10 Best Appointment Scheduling Software 2023

Bottom line: Acuity Scheduling is our best overall pick thanks to its generous helping of features and unlimited appointments for below-average prices. Genbook is great for delivering solid data that helps optimize your time, while Schedulicity offers customizable options. Setmore is superb for small budgets, and GoReminders is perfect if you want to customize the look and feel of your booking platform.

If you have some time: If your business relies on booking, you should have appointment-scheduling software. It can save you time (through client self-scheduling), keep your calendar fuller (thanks to scheduling optimization tools), and make each appointment more profitable (with upselling and analytics)―not to mention that a scheduling app can keep you more organized.  

So the question isn’t if you should have appointment-scheduling software―it’s which appointment-scheduling solution will work best for your business.

That’s what we’re here to help you decide. We’ve got picks for businesses that need basic scheduling, extreme customization, legal compliance, and everything in between.

For most businesses, Acuity Scheduling offers the best appointment setting app.

In large part, we say that because all Acuity Scheduling plans come with lots of features―including features that other software usually restrict to a higher-tier plan. 

For example, every Acuity Scheduling plan gets you unlimited appointments and unlimited email reminders for those appointments. All plans also come with payment processing abilities for three major credit card processing companies (Stripe, Square, and PayPal). Then there are features like coupons, tipping, group appointments, reporting, and software integrations―again, on every single plan.

Of course, you get more features with a higher-tier plan―features like subscriptions, appointment packages, text client reminders, and even HIPAA compliance. 

To sweeten the deal, Acuity Scheduling offers great pricing. No, it doesn’t have the lowest-priced plans of any scheduling software (check out Setmore for a good budget option). But Acuity Scheduling provides an especially great deal to larger teams, as 36 people can use the Powerhouse plan―coming out to just over $1 per user each month.

To be clear, we’re not saying Acuity Scheduling will work best for every business out there. Other picks on this list offer specialized features that Acuity Scheduling doesn’t.

But for most businesses, Acuity Scheduling offers excellent online booking features at a competitive price―making it our overall favorite appointment scheduling software.

Want to keep as full of a calendar as possible? Genbook scheduling software has a schedule optimizing tool that can help.

Here’s how it works: Genbook will show you how much empty time you have in your upcoming schedule. It will also calculate your current expected revenue (based on existing appointments) and your potential revenue (if you had a full calendar). If you like the look of that second number, you can use the Last Minute Bookings tool to get more appointments.

The Last Minute Bookings tool makes it easy for you to offer discounts on (you guessed it) last-minute appointments. That way, potential clients will have more incentive to book. Genbook will even require upfront payments for those last-minute appointment slots, so you won’t have to worry about last-minute cancellations. 

Note that Genbook does charge you a fee for these last-minute bookings―but a more full, more profitable schedule will be worth the extra cost.

Ever wish you could create an appointment-booking software that has just the tools you need―no more or no less? Schedulicity gets you pretty close.

Most scheduling software (like other types of business software) come with set plan tiers that give you certain features. So you may end up paying more for a plan to get one feature you really want, even though you don’t care about the other upgraded features. Schedulicity uses a different pricing model, letting you pick and choose―and pay for―just the features you want. You get a custom plan every time.

You can stick with Schedulicity’s free appointment-scheduling software, which gets you 10 appointments (along with email reminders) each month. If you want unlimited appointments, there’s an upgrade for that. If you think your client base would do better with text reminders, you can add that feature. If you could use some marketing, you can pay for that too―and so on with all Schedulicity’s tools. 

The end result, of course, is a custom Schedulicity plan that’s exactly right for your business―with no extra spending on booking features you don’t care about.

If you’re looking for the most affordable scheduling software, we recommend Setmore’s booking app.

Setmore stands out as a great budget option for a couple reasons. First, the free plan. You (and a handful of fellow users) can use Setmore as a 100% free appointment-scheduling software. You’ll get all the booking basics (unlimited appointments plus email reminders) and then some (software integrations and payment processing through Square).

Second, Setmore paid plans offer a great value. For a few bucks each month, you get more features (like text client reminders, the ability to book recurring appointments, payment processing with Stripe, and Google Calendar sync). And just in case you’re worried about whether or not you’ll like Setmore’s software, you can rely on a 30-day money-back guarantee for peace of mind.

In other words, Setmore offers both a great free plan and value-rich paid plans―making it our favorite scheduling software for businesses on a budget.

For an appointment-scheduling software that gives you control over even the little things, we recommend GoReminders.

GoReminders offers a delightful degree of customizability for your booking needs. For example, you can set up your online booking tool in several different ways. You can have clients view appointments by appointment slot, by staff member, or by appointment type. Likewise, you can set minimum times before appointments, include fields for any client info you want, and create other rules for your scheduler.

But the customization doesn’t stop after clients have booked. GoReminders also gives you plenty control over what happens next. You can create custom appointment reminders and set specific schedules for those reminders. Or you can add labels to appointments to help you stay organized. You can even set up “message blasts” with custom messages to ask for reviews or advertise discounts.

You will need at least the Silver plan to get all these features―but then you’ve got yourself a powerful software that can customize and personalize every step of the appointment-setting process.

Do you like looking at data? Then you’ll like Booksy scheduling software and its reporting and analytics tools.

To be fair, most booking software comes with some kind of basic reporting. Booksy, though, goes beyond the basics. You can get hard data about both your appointment booking and your revenue. And you can look at that data (and other data too) by both individual staff members and clients, so you can get a clear picture of how someone affects your bottom line. 

So though Booksy doesn’t offer all the plan choices other booking software does, its one plan offers strong reporting tools to help you make data-based decisions.

If you need a medical scheduling software for your health care practice, we suggest looking at SimplyBook.me. Its appointment-booking features are versatile enough to work for all kinds of businesses, but SimplyBook.me has some features health care businesses will especially love.

For instance, SimplyBook.me has not one but two HIPAA-compliant plans (Standard and Premium), offering your practice the security and compliance you need. And SimplyBook.me lets you include intake forms as part of your appointment confirmation process, so you can speed things along with clients. SimplyBook.me also makes it easy for customers to book on your website, social media, or other places across the web.

Again, SimplyBook.me has plenty to give any service-based businesses. But those health care related extras make SimplyBook.me most valuable as a medical-appointment scheduling software.

A lot of scheduling software has been designed for businesses like salons and fitness centers. But what if you’ve got a field-service business, in something like tree care or plumbing? That’s where Jobber comes in.

Jobber has features that make sense for the unique needs of field service. For example, it includes a feature that lets you create custom, branded quotes for customers. You can even send quotes in response to appointment requests. Likewise, Jobber features invoicing creation, dispatching, route optimization, and other tools that will make life easier for you.

With those kinds of tools (and more), Jobber has the best appointment scheduler for businesses that offer field services.

Run a law firm? Then consider LawTap, a scheduling software designed with attorneys in mind. While LawTap definitely includes basic booking features (like calendar sync, online booking for clients, and the ability to set your own availability), it also has some smart features that make sense for attorneys.

For example, LawTap makes it easy to set different appointment locations (like the courthouse or one of your firm locations). It also lets you restrict appointments to existing clients (so you can make sure you’re not getting booked by people needing a business attorney when you do strictly Chapter 7 bankruptcies). Plus, by using LawTap, you get put into LawTap’s searchable database so new customers can find your firm.

So though you could make just about any appointment software work for your firm, LawTap’s extras for lawyers make it our favorite scheduling software for attorneys.

Are you already a Square customer? Maybe you use Square payment processing or you get financing through Square Capital. Regardless of the Square product you use, if you already like Square, you’ll probably like its appointment-booking software too.

Square Appointments gives you online booking, of course. The real advantage, though, is how neatly Square Appointments integrates with Square credit card processing. You can use Square Appointments on any device you take Square sales from (including the Square Register), and you can link the two for easy invoicing, prepayments, or even creating customer credit card files.

While Square Appointments doesn’t have all the appointment setting features some other software does, it has more than enough to appeal to business owners that already rely on Square.

Good online appointment-scheduling software can keep your appointment calendar booked and help you spend less time on your scheduling process. With features like automated appointment reminders and payment processing integrations, you can even end up with fewer missed appointments and more profit.

For the average business owner, we think Acuity Scheduling offers the best all-around scheduling software. But depending on your business industry, budget, or other needs, you may prefer to schedule appointments with one of our other software picks.

In any case, we hope your new software helps you get the full appointment calendar you want.

Now that you’ve got client scheduling squared away, get your staff scheduling taken care of with the best employee-scheduling software.

Looking for new employees? Check out the best job posting websites to use. 

To be honest, the price of scheduling software varies a lot. Your personal cost will depend on a number of factors:

• Software brand you choose
• Features you need
• Number of users you have
• Whether you choose annual or monthly billing

Roughly speaking, though, scheduling software starts around $20 per month. You can find much cheaper software (like Setmore, our favorite budget appointment-setting software) as well as much pricier software (usually designed for specific industries). But for $20 or so a month, you’ll have your pick of quite a few different scheduling app choices.

When you’re choosing a scheduling software, you’ll definitely want some essential features:

• Client self-scheduling (online scheduling through a booking page or a website widget)
• Client appointment reminders (through text or email)
• Upcoming appointment notifications (for you and your staff)

Depending on your business and specific needs, you may also want more advanced features:

• Software integrations (like calendar or payment processing software)
• Different appointment types
• Discounts, coupons, and gift certificates
• Group appointments and classes

And of course, no matter the features you need, you’ll always want to look for an appointment scheduling app that fits your staff size and your business’s budget.

We carefully analyzed each brand's ability to handle growing amounts of bookings, customer service quality, ease-of-use, ability to offer text and email reminders, and customer data security practices, among other factors.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.