It’s not unheard of for people to get so consumed up with meetings during office hours that they spend their 9 to 5 in meetings and end up having to work overtime or at home to complete their actual work.
It’s also not unheard of for people to be so busy and in demand that their brains cannot keep up with their schedule and they eventually lose track of meetings and important events.
With all the hustle and bustle in our everyday lives, almost anyone can benefit from keeping a tight schedule.
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In this list, we dive into the best tools you can use to help you get your schedule on point, and make your day extra productive.
1. SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook is an online booking system for all service based industries. It has multiple integration options so you can take bookings directly from your website and has backend applications so your staff will know the times. The application is also able to take payments, so you don’t need to worry about finding another third party solution.
Key features
- Accept payments online
- Notifications via SMS/Email
- Automatic data backup
- Accepts payments
Cons
- Will take some time for you to take full advantage of the platform and train staff up
Pricing
SimplyBook has a free plan which gives you 50 bookings a month, and it’s premium plan starts at $9.90 and gives you 100 bookings a month and full functionality.
2. Setmore
Setmore is an online appointment scheduling software that makes it incredibly easy for you to schedule in your meetings. You are able to create your own booking form to send out so people can select a time to meet based on your availability, and you can do this under all your own branding and domain. On top of that SetMore has their own mobile and desktop applications so you can easily access your bookings for the day on any device.
Key features
- Accept payments online
- Notifications via SMS/Email
- Automatic data backup
- Accepts payments
- Mobile application
Cons
- Will take some time for you to take full advantage of the platform and train staff up
Pricing
SetMore is free to use and it’s premium plan starts at $9 a month.
3. Calendly
Calendly is another popular solution for scheduling meetings, where similar to the other solutions mentioned above, users are able to create a meeting booking link and send it out to clients so they can choose an appointment time based on your availability.
This eliminates a lot of the manual processes traditionally required to set up a meeting, and a lot of the time wasting back and forth.
Key features
- Accept payments online
- Notifications via SMS/Email
- Automatic data backup
- Accepts payments
- Mobile application
Cons
- Customer service requires a paid account
- One calendar per account
Pricing
Calendly is free to use for a single user, and it’s paid account starts at $8 a month per user.
4. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is a tool that allows you to schedule appoints with your clients and customers easily. Their tool is known for their easy of use and clean UX design. Acuity Scheduling is also able to help reduce your no shows by texting and reminding your customers when their appointment is nearing.
Key features
- Track the revenue per appointment
- Notifications via SMS/Email
- Accepts payments
- Multiple calendars
Cons
- Free account does not sync of Google Calendar
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling is free to start, and it’s paid account start at $8 a month and gives you access to 2 calendars.
It’s funny that this tool doesn’t have an official name… nevertheless, Hubspot offers a free meeting scheduling tool to help you streamline your appointment process. The tool will sync the appointments into the Hubspot CRM, which is also free to start.
Hubspot’s meeting tool also syncs with all the popular calendar and tools, so you can get notified in your inbox too.
It’s no secret that this tool is used to drive users to their main CRM, so if you’re already set up on another CRM, this tool may not play friendly with it and have integration issues.
Key features
- Completely free to use
- Set up meetings through a shareable link
Cons
- Limited website integration features
- Designed to be used with Hubpsot’s CRM only
Pricing
Free!
6. Booksy
While Booksy was designed mainly with beauty & wellness professionals in mind, it's making its way to other fields as well, such as tutoring and consulting. It offers an entire management system, as well as a marketplace with 13 million+ customers where you can list your business. Also, Booksy integrates with Facebook, Instagram, and Google My Business, so you can incorporate a book button into your profile.
Key features
- Online payments
- SMS and email reminders
- Inventory, employee, and schedule management
- Calendar
Cons
- The price is a bit high if you have more employees
- It's primarily associated with beauty
Pricing
$30 a month, plus additional $10 per each member.
Taking a turn in suggestions here, Find My Shift is an employee scheduling tool to help you organise your employee shifts, track shift requests and track labour costs. The tool helps you streamline the traditional process of managing work shifts, done through Excel, and improve the communication elements on both sides.
A handy tool that caught my attention was their ability to notify staff of their upcoming shift times, because you never want staff to forget their shift and break down the operations for the day.
Key features
- Organise employee shifts
- Track shift requests
- Track labour costs
- Reporting and payroll
Cons
- Implementing this will usually be get with internal hate from those who want to stick with Excel… because why fix what’s not broken?
Pricing
Find My Shift is free to use for up to 5 employees and their paid plan is $35 a month, giving users unlimited access and staff.
8. Appointy
Appointy is an all in one appointment software to help small to medium business schedule their bookings seamlessly. The software is able to help bring customers back and run customer loyalty programs too.
Key features
- Seamless integration experience
- Run customer loyalty programs
- Real time notification
Cons
- Reported sync issues with 3rd party software
- UX not as modern as competitors
Pricing
Appointy is free up to 100 appointments a month and its paid plans start at $19.95 a month.
9. Ganttic
Taking another turn, Ganttic is resource management software that comes with the ability to schelding your internal workflow. The tool has backend applications so your staff will know the times. The software is highly visual and has a high amount of features to help track productivity, time track and manage a project.
Key features
- Project management software
- Schelde your internal workflows and meetings
- Time tracking abilities
- Visualise your schelde
Cons
- High learning curve
- Complex tasks will take more time to integrate
Pricing
Ganttic is free for up to 10 resources (basically credits) and its paid plan gives you 20 resources for $25 a month.
Square Appointments, as the name suggests, is the appointments application developed by the payments tool Square. If you haven’t heard of Square, it’s basically a small chip that connects to your phone that allows small retail business owners to easily receive payments. As you can imagine, an appointment tool developed by Square will use Square as the payment gateway, so if you’re already using Square to take payments, and you need an appointment tool, then this one could be great for you.
Key features
- Project management software
- Schelde your internal workflows and meetings
- Time tracking abilities
- Visualise your schelde
Cons
- Designed to be used with Square
Pricing
Square is free to use for 1 user and 1 calendar, subject to their payment processing fees of course.
11. SkedPal
SkedPal is quite unique on this list. It’s not exactly an appointment setting tool, but one that helps you optimize your schedule so you get the most out of your day. The tool has a built in todolist and integrates directly with your calendar, so it’s AI can help you create a schedule that works best for you.
Key features
- Automatic time blocking
- Goals and habits
- Apps for both mobile and desktop
Cons
- Does not take external appointments
Pricing
SkedPal starts at $9.95 a month
Setster is an enterprise appointment software, designed for large scale appointments and complex scheduling. Their API is designed to seamlessly integrate with your existing workflow, so changes to your infrastructure is kept minimal.
Key features
- Defined availability
- Specify appointment types
- Advanced notice
- Accondates for multiple location bookings
Cons
- Developer tools and enterprise features only available in premium packages
Pricing
Setster starts at $48 a month
13. OnceHub
OnceHub is a chatbot and scheduling platform that helps businesses increase their conversions. Their scheduling tool, ScheduleOnce helps businesses easily take booking and manage appointments.
Key features
- Defined availability
- Specify appointment types
- Affordable price
Cons
- Developer tools and enterprise features only available in premium packages
Pricing
Schedule Once starts at $9 a month.
What to look for in a scheduling software?
When you’re looking for scheduling software, one of the main factors you need to look at is how easy will it fit into your existing workflow. If you’re already looking for a tool to manage your bookings, I’m assuming you’re already at the point where you need a tool to help you get organised, and you already have bookings coming in. Therefore, you want a tool that will compliment the way you work, and integrate with your website.
You should also look at the amount of calendars you can have, because you may want to offer different booking options for your user and different apps will have different pricing options for calendars.
If I were to recommend a general, jack of all trades scheduling software, then SimplyBook.me will be the one to use. With multiple calendar options and seamless integrations, you can easily plug it into your current operations.
Final Thoughts
To round things up, find a scheduling software that works, implement it and go rack in your bookings.