Appointment Book: Planners & Online Apps (2024)

Looking for an appointment book planner or for an app to help you organise your scheduled appointments? This is the right place to be in.

This post is split in two parts: the first part is about the literal appointment book (we’re talking about notebook planners) and online apps (software).

Precisely, we’re going to look at what they are, as well as a list of the 5 best types of appointment books and online booking platforms.

Let’s waste no time and check out the list.

What is an appointment book called?

An appointment book is also known as: appointment diary, schedule planner, agenda, timetable, or simply as a scheduler.

When referring to appointment books, we’re simply talking about the physical object where you keep a log of your upcoming appointments.

Let’s take the example of a salon: a salon’s appointment book would be filled with details about the upcoming customers and their appointments.

That may contain the customer’s name, selected time, type of service, and the expect amount to flow into the business.

This would also be called a paper-based appointment calendar, which is a physical notebook/agenda where you have a list of all the upcoming events.

Best appointment book types: 5 Picks

These are the best types of appointment books to work better: content-focused, productivity-focused, undated, hourly, motivational.

Now, let’s go and check out all of these types of appointment notebooks into detail and figure out which one is best for you.

The list is quite diverse, so there is a high chance you’ll find something you like.

1. Content-focused

• Price: $60 USD
• Layout: Monthly, with quarter sections
• Accessibility: Compact, easy to take anywhere
• Ease of use: 4.8/5
• Buy it online: The Content Planner

The content-focused appointment book is ideal for those that have a lot of notes to add next to their scheduled appointments.

This appointment book is ideal for those that need to add stuff like goals to achieve or different notes about the customers next to the upcoming events.

Be assured, there is enough room for you to add all of your thoughts next to every appointment in the content-focused notebook.

Availability right now: Out of stock → Restocking in late spring 2023.

As the author stated as well, it’s easy to stay organized with this book. Also, there are many stickers in the pack to keep scheduling fun.

Note that the content-focused appointment book isn’t dated. Though, there are notes in the packaging that guide your way into adding them.

2. Productivity-focused

• Price: $29.77 USD
• Layout: Weekly
• Accessibility: Easily usable wherever
• Ease of use: 4.5/5
• Buy it online: Router Runner

The Routerunner Purpose Planner is a great appointment book for those that have productivity as their #1 priority when scheduling.

This appointment book keeps everything straight to the point and has a beautiful “End of month reflection” section at the end of every page.

You can use the reflection section for any other extra notes you may have and keep every scheduled appointment minimalistic in the fields above.

Downside: This appointment book only contains 6 months, so it can be considered too short in comparison to others on the list.

Though, if you don’t mind the 6-month-length of this appointment agenda, it still remains a great choice.

3. Undated planner

• Price: $16.95 USD
• Layout: Weekly (without any dates)
• Accessibility: Small, easy to pack
• Ease of use: 4.7/5
• Buy it online: Filed Notes

Undated appointment books are great for those that want to customize their own times, dates, and maybe even locations in section for extra notes.

We chose Filed Notes’ 56-week planner because it is a great example of a simple undated appointment book that lasts 1 year.

This specific undated appointment book is quite small, so it is easy to pack and take wherever you need to go and schedule appointments.

Though, there’s also a small disadvantage: since it is so small, every line is also smaller and you can’t add a lot of extra notes. Must keep it straight to the point.

Any undated agenda is a great appointment book for those who prefer adding their own dates or spelling them in a different format than what the manufacturer chose.

4. Hourly planner

• Price: $23 USD
• Layout: Weekly (with hourly sections)
• Accessibility: Compact, can take on the go with ease
• Ease of use: 4.6/5
• Buy it online: Fabriano Boutique

Hourly planners are great appointment books for those that work in salons or have lots of appointments per day.

You can use this calendar to stay organized by writing down every appointment you have scheduled on an hourly-basis.

Note: If you write a lot for the hourly appointment sections, you might need to look at another planner. This one has smaller columns.

Hence, you might need to keep every hourly appointment minimalistic and write only necessary information in your agenda.

Regardless, the hourly-based appointment book is a great choice if you have a lot of events in the course of a day.

5. Motivational book

• Price: $13.99 USD
• Layout: Weekly
• Accessibility: Compact, can take on the go with ease
• Ease of use: 4.5/5
• Buy it online: Bliss Collections

Motivational planners are great for those that want to schedule appointments and also self-improve at the same time.

Depending on which motivational appointment agenda you’re getting, you will see quotes at the top of every page or other methods of keeping you on track.

For example, other motivational planners even have sections where you can write how your day was and its highlights. Every planner is different.

The book we’ve shown in the image above is great if you want just a little reminder that you’re doing great and you should keep it up.

Shortly, any motivational appointment book is great. Choose whichever works best for you and whichever you find most inspirational.

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Now that we had a look at 5 of the best physical appointment books, let’s move on to the next part of the guide and check out online appointment booking apps.

How does an appointment booking app work?

1. Create your booking widget or link;
2. Insert the date & time you’re available;
3. Let users book you in 1 click;
4. Attend appointments and calls online or offline.

Most appointment book apps work the same way: you need to create a booking widget that you customize for your needs and share it to your users.

With CalHouse, you can either create a booking widget or a sharable link in which you’ve added the times you’re available to meet.

Our scheduling software also allows you to add multiple meeting lengths for your users to choose when booking you, as well as different times for the call.

What are the steps for booking appointment?

1. Make an appointment link;
2. Insert the times you’re available at;
3. Add the meeting’s length, if necessary;
4. Select the meeting channel: offline, online (Zoom, Teams etc);
5. Send your link to recipients;
6. Attend the booked appointment.

This is all you have to do when creating and attending a booked appointment through a sharing link with CalHouse.

The same steps are also followed by those booking an appointment through a widget embedded on your website, if you’ve set up yours.

CalHouse makes easier steps for booking appointments.

Best appointment booking apps: 5 Picks

Here are the voted best appointment booking apps: CalHouse, Calendly, Doodle, YouCanBook.Me, Acuity Scheduling.

Though, this is just a simple sentence naming these apps. Let’s also jump into the semi-detailed review of each app to help you understand how they work.

By the end of this tiny review, you’ll a general idea of how these 7 best scheduling apps work and which one’s best for you.

1. CalHouse

• Free plan: Yes
• Price: Lifetime pricing, one-off
• Key features: Variety of meeting types, calendar connections, free plan
• Accessibility: Desktop & Mobile
• Ease of use: 4.8/5

While our opinion may sound biased, we believe that CalHouse is the actual best appointment booking app for everyone’s needs.

Thanks to the lifetime pricing model, you’re able to buy 5 copies of this scheduling software and keep them forever. That’s it, no monthly subscriptions!

Competitors would charge you monthly to keep on using their appointment book app, but CalHouse makes it easier and helps you save money.

Aside from pricing, CalHouse is also great because it has a lot to offer: any meeting type you’ll ever need, calendar connections, many conference platforms etc.

For example, you can connect up to 5 calendars in CalHouse and sync all of your active and future events in one place.

Feel free to sync Google Calendar, Apple iCalendar, Microsoft 365, Outlook, and any other calendar you need with CalHouse. Make a centralized calendar with us.

2. Calendly

• Free plan: Yes
• Price: $8 to $20 per user/month
• Key features: Integrations, team scheduling, analytics
• Accessibility: Desktop & Mobile
• Ease of use: 4.6/5

Calendly is first great because it offers a free plan, as well as a variety of other paid plans that help you explore their app.

This appointment booking app is also one of the oldest players in the industry, so rest assured that you’re accessing one of the most reliable tools.

Use Calendly to integrate your appointment booking software with various other CRM tools: Zapier, Google Workspace, Salesforce, HubSpot, and many more.

Know that you can also integrate PayPal or Stripe to collect payments through Calendly when users book your for an appointment.

Note: You can’t use the same link to offer different meeting lenghts. As written in our Calendly review, this is something you can with CalHouse.

With CalHouse, you can make one link which offers different meeting lengths: 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour — you name it.

3. Doodle

• Free plan: Yes
• Price: $6.95 to $19.95 per user/month
• Key features: Unlimited polls, custom branding, integrations
• Accessibility: Online (web and mobile app)
• Ease of use: 4.7/5

Doodle has a multiple pricing plans that range from $6.95 to $19.95 per user/month, and their app is also designed for most use cases.

Get Doodle for a booking widget that allows your users to book appointments and for you to attend meetings with ease.

This appointment booking software also allows you to add custom branding. Insert your company’s logo and colours to make it feel like home.

Note: Doodle also doesn’t allow you to offer flexible meeting durations (adding different meeting lengths). Yet again, you can do this with CalHouse.

4. YouCanBook.Me

• Free plan: Yes
• Price: $12 per calendar/month
• Key features: Group scheduling, integrations, calendar sync variety
• Accessibility: Online (web app)
• Ease of use: 4.1/5

YouCanBook.Me is an appointment booking app that works in a lot of languages, as you can see in the image above with their home page.

This scheduling software is great if you want to create different types of events: one-to-one, group scheduling and more.

The app also offers video conference (e.g. through Zoom), though they don’t have a variety of meeting platforms that integrate with the scheduling app.

With CalHouse, you can book appointments and host them through Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other apps.

It’s worth mentioning that YCBM (YouCanBook.Me) is also compatible on mobile devices, so you can schedule meetings wherever you are.

5. Acuity Scheduling

• Free plan: No
• Price: $16 to $61 per user/month
• Key features: Client self-scheduling, collect payments, many integrations
• Accessibility: Desktop & Mobile
• Ease of use: 4.3/5

Acuity Scheduling is one of the most expensive appointment booking apps, though their software is rather designed for teams and business use cases.

At the same time, Acuity doesn’t offer a free plan either. You need to pay from $16 to $61 per user/month if you want their booking software.

Acuity Scheduling is great for those that need an appointment booking tool that offers unlimited meetings and many integrations.

Use Acuity if you want to connect your booking software to various CRM apps, including names like Salesforce, Zapier, Zoho and so on.

The Conclusion

This is all we’ve got for today: everything about physical appointment books, as well as online scheduling platforms (also known as appointment booking apps).

We went through a list of the 5 best notebooks for scheduling and 5 of the best apps for online booking to offer a detailed review of each.

Thank you for reading our 101 appointment booking guide!