The Ultimate List of 2023's Top 7 Free Appointment Scheduling Solutions for Small Businesses

If you're a small business owner, then you know how important it is to stay organized and on top of your schedule. One way to do this is to use appointment scheduling software. Appointments take time, but scheduling shouldn’t. Appointment scheduling software is a great way for small businesses to manage customer appointments. This type of software can help businesses keep track of appointments, schedule reminders, and even send out automatic confirmation emails. Appointment scheduling software can help businesses save time and money, and it can even help improve customer satisfaction.

A meaningful and memorable experience starts with a connection and flexible appointment scheduling software is the key to building a professional connection with your customers. It helps to build quick and hassle-free connections with your customers.

Using online appointment scheduling software, you can make your business bookable 24/7. Publish your booking page wherever clients find you - Embed Leadmonk on your website or Add Leadmonk to your emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social media profiles. Using text and email reminders, you can reduce no-shows.

Small businesses from the following industry verticals greatly benefit from the appointment scheduling solution:·

• Professional Services - Legal, Accounting, Real Estate, and others

• Entrepreneurs

• Freelancers

• Consultants

• Doctors, Dentist, and Chiropractors

• Salon, Spa, and other Beauty Services

Benefits of appointment scheduling software for small businesses

1. Streamlining the appointment scheduling process: Appointment scheduling software can make it easier for small businesses to schedule appointments, as it allows clients to book appointments online, rather than having to call or visit the business in person. This can save time and reduce the workload for business owners and staff.

2. Improving customer convenience: Appointment scheduling software can make it more convenient for customers to book appointments, as they can do so at any time, from any location. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

3. Reducing no-shows: Appointment scheduling software can help reduce the number of no-shows by sending automatic reminders to clients before their appointments. This can help ensure that appointments are attended as scheduled, which can improve the efficiency of the business.

4. Facilitating online payments: Some appointment scheduling software includes the ability to take online payments, which can be convenient for both the business and the customer. This can save time and reduce the need for handling cash or checks.

5. Managing staff schedules: Some appointment scheduling software allows businesses to schedule and manage the schedules of their staff. This can help ensure that there are sufficient staff members available to meet the demand for appointments.

How Appointment scheduling software improves the customer experience

Appointment scheduling software can improve the customer experience by making it easier and more convenient for customers to book appointments. Some specific ways in which appointment scheduling software can improve the customer experience include:

1. Allowing customers to book appointments at any time: Appointment scheduling software allows customers to book appointments at any time, from any location, which can be more convenient than having to call or visit the business in person during business hours.

2. Providing automatic appointment reminders: Appointment scheduling software can send automatic email or SMS reminders to customers before their appointments, which can help reduce the number of no-shows and ensure that appointments are attended as scheduled.

3. Offering online payment options: Some appointment scheduling software allows customers to pay for appointments online, which can be more convenient than having to pay in person or by phone.

4. Allowing customers to choose their preferred appointment time: Appointment scheduling software typically allows customers to view available appointment times and choose the one that works best for them. This can improve the customer experience by allowing them to choose a time that is convenient for them.

5. Simplifying the appointment scheduling process: Appointment scheduling software can make the process of booking an appointment simpler and more efficient for customers, which can improve their overall experience.

Overall, appointment scheduling software can help improve the customer experience by making it easier and more convenient for them to book and attend appointments, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What to Look for In Appointment Booking Software

As you know not everyone is comfortable using an email address. Think about people in the informal sectors, retired professionals who are not net savvy. For them, it will be friction if they are asked to book appointments using only an email address.

A mobile number has come to be widely accepted as a mode of customer identification in the mobile-first digital world. The flexibility to book an appointment using a mobile number or email address without the back and forth reduces the booking friction for the customers and makes the process much simpler for everyone involved.

When choosing appointment scheduling software for small businesses, there are several important factors to consider.

• First, the software should be compatible with your business existing calendar system such as Google/GSuite/Outlook/Office 365 Calendars.

• Second, it should be user-friendly and allow small business owner or their clients to easily schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments.

• Third, it should offer flexibility in terms of scheduling options.

• Fourth, it should give the flexibility to your clients to book appointments using their email address or mobile number without the back-and-forth messages or emails.

• Fifth, it should have a built-in email and text message reminder system to help ensure that appointments are not forgotten or missed.

• Finally, it should be affordable.

Ease of Use

When it comes to appointment scheduling software, a user-friendly interface is key. You want a system that is easy to use, so you or your clients can easily schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments. You want an interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. Another important feature to look for is the ability to customize the software to meet your specific needs. Make sure you choose software that can be easily customized to fit your business.

Appointments Scheduling Flexibility

• It should give the flexibility to your clients to self-schedule online/in-person appointments without the back-and-forth email or messages. It should be user-friendly and allow the small business owner or their clients to easily schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments.

• Meet one-on-one or in a group, or as a team. Meet online or in person. Scheduling software should support all these appointment combinations.

• Appointment reminders are essential for ensuring that your appointments go off without a hitch. Look for a system that offers text and email reminders, so you and your clients never forget an appointment again.

• It should have the option to collect payments when appointments are booked to reduce no-shows and to have high-quality appointments.

Customization and Automation

• Booking software should also support you to publish your scheduling links wherever clients find you – Embed booking links on your website or add booking links to your emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social media profiles.

• ​It should have a feature such as a custom intake form to collect the details you want from your clients as part of appointment booking.

• It should have the capability to present your preferred availability instead of just all your availability. Also, an option to set a lead time to make sure you get enough time to prepare for your appointments.

• It should support automatic time zone detection and video conference features for overseas clients. Also, it should have the option to fix the time zone for in-person appointments so that invitees see the availability in your time zone.

Best 7 Free Appointment scheduling software for small business

There are many great appointment-scheduling software programs available, but which one is right for your small business? Here are the top 7 appointment scheduling software programs for small businesses, based on features, ease of use, and price.

1. Leadmonk

Leadmonk is a mobile-first scheduling platform that offers flexible booking options, automated reminders, and promotional landing pages.

A mobile number has come to be widely accepted as a mode of customer identification in the digital world. Leadmonk gives the flexibility to schedule an appointment without needing a customer's email address, as specifying a customer’s mobile number can do the trick in a few seconds.

As you know not everyone is comfortable using an email address. Think about people in the informal sectors, retired professionals who are not net savvy. For them, it will be friction if they are asked to book appointments using only an email address.

The flexibility to book an appointment using a mobile number or email address without the back and forth reduces the booking friction for the customers and simplifies the process for everyone involved.

We think Leadmonk is the truly versatile appointment scheduling software available in the market for the following reasons:

• All the other tools available in the market support appointment scheduling only using the email address.📧 Whereas Leadmonk is the first online appointment booking software that lets your customers book time with you using their mobile number or email address without the back-and-forth. 📱

• Leadmonk is good in traditional email bookings as well. 📧

• Give multiple duration options to invitees. At the time of appointment booking, the invitee can choose his/her preferred meeting duration. ⏱️

• Give multiple meeting location options to invitees. At the time of appointment booking, the invitee can choose his/her preferred location. 🗺️️

• Give notification options to your customers to choose between WhatsApp and SMS to receive appointment notifications. 📱💬

• Meet one-on-one or in a group or as a team (Collective and Round Robin). Meet online or in person. Leadmonk supports all meeting combinations. 🤝

• Easy Repeat Business with Packages - Sell multi-appointment bundles, combine different types of appointments, and even include group classes in your packages.🎁

• Provision to make each appointment type behave as a standalone calendar for free-busy availability checks instead of checking the connected calendar. This avoids the need to have multiple Leadmonk user accounts or multiple calendars. This is helpful for managing shared resources such as meeting rooms or gaming devices.📅

• Not only you can connect 6 calendars to your account but also you can take appointments to any of these calendars. This is helpful to manage your work life efficiently.🗓️

• Invitees can reschedule/cancel appointments before the start of the appointment by default, but this behavior can be changed based on your requirements.🔄

• Leadmonk's "no-show" feature allows hosts to mark whether an invitee attended a previously scheduled event, and if marked as a no-show, they will not receive post-appointment workflows.🚫

• Leadmonk offers two types of notifications by default: calendar invitation and email confirmation, both of which provide detailed information about the booking, including date, time, location, and any additional notes or instructions. Additionally, the email confirmation includes an ICS file that can be added to the invitee's calendar.📩

• If you know your invitee's availability and would like to schedule on their behalf, you can make use of the Schedule Invitee Again feature to go through the booking flow and their information will be pre-populated in the form to expedite the booking process.🤖

• It integrates natively with G-Suite, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Outlook, Office365 Calendar, MS Teams, Zoom, HubSpot, and other popular business apps to support your business in a wide range of prospect and customer scheduling scenarios. 🔌

• Automatic time zone detection, setting lead time and buffer time for appointment booking, automatic SMS/WhatsApp/Email reminders to reduce no-shows, and many more.⏰

• Collect payments using Stripe and PayPal.💰

• Collect required details using custom intake forms at the time of appointment booking.📝

• You can have a personalized booking page for the team.👥

• The org owner and admin have access to all team members’ bookings.👀

• Integrate Google Analytics with Leadmonk to get valuable insights into how your clients engage with your booking page.📈

• Add UTM parameters to your booking links to track conversions directly within Leadmonk.

• You can pre-populate the booking page form with invitee information using URL parameters.🌐

• Promote your branding at every touch point using a custom domain, branded email notifications, and branded SMS notifications.🎉

Who is it for?

Leadmonk simplifies scheduling meetings with your prospects, customers, candidates, and other external stakeholders. It is built for customer-facing teams such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Freelancers/Consultants. It is also suitable for industry sectors such as Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, Entrepreneurs, Educators, Coaches, Recruiters, and Professional Services companies such as Legal, Accounting, and Real Estate. It is perfect for any person or business no matter if you are starting off or have been around for a while.

Pricing

• Basic Plan - Enjoy our free forever plan, designed for those seeking the essentials. This plan offers a generous range of features, including unlimited event types and appointments with seamless integration options for HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Zapier. Additionally, you can take advantage of our multi-host event type and round-robin event type functionalities, supporting up to three team members within this plan.

• Teams Plan - $12/user/month (annual plan) - For teams requiring advanced features with personalized branding at every touchpoint

• Enterprise Plan - For larger teams that need advanced security, control, and support

2. Calendly

It needs no introduction. Calendly is an online scheduling tool that enables users to schedule appointments, meetings, and events with ease. It is a cloud-based software that integrates with popular calendar tools such as Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud, and it provides users with customizable scheduling pages and booking forms. With Calendly, users can easily create different types of events, set their availability, and share their booking links with clients, colleagues, and friends. Calendly also sends automatic reminders and confirmation emails to both users and invitees, and it allows for rescheduling and cancellation of appointments. It is ideal for busy professionals who need to manage their time efficiently and avoid the hassle of manual scheduling. Calendly supports 1:1, group, round-robin, and collective meeting scheduling algorithms.

Features missing in Calendly:

• No support for mobile number-based appointment scheduling.

• No provision to send text notifications on WhatsApp. SMS notifications work only from the professional plan onwards.

• Appointments are booked only to the main calendar even though you can connect 6 calendars.

• No provision to define multiple durations for an event type.

• No provision for recurring appointments

• No provision to sell packages or multiple sessions at once (e.g.: 5 sessions of Brand Building consulting for $500)

• No provisions for subscriptions or membership management

• Not possible to have the booking pages on your domain (CNAME)

• Not possible to send email and SMS notifications using your own email domain or phone number (SMTP and Twilio number integration). Having booking pages on your domain or sending branded notifications helps to promote your branding at every customer touch point.

• Supports minimal booking page theme only

Pricing

• Basic: Free, one calendar per user.

• Essentials: $8 per user per month, 2 calendars per user.

• Professional: $12 per user per month, 6 calendars per user.

• Team: $16 per user per month.

• Enterprise Plan: For larger teams.

3. Acuity Scheduling [Squarespace Scheduling]

Acuity Scheduling is a cloud-based appointment-scheduling software solution that enables business owners to manage their appointments online. Acuity Scheduling is now part of Squarespace. With Acuity, you can allow clients to choose recurring appointments, complete intake forms, and pay in advance for services. You can also offer coupons and add-on services. Acuity offers multiple ways to share your booking page, including direct links, embedding options, booking buttons, booking bars, and QR codes. Acuity integrates with many powerful apps, such as QuickBooks, ClassPass, Salesforce, and Zoom.

The product caters to the needs of small and midsize businesses as well as individual professionals. Acuity Scheduling is suitable for service-based businesses such as training and tutoring centers, coaching and consulting, photography and video production companies, fitness studios, salons and spa centers, and health and dental clinics.

Features missing in Acuity Scheduling:

• No support for mobile number-based appointment scheduling.

• No provision to send text notifications on WhatsApp.

• Only one calendar you can connect to your account.

• No provision to define multiple durations for an event type.

• Not possible to have the booking pages on your domain (CNAME)

• Not possible to send email and SMS notifications using your own email domain or phone number (SMTP and Twilio number integration). Having booking pages on your domain or sending branded notifications helps to promote your branding at every customer touch point.

Supported payment systems: PayPal, Square, or Stripe; also works with in-person payments

Supported calendars: Google Calendar, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com; with the option to choose between 2-way and 1-way syncing

Pricing

• Acuity Scheduling’s plans start at $20 a month. Number of staff/locations: 1.

• The Growing plan costs $34 a month. Number of staff/locations: 6.

• Finally, the Powerhouse plan costs $61 a month. Number of staff/locations: 36.

• You can try these plans for free for a maximum of one week.

4. SimplyBook.me

SimplyBook.me is an online appointment booking system for small and mid-size businesses. It simplifies the booking process and enables businesses to market their services. SimplyBook.me provides a centralized platform that automates online booking and client communication. It does not support mobile number-based appointment scheduling. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications.

The setup process is user-friendly, with clear instructions and the ability to customize appointment types and add-on services. The app also offers Facebook and Instagram integrations, a dashboard with reports to monitor your business, and Zapier integrations to connect to other apps.

If you conduct frequent Zoom meetings, SimplyBook.me may not be the ideal scheduling app for you as it offers limited video conferencing options. While Microsoft Teams is the only built-in video conferencing integration for remote appointments, you can use Zapier to create specific links for other platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet.

Supported payment systems: 38 options, including Square, Stripe, PayPal, TapPay, Virtual Card Services, 2Checkout, Alipay, Asiapay, Authorize.net, Bitcoin, and more.

Supported calendars: Google Calendar, Outlook

Pricing

• $8.25/month for 100 bookings/15 providers

• $24.9/month for 500 bookings/25 providers

• $49.9/month for 2000 bookings/50 providers

5. Appointlet

Appointlet is a cloud-based appointment scheduling solution that helps businesses to connect with their prospects through emails, landing pages, and a sales funnel. Key features include individual or organization scheduling pages, automated reminders, multiple time zone support, and calendar integration. It does not support mobile number-based appointment scheduling. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications. They don’t have a mobile app.

Pricing

• Basic - Free-forever plan when you just want the basics

• Premium plan - $8/user/month - When you need advanced scheduling features

6. 10to8

10to8 is an online scheduling and appointment reminder software system, built to be easy to use for businesses. It comes with a web-based booking calendar, for you and your clients, and supports email and SMS notifications. It does not support mobile number-based appointment booking. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications. They don’t have a mobile app.

Pricing

• FREE FOREVER - 100 appts/month - 2 staff logins

• Basic - $9.6/month - 100 appts/month - 2 staff logins

• Grow - $20month - 300 appts/month - 3 staff logins

• Bigger Business - $40month - 600 appts/month - 6 staff logins

7. Setmore

Setmore offers a free online scheduling platform for you to connect with your customers. Manage all your appointments through one simple calendar system and give your business the freedom to grow. Every account comes with a customizable Booking Page that enables you to display your services, availability, and pricing online. Setmore has numerous integrations, including Square or Stripe integrations for online payments. It also links to Slack accounts and syncs with most major calendars. It does not support mobile number-based appointment booking. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications. It's more suited for services businesses such as spas/salons/doctor's clinics.

Pricing

• Free plan – for basic scheduling needs

• Premium - Up to 2 users - $9/user/month

• Pro - 3+ users - $5/user/month

Save time on scheduling. Spend time on the things that matter.

Appointment scheduling software can help small businesses keep track of customer appointments and manage their time more efficiently. All these scheduling applications have features that can make your life easier. Among all these, Leadmonk is the truly versatile scheduling software for you and your business. It’s easy to use, the most user-friendly, and affordable. Give it a try and let us know what you think of Leadmonk.