Looking for a free booking system — where do they actually get you on price?

We fell for a 'free' platform last year. Took us three months to realize they were charging a 1.20 EUR booking fee per appointment and we were spending 35 EUR a month just on SMS credits. We switched to a clean tool with a flat 25 EUR monthly fee and cut our software costs in half.

Before you pick a system, jump into the test dashboard and try exporting customer data to CSV. If the export button is greyed out or tells you to upgrade, run. They will hold your client list hostage.

There are 3 usual suspects where they extract cash: 1) Mandatory paid SMS credits for appointment reminders, 2) hefty transaction fees if you take payments online, 3) hard caps on syncing calendars for more than one staff member.

Nobody gives away software for free, unfortunately. They either run ads to your clients and funnel them elsewhere, or the second your schedule fills up, they say 'limit reached' and hit you with double the standard market price.

we used a free one at first too and then they wouldn't let us export the client base to excel but anyway had to rebuild from scratch there really is no such thing as a free lunch tbh.

Since you provide health and massage services in Germany, patient/client data privacy is a top priority. I advise against making a decision before verifying from a legal standpoint whether free systems include a data processing agreement (AVV) and whether the data is hosted on EU servers.

Spending days hunting for a free system for a three-person business just to dodge a 30-40 EUR monthly software cost doesn't make much sense to me. If two clients get double-booked or the system crashes the money you lose will be more than a full year's subscription.

I felt relieved reading this answer, so it's not just me. Payment schedules should be tied to project phases, not calendar dates.

Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently. If you have questions, write them; I'll answer as best I can.

My perspective changed after experiencing that. Code without setup documentation isn't yours, even if you have it.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

Generally correct, but one part is missing. Access credentials should be opened in the company's name, not personal accounts.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

I've been dealing with this for a long time. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

I'd say don't rush. Hasty decisions become decisions you have to fix six months later.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

Don't miss this: If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

If you post the result here, it will help others too.

I agree with this. Access credentials should be opened in the company's name, not personal accounts.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Let me summarize the topic, since several different answers were given. Start with a small trial; don't commit to everything at once.

Proven by experience.

How did you solve this? If code ownership isn't in the contract, you have no bargaining power when leaving.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

I completely agree. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Most time waste accumulates in tasks waiting for approval. Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

there's a common mistake people make when doing this. anyway the system lives on after delivery; maintenance is a separate line item.