1) Start booking
Annual subscription fee of $75 for use of 1 website
Startbooking is a clear booking plugin with an interface and settings that are very user-friendly for everyone. You can get the booking calendar working on the page by using a shortcode on any desired page. Unfortunately, there is no option to set the calendar in Dutch, for example, these settings are not yet available. The days and months will remain in English. The plugin works well with the translation plugin locotranslate. With this, most texts/headings and other settings can be translated into Dutch. The date format and calendar execution can unfortunately not be solved with locotranslate.
Institutions
There is also no option to set the 24-hour time format to, for example, 14:30, unfortunately this remains at 02:30 pm. The available times for the customer (the person who is going to schedule an appointment) are very clear and user-friendly, which is done on the website of startbooking. You can easily set the entire working week and this applies to all weeks. So if your schedule is different every week, for example, this must be adjusted per week. You can set available times (start and end) per day for the entire day. You can block certain hours of the day, but also entire days where you are not available for the user. If the user fills in the details and clicks send, the plugin automatically generates a confirmation email for the user if you also receive an email from startbooking (new reservation). The reservation will then automatically appear in your startbooking calendar. You can also cancel or change the booking if necessary. You can adjust the emails to your own style in your startbooking account if you want to.
Google Calendar & Stripe
You can then easily connect the bookings to Google Calendar to put the bookings in your agenda. If you want customers to pay in advance, this can be set up. An account must then be created with the online payment platform Stripe.
Plus/minus points
+ user friendly
+ simple
+ Google Calendar integration
– no Dutch calendar and hours
– with irregular working hours it is not possible to plan 2 weeks in advance
More information
Go here to the startbooking website for purchase or more information
2) Booking calendar (by wpdevelop, oplugins)
Personal version is free, but for this review the Small Business version was chosen ($101.62 one-time costs with discount normal price $135.50)
Booking Calender is one of the most used booking plugins out there. The regular version is free to download, but this is the stripped down version. If you want more options, you have to pay for them. Booking Calender has 3 different paid versions, with each version having more extensive options than the other. For this review, the Small Business version was chosen because it is close to the Startbooking plugin in terms of possibilities. With this paid version, it is possible to specify the hours and work with paid bookings. There is no need to connect to the online account of Booking Calender. All settings are done within WordPress, so you do not have to link your account to the plugin.
Institutions
The calendar is automatically set to Dutch with the correct date notation, so you do not need to make special translations to Dutch. The interface of the plugin is a bit more complicated than the Startbooking plugin, it takes a while to figure out how this plugin works. Fortunately, the developer of the plugin has taken care of this, and therefore has various instruction videos available that can be played directly. The plugin has menu items namely Bookings, Own bookings, tools and Settings. Firstly, in the bookings section you can see an overview of the status and which bookings you have running. Secondly, Own bookings you can add bookings yourself and with tools you can define the service you offer. Finally, in the settings you can completely customize everything, such as the appearance of the calendar, the time and date notation, emails and the available times.
Google Calendar, Stripe and PayPal
You can then connect the bookings to Google Calendar to put the bookings in your agenda. If you want customers to pay in advance, this can be set up. An account must then be created with the online payment platform Stripe and Paypal can also be set up as a payment method.
Plus/Minus points
+ All options can be set
+ One-time costs
+ Upgrade to a more extensive version if necessary
+ Google Calendar integration
+ Completely configurable in WordPress
– Not user-friendly/ confusing
Demo and Purchase
Look at here the demo of the Booking Calendar Small Business
Buy here the Booking Calendar Business Small (single site usage) version
Conclusion
Startbooking and Booking Calender are two very useful tools that you can use very well as a self-employed person. Startbooking is good to use if you do not want to spend too much time and energy setting up the plugin. This plugin is set up with the end user in mind and not the developer. Also, the English language should not be an obstacle if you use this plugin for date and time notation. Maybe it will be available in the next update. With the Booking Calender plugin, you first have to work on the interface and you will spend more time getting all the settings the way you want them. Once set up, it works great and is also in Dutch.
