Bukza vs ShootCal Web Calendar

Bukza is a flexible online booking system that works for rentals, appointments, tours, events and many other services. It suits businesses of all kinds — from equipment rental and room reservations to classes, appointments and ticketed events. It lets you build custom reservation workflows, manage resources and widgets, handle payments and automate communication. This WordPress plugin embeds the responsive booking Bukza widget into your website and manager’s interface to your WordPress admin panel. The actual booking engine is hosted by Bukza web application. Documentation | Pricing Features Embed and display widgets Create widgets for any number of resources and embed them on pages of your website using shortcodes. Show the widget inline, as a popup or in a right‑side panel by selecting the display option in the widget settings. Organise resources into a catalog with nested groups so customers can browse categories and choose what to book. Display multiple resources on one calendar by switching the widget to Calendar mode. Change widget design Choose a light or dark theme and set a primary colour. For full control, edit the widget’s CSS using BEM classes. Add validation and dynamic UI Display warnings or reminders only when specific conditions are met. Hide or show fields based on selected options using reactions. Localize your widgets Choose from 30 localizations, or translate the widget yourself by customizing any text. You can also set any currency, time zone, and date or time format to match your local preferences. Create message templates Design custom email templates with any order data you need. These can range from simple text emails to beautiful, responsive HTML templates. You can create as many templates as you like and use them to send messages to customers, employees, or yourself to stay updated on order events. Emails to customers can be sent from your company address and signed with your domain’s DKIM. Build a custom order processing workflow Your orders can include multiple reservations, much like items in a shopping cart. Both orders and reservations have statuses that track each step of your business workflow. You can create as many statuses as you need. Create your own triggers to automate tasks such as sending notifications, changing statuses or sending web requests. Define conditions for trigger tasks based on order data (e.g., resource name, language, total amount or custom fields). Review orders conveniently Preconfigure tables to display any order data columns, with sorting and filters applied for a predefined period. You can also analyze your data by switching tables to calendar mode, allowing you to view orders across any time range – working hours, a week, a month, or even a full year. Configure employee access Create individual accounts for your employees with customized access permissions. For example, an employee can be restricted to specific tables, allowed to view or edit only certain orders, or authorized to run only specific triggers. Accept payments Integrate your own payment gateway using the Payment API. During the reservation process, you can charge the full amount or a partial payment, which can even be calculated dynamically based on the selected options. Block availability on the calendar Use rules with complex schedules, including start and end times that shift relative to the current moment. Block availability for one resource based on reservations of other resources. Automatically block time between reservations for tasks like refueling or cleaning. Block availability directly from the manager’s calendar. Enable 2-way synchronization with Google Calendar. Promote and engage Create promotions codes to apply percentage or fixed discounts. Generate single‑use voucher codes. Issue reusable discount cards with custom discount formulas. Use gift cards with a fixed value, reservation limit or usage periods. Mobile apps for managers Manage orders, check in visitors and scan QR codes using Bukza’s mobile apps for iOS and Android. Application areas Equipment & Inventory Rentals VR arenas, ATVs, bicycles, cars, yachts, boats, skis, snowboards, tools, photo gear, children’s items, dishes, event equipment. Venues & Spaces Business halls, coworking rooms, meeting rooms, offices, studios, training rooms, event spaces, saunas, pools, bowling lanes, sports fields, tennis/paddle/badminton courts. Tourism & Activities Bicycle tours, boat trips, excursions, city tours, amusement parks, aquaparks, karting, ice rinks, paintball/airsoft/laser tag, balloon flights. Sports & Recreation Gyms, yoga and fitness studios, martial arts, dance classes, trampoline centers, football pitches, sports arenas, swimming lanes. Services by Resource Availability Photographer sessions, car service slots, auto wash, chemical cleaning, rental pickups/returns, repair services (PC/tech/appliances), coworking desks, consultation rooms. Hospitality & Accommodation Rooms, flats, cottages, hostels, B&B, short-stay rentals, campsites. Education & Events Workshops, classes, training sessions, test sessions, rehearsals, music practice rooms, language schools, exam slots, conference rooms. Ticketed or Timed Entry Exhibitions, museums, galleries, events with time slots.

Using the ShootCal app? Paste your embed – that is the main way. ShootCal hands you a ready-made embed (an iframe snippet). Paste it into this plugin’s block or shortcode and it just displays your live availability calendar – the same one shown on shootcal.com, including client self-booking. It stays current on its own and is immune to page caching, so there is nothing else to set up. (You can also paste that snippet straight into any builder’s HTML / “Embed” block without this plugin at all; the plugin is the WordPress-native convenience.) Other calendars work too. Prefer to render on your own page, or not a ShootCal user? Paste any iCal (.ics) feed URL – Google, Apple, or Outlook – and the plugin draws a clean month grid itself, in availability or full-calendar mode. Those self-rendered calendars are what the Display settings, per-embed colors, and Page caching option apply to; a ShootCal embed carries its own and ignores them. ShootCal Web Calendar is the companion plugin for the ShootCal scheduling app for Mac and iOS. Publish your availability – or a full calendar – on your website straight from the calendar you already keep in ShootCal, which hides your personal events, builds each day’s availability from your session types, and auto-detects your timezone. It also works with any iCal (.ics) feed – Google Calendar, Apple, or Outlook – so you can use it with or without ShootCal. Add it to any WordPress page or post in one of two modes. Availability mode shows which days are available, limited, or booked without ever exposing your event titles, locations, attendees, or descriptions. Full calendar mode shows each event’s title and time on the grid – handy for a public schedule like sunrise/sunset times, office hours, or class times. Built for photographers and other service providers who want to show clients when they can book, without manually updating a calendar on their website every week. How it works Each calendar’s feed URL lives on the embed itself – the block’s Calendar feed URL field, or the shortcode’s url attribute – so different pages can show different calendars. In WP admin, Settings > ShootCal Web Calendar has a shortcode generator: paste a feed URL, pick a mode, and it checks the feed and hands you a ready-to-paste shortcode. Block users just add the “ShootCal Web Calendar” block and paste the URL in its sidebar. Any iCal feed works: Google Calendar – open your calendar’s settings, scroll to Integrate calendar, and copy the Secret address in iCal format. Apple, Outlook, or other iCal feeds – paste the feed’s iCal URL. ShootCal app (for ShootCal users) – open the Mac app, go to Settings > Website > Connect to your website, and click Copy URL. A ShootCal feed additionally hides your personal events, builds each day’s availability from your session types, and auto-detects your timezone and how many months to show. The plugin fetches the feed server-side, caches it for 10 minutes, and renders a clean month grid. In availability mode it keeps only busy start/end times and discards all event detail; in full calendar mode it shows the event titles and times. Privacy The plugin only reads the iCal feed server-side. The cached data lives in your WordPress site’s object cache or database (transient) and is purged when you clear the cache or change settings. The feed URL lives in the shortcode or block where you use it – treat it like a password. Note that full calendar mode intentionally displays event titles and times, so only point it at a feed whose contents are meant to be public. Features Two display modes: availability (free/busy shading, no detail) or full calendar (event titles + times) Per-embed feed URL (shortcode url or block field) plus a built-in shortcode generator – show different calendars on different pages Works with any iCal feed: Google Calendar, Apple, Outlook, or a ShootCal app feed Month grid showing up to 36 months ahead, with previous / today / next navigation and keyboard arrows Available / Limited / Booked status per day, with booked time windows shown on Limited days and a color legend Tap-to-expand booking times, plus a tap indicator on phones Per-embed Limited / Booked day colors (availability mode) and Sunday or Monday week start (the display timezone follows your WordPress site setting) Optional “Page caching” mode that loads the calendar via JavaScript so it stays fresh behind Varnish or page-cache plugins Privacy-first, accessible markup (ARIA grid, keyboard nav, AA contrast), and assets that load only on pages that use the calendar Shortcode attributes url – the iCal (.ics) feed URL to display (required). mode – “availability” (free/busy shading, default) or “full” (show event titles + times). multi_session_day – availability mode only. “1” (default): a day with only timed sessions shows as “Limited”. “0”: any event marks the whole day “Booked”. limited_color – availability mode only. Hex color (e.g. #fce3a8) for the “Limited” day shading. Default: the built-in soft gold. booked_color – availability mode only. Hex color (e.g. #f6b9a3) for the “Booked” day shading. Default: the built-in soft coral. months – how many months to display (1-36). Default: setting value (auto-detected for ShootCal feeds). first_day – “0” for Sunday, “1” for Monday. Default: setting value. timezone – IANA timezone override for this embed. Default: your WordPress site timezone (or, for a ShootCal feed, the feed’s own). Example: [shootcal_web_calendar mode="full" url="https://example.com/feed.ics" months="3"] Tip: build a shortcode under Settings > ShootCal Web Calendar – paste a feed URL, pick a mode, and it validates the feed and outputs the shortcode for you. External Services This plugin reads a calendar from the iCal feed URL(s) you put in your shortcodes or blocks. Each request is made from your web server (not your visitor’s browser) whenever a month grid is rendered and the 10 minute cache has expired. The plugin only ever contacts the URLs you configure; with none set, it makes no external requests. Only the request itself is sent – no data from your site or your visitors is transmitted. In availability mode the plugin keeps only busy start/end times, discarding titles, locations, attendees, and descriptions; in full calendar mode it also keeps event titles and times (by design, to display them). The service contacted depends on the URL you use: Google Calendar If you use a Google Calendar secret iCal address, the request goes to Google’s calendar servers (calendar.google.com). This service is provided by Google. See Google’s Terms of Service (https://policies.google.com/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). ShootCal If you use a ShootCal feed URL from the ShootCal Mac app, the request goes to the ShootCal feed service (feed.shootcal.com). This service is provided by Ryan Smith Photography. See the terms and privacy information at https://shootcal.com. Other iCal feeds If you use any other iCal URL (for example from Apple or Outlook), the request goes to whichever service hosts that feed. Refer to that provider’s own terms and privacy policy.