What Does an Online Booking System Cost?

Subscription booking tools

Subscription tools fall into two groups. Standalone schedulers, such as Calendly, SimplyBook.me or Acuity, give you a booking page and calendar sync; you bring the customers. Marketplace platforms, such as Bokadirekt for beauty and health in Sweden, also list you where customers search, and charge for that visibility, typically with a commission on bookings from new customers found through the platform. Industry systems for clinics, gyms or restaurants combine booking with journals, memberships or table management.

Per-booking and payment fees

Variable fees are where costs grow unnoticed. SMS reminders are often charged per message. Card payments through the booking tool carry a fee per transaction, sometimes higher than you would pay with your own payment provider. Swish for businesses has its own per-transaction fee through your bank. Marketplace commissions apply per booking and can add up quickly for a busy business.

1. Estimate bookings per month, and how many come from new versus returning customers.
2. Add SMS reminders per booking and the price per message.
3. Add payment fees for the share of bookings paid online.
4. Add commission for bookings the platform brings.
5. Compare the total over two to three years, including price increases announced by the vendor.

Integrations with calendar and website

A booking tool must fit with what you already use. Calendar sync with Google or Microsoft 365 is standard. Embedding in your website varies: some tools offer a proper widget, others only a link to their own page, which takes visitors off your site and weakens your own search presence. Integration with accounting, such as Fortnox, and with your CRM or member system is rarer and often only in higher plans.

• Does the widget match your site and work well on mobile?
• Can bookings be tracked as conversions in your analytics?
• Can payments and bookings flow to your accounting without manual entry?
• Can customer data be exported in a usable format if you leave?

Custom booking features

A custom booking feature costs more at the start and removes the per-booking fees. It makes sense when your rules do not fit standard tools: resources that must be booked together, such as a room plus a specialist, variable service lengths, deposits with specific cancellation rules, or booking as one step in a larger flow such as ordering a product with fitting. It also makes sense when fees scale with volume to the point where owning the feature is cheaper.

Custom does not have to mean building everything. A common middle path is a custom booking flow on your own site that uses a calendar API underneath. The build cost of our custom e-commerce features is on the pricing page; maintenance is a running cost to include, as described in subscription or one-time payment.

Owning customer data

Who owns the relationship matters more than it seems. On a marketplace, customers may see competitors next to your listing and rebook through the platform, paying commission again. With any tool, check that you can export customers, booking history and consents, and that the vendor acts as your data processor under a proper agreement. Your customer list is a business asset; do not let it live only inside someone else's system.

When not to buy custom booking: if a standard tool covers your rules and the fees are modest, use it and spend the money on getting found. Custom work pays off only when rules, volume or integration needs make standard tools expensive or awkward. Book a short call with your booking numbers and we will compare the options honestly.

Frequently asked questions