KN Booking Suite vs ShootCal Web Calendar

KN Booking Suite is a lightweight booking plugin that allows you to manage customer requests, schedule appointments, and organize your calendar with ease. It includes automated email notifications, availability rules, and a built-in customer profile page. Free Features: Interactive calendar with availability management Booking request management (approve, cancel, delete) Automated email notifications (new request, approval, cancellation) Customizable booking form with dynamic fields Customer profile page for users to view and manage their bookings Configurable availability hours and blocked dates Color presets and calendar theming options CSV export of booking data Guest and logged-in user booking support Pro Add-on Features (sold separately): WooCommerce payment integration AI-powered booking analysis (OpenAI) Add to Google Calendar button Additional premium features Shortcodes [kn_booking] Place this shortcode on any page to display the booking calendar. [kn_profile] Place this shortcode on a page to allow logged-in users to view and manage their own bookings. External Services This plugin connects to external services only when the optional Pro add-on is installed and the user explicitly triggers the corresponding feature: OpenAI API The KN Booking Suite Pro add-on optionally connects to the OpenAI API to power the AI-assisted booking analysis feature. This feature is only triggered when an admin explicitly clicks “Analyze” on a booking in the dashboard. What data is sent: A summary of the booking (date, time, and description/notes) is sent to the OpenAI API. When: Only when an admin manually triggers the AI analysis action. Why: To generate a contextual response or summary about the booking. This service is provided by OpenAI, L.L.C.: * OpenAI Terms of Use * OpenAI Privacy Policy

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.