Payment integration is the most-requested feature on most booking platforms’ roadmaps. The shape of the integration matters more than whether one exists at all.
Five payment patterns
1. Pay at booking (full payment)
Customer enters card details when they book; the full amount charges immediately. Cleanest for the operator (paid before service); friction for the customer (they may not have the card handy).
Best for: webinars, paid 1:1 calls, services where the no-show risk is high and the customer has already decided to commit.
2. Deposit at booking
Customer pays a portion (often 25-50%) at booking; the balance charges at the appointment. Reduces no-show risk while keeping booking-page friction lower than full payment.
Best for: high-value services ($150+), peak-time slots, new-customer first visits.
3. Card-on-file (no charge unless violated)
Customer enters card details at booking; no charge happens unless they no-show or cancel late. Stripe holds an authorization. The psychological commitment is real even though no money moves.
Best for: the majority of service businesses. Lower friction than required deposit; meaningful no-show reduction.
4. Invoice after the appointment
No payment integration at all. You send a Stripe Invoice or send them to your accounting tool after the service. Minimal friction; slightly more no-show risk; works well when the customer relationship is established.
Best for: repeat customers, service businesses with established trust, long-tail B2B advisory work.
5. In-person at the appointment
Customer pays cash, card-tap, or via a separate POS at the appointment itself. Booking software just schedules; it doesn’t take payment.
Best for: local service businesses where the customer always shows up at the location anyway (salons, clinics, walk-up businesses).
What different platforms support
- Calendly Standard+: Stripe at booking (full payment).
- Acuity Growing+: Stripe + Square at booking.
- Cal.com: Stripe + others, configurable.
- Setmore Pro: Stripe + Square + PayPal.
- Mindbody: Mindbody-processed (their own rails, ~2.75% + network fees).
- Square Appointments: Square (2.6% + 10¢).
- Fresha: Their own rails (per-booking + Stripe).
- Vagaro: Their own rails or Stripe.
- Zedule: Pattern 4 (invoice after) or pattern 5 (in-person) in V1. Stripe Checkout integration on V2 roadmap.
What we’d recommend
For most service businesses we’ve worked with, card-on-file (pattern 3) is the right default. It reduces no-shows almost as effectively as required deposits but doesn’t depress booking volume.
Required deposits (pattern 2) make sense for high-value services where empty slots really hurt revenue.
Pay-at-booking (pattern 1) makes sense for paid 1:1 calls (coaching, consulting) where the service IS the transaction.
Where Zedule fits
V1 doesn’t have native payment integration. The pattern that works:
- Send a Stripe Invoice or PayPal request after the booking confirms.
- For card-on-file, set up Stripe outside Zedule and store authorisations there.
- For in-person, use Square POS or similar at the appointment.
V2 will add Stripe Checkout integration with all five patterns above. If payment integration is a hard requirement today, Calendly, Acuity, or Square Appointments fit better.