Setmore Review: Pricing, Features, Top Alternatives

Keeping an organized schedule is a challenge for most people. For entrepreneurs? Forget it. Between client meetings, business pitches, internal catch-ups with employees, and prospective interviews with new clientele, it can be impossible to run a tight shift with your tight schedule. This is doubly true for businesses that rely on scheduled appointments with their customers; the last thing you want to do is forget about your key client’s visit or double-book an employee’s services.

If this resonates with you, you’re likely interested in any kind of appointment scheduling software you can find. You may have come across a Setmore review or two as well, as this program is one of the major players in the business scheduling arena. If this is your first time even hearing that apps like Setmore exist, you’re in luck: Setmore provides customers with a straightforward, powerful tool to manage their schedules and appointments.

As with just about any small business software out there, there are a ton of Setmore reviews to choose from. So many, in fact, that it can feel overwhelming to take them all in. After all, everyone’s needs and tastes are different—that means that a positive or negative review might not leave you with a solid impression of how Setmore might work for you and your business.

That’s where we come in. In this Setmore review, we’ll help you narrow down your search for the perfect booking software option. We’ll cover Setmore’s appointment-scheduling features, pricing, what users have to say about Setmore, and we’ll also provide some alternatives, so you can find the right appointment scheduling software for your business needs.

For years, most companies relied on a central calendar to manage appointments and schedule services with clients. But, as you might expect, having one central storage point for all of a company’s scheduled business can come with plenty of risks: All it takes is one spilled cup of coffee to wipe out an entire day’s worth of scheduled business. Even if that example is a little draconian (or just old-fashioned), picture the last time you tried to sync up your employees’ calendars into one master file. Your average employee forgets to notify you of a schedule change or, worse yet, neglects to log all of their appointments in the calendar in the first place. It’s an inelegant process at best, and a nightmare at worst.

Your employees aren’t the only people whose calendars you want to be apprised of. If you’re running the kind of business where customers have to book appointments (such as a hair salon, repair shop, construction business, etc.), it’s critical that you have a simple way to keep track of appointments, as well as an easy way for customers to check availability and book a time that works for them.

The more successful your company becomes, the more important it is that this process runs smoothly. That’s where Setmore comes in. Setmore helps businesses keep track of their appointments, doing away with clunky and neglected company calendars. The Setmore app takes these arcane processes and moves them to the cloud: Employee schedules are easy to view, clients can book time at the click of a button, and you can focus on getting through a busy day instead of wondering what everyone else is up to.

Setmore is an online appointment scheduling platform that keeps it simple for everyone in your business to set aside time to, well, do business. Customers can book appointments in just a few clicks, rather than having to get on the phone or send an email in order to get on your schedule. Employees can keep track of their time more easily, and without the risk of appointments or bookings getting lost due to miscommunication. Best of all, your clientele can even pay for services right from the app itself.

If that’s not enough to pique your interest, Setmore also gives you the option to send text messages to people who book time through the platform, be they regular customers or no-shows that need a reminder or two for next time. There are a ton of other great features that aim to integrate with the rest of your company’s existing technology, making scheduling even easier for you and your clients.

Now that we have the big picture on what Setmore does, let’s dive into the more granular features this software offers and how you can use it for your business.

Since Setmore is an appointment scheduling software, this is, of course, their most essential feature. Setmore is accessible via browser or app (both iOS and Android) so you can see your schedules from any device. With Setmore you’re able to set custom cost and duration values depending on the service, prevent appointments from being booked when you’re unavailable, book multiple services in the same time slot or outside of normal operating hours, and manage multiple calendars in one account.

Making changes to existing appointments is also incredibly simple: Just drag and drop the appointment to the new time and Setmore will send a reschedule notice to both the customer and staff member.

If you want your employees to take more ownership of their schedules and drum up their own business, you can also have them manage their own calendars, book their own appointments, and promote their availability online. And with Setmore’s Premium plan, you can also schedule recurring appointments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The Setmore platform does more than just make scheduling easier, it also offers integrations to your existing technology stack to help you get set up in a snap. The system currently offers support and integrations across a variety of platform types, including website, payment, and social media integrations. This means that you can encourage customers to book an appointment wherever they are, and however they prefer to get your services.

Here’s a bit more on Setmore integrations by type and platform.

Setmore currently offers social media support for Facebook and Instagram, making it easy for customers to reach out and book time with you right from their social feed. Facebook users can schedule time with you at the click of a button by using the “Book Now” feature. The Instagram integration places photos from your feed right on your Setmore booking homepage, adding color to your page (and new followers to your account).

Setmore also integrates with Slack, which is a huge productivity boost if your company already uses Slack for internal communication. You’ll receive reminders, alerts, and notifications for when appointments are created, changed, or canceled.

One of Setmore’s more compelling functions is their ability to integrate with your Stripe or Square account. If you use either of these two platforms, you can get paid quickly and easily right from the Setmore system. The free version of Setmore supports Square exclusively, while the paid versions of the Setmore app support both Square and Stripe. These integrations make it easy for customers to pay for services, and for you to get paid upfront instead of having to check people out once they’re on site.

More customers than ever look toward company websites to find out about services and book appointments. With Setmore, you can give them exactly what they’re looking for—a quick, no-nonsense way of booking time right from your homepage. The app currently integrates with a respectable number of content management systems including Adobe Muse, Drupal, Joomla, Weebly, Wix, and WordPress. You can also add a booking widget to your site if you don’t use any of the services above.

Since Setmore is, at their core, a novel way to manage your appointments, you’d expect there to be integration options with popular calendar apps. And, of course, there is: Setmore works with Google Calendar and Office 365 calendars, making it a cinch to sync Setmore calendar events with your calendar app of choice.

Setmore also integrates with an impressive number of other popular, business-related apps. This runs the gamut from analytics software to customer-management systems and even email marketing tools. Here’s a full list of Setmore’s business app integrations:

• AnswerConnect
• Constant Contact
• Freshsales CRM
• Google Analytics
• HubSpot
• Infusionsoft
• Insightly
• MailChimp
• QuickBooks
• Reserve with Google
• Salesforce
• Serviceminder
• Zapier
• Zendesk
• Zoho

No matter what you want to monitor, measure, or download from Setmore, there’s likely an integration waiting for you to use.

Setmore offers three plans with different pricing and capabilities. Let’s take a closer look.^[1]

A big pro for Setmore is that they offer a free version. The standard version of Setmore is completely free to use, and offers the core platform features (with some features left out; more on that to follow). Setmore’s free level includes the ability to create up to four calendars, lets businesses book appointments with their customers online through the platform, push automated alerts for new or rescheduled appointments, and even lets you get paid through the app via Square.

The free version of Setmore has no hidden fees, no trial periods, or any other trickery that might make it anything other than a totally free software.

If you’re enjoying Setmore’s free version but need more calendars, or you know from the start that the free version doesn’t include all of the features you’ll need to make the app worthwhile for your business, then you might want to choose Setmore Premium. This support tier takes the platform’s powerful scheduling system and kicks it up a notch, including 20 staff logins, text reminders for customer appointments, Stripe payment support, recurring appointments, and custom branding.

Setmore Premium is a great option for small businesses who may have bigger needs than the free version can handle. Or, alternatively, for companies that conduct most of their business with Stripe versus other online merchant services providers. Setmore Premium costs $25 a month with a month-to-month plan, or $17 monthly with an annual subscription.

The highest level of support, Setmore Live Booking, includes all of the nifty features of the free and Premium versions, but adds in one massive addition: live booking support. Setmore Premium is designed to give customers the equivalent of a remote receptionist. Setmore’s team of professionals will answer calls, book appointments, and facilitate meeting setup between your clients and staff. This might be a tempting offer if your business is too big to accommodate ad-hoc scheduling, but too small to warrant hiring front desk staff to keep track of everyone’s availability.

Setmore Live Booking costs $89 per month, and calls less than 30 seconds (including hangups, robocalls, and solicitors) never get charged against your account. Plus, you’ll be able to have a Setmore representative call clients back when they leave voicemails, which can help retain prospects and foster growth. You’ll also get email summaries with all of the vital information for appointments booked via the Live Booking feature set.

To get a better understanding of how Setmore performs for business owners, let’s take a look at what users have said about Setmore. These Setmore reviews highlight the good and the bad to be aware of if you’re considering the platform for your scheduling needs.

Most Setmore reviews are pretty positive about the platform. A typical review talks about how easy the app is to use. This is helped, no doubt, by Setmore’s mobile app and desktop versions working well on just about every device type. Customers give Setmore high marks for the amount of functionality in the free version. Typically, free versions of business software are either watered-down versions of their paid compatriots, or have their main features purposely hobbled to make them effectively trials of the program instead of a viable solution. In short, your typical Setmore review is that it’s easy to use, it works, and it’s helpful.

Your average Setmore review is typically pretty positive, but that doesn’t mean that users are perfectly satisfied with the platform. Critical comments from users tend to focus on the somewhat limited number of payment integrations supported across all three tiers of the Setmore app. Seemingly obvious integrations with payment superpowers like PayPal are surprisingly absent, much to the chagrin of some small business owners. Others complain that the software has a hard time determining the validity of the credit card data entered by users. It appears that some customers have seen people get past credit card holds by typing in the requisite amount of random numbers on a card, rather than having to put a real-life credit card account against their booking.

Whether you’re unsure that Setmore is the right option for you, or merely want to compare the platform against some of its competitors, there are a few options out there that might be worth another glance. The world of scheduling apps is somewhat small, but there are plenty of viable Setmore alternatives out there. Here are two of the best Setmore alternatives on the market.

Appointment scheduler SimplyBook has many of the same features of Setmore, but is best suited for sole proprietors or other one-person small businesses. The SimplyBook platform, much like Setmore, allows you to book appointments online, send appointment reminders via text and email, accept payments, and offers booking widgets for WordPress and Facebook (among others). SimplyBook also has a free version with plenty of features, although it limits bookings to 50 per month and does not include payment features. There are also Basic ($9.90 per month), Standard ($29.90 per month), and Premium ($59.90 per month) options available, each with more features than the last.

You may already be familiar with Square’s payment platform (which, as we mentioned earlier, Setmore’s free version supports). You might not be aware that Square also offers an online scheduling platform as well, which makes it a no-brainer for small businesses that already use Square for transactions. The free Square Appointments app features many of the same functions within Setmore and SimplyBook, but with built-in payment support at the core of the program.

The team version of Square Appointments also makes it easy to sync employee calendars with appointments, and shows availability in real-time. The Square Appointments app is free to use for individuals, but Square takes a 2.75% cut off of purchases made within the platform. Multi-user platforms are available at two price tiers: accounts for two to five employees cost $50 per month and 2.5% + $0.10 per transaction, and accounts for six to 10 employees cost $90 per month and the same 2.5% + $0.10 per transaction, as well.

Whether you’re new to online scheduling and appointment tools, or you’re in the market to try something new, Setmore is definitely worth a closer look. Setmore does an excellent job of balancing pricing and worthwhile integrations, which many of their competitors struggle to do. Even Setmore’s free version is feature-rich for businesses with limited scheduling needs, which is a rarity in the small business software space. But no matter what scheduling tool you use, there’s one thing to remember: Anything is better than using a paper calendar to take appointments, and you can’t spill coffee on the cloud.