Simply Schedule Appointments vs WPCafe – Restaurant Menu, Online Food Ordering & Table Booking System

Simply Schedule Appointments® is an easy-to-use WordPress appointment booking plugin. It’s an automated appointment booking system loved by 70,000+ businesses, with a 5-star review average. The Simply Schedule Appointments booking calendars are easy and fast to set up. And enjoyable for your customers and clients to book and schedule appointments. You can set up the appointment scheduling calendars to take your first booking in less than 5 minutes! And, the best part is that our 5-star support team is here to help you each step of the way, either through our comprehensive and organized Help Center, here on the WordPress Forums, or directly from the Simply Schedule Appointments Support Tab within the plugin. Booking System Features to Help You Schedule Business Meeting Appointments Features included with the Simply Schedule Appointments Free Basic Edition for booking appointments: Unlimited Booking Calendars and Customizable Notifications Use Advanced Scheduling Options and Blackout Dates to highly tailor your schedule Embed the appointment booking calendars using the Block Editor, Elementor widgets, Beaver Builder modules, and Divi modules Style and Customize the Booking Calendars to match your brand and website Translation-ready – including Spanish, German, French, and more! Deeply connected with WordPress, including integrations for the The Events Calendar plugin, WP Fusion Automations, and more! Features included with the Simply Schedule Appointments Paid Premium Editions for booking appointments: Group or class event booking – Book time slots up to a certain capacity Booking Flows – Choose from a selection of booking steps and layouts Google Calendar Sync – Allow your site’s booking system to check your personal calendar for conflicts and customize those calendar events Team booking – Allow your staff to receive bookings and customize their own schedules Resource booking – Schedule meeting rooms, rental items and things such as bikes or tables, or set max occupancies Mailchimp – Automatically add users as new contacts to your audience from the booking form Stripe and PayPal for Payments – Instantly get paid for your time and expertise Twilio for SMS notifications and reminders Gravity Forms and Formidable Forms Integration – Create complex booking forms Zoom and Google Meet for virtual meetings Google Analytics and Tag Manager tracking enabled to count booking form conversions Trigger Webhooks for appointment actions and connect to Zapier ICS Subscription Feeds – Sync your personal calendar applications to all incoming bookings. Simply Schedule Appointments is perfect if you want to let your customers schedule phone calls, in-person or virtual video meetings, or coaching appointments. The perfect tool for business consultations, interviews, or scheduling services. You can tame and automate your schedule and easily manage when you’re available for appointments. And block off dates when you don’t want to be disturbed for bookings — no more phone calls or back-and-forth emails to find a meeting time that works. Simply let your WordPress booking system take care of it! Easily limit how many daily appointments you schedule and set the minimum time between bookings. Automate your schedule while still maintaining control of your availability — manage your booking calendars, time slots, and appointments all in one place. Offer different types of appointment calendars for your services. For example, you could allow new clients to schedule on an introduction call calendar or let established customers schedule a longer time slot with a separate calendar. And, forget about double-bookings, Simply Schedule Appointments is capable of preventing unexpected scheduling problems! Are you looking to offer tutoring or remote teaching classes? Let your students quickly book times with you for lessons, reviews, or simple consultations. Localized time zones make meetings for distance learning and remote office hours a breeze to schedule. Simply Schedule Appointments contains all the data from your appointments and customers within your WordPress site. Own your data and be fully GDPR-compliant and make it easier for your booking system to achieve HIPAA compliance. Complete documentation to start booking appointments today is available on our website. Getting Started with the WordPress Booking Calendars is Easy Use the built-in Setup Wizard to create your first Appointment Type in under 5 minutes. Next, just embed the booking calendar on your site using our general booking shortcode [ssa_booking] or our native WordPress editor block: Who This Booking System is For Simply Schedule Appointments is ideal for anyone who needs to automate and book appointments with clients and customers, including booking for: Client Meeting Booking — Entrepreneurs, Web developers, Consultants, Personal and Business Coaches, Lawyers, Car Dealers, Real Estate, Agencies Event Booking — Wedding coordinators, Dress Shops, Boutiques, Workshop Teachers, Food Truck Lots Class Lessons or Tutor Scheduling — Personal trainers, Yoga studios, Exercise Studios, Language / ESL Tutors, Dance Studios, Fitness Professionals, Music Teacher, Instructors, Professors Service Booking — Handyman Services, Contractors, Hair Salons, Barbershops, Photographers, Tattoo Shops, Notaries, Tax Preparations, Home Inspections Visitor Booking — Bakeries, Restaurants, Museums, Retirement Homes, Curbside Pickup Patient Booking — Nutritionists, Vaccination Appointments, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Pharmacy Prescription Pickups Simple Reservations — Equipment Rentals, Room Reservations, Table Reservations for Restaurants, Office Reservations Simply Schedule Appointments offers an excellent experience for your customers who need to book appointments. Our WordPress booking plugin has just the features you need without all the extra bloat and needless settings found in other appointment booking plugins. And our UI is snappy, highly responsive, and a joy to use. Flexible, Fast, and Powerful Booking Calendars Other appointment scheduling plugins are either too simple or too complicated. They lack the basic features you need to start automating your schedule and booking appointments, or, if they do have those features, as you grow and add services, staff, and locations, they become complex and confusing to use for booking. Simply Schedule Appointments is ready to grow with your business’ booking needs — without all the confusion and clutter of settings that don’t apply to you. It’s also highly compatible with WordPress and can be added to any theme and page layout on your site. Simply Schedule Appointments offers fully responsive booking calendars and works efficiently on any device – even touch screens. Our WordPress booking plugin will work dependably and reliably, whether you’re managing your appointment availability from your tablet or your customer is booking an appointment from their smartphone. User-Friendly and Accessible Booking System Our WordPress booking calendar system was designed with people in mind, first and foremost. So we’re always thinking about how people will be using our appointment scheduling plugin, what they’ll expect, and what booking features they’ll want and need. This WordPress booking calendar system is built with you and your customer in mind and is accessible for everyone. We believe appointment scheduling should be as clear and straightforward as possible while maintaining the flexibility and booking features our customers need. We’ve made sure that everyone can use our appointment scheduling plugin, including people with auditory, visual, and physical disabilities. Everyone deserves access to everything the web offers, so we built our WordPress booking calendar plugin with accessibility in mind. As a result, you’ll never have to worry that a customer will find themselves unable to schedule an appointment because of their abilities or the device they’re using. Deep Integrations With All the Tools and WordPress Plugins You Love Integrations included with the Simply Schedule Appointments Free Basic Edition for booking appointments: Logged in WordPress users can see their appointments and benefit from auto-filling Name and Email fields. Elementor widgets Beaver Builder modules Divi modules WP Fusion Automation The Events Calendar Integrations included with the Simply Schedule Appointments Paid Premium Editions for booking appointments: Google Calendar Mailchimp Stripe and PayPal for Payments Webhooks for Zapier and Make Twilio for SMS notifications Gravity Forms Gravity Wiz Perks Formidable Forms Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Zoom and Google Meet for virtual meetings The Events Calendar Project Panorama LifterLMS Webex Facebook pixel Useful Links to Help You Start Booking Appointments Today Help Center for Troubleshooting and Setup Guides Free Basic Edition Setup Guide Booking Demos to Try Before Installation How to Display the Booking Calendars on a WordPress Page or Post Admin Dashboard Walkthrough Guide Full Appointment Type Settings Guide

WPCafe is a restaurant menu and online food ordering plugin for WordPress built for restaurants, cafes, cloud kitchens, takeaway businesses, catering services, and multi-location food chains. WPCafe lets you create a responsive restaurant menu, accept online food orders through WooCommerce, manage food delivery and pickup schedules, handle table reservations, and run your entire restaurant business from one WordPress dashboard. Powered by AI-assisted restaurant management, WPCafe also helps streamline restaurant operations with QR ordering, visual table layouts, live kitchen alerts, automated workflows, and multi-location management. Live Demo | Documentation | Roadmap | Tutorials | Restaurant Theme | Upgrade to Pro Need help setting up your online food ordering website? 👉 Contact Support Why Thousands of Restaurants Choose WPCafe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “WPCafe V3.0 is more than a menu plugin — it’s a complete restaurant management solution with smooth online ordering and a powerful table booking system.” — Barham, Lead Generation & Sales Optimization Strategist ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Our team transformed a basic WooCommerce website into a complete restaurant online ordering system using WPCafe.” — Keyd, IT Manager, Wokai Restaurant — France 👉 Read all WPCafe reviews on WordPress.org With WPCafe, you can: ✔ Create a modern, responsive restaurant menu with 34+ templates ✔ Accept online food orders via WooCommerce — delivery, pickup, and dine-in ✔ Manage delivery zones, pickup schedules, and food delivery time slots ✔ Handle restaurant reservations and table booking with automated email notifications ✔ Let guests order using QR code ordering for contactless dine-in ✔ Let customers pick their exact table from a visual interactive table layout ✔ Manage multiple restaurant locations from a single dashboard ✔ Track sales, top dishes, and customer trends in the analytics dashboard Unlike plugins that only handle menus or only handle bookings, WPCafe combines restaurant menu + online food ordering + restaurant booking system + delivery management + QR ordering + visual table reservation into one plugin — no extra platform needed. Who is WPCafe For? WPCafe is the ideal restaurant management system for: Restaurant Owners (dine-in, takeaway, and delivery) Cloud Kitchen and Virtual Restaurant Operators Café and Coffee Shop Owners Catering Companies and Event Caterers Street Food Vendors and Food Trucks Multi-Location Restaurant Chains and Franchises Online Food Delivery and Food Service Businesses Multi-Vendor Food Marketplace Owners The Problems We Solve 💪 Running an online restaurant, café, or takeaway business comes with real operational challenges — especially when you depend on a food ordering or restaurant reservation system for daily operations. Here is how WPCafe solves them. 📌 Problem: Managing online food orders manually is time-consuming and prone to errors. Solution: WPCafe automates online food ordering with real-time order notifications, live order tracking, and order preparation time settings to keep customers informed. 📌 Problem: Overbooking and no-shows disrupt table reservations. Solution: WPCafe provides a smart table booking and restaurant reservation system that you can set up in minutes, with branch-wise seat capacity control to prevent overbooking. 📌 Problem: Keeping the restaurant menu updated is difficult for multi-location businesses. Solution: WPCafe offers a location-based restaurant menu and menu-of-the-day options so you can update offerings instantly for each branch. 📌 Problem: A poor ordering experience leads to abandoned carts and lost sales. Solution: WPCafe delivers a mobile-friendly food ordering experience with QR code ordering and a customizable floating mini cart for smooth checkout. 📌 Problem: Delays in communication cause customer dissatisfaction. Solution: WPCafe sends real-time notifications and live order alerts to keep your kitchen and customers in sync. 📌 Problem: Managing multi-location restaurants from separate tools is complex. Solution: WPCafe supports multi-branch management from a single dashboard, including delivery zone settings and Google Maps integration. 📌 Problem: Outdated menu designs and poor page builder compatibility turn customers away. Solution: WPCafe offers customizable food menu templates for Elementor, Gutenberg, Divi, and other page builders to match your brand. 📌 Problem: Lack of data makes menu and staffing decisions difficult. Solution: WPCafe’s sales reports and analytics dashboard give you the data to optimize menu items, promotions, and staffing. WPCafe FREE Features – Essential Tools for Every Restaurant The free version of WPCafe gives you everything you need to run an online restaurant business. Every feature is purpose-built for restaurants, cafés, and food ordering businesses. 🍕 Food Menu Design 34+ Food Menu Templates WPCafe offers 34+ pre-made layouts for creating a modern, responsive food menu using Gutenberg blocks, Elementor widgets, shortcodes, and more — no coding required. Food Menu List Widget Display your dishes in a clean, organized list view so customers can browse and add items to their cart quickly. Food Menu Tab Widget Organize your restaurant menu into category tabs — Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Drinks — for a smoother, faster ordering flow. 📅 Restaurant Reservation System Single & Multiple Slot Reservation A modern restaurant reservation system fully customizable for your schedule — for example, lunch reservations from 12:00–3:00 PM or dinner from 6:00–10:00 PM. Seat Capacity & Guest Number Control Set the maximum number of guests per reservation or time slot so your table booking system never allows overbooking. Reservation Email Notifications Automatically send confirmation, cancellation, and reminder emails to customers when their reservation status changes. Customizable Reservation Form Builder Build the reservation form your restaurant needs. Add custom fields and tailor the booking experience for your guests. 🚴 Food Pickup & Delivery Features Weekly Delivery & Pickup Schedule Define the exact days and hours your restaurant offers food delivery or pickup — so you only receive orders when your kitchen is ready. Time Interval Selection Let customers choose specific pickup or delivery time slots (e.g., every 15 or 30 minutes) for food delivery control and reduced kitchen pressure. 🛒 Floating Mini Cart Quantity Picker Customers can adjust item quantities directly in the minicart without navigating back to the menu — making the ordering experience faster. Minicart Style and Icon Customize your minicart for a branded WooCommerce food ordering experience with various cart icon styles. Minicart Empty Button Let customers clear their cart with a single click — especially useful for dine-in QR code sessions. ✨ Additional Free Features Product Add-ons Let customers customize their order with extras, toppings, and add-ons to increase average order value. See product addons → Order Bump (Cross-sell at Checkout) Suggest relevant items during checkout — when a customer orders a burger, suggest fries or a drink. A proven way to increase revenue per order. Advanced Search & Filtering Help customers find exactly what they want by filtering by category, ingredients, or dietary preferences — especially useful for large menus. Detailed Sales Reports Track revenue, best-selling dishes, and customer trends to make smarter menu and staffing decisions. Shortcodes Add your food menu, ordering button, or reservation form to any page with WPCafe shortcodes — no coding required. WPCafe PRO — More Power, Automation & Control 🏆 The PRO version includes everything in the free version plus advanced features to help you scale your restaurant, automate operations, and deliver a premium customer experience. 🖼️ Visual Interactive Table Reservation (Exclusive to WPCafe) Limited WordPress restaurant plugin offers this. Design your restaurant’s floor plan visually — place tables, set capacities, and label sections. Customers browse your actual layout and choose exactly where they want to sit when booking. 📲 QR Code Ordering – Contactless Dine-In & Takeaway Generate QR codes for individual tables, the full menu, or your takeaway page. Guests scan with their phone, browse the menu, and order — fully contactless, no staff interaction required. 🍽 Advanced Food Menu Features Menu of the Day Highlight daily specials or best-selling dishes with a dynamic restaurant menu section that refreshes automatically. Menu Popup & Limited-Time Offers Display timed popups to promote happy hours, seasonal specials, or events — converting browsing visitors into ordering customers. Location-Based Food Menu Show a different menu per branch or delivery zone — ideal for chains, franchises, and multi-concept restaurants. 📅 Advanced Reservation Features Holiday & Special Event Scheduling Create custom booking rules for holidays and special occasions — Valentine’s Day dinner, Mother’s Day brunch, or holiday banquets — without disrupting your regular schedule. Food Pre-Ordering with Table Reservation Let customers order their meal while booking their table. Your kitchen prepares in advance, improving table turnover and guest satisfaction. Branch-Wise Seat Capacity Management Set and automate seat availability for each branch. Bookings are blocked automatically when capacity is reached. 🍜 Advanced Online Food Ordering Features Live Order Notifications with Sound & Visual Alert Get instant audible alerts and pop-up notifications for every new order — your kitchen never misses an incoming request during peak hours. Set Order Preparation Time Communicate accurate wait times to customers for both delivery and pickup. Minimum Order Amount Set a minimum spend for delivery or pickup to protect order profitability. ⚖️ Food Order Discounts & Promotions Percentage-based discounts on total orders or individual items Fixed-amount standard discounts Custom discount messages displayed at checkout 🚴 Enhanced Delivery & Pickup Features Pickup & Delivery Time Interval Control — Set structured time slots to keep kitchen flow smooth and driver schedules manageable. Holiday Availability Settings — Pause delivery or pickup on specific dates while keeping future ordering open. Google Maps Autocomplete — Speed up checkout by letting customers confirm their delivery address automatically. Pickup/Delivery Custom Messages — Add instructions or notes at the checkout stage for a better customer experience. Percentage & Flat Tip Options — Offer tipping at checkout for both delivery and dine-in. 🏪 Multi-Vendor Restaurant Marketplace Turn your WordPress site into a food delivery marketplace where multiple restaurant vendors operate independently — each with their own menu, delivery zones, orders dashboard, and product control — with centralized admin oversight for you. Powered by Dokan Multi-vendor integration. 🎁 Loyalty Program for Repeat Customers Run a restaurant loyalty program that rewards returning diners with points, discounts, or exclusive offers — built directly into WordPress, no third-party app required. ✳️ Extra PRO Features RTL language support (Arabic, Hebrew, and other right-to-left scripts) Thermal printer integration for kitchen order tickets Deposit & partial payment support (Deposet integration) Bit Integrations & Bit Flows for advanced workflow automation Zapier and Pabbly for connecting external apps and automating restaurant workflows Integrations ➕ WooCommerce — The foundation of WPCafe’s online food ordering system. All payments, checkout, and orders run through WooCommerce. ➕ Elementor Page Builder — Dedicated food menu widgets and reservation widgets available directly in the Elementor editor. ➕ Gutenberg (Block Editor) — Native Gutenberg blocks for food menus, ordering buttons, reservation forms, and location selectors. Learn more → ➕ Divi Page Builder — Customize your restaurant menu with Divi without switching themes. ➕ Oxygen Page Builder — Full visual design control over your restaurant website from header to footer. ➕ Dokan Multi-Vendor — Build a multi-vendor food marketplace with WPCafe and Dokan. ➕ Bricks Builder — Compatible with Bricks Builder for visual restaurant website design. ➕ Zapier — Connect WPCafe to thousands of apps to automate ordering workflows and notifications. ➕ Pabbly — Automate restaurant workflows from order alerts to customer follow-up emails. ➕ Bit Integrations & Bit Flows — Connect WPCafe with hundreds of tools and create multi-step automation workflows for complex restaurant operations. ➕ OpenStreetMap — Delivery zone mapping without requiring a Google Maps API key. Trusted and Featured by WordPress Industry Leaders Elegant Themes: “Complete restaurant management plugin for WordPress that offers a full range of features to help manage virtually every aspect of a food business.” WPLeaders: “Besides food ordering, WP Cafe also gives you the ability to create beautiful responsive restaurant menus for your website. The menus are highly customizable and let you set food availability based on location.” ThemeGrill: “Complete food menu, restaurant reservation, food delivery and pickup for WooCommerce.” Support and Documentation Documentation: support.themewinter.com/docs/plugins/docs/wp-cafe/ Support Forum: wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-cafe/ Feature Roadmap: themewinter.com/wpcafe-roadmaps/ Community Join the Facebook Community Group Watch tutorials on the YouTube Channel Leave a review on WordPress.org Rate us on Trustpilot More Plugins from the WPCafe Team Eventin — AI-powered event management and ticket selling for WordPress. WP Timetics — AI-powered appointment scheduling with visual seat arrangement. Booktics — Free all-in-one online booking solution for service businesses. Poptics — Popup builder for WordPress designed to increase leads and conversions. Visit ThemeWinter for more WordPress tools, restaurant tips, and marketing guides.