Author Barbara Stankovic

Explore topics

Amelia vs. WP Booking Calendar: Which Booking Plugin is Best for Your WordPress Site?

How to Reschedule an Appointment Without the Stress

Amelia 8.5 Update – Smarter Booking, Stronger Security, and More Control

How to Set Confirmation Emails and Texts in Amelia

Amelia + WP Umbrella = Client Booking and Website Management in One Go

Explore features

Explore Demo

Read Inspiring Customer Stories

Check out how our user set Amelia for his business

Read the full story

When bookings start creating more problems than they solve, it’s time to rethink your setup. Missed appointments, double bookings, endless back-and-forth with clients; these are all signs your current system might be holding you back.

If you’re comparing Amelia vs. WP Booking Calendar, you’re already on the right track. Both plugins are trusted by thousands of WordPress users, but they take very different approaches to scheduling.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the key differences between the two, including features, customization, ease of use, and client experience. By the end, you’ll be able to confidently choose the right fit for your business.

Table of Contents

Amelia: Overview

Amelia is a powerful, user-friendly booking plugin designed with flexibility in mind. It’s perfect for managing all types of appointments or events. Whether you’re running a salon, a clinic, a coaching business, or organizing workshops, Amelia helps you stay on top of your schedule without the usual manual chaos.

It works directly within your WordPress site and brings a modern, streamlined experience to both you and your clients. From booking forms to payment processing, everything feels polished and easy to use, even for first-timers.

Key features

Custom booking form: Fully customize your booking form to match your business needs and brand identity. Add custom fields, organize services into categories, include extras, and control the entire user experience from start to finish.
Insightful dashboard: Everything you need is right at your fingertips. Amelia gives you a clear, easy-to-navigate dashboard where you can track appointments, payments, staff schedules, and overall revenue.
Automated reminders and notifications: Amelia handles communication for you. Set up automated email, SMS, or WhatsApp notifications to keep clients and staff informed about upcoming appointments.
Calendar sync: You can connect Amelia with Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar to keep your schedule in sync. When a client books or reschedules, your calendar reflects it instantly, helping you avoid double-bookings and confusion.
Multiple location management: Running more than one location? No problem. Amelia lets you manage staff, services, and availability across multiple locations without the chaos.
Upfront payment management: Protect your time and revenue by collecting deposits or full payments in advance. Amelia integrates with PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, Razorpay, and WooCommerce, giving your clients multiple secure options to choose from.
Ticket for events: Amelia isn’t just for one-on-one appointments. You can create and manage events, sell different types of tickets, set attendee limits, and keep everything organized with ease.
A wide array of integrations: Amelia works smoothly with the tools you already rely on, including Zoom, Google Meet, Elementor, Divi, Google Analytics, and many more.

WP Booking Calendar: Overview

WP Booking Calendar is one of the oldest booking plugins for WordPress, and its long history speaks to its reliability. It’s designed for simplicity and does a good job at handling straightforward bookings through a clean calendar interface. For small business owners, freelancers, or rental services that need a basic system, it’s a solid choice.

However, WP Booking Calendar takes a more traditional approach to scheduling. The interface and user experience can feel a bit dated, especially when compared to modern solutions like Amelia. Still, if your needs are simple and you don’t mind spending a bit longer to fine-tune your setup, WP Booking Calendar remains a good option to consider.

Key features

Simple calendar interface: Clients can quickly view available dates and times, making it easy for them to book appointments without any confusion.
Admin panel: The plugin includes an admin panel that allows you to manage all bookings in one place.
Email notifications: Choose from pre-made email templates and keep your clients informed about bookings, confirmations, and updates.
Multiple full-day bookings: WP Booking Calendar supports booking by full days, which is ideal for businesses like rental services or accommodation providers.
Multi-language support: The plugin supports several languages, making it a practical choice for businesses with an international clientele.
Payment integrations: You can accept payments through PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, iPay88, or by wire bank transfer, giving your clients several options to complete their transactions.

Ease of Use

When deciding between Amelia vs. WP Booking Calendar, ease of use is a crucial factor. After all, you need a solution you can quickly set up and easily navigate. A plugin that is complicated or time-consuming to manage can lead to frustration and lost bookings.

Let’s take a closer look at how both plugins perform in this area.

Amelia

Amelia is built with user experience in mind, and everything from setup to daily use is very intuitive. The interface is clean, the navigation is straightforward, and most users find they don’t need a manual to get started.

From the moment you install it, Amelia walks you through the basics so you can start taking bookings right away. Managing appointments, services, staff, and clients all happens in one central dashboard, so there is no need to jump between pages or deal with clunky menus.

Even better, the booking experience for your clients is just as smooth. They can book, reschedule, or cancel appointments in just a few clicks. It’s easy for everyone involved, and that’s what makes Amelia stand out.

WP Booking Calendar

WP Booking Calendar offers a clean and simple interface that gets the job done without overwhelming you with features. It’s easy to navigate for both the business owners and the clients, although the initial setup may take more time. The learning curve is slightly steeper if you’re managing multiple services or users, especially when compared to Amelia.

If you are comfortable tweaking settings and prefer a more hands-on approach, WP Booking Calendar can still be a solid option. However, for those looking for a more modern and streamlined experience, it might feel a little behind.

Customization Options: Amelia vs. WP Booking Calendar

A good booking solution should feel like an extension of your brand, not an entirely different tool slapped onto your website. Colors, fonts, and logos all serve a purpose in creating a consistent and professional experience. But it’s not just about looks. The ability to adjust services, fields, and booking logic to fit your workflow matters just as much.

When it comes to Amelia, you can adjust nearly every aspect of the booking process to fit your unique needs. From customizing the look and feel to creating tailored booking forms with custom fields, group bookings, and a step-by-step booking wizard to help your customers schedule exactly what they need.

This flexibility helps ensure that your booking system not only matches your brand visually but also works smoothly with your business processes.

As for WP Booking Calendar, it allows you to manage multiple services or properties, each with a dedicated calendar, while still preventing double bookings. You can customize forms with multiple fields like text boxes, dropdowns, and checkboxes. The plugin also lets you configure the layout of your booking form, for example, arranging the calendar on the left and form fields on the right, to best fit your website’s design and user experience.

Additionally, WP Booking Calendar includes useful features like changeover days, which allow the same date to be used as both check-in and check-out for different bookings. Besides this, it also supports range day selection, letting customers easily select multiple days with just one or two clicks. You can configure minimum and maximum day limits, and tailor the booking length to suit your business rules.

Payment Integrations: WP Booking Calendar vs. Amelia

When it comes to accepting payments, having smooth and reliable integrations can make all the difference for your booking system. Whether you want to offer full payments upfront, deposits, or multiple payment methods, your booking plugin needs to support your preferred gateways.

Amelia provides a seamless payment experience with its integrations with PayPal, Stripe, Square, Mollie, Razorpay, and WooCommerce. You can choose to accept full payments, partial deposits, or allow pay-on-site depending on your business needs.

On the other hand, WP Booking Calendar also supports a solid range of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Redsys, Authorize.Net, iPay88, iDEAL, Buckaroo, and wire transfers. Similar to Amelia, you can allow for partial payments, custom pricing rules, and seasonal rates, which is useful for rentals or services that experience fluctuating demand.

Pricing: Which One Offers More Value?

In the comparison between WP Booking Calendar vs. Amelia, pricing plays a major role, especially when you’re trying to balance features and long-term value.

Amelia pricing plans

Amelia offers four different annual licenses:

Starter – $49

Ideal for solo entrepreneurs or small businesses. Includes core features like appointment booking, email notifications, coupons, service extras, and a customizable booking form.

Standard – $99

Includes everything you get in Starter plus invoices, taxes, deposit payments, recurring appointments and events, and so much more.

Pro – $199 for one domain or $219 for five domains

Unlocks advanced features like packages of services, resources, pricing by the number of people, event wait list, and a cart feature.

Elite – $319 for 20 domains or $399 for unlimited domains

Perfect for agencies or business owners who need more domains, it includes all pro features along with extended support, scalability, and full access to all integrations

Besides these plans, there are also lifetime licenses that are a great way to save even more. If you are unsure which plan is the right one for you, we suggest you try out a free version first.

WP Booking Calendar pricing plans

WP Booking Calendar offers multiple pricing tiers, each unlocking different levels of functionality depending on your needs:

Personal – $79
Business Small – $149
Business Medium – $249
Business Large – $349
MultiUser – $649

All these prices are for a one-website option, but you can also purchase any of the plans for either two or five websites.

Each higher-tier plan builds on the previous one, gradually adding more advanced features like payment integrations, advanced hourly booking, seasonal prices, capacity, availability, and many others.

Client Experience & Reviews

Lastly, let’s take a look at how these two WordPress plugins stack up when it comes to real-life use.

Amelia

Amelia is often praised for its clean design and ease of use. Many users say the setup is quick, even for beginners. The interface feels modern, and clients enjoy the smooth booking experience.

Image source

Support also gets high marks, with fast replies and helpful guidance. Many business owners also appreciate the detailed documentation and easy-to-follow YouTube tutorials that make configuring anything a breeze, even for those who don’t use WordPress much.

Ratings

4.6 on WordPress.org
4.9 on Capterra

WP Booking Calendar

WP Booking Calendar gets positive feedback for being reliable and stable. Users appreciate its flexibility and the wide range of features available, especially for booking rental properties.

Image source

However, the interface is not as intuitive as more modern tools like Amelia. New users may find the setup process slower and the learning curve steeper. That said, once configured, it works well and does the job reliably.

Ratings

4.7 on WordPress.org

Final Verdict on Amelia vs. WP Booking Calendar

Both Amelia and WP Booking Calendar are solid booking solutions, but they serve slightly different needs and audiences.

If you want a modern, user-friendly plugin with a polished interface, deep customization options, and seamless payment integrations, Amelia is the better choice. On the other hand, WP Booking Calendar is a reliable, stable option that excels in handling bookings for rental properties, accommodations, or other services that rely on full-day reservations.

At the end of the day, whichever booking plugin can help you streamline scheduling, reduce no-shows, and deliver a better experience for your clients.

See what Amelia can do!

Author Barbara Stankovic