What is the best Bookly alternative when the free version is no longer enough?

Bookly is a long-standing, proven appointment plugin whose strength is a large catalogue of paid add-ons; if you use Bookly Pro and its add-ons, staying is often the simplest option. The question of an alternative mainly arises when the free version becomes too narrow: according to its page, it includes neither online payments, nor an unlimited number of staff members and services, nor add-ons. GDA Kraft Booking, published by Global Digital Agency, includes these features free of charge with a free Kraft GDA account (no add-on to install), with a service fee on online payments only.

What Bookly does well

According to its wordpress.org page (verified on 12 October 2026 on wordpress.org):

• Bookly offers a free version, with more than 60,000 active installations;
• the booking form is responsive and the admin offers calendar views and lists of clients and bookings;
• the page states that online payments, an unlimited number of staff members and services and installing add-ons are not available in the free version; it mentions a limit of five services in the free version.

Bookly's model is modular: you start from a base and add the features you need.

When should you stay on Bookly?

• You have Bookly Pro and add-ons that cover specific needs of your business.
• You depend on features that are not among those announced for GDA Kraft Booking: check the roadmap before deciding.
• Your team knows the tool well and your volume does not justify a migration.
• You do not want a beta product: GDA Kraft Booking is in public beta 0.1, with version 1.0 planned for June 2027.

When should you look at an alternative?

• You are on the free version and need online payment or a deposit to reduce no-shows.
• Your team is growing and you are exceeding the free version's limits.
• You offer more services than the free version allows.
• You want to avoid stacking add-ons: with GDA Kraft Booking, team, group sessions, waiting list, email reminders and multilingual support are in the same plugin (the appointment form, however, does not accept custom fields).

Comparing the cost model

This is not about comparing prices (see Bookly's website for theirs), but two approaches:

Fictional example: a salon collects €3,000 online in a month. With GDA Kraft Booking, the service fee comes to €13.50 during the launch offer (€27 at the 0.9% rate), shown to clients, plus Stripe's fees. Details are on the Pricing page.

How do I migrate a team from Bookly to GDA Kraft Booking?

Migration is manual: the Kraft Booking › Migration screen only covers accommodation, and no import from an appointment plugin is announced to date. For a team, the order matters.

1. Take stock: services (duration, price, category), staff members, working hours, planned time off, custom form fields, upcoming appointments.
2. Install the plugin downloaded from your client area and link the site to your free Kraft GDA account, on which appointment mode depends. Then create the services (Kraft Booking › Services), with their buffers before and after, followed by the staff members (Kraft Booking › Team and schedules), ticking each person's services. The form offers the client a “Doesn't matter” choice, which assigns the appointment to the least busy staff member that day.
3. Enter the working hours of each staff member (ranges, breaks) and their time off already known.
4. Sort through your custom fields: the appointment form asks for first name, last name, email, phone and a “Message (optional)”, and Kraft Fields does not apply to this form. Essential information goes through this message or through separate services; this is a chance to apply the GDPR data minimisation principle (see Custom fields and ACF with Kraft Fields).
5. Link each staff member to a WordPress account with the Team role (“WordPress account” field of their record): they then only see their own schedule in Kraft Booking › Appointments.
6. Carry over upcoming appointments in Kraft Booking › Appointments (“New appointment” section).
7. Let your regular clients know that the link for changing their appointments will change.
8. Replace the form, test a full appointment for each staff member, then deactivate Bookly.

Organising a team is covered in detail in Managing a team schedule with several staff members.

Frequently asked questions

Does GDA Kraft Booking limit the number of services or staff members?

No. There is no paid version that would unlock more services or staff members: appointment mode only requires the free Kraft GDA account, with no add-on to install.

Can I bring over the history of my past appointments?

In practice, manual migration covers upcoming appointments. Keep Bookly's history for as long as necessary, for example as an export or a backup, depending on what your version allows.

Are the reminders as complete as Bookly's?

GDA Kraft Booking sends email reminders to the client: the day before (24 h before) and a last-minute reminder whose number of hours you set. The staff member can be notified by email of each new appointment, rescheduling or cancellation; there is no daily summary.

Will my staff members see each other's appointments?

No, if their staff record is linked to a WordPress account with the Team role: in Kraft Booking › Appointments, they only see their own schedule. See Setting up appointments.