Many businesses rely on reservations or appointments to serve their customers. Offering online booking can significantly save time and improve efficiency, especially when it’s seamlessly integrated with your offline workflows. A WordPress booking plugin can deliver exactly that, adding real value to your operations. In this comparison, we’ll dive into five standout plugins: BookingPress, Amelia, Bookly, WooCommerce Bookings, and WP Simple Booking Calendar.
1. BookingPress
Overview:
BookingPress offers a user-friendly interface with a wide range of features, suitable for various businesses. Unfortunately, this plugin is no longer available through the WordPress plugin repository.
Key Features:
- Unlimited Bookings
- Very User-friendly
- Supports over 20 payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, and Square.
- Includes 50+ add-ons such as recurring appointments, gift cards, and advanced discounts.
- Integrated Spam Protection
- Gutenberg and Elementor support
- Import and Export Feature
Pricing*:
The prices are shown after discounts.
- Free version with basic features: ✔ yes
- Standard: $79/year for 1 site.
- Professional: $129/year for up to 3 sites.
- Enterprise: $249/year for up to 20 sites.
- Offers Lifetime Plans: no.
My Opinion: Great and very flexible plugin based on an “addon structure”. Suitable for every business with a very powerful free version. Only downside: for multiple languages you need an additional plugin.
2. Amelia
Overview:
Amelia is a very flexible booking plugin like BookingPress. It can be used for businesses like salons, clinics, and event organizers.
Key Features:
- Unlimited appointments, events, employees, and locations.
- Supports group bookings, recurring appointments, and service packages.
- Offers around six payment integrations including PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, Razorpay, and Square.
- Includes features like deposit payments, coupons, and WhatsApp integration.
- Multilanguage support without additional Plugin
- Provides a REST API (Elite) and WebHooks (Standard and above) for developers.
Pricing*:
The prices are shown after discounts.
- Free version with basic features: ✔ yes
- Starter: €49/year for 1 domain.
- Standard €89/year for 1 domain.
- Pro: €129/year for 1 domain.
- Elite: €319/year for unlimited domains.
- Offers Lifetime Plans: yes.
My Opinion: Amelia is a great booking plugin, too. If you need Multilanguage support, you should have a closer look at this. The REST API comes with a hefty price tag as it is part of the Elite plan.
3. Bookly
Overview:
Bookly is a popular plugin recognized for its flexibility and extensive customization. It’s widely used by beauty salons, consultants, therapists, and more.
Key Features:
- Unlimited appointments and services.
- Integration around seven payment integrations including PayPal, Stripe, Mollie and PayU.
- Multilanguage support with WPML or with mo/po files.
- Staff schedule management
- Customisation with ~43 paid add-ons
Pricing*:
The pricing is here only the base price with a basic functionality. Bookly charges for each add-on from $9.95/year. Depends on the add-ons you need, it might get pricey.
- Free version with basic features: ✔ yes
- Starter: $33/year for 1 domain.
- Offers Lifetime Plans: yes.
My Opinion: If you only need the base package and one or two add-ons bookly has unbeatable value for money. Especially with the lifetime plans. It is also great if you want to start with less features for a little money and buy later more, when the business grew.
4. WooCommerce Bookings
Overview:
WooCommerce Bookings integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it the perfect option for businesses already utilizing WooCommerce for e-commerce. It’s ideal for hotels, equipment rentals, and vacation rentals.
Key Features:
- Integration with WooCommerce checkout
- Automated invoicing and payment processing
- Advanced booking rules and availability management
- Resource management (rooms, equipment)
Pricing*:
- Free version with basic features: no
- $249/year for 1 domain.
- $398/ 2 years for 1 domain.
- Offers Lifetime Plans: no.
My Opinion: For Companies with existing WooCommerce setups requiring seamless product-booking integration this might be an option. However, there are more cost-effective and better alternatives available and the overall user ratings appear to support that perspective.
5. WP Simple Booking Calendar
Overview:
WP Simple Booking Calendar is a straightforward solution focused specifically on displaying availability calendars, which makes it ideal for vacation homes, rental properties, or basic appointment availability. It prioritizes simplicity and ease of use.
Key Features:
- Easy availability calendar setup
- Supports iCal synchronization with platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com.
- Integration via shortcodes or widgets
- No Payment Integration
- CSV Export
Pricing*:
- Free version with basic features: ✔ yes
- Personal: $39/year for 1 site.
- Business: $69/year for up to 5 sites.
- Developer: $139/year for unlimited sites
- Offers Lifetime Plans: no.
My Opinion: If you need to display availability calendars for renting out rooms this plugin is worth having a look.
Comparative Summary Table
| Feature | BookingPress | Amelia | Bookly | WooCommerce Bookings | WP Simple Booking Calendar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multilanguage support | additional Plugin needed | Yes | With WPML, and po, mo files | Same as WooCommerce | Not out of the box |
| API | No | with Elite plan | No | Yes | No |
| WebHooks | Zapier Integration with paid plan | from Standard plan | No | No | No |
| Payment Integrations | ~20 | ~6 | ~7 | Same as WooCommerce | 0 |
| Offers Lifetime plan | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing* | starts from 99$ | starts from 49€ | starts from 33$ | starts from 249$ | starts from 39$ |
*Prices are provided for reference purposes only and may be subject to change. For Amelia and BookingPress prices are shown after discounts. Pricing as of May 1, 2025.