Calendly, Setmore, Acuity, Phorest, Fresha or something built into your website — the honest differences between them, and the questions worth asking before you commit.
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Most comparisons of booking software are written by whoever is selling one of them, and it shows. This one is too, so here is the disclosure up front: we build booking into websites for Irish businesses. What follows is what we would actually check if we were choosing, including the situations where one of the tools below is the better answer than we are.
They get lumped together and they are not the same thing.
Scheduling links — Calendly, Acuity and similar. Built for someone booking a meeting into your calendar. Excellent at that. Genuinely hard to beat if you are a consultant, coach or adviser whose booking is essentially "find a slot in my diary".
Salon and clinic platforms — Phorest, Fresha, Timely and others. Built around a treatment business: multiple staff, service durations, retail, client history, sometimes stock. If you run a salon of any size, these do a great deal that a scheduling link does not, and it is worth looking at them seriously.
Booking built into your own website — what we do. The booking is part of the site rather than a widget dropped into it or a link that sends people to a different domain.
The right answer depends far more on which of those three shapes your business is than on any feature table.
Where the booking happens. Some tools take the customer to a page on the vendor's domain to complete the booking. That works, but it is a handover, and some people do not complete it. Booking that stays on your own site avoids that. Check it by making a test booking on your phone and watching the address bar.
What it costs at your size. Per-user pricing is fine for one person and gets expensive with five. All-inclusive pricing is the reverse. Work it out at the number of staff you will have next year, not this year.
Whether you can take a deposit. If no-shows are your actual problem, this matters more than any reminder feature. Not every tool supports it, and among those that do, some require a particular payment processor.
What happens to your client list if you leave. Ask directly: can you export your clients and your booking history, in a usable format, without asking permission? Some platforms make this easy and some do not. It is the question people wish they had asked.
Whether it slows your site down. Any third-party booking widget adds JavaScript to your pages. Whether that matters depends on the widget and on how your site is built — test yours rather than assuming. Run your booking page through Google's PageSpeed Insights before and after and look at the mobile number.
Where the data is held. If you are handling client contact details and appointment history, you are a data controller under GDPR regardless of which tool you use. Check the vendor's data processing terms and where they say data is stored — most publish this. It is a real consideration, not a reason to panic.
Who answers when it breaks. International platforms generally have good documentation and ticket-based support. A small local supplier gives you a person who knows your setup. Which you prefer is genuinely a matter of taste and how much you value being able to ring someone.
We are the right answer if you want the booking to be part of your website rather than bolted onto it, you would rather someone else ran it, and you would like to ring an Irish number when something is wrong. Our booking is €499 to set up and from €149 a month, all-in, with no per-staff pricing.
We are the wrong answer if you are a solo consultant who just needs a link to your calendar — use Calendly, it is cheaper and it is very good at that. We are also the wrong answer if you run a large salon that needs retail, stock and detailed treatment records; a dedicated salon platform will do more than we do.
Booking vendors, including ones we compete with, quote large percentage reductions in no-shows. Ask what the baseline was, over what period, and across how many businesses. We do not publish a percentage for our own system, because we would be repeating a number rather than measuring yours.
What we will tell you plainly is what the software does: customers book from their phone without an account, deposits where you want them, confirmation and reminder messages by SMS and email, one-tap confirm and reschedule, staff calendars and service durations you control, and an admin view of the day.
Is it hard to switch from something like Calendly? Usually not. We set up your services and hours, and if your current tool lets you export your client list we import it. If it does not, that is worth knowing before you commit to anything, including us.
Can it be tailored to how my business works? Within reason, yes — services, durations, staff, opening hours and deposit rules are all configurable, and we set them up with you. Anything genuinely bespoke is custom work and we would quote it rather than imply it is included.
Not sure which of the three shapes your business is? Tell us how you take bookings now and we will tell you honestly what we would use — including if that is not us. Get a free review.