Appointment booking for WordPress comes down to three realistic options for most businesses: Amelia, Bookly, and Calendly embedded on WordPress. All three work, but they target different business types and have meaningfully different pricing models.
Amelia
Amelia is a self-hosted plugin that keeps all booking data on your WordPress site. It is built for service businesses with multiple employees and services – salons, clinics, consultancies, fitness studios. The interface is polished, the booking flow is smooth on mobile, and it handles complex scheduling (buffer times, custom employee hours, group bookings, packages) without needing addons.
Pricing: Lite (free, limited), Basic ($59/year, 1 site), Pro ($109/year, 1 site), Developer ($209/year, unlimited sites). Most businesses need Pro for payment processing and multiple employees.
Bookly
Bookly takes an addon model: the core plugin ($89 one-time from CodeCanyon) handles basic booking, and most professional features (custom service duration per employee, group bookings, waiting list, packages, cart) require separate paid addons at $29-49 each. The total cost for a full-featured Bookly installation reaches $200-400 depending on which addons you need.
The addon model is a disadvantage compared to Amelia, which includes most features in the base price. Bookly’s advantage is that you only pay for what you need – a simple single-service single-employee booking system is cheaper than Amelia.
Calendly
Calendly is a SaaS platform, not a WordPress plugin. You embed a Calendly widget on your WordPress page. The booking data lives on Calendly’s servers, not yours. This is fine for simple individual scheduling (one person booking a meeting with you) but Calendly does not handle multi-service, multi-employee booking at a business level without significant cost (Teams plan from $16/person/month).
Calendly’s advantage: zero setup time, reliable availability sync with Google/Outlook calendars, and a link-based booking flow that works outside WordPress. Its limitation for service businesses: no payment collection, no service catalog, no business-level multi-employee management in lower tiers.
| Feature | Amelia Pro | Bookly + addons | Calendly Teams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple employees | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple services | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Payment at booking | Yes | Addon | No |
| Group bookings | Yes | Addon | Limited |
| Data on your server | Yes | Yes | No (SaaS) |
| Annual cost (1 business) | $109/year | $89 + addons | $192+/year |
Not sure which fits your business? Describe your setup and get a free recommendation.
Which to Choose
Use Amelia Pro if: you run a multi-employee service business (salon, clinic, studio), need payment collection at booking, and want everything included without addon costs.
Use Bookly if: you have a simple single-service operation and want the lowest upfront cost, or you specifically need a feature available only as a Bookly addon.
Use Calendly if: your primary need is scheduling meetings or consultations (not complex service bookings), you do not need payment processing, and you value a hosted solution with no maintenance.