Staying on top of your calendar can be hard, especially with a small business or active clients. This is a a free appointment scheduling app for small businesses that doubles as a reminder system. It’s a great way to organize your days and stay on top of appointments, allowing you to focus on the important matters at hand.
We have some great apps for your iphone. By using our free appointment booking app, you can put all of these worries behind you and focus on running your business instead of managing your calendar.
Acuity gets the top spot in our best appointment scheduling app list because it is full of features in all plans and easy to use (and customize) and integrates with some of the most popular software and calendars you’re likely already using.
Click through the tabs in the box below to view our full scoring criteria for identifying the best appointment scheduling app.
40%Appointment Booking and Management Tools30%App Features15%Pricing15%Expert Score*Percentages of overall score
Acuity: Best Overall Appointment Scheduling App
Overall Score: 4.62 OUT OF 5 i
- Syncs with most calendars
- Unlimited appointments including classes, groups, and video
- Email and text appointment reminders
- Includes intake forms
- No free plan
- Text reminders on high-tier plans only
Acuity Key Features
- Monthly fees: $15 to $50, annual discounts available
- Available on: iOS, Android, and browser
- Supported calendars: Google Calendar, iCloud, and Microsoft 365
- Supported payments: Stripe, Square, and PayPal
- Apple App Store rating: 4.9/5
- Google Play Store rating: 4.7/5
Acuity is a powerful appointment scheduling app that works well for almost any small business that relies on client bookings. Acuity scheduling was acquired by Squarespace and has been rebranded to Squarespace Scheduling, so new users will need to register a Squarespace Scheduling account. Although, at the time of this writing, the Acuity scheduling apps are still under the Acuity brand in app stores.
There are two Acuity apps: one for clients to book and manage their appointments, and one for you. Your app lets you access your schedule in real time, so you can add new appointments on the fly (and not bump pending appointments). Use the app to manage your personal time too (block off times you’re not available). You can also enable notifications for whenever you get a new booking.
In our evaluation, Acuity earned a 4.62 out of 5. Because Acuity is now Squarespace Scheduling, it also comes with an online booking widget that can be added to your website so clients can self-book and/or purchase classes, workshops, private sessions, interviews, and more.
What Acuity Is Missing
Though easy to use, Acuity is not a very flexible or customizable solution. SimplyBook.me offers more customizable add-on features like deposits, multiple user access levels, and service add-ons. SimplyBook.me lets you pick and choose which features you need, whereas Acuity has a more rigid interface and feature set.
Square Appointments: Best for Individuals Needing a Free App
Overall Score: 4.30 OUT OF 5 i
- Free for one person
- Accept payments from the app including prepayments and cancellation fees
- Easy to use – includes a client-facing automated messaging tool
- Resource booking
- Limited customization
- Limited integrations
Square Appointments Key Features
- Monthly fees: $0 to $90
- Available on: iOS, Android, and browser
- Supported calendars: Google Calendar
- Supported payments: Square Payments
- Apple App Store rating: 4.9/5
- Google Play Store rating: 4.1/5
Square Appointments ReviewVisit Square
Square Appointments offers a free plan for individuals that is easy to use, packed with useful features, and available on both iOS and Android operating systems. Free features include an online booking website, automated text and email appointment reminders, detailed customer profiles, and an automated messaging tool so clients can book and reschedule 24/7.
You can sync Square Appointments with Google Calendar, customize your availability, and manage clients through the app. A newer feature for Square Appointments is recurring clients, so you can keep a card on file for your regulars. Also, you can accept prepayments through the system or swipe cards in person.
In our evaluation, Square Appointments earned 4.3 out of 5. Although it offers the best value for individuals, it also has a few standout features that make it a good fit for salons and spas needing an appointment POS including integrated commission reporting, resource booking, multi-staff appointments, loyalty programs, and messaging/marketing campaigns.
What Square Appointments Is Missing
Square Appointments is a great option for someone just starting out with a solo business, thanks to the free plan and integrated payment processor. However, it doesn’t support class or group appointments, like Acuity does. Because Square Appointments really only integrates with other Square products, it’s a somewhat limiting option if you’re already using other software you like, such as CRMs, calendars, or another payment processor.
SimplyBook.me: Best for Healthcare and Wellness Businesses
Overall Score: 4.19 OUT OF 5 i
- Assign bookings to particular staff members
- Clients can book via Facebook
- Customize notifications for clients
- Intake forms and HIPAA privacy available
- Cap on monthly appointments
- Some basic features cost extra
- No client app if you’re on the free plan
- Ads for SimplyBook.me only removed in top-tier plan
SimplyBook.me Key Features
- Monthly fees: $0 to $59.90
- Available on: iOS, Android, and browser
- Supported calendars: Google Calendar and Outlook
- Supported payments: Stripe, PayPal, Square, and 31 others
- Apple App Store rating: 3.6/5
- Google Play Store rating: 4.3/5
SimplyBook.me sets itself apart from other appointment scheduling apps with its structure of plans and custom features. The more you pay for a plan, the more custom features you get. For example, the free plan comes with one custom feature; the standard plan gets you eight custom features, and premium users get unlimited features.
If you have a healthcare business that requires HIPAA compliance, this is an affordable appointment scheduling app. And you get a ton of features, including all the integrations available and access to coupons and gift card features. You can also add your branding to your booking site. But perhaps the best feature from SimplyBook.me is that clients can book appointments via Facebook or Instagram. Square Appointments has an Instagram integration, but otherwise SimplyBook.me and Setmore are the only solutions on our list with integrated social media booking.
SimplyBook.me scores a 4.19 out of 5 on our list because it has lots of unique features that even our best appointment scheduling app, Acuity, doesn’t have, such as SOAP notes and integrated Facebook appointment booking. However, SimplyBook.me charges for a lot of basic features, like text reminders, which most appointment apps built into their plans.
HubSpot Meetings Tool
The HubSpot Meetings Tool lets you sync your Google Calendar or Office 365 calendar, set your availability, and have prospects and customers book time with you. Add form fields to your meeting page to capture contact information like name, phone number, email address, and more. The meeting page can be sent as a link in an email or embedded on a website or landing page.
When they book time with you, the time is blocked off on your calendar and a confirmation email is sent to the prospect or client who booked. This simplifies the scheduling process so you can book more meetings in less time. Plus, it integrates directly with the CRM so you can keep track of your contacts and meetings. As prospects schedule meetings, HubSpot automatically creates records for new people.
2. Calendar
Price: Free for one calendar (Basic), $6/month for three calendars (Standard), $8/month for 10 calendars (Pro)
Calendar is an AI-enabled digital calendar, scheduling, and time management solution for individuals and teams. It brings together your Google Calendar, iCal (Apple Calendar), and Outlook Calendar into one dashboard view that you can customize and share. The digital calendar syncs across devices as well as offers a virtual assistant that can learn your schedule and begin taking over meeting planning, invitations, and scheduling changes. The paid versions also add meeting transcriptions and a wide range of analytics so you can see how you spend your time in meetings and with people.
3. Setmore
Price: Free
Setmore is a free appointment scheduling and payments platform that allows you to create a public-facing booking page. The free account supports up to 20 staff calendars and logins so your team can begin booking meetings. And you can send automatic appointment notifications to people who book time with you.
4. SimplyBook
Price: Free, $9.90/month (Basic), $29.90/month (Standard), and $59.90/month (Premium)
SimplyBook is an online booking system specifically designed for service-based companies. You can integrate SimplyBook with your existing website, or you can create a custom booking page within the platform. They also have social media integrations that allow you to accept bookings directly from Facebook and Instagram.
5. Square Appointments
Price: Free for individuals, $50 + 2.5% + $0.10/month for 3-5 calendars, $90 + 2.5% + $0.10/month for teams of 6-10 calendars, contact for pricing of 11 or more calendars.
If you’re looking for a flexible booking and payment platform, Square Appointments is worth your consideration. Through Square Appointments, you can set up a free customer booking website, activate automated text and email reminders, charge cancellation fees for no-shows, and accept integrated payments from within one platform.
6. Appointlet
Price: Free, $8/month (Premium)
This appointment booking software allows salespeople to customize their availability, create booking pages, and send them to prospects and customers. The booking page can integrate into your website, landing pages, and emails. While Appointlet does offer a paid pricing tier, the free version is free forever. It includes unlimited bookings, meeting types, and form fields.
Conclusion
Have you ever gone into an appointment, thinking that they’ll be no wait, only to find out you need to wait for at least 30 minutes? Additional bonus if it’s in the middle of the week. I’m sure we’ve all felt this pain. You arrive early, thinking that there will be no wait, so you can do your homework or read a book. DoorDash is a great app which solves this problem by allowing customers to schedule their own appointments, so you don’t have to set one and have the customer wait.