What Is Zoho Bookings?
Zoho Bookings is one of the many apps offered in the Zoho suite of business apps. It’s a scheduling app that allows you to set your availability for appointments, customize a booking site and send automatic confirmations and reminders through email or short message service (SMS) text messages.
There are three plans available including a free plan, so it’s good for solo operators and businesses of all sizes. It also integrates with a handful of third-party apps and all of Zoho’s offerings.
In our roundup of the best scheduling apps, we listed Zoho Booking as an excellent pick for resource management, which is an uncommon feature for online schedulers.
What Sets Zoho Bookings Apart
Although Zoho Bookings is more of a basic scheduling app, it includes some bonus features to help you manage your business. There’s resource management, so your staff can claim and check out laptops and meeting rooms, for example. There’s also two-way synchronization for up to three different calendars.
Pros
It’s quick and easy to get started with Zoho Bookings’ free plan. You can accept bookings as soon as you adjust your availability and design your booking site. If you need more features, you can upgrade to a paid plan, similar to most scheduling apps. The biggest benefits of Zoho Bookings are its seamless integration with other Zoho apps and a few key third-party apps.
Not all scheduling apps make it possible to set up a two-way sync with multiple calendars, but Zoho Bookings allows it for Google, Outlook and Zoho calendars. It also offers resource management, which is uncommon among most scheduling apps.
Cons
While Zoho Bookings is easy to use, its interface can be a bit confusing. For example, to access resources, you have to select it from the settings gear icon, not the main menu. There’s also no way to set variable times for services except to create a new service for each time length.
Featured Partners
1
Connecteam
Free; $35 per month for up to 30 users, or $29 per month when billed annually
iOS and Android
Yes
2
Acuity
7 days
Save 20% on Annual Plans
Yes
3
Homebase
Yes
Yes
Yes
Zoho Bookings Core Features
Zoho Bookings meets all the basics you need for booking appointments, including the ability to adjust your availability, sync with popular calendars and customize a booking page for your customers. There are some nuances to these features we detail below.
Availability
It’s fairly intuitive to set your availability, which is from each user’s profile. However, you can also set service availability, rather than base appointments on staff availability. You can also set up custom service availability by setting a date range, which is good for limited time services. Zoho Bookings also lets you block time, but this is through the plus sign icon and not included in the other settings areas for availability.
Calendar Sync
Zoho Bookings offers native two-way sync for multiple calendars including Zoho’s own calendar, Google Calendar and Outlook. This is rare among scheduling apps, which tend to only offer one with two-way sync, which allows you to see your work and personal appointments on both calendars.
Booking Page
As soon as you start your account with Zoho Bookings, you can set up the look and feel of your booking site. This includes the format or theme, plus colors. After setup, it is less intuitive to find where to access the booking page customization options. As an admin, you can find the booking page settings under your own profile. It’s there you can change your logo, title, description and layout. Under general settings is where you can find the option to customize your booking page URL.
Reminders and Notifications
Zoho Bookings includes in-app notifications for staff members whenever a new appointment is booked, changed or canceled. You can adjust these notifications as needed for each staff member in the general menu.
To set up notifications for customers, you’ll need to head over to each service. From the service notifications option, you can choose email notifications for booking confirmations, rescheduled or canceled meetings. You can also choose how soon before an appointment these emails should be sent. Additionally, you can configure short message service (SMS) notifications, but you’ll need to connect an app to allow it—Zoho does not offer a native SMS text messaging service.
Software Integrations
Zoho Bookings provides valuable integrations with apps you likely already use, such as Google Calendar, Zoom or Google Meet and payment processors Stripe or PayPal. However, it’s a short list of integrations and most are not native connections. If you’re already a Zoho customer, you’re likely to get more use of this scheduling app because it connects to all Zoho apps. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on Zapier to connect to many apps for automation.
Zoho Bookings Pricing and Plans
Provide details around each in tabular format.
| Free | Basic | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Starting Price (Monthly, Billed Annually)
|
$0
|
$6 per user
|
$9 per user
|
|
Services
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
|
Calendar Connections (Per User)
|
1 | 2 | 6 |
|
Calendars
|
Google, Outlook and Zoho
|
Google, Outlook and Zoho
|
Google, Outlook and Zoho
|
|
Notifications
|
Email
|
Email
|
Email and SMS
|
|
Online Payments
|
X
|
X
|
✔
|
|
Booking Page
|
✔
|
Customizable
|
Customizable
|
Free
The free version of Zoho Bookings offers the basic features you need to set appointments with clients. You’re limited to one calendar connection and integrations with online meeting apps but you cannot connect to Zapier, SMS providers or payment gateways. This makes it work well enough for a solo entrepreneur who hosts online meetings for free or in-person appointments where you’ll accept payment at the time of the appointment.
Basic
Zoho Bookings’ Basic plan gives you a bit more flexibility with its entry-level paid plan. It costs $6 per user, per month (billed annually) and offers two calendar connections per user. You also get to use Zapier at this point. Plus you can customize your booking page with themes and layouts. You’ll also unlock access to reports at this plan level so that you can view staff and appointment reports.
Premium
To accept payments online, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium plan of Zoho Bookings. This is also the plan you need to choose if you want to send SMS text reminders to customers, but you still need to connect to an SMS provider for this service. Zoho allows you to connect to all of its apps at this plan level, such as its customer relationship management (CRM) software and live chat app. The Premium plan costs $9 per user, per month (billed annually).
Zoho Bookings Setup and Customization
As with any other Zoho app, Zoho Bookings requires minimal information to get an account started. We already had a free Zoho account, so Zoho Bookings needed us to add a business name, preferred time zone and currency. You can add your availability at this point, along with the services you offer.
Once you have the basics set up, you can test Zoho Bookings to see how it works with a sample appointment. If you need to make any adjustments or add new services, navigate to the services option from the plus sign menu or the top menu where Services is listed.
Zoho Bookings Ease of Use
Although it’s simple to set up a Zoho Bookings account, figuring out where to go to manage resources, notifications and other settings isn’t immediately intuitive. For example, you can add services from two different locations. Clicking on Booking Page from the top menu doesn’t give you access to settings. Instead, you have to go to your profile where you can adjust the look and feel of your booking page.
Adding services, appointments, staff members and using features is easy enough to execute, but finding your way around is more difficult. The interface is disorganized and doesn’t make much sense.
Zoho Bookings Security
Security in Zoho Bookings is fairly standard. You can expect data on all Zoho apps to be encrypted, whether the data is being transferred or stored. The company employs services to help mitigate dedicated denial of service (DDoS) attacks, so you should expect your data to remain safe.
An uncommon offering is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance, which Zoho Bookings offers. You need to enable it in the General settings. This will protect specific fields in forms for protected health information (PHI) security so only those with permissions can access the information.
Zoho Bookings Customer Service and Support
For the fastest response from Zoho Bookings’ customer support, live chat is your best bet. We posed a question and the chatbot connected us to an agent who had a response within two minutes. After the chat, Zoho sent an email transcript of the chat conversation and a ticket, which was a bit unnecessary and we didn’t request it.
Alternatively, you can book a call with the support team or use the self-serve knowledge base. Zoho’s support agents are available 24 hours a day, five days per week.
Additional Features
Zoho Bookings offers a handful of extra features to make it easier to manage staff, resources and appointments in a way that works best for you.
Routing Options
When you set up services and staff, you have the option to assign staff members to specific services and allow customers to choose the staff member they prefer. Alternatively, you can allow Zoho Bookings to select staff members based on availability for automatic routing.
Resource Management
Zoho Bookings offers a rare feature with resource management. Typically, you won’t find a way to manage rooms or equipment in service-based scheduling apps, but it can be helpful. For example, if you run a salon with multiple rooms for waxing, staff members can book the rooms for clients during appointments. Electricians may want to book a vehicle or equipment as needed.
There are no limits on what you can identify as a resource. Add a new resource from the plus sign icon or choose Resources from the gear icon to view all available resources. You can create booking pages for each resource, so staff members can schedule resources during their appointments.
Zoho Bookings Alternatives and How They Compare
| Zoho Bookings | Square Appointments | Appointy | SimplyBook.me | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rating
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
Starting Price (Monthly)*
|
$6 per user
|
$29
|
Free; $19.99
|
Free; $8.25 (five users)
|
|
Free Plan
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Bookings
|
Unlimited
|
Unlimited
|
2,000 per day**
|
100 |
|
Calendars
|
Google, Outlook and Zoho
|
Google
|
Google, Outlook and iCal
|
Google, Outlook and iCal
|
|
Marketing Features
|
By integrations only
|
Facebook, Instagram, Google listing, discounts and marketing campaigns
|
Facebook, Instagram, Google listing, discounts, offers and gift certificates
|
Facebook, Instagram, Google listing, discounts, offers, gift certificates and book soon reminders
|
|
Reminders and Notifications
|
Email and text
|
Email and text
|
Email and text
|
Email
|
|
Booking Site
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Client Portal
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Payment Processors
|
PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.NET and Razorpay
|
Square, Afterpay and Cash App
|
Square, Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.NET
|
Stripe, Authorize.NET, PayPal and Forte (plus 5 others)
|
|
Read Reviews
|
‘-
|
‘-
|
‘-
|
*Billed annually
When comparing Zoho Bookings to other similar scheduling apps, it can be difficult to see the differences beyond price. As you dig into the specifics, you’ll see that Zoho Bookings could be an ideal solution for your needs or it may not offer enough features for what you need.
Zoho Bookings vs. Square Appointments
A clear winner for service-based businesses that need a point-of-sale (POS) platform at all plan levels is Square Appointments. Zoho Bookings doesn’t even offer payment gateways as an option until its Premium plan. Plus, Square Appointments offers multiple marketing features baked into its scheduling app. With that said, Zoho Bookings’ paid plans are far more affordable and there are more calendar sync options available than Square Appointments.
Zoho Bookings vs. Appointy
These two online schedulers are similar in their basic features, but there are a few key differences. Zoho Bookings is more affordable per user for its paid plans, but Appointy offers a Zapier integration to all of its plan users. You can also accept payments on Appointy’s free plan. Zoho Bookings requires you to be on a paid plan for these features.
Zoho Bookings vs. SimplyBook.me
SimplyBook.me limits a lot of what you can do from bookings and users to features. However, its paid plan lets you have up to five users on it, making the per-user cost much lower than most scheduling apps, including Zoho Bookings. Both apps include HIPAA compliance features, but SimplyBook.me’s security features are more thorough.
Featured Partners
1
Connecteam
Free; $35 per month for up to 30 users, or $29 per month when billed annually
iOS and Android
Yes
2
Acuity
7 days
Save 20% on Annual Plans
Yes
3
Homebase
Yes
Yes
Yes
Who Is Zoho Bookings Best For?
The obvious reason to use Zoho Bookings over other scheduling apps is if you’re already a Zoho customer. It integrates seamlessly with all other Zoho apps in its ecosystem. It offers some added and unique features that may sway you as well, including resource management and multiple calendar syncs. The paid plans are surprisingly affordable, but only for ultrasmall businesses.
Our Expert Take
Overall, Zoho Bookings is easy to use and affordable. We like that the free plan offers enough features to make it viable for a single person to use for booking appointments. However, the interface is so disorganized that it can be difficult to find where you should adjust settings for notifications, working hours, resources and blocked time.
The extra features such as resource management and two-way synchronization of multiple calendars are nice bonuses, but it would take a while to learn the interface well enough to make it truly intuitive and worth choosing over another scheduling app.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Zoho Bookings used for?
Zoho Bookings is an online scheduler that lets you set appointments for clients or allows your customers to book appointments through your booking site.
Is Zoho Bookings HIPAA compliant?
There are many requirements to ensure you stay HIPAA-compliant and Zoho Bookings helps you do so with protected fields in your booking forms and encrypts stored data and data in transit. However, it doesn’t limit login times for employees, so it isn’t a perfect solution.
What is the best scheduling app?
At Forbes Advisor, we listed Square Appointments as the best scheduling app because it includes all the features you need to manage your appointments and accept payments, even on its free plan. Other top-rated scheduling apps include Setmore, Calendly and Zoho Bookings. We reviewed the most popular apps on the market to come up with a list of the best scheduling apps.
