VibeReserve Booking Light vs Salon Booking & Appointments – Yatoon

VibeReserve Booking Light is a free, fully-functional appointment booking plugin built for beauty salons, spas, barbershops, wellness centres, clinics, and any service-based business. It ships with a clean admin dashboard and a multi-step booking form for your customers. Let customers book 24/7 from your website and manage everything from one modern dashboard. Everything included (free, unlimited) Multi-step booking form — embedded via shortcode or Gutenberg block Admin dashboard — real-time stats, booking charts and upcoming appointments Unlimited services — add as many services as you need with images, descriptions, pricing, duration and sale prices Unlimited staff — add team members with profiles and weekly schedules Unlimited categories — organise services with custom colours Unlimited locations — manage multiple business locations/branches Booking calendar — interactive calendar view of all appointments Email notifications — automated confirmation emails to customer and admin on every booking Booking management — view, confirm, complete, or cancel bookings Staff roles & access control — assign Admin, Manager, or Staff roles Gutenberg blocks — booking form, services grid, and staff grid blocks Fully responsive — looks great on desktop, tablet and mobile Translation ready — compatible with WPML and Loco Translate Optional premium add-on An optional, separately-distributed premium add-on is available from the author’s website at luminaith.com/vibereserve-booking. The premium add-on adds features that this free plugin does not include (such as online payment gateways, WhatsApp notifications, Google Calendar sync, automated email reminders, blocked dates, customer self-service portal, reviews, revenue reports, iCal export and REST API access). The premium add-on is not required. The free plugin is complete and has no time limits, usage limits, or feature locks. Shortcodes [vibereserve_booking] — full multi-step booking form [vibereserve_services] — services showcase grid (supports category, limit, featured attributes) [vibereserve_staff] — team grid External services This plugin does not connect to any external service by default. All bookings, services, staff and schedules are stored locally in your WordPress database. Emails are sent through your own WordPress site using wp_mail(). The plugin also does not load any JavaScript or CSS from remote CDNs — Chart.js, FullCalendar and Cropper.js are bundled with the plugin and served from your own site.

Start accepting salon appointments from your own website Yatoon gives salons, nail studios, spas, and beauty professionals a fast mobile booking flow without forcing customers into a separate marketplace. Clients can choose multiple services, book for a group, select staff, find a real available time, and manage their appointment after booking. The free version runs locally in WordPress. Your service, staff, customer, and booking data remain in your WordPress database. No Square, Vagaro, or AI account is required. Built by a salon owner, for salon owners. Guided setup with optional demo content – nothing is added unless you choose it Automatic booking, appointment-management, and customer-portal page creation Mobile-first booking for individual and group appointments Multiple services in one visit with combined duration and pricing Local staff schedules, availability, confirmations, reminders, and waitlist capture Customer self-service for viewing, rescheduling, and cancelling appointments Service photos, category navigation, gallery, staff profiles, and ratings Live demo: https://yatoon.com/bookingdemo/ Launch in four guided steps Add your business details. Start blank or explicitly choose sample services for testing. Set opening hours and email notifications. Let Yatoon create the required pages and open the customer view for a test booking. Free always uses local WordPress booking. Square and Vagaro credentials are requested only by the separate Pro package. Optional AI, never a requirement On a compatible WordPress installation with an AI provider connected, Yatoon can help customers choose a service and help owners improve service descriptions. Without AI, the complete normal booking flow continues to work. Yatoon does not sell AI credits or store provider API keys. Official source and support Yatoon is distributed under GPLv2 or later. Official downloads, updates, demos, and support are available from https://yatoon.com and the WordPress.org support forum. What makes Yatoon different Most booking plugins were built for generic businesses. Yatoon was built for beauty. That means: Clients can book multiple services in one visit – nails + pedicure + eyebrows, all in one checkout AI-guided service selection helps unsure clients understand which service fits their needs Group appointments – your client books for herself and her friend, with separate services and staff for each person, in one go A restaurant-style service menu with photos, pricing, and a Book button right on the page – not a separate popup or redirect Staff profiles with real star ratings from verified clients – clients pick who they trust A photo gallery that auto-scrolls your nail art – because your work sells itself Tip / gratuity at checkout – preset percentages or custom amount, right in the booking flow This is the stuff that actually matters in a salon. Everything else is just noise. Booking experience your clients will love Mobile-first – the entire booking flow is designed for phones first. Your clients book from the nail salon parking lot or their couch. Multi-step flow with animated progress bar – clients always know where they are and what’s next Real-time availability – live calendar that loads actual open slots from your schedule “Any staff” option – clients who don’t have a preference get the first available technician automatically Waitlist capture – when a time is fully booked, clients can join a list so you can follow up manually “Text Us” button – if nothing is available, clients can reach you directly with one tap Add to Calendar – Google, Apple, and Outlook with one click after booking Self-service portal – clients reschedule or cancel on their own, without calling you Everything you need to run your salon For your clients: * Beautiful booking form that matches your website * Instant confirmation email with full appointment details * Automated reminder email before their appointment * One-tap star rating after their visit – no login required * Secure link to reschedule or cancel anytime For your team: * Staff portal – technicians view their own schedule on their phone, no logins needed * Staff profiles with photos, bios, and real star ratings * Each staff member linked to only their services For you: * Dashboard with today’s bookings, monthly revenue, and no-show rate at a glance * Client list with visit history, notes, and allergy information * Closed dates manager – block holidays for everyone with one click * Custom booking form fields – add questions like nail shape preference, allergy notes, or reference photos * Fully customizable confirmation email template Service display shortcodes [yatoon_booking] – the full booking form. Put it on any page. [yatoon_service_menu] – restaurant-style menu with photos, prices, and Book buttons. Clients browse and book without leaving the page. [yatoon_catalog] – image card grid with category filters. [yatoon_gallery] – auto-scrolling photo carousel of your work. Supports mobile swipe, lightbox, and infinite loop. [yatoon_customer_portal] – client self-service: view upcoming bookings, reschedule, cancel. [yatoon_staff_portal] – technician schedule viewer. Installable as a home screen app on iPhone and Android. Optional Pro upgrade – for salons that are growing The WordPress.org version runs in local WordPress booking mode. A separate Pro package is available outside WordPress.org for salons that need live third-party integrations and higher-volume workflows: Square & Vagaro live sync – your Square Appointments or Vagaro availability syncs in real time. No double bookings, ever. Clients see exactly what’s open. AI reply drafts – turn Text Us messages into warm, staff-reviewed response drafts SMS reminders via Twilio – automated text messages before every appointment cut no-shows dramatically Google Calendar two-way sync – your bookings appear in your personal calendar automatically Unlimited staff members – no cap on technicians Deposits & prepay – require a credit card or partial payment upfront for clients with a no-show history, or for high-value services Waitlist auto-notify – email clients automatically when a matching slot opens No-show tracking – automatically flag clients who miss appointments Recurring bookings – clients set up weekly or bi-weekly repeats from the confirmation page Service packages, memberships, coupon codes & gift cards – sell and redeem prepaid value from your site Priority support – direct access to the team that built and runs this in a real salon Get started in 5 minutes Install and activate the plugin The Setup Wizard launches automatically – follow 5 simple steps to configure your business info, hours, and booking page Add [yatoon_booking] to your booking page Add [yatoon_service_menu] to your services page Upload photos to your services and add [yatoon_gallery] to your homepage Preview the client booking experience at https://yatoon.com/bookingdemo/ That’s it. Your clients can start booking. External Services and Privacy The free booking flow runs locally in WordPress and does not require Square, Vagaro, Stripe, Twilio, or Google Calendar. AI features use the WordPress 7.0 AI Client when a site administrator connects an AI provider in WordPress Settings > Connectors. Yatoon does not store AI provider API keys and does not charge for AI usage. Any AI usage cost depends on the site owner’s selected AI provider. On WordPress 6.9 and older, AI features stay hidden and the booking system continues to work normally. The plugin bundles the Freemius SDK to provide optional account, upgrade, licensing, and software analytics screens. Freemius is only used when a site administrator chooses to connect or opt in. On opted-in sites, Yatoon sends one-time setup funnel event names together with the plugin version, Free/Pro tier, booking mode, and event time. It does not include customer names, contact details, appointment content, or payment information. Sites that do not opt in keep these milestones only in their own WordPress database. Freemius: https://freemius.com – Terms: https://freemius.com/terms/ Freemius Privacy Policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/