Bizzly vs SimplyBook.me: Two Different Approaches
Both Bizzly and SimplyBook.me handle online booking for service businesses. That is where the similarity ends. SimplyBook.me is a scheduling platform with over 60 optional add-on features. Bizzly is a bundled platform combining a fully flexible website editor, booking system, and a subscription and term billing engine in one.
The question for buyers is straightforward: do you want a modular tool where you pick the features you need, or an all-in-one platform where everything comes included? This article compares both approaches with verified pricing and features: Bizzly checked in July 2026, SimplyBook.me in March 2026.
At a Glance
Bizzly vs SimplyBook.me: Feature Comparison
| Feature | Bizzly | SimplyBook.me |
|---|---|---|
| Full website builder | Booking page builder | |
| Custom domain | Pro plan | Add-on (€119 one-off) |
| Online booking | ||
| Booking widget for external sites | ||
| Subscription billing | Via Membership add-on | |
| Term and season billing | ||
| One-off payments | ||
| Automated invoicing | Via Stripe | |
| Card payments (Stripe) | Multiple gateways | |
| Client management | (Profiles + HubSpot CRM) | |
| Intake / contact forms | (Registration + HubSpot forms) | |
| Discount codes | Via Stripe promotion codes | |
| Gift cards | ||
| Loyalty points system | ||
| Waiting list | Standard plan+ | |
| WhatsApp AI agent | (Standard plan+) | |
| WhatsApp notifications | Via WhatsApp AI | |
| AI Voice Booking | ||
| SMS notifications | Standard plan+ | |
| Google Calendar sync | ||
| Outlook Calendar sync | ||
| Reserve with Google | ||
| Facebook/Instagram booking | ||
| SEO tools | Basic | |
| Google Business Profile integration | Standard plan+ integration | |
| Google Analytics | Standard plan+ | |
| Mobile admin app | Web app | |
| WordPress plugin | ||
| API access | ||
| White label | Badge removal (Pro) | Add-on |
| Free plan | 50 bookings/month | |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| UK pricing (GBP) |
Bizzly: The Bundled Platform
Bizzly targets solo operators and small service-based SMBs. It bundles website building, online booking, subscription and term billing, Stripe invoicing and receipts, and client management into a single monthly subscription. No add-ons, no feature slots, no per-feature charges.
The website editor is a genuine differentiator, and it is on every plan. It is a fully flexible drag-and-drop editor with templates for 12+ service verticals (cleaning, beauty, fitness, tutoring, trades, and more) and 26 components you place page by page, including the booking calendar, timetable, plans, store and cart, testimonials, forms, and the whole customer portal as a drop-in block. You get per-element styling down to a raw CSS inspector, a global theme with custom colours, per-page SEO with a SERP preview, page version snapshots, a media library with stock photos, and AI page create and refine. The editor itself is desktop-based and there is no custom-code injection. Base and Standard plan users get a yourname.bizzly.net subdomain. Pro plan users can connect a custom domain.
Billing is built into every plan and runs two models side by side. Clients can subscribe to recurring service packages with booking quotas, or buy session packs with expiry, one-off term and holiday-camp packs (mid-term joiners pay a pro-rated price, and camps can be sold whole or per day), and season subscriptions that roll members into the next season automatically with configurable cancellation policies. Capacity is held during checkout so packs cannot oversell. Because billing and booking are one system, clients can only book what their active plan, pack or credits cover, and lapsed payment blocks new bookings automatically. Everything is managed from a customer portal that also handles pausing, plan changes, policy-driven cancellation with a live refund quote, receipts, and purchase history.
Day-to-day admin is covered too: per-session attendance registers with Present, Late and Absent marking, a note per mark and a printable register sheet; waitlists that automatically offer a freed place to the next client with a time-limited claim link; free trial sessions as bookable services (waitlists and trials are Standard and above); client profiles for children, pets or vehicles under one payer with custom registration forms; staff bookings on behalf of a client; and review requests by SMS magic link that publish straight to the site.
The Standard and Pro plans include a WhatsApp AI assistant (500 messages a month on Standard, 2,000 on Pro) that books and cancels sessions, searches availability including recurring slots, suggests alternatives, joins and checks waitlists, answers account, subscription and invoice questions, raises support tickets, and answers business FAQs from a knowledge base, 24/7 with OTP-verified customer authentication. It cannot reschedule in place; it cancels and rebooks. HubSpot Forms are pre-integrated into website templates for contact and service enquiries, and HubSpot CRM integration is included for client management. Google Calendar sync and SEO tools are included, and Google Business Profile integration and Google Analytics come in on Standard and above.
Where Bizzly falls short
No free plan. No gift cards and no loyalty points scheme (discount codes are covered, through Stripe promotion codes, which is also how sibling and family discounts are applied, but they have to be issued and entered rather than detected automatically). No Facebook or Instagram booking integration. No Reserve with Google. No AI voice booking. No mobile admin app (it is a responsive web app, not a native app). No Outlook Calendar sync. If any of these are critical to your workflow, SimplyBook.me covers them. One more limit worth knowing: clients cannot reschedule themselves on the web portal, they cancel and rebook, although staff can move a booking for them.
- Pricing: £19 to £49/month, flat. No add-on fees. 14-day trial, no credit card.
- Best for: Service, class and term-based businesses that want website + booking + subscription and term billing in one place
SimplyBook.me: The Modular Scheduler
SimplyBook.me is one of the most established online booking platforms globally. It serves a wide range of industries from beauty salons to medical clinics to driving schools. The platform is built around a base scheduling system with over 60 optional “custom features” that you add based on what your business needs.
The free plan includes 50 bookings per month and 1 service provider. The Basic plan at £10.9/month (pricing as of March 2026) bumps that to 100 bookings and lets you activate 3 custom features. The Standard plan at £20.8/month gives 500 bookings and 8 custom feature slots.
Custom features include intake forms, online payments, deposits, coupons, gift cards, a loyalty system, a waiting list, membership subscriptions, WhatsApp notifications, and AI Voice Booking (where clients book by speaking to an AI over the phone). The modular approach is flexible. You only activate what you need, and you can swap features in and out.
SimplyBook.me has strong social media integrations. Reserve with Google puts your booking button directly into Google Search results and Maps. Facebook and Instagram booking lets clients book from your social profiles without leaving the platform. These are genuine advantages for businesses that get most of their traffic from search and social media.
Where SimplyBook.me falls short
No full website builder. The booking page builder creates functional but limited pages focused on appointment selection. No subscription billing engine (the Membership add-on is more limited). No automated invoicing. No WhatsApp AI agent for handling conversations. The feature slot system means you may need to choose between features you want. On the Basic plan with 3 slots, activating payments, intake forms, and Google Calendar sync uses all your slots with nothing left for coupons or the waiting list.
Setup is also significantly more complex than most platforms in this space. SimplyBook.me has over 60 custom features, each with its own configuration. Getting everything working the way you want takes considerable time and effort. SimplyBook.me sells an onboarding service for this reason. If you are not technically confident, factor in that setup cost or time investment.
- Pricing: Free (50 bookings), Basic £10.9/month (3 features), Standard £20.8/month (8 features). Annual billing.
- Best for: Businesses that primarily need scheduling with selective add-ons
Pricing Comparison
| Item | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bizzly Base | £19/month | 50 bookings/month, 1 calendar, 10 website pages, attendance registers, review requests, email support. No add-on fees. |
| Bizzly Standard | £29/month | 200 bookings/month, 3 calendars, 15 website pages, WhatsApp AI (500 messages), waitlists, free trial sessions, 50 SMS, priority support. |
| Bizzly Pro | £49/month | Unlimited bookings and calendars, unlimited pages, custom domain, branded emails, merch store, per-venue pricing, 200 SMS/month. |
| SimplyBook.me Free | £0/month | 50 bookings/month, 1 provider, limited custom features. |
| SimplyBook.me Basic | £10.9/month | 100 bookings/month, 3 custom features (add-ons). Annual billing. |
| SimplyBook.me Standard | £20.8/month | 500 bookings/month, 8 custom features. Annual billing. |
Total cost of ownership
SimplyBook.me's sticker price is lower. But a service business typically needs more than scheduling. Consider the full stack:
- SimplyBook.me Standard + Wix Core + Xero Starter: £20.8 + £16 + £15 = £51.80/month for scheduling, a website, and invoicing
- Bizzly Standard: £29/month for scheduling, a website, Stripe invoicing, and subscription and term billing
If you only need scheduling and already have a website and invoicing sorted, SimplyBook.me is the cheaper option. If you are starting from scratch and need everything, Bizzly bundles it for less than the combined cost of separate tools.
When to Choose Each
Choose Bizzly if:
- You need a website and booking system in one
- Your business sells recurring subscriptions or packages
- You run terms, seasons or holiday camps and need registers, waitlists and trial sessions
- You want flat monthly pricing with no add-on decisions
- You prefer a WhatsApp AI assistant for handling enquiries and bookings
Choose SimplyBook.me if:
- You already have a website and just need scheduling
- Social media bookings (Facebook, Instagram, Reserve with Google) matter to you
- You want a free plan to start with
- Gift cards, a loyalty points system, or AI voice booking are important
- You need a native mobile admin app
- You prefer to pick only the features you actually use
Verdict
SimplyBook.me is the better pure scheduling tool. It has more integrations, more platforms, and a modular design that lets you build exactly the feature set you want. Bizzly is the better all-in-one platform for service businesses that need subscription or term billing, registers and waitlists, and a website alongside their booking system. Neither is universally better. The right choice depends on whether you want a single tool that does everything or the flexibility to bolt together a custom stack.
Compare Bizzly plans on the pricing page.