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Bookwhen or BookBookNow? A like-for-like look for UK classes.
Bookwhen and BookBookNow are both UK booking systems for classes, and both list their plan prices with tax on top. Bookwhen does more for courses, passes, memberships, vouchers and online classes; BookBookNow lets you take paid bookings on its free plan for a commission, gives you a designed booking site with your own domain on paid plans, and lets clients pick an appointment time from your weekly hours.
Two UK booking systems with tax shown on top
This comparison is for a UK teacher or small studio taking bookings for classes and workshops, with card payments. Bookwhen was founded in Oxford; BookBookNow is run by a UK limited company. Both show plan prices with tax on top: Bookwhen prints the VAT amount beside each price, and ours are shown + tax, with UK VAT at 20% added at checkout. Both offer a yearly price at ten months' cost, so the yearly saving is not a difference between them.
Where Bookwhen fits better
- Courses. Bookwhen sells course tickets, which can be prorated as dates pass. With us, each booking is for one session, so a six-week course is booked one week at a time.
- Passes, memberships and vouchers. Bookwhen lists passes and vouchers on Standard and Plus, and memberships on its monthly Standard and Plus plans. We do not sell any of them.
- Online classes. Bookwhen has a Zoom integration that creates meetings and emails attendees, and a YouTube and Vimeo integration for video on demand. We send one fixed meeting link per service and host no video.
- Paying later or a deposit. Bookwhen offers a "pay later" option alongside online payments, and its Help Centre shows how to sell a deposit as a ticket and collect the rest yourself. Our clients pay the full price online when they book; only bookings you make yourself can be marked unpaid.
- Other languages and an API. Bookwhen lists several languages and an API. Our booking sites are in English, and we have no public API.
- Charities. Bookwhen offers 20% off to charities and non-profits.
Where BookBookNow is different
Paid bookings on the free plan
Bookwhen's free plan is for free events only. Our Free plan takes card payments with no Stripe account: there is no monthly fee; card payments we collect cost 6.5% + 20p* each.
A designed site on your own domain
Five templates in four styles, your colours and fonts, and a page for every class date. Point your own domain at it with one DNS record.
On Starter, Studio and Pro
Appointment times from your weekly hours
Clients pick any free time from your weekly hours, with buffers and minimum notice, on the same calendar as your classes. Bookwhen's Help Centre sets 1-2-1 sessions up as fixed-time slots, enquiries or password-protected sessions.
No monthly booking limit
Bookwhen plans include 50 to 1,800 bookings a month. Ours have no booking limit; what they limit is email, which includes confirmations and reminders.
Plan by plan, paying monthly
| BookBookNow | Bookwhen | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free: no monthly fee; card payments we collect cost 6.5% + 20p* each | £0 "forever" |
| Paid bookings on the free plan | Yes, collected by us for a commission | "Free events only" |
| First paid plan | Starter: £15.00 a month + tax | Lite: £12 + £2.40 VAT per month |
| First plan with a waitlist | Studio: £29.00 a month + tax | Standard: £19 + £3.80 VAT per month |
| Top self-serve plan | Pro: £49.00 a month + tax | Plus: £39 + £7.80 VAT per month |
| Bookings a month | No limit on any plan | Free 50, Lite 300, Standard 800, Plus 1,800 |
| Emails a month | Free 300, Starter 1,000, Studio 3,000, Pro 10,000 | Not listed |
| Team logins | Free 1, Starter 1, Studio 3, Pro 10 | Free 1, Lite 2, Standard 5, Plus 10 team members |
| Classes and services | Free 5, Starter 20, Studio Unlimited, Pro Unlimited | Paid plans: "Unlimited locations & classes" |
| Booking sites or pages | One booking site per account | Free 1, Lite 1, Standard 3, Plus 6 booking pages |
| Trial | 14-day free trial on paid plans, card taken at sign-up; no card needed on Free | Two free weeks, no credit card required |
| Leaving | Move to Free or close your site from your admin; a move to Free takes effect at the end of the period you paid for | No minimum term, no notice period, no cancellation fee |
| Waitlist | First person offered the place by email and given 12 hours: On Studio and Pro | Standard and Plus; you choose how long people have to respond |
| Reminder emails | Every plan | Standard and Plus |
| Discount codes | On Studio and Pro | Paid plans ("Payments & Discounts") |
| Check-in | QR check-in from a phone: On Starter, Studio and Pro | Attendance tracking on Standard and Plus |
| Appointments | Every plan: clients pick a time from your weekly hours, on one calendar per site | 1-2-1 sessions set up as fixed-time slots for one person, enquiries or password-protected sessions (Help Centre); plan not stated |
| Courses in one booking | No – one session per booking | Course tickets; plan not stated |
| Memberships | No | Standard and Plus (monthly) |
| Passes or class credits | No | Standard and Plus |
| Vouchers | No | Standard and Plus |
| Deposits or paying later | No – full price online; your own desk bookings can be marked unpaid | "Pay later" offline option; a deposit can be sold as a ticket, with the balance collected by you (Help Centre, Lite and above) |
| Zoom | No – one fixed meeting link per service | Lite, Standard and Plus |
| Website | Your own domain: On Starter, Studio and Pro ; embeddable timetable: On Studio and Pro | Own domain not listed; iframe or API website integration on every plan |
| Staff calendars or booking a named teacher | No | Not listed |
| Text reminders | No | Not listed |
| App for clients | No app; web booking and phone tickets | No native app listed; "web-based app" built mobile-first |
| Card payments at the desk | No | In-person (Terminal) card rates listed |
Bookwhen figures are quoted from its own pages as viewed from the UK on 14 September 2026. Prices exclude card processing fees on both sides; our prices are before tax and Bookwhen shows its VAT amount. "Not listed" means we could not find it on those pages, not that it does not exist. Bookwhen is a trade mark of its owner; BookBookNow is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bookwhen. Report an error to bookings@bookbooknow.com and we reply within 5 working days.
Paying yearly
| BookBookNow | Bookwhen | |
|---|---|---|
| First paid plan | Starter: £150.00 a year + tax (2 months free) | Lite: £120 + £24 VAT per year ("2 months free") |
| First plan with a waitlist | Studio: £290.00 a year + tax (2 months free) | Standard: £190 + £38 VAT per year |
| Top self-serve plan | Pro: £490.00 a year + tax (2 months free) | Plus: £390 + £78 VAT per year |
You choose monthly or yearly when you sign up with us, and can switch in Admin → Billing. Our yearly plans are paid up front, and the unused part is not refunded if you cancel mid-year. Bookwhen's yearly Standard and Plus lists show passes and vouchers but do not print "Memberships", so check with Bookwhen if you need memberships on a yearly plan.
Card fees on each payment
Bookwhen's pricing page says "Your plan price is your only Bookwhen subscription cost"; each online payment carries a processing fee from the provider you choose. Through Bookwhen × Stripe, Bookwhen's fee article lists 1.50% + £0.20 for standard UK cards and 2.80% + £0.20 for premium UK cards. Accounts that used Stripe before 26 August 2026 are likely still on Stripe Legacy, where Stripe sets the fee, and your own PayPal account is billed by PayPal. Free bookings and bookings marked paid offline carry no fee.
With us there are two ways to take cards:
Your own Stripe account
Paid straight into your Stripe account.
Connect the Stripe account you have, or open one through us. Clients pay by card when they book and the money settles in your Stripe account on Stripe's payout schedule. BookBookNow takes no commission; Stripe's own card fees apply.
On Starter, Studio and Pro
We collect for you
No Stripe account needed.
BookBookNow collects the card payment for you and pays it out to your bank on request, after a short hold. Our commission includes Stripe's fee for standard UK cards; a dearer card adds Stripe's extra fee at cost. Commission per payment: Free 6.5% + 20p*, Starter 5% + 20p*, Studio 3% + 20p*, Pro 2% + 20p*.
On every plan · in GBP, USD or EUR
Two worked examples
A teacher taking paid bookings at £12 each, every payment by a standard UK card, billed monthly: a quiet month with 5 paid bookings and a busier one with 40. Each total is the plan price plus the fee or commission on every payment. Premium, business and overseas cards cost more on both sides.
| 5 paid bookings | 40 paid bookings | |
|---|---|---|
| Bookwhen Lite: £12 + £2.40 VAT a month, plus 1.50% + £0.20 a payment through Bookwhen × Stripe | £13.90 + £2.40 VAT on the plan price | £27.20 + £2.40 VAT on the plan price |
| BookBookNow Free, we collect: no monthly fee, 6.5% + 20p* a payment | £4.90 | £39.20 |
| BookBookNow Starter, we collect: £15.00 a month + tax, plus 5% + 20p* a payment | £19.00 + tax on the plan price | £47.00 + tax on the plan price |
| BookBookNow Starter, your own Stripe account: £15.00 a month + tax, plus Stripe's 1.5% + 20p a payment | £16.90 + tax on the plan price | £30.20 + tax on the plan price |
Plan prices are before tax. If your business cannot reclaim VAT, add £2.40 to Bookwhen Lite and UK tax at 20% to our plan prices. Our commission includes VAT for a UK business, so nothing is added to it. Stripe's rate is its published price for standard UK cards on 14 September 2026.
In the quiet month our Free plan costs less, as there is no plan price to cover. At £12 a booking, Bookwhen Lite costs less than Free from 21 paid bookings a month, and at 40 bookings it also costs less than Starter with your own Stripe account, before tax. Bookwhen Lite has a limit of 300 bookings a month; our plans have no booking limit.
Who should choose which
A good fit if
- You take paid bookings for classes, workshops or appointments, one at a time
- You want to take card payments before you pay for a plan
- You want a booking site that looks like your brand, on your own domain
- You would rather have no monthly cap on bookings
Not the right fit yet if
- You sell courses as one ticket, or passes, memberships or vouchers – Bookwhen lists these
- You run online classes and want Zoom meetings created for you
- You need booking pages in a language other than English, or an API
- You want text reminders, staff calendars or card payments at the desk
Moving across? Export your customer list from Bookwhen and import the CSV file (On Studio and Pro ). Set each class up once and it repeats for 1 to 52 weeks ahead; leave bookings already made on Bookwhen there until their dates have passed.
How to verify this comparison
We compared Bookwhen's own pages, viewed from the UK on 14 September 2026, with BookBookNow's plans for a UK teacher or small studio taking paid class bookings, pairing the nearest plans (Free with Free, Lite with Starter as first paid plans, Standard with Studio as first with a waitlist, Plus with Pro as top self-serve plans), monthly with monthly and yearly with yearly, in GBP before VAT, card fees shown separately.
"Not listed" means we could not find it on the provider's public pages on the date checked; it may still exist. Our own prices come from our pricing page. Spotted something out of date? Email bookings@bookbooknow.com and we will check it and reply within 5 working days.
- Bookwhen – Pricing – monthly and yearly prices with VAT, bookings a month, team members and booking pages per plan, what each plan lists, the free plan limits, the free trial, cancellation terms, the charity discount and payment provider options (checked 14 September 2026)
- Bookwhen – Features – memberships, passes, course tickets, waiting lists, pay later, Zoom, languages, API, embedding and the customer list export (checked 14 September 2026)
- Bookwhen Help Centre – Bookwhen × Stripe: Updated fee pricing – processing fees for UK cards through Bookwhen × Stripe, in-person card rates and Stripe Legacy accounts (checked 14 September 2026)
- Bookwhen – About – founded in Oxford, UK (checked 14 September 2026)
- Bookwhen Help Centre – Offering appointment-based schedules – 1-2-1 appointments as fixed-time slots, enquiries or password-protected sessions; each session needs a start and end time (checked 14 September 2026)
- Bookwhen Help Centre – Taking a deposit for your event – a deposit sold as a ticket with the remaining balance collected by the organiser outside Bookwhen; ticket costs on the Lite plan or above (checked 14 September 2026)
- Stripe – UK pricing – 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, used in the worked examples for your own Stripe account (checked 14 September 2026)
Questions
Is Bookwhen free?
Bookwhen has a free plan, shown as "£0 forever", with 50 bookings a month, one team member and one booking page, for free events only. To take payments for bookings you need a paid plan: Lite is £12 + £2.40 VAT per month for 300 bookings a month. We checked Bookwhen's pricing page on 14 September 2026.
How much does Bookwhen cost per month?
On Bookwhen's pricing page: Lite £12 + £2.40 VAT per month (300 bookings a month), Standard £19 + £3.80 VAT (800 bookings) and Plus £39 + £7.80 VAT (1,800 bookings), with Enterprise on request. Paying yearly costs £120 + £24 VAT, £190 + £38 VAT or £390 + £78 VAT per year, marked "2 months free". Online card payments carry a processing fee on top.
Does Bookwhen do appointment booking?
Bookwhen's Help Centre explains how to offer 1-2-1 or private appointments: a recurring entry with slots that each take one person, an enquiry entry followed by a session you create, or a password-protected session link. It also says each session needs a start and end time, as Bookwhen is not a dedicated appointment-only system. With BookBookNow, clients pick any free time from your weekly hours, with buffers and minimum notice, on every plan. There is one calendar per site, so it does not suit a team where each person needs their own diary.
Does BookBookNow limit how many bookings I take each month?
No plan has a monthly booking limit. What each plan limits is email: Free 300, Starter 1,000, Studio 3,000, Pro 10,000 a month, counting confirmations and reminders. Once the allowance is used, emails stop until the next month, so a busy timetable on a smaller plan should be checked against it.
Can I move my customer list from Bookwhen to BookBookNow?
Yes. Bookwhen's features page says its customer list is easy to export, with marketing opt-in recorded. Import the CSV file on Studio or Pro: match the columns, set consent from the opt-in column, check the preview and import. Nobody is emailed. Booking history, passes and memberships do not come across.
* The commission includes Stripe's fee for standard UK cards. Stripe charges more for some cards – about +1.3% for premium and business UK cards, +1% for European cards and +1.65% for other international cards, plus 2% when Stripe converts the payment from another currency – and we add that difference at cost, shown against each payment.
Start free today.
No card needed on the Free plan. Paid plans from £12.50 a month + tax, billed yearly (£150.00 + tax a year), or £15.00 a month + tax paid monthly, with a 14-day free trial.
Prices are in GBP, before tax. Tax is added at checkout for where your business is: UK businesses pay VAT at 20%, which a VAT-registered business can usually reclaim.