What is Simply Schedule Appointments? It’s right there in the name; it’s a WordPress plugin that allows you to book an appointment quickly and simply.
Simply Schedule Appointments defines itself as a plugin that “allows your customers to easily book appointments through your website” and “manage your scheduling availability and upcoming appointments through WordPress.” And it is also featured among apps that are popular in the office and productivity group.
Looking into Simply Schedule Appointments
This plugin acts as a virtual middleman, assisting you to organize events, deliver invitations, and determine the most convenient time slot to set up meetings. However, the Simply Schedule Appointments plugin is lacking a little when it comes to advanced features, and users are on the lookout for something more intuitive and cutting-edge.
Still, setting up all the finer points can prove to be a headache-inducing challenge, even with such a capable plugin.
For over five years, web designers have made the most of Simply Schedule Appointments. Nevertheless, its layout and efficiency haven’t been able to measure up to the latest appointment scheduling plugins like Amelia. WordPress users find themselves having to work with a booking process that lags but is also monotonous.
One of the biggest drawbacks of Simply Schedule is its pricing, This premium plugin won’t be easy on the pocket. Its paid version is one of the most expensive WordPress booking plugins out there. And if you want to tap into their more essential components, you’ll have to fork out for the pro version.
The free Basic Edition offers
- unrestricted appointment options
- customizable email notifications
- the option to customize various styles
- integration with the following page builders: Divi, Elementor, and Beaver Builder
- the option to blackout dates
- support and more.
There are many vital integrations you’ll no doubt need but won’t find on the free version, which is good enough if you’re just looking for a trial run. If you decide to stick with Simply Schedule, the pricing begins at $99 for the Plus Package. The Professional Edition is $199, and the Business Edition is $299.
Are There Other Plugins Available?
Surely you want a plugin that will make it as straightforward as possible for your clients to book appointments online, reschedule on short notice, and optimize your time with proper schedule management.
This article will introduce you to a Simply Schedule Appointments alternative that outshines the competition. Want to take command of your schedule? This superior option is both considerably innovative and more than capable.
Businesses like gyms have specific scheduling needs. There will likely be various trainers, and each one of them will need individual scheduling options on the website. Or perhaps, a hospital needs to display specific time slots available and services provided to a patient.
To help you meet specific scheduling needs, as shown in the above examples, it is essential to carefully review the characteristics of every WordPress appointment booking plugin.
A good WordPress booking plugin will operate in two key ways: to provide effective functionality and to enhance your brand. Enter, Amelia – a truly impressive and capable WordPress booking plugin.
Why Amelia Is a Better Alternative to Simply Schedule Appointments
The majority of WordPress booking plugins are intended for web developers who want to have the option of customizing every tiny detail. But Amelia is designed to start performing straight out of the wrapping paper. It also pairs perfectly with any theme.
Amelia’s award-winning UI design even surpasses WordPress itself in power and potential. You can swiftly put together a branded experience for customers with practically little to no learning curve. There is no need to be tech-savvy at all, just a few tweaks here and there is all it takes to set up an attractive scheduling system. Those appointments can then be managed via your WordPress dashboard.
The Amelia plugin boasts a user-friendly backend that allows you to customize colors and include a booking agent on the website with minimal effort.
A summary of service details can include staff members, custom fields, duration, image galleries, and even add-ons. All of this saves you time from answering calls and replying to emails.
In the case of specific events, your customers can use the booking form to select single or multi-day events. These appointment types are showcased in a sleek events calendar featuring images and information.
Top Reasons to Take a Look at Amelia
Why consider Amelia as an alternative to Simply Schedule Appointments? The answer lies in its appealing functionality. Here follows a sample of just some of the fresh features you’ll be able to use:
Recurring Appointments
Turn those customers into regulars by allowing them to schedule continual appointments on the booking form. Customers can choose whether the recurring appointment will be daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly on the booking calendar, thereby ensuring customer satisfaction.
Employee Panel and Customer Panel
Allow both client and employee to manage their bookings directly from your website’s frontend page; no access to the WordPress Dashboard is required.
Users can log in and supervise their bookings and events, and oversee their schedule, including working hours, days off, and personal days. Employees can take care of the price charged for services in addition to the number of clients they are willing to take on. Customers can have the option of rescheduling appointments.
Informative Backend Dashboard
Amelia was produced to deliver what is crucial to all actors in the booking process. The business owner is at the top of that list.
For this reason, the dashboard serves as the main backend page of the plugin. A one-page control panel makes it possible to follow every significant KPI, ensuring business owners and managers are able to check up on all meaningful areas of business.
Support for Multiple Services and Categories
You can put together a catalog of services for the booking forms, each with their own pricing, time allotment, and optional group appointments.
A buffer time can also be set up between appointments. This gives time to get things ready for the appointment and also to tidy things up before the next client arrives.
Amelia Booking Form Demos
Select a demo site that seems designed for your industry. Choose from medical to beauty, fitness to barbershop, and more. The demo sites are created using the favored theme from WordPress, ThemeForest.
Online Payments Via Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce
Make the payment process quick and easy by facilitating online payment options for customers.
Service Packages
Up your sales by promoting appointment booking packages. You can choose to bundle one or more services into a package that carries a discount for customers.
Calendar Integrations
Sync up your calendars using Google and Outlook Calendar integration. Both employees and customers can create a Google calendar sync with their appointments.
Multiple Locations
An appointment booking form that gives the option of inserting various locations for businesses with multiple locations.
User Roles and Permissions
Amelia has four built-in user roles: admin, manager, employee, and customer. Every role has a range of permissions. You can use WordPress’ native capabilities to fine-tune these permissions.
Frontend Access
Present customers and employees with the opportunity to manage their personal schedule, appointments and events by getting frontend access to their particular panel.
Reporting
Get an idea of the conversation rate for your appointment booking forms via concise reports.
Payment Deposits
This feature allows you to accept payments in two installments. You determine the amount of the first payment which is made during the booking process. The customer can then settle the second payment after the appointment.
Amelia – A Powerful Alternative to Simply Schedule Appointments
Advanced scheduling options demand a plugin that’s built for the job. At the beginning of the article, a review of Simply Schedule Appointments was considered. Now you’ve seen what the Amelia Booking plugin has to offer. This is a stable and effective option for anyone wanting to create seamless and automatic appointment scheduling. Whoever relies on appointments to generate sales, be it a coach, a beauty salon, or a medical professional, will find booking calendars with Amelia the perfect choice.
Payments are made easy as the plugin supports WooCommerce, PayPal, and Stripe. Receive SMS notifications when making bookings. Another plus is how attractive it looks on mobile devices.
Why not check out this impressive alternative to Simply Schedule Appointments?
If you enjoyed reading this article about Simply Schedule Appointments, you should check out this one about the best group scheduling apps.
We also wrote about a few related subjects like important features that an appointment booking app should have, photography booking apps, double booking appointments, best appointment scheduling software, top appointment reminder apps, and WordPress booking theme examples.