In this article
Key Takeaways
- Altegio is the pick for salons, barbershops, spas and studios that want online prepayments, gift cards and WhatsApp reminders in one system.
- Calendly fits one-on-one meetings and sales calls, while Acuity Scheduling fits solo practitioners who take payment at booking.
- Setmore is free for up to 4 users, and SimplyBook.me charges by monthly bookings and gives every account a ready booking website.
- Albato has native connectors for Altegio, Calendly and Acuity Scheduling, so new bookings reach your CRM or a spreadsheet without code.
A Saturday at a busy salon shows the problem: the phone rings during a color appointment, nobody answers, and the caller books down the street. Later a 2 p.m. client never shows, and the chair stays empty. Online booking software takes that request at any hour, collects a deposit up front and sends the reminder for you.
How do the top online booking platforms compare in 2026?
The five online booking platforms differ most in how they charge: Calendly and Setmore bill per user, Acuity Scheduling by the number of staff calendars, SimplyBook.me by monthly bookings, and Altegio by team size and country. Prices below are the lowest paid plan each vendor published in October 2026, in the vendor's own currency.
| Platform | Best for | Free plan | Paid plans from | Payments at booking | Reminders | Albato connector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altegio | Salons, barbershops, spas and studios | No (7-day free trial) | By team size and country | Online payment and prepayment | WhatsApp, SMS, email, push | Yes |
| Calendly | One-on-one meetings and sales calls | Yes (1 event type, 1 calendar) | $10/seat/mo billed yearly ($12 monthly) | Stripe, PayPal (Standard and up) | Email and text via Workflows (Standard and up) | Yes |
| Acuity Scheduling | Solo practitioners who take payment up front | No (7-day free trial) | $16/mo billed yearly ($20 monthly) | Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo (all plans) | Email on all plans, text from Standard | Yes |
| Setmore | Small teams on a budget | Yes (up to 4 users) | $5/user/mo billed yearly ($12 monthly) | Square, Stripe, PayPal (all plans), deposits on Pro | Email on Free, SMS on Pro | No |
| SimplyBook.me | Multi-staff businesses that need a booking website | Yes (50 bookings/mo, 1 provider) | €11.90/mo billed yearly (€13.90 monthly) | Payments and deposits from Basic | Email on all plans, SMS and WhatsApp as paid credits | No |
Annual billing lowers the price everywhere: Calendly advertises savings of up to 20%, Acuity Scheduling 20%, SimplyBook.me 17%, and Setmore Pro drops from $12 to $5 per user per month.
Why switch to an online booking platform?
An online booking platform replaces phone calls and message threads with a booking page that checks your availability, takes the appointment and sends confirmations and reminders on its own. The gains show up in four places:
- Bookings outside business hours: clients book, reschedule or cancel at 11 p.m. without waiting for you to call back.
- Less admin work: the booking page only offers free slots, so nobody on staff confirms times by phone or juggles double bookings.
- Fewer no-shows: automated reminders and deposits give clients a reason to come or to cancel in time.
- Booking data: reports show peak hours, popular services and repeat clients, which helps you plan staff hours.
Top Online Booking Systems in 2026: Features, Prices & Service Comparison
Altegio
Altegio is salon management software built around online booking and appointment scheduling. Altegio names six industries it serves, from beauty salons, barbershops, spas and tattoo studios to clinics, gyms, yoga studios, dance schools and language schools. Booking, client management, and business tools sit in one platform, and Altegio charges 0% commissions on bookings.
Best for: beauty and wellness businesses, from one location to a franchise, that want booking, payments, payroll and client records in one system.
Key Features
- Online booking: clients book 24/7 from your website or branded mobile apps. With Reserve with Google and a Book Now button for Instagram and Facebook, clients can also book straight from your Google Maps listing or your Instagram and Facebook business accounts.
- Appointment scheduling: staff can schedule, reschedule and cancel appointments for clients who book online or offline.
- Client management: the client database keeps appointment history, no-shows and membership status, which feeds personalized service and loyalty programs.
- Payments and finances: clients can pay online when they book, or you can ask for a prepayment to cut no-shows. Gift cards, service subscriptions with a recurring monthly fee, inventory, and commission-based payroll are handled in the same place.
- Franchises and multiple locations: one centralized system runs several locations or a franchise, with reporting across all locations and access settings for managers and staff.
- Client messaging: WhatsApp, SMS, email and push notifications send appointment reminders and keep clients informed about offers.
Integration Capabilities
Altegio connects with third-party apps and services through open APIs.
Pricing
Altegio prices its subscription by team size, from up to 2 team members to unlimited staff, and the rate you see depends on your country. Paying for 3, 6 or 12 months at once costs less per month than paying monthly. Every tier includes the platform's core features, and the 7-day free trial needs no credit card.
Calendly
Calendly works through a shared link that shows your open slots: the invitee picks one, and Calendly checks your connected calendars first. Tope Awotona founded the company in 2013, and the product is strongest for meetings, consultations and sales calls rather than service menus with staff and add-ons.
Best for: solo professionals and sales or customer teams that book one-on-one meetings and want a usable free plan.
Key Features
- Event types and calendar sync: paid plans add unlimited event types and multiple connected calendars, and the Teams plan adds round-robin scheduling across teammates.
- Payments at booking: from the Standard plan, invitees pay through Stripe or PayPal when they book, and you can send payment links for deposits or one-off fees.
- Reminders and follow-ups: Workflows send automated emails and text messages before and after each meeting, which is Calendly's main tool against no-shows.
- Lead routing: on Teams, routing forms qualify and route leads, and meetings can be sent to Salesforce.
- AI add-ons: Notetaker (recordings, transcripts and meeting recaps) is sold as an add-on for Standard and Teams, while Callie, an assistant that schedules over email, is still in beta.
Integration Capabilities
Calendly connects natively with Google, Outlook and Office 365 calendars, with Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, with HubSpot and Mailchimp on Standard, and with Marketo and Salesforce on Teams. Through Albato you can connect Calendly to 1,000+ apps: the "Invitee created" and "Invitee canceled" triggers send each new or canceled booking to your CRM, a Google Sheet or a task board, and the Calendly setup guide shows the connection step by step. If your team mainly books sales demos, our roundup of scheduling software for sales teams compares Calendly with tools built around a pipeline.
Pricing
Calendly has four plans. Free covers one event type and one calendar connection. Standard costs $10 per seat per month billed yearly or $12 billed monthly, and Teams costs $16 per seat billed yearly or $20 monthly. Enterprise starts at $15,000 per year with a 50-seat minimum. Only hosts need a seat, so the people who book with you never pay.
Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling, owned by Squarespace since 2019, is built for client services where the booking and the payment happen in one step: coaches, therapists, stylists, tutors and fitness instructors. A client picks a service, fills in your intake form and pays or leaves a deposit before the slot is confirmed.
Best for: solo practitioners and small studios that want payment at the time of booking and do not need a free plan.
Key Features
- Payments and deposits: every plan accepts payments and deposits through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo.
- Intake forms: custom client forms collect contact details and acceptance of your terms and conditions before the session.
- Branded scheduler: you set your logo, colors and copy, and clients see times converted to their own time zone.
- Packages, memberships and gift certificates: from Standard, you can sell bundles, recurring memberships and gift certificates, and clients can join a waitlist for fully booked slots.
- Calendars per staff or location: Starter includes 1 calendar, Standard up to 6 and Premium up to 36, which is how Acuity grows with a team.
Important. Text message reminders are not part of Acuity's Starter plan, which sends email reminders only. They start on Standard ($27 per month billed yearly), and Acuity notes that SMS availability varies by country.
Integration Capabilities
Acuity Scheduling runs online sessions through Google Meet, Zoom and GoToMeeting, and Premium adds a custom API, a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and an AI booking assistant for clients. Albato has a native Acuity Scheduling connector with five triggers, including "Appointment scheduled", "Appointment canceled" and "Order completed", and actions such as "Create appointment" and "Add blocked off time". A new appointment can create a contact in your CRM, and an event in another app can block off time in Acuity. The Acuity setup guide walks through the connection.
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling has no free plan, only a 7-day free trial without a credit card. Starter costs $16 per month billed yearly or $20 monthly, Standard $27 or $34, and Premium $55 or $69, in USD before taxes.
Setmore
Setmore has the most generous free plan in this list for teams: up to 4 users get their own logins and booking pages, unlimited appointments and online payments at no cost. Its customers range from barber shops and beauty salons to medical, legal and education services, personal trainers and photographers.
Best for: small service teams on a budget that want to start free and pay per user later.
Key Features
- Booking Page and channels: a customizable Booking Page with its own URL, plus Book Now buttons for your website, Facebook and Instagram and Reserve with Google, all on the free plan.
- Payments: Square, Stripe and PayPal work on every plan, along with in-person payments and Tap to Pay; taking deposits requires Pro.
- Classes and video appointments: both plans handle 1-on-1 services and group classes, and Pro adds video appointments through Zoom or Google Meet.
- Reminders: the free plan sends email reminders, and Pro adds SMS reminders with 500 SMS credits per team member each month.
Integration Capabilities
Setmore syncs with Google Calendar and Office 365, with two-way sync on Pro, exports contacts to HubSpot lists, and connects to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Albato has no native Setmore connector. A workable route is Setmore's HubSpot integration: once contacts land in HubSpot, Albato's HubSpot connector can pass them on to your other apps.
Pricing
Setmore has two plans. Free costs $0 for up to 4 users. Pro covers unlimited users at $5 per user per month billed annually or $12 billed monthly, and it removes Setmore branding and adds recurring appointments, deposits, SMS reminders, two-way calendar sync and Google review requests. US businesses can add a Live Receptionist service for $99 per month.
SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook.me ties its price to booking volume: each plan includes a monthly booking allowance and a set number of service providers, so adding staff within that limit does not raise the bill. Every account also gets a booking website, a booking widget for your own site and an admin app.
Best for: businesses with several staff members that need a ready booking website and want costs tied to booking volume.
Key Features
- Booking website and channels: a mobile-responsive booking website, a widget you embed through an iframe or WordPress, bookings from your Facebook Page and a listing in the Booking.page directory.
- Custom features: SimplyBook.me offers over 60 add-on features, such as intake forms, memberships, gift cards, point of sale and HIPAA. Free includes 1 premium custom feature, Basic 3, Standard 8 and Premium an unlimited number.
- Payments: from Basic, clients can pay online, leave deposits and add tips through processors such as Stripe, PayPal or Square, and SimplyBook.me charges no transaction fees of its own. Premium adds refunds, payment links and saved cards.
- Notifications: email confirmations and reminders come with every plan, while SMS and WhatsApp messages run on prepaid credits, 100 of either for $8.
Integration Capabilities
SimplyBook.me has two-way Google Calendar sync, iOS and Android admin apps, adds QuickBooks, FreshBooks and Xero on Premium, and offers a developer API for connecting the booking system to your own website or app. Albato has no native SimplyBook.me connector, so moving bookings into other apps means using that API.
Pricing
SimplyBook.me lists prices in euros. Free costs €0 and includes 50 bookings a month for 1 provider. Basic costs €11.90 per month billed yearly or €13.90 monthly for 100 bookings and 5 providers, Standard €24.90 or €29.90 for 500 bookings and 15 providers, and Premium €49.90 or €59.90 for 2,000 bookings and 30 providers. Enterprise is priced on request, and every new account starts with a 14-day trial of premium features.
How do you choose an online booking platform?
You choose an online booking platform by matching it to how you get paid, how many people take bookings and where client data has to go after each appointment. Five checks narrow the list quickly:
- Payment at booking: if no-shows cost you money, pick a tool that takes deposits. Acuity Scheduling does it on every plan, Altegio supports prepayment, and Setmore and SimplyBook.me need a paid plan.
- Per-user or per-booking pricing: Calendly and Setmore charge per user, SimplyBook.me by booking volume, and Acuity Scheduling by the number of staff calendars.
- Reminder channel: Altegio sends WhatsApp reminders, SimplyBook.me sells WhatsApp and SMS credits, and Acuity and Setmore add SMS on paid plans. If your clients live in WhatsApp, you can also book appointments through WhatsApp with an AI agent.
- Free plan limits: Calendly Free allows one event type, Setmore Free has email reminders only, and SimplyBook.me Free stops at 50 bookings a month.
- Integrations: check whether new bookings can reach your CRM. Altegio, Calendly and Acuity Scheduling connect to it through Albato without code, while Setmore has its own CRM integrations, including a HubSpot export, and SimplyBook.me needs its developer API or a third-party connector.
Tip. Count staff and monthly bookings before you compare prices. Five people on Setmore Pro cost $25 a month billed yearly, while SimplyBook.me Basic covers five providers for €11.90 but caps you at 100 bookings a month.
Every platform here lets you test the booking flow with real clients before paying: Altegio and Acuity Scheduling give 7-day free trials, SimplyBook.me a 14-day trial of premium features, and Calendly and Setmore stay free within their plan limits.
FAQ
What is the best free online booking system?
Setmore has the most generous free plan for teams: up to 4 users, unlimited appointments and online payments, with email reminders only. SimplyBook.me's free plan suits a single provider with up to 50 bookings a month, and Calendly's free plan covers one event type, which fits one-on-one meetings.
Which booking software takes payments at the time of booking?
All five do, on different plans. Acuity Scheduling accepts Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo on every plan, and Setmore takes Square, Stripe and PayPal even on its free plan. Calendly adds Stripe and PayPal from Standard, SimplyBook.me adds payments from Basic, and Altegio supports online payment and prepayment.
What booking app is best for solo service providers?
Acuity Scheduling's Starter plan, at $16 per month billed yearly, fits a solo practitioner who wants intake forms and payment at booking. On a zero budget, SimplyBook.me's free plan covers one provider and 50 bookings a month. A solo stylist or barber may prefer Altegio, which is built for salons and barbershops and takes prepayment at booking.
Can I connect my booking software to a CRM?
Yes. Albato has native connectors for Altegio, Calendly and Acuity Scheduling, so a new booking can create or update a contact in HubSpot or add a row to Google Sheets without code. Setmore exports contacts to HubSpot natively, and SimplyBook.me offers a developer API, but Albato has no native connector for either.
What is the difference between booking software and scheduling software?
Scheduling software such as Calendly is built around meetings: a link shows your free slots and the invitee picks one. Booking software such as Altegio, Setmore or SimplyBook.me is built around services, with staff, service menus, payments, deposits and client records. Acuity Scheduling sits between the two, for providers who see one client at a time.
Conclusion
Pick Altegio if you run a salon, barbershop, spa or studio and want booking, payments, client records and reminders in one system. Choose Calendly if most of your bookings are meetings or sales calls, and Acuity Scheduling if you work alone and want clients to fill in a form and pay before they arrive. Setmore is the cheapest way to put a small team online, free for up to 4 users, while SimplyBook.me makes sense when you want a ready booking website and prefer to pay by booking volume. Whichever you choose, check how new bookings will reach your CRM before you commit.
Related Articles
- Sales teams that route inbound demo requests can compare 10 meeting routing and scheduling tools in our guide to Chili Piper alternatives.
- Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is evolving rapidly. Our article details the key features to look for in a CCaaS solution in 2024 , helping you select a system that offers scalability, reliability, and innovative technology.
- If your team plans work in Trello, see how to send Calendly bookings into Trello as new tasks with Albato.
