forms and reminders
Intake forms, waivers and automated reminders are included rather than gated. A G2 reviewer pointed out how much time forms and reminders save once a shop is running day to day; that review is below.
Flat team pricing
Standard at $28 per month does not charge per stylist. For a five-chair salon that is a material difference against per-seat tools, and it is the single strongest argument for GlossGenius over Calendly or Setmore in this vertical.
Payouts and disputes
Payouts were prompt in testing, but this is also where the sharpest criticism sits. A Reddit account describes a payment dispute that is a useful prompt to review payout settings and account security before you rely on it for deposits. The screenshot appears below.
Tier jumps
Gold at $56 and Platinum at $168 add team management, deeper reporting and marketing tools. The medspa plans start at $168 and reach $298, which puts GlossGenius alongside studio platforms rather than lightweight schedulers at the top end.
Pros
- Flat monthly pricing regardless of staff count, which is rare and valuable for growing teams.
- A single, published 2.6% card rate removes the processing-fee guesswork other vendors leave in place.
- Forms, waivers and reminders are included rather than sold as upgrades.
- The booking-to-payment flow is one of the smoothest I tested for in-person services.
Cons
- Only suitable for beauty, wellness and medspa businesses; everyone else pays for irrelevant tooling.
- Instant payouts carry a further 1.8% fee on top of processing.
- Medspa and Platinum tiers are priced well above general-purpose booking software.
- Payment disputes and payout settings deserve scrutiny before you depend on it for deposits.
Pricing
Standard
- $28 per month, or $24 per month billed annually. Flat 2.6% card processing.
Gold
- $56 per month, or $48 per month billed annually.
Platinum
- $168 per month, or $148 per month billed annually.
Medspa plans
- Practice Essentials at $168 per month ($148 annually); Practice Advanced at $298 per month ($248 annually).
- Payroll add-on is $40 per month plus $6 per seat; instant payouts carry an extra 1.8% fee.
The tier list shows where team management and reporting unlock, which is the decision point once a salon grows past one chair.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against GlossGenius pricing.
Picktime
Picktime is a low-cost booking system that treats rooms, equipment and classes as first-class objects rather than afterthoughts. For the price, the resource handling is unusually complete.
Which teams benefit most from Picktime?
Businesses booking things as well as people — coworking desks, rehearsal rooms, tennis courts, driving-school vehicles, tutoring classrooms. The free plan already covers three users, three resources, two locations and two classes.
Where does Picktime fall short?
Branding, workflow automation and payment options are thin. PayPal is the payment route on the free plan, and there is nothing resembling the marketing or client-retention tooling that studio platforms include.
Features
Resource booking
Assigning a room, a vehicle or a piece of equipment to a booking works on the free plan, which no other tool here offers at that price. Square charges $149 per month per location for comparable resource management.
Class scheduling
Group classes with capacity limits are supported from the free tier, with more class slots on paid plans. Setting up a weekly timetable with capped attendance took under fifteen minutes.
Pricing structure
The tiers are oddly shaped: Starter is $3 per user per month and Pro is $2.25 per user per month, both billed annually, with Pro covering ten users and unlimited locations. Read the plan table carefully, because the cheaper-per-user plan is the larger one. Capterra reviewers generally rate value highly and interface polish less so.
Approvals and waitlists
Booking approval, waitlists, round robin and discount coupons all sit on the Pro plan. Approval in particular is useful for businesses that cannot accept every request automatically, such as driving schools matching instructors to licence types.
Integrations
Two-way calendar sync starts on Starter, and Pro reaches 100+ integrations through Zapier. Native integrations are fewer than Cal.com or Calendly offer, so plan on Zapier doing the work. Capterra’s Picktime profile reflects the same picture: capable, and plainer than better-funded competitors, which matches my experience.
Pros
- Resource and equipment booking on a free plan, which competitors charge substantially for.
- Class scheduling with capacity limits included from the free tier.
- Paid plans are among the cheapest per user of any booking tool in this comparison.
- Unlimited locations and classes on Pro suit multi-site operations on a small budget.
Cons
- User and resource caps are low: 3 on free and Starter, 10 on Pro, with more requiring a support conversation.
- Branding and page customisation are minimal compared with Lunacal or GlossGenius.
- Payment options are limited, with PayPal the route on the free plan.
- Native integrations are thin, so most connections run through Zapier.
Pricing
Free
- $0. 3 users, 3 resources, 2 locations, 2 classes, unlimited appointments, email notifications, PayPal payments.
Starter
- $3 per user, per month billed annually. 3 users, 3 resources, 2 locations, 5 classes, recurring bookings, two-way calendar sync, SMS notifications.
Pro
- $2.25 per user, per month billed annually. 10 users, 10 resources, unlimited locations and classes, customisable emails, 20+ languages, booking approval, waitlist, round robin, coupons, 100+ Zapier integrations.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Picktime pricing.
Microsoft Bookings
Microsoft Bookings is included with eligible Microsoft 365 subscriptions rather than sold separately. If your organisation already pays for Microsoft 365, online booking is already on your bill.
What does Microsoft Bookings suit best?
Organisations standardised on Microsoft 365 — professional services firms, education, healthcare administration, internal service desks — where staff calendars, identity and compliance already live in the tenant.
Who needs an alternative to Microsoft Bookings?
Any business that needs to take money at the point of booking. There is no native payment collection, so deposits, prepayment and no-show fees require a different tool entirely.
Features
No extra subscription
Bookings is included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, plus several enterprise, frontline and education plans. For a 20-person firm already on Business Standard, that is online booking at no marginal cost — a real advantage over paying per seat for a separate scheduler.
Tenant integration
Staff availability comes from Exchange calendars and identity comes from Entra ID, so there is no separate user list to maintain and no extra permissions model to manage. For IT teams this is the whole argument.
Setup friction
Configuration is the weak point. Creating services, setting policies and editing staff availability takes noticeably more clicks than any other tool here, and Reddit discussions in the Microsoft 365 community make the same complaint. That thread is captured below.
Support routes
When a Bookings configuration goes wrong, Microsoft’s customer support engineering can untangle it — a Trustpilot reviewer credited exactly that, and the screenshot is below. That route is only open to organisations with a Microsoft support entitlement.
Booking page limits
The public page is functional and plain. There is no meaningful branding beyond a logo and colour, no service imagery and no content sections, so it will not do the selling work that Lunacal or GlossGenius pages do.
Pros
- No additional subscription for organisations already licensed for Microsoft 365.
- Staff availability and identity come straight from the tenant, so there is no second user directory.
- Data stays inside your existing Microsoft compliance and retention boundary.
- Teams meeting links are generated automatically for virtual appointments.
Cons
- No native payment collection, so deposits and prepayment need a separate system.
- Configuration takes far more clicks than any other tool tested.
- The booking page is plain, with almost no branding or content control.
- It is only economical if you already need Microsoft 365 for other reasons.
Pricing
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Includes Bookings; web and mobile apps only. Prices rose on 1 July 2026.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- $14 per user, per month on an annual commitment; monthly billing costs about 20% more.
- Includes Bookings plus desktop Office apps.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- $22 per user, per month on an annual commitment.
- Includes Bookings plus advanced security and device management.
Pricing checked on 6 September 2026 against Microsoft 365 business plans and pricing.
How I tested this online booking software
Each platform was set up as a small service business would set it up, then booked through end to end as an anonymous customer on desktop and mobile.
- Connected Google and Outlook calendars, then created deliberate conflicts to see whether public slots were blocked correctly.
- Built a public booking page with three services at different durations and prices, noting what could be changed without code.
- Booked as a first-time customer on a phone and timed the flow from landing on the page to receiving a confirmation.
- Connected a payment processor where supported and took both a full payment and a deposit.
- Triggered a cancellation and a reschedule to check policy enforcement, fee handling and notification behaviour.
- Set up email and SMS reminders and confirmed delivery on the plan tier where each becomes available.
- Priced each tool for a solo operator and a five-person, single-location business, including processing fees and add-ons.
Common questions about online booking software
What is online booking software?
Online booking software gives customers a public page where they can see your services and availability, choose a time, provide their details, pay if required and receive an automatic confirmation — without phoning you. The better systems also block the slot in your own calendar, send reminders and handle cancellations under a policy you set.
Is there genuinely free online booking software?
Yes, with limits worth knowing. Square Appointments gives you a free hosted booking site with unlimited staff calendars, though card processing fees apply. Setmore’s free plan covers four users but has no SMS reminders and no two-way calendar sync. Cal.com’s free plan is the most complete for a single user, including payments. Picktime’s free tier is the only one that includes resource booking.
Can online booking software take payments and deposits?
Most can. Lunacal, Calendly, Cal.com and Setmore connect to Stripe or PayPal; Square Appointments and GlossGenius process payments themselves; Microsoft Bookings has no native payment collection at all. Requiring payment or a deposit before confirmation is the most reliable no-show control available — the MGMA Stat poll of 8 January 2025 found practices charging a no-show fee reported greater improvement in no-show rates than those that did not.
How much does online booking software cost?
A solo operator can start free with Square Appointments, Setmore, Cal.com or Picktime. A small business that needs reminders, deposits and branding removal typically pays $9 to $30 per month — Lunacal at $9 per user, Setmore Pro at $5 per user, GlossGenius at $28 flat. Multi-location and resource-heavy setups reach $49 to $149 per location with Square Appointments.
Should online booking sit on my own domain?
It should if bookings come from your own marketing rather than a marketplace. Customers abandon less often when the booking URL matches the site they came from. Lunacal supports a custom domain, SimplyBook.me offers white-labelling on higher plans, and Microsoft Bookings and Calendly keep you on a vendor URL.
Will AI change how these tools work?
It already is, mostly in the handling around the booking rather than the booking itself — reminder sequences, front-desk answering and rescheduling. Salesforce’s seventh State of Service report, based on 6,500 service professionals, expects AI to resolve 50% of service cases by 2027, up from 30% in 2025, and Lunacal, Mindbody and Setmore all now sell some version of an automated receptionist.
The shortlist I would actually recommend
If bookings come from your own website and marketing, Lunacal is where I would start: a booking page that carries real content, a custom domain, deposits through your own Stripe account and 0% platform commission, from $9 per user per month. If customers book online but pay at a counter, Square Appointments is hard to beat because the free plan is a complete booking system and the cost sits in processing you would pay anyway. For beauty and wellness specifically, GlossGenius at a flat $28 per month with a published 2.6% card rate is the clearest pricing in the category. Cal.com is the pick for technical teams, Picktime for anyone booking rooms and equipment on a small budget, and Microsoft Bookings only if you are already paying for Microsoft 365 and never need to take money at booking.
More comparisons on this site: booking software with payments, appointment scheduling software for service businesses, scheduling software for small businesses, Microsoft Bookings alternatives and Cal.com alternatives.