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Prices and features checked against official pages: October 2026.
Quick Answer
If clients book you by message or phone, three jobs stay manual: finding a free slot, keeping your calendar free of clashes, and reminding people before they are due. An online booking tool takes over all three. SimplyBook.me is one option for a solo consultant, tutor or salon owner: its features page lists a dedicated booking website, opening hours with separate provider schedules, buffer times and fixed start times, and its help pages describe two-way sync with Google and Outlook calendars and intake forms that ask clients questions during booking. Two limits decide the plan. The Free plan covers 50 bookings per month, 1 provider and 1 premium custom feature, and the pricing table shows online payments from the Basic plan, listed at €11.9 per month billed annually or €13.9 billed monthly.
Start with SimplyBook.me’s free plan
The pricing page lists the Free plan at €0, with no credit card required.
Why Does Booking by Message and Phone Keep Causing Double Bookings and No-Shows?
It breaks down because the calendar lives in your head and the slots are agreed in a chat thread. A client asks for Thursday, you reply, they answer two hours later, and in the meantime another client has taken that time by phone. Nothing reminds the client the day before, so a forgotten appointment is an empty hour you cannot sell again.
For a one-person business the cost is more than the messages. Each back-and-forth takes minutes that add up across a week, a double booking means an awkward apology to someone, and an unpaid no-show is lost income.
What Does “Solved” Look Like?
Clients open one booking page, pick a slot that is actually free and fill in what you need to know. The booking lands in your calendar, and anything already in your calendar blocks that time for new clients. Confirmations and reminders go out on their own, and you decide whether the client pays when they book or on the day.
What Does an Online Booking Setup Need?
It needs five things, whichever tool you choose:
- An online booking page with availability rules, such as opening hours, breaks and buffers
- Calendar sync, so personal events block booking slots
- Automatic email or SMS reminders
- Online payment at booking, or a clear pay-later option
- Intake forms that collect what you need before the appointment
How Does SimplyBook.me Cover Each Need?
SimplyBook.me lists the booking website on its Free plan and describes availability rules on its features page; calendar sync, intake forms and payments are custom features or paid-plan items, and SMS costs extra. According to SimplyBook.me’s pricing, feature and help pages:
| Need | How SimplyBook.me handles it |
|---|---|
| Booking page and availability rules | The pricing page lists a booking website and a booking widget on the Free plan. The features page says you can set general opening hours, give each provider separate schedules, days off and vacations, give each service its own timetable, define fixed start times, add buffer times between appointments and limit simultaneous bookings in total or per service. |
| Calendar sync | The help page for the Calendar Sync custom feature describes two-way sync with Google and Outlook calendars: bookings can be exported to the calendar, and calendar events marked as busy can block slots in SimplyBook.me. It works with web calendars and may not work with Microsoft Exchange calendars. Which plans include it is not stated on the pages I read. |
| Email or SMS reminders | The features page mentions booking confirmations by email or SMS, and says recurring services get a reminder before every appointment. The home page lists automated reminders by WhatsApp, SMS and email. SMS is not free: the pricing page sells SMS credits as an add-on. A general reminder schedule setting is not described on the pages I read, so check the notification settings in your account. |
| Payment at booking | The pricing table shows payments, deposits and tips from the Basic plan and not on Free. The help page says the client picks a payment method at the summary step, the unpaid booking is held in the calendar, and it is approved once the processor confirms payment. Pay Later is also an option, and the client then pays in person. Payment links and refunds are Premium items. |
| Intake forms | The help page for the Intake Forms custom feature says you can ask clients extra questions during booking, as text lines, drop-downs and text boxes, and mark questions as required or optional. The features page says the answers appear in the booking details and can be added to notifications. |
Step 1: Set Up Your Hours, Services and Buffers
Start with the rules, because everything else depends on them. Enter your opening hours, create one service for each thing you sell with its duration, and add a buffer between appointments if you need time to reset. If you work with different timetables for different services, the features page says each service can have its own. Use fixed start times if you want slots on the hour rather than at every possible minute.
Step 2: Connect Your Calendar So Personal Events Block Slots
Turn on the Calendar Sync custom feature, connect your Google or Outlook account from its settings, choose the calendar and assign your provider to it. The help page describes an option to sync busy time, which lets events in your calendar block booking slots. Mark your own events as busy in Google Calendar for two-way sync to work. If you take several clients at the same time, the help page warns that syncing busy time can limit you to one booking per slot, and suggests switching that option off for such providers.
Step 3: Add the Questions You Need Before the Appointment
Switch on Intake Forms and add only the questions you really need, such as the reason for the visit or a file link. Required questions stop a client from booking without answering them. Start with two or three questions and add more later.
Step 4: Decide Whether Clients Pay at Booking
If no-shows cost you money, take payment at booking. Turn on the Accept Payments custom feature, activate SBPay.me and choose a payment processor from the list available for your country. The pricing table shows payments from the Basic plan, so this is where you move up from the Free plan if you want to take payment online. If you prefer to be paid in person, the Pay Later option lets the client book without paying online. The help page recommends a payment timeout of at least one hour, after which an unpaid booking is cancelled.
Step 5: Set Up Reminders and a Cancellation Rule
Open the notification settings and check that confirmations and reminders are on. The help page for custom features lists Flexible Notifications, which lets you customise messages per service or provider. SMS credits are sold separately, so decide whether email reminders are enough for your clients. The Cancellation Policy custom feature is marked free on the help page and sets how many hours before an appointment a client may still cancel, or blocks cancellations altogether.
Step 6: Put the Booking Page Where Clients Find You
Share the booking website link in your messages, email signature and social profiles. If you already have a website, the features page says the booking functionality can be added to sites built with WordPress, Joomla or Site123: you choose a design, generate the code and paste it into your site. Replace “what time suits you?” with the link, and let clients choose.
How Much Does SimplyBook.me Cost for a Solo Business?
It is free up to 50 bookings a month with 1 provider; Basic costs €11.9 per month billed annually or €13.9 billed monthly. According to SimplyBook.me’s official pricing page (shown in euros):
| Plan | Price per month (annual billing / monthly billing) | Bookings per month | What it means for this workflow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | 50 | 1 provider and 1 premium custom feature. Booking website, booking widget, admin app and WordPress widget. No online payments in the pricing table. |
| Basic | €11.9 / €13.9 | 100 | 5 providers and 3 custom features. Adds client app, payments, deposits, tips and sales (POS). |
| Standard | €24.9 / €29.9 | 500 | 15 providers and 8 custom features. Adds a branded client app, HIPAA and SAML SSO. |
| Premium | €49.9 / €59.9 | 2,000 | 30 providers and unlimited custom features. Adds Payments PRO and accounting integrations. |
The pricing page describes itself in places inconsistently: its FAQ says the Free plan includes the client app, while the table lists the client app from Basic, and it does not say which plans include Calendar Sync or Intake Forms by default. Custom features are capped per plan (1 on Free, 3 on Basic, 8 on Standard), so check in your account which of Calendar Sync, Intake Forms and Accept Payments count toward the cap before you pick a plan. The FAQ also says the 14-day trial gives unlimited custom features, which is a way to test the full setup first. SMS credits are sold as a paid add-on.
When Is SimplyBook.me Not the Right Fit?
SimplyBook.me is less suited when you only need a link for meetings, when you expect to pay nothing and still take card payments, or when you want one fixed monthly price with SMS included.
- You only need to share a link for meetings. Calendly’s features page describes booking links with meeting hours, daily limits and buffers, and built-in payment tools, so compare it if you do not need a full booking website.
- You want intake forms, deposits and SMS in one place. Acuity Scheduling’s features page lists client intake forms, prepayment or deposits, and email reminders, with SMS reminders on the Standard plan or higher.
- You want a free booking page with card payments. Setmore’s features page lists a self-service booking page, two-way calendar import and export, SMS reminders and card payments ahead of appointments; check its current plan limits before choosing.
- You take more than 50 bookings a month. The Free plan stops at 50, so compare the Basic price with other tools once you grow past that.
FAQ
Short answers to the plan questions solo operators ask before moving their bookings online, based on SimplyBook.me’s pricing and help pages.
Does SimplyBook.me have a free plan?
Yes. The pricing page lists a Free plan at €0 with 50 bookings per month, 1 provider and no credit card required.
Can clients pay when they book on the Free plan?
The pricing table shows payments, deposits and tips starting on the Basic plan, not on Free. The help page describes a Pay Later option, where the client pays in person, without naming a plan requirement, so check in your account before you rely on it on Free.
Does SimplyBook.me sync with Google Calendar?
Yes, through the Calendar Sync custom feature. The help page describes two-way sync with Google and Outlook calendars, where events marked as busy can block booking slots. It may not work with Microsoft Exchange calendars.
Are SMS reminders included?
Not for free. The pricing page sells SMS credits as an add-on, while the features page mentions booking confirmations by email or SMS. Check the SMS credit price on the pricing page.
Can I ask clients questions before the appointment?
Yes. The Intake Forms custom feature lets you add questions as text lines, drop-downs and text boxes, and mark them as required or optional. The answers appear in the booking details.
Summary
Booking by message fails at the calendar, not at the conversation: slots are agreed one reply at a time, double bookings slip in and nothing reminds the client. Setting your hours and services once, syncing your calendar, adding a short intake form, deciding about payment and switching on reminders removes the back-and-forth. SimplyBook.me lets you start on its Free plan with 50 bookings a month and 1 provider; plan for Basic when you want online payment at booking, more than 50 bookings, or more than one provider.
Next step: Start with SimplyBook.me’s free plan and put your next client on a booking page.
Product features, plan limits, and prices change over time. Always confirm current details on the official SimplyBook.me website before making a purchase decision.
