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Table of content

• Introduction
• Best Booking Apps For Small Business List
• Why Do I Need A Scheduling App For My Business
• What To Look Out For When Choosing A Booking Software
• 5 Best Appointment Scheduling Software For Small Businesses
  • Calendly
  • Cal.com
  • Google Calendar
  • Acuity
  • Zoho Bookings
• Free Vs Paid Booking Software: Which Is The Best?
• Conclusion
• FAQ

Why Do I Need A Scheduling App For My Small Business

In case you’re wondering why you even need an appointment scheduling app for your small business in the first place. Imagine this, let’s say you just launched a coaching business, and you have just 5 clients that regularly schedule sessions with you.

You can easily use WhatsApp to tell each client when you’ll be available next. Then use a simple note/calendar app to keep track of your schedule.

However, let’s say your business grows overnight and 50 people wants to book a session with you at different times, next month. This will quickly become overwhelming, and hence, an appointment scheduling software comes to the rescue.

What To Look Out For When Choosing A Booking Software

Ease of Use: To save time, It’s important to choose a software that’s easy to understand and use.

Pricing: How often do you book appointments? If you rarely do, you may need to consider choosing a free appointment scheduling software, instead of paid options.

Features: One off/recurring bookings support, Analytics, Appointment reminder etc are all important features to consider before choosing a booking software for your small business. You shouldn’t need to manually send an email to each clients to remind them about upcoming appointments.

5 Best Appointment Scheduling Software For Small Businesses

1. Calendly

Calendly is a scheduling automation system for eliminating the back-and-forth emails to find the perfect time — and so much more. They offer smarter scheduling for teams who conduct meeting at scale.

What Makes Calendly The Best Booking Software For Small Business

It’s very simple to use, compared to its alternatives. It’s also mostly free. Unless you need more features, you may never need to pay a dime to use it.

2. Cal.com

Cal.com is an open source Calendly alternative. It helps you focus on meetings, and not making them. Because of it’s open source nature, it can be easily adapted to any business, and integrated into any custom enterprise application.

What Makes Cal.com The Best Appointment Scheduling Software For Small Business

It’s open source. Which mean, if for some reasons, you can’t find an appointment scheduling software that suits you; you can hire a developer to customize Cal.com booking experience to suit you.

3. Google Calendar

This is one of the most popular booking apps, and you’ve probably already used this at one point before. Google Calendar is very simple to use, which makes it perfect for businesses with fewer appointments.

What Makes Google Calendar The Best Booking App For Small Business

Its simplicity is outstanding. If you rarely have to schedule appointments, you will probably do just fine with only Google Calendar.

4. Acuity

Acuity is another good scheduling software for a small business. If you’re an agency owner, you may have experienced instances where you realize a lead isn’t the right fit, or as hot as you expect.

The software has a feature that lets you get an initial secure deposit before an appointment is booked, helping you to pre-qualify leads, and save time for both you and your prospect.

What Makes Acuity The Best Booking Software For Small Business

They have similar features to other scheduling softwares. However, their approach for reducing the “no show” rates for appointments is very interesting. By letting you accept secure deposits, you’re sure that you only spend time on the right leads who are ready to take actions.

5. Zoho Bookings

Zoho is a powerful software suite that transforms the way you work. If you need more than just appointment scheduling to run and manage your business efficiently, Zoho lets you do other things like customer relationship management, inventory & invoice management, social media management etc. 

So instead of signing up for different platforms to manage these tasks, you can use Zoho as your all-in-one solution.

What Makes Zoho The Best Appointment Scheduling App For Small Business

Zoho Bookings is a powerful option because it offers software for nearly everything you need to manage your business. If you prefer to manage all your operations on one platform, consider using Zoho.

Free Vs Paid Booking Software: Which Is The Best?

Honestly, it depends on the size of your business and your needs. If you’re just starting out with fewer clients, simpler schedules, and minimal feature requirements, a free scheduling software will suffice.

However, if you’re currently scaling your business and need more advanced features, consider switching to a paid option.

Conclusion

There are more than 20+ scheduling solution for different businesses. We’ve listed 5 of the best booking softwares for small business. Depending on the features you need, you can choose any of them to simplify appointment scheduling for your business.

FAQ