An appointment plugin for WordPress sites that provide services on demand, such as restaurants, barbershops, beauty salons, and clinics, could turn out to be a very useful tool.
It can help the website owner easily manage bookings or appointments and run a whole day, week or month effectively & productively without facing any management or scheduling issue.
However, in times like these, where it is easy to find hundreds of appointment plugins for WordPress, no matter what’s your business domain is. It becomes more difficult to decide which appointment plugin is best for the business.
Therefore, to overcome this situation, in this post, we’ll discuss and compare the two most popular WordPress appointment plugins that make a website compatible to receive bookings, appointments, and schedules.
Based on the comparison, decide which WordPress appointment plugin is good for your business.
Date and Time Picker vs. Hour Booking
Both Hour Booking & Date and Time Picker are free appointment plugins for WordPress. Both allow users to add booking fields to their website so that a customer can use them to schedule meetings or appointments.
Each includes lots of different & unique features that make every appointment section highly functional and easy to interact with. Because of these options and features, you can use both these plugins on posts and pages to receive client requests to book appointments.
Below is the detailed review of Hour Booking & Date and Time Picker discussing their UI, features, and how you can use them on your site to allow customers or interested individuals to book an appointment at your business place.
We hope this might assist you to choose the best appointment plugin for WordPress site of yours.
Date and Time Picker
The Date and Time Picker has a very simple yet subtle user interface that doesn’t complicate or bore user’s minds which might cause them to lose interest if that happens. However, the straightforward interface increases users’ focus and makes it easier to interact with its features and options.
It enables website owners to convert input fields on a contact form into a date calendar and time range picker. So, users, while submitting a form — whether an interview or any service requesting appointment form — can easily select the day and time on which they want the particular service or want to appear in the interview.
Moreover, not just converting fields but with additional features of it you can turn your contact form in a highly functional appointment form
Let’s see what this appointment plugin for WordPress has in its bag of features.
Date and Time Picker’s Features in Talk
The following features are available in the free version of Date and Time Picker. If you need more than these, you can upgrade to the Pro Version.
- CSS selector – To convert input fields into date calendar and time picker.
- Multiple themes – Dark and Light.
- Disable weekdays – Disable any weekday on which you want to receive bookings, appointments, or reservations.
- Disable specific and past dates – Hide past dates from the current date & disable dates on days like National Holiday, Events, or Festivals.
- Create time intervals – Good for creating and showcasing start and time to the users during which the business accepts appointment or booking forms.
- Create date slots.
- Change date and time format.
- And many more useful features.
What’s in Pro Version of Date and Time Picker?
With the pro version, the Date and Time Picker becomes an even more powerful & functional appointment plugin for WordPress. Here are the features it includes,
- Date range picker (Good for check-ins or out, taxi pickups, and more.)
- Create multiple fields.
- Integrate with Google Calendar & Outlook Calendar. (Upcoming feature)
- Automated Contact Form 7 integration. (Upcoming feature)
- Enhanced style options. (Upcoming feature)
- Support to more contact forms builder. Upcoming feature)
Pricing | $29.99/Yearly | For Single Site | 30 Days Money Back
Hour Booking
Just like Date and Time Picker, the Hour Booking appointment plugin for WordPress has an easy-to-use, simple user interface. From beginners to advanced WordPress users, anyone can easily create an appointment form in no time. However, using Hour Booking, user has to go through multiple steps to finally create an appointment or bookings form.
Unlike Date and Time Picker, where you need to convert input fields into a date calendar and time picker using CSS selector, the Hour Booking appointment plugin provides you with a Drag and Drop form builder. So, you don’t have to install another contact form plugin to get your appointment form working.
But using this appointment plugin for WordPress, you can only add 4 fields to the form that are,
- Single Line
- Appointment. (It includes the date calendar, time, and service picker)
- Accept/GDPR.
Whereas in the case of Date and Time Picker, you could add multiple different types of fields using Contact Form 7, such as Name, Email, Number, Checkbox, Radio Buttons, and more.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean Hour Booking is a limited plugin. It, too, includes lots of features that might take your interest.
Hour Booking Plugin’s Features in Talk
Below are the features included with the free version of the Hour Booking appointment plugin for WordPress. If you need options other than the following, you could try its premium Add-ons.
- Configure calendar data and schedules visually.
- Elementor & Gutenberg Block.
- Define working dates and days.
- Show open hours.
- Add multiple services field.
- And many more useful features.
What’s Included With Hour Booking’s Add-ons?
The add-ons of Hour Booking plugin activates the limited fields available in the drag and drop appointment form builder & provides you with the following additional features,
- CSS templates for forms.
- Payment integration with PayPal, Stripe, and more.
- Integration with Zoom, Mailchimp, reCaptcha, and others.
- Google Calendar API integration.
Pricing | $64/Yearly | For Single Site
Create Appointment Form Using Date and Time Picker Appointment Plugin for WordPress (3 Steps)
The following step-by-step easy instructions will help you use the Date and Time Picker and create a booking or appointment form.
Step 1: Create Date and Time Picker Field
After installing Date and Time Picker, on your WordPress Dashboard, go to Input WP.
It will open a new window with settings to create a Date and Time picker and multiple other options to define rules for a particular field.
To convert an input field into a date calendar and time picker, choose/remain at Date and Time Picker option.
Then, go to the CSS Selector section and input your Class Name or Field ID.
Once you’ve entered the class name or field id, click Save. Then, explore other settings and define rules for your date and time picker field such as Disable past dates, create date slot using Maximum Date, set open hours using Minimum Time and Maximum Time, hide weekdays, and much more.
Step 2: Create Form & Assign Field Class Name
After defining your class name or field id, you need to install Contact Form 7 to create a new appointment form.
Once you’ve installed Contact Form 7, you’d see the Contact menu on the WordPress Dashboard. Head over towards it, and click Add New.
A form editor will open. In the Enter title here field, input your new appointment form’s name.
Now, add a new text input field by clicking the text button at the top of the form editor.
It will open a popup that would allow you to add details about the input field. Here, what you need to do is that you’ll have to paste the class name of the date and time picker field.
Go to the Class Attribute, and paste the class name.
Save the field by clicking the Insert Tag button, and then save the form.
Copy its shortcode under the title, and move to the next step.
Step 3: Display Appointment Form
Go to the page or post where you want to display your appointment form created using the Date and Time picker. Insert Shortcode Block if you’re using Gutenberg Editor. And inside that, paste the code you’ve copied before.
Then publish the page or post and view it; it will start to display your appointment form.
That’s it; you’ve successfully added an appointment form in WordPress using Date and Time Picker.
Create Appointment Form Using Hour Booking (5 Steps)
Step 1: Create a New Form Using Hour Booking
After installing the Hour Booking plugin, you’ll see a new menu option in the WordPress Dashboard, i.e., Appointment Hour Booking. Head towards it, and click Appointment Hour Booking.
It will open a new window allowing you to create a new calendar, that we’ll use to create our new appointment form.
Give your appointment form its name and then click Add New.
Step 2: Add Fields
As soon as you click add new, it will open form editor with an appointment and email field already added to the form.
If you want to add more fields, for example, the name field, you can drag the Single Line field and edit it in the Field Settings option. Similarly, you can edit other fields as well, such as the Appointment field. The below screenshot showcases how you can edit your appointment field.
Once edited the field, go to the Form Settings option to add a title to your form, change label alignment, choose a different template and customize the form with other options available.
After making appropriate changes to form, scroll down the window to assign Button label text; define error message text and rules, and other texts.
Then, click Next Step – General Settings > button.
Step 3: Configure General and Other Settings
General Settings provides you with the option to set the URL for the form confirmation thank you page. Define rules for appointment booked status. Change global calendar settings, integrate with a payment system (Works only if you have premium add-on,) and assign users access to the message list.
After configuring general settings, click Next Step – Notification Emails > button.
The notification settings provide you with the option to configure From/To email addresses, email notification to the website administrator, and what copy you want to send to the user/customer.
Similarly configure Anti spam and reports settings.
When everything’s configured, in the Add Ons menu, click Save and Publish.
Step 4: Choose Form Assignment
Upon clicking the Save and Publish button, a new window will appear, here you need to choose where you want to display your appointment form.
Once selected the appropriate options, click Publish Calendar.
Step 5: Display Appointment Form Using Hour Booking Appointment Plugin for WordPress
After publishing the form, go to the Appointment Hour Booking menu, where you’ll see your newly created form.
Copy its shortcode, then go to the page or post where you want to display it. Simply add the shortcode in the shortcode block, and you’ll get your form.
Comparison in a Nutshell
- Both plugins have an easy user interface.
- Date and Time Picker uses CSS selector and Contact Form 7, whereas Hour Booking provides inbuilt drag and drop form builder.
- But with Date and Time Picker, you can add more fields to the form than Hour Booking.
- More steps to follow to create an appointment form using Hour Booking.
- Date and Time Picker’s pro version is available at $29.99/Yearly with 30 days money-back guarantee. However, in the case of Hour Booking, you’ve to pay $64/Yearly for premium add-ons.
Wrapping Up
So, that was our comparison between the two appointment plugins for WordPress. We looked at the user interface of both plugins, what features they include & how a WordPress user can use them to create an appointment form.
We hope this comparison post was helpful to you to choose your appointment plugin for WordPress easily. And you’d be able to create appointment/booking forms using the steps mentioned above.
Let us know what your choice was and how it helped you to solve your problem of adding an appointment form in WordPress.
