Setmore review: To tell it sweet and short
The best thing about Setmore is its UI. It is easy to navigate, find features, and train on. The UI is free from distractions. They carry the same UI quality to their mobile app also. It is modern, which is a stark contrast from the mobile apps of popular appointment schedulers.
Setmore has live chat support, aided by knowledgeble reps and well-written help documentation.
They are priced affordably, and encourages larger teams with lower per staff pricing. Each staff will get their log ins and a calendar view of their appointments.
Setmore’s free plan is rich with integrations including Square payments. They also have integrations with almost all website builders, Slack, Instagram and Facebook.Setmore’s design is centered around the staff and is best for a business with relatively static schedules. The staff’s availability is checked and is accepted as the availability of the service the staff is assigned to. This is different from what Acuity Scheduling or a few other schedulers does. They consider availability separately and you can map it to a service or a staff. Setmore’s approach puts some constraints on setting up complex availabilities. For ex. If you want to pick random dates and make yourself available, you cannot do that.
Who is Setmore ideal for?
Setmore is good for small businesses in the service industry. It is the best for people who value UX and customer support and know what they need for their business, today and tomorrow. They are ideal when you have standard operating hours and staff hours. To put in another words, if you don’t have new services and schedule changes monthly, Setmore will ensure that you have a good time working with the app.
Setmore’s strength is its design, support, and integrations. If your scheduling needs can be met with Setmore, you will have a good time using the app.
Who will find Setmore limiting?
It is hard to figure out the exact audience of Setmore as they have focused on breadth of features than the depth of features. While they can be used by teams in sales, they do not have a pooled calendar view for you to the team appointments in a dashboard. They offer classes, but you cannot book multiple sessions in one go – like a dentist appointment which needs a few sessions. You can book multiple sessions but you cannot book for more than one person which is essential if you want to offer tours and travels where there is always a leader who books for a group. So, with Setmore, they try a lot of appointment scheduling use cases, but is not made with a specific customer segment in mind.
A few things that is different with Setmore
- No free trial, but a 30-day money back guarantee
- No Paypal integration
- No email customization
Setmore review: business model?
Setmore is part of AnywhereWorks and was founded in 2011. AnywhereWorks makes tools for promoting remote work. They are also committed to saving the environment by planting more trees. Setmore’s business model is reliant on these ideals. They generate leads via SEO, review sites, and other digital initiatives. They have lot of goodwill for their design, custoner support which is visible in the reviews. While there is some estimates about the company’s revenue, I could not find anything about the leadership team on their website. There we no interviews with the founders also. The CEO, Bryce Marrow, has given a couple of interviews which does not touch upon the Setmore story.
Viability of the company
Setmore has been there for a decade now. It has close to 600 employees including those of its parent company. Their tool is good, updated and customers like them. Though there is no self-acknowledge comment about their revenue, we can safely assume that they are doing well.
Setmore review: how do they fare on the basic features of a scheduler?
- Calendar sync – Setmore syncs two-way with Google and O365 calendars. It can sync one-way with Apple calendar. New appointments are added as busy events and existing events are marked unavailable in Setmore calendar. Some appointment schedulers allow you to read your availability from one external calendar and mark new appointments in another. In Setmore, you cannot do that.
- Availability – In Setmore, you set up availability for each staff. The staff’s availability is reflected in the services they are assigned to. If more than one staff are assigned to a service, you will see the pooled availability of the staff. You can add buffer time, time off and breaks to the schedule. Since staff has their log in credentials, they can log in and change their availability if the necessary permissions are enabled by the admin. There are options to enable double booking and off-hours booking. It would have given more flexibility if service-wise availability could be set up or if there was an option to create availability templates.
- Appointment types – Setmore has two types: Services and Classes.
- Services are one-on-one meetings: Services can be paid or free; private or public; online or offline. Services can be categorized to present them on the booking page. Ex. All hair treatments as one category.
- Classes allow more than one guest: You can create one or more sessions for each class. Customers can book the session they want to join. They cannot book multiple sessions or book for the class as a whole. Setmore’s Classes feature is useful for repeating sessions without continuity, like a city tour that starts every day, 8AM. It is not ideal for a 30-day dance class course.
- Sharing – Setmore has many ways for you to share your booking page with the customer, which includes embed code for your website, plugins for website builders, and social integrations.
- Booking page: It is very basic without any way to personalize it except for adding an image. However, the website follows a multiple tab layout and can accommodate much information about your business. At the time of review, they are revamping the booking page.
- Online meeting – Setmore has integrated with Teleport, a sister tool from their parent company. When video meeting is enabled for appointments, a link to join the video meeting is sent along with the confirmation email.
What are Setmore’s differentiating features?
Setmore, as I mentioned earlier, has tried to put their differentiation in the UI design, mobile app, plugins and integrations. A few other features that are handy:
- Mobile apps – This is the biggest differentiating point for Setmore. I have not seen another mobile app in the appointment scheduling world that is designed so well. The app has many functionalities as well that can match the web app.
- Cash register – This feature helps you to log cash payments from your customers in a simple way. You can enter payment details as part of the appointment record, and print an invoice.
- Reserve with Google – This allows you to get appointments directly from the Google search results page. Ex. If you are a salon and a customer new to your area does a search for local salons, along with a ‘Reserve a seat’ button. The appointment booking process happens right there on the page. The customer will not have to navigate to your page. Setmore handles the appointment booking but from the Google search results page.
- 24×7 live chat support even in the free plan – The support team is friendly, knowledgeable, and available.
- Setting up order of services: You can set an order of services for displaying on the booking page. This is important when you want to put your most popular service on top and get max appointments for that. It is an uncommon option in appointment scheduling apps.
What are Setmore’s Niche features?
I found these features quite interesting.
- Live Booking – This is a receptionist service offered in the Premium and Pro plans for US and Canada customers. Your customers can call a line and a team of agents will act as your receptionists to attend the call. I have not tried the feature myself but this is an interesting addition. It will help you to take calls even during your off-hours. While the appointment booking page is still available, some customers will want to call and book, even after work hours.
- Custom service cost and duration – You can use this feature when you want to edit the cost or duration of a service for a particular customer with whom you have agreed for customization.
Setmore mobile app review
I checked the Android vresion of the admin mobile app. Setmore’s mobile is the best in the market and is close to web app its functionality, and better than web app in its design and aesthetics. There is no need to run to your web app after every two clicks, which is what we see in other mobile apps. Setmore has close to 5000 reviews – a huge number in this market – on the play store and they are rated 4.4.
There are a few things that are special to the mobile app
- Push notification settings and rules – you can set up push notifications for you and staff for triggers related to appointments, staff and customers. There are two layouts to choose from for the push notification: standard and pop up
- Passcode lock – if you are using the Setmore App on a shared device, like an iPad placed at the counter, you want to protect unauthorized acces. You can set up a 4-digit passcode for the app. That way, you don’t have to log out and log in every time, you keep the iPad away to attend a customer who walks in or calls you.
- Widget settings – The mobile app allows you to create a widget for your phone. This widget can display your appointments in a neat little 3×2 window. You can scroll down to see if you have more appointments. You can filter out the appointments based on staff, classes, Google calendar events, O365 calendar events, and keep your widget very personal.
APIs
Setmore’s API is under construction. It is provided on request. Here are the modules you can play with using the APIs
- Services
- Staff
- Time slots
- Customers
- Appointments
Ease of use
Setmore is easy to use, thanks to its thoughtful UI design. The live chat support and the help documentation makes it easier. It is an achievement of Setmore that they are able to accommodate all the features in a visible way but not cramping it together.
Setmore review: booking experience for customer
- Appearance – The app’s design does not translate to the customer’s booking page. They were reworking it when I was evaluating the app. The booking page is functional and responsive for all devices. The webpage has a vertical tab for various modules like customers, staff, services and classes. The horizontal tab takes the customer through the booking process. The page displays your working hours.
- Customer Experience – The booking flow is usually one of these
- Select a service, booking time, enter details, and confirmation
- Select a staff, the service, booking time, enter details, and confirmation
- Log in – customers can log into a portal to book and manage their appointments. Also, they can manage their profile.
Setmore review: Help and support
Setmore’s help documentation covers all features, is search-friendly, clear and precise. I did not have to contact support after reading the help documentation of any feature. And, when and if I had a doubt beyond the help documentation, I contacted Setmore support team through the 24×7 live chat. They are awesome, quick to respond and always have answers.
Bugs spotted
I didn’t spot any errors during my evaluation of the product.
Privacy policy
You can read their privacy policy here.
Setmore review:pricing model
Setmore’s pricing is one of the simplest. There is a Free plan and a Paid plan. In the paid, plan if you want more than 3 users , you play lesser per user. The Free plan is rich in features, and therefore popular. However, you don’t get 2-way calendar sync in the Free plan.
Eventhough the premium plan is costing $9 per user per month, more than 2 users are not allowed. For 2 users, it will cost $18. It is economical to move to Pro plan when you need more than 1 user. 2 users in Premium plan will cost $18. 3 users in Pro plan costs only $15 and there is no other difference in the plans. Setmore live booking: If you for this option, you will get the Setmore paid plans included in it for $89 and the plans allow upto 4 users. Read here
Total cost of ownership
The total cost is the subscription costs of Setmore and the integrated apps that you use with it. If you are using Zapier or another iPaaS, you will need to add that subscription cost as well.
Setmore review: what will you get for FREE, for $15, for $50?
The usual pricing points for Appointment scheduler is around $15 per user per month. When you want to make a decision about your appointment scheduler, you might want to know what you get for $15. For ex. When you have two apps as your finalists, you want to know which gives you all that you need at the lowest pricing. It is also good to know what you will get for $50 if you have a larger budget.
| Features | Free | $15 | $50 |
| Users | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| Appointments | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| .iOS and Android Apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email reminders | 100 per month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| SMS reminders | No | Yes | Yes |
| Customized notifications | No | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring appointments | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Booking Page with unique URL | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zoom integration | No | Yes | Yes |
| Google and O365 2-way sync | No | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe | No | Yes | Yes |
| Other integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24×7 in-app support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
When pitted against the segment leader – comparison page and table
Setmore’s closest competitor is Acuity Scheduling. Here is a comparison of Setmore vs Acuity Scheduling.
Summary of other Setmore reviews
Most reviews appreciate Setmore for: UX, Support and Affordability.
The critical reviews are mostly about, in my words, about the depth of features. Somehow, it seems contradictory on Setmore’s part when they
- Design the app so well but leave the customer booking page very basic
- Offer email reminders but do not offer personalization for it
- Offers classes but you cannot book multiple sessions in one go
- Offer online payment but when the appointment is booked from the customer’s side, there is no way to send a payment link. And, no Paypal integration.
- You can add multiple staff to a service but there is no combined calendar view
- Provide a summary of revenue from appointments and staff but do not have a detailed reporting module.
The general opinion that I can get after reading customer reviews is that when Setmore releases a feature to solve a need or use case, they miss covering certain aspects of that need or use case.
Rating
Setmore is the appointment scheduling app for you if you value UI, Support, affordability, integrations, and mobile experience. Setmore is also a company with commitment to environment and well-being of the planet and humans.
Long term Setmore review
Often, you will find that the product that you started using with full conviction is not the one you need now, after a few years. The reasons could be that it is not able to scale, or the total cost of ownership goes enormous, the support is bad, there are no updates.
Our long term review is a way to observe how a product and the company behind it behaved in the last one year. This is an important read if you are buying the product for a longer term. Read our long term review about Setmore.