Guide
How to take bookings on your website
If clients book you by phone, DM, or a marketplace app, you are leaving the booking — and the client relationship — on someone else's turf. Here are the real ways to take bookings on a site of your own, and the trade-offs of each.
The short answer
You have four options: a booking-link tool, a marketplace profile, a DIY builder with a booking plugin, or a custom site with booking built in. The first three are quick but rent you space on someone else's platform or leave the work to you. A site with booking built in costs more to set up and pays back by keeping the bookings, the reviews, and the client list on your own domain.
The four ways to take bookings
Each of these genuinely works for some businesses. The right one depends on how much you want to own versus how fast and cheap you want to start.
1. A booking-link tool (Calendly, Acuity)
A shareable link or embed for appointments. Fast to set up and fine for a solo consultation calendar. But it is a scheduling link, not a website — it has no home for your services, your brand, your prices, or your story, and it looks the same as everyone else's.
2. A marketplace profile (Fresha, Booksy, Treatwell)
Booking lives inside the app, and the marketplace can bring you new clients. The cost: a commission on new bookings, the reviews and client list held under their brand, and your own website only able to link out to their page.
3. A DIY builder plus a plugin (Squarespace, Wix)
You build the site on a template and bolt on a booking add-on. Cheapest monthly, and you own the result — but the hours are yours, the look is template-shaped, and multi-staff calendars and a real catalogue were never the core of a page builder.
4. A site with booking built in (what we build)
A custom site where services, staff calendars, and online booking are part of the site itself, on your own domain. More to set up, but the bookings, the reviews, and the client data stay yours, and you run the day-to-day in a self-serve admin.
What good online booking needs
Whichever route you pick, booking on your own site should do these. If a tool cannot, that is where it will hurt later.
- Your real services, with durations and prices, not a generic time slot
- Multi-staff calendars, so the right person is booked for the right service
- A booking confirmation the client trusts, on your own domain
- Reviews collected on your site, not funnelled to a marketplace
- Your client list and history owned by you, exportable any day
- An admin you can run yourself, in your language, without touching code
How Aystra does it
We build your site with booking built in — services, multi-staff calendars, online booking, and reviews on your own domain — in 2 to 4 weeks. Then you run it yourself from €39/mo in a self-serve admin, or come to us for changes, billed by the hour. A one-time build from €3,500, a flat plan after, no commission on your bookings.
Frequently asked
Can I take bookings on my website without a developer?
Once the site is built, yes. You manage services, staff, and bookings in a self-serve admin — no code. The build itself is what we do; running it day to day is yours.
Do I need a separate booking app if bookings are on my site?
No. When booking is built into the site, the site is the booking system: clients pick a service and a time on your own domain, and it lands in your admin. There is no separate app to link out to.
What does it cost to take bookings on my own site?
With Aystra, a one-time build from €3,500 plus a flat plan from €39/mo. A booking-link tool or marketplace is cheaper to start but charges monthly or per new booking and keeps the client relationship on their platform.
Can I move my bookings off a marketplace like Fresha or Booksy?
Yes. We rebuild your site with booking built in and scope moving your services and client list across as part of the build. See the marketplace alternative pages for how the switch works.
Tell us what you are building.
Take the two-minute estimate or send a note. We read it the same day.