Are you a service business owner looking for an appointment app? Do you find it hard managing your bookings and appointments? I can understand.
Once you hit 15-20+ clients it gets confusing! It’s time for a “whole new world” so to speak, as you begin to manage your calendar with ease using an appointment app.
An appointment app can make your small business processes easier. Processes such as booking an appointment or making a payment can be completed much faster with simple software.
In this article, we will help you find the best appointment app to use for your service business.
Our criteria
In choosing the top 10 appointment apps, we used price, features, reviews, and possible cons for each appointment app.
Are you excited to find the best appointment app for your service business?
First, let’s define an appointment app.
Defining: What is an Appointment App anyway?
An appointment app is an app on your phone that allows you to manage your calendar. With this kind of software, you can do the following:
- Schedule appointments or meetings
- Track appointment and set reminders
- Cancel or modify appointments or bookings
- Accept payments
Let’s take a look at the top 10 best appointment apps for 2019. We’re breaking it down listicle style, ladies and gentlemen!
Up first we have a heavyweight hitter that we all know (but not all of us love…)
Top 10 Best Appointment Apps
Squareup.com
Square Appointment is an appointment app that small business owners use to manage online booking.
Price
The use of this scheduling app is free but every transaction comes with a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee. Team accounts also come with a $50/mo subs fee on top of a 3.5% +$0.15 per transaction fee
Features
This scheduling app has features like online booking, payment, cloud-based calendar, built in point of sale system, and customer management. It is compatible with Google calendar.
Reviews on the web
This is a popular appointment app for service business owners because of its user-friendly interface.
Possible cons
Pricy at $50/mo plus a transaction fee. You can only take payment via Square.
Schedul
Schedul is a free appointment app that offers a lot of features. Being a new player in the appointment app market, they offer a lot of features that are not free with other appointment app programs.
Price
Free
Features
This appointment app sends automatic booking reminders to customers, allows easy online bookings, and tracks your current bookings.
Reviews on the web
Designed to work best with service business providers like salons and spas only.
Possible cons
It doesn’t have an integrated payment system and is not compatible with popular calendars like Google Calendar.
Google Calendar
Also a free appointment app, Google calendar is your definition of a basic appointment app. It is a regular calendar with extra features like appointment setting, setting a reminder, and being a cloud base.
Price
Free
Features
It is web-based so you can see your calendar wherever you are.
Reviews on the web
It is easy to use but lacks a lot of features of a good appointment app.
Possible cons
This appointment app works for individual users for setting meetings and appointments, but not for managing small business operations.
Outlook
Want another free appointment app? Try Outlook calendar. This is embedded in your Outlook email. This appointment app is also easy to use but is highly recommended for individual users only.
Price
Free
Features
This free appointment app allows you to set meetings, appointments, and even create an alarm for reminders.
Reviews on the web
It is easy to use but only works best with professionals who need to manage their schedule on their own.
Possible cons
It lacks features like payment options and your customers can’t use it to do online bookings.
10to8
The 10to8 appointment app offers features like built-in email, promotional tools for social media, and a chat feature. Users of this appointment app can get help via online chat.
Price
This appointment app is free if you only schedule 100 appointments/mo. For a small business that gets more appointments, plans start at $9.60/mo.
Features
Schedules can be managed by multiple users and it can process credit card payments.
Reviews on the web
Service business providers with multiple team members can take advantage of this appointment app and its excellent features.
Possible cons
Small business owners can’t use it for sales analytics.
Setmore
Setmore allows online booking and offers a login to at least 20 team members with a single account. It is a generous plan for a simple appointment app, considering you can do all of this for free.
Price
It offers a free trial, but if you want to have an integrated payment system via Setmore, you have to subscribe to their $25/mo subscription plan.
Features
The free plan alone can support 20 logins. If you have a small business with less than 20 team members, this appointment app will work for you.
Reviews on the web
The client booking screen is easy to use. Setting up a parameter for each booking page is also easy (like the auto-close feature for bookings with a limited slot) – say you are setting a class with a limited number of enrollees, you would use this feature for that purpose.
Possible cons
This appointment app has payment processing, but it’s not free.
SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook.me is an appointment app with a professional look. Their booking page is easy to manage and use even for non-techy web users.
Price
This appointment app is free if you only receive 50 or fewer bookings in a month. If your small business will be receiving more, you can subscribe to one of their plans that start at $9.90/mo.
Features
Two-way calendar and booking access allows you to create offers for your clients and process payments.
Reviews on the web
This appointment app has a lot to offer, but if you want to unlock more features, you have to start paying their monthly subscription fee.
Possible cons
The free trial of this appointment app isn’t even workable for a service business that gets more than 50 bookings per month. Bigger businesses should look elsewhere.
Flash Appointments
The aim of Flash Appointments is to make scheduling easier for both small business owners and their clients. This appointment app features RIA or same-time update across all of its page users.
Price
The price of this appointment app starts at $10 per month. There is a free trial offered for one month.
Features
Can handle thousands of schedules of online booking, offers access to users from multiple locations.
Reviews on the web
It has a unique, useful feature called RIA (Rich Internet Application) which makes it so a single page update will update all screens accessing the same page. This prevents double booking and overbooking.
Possible cons
It requires a complex set-up and familiarity with a web program. Professionals and small business owners might find it hard to use.
Appointment Care
This appointment app serves service business providers such as salons, vets, doctors, dog and pet groomers, and dog and pet trainers. It aims to help in increasing small business revenues with their easy to use booking system.
Price
This appointment app is available to test drive using their 30-day free trial. Their basic plan starts at $14.95/mo. Their most expensive plan is $59.95.
Features
This appointment app offers small business owners flexibility in managing their online booking with their automatic reminder feature and website. It also features a team calendar and customer management system (CMS).
Reviews on the web
It is easy to use and the CRM has a fairly quick learning curve.
Possible cons
It is expensive. Small business owners with more team members have to pay more, which adds to the fees.
PocketSuite
This appointment app is highly recommended to service business providers like fitness trainers, dog trainers, therapists, estheticians, life coaches, pet experts, photographers, beauty professionals, and cleaners. If your service business relies on schedules, PocketSuite is a good match for you.
Price
PocketSuite’s “Premium” Plan is for one person businesses. The “Team” plan is $34.99 for up to 2 team members, including SuperAdmin, and then $9.99 for every additional team member over 2.
Features
This appointment app allows direct messaging, scheduling online, payment processing, online booking, e-contracts, online forms, subscriptions, packages, discounts gift certificates, sales taxes, inventory tracking, saved message templates that your service business team can use and much, much more.
Possible cons
Small business owners that need logins for their service business team have to pay for this feature. However, the price is still lower than many of the other apps we mentioned.
Have you found an appointment app from our list that you can use for your service business? To make it easier for you, create a checklist, choose at least 3 appointment apps, then compare and find the one that best suits your small business needs.
Like this article? You’ll love our guide on how to generate leads for service businesses in 2022, and of course our Frustrations with Square article!
