April 1, 2024

Top 5 Appointment Scheduling Apps for Small Businesses [Honest Reviews + Pricing]

Your business needs a booking appointment app that gives you the liberty to accept bookings on the go. Here’s a quick look at 5 appointment-scheduling apps for small businesses that give you the time to focus on the important aspects of your business.

What's in this post?

Running a small business feels like a race against time. The past few years have tested the resilience of small businesses operating across industries.

Leveraging digital technologies and quickly adapting to the demands of contactless business practices have become a front-and-center focus for today’s generation of small businesses.

Digital solutions have been key to facilitating real-time collaboration, innovation, and connectivity between customers and stakeholders. According to 53% of new businesses digital technology has significantly helped them break down the barriers to business ownership. In line with this, solutions that help you spend less time on administrative tasks and more on growing your business will become crucial. This is where appointment management software and online booking systems come into the picture.

These intuitive appointment scheduling apps for small businesses organize your appointment schedules, removing the hassles of going back and forth over email to find availability and sending manual reminders, all of which take up way too much valuable time away from your business.

What should you look for in an appointment scheduling app for your small business?

Appointment scheduling software for small businesses come with a host of features that eliminate double booking, reduce no-shows, and improve the booking experience for your customers.

- A personalized booking page

The appointment booking app that you choose should provide an individual booking page where your customers can easily book an appointment with you or your team members based on availability. A plus point would be if you can customize colors or widgets on the booking page to suit your brand’s style.

- Automatic notifications and reminders

Once the customer books an appointment with your business, you should be able to automatically send out a text or email confirmation to the customer. Opt for an appointment scheduling app that lets you send automated notifications as well as reminders before the appointment to reduce no-shows.

- A flexible scheduling app

The booking app should ensure that canceling or rescheduling appointments is as easy and seamless as booking the appointment in the first place.

- Online meetings

Given how most businesses are now going remote you should be able to offer your customers the option of virtual meetings which can be conducted via a voice or video call. Integrating with apps like Google Meet and Zoom will be extremely beneficial, enabling you to send meeting links to your customers automatically once the booking is made.

Top 5 appointment booking apps for small businesses in 2024

We have evaluated dozens of apps on the market and are coming to you with the 5 best appointment booking apps for small businesses.

Let’s dive in.

1. Appointo

Appointo is among the best-rated apps that offer a simple and affordable appointment-scheduling solution for different types of growing businesses. A notable feature of the app is that it works for all appointment types, from one-on-one meetings to large groups. The app displays the real-time availability of the team and sends timely reminders and follow-ups to ensure your customers never miss an appointment.

Key features:

  • Customize the booking page to suit your website’s theme and translate the booking widget into any language of your choice
  • Streamline workflows and automatically assign appointments to team members based on their availability
  • Enable seamless and secure payment processing features
  • Support group appointments and online meetings with effortless integrations on apps like Google, Outlook, and Zoom
  • Sell bundles, ask customers personalized questions, and automate updates, reminders, and follow-ups by sending SMS and WhatsApp messages

Pricing:

Free: Try Appointo for 14 days with no charges during the trial period
Pro-plan:
$12/month

2. Calendesk

The appointment scheduling app, Calendesk is helping small businesses automate and streamline the appointment booking process, allowing them to manage meetings with ease.

Key features:

  • Streamline your workflows by integrating with Zapier
  • Create recurring meetings such as monthly consultations
  • Export data to have access to booking and customer information at all times
  • Set up team access levels within the booking system

Pricing:

Calendesk Standard: $39 per month, billed annually
Calendesk Pro
: $55 per month, billed annually
Calendesk Enterprise
: Contact their sales team to create individual contracts based on your unique needs

3. Visibook

Visibook is an online scheduling software that empowers small businesses to manage booking and customer relationships. This self-service portal comes with calendar synchronization, payment processing, and booking reminder functionalities.

Key features:

  • Enable mobile push notifications, SMS text, and email follow-ups to help reduce no-shows
  • Manage all of your team members’ calendars in one place
  • Accept a deposit or full-service fee securely
  • Sync your team’s Google calendar and manage your workflows with ease

Pricing:

Free: Book up to 25 appointments for free in a month
Basic:
$6.99/month, book up to 50 appointments in a month
Standard
: $13.99/month, book up to 1,00 appointments in a month
Unlimited
: $19.99/month, book unlimited appointments in a month

4. Waitwhile

This queue and wait management app, Waitwhile can be used for businesses to create virtual waitlists and allow customers to schedule appointments.

Key features:

  • Deliver accurate wait times for walk-in appointments
  • Offer customers flexibility with calendars that can be filtered by day, service, employee, or location
  • Choose colors, upload logos, and tailor your booking page to keep it in line with your brand

Pricing:

Free: Explore Waitwhile for free (up to 50 visits a month)
Starter:
$23/month
Business:
$156/month
Enterprise
: Talk to their sales team for custom pricing

5. Schedulicity

Schedulicity is a comprehensive app that lets you schedule and manage appointments in one place. The app also comes with built-in marketing and payment processing functionalities.

Key features:

  • Leverage the marketplace where clients can discover businesses
  • Make your brand stand out with customization
  • Flag no-shows and cancelations
  • Add special icons for new clients

Pricing:

Free: Accept up to 10 appointment bookings for free per month
The app also offers subscription-based pricing

Delight your clients with a top-notch appointment booking app

It’s time to move away from the hassles of manual scheduling and experience the ease of online booking of appointments.

While there is no one-size-fits-all booking solution, this quick guide will help you choose between 5 of the best apps. If you’re looking to get started quickly with an easy-to-use appointment-scheduling app for your small business, then it’s time to try out Appointo. Get started within 2 minutes. The best part? You can start accepting bookings with zero technical effort.

Sign up now and take your appointment booking experience to the next level with Appointo today!

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