Free online booking system for a small business: what Microsoft Bookings, Google appointment schedules and Zoho Bookings give you, and where free stops being enough
A free booking system does exist, but each of the three big names comes with a condition. Microsoft Bookings is part of certain Microsoft 365 plans, so it only makes sense if you already pay for one. Google appointment schedules work with a personal Google account, although some features ask for Workspace or Google One. Zoho Bookings has a Forever Free plan for one user. If you run a one-chair practice and your customers are happy to click a link, that is enough. It stops being enough when customers write to you on WhatsApp at 23:00 and expect an answer.
The three side by side
Three common ways to run an online reservation system for free are Microsoft Bookings, Google's appointment schedules and the free plan of Zoho Bookings. All three are appointment scheduling software in the plain sense: a page of open slots tied to your calendar. Everything below comes from the vendors' own pages, read on 27 October 2026. Where a page says nothing, the table says so: guessing is how people end up paying for a feature they thought was free.
| What we compare | Microsoft Bookings | Google appointment schedules | Zoho Bookings (Forever Free) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | A Microsoft 365 or Office 365 plan from Microsoft's list, such as Business Basic or Teams Essentials | A personal Google Account or a Workspace account; can't be created in the Android, iPhone or iPad app | One user |
| Reminders | Email and SMS text notifications | Confirmation emails and up to 5 reminders; the reminder text can't be edited | Up to three reminders, sent to you and to the client |
| Payment at booking | Not covered on the overview page | You can request payment once Stripe is connected | Needs a paid plan |
| More than one person | Shared Bookings: staff, services, business hours | Co-hosts, but their availability isn't checked by default | The page suggests upgrading when you add services or the team grows |
| Calendar | Integrated with Outlook | Your Google Calendar | Two-way sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft 365/Outlook.com |
Mind the gaps. Google says some features need Workspace or Google One and doesn't say which. Microsoft's overview doesn't mention payments. Zoho's free-plan page doesn't say whether text messages or WhatsApp are included. Test the exact feature you need on your own account before you tell customers it exists.
Microsoft Bookings: for companies already on Microsoft 365
Bookings is a booking page that is integrated with Outlook. A customer picks a slot on a web page and the appointment lands in your calendar. Microsoft says it sends email and SMS text notifications, and that all Bookings data is stored within Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online. There are two modes: Personal Bookings for your own time slots, and Shared Bookings, where you invite colleagues and define services, staff and business hours.
The catch sits in the requirements. Microsoft lists the subscriptions that include Bookings: Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Teams Essentials, Teams Premium, plus a long list of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans with codes such as E1, E3, F1 and A3. Personal and family plans are not on that list. So if your company already works in Microsoft 365, open book.ms before you pay for anything else. If it doesn't, the free route is Google or Zoho.
Microsoft and Zoho both give you a booking link that you can put behind a button, which is all a website booking system needs to be on day one.
Google appointment schedules: the lightest option
An appointment schedule is a feature of Google Calendar. Google's help page says you need a personal Google Account or a Workspace account, and that you can't create the schedule in the Calendar app for Android, iPhone or iPad.
What you get: a booking form (first name, last name and email are required, you can add your own fields and ask guests to verify their email), buffer time between appointments, a cap on appointments per day, a choice between Google Meet, a phone call or an in-person meeting, and up to 5 reminders. Payment can be requested once you connect Stripe.
Where it gets awkward is a second person. You can add co-hosts, but by default Google doesn't check their availability, so you add their calendars yourself or you get double bookings.
Zoho Bookings: free for one person
Zoho describes the free plan as meant for solo users who need the basics of scheduling. That is accurate. You get one user, online meetings, notification emails and reminders, and calendar sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft 365/Outlook.com. The free-plan page lists unlimited customers and unlimited appointments. Payment at booking needs a paid plan, and Zoho's own page tells you to upgrade when you start offering multiple services or your team expands.
Zoho is upfront about where free ends, and that makes the choice easy: one person, stay free; a team, a different conversation.
Where free is enough, and where it stops
Free is enough when you are one person with one chair. Picture a physiotherapist with a single treatment room. The booking page shows open slots, reminders cut the no-shows, and nobody has to answer anything at midnight. Put the link in your email signature and you're done. We wouldn't sell that person anything.
It starts to creak in four places:
- Customers write instead of clicking. "Can I come tomorrow?" arrives at 23:47 and waits until morning. A booking page doesn't read messages, and none of the pages we read describes a WhatsApp channel, so ask the vendor before you count on one.
- The same few questions every day: prices, opening hours, how long a treatment takes. A booking page doesn't answer them. You do, between appointments.
- A team. Zoho's free plan is for one user, and in Google the co-hosts' calendars have to be added by hand.
- Payment. Google asks you to connect Stripe, Zoho wants a paid plan, and Microsoft's overview page is silent.
What a booking looks like when the customer stays in the chat
Mirelle Studio is a beauty salon in Barcelona, and the site is in Spanish. The booking chat on that site asks for a service, then a specialist or "any", then a day, and shows only the times that fit the length of that service. The customer gives a name, gets a booking number, and can change or cancel in the same chat. The day before the visit a reminder arrives with three buttons: I'm coming, change the time, cancel. After the visit the chat asks for a rating. Type "administrador" and a person from the salon takes over.
With a link the customer leaves the conversation and has to find the page. In the chat they answer one question at a time, where they were already asking. You can open the Mirelle Studio work and click through it yourself.
What to do today
- For one week, write down how every booking request reaches you: link, WhatsApp, phone call, Instagram message. If the link carries most of them, stay with free.
- If your company has Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium, go to book.ms and see what you already have.
- If not, pick Google (you have Calendar already) or Zoho's free plan if it's just you. Create one service, set a buffer, and book yourself from your phone.
- Put the link where customers already ask: a button on the website, your email signature, the reply you send when someone asks for a free slot. If you need a page to put it on, our piece on landing page costs in the EU shows what EU studios charge.
- Write down the ten questions customers ask before they book. You'll want that list with or without an assistant.
If you'd like us to do it for you
When most bookings start as a message rather than a click, we build an AI assistant that takes bookings: from €480, excluding VAT. There is no monthly fee for it, launch takes 1–2 weeks, and you pay 50% up front and 50% after acceptance.
The assistant answers from your price list, rules and notes, in one channel of your choice: a chat on your website, WhatsApp or Telegram. It introduces itself as AI straight away. If the answer isn't in your materials, it says so and offers to call a person, and the word "human" passes the conversation to you or your receptionist. It collects contact details and books appointments, and a card for each new booking reaches you on WhatsApp.
In the price: a call before we start, your price list and rules put into a form the assistant can work from, a greeting and prompts that we write and send you to review, the tone and limits of its answers, a conversation log, and a test on your own questions before launch. Free revisions until you accept it, and we fix bugs free for 6 months after launch. Booking straight into your calendar is an add-on; we put its price in writing before we start. The price is low because experienced specialists work faster with AI tools.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Bookings, checked 27 October 2026.
- Google Calendar Help: Create an appointment schedule, checked 27 October 2026.
- Zoho Bookings: pricing, checked 27 October 2026.
- Zoho Bookings: free appointment scheduling software, checked 27 October 2026.