SimplyBook.me Alternative: FavCRM Booking Lite
SimplyBook.me is a capable, highly configurable booking platform, and for multi-staff businesses that need a lot of custom features it earns its place. But if you're a solo operator — one stylist, one trainer, one tutor — two things bite: the paid plans cap how many bookings you can take each month, and the setup asks you to assemble the system from a long menu of toggles before you can take your first appointment. If you searched "SimplyBook.me alternative," you probably aren't looking for fewer features. You're looking for the same job — a booking page, deposits, and reminders — without the booking ceiling and without the afternoon of configuration.
This is an honest comparison of the two, including where SimplyBook.me is the better pick.
TL;DR
| FavCRM Booking Lite | SimplyBook.me | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $9.90/mo flat | €11.90/mo (Basic, billed annually; €13.90 month-to-month) |
| Booking volume cap | None | Yes — 50/mo free, 100/mo on Basic, rising by tier |
| Setup time | ~10 minutes | Longer — assemble custom features first |
| Deposits / payments | Included | Included |
| Automated reminders | Included | Included |
| Commission per booking | None | None (extra bookings sold as $4/100 packages) |
| Best for | Solo / single-operator pros | Multi-staff, feature-heavy setups |
Both tools collect deposits and send reminders. The real differences are the booking ceiling and how much setup stands between you and your first appointment.
The part that catches solo operators off guard
SimplyBook.me prices by booking volume. Its free tier allows 50 bookings per month, the entry paid tier (Basic, €11.90/mo billed annually or €13.90 month-to-month) raises that to 100, and you climb to higher tiers — Standard at 500 bookings, Premium at 2,000 — and higher prices as you book more. You can also buy extra bookings in packages (around $4 per 100) when you run past your tier. For a busy solo operator, that's a moving cost: the better your month, the sooner you hit the cap and the more you pay to keep taking work.
That model makes sense for a platform built to scale across many staff and locations. It's awkward for one person with a full book. A single chair doing five appointments a day clears 100 bookings well inside a month — so the cheapest paid tier rarely lasts, and the price you actually live on is a tier or two up.
FavCRM Booking Lite is $9.90/mo flat with no booking cap and no commission. Whether you book 30 appointments or 300, the price is the same. There's nothing to upgrade for volume, no booking packages to top up, and nothing skimmed off each booking.
Setup: a long menu vs. ready out of the box
SimplyBook.me's strength — its configurability — is also what makes the first hour slow. It's built around "custom features" you switch on individually: deposits, intake forms, memberships, packages, and more. The lower tiers cap how many you can enable (one on Free, three on Basic), and you assemble the system yourself before it does the job you came for.
Booking Lite ships the common solo-operator setup ready to go: services, availability, staff schedule, a shareable booking page, deposit collection, automated reminders, a client list, and POS. You add your services and hours and you're live in about 10 minutes — no add-ons to hunt for, no feature budget to ration. If you want a fuller walkthrough of that setup, see our solo-salon booking guide.
When SimplyBook.me is the right choice
Be fair about this. SimplyBook.me is the better fit if:
- You run a multi-staff business with several calendars to coordinate.
- You need deep customization — memberships, packages, intake forms, classes, and granular booking rules.
- You expect to grow into its higher tiers and want one platform that scales with added features.
If that's you, the booking caps are just the cost of a system that does much more, and an alternative built for solo simplicity will feel thin.
Where FavCRM Booking Lite fits
Booking Lite is built for the opposite case: one person who wants to take bookings cleanly without running a configuration project or watching a meter.
- $9.90/mo flat — no booking volume caps, no per-booking commission.
- Complete out of the box — booking page, deposits, reminders, client list, and POS, with no add-ons to buy.
- Live in ~10 minutes — add services and hours, share your booking page, start taking appointments.
- Global — usable wherever you and your clients are.
It is a service-booking tool, not a meeting scheduler — built for appointments with deposits and reminders, not for syncing sales calls. If you're a trainer or a tutor specifically, we've written more focused guides for personal trainers and tutors.
FAQ
Is there a SimplyBook.me alternative without booking limits? Yes. SimplyBook.me caps bookings per month by tier — 50 on the free plan, 100 on the entry Basic plan, then 500 and 2,000 on higher tiers — so a busy solo operator climbs tiers as volume grows. FavCRM Booking Lite has no booking cap: $9.90/mo flat regardless of how many appointments you take.
How much does FavCRM Booking Lite cost compared to SimplyBook.me? Booking Lite is a flat $9.90/mo with no commission and no volume tiers. SimplyBook.me's entry Basic plan is €11.90/mo billed annually (€13.90 month-to-month) and limits you to 100 bookings per month; you pay more as you move up tiers to lift that cap.
Can I take deposits and send reminders on the cheaper plan? On Booking Lite, deposits, payments, and automated reminders are included in the single $9.90/mo plan — nothing to enable separately. SimplyBook.me supports these too, but on lower tiers you fit them within a limited number of custom features (one on Free, three on Basic).
How long does setup take? Booking Lite is designed to be live in about 10 minutes: add your services, set your hours, share the page. SimplyBook.me takes longer for a first-timer because you assemble custom features before going live — the trade-off for its deeper configurability.
Ready to try it? Start free — set up your services and share your booking page in about 10 minutes.
