Scheduling appointments with back-and-forth phone calls or emails can take up a lot of time. Luckily, if you run your business on a WordPress website, then you can use an appointment booking plugin to help you streamline this process.
At WPBeginner, we use Calendly to schedule appointments with customers who are interested in our pro services. This is a simpler solution, but it’s right for our needs.
That said, most online businesses will likely need more advanced booking features. In fact, we’ve built lots of websites that require a seamless appointment booking system.
In our experience, Sugar Calendar is hands down the best option. Still, there are a few more solid booking plugins out there.
In this article, we will review the best WordPress appointment and booking plugins. We will go over their features, pricing, and more. We will even provide some recommendations on what types of businesses would benefit most from each tool.
Overview: Best Appointment and Booking Plugins for WordPress
Don’t have time to read the whole article? Here’s a quick overview of the best appointment and booking plugins for WordPress:
| # | Plugin | Best For | Pricing | Free Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Sugar Calendar | Best overall + booking events | Starting at $49.50/year | ✅ |
| 🥈 | WPForms | Appointment booking forms | Starting at $49.50/year | ✅ |
| 🥉 | Simply Schedule Appointments | Showing calendars with availability + multiple team members | Starting at $99/year | ✅ |
| 4 | Booking Calendar | Best free appointment booking plugin | Free | ✅ |
| 5 | WP Simple Booking Calendar | Accommodations + per-day bookings | Free | ✅ |
| 6 | BirchPress | Calendar integrations + email notifications | Starting at $99/site | ❌ |
| 7 | Easy Appointments | Appointments for in-person services | Free | ✅ |
How We Tested and Reviewed Appointment and Booking Form Plugins
To bring you accurate and up-to-date information about each tool, we evaluated each appointment booking plugin according to the following criteria:
- Ease of use: We always pick tools that are beginner-friendly. With appointment booking tools, we looked for simple editors for calendars, events, and forms. We also checked to see if the settings were straightforward and intuitive.
- Booking features: Scheduling appointments on your site should be easy, and we looked for plugins that facilitate that. We assessed if a tool allows customers to schedule appointments during your business hours, whether it gives you the ability to set up recurring events, and if it has an email notification system.
- Mobile-friendliness: Lots of people with busy schedules may need to manage their appointments on the go. So, we checked to see if customers can easily book appointments from smartphones and tablets as well as desktop devices.
- Useful integrations: There’s a lot of potential for integrations when it comes to an appointment booking plugin. We checked for key integrations like Google Calendar, WooCommerce, popular payment gateways, and more.
- Templates and customization options: Pre-made designs can help you set up your booking system as fast as possible. That said, it’s still good to have the option to customize your appointment booking forms and calendars. We looked for plugins that offer the perfect balance of useful templates while still allowing you to improve the customer experience and strengthen your visual brand with customization features.
- Customer reviews: We tested every plugin on this list. But we know that it would be impossible for us to try out every single feature and scenario. To fill in any knowledge gaps and provide you with a more comprehensive analysis, we also looked at the customer reviews for each plugin.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we have more than 16 years of experience with WordPress, eCommerce, digital marketing, and much more. We don’t just test plugins, we use them on our own sites every day.
Plus, we provide professional WordPress services and have built plenty of websites with advanced scheduling and booking functionalities.
For more information, check out our editorial process.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best appointment and booking plugins that you can use on your WordPress site.
1. Sugar Calendar
If you want to let people book a spot at your events, then Sugar Calendar is hands down the best option. The plugin allows you to create event schedules, collect payments, and more. Thanks to its powerful integrations, it’s also our top overall pick.
We have used this tool extensively in the past, so we can vouch for it. We’ve only had good experiences. For more information, check out our full Sugar Calendar review.
What makes Sugar Calendar so great is that it’s fast and simple to use. Unlike other booking plugins, it’s not bloated with excess code and works very well with other plugins.
It helps you create a simple event calendar without editing code, has great timezone support, works on all devices, and comes with calendar widgets, and everything you need.
Plus, the user interface is beginner-friendly and offers lots of customization options.
Creating and managing events from the back end of your site is easy with the Sugar Calendar dashboard and editor. You can choose the date formatting and time zones, set up recurring events, set start and end times, and more.
Another thing we love about Sugar Calendar is that it gives you simple blocks to easily show calendars and events on the front end of your WordPress site.
This way, users can book appointments with ease. Plus, thanks to its advanced ticketing system, you can accept payments via Stripe or WooCommerce.
We also appreciate that Sugar Calendar event syncs with your Google Calendar to help simplify your workflows.
That said, Sugar Calendar is our top pick because it enables you to connect with other WordPress form builders plugins like WPForms or Ninja Forms. This way, you can unlock the full power of form builders alongside this event management plugin.
Why we recommend Sugar Calendar: It’s our top pick overall because it has everything you need for events scheduling and offers advanced integrations with the best form builders if you also need simpler appointment forms.
Pricing: Sugar Calendar prices start from $49.50 per year, and you get access to all the free addons. If you want to use pro addons, then you’ll need a Professional license. There is also a free version of Sugar Calendar, but it lacks some of the more advanced features.
2. WPForms
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin, and you can also use it for scheduling appointments. We’ve included it on this list because it allows you to easily make appointment booking forms with a payment option. Plus, we have a lot of first-hand experience with it, and we love it.
In fact, at WPBeginner, we use WPForms for all our contact forms and our annual survey. For more details, see our complete WPForms review
The nice thing about WPForms is that it comes with a beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to easily create any kind of form within minutes. Plus, you get over 2000 different form templates to get started.
With WPForms, you can easily create a booking form in WordPress to take appointments. We like that it offers lots of different form fields you can use for customization.
Simply drag and drop them onto the template and then edit them further.
Like Sugar Calendar, WPForms also works seamlessly with the WordPress block editor. So, once your form is ready, all you have to do is add it to a post or page using the WPForms block.
After that, you can select your appointment booking form from a dropdown menu and publish your updated post or page.
The best part is that WPForms can be integrated with Google Calendar through Zapier. This way, you can keep your Google Calendar in sync with all the appointments that are booked using the form.
In addition, when researching this plugin more in-depth, we noticed that it also easily integrates with Sugar Calendar. This is a huge plus in our opinion. If you use both tools together, you’ll have everything you need for a highly effective appointment and booking system in WordPress.
Why we recommend WPForms: This plugin is ideal if you want to create a simple WordPress appointment form and accept payments. You can also integrate it with Sugar Calendar to create recurring events.
Pricing: WPForms offers pricing plans starting from $49.50 per year, and WPBeginner users can use an exclusive coupon to get 50% off. There is also a free WPForms Lite version.
3. Simply Schedule Appointments
Simply Schedule Appointments is another excellent booking plugin. It allows you to create appointment calendars that display your availability. This makes it perfect for consultants and small businesses with multiple team members.
We have covered this tool in depth for our full review of Simply Schedule Appointments. So, we’ve seen firsthand what it can do.
During our research, we tested the plugin’s setup wizard, which was super helpful. We liked how it walks you through every step of the process.
We also appreciated that it automatically detects some of your general settings before you get started, such as your time zone, date format, and contact details.
You can easily set up different Appointment Types, which are basically booking calendars.
The plugin lets you configure appointment settings like duration, booking layout, and more. Then, you can set up the time slots in your availability tab using a drag-and-drop editor.
You can even configure your calendars to match your colors and branding. Then, you can embed them on your site using a block or shortcode.
We were impressed by some of the tool’s premium features, which include booking flows and group event booking.
The plugin can even integrate with video call software like Zoom or Google Meet to help streamline the user experience.
Why we recommend Simply Schedule Appointments: This is a fantastic option for small businesses who want to display their availability on calendars and let customers pick a time.
Pricing: Premium plans for Simply Schedule Appointments start at $99 per year. There is also a free version of the tool, but it doesn’t include some of the advanced features, like booking flows.
4. Booking Calendar
Booking Calendar is the best free WordPress booking plugin on the market. It is simple, easy to use, and offers lots of documentation to help users.
We like that it comes with a calendar view for both you and your website visitors. You can easily add your booking or appointment form to any WordPress post or page.
While it is simple enough for beginners, it is also very powerful. During testing, we found that it includes a whole range of options that can be configured from the plugin’s settings page.
Booking Calendar has a built-in CAPTCHA to prevent spam, email notifications, jQuery effects, and more. You can even customize the booking form with your own custom fields.
Why we recommend Booking Calendar: This is the best option if you’re looking for a powerful, free appointment booking form.
Pricing: Booking Calendar is a free WordPress booking plugin.
5. WP Simple Booking Calendar
WP Simple Booking Calendar is another user-friendly WordPress booking plugin. It lets you create one calendar and allows users to book an entire day. This makes it a great option if you offer accommodation or other per-day offerings.
After creating a calendar, you can then add it to a post or page using the shortcode.
The nice thing about this plugin is that it lets you create unlimited booking calendars and sync them with other sites, including Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway.
In addition, you also have options like changing the first day of the week or the start month/year. There is also a premium version that offers more features.
Of course, the main downside of this booking plugin is that there are no hourly time slots.
Why we recommend WP Simple Booking: This is a great option if you need to offer per-day bookings on your WordPress site, such as for hotels and other accommodations.
Pricing: WP Simple Booking Calendar is a free WordPress plugin. There is also a premium version that costs $39 per site.
6. BirchPress
BirchPress is a comprehensive WordPress booking plugin. It lets you easily create a form with all the essential fields for booking appointments. It stands out for its calendar integrations and email notifications, making it a good choice for busy professionals.
We like that the calendar availability is featured directly in the form. That said, when testing the tool, we noticed that the calendar interface looks a bit outdated.
With BirchPress, your users can book appointments on your website and pay for them using their PayPal account or credit card. Plus, it also supports other payment gateways through WooCommerce integrations.
Our favorite thing about BirchPress is that it can sync your booking calendar with other calendars, and the options are extensive. These include Google Calendar, iCal, Android, Outlook, and more.
We also appreciate that it has a customizable email notification and reminder system to keep you and your clients informed about upcoming appointments.
During our research, we noticed that some users have complained that contacting the BirchPress team was difficult. So, you’ll want to keep that in mind.
Why we recommend BirchPress: This is an excellent appointment booking plugin that comes with all the essentials. It lets you create a booking form that you can sync with all the most popular calendar software.
Pricing: BirchPress offers 3 pricing plans starting from $99 per site.
7. Easy Appointments
Easy Appointments is a flexible and free WordPress appointment booking plugin. It allows you to easily add multiple locations, services, and workers. This makes it great if you offer in-person services.
When testing the plugin, we discovered that you can create flexible connections with granular control of the calendar. It also allows you to customize the booking form by adding custom form fields.
Then, you can easily add an appointment booking form to any page or post using the shortcode. We also appreciate that you can customize the notification emails for clients, workers, and website administrators.
Plus, Easy Appointment even has a special mobile-responsive form format that offers a two-column layout.
Why we recommend Easy Appointments: This plugin allows you to add multiple locations, services, and workers to appointments, making it a good option for small businesses offering in-person services.
Pricing: Easy Appointments is a free WordPress plugin for taking appointments and bookings on your website.
Which Appointment and Booking Plugin Should You Use?
After going through different plugins, we believe that Sugar Calendar is the best WordPress appointment and booking plugin. It is very easy to use and offers lots of features.
You can use it to manage events, book appointments, take reservations, assign specific time zones to calendar events, and more. Plus, it easily integrates with Google Calendar, Stripe, WPForms, and other WordPress plugins.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a plugin to create booking and appointment forms, then we recommend WPForms. It offers multiple prebuilt form templates, drag-and-drop builder, and form fields for customization.
If you want a comprehensive appointment booking system, we recommend using Sugar Calendar and WPForms together.
Otherwise, Simply Schedule Appointments may be a good option, especially if your business has multiple team members.
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We hope this article helped you find the best appointment and booking plugin for WordPress. You may also want to see our guides on how to create a booking form in WordPress and how to show upcoming events in WordPress.
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Moinuddin Waheed
Great list of plugins for booking and appointments.
I have been asked to make such booking and appointments websites like medical appointment in a hospital but I have refused to make one because of lack of knowledge.
Thanks for making this easy tutorial that now I can make any kind of booking and appointments website.
can it be integrated with websites and not necessarily making a standalone booking website?
WPBeginner Support
The plugins don’t require a site to be solely for a booking website.
Admin
Nathan Powell
Sugar Calendar does not have a way to do appointments and bookings. Why are they on the list? I bought it thinking there would be this functionality and had to get a refund because it does not have the feature. Why did you suggest it? Is there some configuration I missed? When I got my refund they said that it may be coming in future version btw.
WPBeginner Support
They are in the article as we recommend them for booking events such as a convention or similar. For appointments such as one on one appointments we have the other recommendations in our list. This way we cover the different types of bookings that can be needed depending on the niche that you need.
Admin
Iris
Easy appointment is definitely off my list, after two clients request for appointments were not forwarded to my mailbox and thus I didn’t see these appointments, it is time for something that really works and is reliable.
WPBeginner Support
You would first want to ensure you have enabled SMTP as the plugin would use WordPress to send the email but if your site is not sending emails properly they won’t be received. You may want to take a look at our guide on setting up SMTP below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-set-up-wp-mail-smtp-with-any-host-ultimate-guide/
Admin
Abe
Is this work for party rentals?
WPBeginner Support
You can use these for rentals and reach out to the support for what you are wanting to use for the specifics on how to set that up.
Admin
queuedr
thanks for the information and posts
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome
Admin
Rathan Kumar
Very useful article. I would like to know which plugin is best for two way google calendar sync functionality?
I mean, for eg: I am developing an application where customers can book appointment to get their house cleaned. So they need to select date and time slots to book an appointment with my cleaner. What I need is: I want my cleaner to able to set his availability time directly from the Google calendar. Is it possible? If so, please suggest me which plugin should I go for?
WPBeginner Support
For that type of integration, you would need to reach out to the plugin’s supports for if that would be available.
Admin
Andreas
Did you find a good booking platform for that?
Sneha Mittal
I think you missed out some important scheduling software like
1. SuperSaaS: offers a completely free version and very low cost subscription plans with a lot of amazing features like ability to set pricing rules, create discounts & promotional offers and so on.
2. Acuity Scheduling: Very popular but a little expensive if you want customization
3. Calendly: Meeting scheduling system
WPBeginner Support
Than you for those additional recommendations
Admin
Nicola
is there a plugin that allows you to reserve seats (local) for cooworking?
WPBeginner Support
You can add locations to most of these plugins, if you reach out to their support with the specifics you need they should be able to let you know if that is available.
Admin
robert brodsky
I am looking for a totally free date and time appointment booking plugin. I need to finish the project as cheap as possible. I know that is a tall order to fill but maybe someone knows of one.
WPBeginner Support
You may want to look at the Easy Appointments plugin in this list under number five.
Admin
Kevin
Hi,
First of all, thanks for this great article
I’m creating a platform for independent tour guides to propose their services here in Paris, which plugin could be the best for this? having in mind that there will be many guides and each of them with different services to propose.
Thanks in advance
WPBeginner Support
FOr that question, you would want to look into a business directory plugin: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/best-directory-plugins-for-wordpress/
Admin
Sunil
Hey…
I have seen few new plugins as well like buddypress, appointment buddy etc.
You can surely add few more..
Mike Anderson
Hi, I am looking for a booking system for appointments that can handle a client having a quota of free time per month, then allowing a paid rate for the hours after that time is used up? It wold of course renew the quota for the following month.
Is this at all possible, I have been looking for a couple of days at various options, most the plugins I have looked at cannot do this.
TIA
Mike
Bogdan Bujor
Hey buddy. Did you find anything? I am in search of such plugins and haven’t found one single one that can do this.
David
Hi!
Im buliding a website where i sell many different classes and courses, for exampel dance, yoga and gymnastics.
I need an calendar that alows for puting up courses with serten number of participates, also it will come in handy if i can have different actvities and classes at the same date and whour. For exampel, bachata course in this location, Yoga session on that location – but at the same time.
Further it would be good if there would be a function so people could pay straight away, rather than we having to contact them, asking them to pay, wait for the payment, the confirm the payment and the booking.
What plugin should i shoose? Thank you wery mouch! =)
WPBeginner Support
Hi David,
We would recommend you to check out StartBooking.
Admin
Katie
I just connected with someone at StartBooking, and they plan on rolling out a class scheduling/booking feature in a few weeks– however, it is not currently available.
Santosh kumar mohanty
Hello ,
I am making a website . I want a plugin by which I can send msg to individual recipient through a contact form or by mobile SMS . Can you help me find that’s like a plugin
Pablo Almeida
Hello!
I’m creating a Marketplace MVP for hairdressers.
Is there a plugin that create an individual agenda per hairdresser registered on my website?
I found very good solutions, but just for one WP installation. Not per user (independent hairdressers or salons).
The perfect world would be use with Portuguese translation. I can help on this translation too.
William
We are a charity Village Hall, and looking for a calendar/booking request system for our 2 different Halls. Is there a plugin for this type? Many thanks
Peter
Hi.
I am using Plan Up theme for online booking event tickets.
I am looking for a plugin that will work as ticket counter. If I have 100 tickets to sell it will do the countdown to zero and then it will be no more possible to sell more tickets. Is there a way to do this whitout to install WooCommers?
Thnaks in advance
Barbara
Can you suggest an affordable appointment calendar with a payment processor? I need the client to book and pay for their appointment online.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Barbara,
Did you check out BirchPress. We think it does all the things you need.
Admin
Janine
I run a beauty salon. I have a wordpress site with a Woocommerce online store where I also sell skincare products. I would like to create an area on my website where customers can log in to make/view/amend online appointments and also view past purchases made via my online store.
I have seen several websites which all have a similar set up but I’m not sure what plugin they are using for appointment booking
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Debra
If you are using Chrome there are many extensions it can be added. There is a few that detects where a site is a WordPress site and the plug-ins used on the WordPress site. That should help you find plug-in the functions the way you want.
philip
Hi, am using adventure tour theme,the booking form does not clear the detail after checkout what might be the problem kindly
David
I offer three services who’s only real constraint is time. I control my capacity by the number of people I have on site. The services I provide take place over the course of an entire workday, so there’s no real need to schedule by the hour/minute – I just need to make sure that the services I have booked do not exceed the total hours I have a available. The challenge is that all the services pull from the same “bucket” of raw materials. Is there a tool that can accomplish this?
Sidheeq
Dear , I am looking a wordpress theme for online booking of travel visa service , customer can apply for different country visa by online .
We need to add visa policy and uploading Felicity in the theme . any one have like theme .
Diane
Do you have any plug-ins for just requesting an appointment time without actually booking?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Diane,
In that case, you should try WPForms. It is an easy to use form builder plugin for WordPress. You can create a form allowing users to select desired time slots, dates, contact information, and send it to request their appointment. This will be stored in your WordPress admin area, you will also get the appointment request via email.
Admin
Diane
Thanks for your reply!
biz
Hi,
I’m looking for an appointment/booking/reservation plugin/software for a shuttle service. I’m looking for multiple slots per time period – like 5 seats for 9:27 AM, so it will show how many seats left, if e.g. 2 seats were reserved, 3/5 seats are available – being able to put the airport arrival and departure times and then how many seats are available with the decrease of seats showing as each booking is made, along with a payment option.
Also, I’m planning on offering an errand and appointment shuttle service, so would like to give them the option of a few time slots available that don’t overlap the airport arrival and departure times, if this is all possible.
I would prefer to pay outright for the plugin, instead of a subscription. Do you know of the best plugin/software that is available for this? Thanks, in advance!
Smarty Software
Really Wonderful Blog….!!!!
Very helpful for the appointment software plugin tips.
John
Hello,
Am looking to add “booking appointment” form in my site for car service and repairs. Would any of the above do as it seems most of them are for hotel reservations.
Thank You.
John
Your review of the Booking Calendar is very misleading. The version you show as a picture is not free, but actually very expensive.
The free version does not allow for time-slots, only full days can be booked. What is the point in that.
Like always, empty promises. I don’t mind paying money for good services and products, but this stupid teasing business they all seem to do now goes on my nerves
WPBeginner Support
Plugin developers can change pricing and features at any time. This is something beyond our control.
Admin
Jay Makwana
Which is the best booking calendar to book by time-slots? is Booking Calendar’s paid version worth the cost?
Carmen Ramirez
We are a non-profit and need a function which will allow us to book rooms for classes. We purchased the paid version of Booking Calendar, and it is not user friendly. You need to copy, cut, paste code and edit it. It was, in my opinion, a complete waste of money. I’m back to searching for a simple, user-friendly plug in solution. If you are good with coding the $79 may be worth it, but for us it was not.
Niall
Hi all!
I’m looking into creating a website for babysitters. Ideally, I’d like to add a process whereby babysitters can create their own profile and enter their hours available to work on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. When a user fills out the booking form including date and time range I would like it to automatically show only babysitters who are available at that moment. Successful completion of the booking form would then remove the babysitter from future search results for that moment.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Deanna
Hi! I wondered whether any of these plug-ins have the capability to allow my customers to add multiple reminder dates? For instance, their partners birthday, their wedding anniversary, kids birthdays etc…. if no, do you have a suggestion of what may be suitable?
TIA
Giulio
Hi guy, thanks for the article!
I’m looking for a booking plugin for an hotel website, which one do you suggest?
WPBeginner Support
Check out this tutorial: How to add a hotel room booking system in WordPress
Admin
Mason
I’ve lost money and time trying to modify a wordpress pricerr theme to allow each seller to accept appointments. Can you name any e-Commerce theme where users can easily make appointments, and be easily setup or automated by admin? If I had 1,000 sellers I’d want it simple!!
David
Of the “Five Best Appointment and Booking Plugins,” you mention that one is free, but you don’t mention the prices of any of the others.
To me, any review of something that costs money is useless without telling us how much it costs.
Karen Ratte
I think you may have missed the boat here. I tried a number of these and looked at the ease of use and features before settling on BOOKLY.