WordPress booking plugin

Free to install.
Reminders cost extra.

Free WordPress booking plugins hold back the same five things: email reminders, two-way Google or Outlook calendar sync, card payments, extra staff and text messages. Of LatePoint, Amelia, Bookly, Simply Schedule Appointments and Booking Calendar, none sends email reminders on its free version, and only LatePoint (Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay) and Amelia Lite (Square) take card payments for free. Reminders need a plan listed at $99 to $129 a year, or €99 on Amelia. Below: what each free version leaves out, a ladder that finds the cheapest plan for what you need, what year two costs, and where Builderify Bookings fits, gaps included.

Find my cheapest plan Compare the five
5 free versions checked 0 with free email reminders Read 17 Oct 2026

By the Builderify team

Free versions only · from each plugin’s WordPress.org listing and pricing page, 17 October 2026. Details in sections 01 and 02.
01 / What free leaves out

What does a free booking plugin
leave out?

Every free version here takes bookings, emails a confirmation and blocks double bookings. The differences are in seven things, and the first five are where free versions draw the line. Decide which of them you need before you build the booking page, because switching plugins later means setting up services, hours and forms again.

01

Email reminders

Free on 0 of 5

An email a set time before the appointment, sent without you. Every plugin here that has them charges for them, and Booking Calendar doesn’t list them at all.

Email reminders: paid on LatePoint (Pro), Amelia (Standard), Bookly (Pro) and SSA (Plus); not offered on Booking Calendar. Builderify: no.

02

Two-way calendar sync

Free on 1 of 5

Busy times in your Google or Outlook calendar block slots on your site, and bookings land in that calendar. Without it, the dentist appointment you put in Google Calendar can still be booked over.

Two-way calendar sync: partly free on Booking Calendar; paid on LatePoint (Pro), Amelia (Standard), Bookly (Business) and SSA (Plus). Builderify: no.

03

Card payment at booking

Free on 2 of 5

A card payment or deposit as they book. LatePoint’s free version takes Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay; Amelia Lite takes Square only.

Card payment at booking: free on LatePoint; partly free on Amelia; paid on Bookly (Business), SSA (Professional) and Booking Calendar (Business Small). Builderify: no.

04

More than one person

Free on 0 of 5

Each person with their own hours, or one page that offers whoever is free. Every free version here keeps extra staff behind a paid plan.

More than one person: paid on LatePoint (Pro), Amelia (Starter), Bookly (Pro), SSA (Business) and Booking Calendar (Personal). Builderify: yes.

05

Text reminders

Free on 1 of 5

A text before the appointment. Texts are usually paid for per message on top of the plan: Bookly’s free version sends them through its own SMS service, from a balance you top up.

Text reminders: partly free on Bookly; paid on LatePoint (Pro), Amelia (Standard) and SSA (Professional); not offered on Booking Calendar. Builderify: no.

06

Several services

Free on 4 of 5

A 20-minute call and a one-hour session on the same site. Most free versions allow it; Bookly’s stops at five services and Booking Calendar’s has one calendar.

Several services: free on LatePoint, Amelia and SSA; partly free on Bookly; paid on Booking Calendar (Personal). Builderify: yes.

07

Buffers between bookings

Free on 1 of 5

Time kept free before or after each booking, so appointments can’t run back to back. Free on SSA, paid elsewhere, and unstated for LatePoint.

Buffers between bookings: free on SSA; paid on Amelia (Starter), Bookly (Pro) and Booking Calendar (Business Medium); not stated by LatePoint. Builderify: yes.

The emails are yours to deliver

A booking plugin sends its confirmations and reminders from your own site, so they are only as reliable as its email setup. Amelia’s own FAQ points at hosts that block SMTP when its emails don’t arrive. If your contact form’s emails already go missing, booking emails will too: the contact form email guide finds the cause.

One more plugin, one more cost

A booking plugin loads its form’s scripts and styles, and some load them on every page, not only the one with the form. How many WordPress plugins is too many shows how to measure what each one adds.

02 / Five plugins

The free appointment booking plugins
for WordPress, read closely.

Five booking plugins with free versions in the WordPress.org directory, all updated in the last month and tested up to WordPress 7.1.3. What each free version includes is from its own listing; the paid plans are from each vendor’s pricing page, read on 17 October 2026.

Free WordPress booking plugins compared: their WordPress.org listing, what the free version includes and leaves out, and the first paid plan
Plugin On WordPress.org The free version includes It leaves out First paid plans
LatePoint 100,000+ installs Updated 16 Oct 2026 · 4.9/5 from 104 Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay payments with deposits, email notifications, custom schedules and days off, customers cancelling their own bookings, events Reminders, calendar sync, more staff, text messages, rescheduling One licence with every Pro feature: $79 for the first year, then $99 a year, for one site
Amelia 90,000+ installs Updated 24 Sep 2026 · 4.6/5 from 790 Services and categories, one provider, Square payments, confirmation emails, events, a back-end calendar, customer import Reminders, more employees, buffers, Google and Outlook sync, Stripe and PayPal, multilingual support Starter, €49 a year, adds buffers and the employee panel; Standard, €99 a year, adds reminders, calendar sync, Stripe and PayPal
Bookly 60,000+ installs Updated 13 Oct 2026 · 4.4/5 from 585 Up to five services, unlimited appointments, email confirmations, text reminders through Bookly’s paid SMS service, payment on the day Unlimited staff, online payments, email reminder templates, padding time, Google Calendar Pro, $39 for a year in a sale (listed at $99), adds staff, services and one-way Google sync; Business, $69 in the sale (listed at $129), adds payments and two-way sync
Simply Schedule Appointments 50,000+ installs Updated 14 Oct 2026 · 5.0/5 from 155 Unlimited appointment types, blackout dates, advanced scheduling options, customisable notification emails Reminders, Google Calendar sync, payments, text messages, team scheduling Plus, $99 for the first year then $129, adds reminders and Google Calendar; Professional ($199, then $249) adds payments and SMS; Business ($399, then $499) adds a team
Booking Calendar 40,000+ installs Updated 11 Oct 2026 · 4.8/5 from 657 One booking calendar, full-day and time-slot bookings, email notifications, imported Google Calendar events, .ics feeds More calendars, online payments, buffers; no edition lists reminders or texts One-time licences with six months of updates: Personal ($79) adds calendars, Business Small ($149) payments, Business Medium ($249) buffers; 70% off on 17 October
Builderify Bookings Not in the directory yet Plugin from your dashboard · WordPress 6.2+ Meeting types, several people, buffers, notice and booking window, confirmation and cancellation emails, every booking saved as a lead Payments, reminders, calendar sync, text messages, rescheduling No plans: a booking costs no credits; the widget’s page loads are 10 per 1,000, from 250 free credits a month

Installs, last update and ratings from the WordPress.org plugin directory. Amelia’s pricing page showed us prices in euros; it may show yours in another currency. Sale and introductory prices are as listed on 17 October 2026.

Amelia Lite limitations, exactly

Amelia’s WordPress.org listing says it plainly: “Certain integrations, unlimited number of employees, custom notifications, reminders, multilingual support, different ticket options for events, and other features are not available in Amelia Lite.” Read alongside its pricing page, that comes to this:

In Lite
  • Booking forms by shortcode, block, Elementor or Divi, on the page or as a popup
  • Services and categories, with one provider set up in Settings
  • Payment through Square
  • Confirmation emails and texts to customer and provider
  • Events that last one or several days
  • Slots shown in the customer’s time zone
Not in Lite
  • Reminders and follow-ups: Standard
  • Google, Outlook and Apple calendar sync: Standard
  • Stripe, PayPal, Mollie and Razorpay: Standard
  • More employees: the employee panel starts on Starter
  • Buffer times: Starter
  • Recurring appointments and deposits: Standard

Starter is €49 a year and Standard €99 a year for one domain, as Amelia’s page showed them to us. Square keeps working on every plan; Starter doesn’t add any other payment method.

What about BookingPress?

Closed

Its WordPress.org listing was closed on 1 February 2025, with the reason given as a guideline violation. A closed plugin can’t be downloaded from the directory and gets no updates through it. If you run it, check where your updates come from.

Embedding Calendly instead?

A hosted scheduler skips the plugin altogether, but its free plan has limits of its own. The Calendly free plan guide lists them, with seat prices and free alternatives.

Do you need a slot at all?

If people just want you to ring them, a call-back request asks for a number and a good time, with no calendar to keep. When a call-me-back button beats a booking form.

03 / Paywall ladder

Which free booking plugin
covers what you need?

Tick what your booking page has to do. Each plugin’s plans are a ladder, free at the bottom; the red rung is the cheapest one that does everything you ticked, and the notes say what the catch is.

Your booking page needs
5,000

Only Builderify is metered by page views; the plugins aren’t.

The verdict
No free version does all of that

The lowest price today in US dollars: Bookly Business, $69 in a sale (listed at $129 a year). Amelia, priced in euros: Standard, €99 a year. Not offered at any price: Booking Calendar and Builderify.

LatePoint

Paid plan

Pro is the first plan with all of it. Its sync is two-way, with Google, Outlook and Apple calendars.

Amelia

Paid plan

Standard is the first plan with all of it. Calendar sync covers Google, Outlook and Apple.

Bookly

Paid plan

Business is the first plan with all of it. Email reminder templates come with Pro. Pro syncs one way to Google Calendar; two-way and Outlook start on Business. The free version allows up to five services; Pro lifts the limit.

Simply Schedule Appointments

Paid plan

Plus is the first plan with all of it. Reminders are its time-triggered notifications, from Plus. Google Calendar only.

Booking Calendar

Can’t do it

Not offered at any price: email reminders.

Builderify

Can’t do it

Not offered: email reminders and two-way calendar sync.

Prices for one site before tax, as listed on 17 October 2026: the price today, with the full price beside it where today’s is introductory or a sale. Amelia’s are in euros as its page showed them to us. Booking Calendar’s licences are one-time, with six months of updates. Builderify uses its rate card: 10 credits per 1,000 page loads of the widget, 250 free a month, packs from $9 bought once.

04 / Year two

What does a booking plugin cost
after the first year?

Read the second price. LatePoint and Simply Schedule Appointments sell the first year at an introductory price and renew at the full one; Bookly and Booking Calendar were in sales; Amelia showed one price a year. These are the plans that first add reminders.

Pro, Starter licence, 1 site

LatePoint

Year one$79
Year two$99
Lifetime: $199, listed at $249

Renewals are at full price. LatePoint says a site keeps working without one; renewing is for updates and support.

Plus, 1 site

Simply Schedule Appointments

Year one$99
Year two$129
No lifetime licence listed

Introductory pricing: all annual renewals are at full price.

Pro, 1 site

Bookly

Year one$39
Year twoNot stated
Lifetime: $99, listed at $129

An autumn sale, 61% off a listed $99 a year. The page doesn’t say what a renewal costs.

Standard, 1 domain

Amelia

Year one€99
Year two€99
Lifetime licences offered

One price each year, shown to us in euros. Pro and Elite had up to 40% off the first year.

One-time licences

Booking Calendar sells each edition once, with six months of updates and an optional subscription to keep them coming. On 17 October every edition was 70% off: Business Small, the first with payments, was $44.70 instead of $149. It has no reminders in any edition.

Texts cost twice

Text reminders need a paid plan on most of these, and the messages are paid for separately: Bookly sells its own SMS balance from $10, and Simply Schedule Appointments sends through your own Twilio account.

Sales end

Plan on the listed price. A first year at $39 is a good deal only if the plugin is still the right one in year two, when what you pay is the second number.

05 / With Builderify

Can you take bookings on WordPress
without a booking plugin?

Yes, if you don’t need payments, reminders or calendar sync. Builderify Bookings is a block in the floating website widget, or a popup, that the Builderify plugin puts on every public page. You set up meeting types and the people visitors can book in your dashboard, under Manage › Bookings.

Be clear about the gaps first. Builderify Bookings doesn’t sync with Google or Outlook calendars today: free times come from the hours you set and from bookings already in Builderify, so an appointment you add to your own calendar can still be booked over. It sends no reminders and takes no payment. If any of those matter, one of the plugins above is the better choice.

5,000 page views, a monthCredits
Widget page loads50
Bookings, any number0
People who can be booked0
Free every month−50
To pay0

The people visitors book are a name, an email, a time zone and their hours; they don’t need a Builderify login. A colleague who does is 250 credits, once. Hiding “Powered by Builderify” is 1,500 credits, once per website. Packs start at $9 for 1,000 credits and never expire; the 250 free credits cover about 25,000 page loads a month. All prices.

What it does

  • Meeting types from 5 minutes to 10 hours, by video, phone, in person or somewhere you describe
  • Slot spacing, buffers before and after, minimum notice and how far ahead people can book
  • Several people, each with weekly hours, a time zone and date overrides
  • Whoever is free takes it, or the visitor picks the person
  • Times in the visitor’s own time zone; name and email, a phone number and a note if you ask
  • A confirmation to the visitor and a notice to the host, with a page to add it to a calendar or cancel
  • Every booking saved as a lead, and optionally added to a lead list

What it doesn’t

  • Google or Outlook calendar sync
  • Reminders, by email or text. A sequence runs from the day someone joins a list, not from the meeting, so it can’t stand in for one
  • Payment or deposits when someone books
  • Rescheduling: the visitor cancels and books again
  • A form inside the post: it opens in the widget or a popup
  • Even sharing: whoever is free goes to the first free person in alphabetical order

From a button in your post to a booking

  1. A button in the post

    Switch on the Booking popup under Popups, keep its trigger on On click, and copy the link from its Triggers tab, under Open it from a link. In WordPress, paste it as the URL of a Button block.

  2. A slot

    The booking opens in the popup: the meeting type, the person if the type lets them choose, then a day and a time in their own time zone. Visitors can also book from the widget’s own Book a time button.

  3. Emails from your domain

    A confirmation with a link to add it to a calendar or cancel, and a notice to the host. They go out once your own sending domain is approved, usually within one business day; until then bookings are saved without emails.

  4. A lead, and a list

    Each booking is saved as a lead. If the block or popup points at a list, the booker is asked to confirm their email, then joins that list’s follow-up sequences.

  5. No reminder

    Nothing more is sent before the meeting. If people forget, that is the gap a booking plugin’s paid plan fills.

The link looks like this, with your popup’s own key
#trigger_popup-<your popup’s key>

Add it to WordPress

  1. 01 Start free and add your website. Under Connect › Snippet, choose the WordPress tab and download builderify.zip.
  2. 02 In WordPress, go to Plugins › Add New Plugin › Upload Plugin, choose the file, then Install Now and Activate. It needs WordPress 6.2 and PHP 7.4 or newer.
  3. 03 Open Settings › Builderify, paste your site key and save, with Load the Builderify widget ticked.
  4. 04 In Builderify, add yourself under People & availability, create a meeting type, and add the Booking block to your Floating Bubble, or the Booking popup for a button in your posts.

The same tag can carry live chat for questions before people book, and a call-back form for those who’d rather be rung. Prefer no plugin? A snippets plugin such as WPCode still works for the tag.

Know this first
  • No Google or Outlook calendar sync, no reminders and no payments, as above.
  • Booking emails need your own sending domain, set up once and approved by a person. Without one, bookings are saved but nobody is emailed.
  • If your credits run out, the widget pauses until you top up, and bookings with it; the cookie banner keeps running. Links in emails already sent keep working.
  • The Builderify plugin isn’t on WordPress.org yet: you download it from your dashboard, and updates come from there.
  • Each booking keeps the visitor’s IP address and the page they booked from, alongside what they typed.
06 / Which to pick

Which WordPress booking plugin
should you use?

If

You work alone, offer several kinds of appointment and want gaps between them, for free.

Pick

Simply Schedule Appointments, Basic. Unlimited appointment types and its advanced scheduling options on the free version. Plus adds reminders and Google Calendar: $99 for the first year, then $129.

If

Customers pay or leave a deposit when they book, and the budget is zero.

Pick

LatePoint’s free version takes Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay, deposits included. Amelia Lite takes Square only. Everything else here charges for card payments.

If

You need reminders and two-way calendar sync, for the lowest renewal.

Pick

LatePoint. One licence has every Pro feature, reminders and Google, Outlook and Apple sync included: $79 for the first year, then $99.

If

A team takes bookings, each with their own hours.

Pick

Bookly Pro or LatePoint. Bookly Pro adds unlimited staff, $39 for a year in its sale (listed at $99); LatePoint’s licence adds multiple agents. Simply Schedule Appointments keeps its team feature for Business, $399.

If

You rent rooms, gear or property by the day.

Pick

Booking Calendar. Built for full-day and time-slot bookings, and the free version imports Google Calendar events. Payments start on Business Small, a one-time $149 (70% off on 17 October).

If

You want a booking button in the widget visitors already use, every booking a lead, and no plugin to maintain for it.

Pick

Builderify Bookings. A booking costs no credits; the widget’s page loads are 10 per 1,000 from 250 free a month. No calendar sync, reminders or payments today: if you need them, pick one of the plugins above.

Whichever you pick, it is one more plugin. The WordPress plugin audit shows which of the others one script can stand in for.

Questions

WordPress booking plugins, before you ask.

It depends on what you need for free. Simply Schedule Appointments' free Basic edition gives one person unlimited appointment types and its advanced scheduling options; LatePoint's free version takes Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay payments; Amelia Lite takes payment through Square. None of the five we compared sends email reminders or adds extra staff on its free version.

Amelia's WordPress.org listing says integrations, unlimited employees, custom notifications, reminders and multilingual support are not in Lite. In practice Lite has one provider and takes payment through Square only; reminders, Google, Outlook and Apple calendar sync, and Stripe and PayPal start on Standard, and buffers on Starter. On 17 October 2026 its pricing page showed Starter at €49 and Standard at €99 a year.

Not with email reminders, among LatePoint, Amelia, Bookly, Simply Schedule Appointments and Booking Calendar: each charges for them or, in Booking Calendar's case, doesn't list them. Bookly's free version can send text reminders through its own SMS service, paid per message. The paid plans with reminders were listed at $99 to $129 a year, or €99 on Amelia, on 17 October 2026.

Not two ways. Two-way sync starts on paid plans: LatePoint Pro, Simply Schedule Appointments Plus, Amelia Standard and Bookly Business (Bookly Pro syncs one way). Booking Calendar's free version can import Google Calendar events and share bookings as an .ics feed. Builderify Bookings doesn't sync with Google or Outlook calendars.

Yes, if you don't need payments, reminders or calendar sync. Builderify Bookings runs in the Builderify widget or a popup, added by the Builderify WordPress plugin, with meeting types, several people, buffers and confirmation emails from your own domain. A booking costs no credits; the widget's page loads use 10 credits per 1,000 from 250 free a month. A hosted scheduler such as Calendly is the other route.

Sources

Read on 17 October 2026.

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