Best Booking Software for Coaches (Paid Bookings)

Most booking tools were built for meetings. You need something built for getting paid.

There's a difference. When you're a coach — life coach, business coach, fitness coach, executive coach — your calendar is your income. Every session you book is a transaction. That means you need a tool that handles scheduling and payment in one place, sends reminders so clients actually show up, and doesn't look like a generic calendar widget when a prospect lands on your booking page.

This guide covers the best booking software for coaches who charge clients. We'll compare six tools on the things that actually matter: how payment works, what fees you'll pay, whether SMS reminders are included, and how professional your booking page looks.

What to Look for in a Booking Tool as a Coach

Before getting into specific tools, here's what separates a good coaching booking platform from a generic scheduling app:

Payment collection upfront. Chasing clients for payment after a session is a time drain and an awkward conversation. Your booking tool should collect payment at the time of booking — before the session happens.

0% or low commission. Some platforms take a percentage of every booking. On a $150 coaching session, even a 2% commission costs you $3 per client. At 20 sessions a month, that's $720/year going to the platform for doing nothing extra.

SMS reminders. Email reminders are table stakes. SMS reminders meaningfully reduce no-shows — text messages have a ~90% open rate versus ~25% for email. If a client forgets about a session, a well-timed text is what brings them back.

A professional-looking booking page. Your booking link is often the first impression a prospective client gets of how you operate. A polished page signals professionalism. A default-template scheduling widget does not.

Calendar and timezone handling. Coaching clients are often in different time zones. Your tool should handle this automatically so no one books the wrong time.

Flexible payment gateways. Stripe and PayPal work well in most of the world. If you're based in India or work with South Asian clients, Razorpay support matters.

With those criteria in mind, here are six tools worth considering.

1. Onbookr — Best for Coaches Who Charge Clients

Pricing: Flat monthly or yearly subscription
Commission: 0%
Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay
SMS reminders: Yes
Webhooks: Yes

Onbookr was built specifically for professionals who accept paid bookings — and coaches are exactly who that describes. The platform's core premise is simple: you pay a flat subscription, and Onbookr never takes a cut of what your clients pay you.

On a $150/session coaching package, 0% commission means $150 lands in your account (minus only standard payment processing fees). Over a full year of consistent bookings, that difference compounds.

What stands out for coaches:

Payment at booking. Clients pay when they book, not after. No invoicing, no chasing bank transfers, no awkward follow-ups.

SMS and email reminders. Both are included. Set reminders to fire 24 hours and 1 hour before a session and watch your no-show rate drop.

Premium profile templates. Onbookr's booking pages are built to look professional — not like a scheduling widget bolted onto someone else's platform. A live editor lets you preview exactly how your page looks to clients as you build it.

Branded QR code. If you speak at events, run workshops, or hand out business cards, Onbookr generates a QR code linked to your booking profile. One scan and a prospect lands directly on your booking page.

Razorpay support. If you're a coach based in India or working with clients there, Razorpay is often the most practical payment option. Onbookr is one of the few booking platforms that supports it.

The flat subscription model means costs are predictable. As your coaching practice grows and you take more bookings, your platform cost stays the same.

Best for: Coaches at any stage who want paid bookings with no commission, professional presentation, and SMS reminders built in.

2. Calendly — Best for Coaches Who Don't Charge Per Session

Pricing: Free; $11/seat/month (Standard); $20/seat/month (Teams)
Commission: None
Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal
SMS reminders: Higher plans

Calendly is the most recognized name in scheduling, and for good reason. It's polished, reliable, and easy to send to clients who've probably used it before.

For coaches, Calendly works well as a scheduling layer — particularly if you offer free discovery calls or want to manage your calendar across a team. Where it starts to strain is when payment becomes the priority.

Payment collection requires a paid plan, and Calendly's per-seat pricing adds up if you have even a small team. A three-person coaching business on the Teams plan costs $60/month before you've processed a single booking.

SMS notifications are available but aren't uniformly included across all paid plans — worth checking the current plan details before committing.

Calendly's strength is its integrations ecosystem: Zoom, Google Meet, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, and hundreds more. If your coaching practice runs on enterprise tools and you need everything connected, no platform matches Calendly's breadth.

Best for: Coaches whose primary use case is scheduling meetings and discovery calls, not collecting payment per session.

3. Acuity Scheduling — Best for Coaches Who Want Package and Subscription Billing

Pricing: From $20/month (Emerging); $34/month (Growing); $61/month (Powerhouse)
Commission: None
Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, Square
SMS reminders: Paid plans

Acuity Scheduling (now part of Squarespace) has been a popular choice for service-based businesses for years. For coaches specifically, it has one feature that stands out: the ability to sell packages and subscriptions, not just individual sessions.

If you sell a "12-session coaching package" rather than per-session bookings, Acuity handles that natively. Clients buy the package, and the sessions get loaded into their account to schedule over time.

The interface is functional but dated compared to newer platforms. The lowest tier ($20/month) is reasonable, though it limits client self-scheduling and some reminder features. SMS reminders require higher plans.

Acuity doesn't charge commission, which is a plus. The payment gateway selection is decent — Stripe, PayPal, and Square — though no Razorpay support.

Best for: Coaches who sell multi-session packages or recurring subscriptions rather than one-off bookings.

4. Cal.com — Best for Coaches Who Want an Open-Source Option

Pricing: Free (open-source self-hosted); Cloud plans from $15/month
Commission: None
Payment gateways: Stripe (on paid plans)
SMS reminders: Paid plans / self-configured

Cal.com is open-source scheduling software — the code is public, and you can self-host it entirely for free. For coaches comfortable with a bit of technical setup, this means a genuinely $0/month option.

The cloud-hosted version (cal.com's managed product) starts at $15/month and removes the self-hosting requirement. Payment collection via Stripe is available on paid plans.

Cal.com is actively developed and has a strong feature set. The tradeoff is that some polish and ease-of-use that comes standard in dedicated paid tools requires more configuration here. SMS reminders, in particular, take more setup than plug-and-play alternatives.

If budget is the top priority and you're comfortable with slightly more DIY configuration, Cal.com is worth evaluating. If you want everything to just work out of the box, you may find it takes longer to get up and running.

Best for: Budget-conscious coaches comfortable with some technical setup, or those who want full control over their data via self-hosting.

5. Setmore — Best for Coaches Who Want a Free Starting Point

Pricing: Free (up to 4 users); $12/user/month (Pro)
Commission: None (but payment requires Pro)
Payment gateways: Stripe, Square, PayPal
SMS reminders: Pro plan

Setmore's free plan is genuinely functional — not just a trial. You can manage bookings, set your availability, and share a booking page without paying anything. For a coach just starting out who isn't ready to commit to a paid platform, this is a reasonable starting point.

The catch: payment collection requires the Pro plan, and SMS reminders are also paywalled. So the features most relevant to a coach who charges clients aren't available for free.

At $12/user/month, Setmore Pro is competitively priced, though you're still on per-seat pricing rather than a flat subscription.

Best for: Coaches just starting out who want a no-cost option to test the waters before committing to a paid platform.

6. SimplyBook.me — Best for Coaches Who Want Extensive Customization

Pricing: Free (limited); paid plans from ~$9.90/month
Commission: None
Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, and many regional options
SMS reminders: Paid plans (SMS credits system)

SimplyBook.me positions itself as a highly customizable booking platform, and it delivers on that. The feature set is broad — intake forms, membership management, deposit collection, and a wide range of booking page customization options.

The interface takes time to learn. The sheer number of settings and "features" that need to be toggled on or off can be overwhelming for someone who just wants to set up a coaching booking page quickly.

SMS reminders work on a credit system rather than being included outright — you purchase credits, which adds a variable cost on top of the subscription fee.

The lower-priced plans are limited enough that you'll likely need a mid-tier plan to access the features that make it worthwhile.

Best for: Coaches who need highly specific customization — intake forms, deposits, membership features — and don't mind a steeper setup process.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Which Should You Choose?

If you charge per session and want 0% commission with the least friction: Onbookr. Flat pricing, SMS reminders included, Razorpay supported, professional-looking booking page out of the box.

If you mainly schedule calls and don't need payment collection: Calendly. Best integrations, most recognized brand, free tier available.

If you sell coaching packages or subscriptions: Acuity Scheduling handles multi-session packages natively.

If budget is the primary concern and you're comfortable with more setup: Cal.com's free tier is real and functional.

If you want to start free before committing: Setmore's free plan works, with the understanding that payment features cost extra.

If you need highly specific booking workflows: SimplyBook.me, once you're through the learning curve.

For most coaches who charge clients for their time, the tools that matter most — no commission, payment flexibility, SMS reminders, and a professional booking page — point clearly toward a platform built specifically for paid bookings.

If you're currently chasing bank transfers, sending manual reminders, or paying per-seat fees on a platform that wasn't designed for coaching income, it's worth switching.

You can also compare how these tools handle commission more broadly in our guide to booking software that doesn't take commission, or see the full landscape in our roundup of the best Calendly alternatives in 2026.

Ready to set up your coaching booking page?

View Onbookr pricing — flat subscription, 0% commission, SMS reminders included.