Best Scheduling Services For Small Businesses

As a small business or service provider, you must understand the importance of appointments and schedules. You have a lot of things to do, but it looks as if you don’t have enough time. This is what happens when you don’t have a proper scheduling structure in your business. Scheduling helps streamline business operations and reduce errors by freeing you from the laborious process of manual scheduling and rescheduling your business activities. This article will explore the meaning of scheduling apps and the ones suitable for small businesses.

5 Best Scheduling Services/Apps for Small Businesses

Calendly

Calendly is a scheduling and appointment book app suitable for individual and business use. It works with major email service providers and makes scheduling and setting up meetings with other people easier. It is accessible on iOS, web portals, and Android apps. Calendly has a free plan, so it is suitable for small businesses. If you plan to create one-on-one appointments with clients, you can do that without limit on Calendly.

Plan and Pricing

• Free Plan
• Standard plan: $10 monthly per person
• Teams plan $16 monthly per seat

Pros

• Scheduling and appointment booking through email
• Ease of use
• Survey creation
• Email templates

Cons

• Not suitable for recurring bookings
• The free plan does not have email remainders

Acuity

This scheduling app is suitable for new business owners who are not tech-savvy but need a customizable booking appointment app. The design process is easy and is suitable for recurring appointments. Other features you can include on the booking page are:

• An intake form.
• An option for clients to pay in advance.
• Options to reschedule or cancel appointments.

In all, it is easier to find your way around integrating these features into your booking page due to the ease of use.

Plan and Pricing

• Premium plan: from $16 per month for 1 staff member

Pros

• Ease of use
• App integration option
• Different email templates

Cons

• No Free plan
• Limited customization

Setmore

Are you looking for a scheduling app to get you started within a few minutes and at no cost? Setmore gets you covered. The app has more features in its free plan than other scheduling apps, making it suitable for small businesses. Other things that make Setmore unique are the unlimited appointments and customizable booking pages. In general, if you are on a budget, this is a perfect scheduling app for you.

Plan and Pricing

• Unlimited appointments
• Customizable booking page
• The premium plan is affordable
• Staff scheduling

Cons

• Email reminders are limited to 100 monthly on the Free plan
• Premium plan only allows two users

Appointy

If you need many integrations as well as schedule activities, Appointy is an ideal choice. On the free plan, you can use Google Calendar Booking and integrate it with Square Payments. In addition, you can access more than 1000 Zapier integrations. All these features on the free plan make it suitable for small businesses.

Plans and Pricing

• Free plan
• Growth plan: $19.99 per month
• Professional plan: $49.99 per month
• Enterprise plan: $79.99 per month

Pros

• Unlimited services
• Excellent customer support
• Simple Setup

Cons

• Display Appointy ads

Zoho Bookings

Zoho Bookings is a scheduling app created by Zoho cloud-based solutions. The function of this app extends beyond scheduling; it is also suitable for resource management. It is suitable for small businesses as it comes with a free plan. Plus, you can integrate with different apps like Zoho, Zoom, Outlook, Google and Microsoft 365. 

Plans and Pricing

• Free plan
• Basic: $6 per month (annual billing), $8 per month (monthly)
• Premium: $9 per month (annual billing), $12 per month (monthly)

Pros

• Affordable premium plans
• Feature-rich premium plans
• Appointment qualification
• Two-way calendar synchronization

Cons

• It can be hard to set up
• Limited CRM integration

Conclusion

Scheduling apps/services are not limited to the ones mentioned above; however, these apps were chosen for their affordable pricing plan and ease of use. As a small business owner, you need to choose the most suitable for your business. If you are on a budget, choose the most affordable. If you don’t want to deal with technical setup, choose the ones with an easy learning curve.