For: Fitness studios · Barbershops · Spas · Massage · Padel clubs
SimplyBook.me review 2026: pricing, booking caps and the catches
Disclosure: Our #1 pick is MeetScarlet, and we are affiliated with them. We also cover competing tools and where they shine. We may earn commissions from links on this page. Details
The short answer: SimplyBook.me is booking software for almost any service business, with a free plan for 50 bookings a month and paid plans from $13.90 a month. It takes no cut of payments. The catches: every published plan caps monthly bookings and staff, extras like memberships and gift cards use limited feature slots below Premium, and its terms make purchases non-refundable. Our #1 pick, MeetScarlet, includes a branded app in the App Store and Google Play, and its terms say “Scarlet is live”, but its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”. Checked November 5, 2026.
Key takeaways
- SimplyBook.me has a free plan for 50 bookings a month and one staff member. Published paid plans run from Basic at $13.90 a month ($11.90 billed annually) to Premium at $59.90 ($49.90 billed annually), in US dollars (checked November 5, 2026).
- Every published plan caps bookings per month (50, 100, 500 or 2,000) and staff (1, 5, 15 or 30). Extra bookings cost $4 per 100.
- Premium features such as memberships, gift cards, point of sale and intake forms each use a "custom feature" slot: 1 on Free, 3 on Basic, 8 on Standard, unlimited on Premium.
- SimplyBook.me says it takes no cut of payments, and refunds, payment links, saved cards and recurring payments need Premium.
- Its terms say "all purchases are final and non-refundable", and they don't agree with its pricing FAQ on when a cancelled plan stops working.
- Its "Branded Client App" is a web app you add to a phone's home screen; it can't be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
What SimplyBook.me is (and isn’t)
SimplyBook.me calls itself an “Online Booking System for all service based industries” that handles “appointments, reminders, payments — all in one”. It’s made by SimplyBook.me Ltd of Limassol, Cyprus, and its footer says it’s “part of team.blue”.
You get a booking website and widget, an admin app, a client app, and a list of “custom features” you switch on, such as classes, memberships, gift cards and point of sale. Payments go through outside processors. Plans are priced by bookings per month, staff (“providers”) and feature slots, not per user.
Its industry pages cover barbershops, hair, beauty and nail salons, spas, massage, fitness classes, gyms, yoga, personal trainers, and tennis, padel and squash clubs. So it’s relevant to our barbershop, spa, massage, fitness studio and padel club readers.
What it isn’t: tanning software. We found no tanning page and no bed or timer control.
How we reviewed SimplyBook.me
- We read SimplyBook.me’s pricing page, footnoted “Pricing last updated: May 2026”, on November 5, 2026.
- We read its Terms and Conditions (version 3.6, effective September 30, 2026), FAQ, trial, payments, memberships, app and support pages.
- We read its industry pages for barbers, salons, spas, massage, fitness and court clubs.
- We read help-centre articles on the free plan, cancelling, renewals, the client app, texts, imports, memberships, reports and processors.
- We looked up third-party ratings on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot, labelled as other people’s opinions. G2 and Capterra blocked our requests.
- We haven’t used SimplyBook.me hands-on, so we couldn’t count booking steps or time a setup. This review is documentation-based.
Our method explains how we put pages together.
SimplyBook.me pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Bookings a month | Staff | Premium feature slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 50 | 1 | 1 |
| Basic | $13.90/month | $11.90/month | 100 | 5 | 3 |
| Standard | $29.90/month | $24.90/month | 500 | 15 | 8 |
| Premium (“Most popular”) | $59.90/month | $49.90/month | 2,000 | 30 | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Custom (“Book a call”) | Billed annually | Custom | Custom | Unlimited, plus multi-location access, an account manager and a choice of data location |
| For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick) | $349/month plus $999 one-time setup | $3,490 a year, setup free | We found no booking cap on its pricing; ask MeetScarlet | 5 staff logins, counting the owner (20 on Scarlet Pro) | A branded iPhone, Android and web app, booking, memberships and check-in on one plan. Scarlet Pro (up to 3 locations, per its terms) is $499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990 a year |
Source: SimplyBook.me’s pricing page, checked November 5, 2026. It shows prices as “$13.9”, “$29.9” and so on, in US dollars, and says annual billing saves 17%. Its terms say VAT is added where it applies.
Plans also differ in what they unlock. The pricing cards list the client app from Basic (its pricing FAQ says Free includes it), plus payments, deposits, tips and point of sale. Standard adds the “Branded Client App”, HIPAA and single sign-on. Premium adds refunds, payment links and saved cards (“Payments PRO”), accounting integrations and a white-label page footer.
How feature slots work: its pricing FAQ says free custom features “never count against any limit”, but premium ones do. “Examples of premium custom features include: point of sale, intake forms, memberships, gift cards, custom email, HIPAA compliance, and SOAP notes.” It doesn’t say outright whether classes, the waiting list or room booking count, so ask before you plan around them.
By our arithmetic from the published limits: one person under 50 bookings a month can stay on Free. A team of 3 fits Basic ($13.90 a month) up to 100 bookings. A team of 10 needs Standard ($29.90) up to 500 bookings, and a busier shop moves to Premium ($59.90 for 2,000) or buys extra bookings. Compare what other booking apps cost.
Add-ons and fees:
| Item | Price or rule |
|---|---|
| SimplyBook.me’s cut of payments | None: it “does not charge additional transaction fees on bookings or customer payments”; your processor charges its own rates |
| Text messages | “100 SMS credits $8”; “1 sms can vary from 0.5 credits to 1.5 credit depending on the country” |
| WhatsApp messages and AI Voice Booking | 100 credits for $8 each |
| Extra bookings | 100 for $4, with no expiry date unless bought on a recurring profile |
| Social Media & Ads | $11 a month |
| Custom domain | $119, including 3 years of SSL |
| Your own SMS gateway | $149 |
| Account manager help | $100 an hour |
| Full Setup (optional) | $499, including “Two months of premium subscription”, four hours of setup help, a designer hour and a training hour |
| Setup fee | None: “Noooooo, no setup fee” |
| For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick) | Card payments in its app are Stripe’s fees plus 1%, through your own Stripe account, and turn on once Stripe finishes checking that account. Its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card deposits or no-show fees (checked November 5, 2026). We found no price for its email and text automation bundle |
Sources: the pricing page, FAQ, Full Setup page and SMS pricing article, checked November 5, 2026.
The 14-day free trial “includes most features and 50 bookings”, and its pricing FAQ says there are “no automatic charges” when it ends. It leaves out coupons and gift cards, HIPAA, client import and point of sale.
Contracts, cancelling and your data
There are “no cancellation fees and no long-term contracts”, per the pricing FAQ. Card and PayPal subscription payments “automatically renew” each period. After you move to a paid plan, “It is not possible to downgrade to a free plan.”
The Terms and Conditions are strict on money:
- “Except as outlined below, all purchases are final and non-refundable.” The 14-day withdrawal right covers consumers only, not “business, enterprise and professional Users”.
- Fees follow the pricing page “as may be amended from time and to our discretion”.
- Late payments carry “an interest of 1.5%” after 21 days.
- The terms run under the laws of Cyprus.
When a cancelled plan stops working isn’t clear. The pricing FAQ says “your account stays active until the end of the current billing period”, but the terms say paid features “are suspended immediately”.
Your data: you can export bookings to Excel or CSV and clients to Excel. Once a paid plan lapses, its cancel article says “it will be not possible to access Calendar or Reports section”, so export before you cancel.
The free plan has its own upkeep. It “should be manually renewed each month”, and free accounts expired “for more than 3 months are automatically deleted” (free account article). The terms also let SimplyBook.me show a directory ad banner on free booking sites.
Bookings, classes, courts and memberships
Every plan includes staff and resource schedules, buffer times, recurring appointments, event bookings and “Booking website in clients time zone”. Custom features add classes, group bookings, a waiting list, rooms and equipment as “Related Resources”, a cancellation policy, Reserve with Google and booking from Facebook and Instagram (features page).
For courts, its club page offers “Efficient Court Bookings for Tennis, Padel, and Squash Clubs”. It describes general court booking; we found no open matches or split court payments on the pages we read.
Memberships can have an initial and a recurring price, alongside packages, coupons, gift cards, deposits, tips, point of sale and Tap to Pay (memberships page). Its membership article says “Automatic membership renewal may work from client side via certain payment processors only”, and recurring payments sit in Payments PRO on Premium. We found no failed-payment retry described.
Marketing tools include coupons, a loyalty system, promotions, feedback requests and Google reviews. Reports cover bookings, clients, sales, sales tax and visitors, with Excel or CSV export. We found no payroll or commission report.
Clients, apps and new bookings
Clients book on your booking website, a widget on your own site, Facebook, Instagram, Google or SimplyBook.me’s marketplace. They can cancel and reschedule themselves, and confirmation and reminder emails come on every plan (Free has daily and monthly email limits).
The “Branded Client App” is a Progressive Web App, which “cannot be downloaded from traditional app stores like the App Store or Play Market”. On an iPhone, clients add it to the home screen through Safari. Its app article says it “currently works with weekly classes, modern and flexible calendar layouts only”. The pricing page lists it from Standard, but the same article says personalising it is “available for Premium subscriptions only”, so ask which applies.
The marketplace, Booking.page and its “SimplyBook for Clients” app, charges no fee for now: “SimplyBook.me does not currently charge a separate commission or listing fee”, and “there is currently no paid or preferential placement” (terms 1.42 and 1.38). The terms aren’t clear on whether a new account is listed by default.
Switching to SimplyBook.me
Client import is a free custom feature, but “It is only possible to import 500 clients by default”, and imported clients are unsubscribed from promotions by default (import article). We found no import for past or future bookings, memberships or gift-card balances. The homepage says “Switching from another system? Let’s have a talk”, and the done-for-you Full Setup costs $499.
What SimplyBook.me does well
- A real free plan and low published prices, with every limit and add-on price on one dated pricing page.
- Priced by bookings, not people: Standard covers 15 staff for $29.90 a month.
- No cut of your payments, with Stripe, PayPal, Square and many regional processors to choose from.
- A free marketplace listing, with no commission and no paid placement, per its terms.
- Wide coverage: barber, salon, spa, massage, fitness and court-club pages, with classes, rooms, courts, memberships and packages.
- No long contract and no setup fee.
Where SimplyBook.me falls short
- Booking caps on every published plan. 50, 100, 500 or 2,000 bookings a month, then upgrade or buy packs (pricing page).
- Feature slots. Memberships, gift cards, point of sale and intake forms use up limited slots below Premium.
- No refunds for businesses. “All purchases are final and non-refundable” (terms).
- Unclear cancellation timing, and no calendar or reports once a paid plan lapses.
- Key payment tools need Premium: refunds, payment links, saved cards and recurring payments (payments page).
- The branded app is a web app, not an App Store or Google Play listing.
- Texts cost extra and vary by country.
- No phone line or status page. Its contact page lists no phone, and we found no public status page.
Support itself is broad: its live chat page says chat is “available 24 hours a day during weekdays”, with replies “twice a day” at weekends, plus email. Its homepage says “24/7 human support” and its pricing page “24/5 human support”, so we quote the live chat page.
SimplyBook.me reviews and complaints
Third-party opinion, not our own research: on November 5, 2026, SimplyBook.me’s admin app averaged 4.1 out of 5 from 149 ratings on the US App Store and 4.3 out of 5 from 725 ratings on Google Play. Its “SimplyBook for Clients” marketplace app had no ratings yet. On Trustpilot, it showed 4.4 out of 5 from 805 reviews (78% five-star, 7% one-star). Trustpilot notes “No recent history of asking for reviews”, so “reviews may not be representative”. G2 and Capterra blocked our requests. We didn’t sort individual reviews by topic, so we can’t say which complaints come up most. For comparison, we found no third-party ratings for our #1 pick, MeetScarlet (checked November 5, 2026).
SimplyBook.me or our pick, MeetScarlet?
| SimplyBook.me | MeetScarlet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, then $13.90, $29.90 or $59.90 a month billed monthly ($11.90, $24.90 or $49.90 billed annually), with booking caps | $349/month plus $999 setup, or $3,490/year with setup free, for one location. Its terms page offers founding studios on monthly billing $299 a month “instead of $349 for the first 24 months of its subscription”, with the $999 setup fee included; it plans 10 places (checked November 5, 2026) |
| Staff | 1, 5, 15 or 30 by plan | 5 staff logins, counting the owner; 20 on Scarlet Pro ($499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990/year with setup free) |
| App under your own name | A web app added to the home screen, listed from Standard (its help says Premium); not in the App Store or Google Play | Included: iPhone, Android and web, published under your own Apple ($99 a year) and Google Play ($25 once) developer accounts |
| Classes, rooms and courts | Classes, waiting list, rooms and equipment as custom features; general court booking for tennis, padel and squash | Classes with pick-your-spot maps (up to 100 spots) and an automatic waitlist on every plan; courts by the slot, with “Open matches by level and Americano events” for padel |
| Memberships and recurring payments | Memberships use a feature slot below Premium; recurring payments, saved cards and refunds need Premium | Plans that repeat, are paid up front for a set term, or are paid once for packs and passes, per its memberships guide; sold by card through Stripe (see card payments) |
| Reminders | Email on every plan; texts and WhatsApp by prepaid credits | Text reminders (coming soon) on Scarlet Pro only. Its Jane comparison page says email reminders are “built but not sending yet”, and its appointments help says “Email sending isn’t switched on yet” (checked November 5, 2026) |
| Card payments | Live now through your own processor, including Tap to Pay; no SimplyBook.me fee | Stripe’s fees plus 1% to MeetScarlet, through your own Stripe account; card payments turn on once Stripe has checked that account, but its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card deposits or no-show fees. We found no card reader or in-person card rate on its pages |
| Finding new clients | A marketplace listing with no commission or listing fee | No marketplace. Its site says it isn’t the right fit for “Businesses that want new clients mainly from a marketplace app” |
| Switching | Client CSV import, 500 clients by default; no booking-history import found; $499 Full Setup | “Scarlet imports clients, not booking or payment history”, with “no direct importer” for other apps |
| Locations | A Multiple Locations custom feature, plus multi-location “Cluster Interface” access on Enterprise | Scarlet is “For one location”; its terms say Scarlet Pro “includes up to 3 locations”. Its class page says “Each Scarlet studio has one schedule” |
| Support | Live chat 24 hours on weekdays and twice a day at weekends, plus email; no phone or status page found | Email (“A person reads every message”) and Instagram, with “Priority support” on Scarlet Pro. Its terms say “We aim to reply within one business day” and “there are no service credits”; we found no published hours or status page |
| Availability and terms | Now, with a free plan and a 14-day trial; purchases non-refundable | Its terms page says “Scarlet is live, and founding studios can join now” and “There is no free trial.” Cancelling “takes effect at the end of the period you’ve paid for”, and “We don’t refund part-used months”. Store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks”, mostly for Apple’s enrollment; the web app is live sooner |
| Third-party reviews | 874 admin-app ratings (our arithmetic) and 805 on Trustpilot (see above) | No third-party ratings found (checked November 5, 2026) |
Sources: MeetScarlet’s pricing and FAQ, terms, payments help, appointments help, white-label page, class booking page, court booking page, switching page, Jane comparison and support help, checked November 5, 2026.
Choose MeetScarlet, our pick, if you want an app under your own name in the App Store and Google Play. Its store apps take about 4 to 6 weeks. It suits you if you can manage without email reminders, which are “built but not sending yet”, while text reminders on Scarlet Pro are “coming soon”. Choose SimplyBook.me if you want a free or very cheap start, a marketplace listing, room for more staff on a cheap plan (15 for $29.90 a month, against MeetScarlet’s 5 logins at $349), or card payments and reminders working today (MeetScarlet’s appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”).
Who should pick SimplyBook.me, and who shouldn’t
| If you are… | SimplyBook.me? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Just starting out, under 50 bookings a month | Free fits | $0 for one staff member and one premium feature; remember to renew it each month |
| A barbershop or salon with up to 5 staff | Basic, if you stay under 100 bookings | $13.90 a month; a busy shop will need Standard or Premium. Compare our barber picks |
| A spa or massage practice that needs rooms, intake forms and gift cards | Basic if three premium features, 5 staff and 100 bookings are enough; otherwise Standard or Premium | Rooms are a custom feature, and intake forms and gift cards each use a premium slot; see our spa picks |
| A fitness studio selling auto-renewing memberships | Premium, and ask first | Recurring payments need Premium, and its help says renewal “may work from client side via certain payment processors only”; compare our fitness class picks |
| A padel or tennis club | Worth a look | A court-booking page, but no padel tools such as open matches found; see our padel clubs guide |
| Wanting one flat price with no booking count | Look elsewhere | Every published plan has a monthly booking cap; see our Acuity Scheduling review for plans capped by calendars instead |
| A tanning salon | Look elsewhere | No tanning page or bed control; see our Tan-Link review |
| Wanting an app under your own name in the App Store and Google Play | See our pick, MeetScarlet | SimplyBook.me’s app is a web app. MeetScarlet includes store-listed apps for $349 a month plus $999 setup, or $3,490 a year. Its store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks” (the web app is live sooner), and its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet” |
The verdict
SimplyBook.me suits small service businesses that want to start free or cheap, pay for staff by plan rather than per person, and get a commission-free marketplace listing. The catches are monthly booking caps, feature slots below Premium, non-refundable purchases and no store-listed app. Count your monthly bookings and the premium features you need before you pick a plan. For other options, see our best booking software shortlist. If SimplyBook.me works for you, see SimplyBook.me. Its pricing page offered a 14-day free trial when we checked on November 5, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does SimplyBook.me cost?
- Free is $0 for 50 bookings a month and one staff member. Basic is $13.90 a month billed monthly or $11.90 billed annually, Standard $29.90 or $24.90, and Premium $59.90 or $49.90, in US dollars (checked November 5, 2026).
- Is SimplyBook.me really free?
- Yes, its Free plan costs $0 for up to 50 bookings a month, one staff member and one premium custom feature. Its help centre says the free plan "should be manually renewed each month", and free accounts expired for more than 3 months are deleted.
- What happens when you hit SimplyBook.me's booking limit?
- Its pricing FAQ says your account and booking page stay online, and you're offered an upgrade or extra bookings at $4 per 100. We found no page that says what counts as one booking, such as each person in a class.
- What are SimplyBook.me's card processing fees?
- SimplyBook.me says it "does not charge additional transaction fees on bookings or customer payments". You pay your processor's own rates, through Stripe, PayPal, Square or one of many regional processors.
- Can you cancel SimplyBook.me anytime, and get a refund?
- There are "no long-term contracts" and no cancellation fees, but its terms say "all purchases are final and non-refundable". Its pricing FAQ says a cancelled plan stays active to the end of the billing period, while its terms say paid features are "suspended immediately", so export your data first.
- Does SimplyBook.me have a branded app?
- Its "Branded Client App" is listed from Standard on the pricing page, though a help article says personalising it is "available for Premium subscriptions only". It's a web app that "cannot be downloaded from traditional app stores like the App Store or Play Market".
- Does SimplyBook.me work for padel clubs?
- It has a court-booking page for "Tennis, Padel, and Squash Clubs". We found no padel-only tools such as open matches or split court payments on the pages we read.
- Does SimplyBook.me work for tanning salons?
- We found no SimplyBook.me page for tanning salons, only a duration example that mentions them. We found no bed or timer control.
Sources
- SimplyBook.me pricing (plans, add-ons and FAQ; "Pricing last updated: May 2026"), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me homepage, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me Terms and Conditions (version 3.6, effective September 30, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me FAQ, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me free trial, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me booking system features, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me payments page (SBPay PRO on Premium), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me memberships, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me client and admin apps, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me court booking for tennis, padel and squash clubs, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me for barber shops, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me for spas, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me for fitness classes, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me Full Setup service, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me live chat support hours, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me contact page, checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: important for Free accounts (edited January 30, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: how to cancel a subscription (edited May 19, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: subscription renewal (edited February 16, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: client mobile app (edited January 30, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: SMS pricing (edited February 2, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: Import Clients (edited January 30, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: Membership custom feature (edited April 15, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: booking reports (edited February 2, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: SBPay.me integration and processors (edited April 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: additional bookings (edited February 2, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me help: Client Fields custom feature (client export), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook for Clients on the US App Store (no ratings yet), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me admin app on the US App Store (third-party ratings), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me admin app on Google Play (third-party ratings), checked November 5, 2026
- SimplyBook.me on Trustpilot (third-party reviews), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet pricing and FAQ, checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet terms of service (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet payments help (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet help: appointments, deposits and no-show fees (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet white-label booking app page (updated November 1, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet class booking page (one schedule per studio), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet court booking page (updated October 31, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet switching page, checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet vs Jane comparison (by the Scarlet team, updated November 1, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet help: if something looks wrong (support), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet memberships guide (updated November 3, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet help: invite your team (logins count the owner), checked November 5, 2026
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