Free Booking System: 10 Free Booking Apps and Websites Compared for Australia

Free plans for appointments, and what ends each one

A free plan has no subscription charge for what it includes. A free trial is a paid plan you can use for a while before paying. Every plan below is the first kind. Read the "Free until you need" column first: it names the need that moves you onto a paid plan.

Gaplessly publishes this guide and has two free plans of its own, listed with the same detail as the others. Some situations below favour a competitor, and the guide says which. Every vendor figure was read from that vendor's pricing page on 9 October 2026.

Fresha no longer has a free plan

Many Australian salons still think of Fresha as free. Its Australian pricing page now lists paid plans only, from A$44.95 a month for one person or A$29.95 a month per bookable team member, each with a 7-day trial. Fresha also takes a one-time 20% commission, at least A$8, on a new client it brings in through its marketplace. Returning clients attract no fee.

What free really costs at 50, 200 and 500 bookings

This table keeps one person and one location fixed and changes only the number of bookings a month. It shows the subscription alone, at monthly billing. Volume alone moves two of these plans: SimplyBook.me at its booking cap and Gaplessly Solo past its free band. SimplyBook.me also sells 100-booking packages that can cover a busy month on Basic instead of Standard; its page prices them without naming a currency.

Card fees usually cost more than the subscription

Taking a deposit or the full price online changes the sums. Every booking system passes card payments to a processor, and the processor charges on each one. The table below assumes each booking pays A$80 online by Australian card.

Australian costs that global lists leave out

Card fees are the cost of taking cards, so a salon that takes payment at the counter pays its terminal rate whichever booking system it uses. They matter when you choose a system because each one decides which processor you can use and whether a deposit is possible on the free plan at all. Most "best free booking app" lists are written for the US and skip the rest of this list.

• GST: Gaplessly and Fresha list prices excluding GST, so add 10% to see the bill. Check the invoice of any tool that does not say.
• US-dollar billing: Calendly and Setmore charge in US dollars, so the Australian amount moves with the exchange rate and your card may add a foreign transaction fee. Cal.com shows a dollar sign with no currency.
• Overseas cards: Stripe charges 3.5% + A$0.30 on international cards, plus 2% when currency conversion is needed. That matters for a venue with many tourists.
• Text messages: Square Free includes text reminders. SimplyBook.me sells 100 text credits for $8, resOS charges A$0.09 a text, and Gaplessly charges A$0.09 per text on Growth and Pro. Check whether a long message counts as two.
• Marketplace commission: a platform that sends you new clients through its own app can charge for each one, as Fresha does. A booking from your own website or Instagram link normally carries no commission.

A free reservation system for a restaurant or cafe

Most free booking tools are meeting schedulers. They book an hour with a person and have no idea what a table, a party of six or a dinner sitting is. A restaurant needs a reservation system that knows its tables, the party size each one seats and how long a sitting lasts. These four have free plans built for that.

Covers, guests and bookings are different units

Tableo counts covers and Eat App counts guests, which are people. resOS and Gaplessly count bookings, which are tables. At two to four guests a booking, 100 covers is roughly 25 to 50 bookings, so the four free allowances are closer than they look. A cafe that seats mostly couples gets more out of a cover allowance than a venue that books groups.

On any of them, test the evening you dread: a party too big for one table, two sittings on a Saturday, a walk-in while the floor is full, and a guest who cancels at 5pm.

Which free plan fits your business

• One person taking consultations or meetings, no deposits: Calendly Free or Cal.com Free. Cal.com if you offer more than one type of appointment or want to take payment.
• A salon or clinic team of up to four, paying at the counter: Setmore Free or Square Appointments Free. Square if you already use a Square terminal.
• You want deposits or no-show fees from day one: Cal.com Free can take payment upfront through Stripe or PayPal, but none of these free plans charges a cancellation fee. Square does that on Plus, Setmore takes deposits on Pro, and Gaplessly sells deposit protection as an extra on Solo.
• A sole trader with quiet and busy months: SimplyBook.me Free and Gaplessly Solo both stop being free past a monthly booking count. Compare what a busy month costs on each.
• Classes such as yoga or pilates, where several people book one time slot: Square puts class booking on Plus, so check group bookings on any free plan before you choose it.
• A restaurant or cafe under about 100 guests a month: Tableo, Eat App, resOS or Gaplessly Venue Starter, after testing the hard evening above.

Choose the plan whose upgrade trigger you are least likely to reach in the next year.

How to set up a free booking website

Every free plan in this guide gives you a free booking site: a booking page with its own link. Put that link in your Instagram bio, on your Business Profile on Google and on your website, and customers can book without calling. Cal.com, Calendly and Setmore show their own branding on that page on the free plan.

To put booking on a site built with WordPress, Wix or Squarespace, most tools give you a button or an embed code as well as the link. Check that the embed works on the free plan, then book through it on a phone, since that is where most customers will use it.

Google does not run a booking system of its own for small businesses. Any business can add its booking link to its Business Profile for free. The Reserve with Google button inside Search and Maps only comes through a booking provider Google has accepted as a partner.

Test it before you import your clients

• On a phone, book your most common service or a table for four. Check that price, duration and cancellation terms are clear before you confirm.
• Try the awkward booking: two services in one visit, a staff member with limited hours, or a party that needs two tables pushed together.
• Move the booking, then cancel it. Check which messages the customer receives.
• Export your client list. Ask what happens to future bookings and your booking link if you leave.

Note every step that needs a workaround, a support request or an upgrade. Those notes tell you more about a free plan than its feature list does.

Where Gaplessly fits, and where it does not

A consultant who only takes meetings will do well on Cal.com or Calendly and may never need to pay. A salon team of four paying at the counter pays nothing on Setmore or Square Free, while Gaplessly's free plan covers one person and its team plan, Growth, costs A$59 a month. Gaplessly is worth testing when you want the business website, the booking page and, for a venue, the floor plan in one place.

Growth includes 3 team members, then A$12 per extra team member, with no booking cap beyond fair use (1,000 a team member a month) and no booking commission. Deposits and no-show protection cost A$14.99 a month on Solo and are included from Growth up. Stripe processing fees still apply. Booking confirmation and reminder emails are included on every plan.

So Solo with deposit protection comes to A$33.99 in a busier month, or A$14.99 in a quiet one, before GST and Stripe fees. Gaplessly is in beta and approves new businesses by hand; the demo needs no account or card.