How much does appointment booking software cost

There is no single number that answers how much appointment booking software costs. Not because vendors hide their prices, but because the price has several parts and one of them is billed by usage. A business with one employee and a business with five pay very differently at the same vendor.

This article breaks down the line items that make up the total, so you can build a comparison that still holds in month three.

The six line items that make up the price

1. The base plan

The headline price, usually per month. Check two things: how many users are included, and whether the price includes tax. Small business tools often include a single user, which is not always obvious from the headline figure.

2. Additional users

The most common reason a bill comes in higher than expected. The price is per user per month, and with some vendors it decreases as the team grows. With three employees this line can exceed the base plan.

The question worth asking is what counts as a user. Is it anyone with their own calendar, or only people who log in? In a salon where the receptionist has their own access, the difference is noticeable.

3. SMS messages

Billed per message. To estimate, take your monthly appointment count and multiply by messages per appointment. If you only send a reminder 24 hours ahead, that is one message per appointment. At 400 appointments and five cents a message, that is 20 EUR a month.

This cost almost always pays for itself, because the loss from a no-show is far higher. The arithmetic is worked through in the article on choosing a reminder channel.

4. Online payment fees

If you collect deposits, the payment provider keeps a fee per transaction. That is not a software cost, but it is part of the total and belongs in the comparison. Check whether the software vendor adds its own margin on top of the payment provider's fee.

5. Add-ons

Capabilities that are not part of the plan. For Slovenian service businesses the most common is the fiscal cash register, which you need if you take payment on site, card payments included. Also check modules for multiple business premises.

6. Setup and data import

A one-off cost that some vendors bill and others do not. If you have 800 clients in a spreadsheet, ask whether importing them is included.

Building a comparison that holds

Write down your real numbers and put them through this table for each vendor you are evaluating.

With three employees and 300 SMS a month, two products with the same headline price often differ by a factor of two. With one employee and no SMS, the difference is usually negligible. Which is why the answer to the price question always depends on team size.

Annual or monthly billing

Annual billing is cheaper with most vendors, typically by about two months' worth. It makes sense once you have trialled the product and know you will keep using it. Pay monthly for the first month; the annual saving is smaller than the cost of choosing wrong.

What you are comparing against

Software is not a cost that appears out of nowhere. It replaces costs you already carry, they are just not on an invoice:

• hours spent entering appointments over the phone,
• sending reminders by hand,
• no-shows that reminders would have prevented,
• retyping details onto invoices,
• bookings that never happened because the customer could not book in the evening.

At 40 appointments a week, data entry and manual reminders alone come to around five hours weekly. That comparison is worked through in the article on moving off spreadsheets.

What to watch for at a very low price

A low price is not a problem in itself. The problem is the three things that often accompany it: no SMS capability, no data export, and support that replies within a week. You notice the first immediately, the second only when you try to switch, and the third at the worst possible moment.

The same applies to free plans. A free plan is useful for evaluating a product. As a permanent arrangement it only makes sense if you can genuinely work in it, rather than it being designed to force an upgrade in week two.

Where our prices are

Current prices for plans, additional users, add-ons and SMS are listed on the pricing page, along with what each plan includes. If you want an estimate for your team size, book a demo and we will work through the calculation on your numbers.