The 5 Best Booking Software for Small Businesses in 2026

Every year, new booking tools pop up, existing ones add features, and the "best" list shifts. Instead of ranking these tools by some arbitrary score, this guide breaks down what each one actually does well and where it falls short.

We looked at five booking platforms that small businesses actually use. Not enterprise-grade systems with 200-page feature lists, but tools a freelancer, coach, or salon owner can set up in an afternoon.

Quick Comparison

1. CariMeet

Best for: Professionals who care about their brand image

CariMeet stands out in one specific area: how much control you get over the look of your booking page. With 30+ self-hosted fonts, dark mode, 16 button style combinations, and custom CSS injection, your booking page can match your brand identity exactly.

It also includes a built-in CRM for managing contacts and client history. The platform is natively bilingual (French and English), which makes it a strong fit for businesses in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, or France. Booking pages are server-side rendered, so they load fast and index well in search engines.

Pricing is straightforward: €14/month with every feature included. No tiers, no per-seat charges. A 14-day trial lets you test the full platform.

Pros:

• Unmatched design customization for booking pages
• Built-in CRM included at no extra cost
• Flat pricing with all features, no upsells
• Server-side rendered pages (fast + SEO-friendly)
• Embeddable booking widget for your website

Cons:

• No Google Calendar sync yet (on the roadmap)
• Smaller integration ecosystem compared to Calendly
• Newer platform, less established track record

2. Calendly

Best for: Teams and sales organizations

Calendly is the name most people think of when they hear "booking tool." It has been around since 2013 and powers scheduling for millions of users. Its strength is the sheer number of integrations: Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, PayPal, and hundreds more through Zapier.

For sales teams, Calendly offers round-robin assignment, collective availability, and routing forms that send leads to the right person. The free tier is genuinely useful for individuals who need basic scheduling with one event type.

The trade-off is customization. Calendly booking pages look like Calendly. You can change the accent color and add a logo, but the layout, fonts, and overall design are fixed.

Pros:

• Massive integration ecosystem
• Excellent team scheduling features
• Usable free tier
• Well-known brand that clients recognize

Cons:

• Limited design customization
• Important features locked behind higher tiers
• Per-seat pricing gets expensive for teams

3. Cal.com

Best for: Developers and open-source advocates

Cal.com is the open-source alternative to Calendly. You can self-host it for free, which gives you complete control over your data and infrastructure. The hosted version starts at $12/month with a generous free tier.

As an open-source project, Cal.com moves fast. The community contributes integrations, and you can modify the source code to fit your exact needs. It supports team scheduling, payments, and a growing list of calendar integrations.

The downside: the self-hosted version requires technical knowledge to set up and maintain. The hosted version is easier but has fewer customization options than you might expect from an open-source tool. The UI can feel rough around the edges compared to more polished commercial products.

Pros:

• Open source with self-hosting option
• Full data ownership
• Active community and rapid development
• Good free tier on hosted version

Cons:

• Self-hosting requires developer skills
• UI polish lags behind commercial competitors
• Support is community-driven on the free plan

4. Acuity Scheduling

Best for: Service businesses that need payment collection

Acuity (now part of Squarespace) is built for service providers who take payments at booking time. It handles intake forms, packages, gift certificates, and payment processing natively. If you sell sessions and want clients to pay upfront, Acuity does this well.

The booking page customization is decent. You get color choices, font options, and the ability to add custom fields to your intake forms. Integration with Squarespace websites is smooth, which makes sense given the parent company.

Pricing starts at $16/month for the Emerging plan, which limits you to one calendar. The Growing plan at $27/month adds multiple calendars and removes Acuity branding. The Powerhouse plan at $49/month includes everything.

Pros:

• Strong payment and package management
• Custom intake forms for each service
• Tight Squarespace integration
• HIPAA compliance available on higher plans

Cons:

• No free tier (only 7-day trial)
• Gets expensive with multiple calendars
• Branding removal requires the mid-tier plan

5. SimplyBook.me

Best for: Businesses that want a complete booking website

SimplyBook.me takes a different approach. Instead of just a booking page, it gives you a full booking website with your own URL. You pick a template, add your services, and you have a functional site with built-in scheduling.

The free tier allows up to 50 bookings per month. Paid plans start at $8.25/month. The platform supports features like memberships, gift cards, coupons, and a point-of-sale system. It is more of an all-in-one small business platform than a pure scheduling tool.

The trade-off is complexity. SimplyBook.me has so many features that the admin interface can feel overwhelming. The booking website templates look dated compared to modern design standards. And the sheer number of add-on modules makes it hard to know what you actually need.

Pros:

• Full booking website, not just a booking page
• Affordable entry price
• Extensive feature set (memberships, POS, coupons)
• Good free tier for low-volume businesses

Cons:

• Cluttered admin interface
• Website templates feel outdated
• Feature overload for simple use cases

How to Choose

There is no universal "best" booking tool. The right choice depends on what you actually need:

• You care about brand consistency and want your booking page to match your website down to the fonts and button styles. Look at CariMeet.
• You need deep integrations with CRMs, video conferencing, and payment processors. Calendly has the largest ecosystem.
• You want to own your data and have the technical skills to self-host. Cal.com gives you full control.
• You collect payments at booking time and need intake forms and packages. Acuity Scheduling handles this natively.
• You need a full booking website, not just a booking page. SimplyBook.me builds you one from a template.

Start with the problem you are actually trying to solve, then pick the tool that fits. Every platform on this list offers either a free tier or a free trial, so you can test before committing.