Appointly vs Booking System Trafft

For service businesses that can’t sell flat-rate. Where every appointment needs a custom quote before it becomes a booking. Appointly is a quote-based booking system for WordPress that puts you back in the loop. Instead of automatic scheduling and fixed prices, customers submit booking inquiries, you review each one, send a personalized quote (with or without pricing), and the customer accepts or declines. Every booking is deliberate, every price is yours to set, every customer gets a personal touch. Perfect for lawyers, consultants, tradespeople, event planners, hair & beauty salons, tattoo artists, photographers, yoga and fitness studios, tutors, and any service business that quotes before it confirms. Why Appointly? Most booking plugins force automatic scheduling with fixed prices. Appointly is different: Customer picks a date or time slot and submits an inquiry You review the request in the admin dashboard You send a personalized quote with a price and personal note Customer accepts or declines via a link in the email Booking confirmed, everyone gets notified This quote workflow gives you the flexibility to adjust pricing per request, check availability manually, and add a personal touch before confirming any booking. Exactly what service businesses with variable pricing need. Features: Booking Calendar: Beautiful, responsive appointment calendar with real-time availability. Day-mode (whole-day) and timeslot mode (customer picks a time slot of configurable length within a daily window) Unlimited Services: Create as many services as you need, with title, description, image, and base price Personal Offer Workflow: Review every inquiry and send customised offers with automatic email delivery and one-click Accept / Decline links SMTP Email Delivery: Reliable email delivery with presets for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, IONOS, Strato, World4You, Host Europe, ALL-INKL, Hetzner, and more Default Email Templates: Five polished HTML email templates (inquiry, admin notification, offer, confirmation, cancellation) with light and dark modes, fully translatable Dark Mode: Calendar automatically adapts to the visitor’s colour scheme Accessibility: WCAG AA compliant with keyboard navigation Gutenberg Block & Shortcodes: Add the calendar via block editor or shortcode Setup Wizard: Guided onboarding in four steps GDPR Ready: Consent checkbox on the booking form, personal data exporter and eraser integration, encrypted SMTP credentials Multilingual: Full i18n support. German translation included (de_DE, de_DE_formal, de_AT, de_CH, de_CH_informal) Appointly Pro: Appointly Pro is a separate companion plugin that extends Appointly with professional booking features. It is sold on https://appointly.tscholene.com for €2.99 per month and is NOT distributed through the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. The free plugin remains fully functional without Pro. Pro is an opt-in upgrade, not a lock on existing features. Currently shipped in Appointly Pro: Custom Branding: Primary colour, accent colour, and logo applied across the frontend booking form and all customer emails. Custom Email Template Editor: Live preview editor for all 10 customer-facing and admin notification templates with placeholder picker. Custom Service Fields: Build your own booking form per service with text, textarea, number, select, and checkbox fields. Validation rules, drag-and-drop reordering, conditional rendering. Service Addons & Upsells: Offer extras with configurable pricing, quantity, and per-service availability. Per-line pricing in offer and confirmation emails. Recurring Bookings: Automatic re-booking for weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly sessions. Ideal for yoga teachers, therapists, coaches, and anyone running regular appointments. Direct Booking (Auto-Confirm): Per-service auto-confirm for fixed-price services. Customers book instantly without admin approval. Configurable lead-time and cancellation window. Blocked Dates: Block individual dates globally or per service, plus date-range blocks (“block December 20 to January 3”). Customer Self-Cancel: Secure email-link cancellation for direct-booking services. No admin contact needed. Planned for upcoming Pro releases (no timeline commitment): Booking Reminders: Automatic reminder emails sent before each appointment, plus an optional daily admin digest. Multi-day Bookings: Date-range bookings for multi-day events, workshops, retreats, and courses. Group Bookings: Multiple seats per time slot for classes and small-group events. Customer Self-Service Reschedule: Token-authenticated reschedule on top of the existing self-cancel flow. Cancellation Policies: Rule-based cutoff times and fees per service. Per-weekday Slot Schedules: Different availability windows per weekday (e.g. Mon/Wed/Fri morning + afternoon, Tue/Thu only afternoons) on top of the basic timeslot mode shipped in Appointly 2.1.0. iCal Feed: Subscribe to bookings in Google Calendar / Apple Calendar / Outlook. Deposit Collection via Stripe (using your own Stripe keys, no middleman). Learn more at https://appointly.tscholene.com Shortcodes & Block: Gutenberg Block: Search “Booking Calendar” in the block editor [appointly_calendar]: Display the booking calendar [appointly_calendar service="2"]: Calendar for a specific service [appointly_form service="2"]: Standalone booking form External services Appointly loads Google Fonts on the WordPress admin pages so the admin UI can render with the Appointly brand typography (Instrument Serif for hero headings, Plus Jakarta Sans for body text, DM Mono for data labels). This is the only external service that the free plugin connects to. Service: Google Fonts (https://fonts.google.com) Purpose: Loading three web font families so the admin SPA renders with the Appointly brand typography Data sent: Your browser’s IP address and User-Agent are sent to fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com when an admin user opens any Appointly admin page. No booking, customer, or plugin-specific data is transmitted. When: Only when an authenticated WordPress administrator opens an Appointly admin page. Fonts are never loaded on customer-facing booking pages, iCal feed requests, or REST API calls. Terms of use: https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq#what_does_using_the_google_fonts_api_mean_for_the_privacy_of_my_users Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy If you prefer to block Google Fonts entirely (for example in a privacy-hardened admin environment), the admin UI degrades gracefully to a system font stack (system-ui / BlinkMacSystemFont / Segoe UI / ui-serif / Menlo) and remains fully functional. No other external services are contacted by the free plugin. Appointly does not call any payment providers (Stripe, PayPal), analytics services, license servers, or telemetry endpoints. Appointly Pro, the separate companion plugin sold on https://appointly.tscholene.com, will, when installed, connect to appointly.tscholene.com for license validation (once per day) and plugin update checks. That connection is a feature of the Pro plugin and does not affect this free plugin. Appointly Pro ships with its own readme, privacy disclosures, and external-services documentation. The free plugin on this page does not make any requests to appointly.tscholene.com at runtime. Build Instructions The admin dashboard and the Gutenberg block are pre-built with @wordpress/scripts (webpack) and ship as the compiled admin/build/ and blocks/build/ artefacts. To inspect or rebuild from source, clone the repository at https://github.com/jolenelederer/appointly (uncompiled admin/src/ + blocks/src/ are not shipped in the WP.org distribution since 2.1.0. They are dev-only). Source rebuild: cd admin && npm install && npm run build cd blocks && npm install && npm run build The public frontend calendar (public/js/appointly-calendar.js) and stylesheet (public/css/appointly-calendar.css) are not compiled: they are vanilla JavaScript and CSS, human-readable as-is.

Trafft booking system is a free booking and appointment scheduling software that flawlessly organizes services, employees, and locations. It helps your clients easily navigate the booking process and find the most convenient time slot in their availability calendar for appointments. Trafft, with its impressive scheduling features, enhances customer satisfaction and saves you time by seamlessly transitioning the entire process online. It also offers automatic notifications, appointment reminders, online payments, refunds, and more to provide you with an all-in-one booking system. This booking plugin is designed as an integration for Trafft SaaS, aiming to assist WordPress users in seamlessly incorporating the Trafft SaaS booking form and availability calendar onto their WordPress pages. HOW TRAFFT’S BOOKING SYSTEM WORKS WITH WORDPRESS Through seamless integration with WordPress, Trafft grants you the capability to effortlessly incorporate the booking form into any WordPress site with minimal effort. To facilitate this, you need an existing Trafft account, and you can easily link it with Trafft’s dedicated WordPress booking plugin. With this setup in place, you’ll be able to convert more website visitors into loyal customers. Being an integration for Trafft SaaS, this booking plugin involves specific calls to external servers that store your account data: CSS files for loading visual styles, JS files for all frontend logic. Data and layout are retrieved from your Trafft account. All resources are loaded from Trafft and its subdomains. For instance, if your Trafft account URL is myaccount.trafft.com, the loading occurs from this link. In case you wish to find out more you can refer to our terms of service and the privacy policy. LINKING THE ACCOUNT AND ADDING THE BOOKING FORM To establish the connection and integrate the booking form on your website, please follow these steps: Within the WordPress dashboard, locate the Trafft icon in the left sidebar and click on it. Enter the name added in the “Your Booking domain” option during the sign-up process on Trafft SaaS. Typically, this is your business name, and we automatically fill the “Your Booking domain” field during sign-up based on the business name you entered. If you don’t recall it or have changed the name in this field, simply go to the admin dashboard area of Trafft SaaS and copy and paste the relevant part of the URL. Click “Save” to link the Trafft Saas account with the Trafft booking plugin and load data. Within the WordPress dashboard, navigate to “Pages” and select the specific page where you wish to incorporate the booking form. If you’re utilizing a supported page builder, search for “Trafft” in the Search bar, then either click on the Trafft icon or simply drag and drop it to the desired section You will notice a new option in the sidebar: “Preselect Booking Parameters.” This feature assists you in choosing a particular employee, service, category, and/or location, allowing you to display specific availability on your page. Once you’ve done, save your changes and the booking form will seamlessly appear within the chosen area of your website. HOW TO CREATE THE ACCOUNT If you haven’t signed up for Trafft’s free appointment scheduling software yet, simply follow this link to initiate the account creation process. Right after you create and access the account, you can connect it with the Trafft WordPress booking system. Pro tip: don’t forget to create services and employees, and set up the schedule and booking calendar before adding the booking form to your website. WHO CAN BENEFIT MOST FROM TRAFFT BOOKING? A wide range of businesses benefit from the Trafft booking system, especially service providers. Let’s see how each industry utilizes Trafft’s appointment scheduling features: Beauty Salons Beauty salons create availability calendars and booking forms for their websites in no time, which allows their customers to schedule appointments without lengthy phone calls. They can also use special tags for employees and services such as “Most Popular” to encourage customers to book immediately. In Trafft’s dashboard, they can see the most occupied employee or service and tailor their marketing strategy according to that data. Explore Trafft’s beauty salon booking system in action. Barbershops Barbershops basically operate on auto-pilot while Trafft’s booking system takes care of notifications, payments, refunds, and availability calendar, automatically adds appointments to customer’s calendars, and even has booking form templates barbershops customize. What’s even better is that they can allocate special buffer time before or after appointments to have time to clean up after the customer, prepare for the next, or simply unwind. Explore Trafft’s barbershop booking system in action. Coaching & Consulting Trafft’s flexible calendar management ensures that your availability is accurately reflected, avoiding the risk of double bookings or scheduling conflicts. Whether you hold in-person consultations or virtual sessions, Trafft’s got your back with multi-location support, Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams integrations. Explore Trafft’s consulting booking system. Education & Teaching Trafft’s booking system empowers teachers to teach without worrying about class scheduling because it offers support for group bookings, recurring appointments, and multi-location coordination. Fitness & Sports Trafft’s booking system helps maintain an organized calendar and schedules for all fitness professionals, from personal trainers to gym owners and fitness centers. Healthcare Healthcare institutions can manage employees, services, availability calendars, patient info, and working hours with an all-in-one booking system specifically designed for their needs. With appointment and customer notes features, employees will always provide high-end care to patients and always be in the loop before the appointment. Explore Trafft’s health clinic booking system. Government & Administration Reduce waiting time in queues and enhance staff productivity in government offices. How? By using appointment scheduling features that automate daily operations and provide online scheduling 24/7. Appointments can be as short as 5 minutes, meaning the administration can schedule everything with Trafft – even receiving documentation which significantly boosts efficiency. Home Services Plumbers, handymen, and other home service providers use Trafft because it completely eliminates back-and-forth communication when clients schedule appointments. Home service providers can add an “Address” custom field that customers fill in, and Trafft automatically finds Google Maps location. The result? They always know where to go! Cleaning Services Professional cleaning companies love Trafft because it helps them focus on their work instead of administrative tasks. Invoicing? Trafft’s booking system takes care of that. Scheduling? Trafft’s already done it. Collecting upfront payments to protect your cleaning business? Trafft’s got your back! Automotive services Even automotive service providers, such as car detailers and mechanics love Trafft because it keeps their calendar full with appointments while they provide top-notch services to clients. Personal services Trafft is the perfect appointment scheduling plugin for professional service providers because it automates everything you dread doing, including tax management, invoicing, finding free time slots, and sending reminders. Useful links 🔗 Official Page || Documentation || Features || Youtube || Instagram || X || Facebook SIGN UP FOR FREE Sign up for a free Trafft booking account by following this link. The free version includes unlimited appointment booking, 200 email reminders per month, SMS notifications, Google, Outlook or Apple calendar sync, Group Booking, Extras, Special Days, Coupons, and the Android app and IOS app. You can upgrade to Trafft Premium at any time and you will get access to the advanced features such as online payments, deposits and refunds, recurring appointments, taxes and invoices, marketing tools, advanced customisation options, and more. Upon registration, you will gain access to a 14-day free trial during which all features will be fully accessible. Once the 14-day trial period concludes, you can opt to either continue using the Free plan or select one of our premium plans. To get more information about included features and to compare our plans follow this link. The Free Plan includes: Unlimited services, Unlimited appointments, Unlimited customers Customizable appearance, Up to 5 users with the possibility to add more, 5 custom features, including: Synchronisation with Calendars including Google Calendar + Google Meet, iCal, and Outlook Calendar + Microsoft Teams, Extras, Group Bookings, Coupons, Special days, and many more! 200 emails per month, SMS Notifications, Dashboard Reporting, Android App and iOS app. Trafft Premium Plans also include: Multiple templates for the outstanding scheduling experience, Multiple Payment Gateways Recurring Appointments Multiple Locations Custom Notifications Integrations with tools for online meetings, including Google Meet and MS Teams that are also available in free plan + Zoom integration Integrations with various marketing tools Custom Fields Invoices Tax management Deposit Payments Refunds Custom Roles and Permissions WhatsApp Notifications Time Zones White Labeling and more. TOP FREE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING FEATURES Experience the freedom of efficient appointment management with Trafft’s top-notch free features, designed to elevate your scheduling experience: Unlimited appointments Bid farewell to appointment constraints with Trafft’s unlimited appointments feature. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or managing a team, schedule as many appointments as you need without restrictions. This flexibility ensures you can cater to your growing business needs effortlessly. Two-way calendar synchronization This feature ensures that your Trafft calendar integrates seamlessly with your existing calendars, whether it’s Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar. Two-way syncing guarantees that updates made in Trafft reflect in your external calendars and vice versa, eliminating the risk of double bookings or scheduling conflicts. Automated reminders Clients receive timely reminders about upcoming appointments, reducing no-shows and enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Stay connected effortlessly and ensure that both you, your employees, and your clients are well-prepared for every appointment. Insightful dashboard Gain valuable insights into your scheduling performance with Trafft’s insightful dashboard. Track appointments, monitor occupancy, and assess your business’s performance effortlessly. The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview, empowering you with the information needed to make informed decisions and optimize your scheduling process. Android and iOS Apps Stay connected and in control, even on the go, with Trafft’s dedicated Android and iOS apps. Access your scheduling platform from your mobile device, manage appointments, and stay informed about your business anytime, anywhere. The mobile apps ensure that you are always at the forefront of your scheduling operations, providing unparalleled convenience. Grow and scale your business with unlimited appointments in Trafft’s free plan. TOP PREMIUM BOOKING SYSTEM FEATURES Unlock a superior booking experience with Trafft’s booking system’s top premium features, providing unmatched flexibility and control: Payments Trafft’s booking system handles transactions by offering your clients versatile payment options including full upfront payments or partial upfront payments, providing a convenient and secure payment experience. This feature ensures a smooth and reliable financial transaction process integrated directly into the booking system. Trafft’s booking system integrates with your favorite payment getaways including Stripe, Square, PayPal, Mollie, and Authorize.net. Recurring appointments Whether scheduling weekly fitness classes, monthly consultations, or any regularly occurring service, Trafft simplifies the process. Save time, enjoy financial stability, and enhance customer satisfaction by automating the booking of recurring appointments, creating an efficient experience for both service providers and clients. Resources You can use this feature to create resources like equipment, rooms, or other limited items and assign them to services, employees, or specific locations. Manage multiple locations with one booking system Experience unparalleled convenience with Trafft’s capability to manage multiple locations seamlessly within one booking system. Ideal for businesses with diverse operations or various branches, this feature allows you to centralize and synchronize your scheduling efforts. Enjoy the efficiency of overseeing bookings across different locations from a unified platform, ensuring a cohesive and organized approach to your services. Custom fields You want to get to know your customers better? Trafft’s booking system’s got you covered! You can ask your customers whatever you want by adding custom fields directly to your booking form. Collect additional information, grab some insightful marketing data and have full control of your booking form. You can control which fields are mandatory and the format of questions and answers. Once you get to know what Trafft’s booking system offers, feel free to choose the plan that best fits your needs and elevates your appointment scheduling experience. WHY USERS LOVE TRAFFT’S APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING SOFTWARE? A Vital Part of My Business I love a tool that is easy to use and set up, looks great and is solid in every aspect. The support team are excellent and super helpful. Most of all, I contacted a few clients to get feedback on what they thought of this booking setup (as they are the ones who really need to like it). and they are impressed and my bookings have increased from it. That’s a win for me. – peterhons GETTING STARTED WITH TRAFFT’S APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING With Trafft, you can set up a basic booking system in less than 10 minutes. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get started with Trafft and schedule those appointments with ease: Sign up for Trafft (it’s free) Configure general settings such as default time slot step, minimum time required before canceling, date format, time zone, etc. Create services including service categories, descriptions, duration, and price. Add employees and don’t forget to assign them services! Only when you do will it all appear as it should on your booking form. You’re all set, now it’s time to enable it on your WordPress website. LINKING THE ACCOUNT AND ADDING THE BOOKING FORM To establish the connection and integrate the booking form, please follow these steps: Within the WordPress dashboard, locate the Trafft icon in the left sidebar and click on it. Enter the name added in the “Your Booking domain” option during the Sign Up process on Trafft SaaS. Typically, this is your business name, and we automatically filled the “Your Booking domain” field during sign-up based on the business name you entered. If you don’t recall it or have changed the name in this field, simply go to the admin dashboard area of Trafft SaaS and copy and paste the relevant part of the URL Click “Save” so we can link Trafft Saas account with the Trafft booking plugin and load data. Within the WordPress dashboard, navigate to “Pages” and select the specific page where you wish to incorporate the booking form. If you’re utilizing a supported page builder, search for “Trafft” in the Search bar, then either click on the Trafft icon or simply drag and drop it to the desired section You will notice a new option in the sidebar: “Preselect Booking Parameters.” This feature assists you in choosing a particular employee, service, category, and/or location, allowing you to display specific availability on your page. Once you’ve done, save your changes and the booking form will seamlessly appear within the chosen area of your website.