If you work by appointment, sooner or later you face the question: keep the phone and the paper diary, subscribe to a booking app, or get a system of your own? This article explains what drives the price of a custom booking system and how to work out whether it pays off for you.
The short answer
A custom booking system built into your website starts at €890 with us. That covers online booking, automatic email reminders and an admin panel where you see your whole schedule. There is no monthly fee, and the system is yours.
Whether the final price is higher depends on what you need.
What drives the price?
1. How many people and services are in the system? A one-person beauty studio is different from a five-chair salon where everyone has their own schedule, days off and list of services. More staff and more rules mean more work.
2. Do you need online payments or deposits? Taking payment up front is one of the most effective ways to stop no-shows, but connecting card payments is a separate piece of work.
3. Do you sell passes, packages or vouchers? Gyms and massage studios often need to track passes: how many sessions are left and when they expire. That is a separate module too.
4. Does it need to connect to other tools? For example your invoicing software, Google Calendar or an existing client database.
5. Do you already have a website? If you do, we build the booking system into it. If not, we can build a simple site alongside it.
Subscription app or your own system? A simple calculation
Subscription booking apps are quick to start with and cheap to enter. Their downside is that the fee never ends.
Take an example: if an app costs €30 a month, that is
- €360 after one year,
- €1,080 after three years,
- €1,800 after five years.
Check what your own subscription costs and multiply it out the same way. For a business that plans for the long term, a custom system typically pays for itself within two to four years, and after that only hosting remains.
Beyond the money, there are three more differences:
- Branding: your own system shows your logo and colours, not another company's brand.
- Client data: your client list stays with you, not with a third party.
- Customisation: it works the way you work, not the way an app allows.
When a custom system is NOT worth it
We say this openly, because we are not the right choice for everyone:
- you are just starting out and do not yet know how many bookings you will get,
- you only take a handful of appointments a month,
- an existing app works exactly the way you need, and the fee does not hurt.
In those cases, stay with the app. If you outgrow it, a custom system will still be an option.
Running costs to keep in mind
A custom system has ongoing costs too, just much smaller ones:
- hosting and domain: the same as for any website,
- maintenance: security updates and small changes, either on demand or for a modest monthly fee.
We list these in the offer up front, so there are no surprises later.
What to prepare before asking for a quote
The better we understand how you work, the more precise the price. Answers to these four questions are enough:
- How many staff members need a schedule?
- What services do you offer, and how long does each take?
- Do you want online payments or deposits?
- Do you already have a website?
With that, we can give you a fixed price within 24 hours.