Amelia plugin review and common issues

Check multiple configuration points: (1) in Amelia → Employees → [staff member] → Work Hours, verify working hours are set for the days being viewed; (2) verify the service duration and buffer time combined do not exceed the working hours window; (3) check if the service has a minimum advance booking time that excludes near-term slots; (4) verify the service is assigned to the selected staff member — a service not assigned to a staff member shows no availability; (5) check for special days or dayoff settings that may override regular hours; (6) if using the Amelia Lite version, feature limitations may restrict slot display.

Go to Amelia → Integrations → Google Calendar. Verify: (1) the Google Calendar API is enabled in Google Cloud Console for the project; (2) the OAuth credentials (Client ID and Client Secret) are correctly entered; (3) each staff member has individually connected their Google account in their Amelia profile (Employees → [employee] → Google Calendar button) — the integration connects per staff member, not globally; (4) the calendar permissions allow Amelia to write events; (5) new appointments created after the connection may sync while historical ones do not.

Check the Stripe dashboard (Dashboard → Logs) for failed payment attempts and their specific error messages. Common causes: (1) test mode vs. live mode mismatch — Amelia test credentials used with real card, or live credentials with test card; (2) Stripe account not fully verified or missing banking information for payouts; (3) currency mismatch between Amelia settings and Stripe account currency; (4) 3D Secure authentication required — check if the customer completed 3DS verification; (5) webhook configuration issues — Amelia requires a Stripe webhook to confirm successful payments. Verify the webhook URL is correctly registered in the Stripe dashboard.

In Amelia, create a new “Event” (not an appointment service) for group bookings. Go to Amelia → Events → Add New Event. Configure the event details, date and time, location, and assign a staff member. Crucially, set “Maximum Capacity” to the maximum number of participants allowed (e.g., 12 for a yoga class). Once the class is full, additional bookings are blocked — clients see “No spots available.” For recurring classes, configure the recurrence settings (weekly on Tuesday at 9am, for example). Each class occurrence tracks its own capacity independently.

Amelia provides a dedicated Elementor widget. In the Elementor editor, search for “Amelia” in the widget panel. Drag the Amelia Booking widget to your section. In the widget settings, choose which services or staff members the booking form should show, and whether to display the full step-by-step booking wizard or a specific step. The form renders inline within your Elementor layout with your configured Amelia styling. Alternatively, use the shortcode [ameliabooking] in any WordPress text block or page.

Amelia is generally preferred for salons based on its more polished client-facing booking interface and all-inclusive pricing. Bookly’s core plugin is free, but most salon-relevant features (recurring appointments, multiple staff, SMS notifications, custom extras) require paid add-ons that significantly increase the total cost. Amelia’s pricing includes all these features in the base plan. For salons where the booking form quality directly impacts client conversion, Amelia’s modern booking wizard is consistently preferred over Bookly’s more utilitarian design.

Yes — Amelia includes SMS notification capability using Twilio as the SMS provider. Configure the Twilio account credentials in Amelia → Notifications → SMS settings. Set up SMS templates for appointment confirmation, reminders (24 hours before, 1 hour before), and follow-up messages. Each SMS sent incurs Twilio’s per-message cost (typically $0.0075-0.015 per message in the US). For high-volume booking businesses, SMS reminders typically pay for themselves through reduced no-shows many times over.

Yes, that can happen, especially on older sites with many plugins. This usually happens when the plugin, theme, and add-ons are updated out of sequence. In most cases, testing on staging catches the issue before it reaches the live site. From experience, backups and changelog reviews save a lot of cleanup time.

Start by checking whether another plugin already does the same job. In most cases, overlap is what creates avoidable conflicts and performance issues. A common issue is installing a plugin because it looks convenient without checking the stack first. From experience, a short compatibility review avoids most of the pain later.