6 Best Free Appointment Scheduling Software (2024)

Overall Score: 4.46 / 5

What we like:

Picktime is our top pick for the best free appointment scheduling software. The platform offers a robust bank of free features, including a customer booking page, resource management, unlimited appointments, class bookings, and the ability to add booking forms, take deposits, generate invoices, accept payments online, and send automated email reminders.

Overall, Picktime earned a 4.46 out of 5 for its top-notch free features. The app mainly lost points for locking key features, including SMS notifications and unlimited class bookings, behind a paywall.

Visit Picktime

When it was introduced in 2017, Picktime was entirely free. That is no longer the case, and the software has since added several paid plans, although it still offers a robust free option that works for most small businesses. Picktime’s paid plans, Starter and Pro, include additional advanced features and can support larger operations.

• Starter: $9.99 per month (3 resources, 2 locations, 5 classes)
• Pro: $19.99 per month (10 resources, unlimited locations, unlimited classes)

Overall, Picktime’s free plan is a great place to start, and with the additional paid options, there are opportunities for the software to grow with your business.

• Multi-location access: Picktime supports multiple locations, with the free plan allowing you to manage appointments for two branches from the same dashboard. It can also detect your client’s location to find the nearest branch.
• Three free users: You get three free users/team members with your Picktime account.
• Customer management: Quickly access your customer data for marketing promotions and discounts, leave customer notes for your staff, and import/export customer data from anywhere. Additionally, your customers can keep track of their upcoming appointments by creating their own Picktime account.
• Video, calendar, and payment processing integrations: Picktime has tons of integrations—some free and some only in a paid plan. Its free integrations include PayPal, Jitst, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, iCloud Calendar, and Exchange. If you are a paid subscriber, however, you can also integrate with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, and GoToMeeting.

Overall Score: 4.34 / 5

Read full Square Appointments review

What we like:

Square Appointments is ideal for a single-location service business because it offers a free single-location plan with all the tools you need to take and manage appointments. You can set up a webpage where clients can view your open time slots, book an appointment, and pay for their service. This webpage can even be linked to your social media accounts and integrated into your website. Every Square account also has a Square POS account, a website builder, and Square’s payment processing.

In our scoring, Square Appointments earned a 4.34 out of 5 due to its rich features, unlimited appointments and calendars, and easy-to-use interface. The program mainly lost points for its lack of video integrations and limited calendar syncing options.

Read full Square Appointments review

Visit Square Appointments

Square Appointments scales its pricing based on the number of locations and features. With its free plan, you get a single location, all the basic features, and unlimited appointments and calendars.

For the paid plans, you pay a monthly fee per location and get access to more advanced features. With the Plus plan, you get access to no-show protection, Google calendar sync,class bookings, and automated reminders. With the Premium plan, you get all that plus advanced staff management tools and resource-appointment management.

Pricing for each plan is:

• Free: $0
• Plus: $29/location
• Premium: $69/location

• SMS appointment notifications: While every one of our providers offers some kind of appointment notifications, Square includes SMS in its free plan. 10to8 is the only other plan that offers text notifications as part of its free plan (Fresha offers a limited number each month).
• Square Assistant: Square Appointments’ text services also utilize Square Assistant, an automated messaging tool enabling 24/7 replies concerning appointment confirmations, cancellations, or rescheduling.
• Booking page customization: Additionally, Square has great customization options for your online booking page and allows you to design a page without any Square branding. You can customize the description, duration, and pricing of your list of services and choose how they will display (as a menu or calendar, for example) on your booking site.
• POS system: Signing up for Square Appointments also gives you access to Square POS, which includes tools for payment processing, customer management, and inventory tracking.

Overall Score: 4.13 / 5

Read full Fresha review

What we like:

Fresha is a very popular and highly reviewed app in the beauty and wellness industries. The software has specific programs for salons, gyms, personal training, and more. The free plan supports unlimited appointments, staff members, and locations. It also has unlimited email notifications and gives you a user dashboard and app where you can view and manage your appointments.

Overall, Fresha earned a 4.13 out of 5 in our scoring. It stood out from the competition in that, like Square, it includes a point-of-sale (POS) and payment processing in its free plans. It lost points, however, because some of the features offered by other free software, such as SMS reminders, class/group bookings, and online booking, are only accessible with the software’s paid plan.

Read full Fresha review

Visit Fresha

Fresha’s pricing structure differs slightly from the rest. Unlike our other options that charge a flat monthly rate, Fresha offers a set of free, basic features and then charges per use of specific paid functions.

• Free: Unlimited appointments, employees, inventory, email notifications, and locations, POS system, appointment/calendar management tools, inventory management, reporting tools
• Paid Features:
  • Payment processing: 2.19% + 20 cents
  • Fresha Marketplace app new client fee: 20% one-time commission (Minimum fee of $6 per client)
  • Blast marketing: 6 cents per text; 2 cents per email
  • SMS notifications: 50 free monthly texts; 1 cent per extra texts

• Reporting capabilities: Fresha makes it easy to manage your salon or other beauty and wellness business with unlimited free reporting.
• Unlimited locations and users: Use one account to manage multiple locations. Additionally, Fresha supports your entire team with unlimited users and in-person appointment bookings.
• POS: Fresha allows you to set up payment types during checkout. The platform can add tips on checkout and set payment and discount types, staff commission rates, and voucher duration.

Overall Score: 3.47 / 5

What we like:

Setmore supports up to four free users and is loaded with features that make it great for managing sales teams. With Setmore, clients can book online and see which employees are available at a particular time. Or, you can add appointments manually from the dashboard and reschedule or reassign appointments with just a few clicks. It also lets you accept payments and maintain a customer database. Additionally, Setmore integrates with mailing, sales, and CRM programs, plus a multitude of other business apps. The software is also set up to handle internal meetings among staff members.

Setmore’s rich management features and user-friendly interface earned it a 3.47 out of 5. But, the software lost points because it charges for many of the features that other scheduling software options offer for free, like SMS reminders, calendar customization, and calendar syncing. However, its paid plans are reasonably priced, especially if you have three or more employees.

Visit Setmore

Setmore has three plans to choose from that scale based on features, customization options, and the number of users you need to support. The two paid plans, however, have the same offerings, with the Pro plan supporting 1–2 people and the team plan supporting 3+ people.

• Free: Includes basic features for up to four employees
• Pro ($12/user/month): Supports 1-2 users, includes all free features, plus SMS reminders, custom notifications, recurring appointments, Zoom, and calendar sync
• Team ($5/user/month): Supports 3+ users, includes all free and pro features

• Four free users: Other than Fresha’s unlimited user plan, Setmore’s free plan allows for more users than any of the other providers on our list.
• Social media integration: You can add your Fresha booking page directly to both your Instagram and Facebook pages so customers can book directly from wherever they find you.
• Video meetings: Offer one-on-one virtual appointments or small group sessions via Teleport video calls.
• Video, calendar, and payment processing integrations: Setmore also has a slew of integrations for your business, including Zoom (paid), Teleport, Google (paid), Office 365 (paid), Square, Stripe (paid), and PayPal (paid).

Overall Score: 3.29 / 5

What we like:

Mailchimp, a popular email platform, is the next contender on our list of the best free appointment scheduling software. With Mailchimp’s Appointment Scheduling tools, you can create a booking page where customers can view your service menu and available time slots, and then book and pay for a service.

What makes Mailchimp stand out, however, is its additional ecommerce capabilities, including a website builder with unlimited pages, website customizations, an array of templates, SEO tools, payment processing, and sales reporting. Additionally, Mailchimp users get a suite of marketing tools to help promote their business, like a marketing calendar and social media integrations.

While unlike Square there is no in-store POS solution with Mailchimp, it is a great solution if you want to add an ecommerce store to your service business.

Overall, Mailchimp earned a 3.29 out of 5, earning points for its appointment management capabilities and generous ecommerce and marketing tools. The software, however, lost points because it lacks a few key features, including no-show protection and no intake forms. Mailchimp does, however, integrate with over 300 third-party services, so you can likely add those missing tools that way.

Visit Mailchimp Appointment Scheduling

Like other primarily ecommerce platform providers, you have to sign up for a Mailchimp ecommerce subscription to get access to its booking tools. Mailchimp offers a few ecommerce subscription options that scale based on the level of website customization, payment processing rates, and some additional features. All plans include the basic appointment scheduling tools, like a booking page and payment processing, but you also have the option to add Advanced Scheduling for $8/month which allows you to host group bookings.

• Ecommerce subscriptions:
  • Free: $0/month (2% transaction fee)
  • Core: $10/month (1.5% transaction fee)
  • Plus: $29/month (0.5% transaction fee)
• Scheduling
  • Basic: $0/month
  • Advanced: $8/month

• Website Builder: Every Mailchimp user gets a Mailchimp ecommerce platform equipped with unlimited pages and hundreds of templates to choose from. The website builder can support ecommerce operations and payment processing along with bookings, so it’s great if you also want to sell merchandise.
• Marketing tools: Mailchimp has SEO tools built into the site builder to make your pages and products more findable. Mailchimp also includes pop-up and signup forms, email marketing tools, and social posting integrations to help foster brand relationships and encourage.
• Custom service and links: Create custom services to add to your appointments page and Mailchimp will generate a customer service page link that you can share with customers.

Overall Score: 3.13 / 5

What we like:

Calendly offers a strong and user-friendly free scheduling software that works well for both managing in-office meetings and scheduling client appointments. With Calendly, you can send emails with your Calendly booking link or embed to let recipients see your availability, making it easier to schedule group meetings. It can also send notifications via the Calendly app and has integrations with video conferencing software.

Calendly got high marks from user reviewers, but our expert review gave it an overall 3.13 out of 5 stars because so many features require a paid plan. However, should you be looking for a free program that can scale, Calendly may be a good bet.

Visit Calendly

Calendly’s pricing increases along with the number of supported users and the features and capabilities.

• Free: Calendly provides a basic version free for one user. You can only book one event type, which means you can only set up a single meeting duration, name, location, and description.
• Premium ($10 per person monthly): Two calendars per user, unlimited event types. Pooled availability, group bookings, customizable notifications, 700+ integrations
• Pro ($15 per person monthly): Six calendars per user, adds online payments and SMS notifications
• Teams ($20 per person monthly): Everything in Pro, create round robin events, set admin permissions, integrate with Salesforce

• Calendar sync: One of our top options for calendar syncing, Calendly syncs with Google, Office 365, Outlook, and iCloud calendars.
• Website integration: Embed Calendly in your website or add it via pop-up or widget so visitors can book with you without leaving the site.
• Meeting booking and management: Calendly allows you to customize your booking link for easier sharing, create meeting polls where employees can vote on different meeting time options based on their preferences, and set up automated event notifications.
• Video, calendar, and payment processing integrations: In addition to Slack and Google Meet, Calendly has a host of other integrations, including Zoom, WebEx, Google, Office 365, iCloud, Outlook, PayPal, and Stripe.

30%

Free Plan Limitations

30%

Appointment Booking Tools

20%

Back Office Features

20%

Expert Score