Booker vs. Timely booking & payments system

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Booker
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Booker is a leading appointment scheduling, point-of-sale, and business management software that powers thousands of spas and salons worldwide. The software includes a complete suite of management tools, and provides integrated online booking, marketing, and more. Booker is completely web-based, which makes it available from any computer with a browser and internet connection, anywhere at any time. It can also be used via a smartphone or iPad.
$129
per month
Timely booking & payments system
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Timely is appointment scheduling and business management software for spas and salons from the New Zealand company of the same name.
$26
per month per user
Pricing
BookerTimely booking & payments system
Editions & Modules
Starter
$129
per month
Accelerate
$269
per month
Ultimate
$429
per month
Build
$26
per month per user
Elevate
$39
per month per user
Innovate
$47
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BookerTimely booking & payments system
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$250 Optional
Additional DetailsAll plans available through a monthly plan, with no long-term contract.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BookerTimely booking & payments system
Considered Both Products
Booker
Chose Booker
Ease of use of the platform, ease of access, and a wide set of features make Booker outstanding. It has a wider reach in comparison to its competitors as it has a niche customer base. Booker helps to build a strong customer base as compared to others and also is a one-stop …
Chose Booker
Doodle has been around forever and it is very easy to use. However, I have never used the paid option. Booker is very standard, looks good, and is affordable.
Chose Booker
I have used ProSalon before and loved them! Their reporting was second to none and they even customized reports for us. Though visually, Booker has them beat. We've tested many others but ultimately have stayed with Booker because it is a big undertaking to change and because …
Chose Booker
Definitely stacks up better than Virtual. Not sure about the other two as we have only seen them superficially.
Chose Booker
I currently use this at the job I am at now. The other one we have worked with was Google Calendar (not recommended). We are happy with Mind Body for the company that it is.
Chose Booker
When we tried Micros, though it has robust hardware and software, It is not meant for salons. Square again the same thing, it is meant for small non salon and non service oriented businesses. Booker is by far the best of all salon softwares we have used.
Chose Booker
AccuPOS did not have a scheduling module or gift certificate management module when we switched and those were critical needs at the time. For such a small module, AccuPOS did a fantastic job directly and concisely bridging daily activity to QuickBooks.
Chose Booker
Booker is a bit more detailed and function-savvy.
Chose Booker
I've used Millennium in the past - I love the LOOK of SpaBooker better but I don't recall ever having the amount of glitches as Booker has. Their membership process was much more streamlined as well.
Chose Booker
I was a Harms/Millennium user for years and if I could, I would go back to them.
Chose Booker
I can't say enough how easy Booker is to navigate and how user friendly it is.
Chose Booker
Spasoft was expensive and the database needs support maintenance often, plus the SQL component of the software was outdated. We received no communications from Spasoft on upgrades. Motionsoft was a property installed server based product that never worked for us. FitLinxx was a …
Chose Booker
I have used Schedulicity, Google Calendar, Square, and PayPal in the past. Booker is way more detailed. But at the same time there are more steps to get the same result and it is not as simple and clear.
Timely booking & payments system
Chose Timely booking & payments system
Harvest has been a very competitive software when compared to timely software, but both the software has their own pros and cons, which I really find interesting. Harvest has a better cloud-based system, but when it comes to discounts and customer service timely based software …
Chose Timely booking & payments system
Timely is by far the most user-friendly and fun to use. It's got a great interface, works on iPads, and training is super easy for the team. Other software is clunky and takes too long to set up and train the team to use.
Chose Timely booking & payments system
  • Calendly does not have Xero integration (was a deal killer for us), Timely Does.
  • Calendly does have much nicer booking process, compared to Timely.
  • Calendly does not have Google Calendar Integration (was a deal killer for us), Timely Does.
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User Ratings
BookerTimely booking & payments system
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BookerTimely booking & payments system
Likelihood to Recommend
Booker is very user friendly with videos to help our staff who are setting up schedules. It has very robust features that our school district didn't really need when we piloted it. It has a great option for widgets to be added to websites, whether district or school site. We find that the more widgets are available, the more appreciative our parents are. This is definitely a product that is used in the business world and not in the school district world so it doesn't really have the personalization we need as a school district or a school sites. Should the site change its potential customers, it would be a great fit for us because scheduling is very challenging in a large school district, be it at the district level or at individual school sites
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Hairdressers or massage salons, the places where they are too busy to take an appointment via the phone effectively. Places with high pace client walkthrough and multiple staff members. Timely is perfect for environments like that as it would assist in automating a huge part of the admin processes. In my experience using it for high-value services, [it has] proven to be a sales killer due to two main reasons: 1) Booking process taking so long, that a lot of clients change their mind or just call, as for the money that they are saying they are expecting better service. 2) Shows price only at the end of the process, which clients don't like, they want to know price upfront.
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Pros
  • Booker is great for customer management. You can easily add customers with numerous areas to put additional information for them. With the addition of Frederick, sending out Birthday emails and contacting them via email is a breeze.
  • I have found Booker to be extremely easy to teach new hires how to use. Because it is so visual, I find that anyone can pick up the basics of how to use this software very quickly.
  • Booker makes it extremely easy for a company with multiple locations to be able to toggle between those locations.
  • Frederick has been a great addition!
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  • Scheduling appointments
  • Online bookings
  • Rebooking emails and texts
  • Friendly interface
  • Great tech
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Cons
  • Having multiple salons, somehow seeing clients' history from another location easier than having to open the other location's data
  • Perhaps link telephone calls to Booker so software can recognize the client and open their profile. I know this is a long shot but ....
  • Marketing tools tha integrate to the software
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  • Support is slow and not very knowledgeable. Taking into account that they work only UK time, makes it almost useless.
  • Users are taken through a very lengthy booking process that required a lot of information from them and gives a price only at the very end. Because of that, we have got only 5 bookings in 5 years. Majority of people preferred to book over the phone as it was too difficult.
  • Event/Class booking does not allow you to book more than 1 ticket at the time
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Likelihood to Renew
Because I'm so familiar with it. I'll definitely reconsider.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
I think Booker is very simple for people who are trying to run a gym of about 200 or less clients with minimal apparel/product.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
There is usually a long wait when calling customer service but I now use the messaging option and my questions are answered very quickly. Booker has helped me with situations I thought were out of their range. If it wasn't for Booker support I would be very lost and confused.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
As far as I know, implementing Booker into our business was fairly easy.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
AccuPOS did not have a scheduling module or gift certificate management module when we switched and those were critical needs at the time. For such a small module, AccuPOS did a fantastic job directly and concisely bridging daily activity to QuickBooks.
Read full review
Timely is by far the most user-friendly and fun to use. It's got a great interface, works on iPads, and training is super easy for the team. Other software is clunky and takes too long to set up and train the team to use.
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Return on Investment
  • Being able to book appointments as well as process payments securely is definitely a positive.
  • The time employees have to spend to process a transaction is a negative.
  • The time spent on trying to find the report you are looking for is a negative.
  • Employees have a difficult time resolving any error or possible error in Booker because reporting is difficult to understand.
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  • Cost efficient because of discounts
  • Regular customers gets a lot of concessions
  • A little higher for non-regular customers
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ScreenShots

Booker Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Timely booking & payments system Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of the Timely calendar.Screenshot of a view of the Timely connected checkout pushing payment to a terminal.Screenshot of A view of a fully booked Timely account on a tablet.Screenshot of A view of Timely's reporting tool.Screenshot of taking in person payments with a Timely terminal.Screenshot of a client testimonial - Shelly Rau, of Nails by Shelly R