Best Online Appointment Booking System – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

Nowadays, when it comes to sales, reservations, and course registrations people prefer the online option. For this, businesses and individuals need to improve their practices to better meet their consumers’ needs. To make customers’ experiences easier, one needs to choose the right online appointment booking system. There are many of them on the market, and choosing the one that will not lag or lead to overlapping might be a bit of a challenge. And that is where we come! In this article, we will discuss two of the best WooCommerce booking plugins, Booking Calendar and Course Booking System. We will also explore each of their features, and come up with the best choice for you.

We will evaluate the plugins based on these criteria:

1. Booking Features (unique features)
2. User interface and ease of use
3. Customization options
4. Integrations and compatibility

Quick Comparison – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

Booking Features – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

When it comes to booking features, it is important that the WP booking system plugin have flexible payment options and registration hours and opening times, and timetable display for better time management.

Course Booking System

This booking wordpress plugin is very flexible and is specifically designed to meet the unique requirements of each of their users. Course Booking System comes with a lot of stuff. It makes the online purchases and course registrations as seamless as possible for your customers. It allows your customers to buy up to 10 tickets and spots with one payment, saving time for them. It also accepts different payment methods, both by card and by cash, and in case of online payments, supports multiple platforms. You can also make permanent appointments and subscriptions on your end. This way, you can save spots for your regular and loyal customers.

Course Booking System plugin supports everyone who needs online appointment booking system, such as:

1. Studio,
2. Office,
3. Doctor,
4. Association, 
5. Hair stylist,
6. Restaurant,
7. Vacation rental,
8. Educational institution,
9. Service provider, and much more.

What is unique about Course Booking System, is that apart from supporting these individuals and businesses, it has developed the best course booking system. Creating a new course event is just a matter of clicks with this plugin. Besides being a user-friendly booking system, Course Booking System also offers 2 additional unique features: timetable and video library. Using the automated timetable the course handlers will have better control over their schedule, and with the video library feature, they will be able to share (sell) their online courses by collecting them in their website library. Just as the Course Booking System stands out for its unique features, travelers also benefit from understanding the intricacies of vacation rental pricing when planning their getaways.

Booking Calendar

Booking calendar is an easy-to-use booking system that comes with various features. It has flexible booking options, such as full-day or time-slot reservation options. This is especially useful for renters as they do not limit their customers to full-day options only. The other ways the plugin can help renters are seasonal prices and conditional dates selection which can be used during the summertime to set dynamic prices. As we see, this WP booking system is best for:

1. Rentals,
2. Event scheduling,
3. Client scheduling,
4. Resource scheduling.

Course Booking System meets a wider audience and serves different purposes and has also developed unique features for course registrations. Booking Calendar’s target users are a bit limited, but they have still got specific features for rentals. The winner here is Course Booking System, however, depending on your needs, Booking Calendar might also be a good choice.

User-friendliness – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

The other most important factor to look at when choosing a booking system is its ease of use for both parties, hosts and registers. It is important to ensure a simple platform where it will not take much from your users to make an online appointment, register for a course, or rent equipment (service). Moreover, it is essential to have a platform where you can create your registration forms with no hassle. For better optimization, it is also important to choose the booking system that will be mobile-responsive.

Course Booking System

If you are looking to make bookings with no additional effort, Course Booking System might be one of the best solutions for you. The plugin works with MotoPress Timetable plugin and delivers you the best user experience. It will take you less than two minutes to insert the required information and go live. You will need to add your availability, meeting link, duration for appointments, and course descriptions, start and end times if you are making a course booking. The plugin is mobile-friendly and supports all kinds of devices (phone, tablet, laptop).

Booking Calendar

This is one of the best WooCommerce booking plugins in terms of its user-friendliness. The bookings and calendars can be quickly and easily added to WordPress pages and posts using shortcodes. Furthermore, the bookings can be also inserted into your sidebar as a widget. Booking calendar is 100% mobile-friendly and looks good on any device. The other advantage of the plugin is that everything is stored and collected in the dashboard and there is no need to move between pages.

Both plugins are mobile-responsive. It is incredibly easy to make bookings with both the Course Booking System and Booking Calendar. Thus, we have a win-win here!

Integration Options and Compatibility – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

Before choosing a plugin for your website, it is important to pay attention to its integration options and whether it seamlessly integrates with your CMS (in this case, WordPress). Apart from this, you might also like to see what other types of integrations it supports. 

Course Booking System

The plugin fully integrates into any website on WordPress. It also fully supports WooCommerce, so if you are a retailer, then your online shop can also be integrated into your website in addition to the booking system. Then you will be able to sell your products, cards and offers online in the future, 24 hours a day. With its integration options, Course Booking System has also made itself as one of the best course booking plugins for WooCommerce. 

Course Booking System also integrates with the plugin MotoPress Timetable and works there. 

Booking Calendar

Booking Calendar smoothly integrates with the WordPress CMS and has a native integration with the Booking Manager plugin. 

Both plugins do not have any hassle integrating into any WordPress websites. Course Booking System has the privilege of working with WooCommerce and being one of the best WooCommerce booking plugins. So, the winner here is the Course Booking System.

Pricing – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

The last criterion that plugin users should pay attention to is pricing. It is important that plugins have reasonable pricing plans and licenses in relation to their features.

Course Booking System

This online appointment booking system is completely FREE of charge that includes the feature mentioned above. Can you believe that? Having all these various advanced features and paying nothing. But wait, there is more! The plugin also has a pro version that gives access to even more advanced features. The plugin stands out with its unique features that no other plugin has and offers very supportive customer support.

Booking Calendar

This plugin has a 14-day money-back free trial for users to understand if it is the right choice. Alongside the free trial, they have five pricing plans that support up to 5 site usage. Below you can find the prices and features for the single-site access:

1. Personal – $39 per month, the plan supports unlimited number of booking calendars, customization options for booking forms and email templates, and CSV booking export 
2. Business small –  $79 per month, the plan comprises everything in the Personal plan, plus online payments, changeover days, days range selection, auto approval and cancellation.  
3. Business medium – $139 per month, the plan includes everything in the Business small plan, plus access to seasonal prices, multi-day pricing, last-minute booking discount, early booking discounts, deposit payments, multiple custom forms, etc.
4. Business Large – $179 per month, this pricing plan has everything in the Business medium plan, plus access to setting availability and capacity, search availability, coupons for discounts, auto-cancel pending bookings. 
5. MultiUser – $349 per month, this plan stands out with the user ability of independent configuration of form fields, email templates, booking resources, and payment gateways.

Booking Calendar has flexible pricing plans that can meet different user needs. The plans might be a bit overpriced, considering the features they offer. The Course Booking System has a forever free and pro options which make it the winner of this criterion!

Final Verdict – Course Booking System VS Booking Calendar

Now that we have a complete understanding of what both plugins are capable of, let us choose our winner. Both plugins offer various advanced features for handling bookings and reservations and can be used for different purposes. Course Booking System plugin, on the other hand, has also developed specific features for course registrations that puts it in a higher position. Although Booking Calendar has flexible payment plans, Course Booking plugin has a forever free option which makes it available for any user. Ta-da-da-dam! 

Course Booking System is nominated as the best booking system plugin!