How do you add online appointment booking to a WordPress site?

To offer online appointment booking on a WordPress site, you need a plugin that calculates free slots from your working hours, records the booking and notifies both the client and the professional. With GDA Kraft Booking, the free plugin published by Global Digital Agency, you describe your services and staff members, then place the form on a page with Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi 5 or a shortcode. This article helps you prepare the project; the step-by-step setup is detailed in Setting up appointments.

What is an online appointment booking system?

An online appointment booking system is a form that shows, in real time, the times that are still free and lets the client book one without calling. It replaces the paper diary and the back-and-forth messages to agree on a date.

Three concepts come up everywhere:

• the service is what the client books (a session, a haircut, a consultation), with a duration and a price;
• the staff member is the person, or resource, who delivers the service and holds the schedule;
• the slot is a time offered, calculated automatically from the duration, the working hours and the appointments already booked.

One-to-one appointment or group session: what do you need?

Before configuring anything, identify the shape of your bookings. That choice determines everything else.

Group sessions are described in Group sessions, waiting list and reminders. If you are unsure whether you need nights or time slots, read Accommodation or appointments: which mode should you choose?.

Which decisions should you make before installing the plugin?

An appointment form is only as good as the rules it applies. Write down your answers to these questions before you start:

1. Which services do you offer, and how long do they really take (including preparation time)?
2. Who delivers them: you alone, or several staff members with different skills?
3. What are your working hours, your fixed breaks, your closure periods?
4. What minimum notice do you want between booking and appointment (for example 2 hours, or the day before)?
5. How far ahead can a client book (booking window)?
6. Automatic or manual confirmation: do you approve each request, or is the booking firm immediately?
7. Payment: nothing online, a deposit, or the full price at booking?
8. Cancellation: until when can clients reschedule or cancel themselves, and with what refund?

These choices directly affect no-shows and your workload. For no-shows, see How do you reduce no-shows?.

How does setup work with GDA Kraft Booking?

The complete process takes six steps:

1. Install and connect the plugin: download it from the Kraft GDA client area (free account, no bank card), install it, choose “Appointments (hourly services)” or “Both” in Kraft Booking › Settings (“BUSINESS MODE”), then connect the site. This edition includes appointment mode and online payment: no add-on to install. See Install and connect Kraft Booking.
2. Create your services in Kraft Booking › Services: duration, price, “Deposit at booking (%)”, buffers, “Grid interval (minutes)”, “Minimum notice (minutes)”, “Bookable up to (days)”, location or video link.
3. Create your staff members in Kraft Booking › Team and schedules, tick their services, enter their working hours and time off.
4. Set the general rules in Kraft Booking › Appointment settings: client cancellation and rescheduling deadline, automatic reminders, staff notification, booking page. The time zone is WordPress's.
5. Enable payments if you take payment online: see Enable Stripe payments.
6. Place the form on a page with your page builder, choosing its “Payment” option; the client chooses the service, the staff member (or “Doesn't matter”), then the slot.

How much does online appointment booking cost?

The plugin is free, with no subscription and no Pro version. Only payments collected online through Kraft Pay carry a service fee of 0.9%, reduced to 0.45% until 30 June 2027 under the launch offer. It is shown to the client on a “Service fee” line. Stripe's processing fees come on top according to Stripe's pricing.

If your form is set to “Without online payment (direct confirmation)” and you take payment on site, no service fee applies. Details are on the Pricing page.

How should you organise your pages?

A simple structure works for most businesses:

• a “Book an appointment” page with the full form, accessible from the main menu;
• one page per key service, with description, duration, price and how it runs, followed by the form pre-selected on that service;
• one page per staff member if your clients choose a specific person, with the form pre-selected on them;
• a short cancellation terms page, linked from the form and the emails.

The form can indeed be pre-selected on a service or a staff member, which saves the client an unnecessary step.

How do you test before opening bookings?

Before announcing the service, make several bookings yourself:

• a booking on a normal slot, then another just inside the minimum notice period (it must be refused);
• a booking during declared time off (no slot should appear);
• a cancellation through the link received by email, within the deadline and then after it;
• an online payment, if you have enabled it;
• receipt of the emails, including the reminder, in your own inbox and in someone else's.

GDA Kraft Booking is in public beta 0.1 (version 1.0 planned for June 2027): these tests are all the more useful before going live.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account to take appointments online?

Yes. Appointments require the free Kraft GDA account, from which you download the plugin; it includes everything, with no add-on to install. You can sign up at /en/inscription, with no bank card.

Do my clients need to create an account?

No. The client enters their details in the form and receives a secure link by email to view, reschedule or cancel their appointment according to your rules.

Can I approve appointments manually?

Yes. Validation depends on the service's “Linked establishment”: if its validation is “On request”, each request waits for you to click “Validate” in Kraft Booking › Appointments before being confirmed to the client.

Where do I check my appointments day to day?

In Kraft Booking › Appointments, which shows the day or the week, with a filter by staff member. Each staff member also has a private, read-only “iCal feed” to add to Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar.