Booking software is sold in four ways, and the price on the front page rarely tells you what you will actually pay. This page explains each model and hands you the arithmetic to check it yourself, with any vendor, including us.
None of them is a scam. Each has its logic, and each suits someone. The difference is when you pay, and for what.
The software lives on someone else's server and you pay for access. While you pay, it works. When you stop, you have neither the software nor the data, unless you exported it first.
The software is on your site, but the license expires. Usually the plugin keeps running afterwards, while updates and support stop. A year later you choose again.
The base license is cheap and looks like the best offer. Then it turns out card payment, recurring appointments, custom fields or calendar sync are bought separately, each as its own product.
The license is paid once and does not expire. There are no add-ons to buy, because none exist: everything the plugin has, you have from day one. The price you see is the whole bill.
We left the names out deliberately. Price lists change, packages get renamed, and a page that quotes someone else's price becomes false within months. Instead, below is a calculation where you enter the number you saw yourself.
Enter the price you saw from any vendor. Nothing is sent anywhere, the arithmetic runs in your browser.
Enter the amount in your chosen currency. Converted at the NBS middle rate, list no. 132 of July 16, 2026.
These are things that some vendors sell as separate add-ons. Here they do not exist as add-ons, because they are part of the plugin.
Fifteen items, and not one of them is a separate purchase. The difference between packages is the number of sites, not the number of features. The Free package exists so you can see how it works, not so you can run a business on it.
Ask them of us and of whoever else you are looking at. Our answers are under each question.
This is the question that changes the final bill the most. An answer of “it depends on the package” means there are features you will discover only when you need them, and pay for then.
With some, only updates stop; with others, the plugin stops too. The difference is enormous, and it rarely appears on the front page.
Commission per booking is the most expensive model there is, because the cost grows exactly when business picks up. A platform taking a cut in a good year costs more than any license.
If the data is on someone else's server, leaving is a migration. Ask what the export looks like and what happens to the data after you cancel.
With a subscription they are included while you pay. With a one-off license the answer tends to be “the first year is, after that you top up”.
The most useful question, and the one you will most rarely get answered. A vendor who stays quiet is not necessarily bad, but you will discover their list yourself, after buying.
This should appear on every comparison like this one, and it appears on none.
No renewal, no add-ons, no commission. If any of that sounds too good, the six questions above are how you check it.