Bookster – Appointment Booking Management System vs WP BASE Booking of Appointments, Services and Events

Managing appointments through phone calls, texts, and emails is chaotic. You lose track of bookings, double-book appointments, and spend hours on scheduling instead of serving customers. Bookster turns your WordPress site into a 24/7 booking system. 🌐 View All Demos Customers book appointments themselves, see real-time availability, and receive automatic confirmations. Accept online or in-person payments seamlessly on your WordPress site. You manage everything from one dashboard. 📌 Documentation | Core Pro vs All Access 💫 Perfect For Hair salons and barbershops Spas and beauty clinics Massage therapists and wellness centers Personal trainers and fitness coaches Consultants and coaches Tutors and education services Medical and dental practices Any service business that takes appointments 💙 How It Works Customers visit your booking page, choose a service, pick their preferred staff member, select an available time slot, and book instantly. You receive an email notification and can view all appointments in your calendar dashboard. No more back-and-forth scheduling. 🔥 Key Features (100% Free) Unlimited Bookings & Services Create unlimited services with custom names, descriptions, and photos Set individual duration and pricing for each service Add taxes, fees and discounts to bookings No limits on number of appointments per month Offer service add-ons and upsell options Smart Scheduling Set your working hours for each day of the week Configure different availability for different services Add buffer time between appointments (e.g., 15-minute cleanup) Block off days for vacations or holidays Set minimum advance notice for bookings (e.g., require 24-hour notice) Customer Booking Experience Clean, mobile-friendly booking form that works on all devices Multi-step process: choose service → select staff → pick time → enter details → confirm Customers see only available time slots (no double-booking) Optional customer account dashboard to view and manage their bookings Customers can cancel or reschedule appointments themselves Payment Options Accept cash/check for in-person payment Accept PayPal payments online (customers pay when booking) Stripe integration available via premium addon for credit card payments Mark bookings as paid or unpaid manually Track revenue in the analytics dashboard Automatic Notifications Email confirmation sent to customers immediately after booking Reminder emails sent before appointment Email notifications sent to admin when new bookings arrive Customize email templates with your branding All emails sent automatically – no manual work required Admin Dashboard View all appointments in Bookster → Calendar menu Switch between day, week, and month calendar views Click any appointment to view or edit details instantly Filter appointments by status (confirmed, pending, cancelled) Search for specific customers or appointments Drag appointments to different dates to reschedule Color-coded by service or staff member for quick overview Analytics & Reports Track total bookings and revenue right from dashboard View performance by service (which services are most popular) Monitor individual agent performance Make data-driven decisions about staffing and services Premium Addons (Optional) Upgrade your booking system with these customizable options: Staff Management Add unlimited team members from Bookster → Agents menu Set individual working hours for each staff member Assign specific services to specific team members Let customers choose their preferred agent or assign automatically Track performance and bookings per agent Booking Form Customize booking form steps (reorder, add, or remove steps) Add custom fields to collect specific information Enable recaptcha, brand logo, timezone selector, and more for your booking system. Advanced Features (coming in future addons) Group bookings and classes Recurring appointments Multiple locations management SMS notifications via Twilio Design Toolkit for Block Editor and Elementor Getting Started Adding the Booking Calendar to Your Site Method 1: Shortcode (Works Anywhere) Add [bookster_booking_form] to any page, post, or widget area. Method 2: Block Editor 1. Edit the page where you want the booking form 2. Click the + button to add a block 3. Search for “Bookster” 4. Select the Bookster Booking Form block 5. Publish the page Method 3: Classic Editor Paste [bookster_booking_form] directly into your content. Viewing and Managing Appointments Go to Bookster → Calendar in your WordPress dashboard You’ll see all appointments in calendar format Click any appointment to view details or make changes Use the view buttons at top to switch between day/week/month views Use filters to show appointments based on agents or booking status Creating a Manual Booking (For Walk-Ins or Phone Bookings) Go to Bookster → Calendar Click the + New Appointment button (or click an empty time slot) Select the service and staff member Choose date and time Enter customer information (name, email, phone) Select payment method Click Create Appointment Customer automatically receives confirmation email Troubleshooting Booking calendar not showing on my page Check 1: Verify the shortcode Make sure you added [bookster_booking_form] exactly (with square brackets). Check 2: Clear cache If using a caching plugin, clear your cache: WP Rocket → Clear Cache or similar. Check 3: Theme conflict Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (Twenty Twenty-Five) to test. If it works, there’s a theme conflict. Customers not receiving email confirmations Check 1: Email settings Go to Bookster → Integrations → Email tab and confirm email notifications are enabled. Check 2: Check spam folders Ask customers to check spam/junk folders. Add your domain to their contacts. Check 3: WordPress email issues WordPress email can be unreliable. Install an SMTP plugin like YaySMTP to improve email delivery: 1. Install YaySMTP plugin 2. Connect it to Gmail, SendGrid, or Mailgun 3. Send a test email to verify Check 4: Test with yourself Create a test booking using your own email to confirm emails are sending. Time slots not showing as available Check 1: Working hours configured Go to Bookster → Settings → Schedule and verify hours are set for the day in question. Check 2: Agent availability If using staff members, check Bookster → Agents and verify the agent works on that day. Check 3: Minimum advance notice Check Bookster → Settings → General → Restrictions, if you require 24-hour notice, today’s appointments won’t show. Check 4: Service duration If your service is 2 hours but only 1 hour remains before closing time, that slot won’t appear. Double bookings happening This shouldn’t happen with Bookster. If it does: Check 1: Multiple admin users If multiple people manage bookings, ensure everyone refreshes the calendar before creating appointments. Check 2: Contact support If this persists, contact Bookster support with specific examples. PayPal payments not working Go to Bookster → Settings → Payments tab Verify your PayPal email address is correct Confirm PayPal is enabled (toggle should be blue/on) Test in PayPal sandbox mode first Check if PayPal account is verified and can accept payments Review PayPal transaction logs for error messages Calendar showing wrong timezone Go to Settings → General in WordPress Set your city timezone correctly (e.g., “New York” or “Berlin”) Save changes Go to Bookster → Settings and verify timezone matches Clear browser cache and reload Third-Party Services Bookster uses these external services to provide full functionality: FullCalendar.io Purpose: Renders the interactive booking calendar Privacy: No personal data sent to FullCalendar Terms: https://fullcalendar.io/license Stripe.com (Optional – only if using Stripe addon) Purpose: Process credit card payments Data shared: Customer name, email, payment amount Privacy: https://stripe.com/privacy PayPal.com Purpose: Process PayPal payments Data shared: Customer name, email, payment amount Privacy: https://www.paypal.com/privacy When customers make payments, they’re redirected to Stripe or PayPal’s secure servers. Bookster does not store credit card numbers. Support Need help? We’re here for you: Documentation: Visit Bookster’s detailed guides Support Forum: Post questions in the WordPress.org support forum Email & Live Chat Support: Contact us through the Bookster website Video Tutorials: Watch setup videos on our YouTube channel Response time: We typically respond within 4 hours on business days and 12 hours on weekends. We’d Love Your Feedback ❣️ If Bookster helps your business, please leave us a review on WordPress.org! It takes 60 seconds and brightens our day. Click here ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to share your experience. Have a feature request? We’re actively developing new features based on user feedback. Submit your ideas here. Compatibility Works With All Major WordPress Themes: Brandy WP Shadcn GeneratePress OceanWP Divi Avada And thousands more Page Builders: Elementor Gutenberg (Block Editor) Classic Editor Beaver Builder WPBakery What’s Next? After installing Bookster: Run the setup wizard Add the booking calendar to a page Create a test booking to see the customer experience Customize email templates with your branding Share your booking page link with customers Start accepting appointments 24/7! Your new booking system is ready to help you grow your business. Welcome to Bookster! 🚀

WP BASE Booking of Appointments, Services and Events is a complete service and appointment booking e-commerce solution that allows business owners with or without service providers accept hourly or daily appointment reservations from front end and manage or manually create appointments from admin side. It is easily extendable with addons and highly customizable with settings, shortcodes and filter/action hooks. Various free and premium extensions, including addons for integration with WooCommerce, Google Calendar, PayPal, Stripe, Twilio, WPML, BuddyPress, Zoom, Jitsi, Agora are available. Visit our demo website for examples and learn more at WP BASE.com. Documentation Developer and user instructions can be found in our Knowledge Base Unique Features Your clients can pick service, provider, time slot, fill booking form, modify any selection and confirm booking on the same page. During the whole booking process, everything is in your client’s viewport. Loads its css and javascript files only to the pages it is used. It does not pollute whole website. WP BASE can be used in post content, inserted to templates, sidebar widgets and even to popups. Unprecedented working hour setting procedure allows even irregular work schedules easy to set. Extremely sound software and database design allows hundreds of locations, services, providers each having own complex schedules to be used without having significant effect on page load speed. With optional addons, it can be used as a Marketplace with GeoDirectory support, it can integrate with Woocommerce, Google Calendar, BuddyPress with BuddyBoss support, Easy Digital Downloads, Zoom and several other third party platforms. With addons it can use PayPal, Stripe, authorize.net AIM as payment gateways, send SMS notifications with Twilio. As far as we know, there is no similar product in the market which can achieve all the above. General Features Designed for maximum conversion rate: No steps, no page refreshes. Booking is as easy as 1 click. Also Flex Steps booking method is selectable for smaller footprint Uses ajax: Client stays on the same page even after changing service or date Intuitive: On page load, automatically shows your current availability for your popular service. Client can further browse through other dates and services. Responsive: Automatic adaption to different page and screen widths Mobile device support: Automatic detection of mobile phone connection and switching to appropriate display Easy Setup: With just one click and a single shortcode you can create a fully functional booking page and start accepting bookings immediately Flexible: Several booking methods (weekly, monthly, in table view) and themes to select from Multi site support: Automatic creation of database tables for existing and new subsites in Multi Site Installation Scalable: Can be extended to thousands of services and providers. Many addons to choose from. Services Unlimited number of services can be defined Service durations can be set from 5 minutes to 30 days Services can be custom sorted For each service description and featured image can be defined to be displayed in tooltip Services can be assigned to any unique member of the website Services can have any capacity with or without assigned providers allowing more than one booking/client per slot Working Hours Working hours are configured using a unique, simple, intuitive graphical interface Any combination of working hours for each week day up from 5 minutes intervals can be easily entered Even irregular schedules can be set in just seconds Services can have own working hours making them usable without service providers No need to define break hours: If not picked as a working time, a slot is automatically assigned as a break time Multiple working hour tables for services, service providers can be opened, displayed and saved at the same time Copy/paste of working hours from one service to another or to several services Listing of Bookings on the Front End Client can view own bookings, plus admin can view any other client’s or all bookings Display according to status, start and end dates Dynamic search, filtering and sorting of the booking list Selectable and custom sortable columns Different selectable columns for mobile devices to use screen efficiently Cancellation of bookings by the client using confirmation email or button on the website with adjustable limit time Booking and Editing on the Admin Side Manual Booking by admin on behalf of a client, e.g. appointments accepted over phone or email Manual booking can be selected to respect the same availability conditions as the front end Fast manual booking for repeat customers by Rebook button with selecting first available time Filtering of bookings by month, service and balance (negative/positive) Search over booking ids, user names, emails, booking note and any of the client fields Selecting and editing multiple bookings by a single or multiple admins Bulk status change of selected bookings possible Emails Automatic email sending with separate custom templates for confirmation, pending, cancellation, completion states Sending of test emails to check configuration Multiple email addresses can be defined for multiple admins Automatic and manual sending of notification emails for each appointment status Possibility to use all booking and user variables in the templates Possibility to use list of bookings shortcode in the email templates, i.e. inform user about their past, future or all bookings Look and Feel Configurable confirmation and pending message popup with HTML support Configurable Terms & Conditions popup on front end. If enabled, client cannot apply without confirming terms Booking in list/table view or weekly or monthly calendars, selectable within the shortcode and auto switching for mobile devices Selection from 12 included jQuery UI standard themes to match your WordPress theme Custom jQuery UI theme or css file can be created to override existing styles and saved against being overwritten by plugin updates Help System Setup Wizard with description of basic settings Inline settings help inside the plugin Further documentation available at WP BASE.com Localization Automatic adaptation to time and date formats, start day of the week settings of WordPress All front end messages and texts can be easily customized or translated on admin side without any additional tool Ready for translation for other (admin side) texts Support for RTL and calendars starting on Saturday, Sunday and Monday Performance Integrated Native Object Caching Lazy Load function for fast page loading Compatible to major caching plugins Free from PHP sessions. No front end cookie writing (cookies are set with ajax). Thus graceful to server side caching Scalable to virtually unlimited bookings, services and providers Developer Friendly Integrated Custom Functions tab which can be used to add own php codes without the need for modifying php files About 300 WordPress hooks for further customization (With addons more than 1200) Automatic recognition of shortcodes in page templates Functions to read/add/edit/delete bookings, services, providers Debug mode to help locate errors Other Features Automatic removal of unconfirmed (pending) bookings after a preset time Client can cancel own bookings using link in email, or their account, if allowed so Client can confirm own booking using link in email, e.g. to verify their email address Admin side schedules display bookings in weekly and monthly views. Free slots are clickable to add a new booking Clients can be automatically registered as WordPress users upon submission and notified about their registration Account page that displays user submitted values and booking list is automatically created for clients Admin toolbar submenu to access plugin created pages JavaScript and css files are only loaded on plugin related pages both on front end and admin side, to reduce conflicts Compatible with major page builders and caching plugins Admin side graphical reports for bookings and revenue With Advanced Features Premium Addon Advanced Features Addon is a must use for professional websites. It extends functionality and display of your website in several ways. Additional booking View “Flex View” which combines advantages of all other views into one Classic sidebar widgets can be used for booking GDPR compliance from WP 4.9.6 (Erase and export user data upon user request) Timezone support: Automatically dedect client timezone to let them display available time slots in their own timezones Possibility to define Trial Services for which clients can make booking for limited number of times With Service Providers Premium Addon Service Providers Addon allows assigning members of your website as staff who will provide your services. Unlimited number of service providers can be defined Providers can be assigned to one or more services Providers can view their assignments on their account page Providers can be randomly assigned to an appointment if client does not have a preference Providers can create/edit/delete own services, confirm/edit own bookings, manage own working hours and holidays if set so Client can select first provider, then service among services provided by the provider on the front end Free Addons incorporated into the core from V4.0 Easy Digital Downloads Integration: WP BASE services can be sold as digital products (downloads) of EDD alone, with other services or with other downloads. Export & Import: Allows export and import of WP BASE settings and database tables to/from another site/subsite. Includes import option from Appointments by WPMU DEV. Extended Service Features & Categories Addon allows several website settings to be applied per service. It also adds category support to services. Front End Booking Management: Allows admin or any user with selected capability add and edit all bookings and submitted user fields on the front end. Limited Availability: Availability of each service can be easily set on a full calendar making them suitable for event or Airbnb type rental bookings. Manual Payments: Allows adding and editing records for offline (bank transfer, cheque, cash) payments. Shopping Cart: Allows clients book multiple appointments in a single checkout. Minimum and maximum number of appointments per booking is selectable. Can be used to book on different pages and make a single checkout on any page. Quotas: Different quotas (maximum number of future or completed bookings) can be set per service. Different quotas can be defined per week days, weekend days and holidays, per week and per month. Test Bookings: Given number of partly or fully random test bookings can be created for test purposes. Premium Addons BuddyPress: Adds settings, list of bookings and calendars on BuddyPress/BuddyBoss front end user pages. Integrates with notifications and groups. Coupons: Applies discount over total payable amount upon submission of coupon code. Start and end dates, maximum usage, applicable services and/or providers can be selected. Custom Pricing: Payment and down payment amounts can be formulated depending on any variable, for example to apply special price for happy hours Digital Wallet: Adds a deposit system to your website that allows your clients to purchase credit points or service packages and then redeem it at a later point for your services. Extras: Allows adding unlimited number of “extras” which can be used to offer selectable additional service options to the client. Extras can be applied to locations, services and service providers. Event Bookings: Any post/page/custom post can be easily configured to be bookable as event Google Calendar: Integrates Google Calendar with WP BASE. Any new booking can be added to GCal as a new event and any new event entered in GCal can be added as a new booking in WP BASE. Updates in case of editing and cancellation are automatic. Group Bookings: Allows client book for more than one person with a single booking. Client can provide a list of participants who can also receive emails. Person Types are supported Locations: Services can be assigned to one or more location. This feature can also be used to group services and limit their availability depending on capacity, e.g. multiple doctors using a single examination room Marketplace: Users can register to the website, sell their services and manage their bookings. They can establish and manage their team of providers Multi Language: Allows booking selections and variables to be displayed in preferred language of the visitor Online Meetings (Zoom & Jitsi & Agora): Allows integration with Zoom, Jitsi and Agora video/audio conferencing system Service Bundles: Allows admin combine two or more services as jobs of a bundle and sell them as a single service. Time delays between service jobs can be set. Payment Gateways: 2checkout, authorize.net AIM, Paypal, Stripe support available. PDF Attachments: Allows dynamically creating PDF files with booking details and attach them to emails Recurring Appointments: Allows clients select recurring appointments on the front end with selectable recurring frequencies daily, every other day, weekly, biweekly and monthly. Reminder & Follow-up emails: Sends automatic reminder emails to clients before appointment time and to clients whose bookings have negative balance and below a set amount Seasonal Working Hours: Allows weekly “alternative” schedules to be defined and assigned to services and service providers, making it possible to create working hour settings changing every week within the year, e.g. for shift work SMS: Sends SMS messages as confirmation, pending, cancellation, completion and reminder using Twilio service. Different message templates for different groups (client, provider, admin) can be used. User Defined Fields: Allows admin add unlimited number of fields in the confirmation form. Text, textarea, option/select and checkbox fields are supported. User defined select/option functions can be added. Variable Durations: Allows service durations to be variable based on date, time and/or provider. Also allows clients pick desired duration for configured services within set limits Waiting List: Allows clients to apply for a waiting list when desired time slot is full. When there is an opening in the service, clients in the waiting list are informed by email. Woocommerce Integration: Integrates WP BASE with WooCommerce and allows selling of services as Woocommerce products WP BASE Developer Package: includes all current and future addons usable in multiple client websites