
Square Appointments - hodgesmr
https://squareup.com/appointments
======
alberth
Why would I pay $90/mo [1] with Square when I can pay for the same services
and features directly from BookFresh for just $20/mo [2]?

In case you are not aware, Square purchased BookFresh back in February [3].

I think it's a safe assumption that Square Appointments is just rebranded
BookFresh

[1]
[https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing](https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing)

[2] [https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing](https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing)

[3] [http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-
bookfresh-t...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-to-
add-booking-services-for-merchants/)

EDIT: links

~~~
opendais
If they stop marketing BookFresh...people don't buy what they don't know
about, eh?

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sleepyhead
Square bought BookFresh in February. [http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-
acquires-bookfresh-t...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-
bookfresh-to-add-booking-services-for-merchants/)

------
anishkothari
Thanks HN for these comments.

I was looking for an appointment SaaS for a dental office and was only aware
of ZocDoc[0] which charges a steep $300 per month.

[0][http://www.zocdoc.com](http://www.zocdoc.com)

~~~
crapshoot101
ZocDoc's offerings are a little different - they are essentially doing patient
scheduling and marketing/outreach for you, and getting doctors / dentists new
patients (from what I understand about patient economics, about 1 a month
justifies the spend).

~~~
anishkothari
ZocDoc is certainly different, but for a small office $240 a year is easier to
digest than $3600 a year. If it's for a group practice, then it's a different
story. I don't think ZocDoc is particularly great with marketing and outreach,
it's basically Yelp + appointment scheduling.

~~~
joseman
I can comment on both ZocDoc as I have second hand experience with a DDS that
uses it. ZocDoc handles marketing and DRIVES patients to book appointments by
showcasing them on their website and mobile apps. It doesn't guarantee new
patients, but younger demographic of people DO prefer to use it over the phone
call method. Dentists also get reviews from verified patients, which builds
credibility (vs Yelp reviews from anyone).

I see value in Square Appointments because they're enabling scheduling
management and communications on web and mobile. So an underutilized small
business website can now add that capability. Pricing is competitive. It's the
cost of doing business.

Another note. An API would be useful.

Great post. Looking forward to integrating this for a DDS.

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kin
Most of the comments here seems to be about the pricing. IMO if you're a small
business, the pricing is fair. Yes, competition may be better/cheaper but keep
in mind that Square is trying to create an entire platform here. They've got
payments, point of sale, invoicing, and analytics.

------
spitfire
So I wonder what ran through patio11's mind when he read that...

Though it is an all or nothing proposition - you can't take just the
appointment reminding features and leave everything else.

~~~
patio11
Prior to reading this my top of mind worry was wondering if I'll make it up
Mt. Fuji today. After reading this, it still is.

~~~
dennisgorelik
[https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org](https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org)
"This site has relatively low traffic."

[https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com](https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com)
Jun 2014 Unique Visitors: 1,403,543

Don't you worry about squareup consuming all the oxygen in your room?

~~~
tptacek
This is an object lesson about customer segmentation and about purchasing
intent.

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VLM
Is there any automation of the common yet difficult problem of "your dentist /
hair stylist / doctor has called in sick today and we're trying to reschedule
all of todays appointments". This is not all that unusual. My wife's hair
stylist was sick two appointments ago and my kids pediatrician office
(windowless) had a summer time air conditioning failure.

Its not in the PR page so I assume its not handled although this would be a
very handy feature. "One click reschedule everyone for today"

------
yalogin
Why is it not free? These additional features are to lure you in to using the
payment platform and lock businesses in. More so I need end-users to also
install the square app to use this feature. So there is that additional
friction as well. This is really not something they should be charging for.

~~~
logn
If you have enough business that you need a scheduling solution, I don't think
$90/mo for all-you-can-eat SaaS is anything businesses would think twice
about. Actually, I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free and always
makes me question what the catch is (probably that you'll end up with your
data in some next-gen consumer credit scoring system).

~~~
subpixel
> I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free

My assumption has always been that this cannot last. That said, if it's only
free when you're using another paid Square product, that could be a really
interesting approach.

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Macsenour
I'm interested in this new wrinkle, and always looking for something that will
help out my day. But is $30 a month, for a single person, a competitive
pricing plan?

~~~
ceejayoz
For some businesses, that's going to be paid for in the first day or two if
it's able to reduce no-shows.

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drsim
I shopped around for a service like this a week ago.

We went with Setmore: [http://www.setmore.com](http://www.setmore.com). Clean
design, their branding is subtle on the free tier, multiple staff/services,
ical, and most of all it's extremely easy for customers to create/re-
schedule/cancel appointments.

Over Square Appointments I'd say their pricing is much more keen (substantial
free tier, $25/month premium).

------
wahsd
Another example of Google squandering a good thing. They had appointments
built into calendar, pushed Google apps to businesses, then promptly shut down
appointments.

I just recently noticed They slipped appointments back in to Google Apps
Calendar, but it's still just wonky and not integrated well in typical Google
fashion.

~~~
shliachtx
I don't think Google is interested in getting into this business...

~~~
wahsd
They are inherently in this business through Google Apps, they even offer the
appointment making feature and functionality. It's just poorly executed, just
like so much at Google.

~~~
shliachtx
I.e. they don't care about this as a product, do they don't invest in it.

------
victorhooi
I wonder why there don't seem to be many open-source options in this space?

I did a Google before, but I could only find a single option -
[https://code.google.com/p/easy-appointments/](https://code.google.com/p/easy-
appointments/), a PHP app.

Is anybody aware of any others?

~~~
sleepyhead
Disclaimer: I develop [http://makeplans.net](http://makeplans.net) which is
also an online appointment booking solution (SaaS).

I don't think any of our clients would be interested in hosting their own
software. Most of our clients don't even have an IT-department. But sure there
is a market for open-source solutions as well. Particularly if you need
customisation or to be integrated with offline applications. But with a good
API and API-connecting services like Zapier integration is becoming less and
less a valid point to host your own software.

I never heard about Easy Appointments before, thanks for the link it actually
does look quite good unlike most other open source business applications.
There a few other open source solutions out there but it is more like
Wordpress plugins.

------
BruLee
Congrats to Square on their new product. Execution looks a bit "cheap" but I'm
sure they will be working hard on it.

I recommend [https://www.appointlet.com](https://www.appointlet.com) for
online appointment scheduling.

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ankurpatel
Seems like they are competing with MyTime -
[http://www.mytime.com](http://www.mytime.com). The only thing they lack is
good search to find businesses

~~~
bitonomics
This opens the door for them to compete with a lot of these platforms. Since
they already have the hardware on site (iPad) they start to become a
competitor for StyleSeat, MyTime, Noshlist, NoWait, etc.

~~~
ankurpatel
Yes the greatest advantage SquareUp has is that they already have a list of
clients that they can advertise this to. Clients that might be using their
SquareUp credit card processing system.

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rglover
Isn't this what patio11's Appointment Reminder essentially does?

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hayksaakian
Competing with appointment reminder now ;)

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chiph
My barber uses Appointy.

[http://appointy.com/](http://appointy.com/)

------
bitonomics
It's really cool to the additional value being added tot he platform outside
of payments.

