As the old saying goes, when managing a business, time is money. Even for a small enterprise, scheduling can be difficult and take up precious time. Being the one in charge means that everyone needs you, from customers to employees, clients to colleagues. This means it can take a lot of time and effort to keep and maintain a calendar to organize your daily tasks and meetings. Thankfully, there is a host of great appointment scheduling software to help.
What are Appointment Scheduling Tools, and Why Use One?
Appointment scheduling software take much of the repetitive tasks that are involved in bookings and automate them with powerful (but custom) automated workflows.
For example, a salon may use a public calendar to show when booking slots are available. Customers can then make their own appointments based on that and can even be taken right through the payment process, all using an automated piece of scheduling software. This becomes more important as businesses and their client bases grow.
It can be difficult to decide on which option is right for you, however. Every business has different needs, and each option has different features to offer. Before we look at a list itself, it’s important to think about ways to zone in on what to look for during the vendor evaluation.
What Features Make a Great Appointment Scheduling App?
While it may sound as though they all do something similar, appointment scheduling apps can encompass a huge array of extra features. You may not need some of these – others, you may end up wondering how you ever managed without.
The best scheduling apps make users’ lives as easy as possible. They can add and reschedule appointments, display your available times so that you are not disturbed, and so much more. Keep in mind these 4 important features when searching for the appointment scheduling app that best suits you.
Reasonable Pricing
While some scheduling software does need to be paid for, make sure you aren’t paying more than you need to.
Often, paying a reasonable amount will unlock a huge range of useful features. However, sometimes these apps overcharge, and it can save you money in the long run by double-checking to see that another cheaper app can’t do the same things.
Calendar Syncing
Most tools you will find allow for syncing with your calendar. Many even require it. This is the most important feature of an appointment scheduling software.
Always make sure you have this as a feature, no matter which software you choose because it makes life and operations so much easier.
Payment Processing
Ensure that whichever appointment scheduling software you decide to use allows for direct, integrated payment.
A lot of service business owners want a tool to accept bookings directly, but it’s more important for that tool to handle payments too.
If you can take payments at the time of booking, then this allows you to ask for a deposit before the appointment, saving you time and money.
Booking Forms for Clients
Forms such as these help hugely in collecting the data of your client.
This helps in multiple ways, such as keeping in touch with customers in the future, or allowing doctors, beauticians, personal trainers, etc. instant access to a patient’s information and details.
When you know your client’s information beforehand, you save time during their appointment, letting your employees do what they do best without having to deal with paperwork.
30 Best Appointment Scheduling Software in 2025 For Service Businesses (Tested & Reviewed)
The best 3:
- Amelia
- Trafft
- Setmore
Let’s look at all of them now.
Keeping those previous points in mind as that’s what will make the best scheduling software stand out among others!
1. Amelia
Amelia is a powerful WordPress booking plugin that works flawlessly with WordPress sites of all kinds.
It has a minimal, yet powerful appointment booking interface designed to ease your workflow, automate repetitive tasks, avoid double booking, and make appointment booking a breeze for your customers.
You can even have automated reminders in the form of email notifications and SMS notifications so that nobody forgets about their appointment bookings.
In order to book an appointment, the complete user interaction takes a few clicks where user can also see real time availability. Moreover, with it you can accept payments via PayPal and Stripe, perfect for those who want to pay in advance to book appointments.
As a business owner, you can monitor KPIs in the WordPress dashboard and analyze other important data to keep a pulse on your business. Amelia is a straightforward WordPress booking plugin that perfectly works as appointment scheduling software and an amazing option for those who want an around-the-clock solution for their WordPress site.
Amelia also has an Events Calendar module integrated within its features which means you can automate your event bookings as well.

Managing multiple locations, various integration options (including Google Calendar sync) and much more are under only one license, no add-ons are needed.
To test things for yourself, we suggest checking out the demos and seeing how things look on the front end as well as in the back end!
2. Trafft
Trafft is a great option to use because it’s not just a scheduling tool. Trafft is a professional service business management software, a professional tool, and a digital business partner that covers different aspects of running a business.
It’s the kind of app that small and medium business owners, administrators, managers, and key staff in the service industry are using to take their processes and businesses to the next level.
How does it do that? Well, Trafft is a combination of an online no-code platform and human service from a team of service business automation experts. While that’s a mouthful, we can make it simple by saying that it provides all the necessary tools to organize schedules, accept bookings and payments, send reminders and integrate with other tools.
Trafft differentiates from typical apps and tools that automate smaller tasks like online bookings or personal schedules, and are usually hard to configure and maintain, and support is hard to get.
The Trafft app and its team do that by providing support for the complete workflow cycle of a service business, and has an extremely intuitive interface and UX.
What does that mean practically for you? You would not need to waste time on repetitive tasks like calling clients and confirming or rescheduling, and you won’t even need to hire additional people to do that.
It also comes with all the features that you need to get started, such as:
- Automatic online payment processing through multiple providers
- Two-way synchronization using external calendars (such as Google Calendar and Outlook)
- The ability for clients to reschedule
- The ability to create a call-to-action (CTA) booking page
- In-depth overviews of your business performance using key performance indicators
- Client management using email and SMS notifications and reminders
- Discount/loyalty coupons when managing appointments
- Ability to manage bookings, employees, locations, services, schedules, and more
Trafft offers free plan, for the other pricing packs you can check out Trafft’s pricing page.
3. Setmore

Setmore is another great online booking system. It has integrated access to a huge array of productivity software, some of which you may already be using. This includes MailChimp, Quick Books, Zendesk, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce. Simply use the provided codes to embed the relevant tools into your site.
Along with this, Setmore also gives users the ability to view appointments offline by using its desktop application.
4. vCita

This appointment scheduling tool was initially developed for small-scale businesses such as consultants, attorneys, fitness trainers, etc. But since then it has expanded its user base due to its useful features, making them complete business management software.
This includes customizable scheduling pages, which enable your customers to view your current appointment times, payment processing and CRM. Through integrations like Zoom and Google Meet you can also have video conferencing software that may be useful if you’re into online consulting.
It also allows you to choose your preferred service providers and allows customers to make online bookings 24 hours a day, from any location.
5. Picktime

Another great option for appointment scheduling is Picktime. This service allows you to get free scheduling software and offers such features as schedule creation and editing, report generation, payment systems, reminders, and invoicing.
6. Omnify

Omnify is a management platform and among booking tools with a bit different niche – it’s built for children’s activity such as swim schools, sports academies, art studios, dance schools, camps and basically any class-based program.
It helps owners run bookings, subscriptions, and online payment processing within one unified solution, and its users are usually small studios, multi-location academies and youth programs that need simplicity in their operations.
Basically: one tool that runs the entire kids-activity workflow from bookings to billing.
7. Doodle

Doodle is geared towards teamwork in a unique way. This isn’t the best appointment scheduling software out there, but it allows colleagues to all vote on which day meetings should be held, which is an interesting feature and on top of that, it has a quite generous free plan – considering how many users love this feature, including it on the list of best scheduling apps was just innevitable.
Then, selected members can decide on the final date and time and add it to the shared calendar. This keeps work democratic and inclusive while still maintaining a leadership role.
8. Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling allows for a high degree of customization. Its booking page lets clients book recurring appointments and allows them to pay in advance which can be useful for certain businesses.
It also includes the ability to offer multiple packages, subscriptions, memberships, and many more services, which add functionality and choice for your customers.
9. BookingKoala

BookingKoala is a decent appointment scheduler, built mainly with the service industry in mind. It offers dashboards for clients and users, booking forms, scheduling, themes, mobile apps, and much more. It truly has a huge array of features to offer.
10. ChiDesk

This integrated scheduling and management software is designed especially for salons and spas. It is cloud-based, allowing for remote use. Besides allowing users to schedule appointments, it keeps track of sales, manages employees, and uses smart insights to get an overview of your business.
The cloud functionality is a big bonus, allowing users to access it from anywhere, at any time.
11. AppointmentPlus

AppointmentPlus is designed to scale up alongside your business. Start small with the program, then have no fear that you will outgrow it as your business grows. It includes a great enterprise option.
12. Square Appointments

Square has already established itself as a leading force in payment processing and is now branching out to appointment scheduling.
It uses the same streamlined, intuitive approach to interface design that Square is known for, to provide a great online scheduling app for businesses.
13. Full Slate

This software promises to give your business a “Full Slate”, by making booking and client management as easy as possible. It has quickly become famous for its simple, intuitive interface, making booking appointments a quick and reliable process.
It has many reviews that praise its customer service, and its ability to fix any issues that arise quickly and efficiently – vital for any business.
14. Checkfront

This booking software is designed with accommodation providers, tours and activity providers in mind.
It gives users the ability to take bookings, create invoices, make reports, and much more. It can also be accessed from anywhere and is based on a calendar interface, making appointments intuitive.
15. AppointEze

Designed especially for smaller businesses, AppointEze is a CRM based software solution with optimization at its core. It allows bookings to be made directly on the website with its integrated interface.
It is cloud-based, allowing appointments to be made easily from any location. It also provides great payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal.
16. Appointlet

This great scheduling app can work for any sized business, from large to small. It offers more under its free tier than perhaps any other piece of scheduling software. Its fluid, intuitive interface makes bookings and management easy and fast, both for customers and for managers.
17. Jezzam

Jezzam is another great solution for small businesses and their booking needs. This booking software features a simple but powerful interface that allows for the taking of multiple bookings easily. It is designed around a flexibility of use that makes taking complicated bookings involving multiple elements a breeze.
It includes payments and management systems, making the whole process streamlined and simple.
18. ScheduFlow

ScheduFlow is a part of another larger system known as Duoserve. Duoserve is a cloud productivity company that offers many rich features. ScheduFlow is the scheduling aspect of this system. It offers a formidable system of features including bookings, payments, assignments, and much more.
19. Fresha

This great app used to be known as Shedul, and its made for beauty and wellness service businesses. Unlike many of the options out there for scheduling, Fresha offers its system free of charge. The only catch is that you are required to register your business in the Fresha Marketplace. This a directory that similar to Yelp where spas and salons are listed for a 20% commission on first-time customers.
It also does not include a two-way syncing calendar, meaning that it may not be the right option for some businesses. Many, however, find it useful.
20. Neko Salon

Another solution designed specifically around the needs of spas and salons is Neko Salon. It provides a great booking system for all sizes of businesses. It has some great features, including tools for handling bookings, management, and reports.
It includes a booking wizard to aid in quick bookings and a handy payment system that sends SMS messages and email reminders.
21. Bookwhen

Here is another great option for a variety of business types.Bookwhen offers a multitude of features. These include customizable booking forms, exporting capabilities to Excel, and great payment solutions that integrate directly with Stripe, PayPal, and WorldPay.
22. Tappointment

This cloud-based scheduling software is a fantastic management service. With its shared calendars, coupled with the cloud capabilities, booking appointments is a breeze. The ability to make bookings remotely is truly an asset.
23. Calendly

Calendly is built for those businesses that deal with a high volume of customers and clients. The free version offers a host of great features, such as booking pages and tools to embed directly on your own site.
However, the paid version has many extra features, many that are made to handle projects and appointments at large scale. It allows for the assigning of different team members to different appointments. It also has a rules-based system you can implement to make these functions automatic in the future. The downside is that when a customer confirms their appointment, the software prompts them to sign up with Calendly themselves.
24. Appointy

Appointy has a system that offers an increasing number of features focusing solely on cutting the hours of admin work. Its useful features include the ability to flexibly schedule everything from events, workshops, meetings, tours – any kind of service you might offer.
It also has integrated payment functionalities, including Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net.
25. TimeTap

This self-declared “swiss army knife of online scheduling”, really does offer a huge range of tools. Its existing customers include organizations as varied as churches, schools, medical offices, salons, mechanic service shops, financial offices, and many more.
It utilizes a solidly reliable interface and booking system set up to meet the needs of your business no matter what you may require.
26. SuperSaaS

Another all-round great scheduling solution is SuperSaas. It offers highly customizable interfaces for scheduling meetings, reservations, groups, and more. There are also many third-party apps with which it can integrate.
For example, it can be used on Facebook, where a “book now” button can take the customer directly to your bookings page. It also sends automatic SMS messages and emails to limit late arrivals to events.
27. Mana Scheduler

If you own a tattoo studio, then Mana scheduler might just be what you’re after, as they did their best to make appointmnet booking process as smooth as possible for customers of tattoo studios.
Their features include appointment reminders, analytics for your site, signable pages, and much more. You’ll first have to register in order to get an invoice for a plan you choose, that is after your free trial expires.
28. SimplyBook.me

This is another example of powerful scheduling software developed for use in a wide range of businesses. It handles customers right from the booking stage through to the service delivery. Some great features include message reminders (both email and SMS), recurring appointment functionality, and a high level of customization builtin.
29. Coaching Lobby

Coaching Lobby has many benefits is goes beyond scheduling – they are an online coaching platform focused solely on business and life coaches.
Calendar sync, unlimited appointments, resolved scheduling conflicts, automations, these are just some of the many features they offer to coaches, in order to help them make their job easier.
30. Setster

Setster boasts an omnichannel interface that helps to increase efficiency and expand your customer interaction. This is key when handling an ever-increasing load of bookings and appointments.
It has a great range of customizable options, allowing the user to set specific rules for each booking.
FAQs about appointment scheduling software
1. What features are included in appointment scheduling software?
Features including calendar integration, automated appointment reminders, online booking, payment processing, and reporting/analytics are frequently found in appointment scheduling software. Additional functions offered by some software may include client management, employee scheduling, project management software and marketing tools.
2. How does appointment scheduling software help to save time and streamline scheduling?
Many scheduling tasks, including sending reminders, confirming appointments, and rescheduling, are automated by appointment scheduling software. By doing so, appointment management may take less time and effort, giving staff members more time to work on other projects.
3. Is appointment scheduling software suitable for different types of businesses or is it specific to certain industries?
A wide range of enterprises, including healthcare providers, spas and salons, fitness studios, and professional services like lawyers and accountants, can use appointment scheduling software. Some software, however, might be better suited to certain industries and provide capabilities like HIPAA compliance for healthcare providers.
4. Can appointment scheduling software integrate with other software programs, such as CRM or invoicing software?
Yes, a lot of appointment scheduling tools provide interfaces with other types of software, including CRM and invoicing solutions. This can facilitate workflows and lessen the need for human data entry.
5. How does appointment scheduling software handle cancellations and rescheduling of appointments?
Clients often have the ability to cancel or reschedule appointments through a self-service portal or by calling the company directly with appointment scheduling software. When changes are made to the appointment, the software may also automatically notify the customer and the company.
6. Is it possible to customize appointment scheduling software to fit my business needs?
Numerous appointment-making software programs provide customization possibilities, including branding, unique fields, and scheduling guidelines. Additionally, some applications may have a developer API that may be used to create unique integrations or add features.
7. How does appointment scheduling software handle multiple locations or staff members?
When making an appointment, clients can select their preferred location or service provider thanks to appointment scheduling software, which can often accommodate numerous locations and staff members. Additionally, the program could include functions like shift management and staff scheduling.
8. Can customers book appointments online using appointment scheduling software?
The option for consumers to make appointments online, either through a self-service portal or via a widget on the company website, is undoubtedly one of the essential aspects of appointment booking software. This may lessen the number of scheduling-related calls and emails.
9. Does appointment scheduling software have a mobile app or is it accessible via mobile devices?
A lot of appointment scheduling software options have a mobile app or are mobile-friendly websites that can be accessed from mobile devices. This enables customers to schedule and manage appointments from their mobile devices while also assisting businesses with on-the-go appointment management.
10. Is appointment scheduling software secure and compliant with data privacy regulations?
The majority of appointment-making software programs are safe and in compliance with data protection laws like GDPR and HIPAA. It’s crucial to pick a software program that satisfies your company’s particular security and compliance requirements.
Conclusion – How to choose best appointment scheduling software for your business
As we have seen, there is a vast array of choices when it comes to deciding on which appointment scheduling software is right for you and the needs of your business.
Run a small business on your own with only a handful of clients? You can’t go wrong with many of these choices. Have a large and expanding business with a rapidly growing client base? Many of these appointment scheduling apps are built to handle appointment information at scale.
Remember that a professional business treats every point of contact with its customers as an extension of its brand. Want to come across as efficient and reliable? Then even something as simple as your scheduling system should come across this way.
As long as you have considered exactly what your needs are, and have thought about how these needs may change in the future, we are confident that you will find the right scheduling software solution for your business!
You know our take on it – we truly believe Amelia can be a game changer for any type of service business you have running as it was made with sole purpose of automating admin work for you when it comes to appointment scheduling and leaving you to do what you do best!
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