Every category of SaaS has a “free” tier. In booking software, “free” ranges from genuinely free (Calendly Free, Cal.com self-host) to wearing-a-free-t-shirt (Fresha takes 2-3% per booking; Booksy charges per-staff after the first).
This piece is a translator. “Free” in booking software means one of five things:
1. Genuinely free, with usage caps
Cal.com Free, Calendly Free, SimplyBook.me Free. You get the basic product up to a usage limit (number of users, bookings per month, event types). Past the cap you pay. Honest pricing.
What to look for: the cap. Calendly Free is 1 user, 1 event type. SimplyBook.me Free is 50 bookings/month. Cal.com Free is unlimited events, no team features.
2. Free for the operator, paid by the customer
Per-booking fees passed to your customer. Some platforms tack on a “booking fee” of $1-3 per appointment that the customer sees at checkout. Your booking page is “free” but your customers pay extra.
What to look for: customer-facing checkout. If there’s a “service fee” line item your customer pays, that’s the platform’s revenue.
3. Free with per-booking commissions on the platform
Fresha. The platform processes payments through their payment system and takes 2-3% per booking + Stripe processing fees. For a salon doing 200 bookings/month at $80 average ticket, that’s roughly $4,800/year in fees.
The pitch is: free + marketplace traffic. The reality is: free if you don’t book much, expensive once you scale.
What to look for: payment processing terms. If they require their own payment processor at a marketplace rate, the cost is real.
4. Free with per-staff pricing past 1 user
Booksy. Setmore. Square Appointments. The first user is free or near-free; each additional user is $10-30/month. Solo operators get a fair deal; teams pay normal SaaS prices.
What to look for: the per-staff cost ramping. Calculate your 12-month cost at your team size, not your current.
5. Free with branding tax
The booking page shows the platform’s logo prominently. Customers see “Powered by [Vendor]” in the footer at the cheap tier. Removing the branding requires the paid plan.
This isn’t a hidden cost — it’s a branding cost. If your customers seeing a vendor’s brand on your booking flow doesn’t bother you, fine. If it does, you’ll upgrade.
What paid platforms typically include that free doesn’t
In rough order of importance:
- Branding control — custom hex, your logo, embed without the vendor watermark.
- Multi-staff beyond the free cap.
- Custom email templates with your domain on the From field.
- Customer database depth — full history, notes, exports.
- Reminder customisation — branded SMS, custom timing.
- Calendar integrations — two-way sync, multiple calendars per user.
- Stripe / payment integration at booking.
- API access for custom integrations.
Our pricing
Zedule is $100/year flat. No tiers, no per-staff, no per-booking, no branding gates. The 45-day trial is free with no card. After that you pay $100 once a year for unlimited everything.
That’s the maximum simple. Use it as a benchmark for evaluating “free” platforms — if their economics work out cheaper than $100/year at your volume and you don’t lose features that matter, take the free one. Often you don’t.