Amelia vs Simply Schedule Appointments Plus

In Amelia vs Simply Schedule Appointments Plus, the basic job is the same: visitors pick a free slot on your own WordPress site, the appointment lands in your calendar and a Zoom or Google Meet link can be attached. Both run as a free plugin on wordpress.org with a paid lifetime upgrade, and both keep bookings on your site instead of a hosted scheduling service.

The scope differs. Amelia is a booking system for appointments and events, with recurring appointments, deposits, coupons, event tickets, taxes and invoices, no limit on locations, Microsoft Teams next to Zoom and Google Meet, and payments through Square, PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, Razorpay and WooCommerce. Simply Schedule Appointments Plus is a scheduling calendar: unlimited appointment types with buffers, notice periods and booking limits, a booking form as block or shortcode, two way Google Calendar sync and integrations with Gravity Forms and Formidable. Payments and SMS reminders sit in higher editions than the Plus edition of this deal.

Amelia suits salons, clinics, studios and schools that take paid appointments and also sell courses, workshops or other events on the same site. Online payments, SMS notifications and calendar sync with Google, Outlook and Apple are part of the Standard plan. Its deal page names the limits: packages, the cart, refunds and the event waiting list start with Pro, the mobile app and the REST API with Elite, prices exclude tax and the pricing page does not state how long updates and support run.

Simply Schedule Appointments Plus suits consultants, coaches and freelancers who book calls or sessions and want an easy booking calendar instead of a hosted tool, with Google Calendar as the leading calendar. Agencies get the same Plus edition for 25 or 1,000 client sites at a small extra cost. Its deal page names the limits too: online payments need the Business edition, SMS reminders need a higher edition, and the lifetime page states no duration for updates or support.

Both vendors sell lifetime licenses on their own pricing page, so you replace the yearly plan with one payment. Melograno Venture Studio offers these lifetime plans: 1 site for $249, 5 sites for $559, unlimited sites for $899. NSquared offers its Plus edition as 1 site for $299, 25 sites for $449, 1000 sites for $549. With Amelia a larger plan adds features as well as domains, with Simply Schedule Appointments Plus the larger tiers only add sites.

Neither lifetime page states how long updates and support run, so keep the purchase confirmation and the license terms of the day you buy. The refund window is 15 days for Amelia and 30 days for Simply Schedule Appointments Plus. Both deal pages also list a yearly plan, so the comparison table above shows the payback period of both lifetime licenses with their check date.

Both free versions are on wordpress.org: Amelia counts 90,000+ active installs with a rating of 4.6 out of 5, Simply Schedule Appointments Plus counts 50,000+ active installs with a rating of 5.0 out of 5. Set up one real service or appointment type on a staging copy, connect your calendar and send yourself a test booking from your phone.

Then test what only the paid version adds inside the refund window: payments, SMS and more calendars with Amelia, two way Google Calendar sync, booking limits and form integrations with Simply Schedule Appointments Plus. Neither deal record lists an import from the other plugin, so a later switch means setting up services, staff and availability again, finishing or moving upcoming appointments and keeping only one booking plugin active on the live site.