Finding the best free WordPress booking plugin depends heavily on what you need to book.
An appointment plugin for a consultant has very different requirements from a hotel, restaurant, salon, or rental business.
We tested and compared the most useful free options based on ease of use, booking flexibility, mobile experience, available integrations, and each free version’s limitations.
Below, you’ll find the best booking plugins for different use cases, so you can quickly pick the one that fits your website best.
This post covers:
- Comparison table: Top free WordPress booking plugins
- How we found the best free WordPress booking plugins
- Best free WordPress booking plugins
- Which free WordPress booking plugins accept payments?
- Which free WordPress booking plugin should you choose?
- FAQs about WordPress booking plugins
Comparison Table: Top Free WordPress Booking Plugins
| Plugin | Best For | Free Payments? | Booking Type | Free-Version Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amelia | Best overall | Yes, limited gateway support | Appointments + events | Advanced features require Pro |
| Booking Calendar | Rentals & general bookings | Limited | Days + time slots | Advanced features are premium |
| Simply Schedule Appointments | Service appointments | No/limited | Appointments | Advanced integrations are premium |
| MotoPress Hotel Booking | Hotels & vacation rentals | Yes | Accommodation | Some integrations/features premium |
| Five Star Restaurant Reservations | Restaurants | No/limited | Table reservations | Advanced restaurant tools premium |
| Salon Booking System | Salons & spas | Depends on setup | Appointments | Advanced features premium |
How We Found The Best Free WordPress Booking Plugins
We tested the plugins on a demo WordPress website to see how easy they are to install, configure, and use in a real-world setup.
Instead of focusing only on long feature lists, we paid particular attention to what you can actually do with the free version.
Here are the main things we looked at:
- Ease of installation and initial setup
- Overall dashboard and booking management experience
- Booking form customization
- Mobile responsiveness
- Available services, staff, and appointment types
- Calendar and availability controls
- Double-booking prevention
- Email and reminder options
- Payment support in the free version
- External calendar integrations
- Free vs premium feature limitations
- Documentation and ongoing plugin maintenance
We also considered which type of website each plugin works best for.
A great salon booking plugin isn’t necessarily the best choice for a hotel, restaurant, rental website, or solo consultant.
This helped us focus on plugins that are not only free to install, but also genuinely useful before you need to upgrade.
Best Free WordPress Booking & Appointment Plugins
1. Amelia Plugin
Amelia gives you the chance to create a fully-automated booking experience both for you and your customers.
The free WordPress booking plugin is optimal for small businesses and professional individuals who are just learning the ropes of leading a successful company.
There are two separate blocks for special events and for regular bookings.
The software is open-source, so if you want to change something in the code, you are free to do so.
The appointments management page is easy to manage and edit, giving both you and your staff to add or change the bookings.
- Best for: All-around appointment and event booking
- Free version includes: Appointment and event booking, responsive forms, double-booking prevention, time-zone support, and Square payments
- Free version doesn’t include: Stripe, PayPal, Google Calendar, recurring appointments, advanced notifications, and several integrations
- Why we like it: It offers one of the most polished booking experiences and even includes online payments through Square for free
- Active installations: 90,000+
2. Booking Calendar Plugin
This remarkably powerful and versatile plugin is in existence since 2009, SIMPLIFYING online bookings.
It was the first one developed for this purpose, and it’s an excellent, simple option that can benefit your business.
The free WordPress booking plugin shows available slots and lets the customer book services for the day, or even for a specific timeslot.
Once they make a reservation, they receive an email asking them to confirm their selection. The design is modifiable and adaptable.
It also showcases a timeline to track the bookings.
You also won’t need to tweak the code. Input the WP shortcode and you’re good to go!
- Best for: Flexible appointments, reservations, rentals, and time-slot bookings
- Free version includes: Availability calendars, booking forms, full-day and time-slot bookings, notifications, and double-booking prevention
- Free version doesn’t include: Online payments and several advanced multi-resource and business features
- Why we like it: It’s one of the most flexible free options and works for many different booking scenarios
- Active installations: 50,000+
3. Simply Schedule Appointments
Simply Schedule Appointments is one of the easiest free WordPress booking plugins to get up and running.
Its setup wizard helps you quickly create your first booking calendar, while the clean interface makes scheduling straightforward for both you and your visitors.
The free version is surprisingly generous.
You can create unlimited appointment types and accept unlimited bookings, customize notifications, add blackout dates, control your availability, and adjust the booking calendar to match your website.
It also works with the Block Editor, Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder, making it easy to place booking forms wherever you need them.
I particularly like it for consultants, coaches, freelancers, personal trainers, service businesses, and anyone who mainly needs straightforward appointment scheduling.
It also prevents double bookings automatically and lets you create separate calendars for different services or appointment lengths.
- Best for: Consultants, coaches, freelancers, and straightforward service appointments
- Free version includes: Unlimited appointment types, unlimited bookings, customizable notifications, blackout dates, and page-builder integrations
- Free version doesn’t include: Stripe, PayPal, Google Calendar syncing, SMS reminders, team booking, Zoom, and Google Meet
- Why we like it: It’s exceptionally easy to set up while still giving you plenty of scheduling freedom for free
- Active installations: 50,000+
4. MotoPress Hotel Booking
MotoPress Hotel Booking Lite is a powerful tool for anyone managing hotel, B&B, or vacation rental bookings.
This plugin lets you handle unlimited properties – whether it’s a single villa or a full hotel, resort, etc. – without the complexity.
With its smart availability search, real-time calendars, and detailed property listings (think amenities, max guests, and more), it makes creating an accommodation booking site on WordPress a breeze.
Plus, this WP hotel booking plugin offers flexible pricing (seasonal rates, discounts, extra services) and supports PayPal payments out of the box.
For non-tech folks, the dashboard is super intuitive, and you can even block out rooms for maintenance or special events.
Definitely a handy plugin for hospitality sites that want to keep their business neat and organized.
- Best for: Hotels, B&Bs, vacation rentals, and accommodation websites
- Free version includes: Unlimited properties, availability calendars, seasonal pricing, coupons, PayPal, bank transfer, and pay-on-arrival
- Free version doesn’t include: OTA/iCal synchronization, Stripe, and several advanced management features
- Why we like it: It offers an unusually complete free booking system specifically for accommodation businesses
- Active installations: 10,000+
5. Simple Booking Calendar Plugin
Simple Booking Calendar is a clean and simple calendar that shows your customers when you have available slots for renting.
It won’t take you ages to implement this free WordPress booking plugin into your site. You do not need to be a tech-wiz to understand how the plugin works either.
All you need to do is click a few times, and the information is there. Yes, it truly is just as simple. Plus, you can edit the plugin however you want.
You can also add a legend next to the calendar to help customers understand what the colors mean.
Last but not least, Simple Booking Calendar is TRANSLATED into over 30 LANGUAGES.
- Best for: Showing rental, room, or property availability
- Free version includes: One availability calendar, booking information, legend, responsive layout, and backup/restore
- Free version doesn’t include: Unlimited calendars, iCal syncing, bulk editing, custom legends, and advanced display options
- Why we like it: It’s extremely simple when you only need to show visitors which dates are available
- Active installations: 20,000+
6. MotoPress Appointment Booking
After a friend’s recommendation, I recently stumbled across Appointment Booking Lite, tested it, and here we are now. I’m HAPPY to share it with you for its many great features and extensive adaptability.
It works especially well for spas, salons, coaches, tutors, and other appointment- and service-based businesses.
Also, I really enjoy the effortless step-by-step booking process that’s so easy to complete on mobile.
Plus, I had 0 issues integrating it via a WP widget and had fun with Gutenberg, Elementor and Divi compatible blocks.
The free version currently supports pay-on-site, while Stripe, PayPal and other payment gateways require Pro. Google Calendar integration is also Pro.
Individual and group reservations become a piece of cake with Appointment Booking Lite. Enjoy.
- Best for: Salons, coaches, tutors, therapists, and other service businesses
- Free version includes: Unlimited employees, locations, services, notifications, group bookings, and multiple appointments per reservation
- Free version doesn’t include: Stripe, PayPal, Google Calendar synchronization, and priority support
- Why we like it: The free version is generous and works especially well for businesses with multiple services or staff members
- Active installations: 2,000+
7. Booking Activities Plugin
As the name suggests, Booking Activities is a free plugin exclusive for booking all types of activities.
It is a powerful solution that quickly adapts to all sorts of industries, ensuring effortless online reservations for every user.
Moreover, Booking Activities is also highly customizable so that you can tailor it to your specific needs efficiently.
Of course, you never need to deal with coding and any other advanced tasks. Booking Activities rocks a visual builder.
The plugin also integrates smoothly with WooCommerce, in case you want to add payment options.
- Best for: Classes, activities, events, tours, and scheduled experiences
- Free version includes: Unlimited calendars, activities, events and bookings, visual scheduling, customizable forms, and WooCommerce integration
- Free version doesn’t include: Some advanced extensions and specialized functionality available through add-ons
- Why we like it: Its visual drag-and-drop scheduling system makes managing activity-based bookings particularly easy
- Active installations: 3,000+
8. Bookly Plugin
Bookly is a flexible WordPress appointment booking plugin that works particularly well for service-based businesses.
Salons, coaches, consultants, fitness professionals, clinics, photographers, and similar businesses can use it to let customers book available time slots directly from their website.
The free version gives you a customizable, mobile-friendly booking form, appointment and customer management, email and SMS notification settings, multiple calendar views, and support for up to five services.
You can also create unlimited booking forms, organize services into categories, set different service durations, and manage appointments from a clean WordPress dashboard.
I also like how much control Bookly gives you over the customer-facing booking process.
You can edit form text and buttons, hide unnecessary fields, display available times in the visitor’s time zone, and adjust the form to better match your website.
Elementor and Gutenberg blocks are also available.
However, Bookly’s free version is best suited to smaller setups.
- Best for: Small service businesses that may need more advanced features later
- Free version includes: Responsive booking forms, appointment management, customer management, notifications, and up to five services
- Free version doesn’t include: Online payments, unlimited staff and services, add-ons, and many advanced integrations
- Why we like it: It’s polished, easy for customers to use, and provides a clear upgrade path as your booking needs grow
- Active installations: 60,000+
9. Five Star Restaurant Reservations Plugin
This plugin is made specifically with restaurants in mind. (Do you need more? Then check our WP restaurant plugins collection.)
Sure, you can use the free WordPress booking plugin for hotels or other departments, but it works best for the food industry.
Five Star implements the Gutenberg restaurant booking block that’s responsive on every device.
Accepting or declining a reservation is quick and painless. You get an email notification when a request is made.
Also, you are able to send an email to the customer to let them know whether you’ve accepted or declined their booking.
Besides showing the dates, the plugin allows the customers to input the party size, add a mobile number, and even add a CUSTOM message.
- Best for: Restaurants, cafes, and other food businesses
- Free version includes: Online table reservations, custom schedules, email notifications, booking confirmation, and responsive reservation forms
- Free version doesn’t include: Advanced capacity limits, custom form fields, advanced notifications, and several restaurant management features
- Why we like it: It’s built specifically for restaurant reservations instead of trying to cover every type of booking
- Active installations: 10,000+
10. Appointment Hour Booking Plugin
This adaptable plugin works for hotels, personal trainers, teachers and even doctors. This just shows that you can employ the tool for an assortment of different intentions.
Appointment Hour Booking is a free WordPress booking plugin that allows you to schedule events by the hour.
You can easily define invalid dates, holidays and special cases when bookings are not possible.
The start times of your business is calculated automatically based on the data you input. This helps you avoid double-booking.
The price calculation is automatic as well, so you avoid any inconvenience.
The plugin has many add-ons that help you customize it for your specific business.
- Best for: Hourly appointments, classes, consultations, and services with different durations
- Free version includes: Multiple services, custom durations and prices, automatic availability, email notifications, CAPTCHA, and iCal export
- Free version doesn’t include: Online payments, Google Calendar integration, SMS reminders, Zoom, and several advanced integrations
- Why we like it: It’s especially useful when services have different lengths and pricing
- Active installations: 10,000+
11. Booking Package Plugin
This intuitive plugin helps people understand how to book an event online, even if they never used a computer before.
This free WordPress booking plugin adapts to your specific needs regardless of your business.
Reserving a date does not open a separate window. Instead, it does everything on the spot.
The administrator can manage accounts, integrate payment options and tweak the plugin’s appearance.
You also have the option to manage taxes and surcharges.
In short, Booking Package is one large package of goodies to create your own online booking system.
- Best for: General-purpose appointments, facilities, events, rooms, and service bookings
- Free version includes: Booking calendars, services, scheduling rules, taxes, surcharges, and unlimited booking management
- Free version doesn’t include: Stripe and PayPal payments and several features reserved for the Standard Plan
- Why we like it: It’s flexible enough to handle many different booking types without a complicated setup
- Active installations: 10,000+
12. Salon Booking System Plugin
Salon Booking System is a feature-rich appointment-scheduling plugin designed specifically for salons, barbershops, spas, beauty businesses, therapists, clinics, workshops, and other appointment-based services.
It gives customers an easy way to book available services online while helping you manage appointments, staff schedules, and availability directly from WordPress.
What makes the free version particularly useful is the level of scheduling control it provides.
You can create multiple weekly timetables, add holiday rules, set gaps between reservations, allow customers to cancel or reschedule bookings, manually confirm appointments, and even change the order of the booking steps.
The back-end calendar also includes daily, weekly, monthly, and staff views for easier reservation management.
I especially like this plugin for businesses where multiple services, employees, and appointment times need to be managed from a single place.
It’s much more purpose-built for salon-style scheduling than a basic availability calendar, yet it can also work well for businesses outside the beauty industry.
- Best for: Salons, barbershops, spas, nail studios, and beauty businesses
- Free version includes: Unlimited bookings, services and staff, staff schedules, reminders, and appointment management
- Free version doesn’t include: Online payments, deposits, tips, advanced resources, and several premium business features
- Why we like it: It’s designed specifically around how salons manage staff, services, and repeat appointments
- Active installations: 2,000+
Which Free WordPress Booking Plugins Accept Payments?
Some free WordPress booking plugins support online payments, but there’s an important catch: payment support is often reserved for premium plans.
If accepting payments directly during the booking process is essential, check exactly which gateways are included in the free version before committing to a plugin.
For example, Amelia currently includes Square payment support in its free version, making it one of the more interesting options if you want to accept payments without immediately upgrading.
MotoPress Appointment Booking, on the other hand, limits its free version mainly to pay-on-site bookings, while gateways such as Stripe and PayPal require Pro.
Other plugins may advertise payment integrations but only unlock them after upgrading, so don’t assume “supports payments” means “supports free payments.”
Before choosing a plugin, check:
- Which payment gateways are available for free
- Whether customers can pay the full amount or only a deposit
- Whether refunds or cancellations are supported
- If taxes, coupons, or discounts are included
- Whether WooCommerce integration requires a paid plan
If online payments are a must-have feature, this is one area where comparing the free-version limitations can save you from having to switch plugins later.
Which Free WordPress Booking Plugin Should You Choose?
The best free WordPress booking plugin really comes down to what you’re booking and how much functionality you need.
For most service-based websites, Amelia is one of the strongest all-around choices thanks to its polished booking experience and useful free features.
If you want something simpler and very easy to configure, Simply Schedule Appointments is an excellent option for consultants, coaches, freelancers, and other appointment-based businesses.
Booking Calendar is a better fit when you need flexible date or time-slot reservations, while MotoPress Hotel Booking makes much more sense for hotels, vacation rentals, and other accommodation websites.
For more specific use cases, Five Star Restaurant Reservations is the obvious choice for restaurants, while Salon Booking System is better suited to salons, barbershops, spas, and staff-based service businesses.
And if you only need to display availability rather than run a full appointment system, WP Simple Booking Calendar keeps things much simpler.
The key is not choosing the plugin with the longest feature list.
Pick the one that handles your type of bookings well in its free version without forcing you to upgrade for features you actually need.
FAQs About WordPress Booking Plugins
What is the best completely free WordPress booking plugin?
Simply Schedule Appointments is one of the best free options for service-based businesses. It supports unlimited appointment types and unlimited bookings, although some advanced features still require a paid plan.
Is there a free WordPress booking plugin that supports payments?
Yes. Amelia is one option that includes payment support in its free version. However, many booking plugins only unlock gateways like Stripe or PayPal with a premium plan, so always check the free-version limits first.
What are WordPress booking plugins?
WordPress booking plugins enable online booking and reservation functionalities on your website. They are ideal for businesses like hotels, restaurants, event planners, and service providers, allowing customers to book appointments or reserve services directly through your site.
Can these plugins sync with external calendars?
Yes, many WordPress booking plugins offer integration with external calendar services like Google Calendar, iCal, or Outlook. This allows for real-time synchronization of bookings, helping you manage appointments or reservations efficiently across different platforms.
Do WordPress booking plugins support online payments?
Yes, many WordPress booking plugins support online payments through gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, or Square. However, payment support is often limited in free versions, so check which gateways are included before choosing a plugin.
Are booking plugins customizable in terms of design & functionality?
WordPress booking plugins usually come with a range of customization options. You can often tailor the look of the booking forms, calendar views, and other elements to match your site’s design. Functionality-wise, many plugins allow you to customize booking time slots, services offered, and booking rules.
Can I manage multiple locations or services with these plugins?
Yes, advanced WordPress booking plugins allow you to manage bookings for multiple locations or various services. This is useful for businesses with several branches or various service offerings.
Will a booking plugin affect my site’s performance or SEO?
A well-coded booking plugin should have minimal impact on your site’s performance. However, adding any plugin can affect load times if not optimized properly. To mitigate this, choose a plugin known for efficiency, keep it updated, and consider using caching plugins or content delivery networks (CDNs). Regarding SEO, ensure that the plugin doesn’t hinder crawlability and that it follows best practices like mobile responsiveness and fast load times.
Do booking plugins support automated reminders?
Yes, many WordPress booking plugins can send automated email or SMS reminders before an appointment. However, reminder options vary by plugin, and SMS or more advanced notification features often require a premium plan.
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Note: This article was originally published on October 5, 2020. But our team regularly reviews it and updates it with necessary improvements for accuracy.
