Managing online bookings shouldn’t feel like juggling a dozen calendars or chasing down appointment confirmations. Whether you’re running a salon, renting out bikes, or offering yoga classes, you need a booking system that just works, without duct-taping multiple plugins together. In this article, we compare two popular WooCommerce booking plugins – WooCommerce Bookings vs PluginHive, to help you pick the right one based on real-world business needs.
Table of Contents:
- Overview
- Feature Comparison at a Glance
- Plugin Price and Licensing
- Support and Documentation
- Ease of Use and User Interface
- Integration and Compatibility
- User Feedback and Reviews
- Conclusion
- FAQs
Overview
When it comes to managing bookings in WooCommerce, both plugins offer powerful features, but with different strengths. Let’s begin with a quick look at what each plugin provides before diving into how they differ.
WooCommerce Bookings
WooCommerce Bookings is developed by Automattic, the team behind WooCommerce. As a native solution, it integrates seamlessly with the broader WooCommerce ecosystem, making it a go-to option for store owners already using official extensions.
WooCommerce Bookings plugin helps you:
- Offer time slots that customers can choose from
- Set rules around when bookings can happen (availability, lead time, buffer)
- Choose how long each booking lasts by the hour, day, or month
- Add pricing based on time blocks or the number of people
- Link resources like staff or rooms to each product
- Automatically or manually approve bookings
- Sync with Google Calendar to manage your schedule
While it covers the essentials, you’ll often need extra (paid) add-ons to handle advanced scenarios, like multi-calendar sync, forms, or partial payments.
PluginHive WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments
PluginHive’s WooCommerce Bookings & Appointments plugin is designed with real-world service businesses in mind – salons, rentals, wellness centers, tours, and more. It’s a feature-rich yet easy-to-use plugin that can handle both simple and complex bookings, without depending on too many extra tools.
The plugin stands out by allowing you to offer:
- Bookings by minutes, hours, days, or months – great for short or long services
- Customizable availability rules, buffer time, and lead time
- Staff, rooms, or equipment management with individual availability and quantity
- Add-ons (e.g., meals, equipment) as part of the booking with individual pricing
- Customized pricing for seasonal rates, group sizes, or specific time slots
- Automated emails for confirmations, reminders, or cancellations
- Calendar syncing with Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCal
- WPML compatibility for multilingual businesses
In short, PluginHive gives you more flexibility to grow, whether you’re just starting or managing a high-volume appointment business.
WooCommerce Bookings vs PluginHive – Features
Before diving deeper, here’s a quick side-by-side look at how WooCommerce Bookings and PluginHive Bookings & Appointments differ in key areas that matter for your business.
| Feature | WooCommerce Bookings | PluginHive Bookings and Appointments |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar View | Basic calendar on product pages. Admin calendar has limited filters (advanced options require a paid add-on). | Provides customizable calendar designs to match each business. No add-on needed. |
| Booking Durations | Hours, days, months | Minutes, hours, days, months |
| Calendar Sync | Google Calendar | Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal |
| Google Calendar 2-way Sync | Two-way sync is available, but requires custom code for custom integration | Built-in, robust two-way sync. Easy to set up. |
| Participant-Based Pricing Rules | Basic tiered pricing per person or group count. | Advanced rules for individual participant types and dynamic pricing, for offering discounts. |
| Partial Payments / Deposits | Requires a separate WooCommerce Deposits plugin. | Requires the PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin. |
| Custom Form Fields | Requires a separate WooCommerce Product Add-ons plugin. | Requires the PH Product Addons plugin. |
| Add-ons & Extensibility | Many features require paid WooCommerce or third-party add-ons. | The core plugin includes most features. Optional add-ons are available to offer recurring and random interval bookings. |
Plugin Price and Licensing
When choosing a booking plugin, cost isn’t just about the license price; it’s also about how many extra features require paid add-ons. Here’s how WooCommerce Bookings vs PluginHive in terms of pricing, trials, and refund policies.
| Plugin | Annual Price (1 Site) | Money-back Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce Bookings | $249/year | 30 days |
| PluginHive Bookings and Appointments | $149/year | 30 days |
WooCommerce Bookings plugin may appear native, but can be more expensive in the long term due to the required extensions. PluginHive’s Bookings plugin is not only more affordable but also covers most advanced features in the core product, or with affordable advanced add-ons.
Support and Documentation
Reliable support and clear documentation are essential for setting up and managing bookings smoothly. Below is a comparison of the support channels and resources offered by each plugin.
WooCommerce Bookings
- Backed by Automattic’s premium support.
- Access to the official WooCommerce docs and helpdesk.
- Community forums and GitHub issues for developer input.
PluginHive
- Direct email and ticket support with the fastest turnaround time of under 90 minutes
- Extensive documentation, tutorials, and onboarding guides.
- Live demo available for testing before purchase.
- PluginHive provides expert onboarding support via Zoom or Google Meet to help businesses get started confidently.
While both plugins offer helpful support, many customers prefer PluginHive for its faster responses, guided onboarding, and hands-on help. Combined with its lower price, PluginHive’s support offers better value for businesses that need quick, reliable assistance.
Ease of Use and User Interface
A booking plugin should be easy to set up and manage without requiring technical expertise.
- WooCommerce Bookings: Familiar for WooCommerce users, but the interface can feel basic. Some settings are difficult to locate, and the documentation can be confusing, particularly for advanced booking requirements.
- PluginHive Bookings & Appointments: Clean and straightforward interface. Everything is well-organized, making it easy to manage bookings, staff, and availability without confusion.
Integration and Compatibility
A booking plugin doesn’t work on its own; it needs to connect smoothly with your theme, payment methods, languages, or marketplace tools. Good compatibility means fewer issues and a smoother experience for both you and your customers. Here’s how both plugins compare:
| Aspect | WooCommerce Bookings | PluginHive Bookings and Appointments |
|---|---|---|
| Theme Compatibility | Works with most WooCommerce themes | Works with most WooCommerce themes |
| Multilingual Support | Officially compatible; requires manual translation setup and string mapping | Fully WPML – compatible and supports native translations in English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and more |
| Multi-Vendor Compatibility | Supports WooCommerce Product Vendors extension | Supports Dokan Pro via dedicated Dokan Bookings integration add-on |
| Payment Gateways | Compatible with WooCommerce gateways | Compatible with WooCommerce gateways. |
PluginHive offers broader integration, more flexibility, and less setup hassle. Whether you’re running a multilingual store, using Dokan for vendors, or offering complex rentals, it’s ready to handle different business needs easily.
User Feedback and Reviews
WooCommerce Bookings:
- Average Rating: (3.0–3.5 out of 5) on woocommerce.com
- User Feedback: Mixed. Many users appreciate the clean interface and native integration, but others report limitations with flexibility and the need for extra paid extensions.
- Usage Insight: Popular among businesses with in-house developers who prefer native WooCommerce tools and are comfortable customizing features with additional plugins.
PluginHive Bookings & Appointments:
- Average Rating: (4.9 out of 5) on PluginHive.com and Trustpilot
- User Feedback: Praised for rich built-in features, responsive support, and ease of configuration for simple and complex booking use cases.
- Usage Insight: Popular among WooCommerce businesses looking for a feature-rich and affordable alternative with reliable support.
PluginHive earns high ratings for its flexibility and support, while WooCommerce Bookings appeals to users seeking native WooCommerce compatibility.
Conclusion
If you need advanced appointment features for services like salons, hotels and restaurents, rentals, tours, or staff scheduling, along with more flexibility and better value, PluginHive Bookings & Appointments is the smarter choice. It’s ideal for businesses looking for powerful features and personalized support. On the other hand, if you prefer sticking with official WooCommerce tools, WooCommerce Bookings will work, but be prepared to pay extra for add-ons.
And if you’ve decided to go with PluginHive Bookings, their dedicated support team is ready to assist you.
FAQ’s
1. Is WooCommerce Bookings suitable for multi-vendor marketplaces?
No, it lacks built-in vendor support; But PluginHive offers a dedicated Dokan add-on for multi-vendor scenarios.
2. Does PluginHive WooCommerce Bookings offer calendar sync with Outlook/iCal?
Yes, it supports Google, Outlook, and iCal sync, while WooCommerce Bookings offers only Google sync out of the box.
3. Is WooCommerce Bookings by PluginHive fully WPML-compatible for multilingual bookings?
Yes, PluginHive WooCommerce Bookings is built for multilingual sites and works seamlessly with WPML.
4. Can WooCommerce Bookings by PluginHive manage recurring bookings without extra cost?
No, Recurring scheduling requires PluginHive’s separate Recurring Bookings add‑on.
5. Do both plugins support buffer times between bookings?
Yes, both allow adding buffer intervals to prevent back-to-back scheduling issues.
6. Can customers book multiple, separate dates in one go using PluginHive WooCommerce Bookings?
Yes, PluginHive offers a Multiple Non-Adjacent Bookings Add-on that allows users to choose non-consecutive time slots in a single booking.
