Guide · Updated October 8, 2026 · Lukáš Březina
How to add online booking to your website for free
The simplest free way is a Google Calendar appointment schedule. You set your available hours once. Google shows customers only the open slots, puts every booking in your calendar and emails you both a confirmation. A free Google account gets you one booking page, and it goes on your website as a single "Book now" button.
Do you need a booking calendar or just a contact form?
If you're happy to collect requests and call people back ("send us a request and we'll confirm"), a simple contact form is enough and easier. A booking calendar is worth it when the customer should pick a real free time and take it on the spot:
- Appointments — haircuts, massages, nails, pet grooming, photo sessions.
- Consultations and estimates — a 30-minute call or an on-site visit.
- Classes and workshops where each slot can be taken only once.
What's free in Google Calendar, and what needs a paid plan?
With a free personal Google account (the one you use for Gmail) you get:
- One booking page. Enough for one business with one kind of appointment.
- No double bookings. If your calendar already has something at that time, the slot disappears from the booking page.
- Confirmation emails to you and the customer, with a calendar invite they can save, cancel or reschedule from.
- No account needed to book. Your customers don't need a Google account.
Google lists these as premium: more than one booking page, automatic email reminders before the appointment, checking several calendars for conflicts, taking payment when someone books (through Stripe), and verifying the customer's email to stop spam bookings. They come with Google One Premium, Google AI Pro or Ultra, Google Workspace Individual, and Workspace Business Standard or higher. Note that Workspace Business Starter gets the same single booking page as a free account.
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How to set up a free booking page in Google Calendar
Plan on about fifteen minutes. You'll need a computer — Google doesn't let you create appointment schedules in the phone app. Our example is a café that takes sign-ups for a two-hour latte art class.
- Start a schedule. In Google Calendar, click Create (top left) and choose Appointment schedule.
- Name it and set the length. Use the name customers will see, like "Latte art class", and pick how long one appointment lasts.
- Set when you're available. Under General availability, tick the days and hours, for example Tuesday and Wednesday, 12 to 6 pm, every week. Google cuts that window into slots on its own: a two-hour class gives you 12, 2 and 4 pm. Closed for a holiday? Change just that day under Adjusted availability.
- Set how far ahead and how last-minute. In the Scheduling window, choose how far in advance people can book (say 60 days) and the minimum notice (say 24 hours, so nobody books this afternoon).
- Add breathing room. Under Booked appointment settings, add a buffer between appointments for cleanup, and a maximum number of bookings per day if you don't want a whole day of them.
- Choose the place and the questions. Pick in person (with your address), a phone call or a video call, and write a sentence or two of description. In the booking form, add any question you need, like "How many people?" or "Which service?".
- Check the preview, save, and copy the link. Open the booking page to see what customers see. Then click the schedule's name, choose Share, and copy the booking page link. That link is all your website needs.
How do I put the booking page on my website?
Add a button that says "Book now" (or "Book a class", "Get an estimate") and point it at the link you copied. Clicking it opens your booking page, the customer picks a time, fills in their name and email, and confirms. Put the button where people look for it: near the top, next to your prices, and in the menu. Google's share options also give you code to embed the calendar inside a page, but a plain button is simpler and works the same on phones.
Google Calendar vs Calendly, Square and Acuity
Prices checked October 8, 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars, before tax. Square also charges card processing fees on payments.
When do you need a dedicated booking tool instead?
Google Calendar is great for one person and one kind of appointment. Move to a real booking system like Square Appointments or Acuity when:
- You have several staff. A salon where the client picks the stylist needs a calendar per chair.
- No-shows cost you money. Deposits and card-on-file no-show fees need a payment-aware tool.
- You offer many services with different lengths and prices, or packages and memberships.
- You want text reminders. The free Google Calendar version sends none.
The website side doesn't change: every one of these tools gives you a booking link, and the button on your site simply points to it.
Adding booking to a WebSmoothly site
If your site runs on WebSmoothly, you don't touch any code. Send the link as one edit, in the portal chat or from ChatGPT or Claude: "Add a Book now button next to the prices and in the menu, and point it to this link." The change shows up in a preview first, and you publish it when it looks right. It works the same with a Calendly, Square or Acuity link. If you're a salon, we wrote more about what a salon website needs.
Where we're weaker
A WebSmoothly site doesn't have its own booking engine. It links to the tool you choose, so the booking rules, reminders and payments live there, not with us. For most small businesses that's the right split. If you need booking deeply built into a custom site, with your own rules and logins, that's a developer's job.
Questions people ask
- Is Google Calendar appointment booking really free?
- Yes, with a personal Google account you get one booking page at no cost. Reminders, payments and more booking pages need a paid Google plan.
- Do my customers need a Google account to book?
- No. They pick a time, enter their name and email, and confirm. They get a confirmation email with a calendar invite.
- Can customers pay a deposit when they book?
- Not on the free Google Calendar version. Square Appointments includes deposits on its free plan; Calendly and Acuity take payments on their paid plans.
- Will the free version send reminders?
- No, only the confirmation. Automatic reminders need a premium Google plan, or a tool like Square Appointments, which includes them for free.
How we checked
We set up a Google Calendar booking page ourselves for a demo café website and followed the steps above. Free and premium features come from Google's own Calendar help pages, and prices from the pricing pages of Calendly, Square and Acuity, all checked on October 8, 2026. Menu names in Google Calendar change now and then. If something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we'll fix the page.
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