How Appointments compares to Booxi, Acuity & Calendly.
Appointments vs.
Booxi, Acuity & Calendly
A closer look at how Ikeono Appointments stacks up
Features
Ikeono
Booxi
Acuity
Calendly
Built for retail service booking
Customers book a general appointment instead of guessing at a specific service type. Your team sorts out exactly what's needed once they see the item in person, so nobody has to self-diagnose before they even walk in.
No, made for business meetings and sales calls, not customer-facing bookings
No, made for general service businesses, salons/coaches/clinics, not retail
Customer self-scheduling from website
Number of calendars
1 calendar per location
Essential – 10 calendars
Standard – 20 calendars
Custom – Flexible
Starter – 1 calendar
Standard – 6 calendars
Premium – 36 calendars
Free – 1 calendar
Standard – 6 calendars
Team – 6 calendars
Enterprise – 6 calendars
Service types
Set up different services per location, so customers only see what that shop actually offers when they book.
Handled through event types
Custom booking policy
Display your logo
Custom colors
Multi-location booking
Customers pick the right shop when they book, and each one runs on its own calendar.
Configurable booking rules per location
Set different hours, buffer times, or cutoffs for each location, since not every shop runs the same schedule.
No location concept
No location concept
Lightspeed R-Series integration
Converts an appointment to a work order, no retyping customer information. Customers book a general appointment and the work order gets specific once staff diagnose the item.
Syncs to Lightspeed Retail POS, but converts to a sale, meaning what the customer booked has to match exactly what's in Lightspeed's inventory.
Text notifications
Only available in Standard & Premium
Two-way text reminders
Reminders go out by text, and customers can reply directly if they need to reschedule or ask a question, instead of a one-way alert they can't act on.
Email notifications
Pricing
Included in Premium – $159/month
Prices in USD
Essential – $179/month
Standard – $475/month
Custom
Prices in USD
Starter – $16/month
Standard – $27/month
Premium – $49/month
Prices in USD
Standard – $10/seat/month
Team – $16/seat/month
Enterprise – $15k/year
Prices in USD
Free trial
30 days
No free trial, talk to sales first
7 days
14 days
Text-enable your business phone number
Customers can reply directly to any message you send. Messages come from your business phone number, recognizable when they search it, rather than a shortcode or a one-way number they can't respond to.
Consolidated inbox
Text messages, web chat, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger all land in one inbox. Your team replies from a single place instead of switching between apps to keep up with customers.
Send images and PDFs
Share a photo, an estimate, or an invoice right in the same text thread, no separate email needed.
Message templates
Save your most common replies once and send them in a click, so your team isn't retyping the same answer every time a customer asks.
Feedback (Net Promoter Score)
Send a quick NPS survey by text after a visit, so you know how customers really feel and can step in before a bad review does.
Google Reviews Management
Ask for a Google review by text right after a visit, and manage every response from the same place you already handle customer conversations.
Webchat
Add a chat widget to your website that lands in the same inbox as your texts.
Text to Pay
Send a payment link by text and let customers pay right from their phone at any point in the booking process.
Payment at booking
Payment at booking
Payment at booking
Questions retailers ask when comparing
Which is better for an independent shop: Appointments, Booxi, Acuity, or Calendly?
If you already run your shop on Ikeono, Appointments is the better fit. It's the only one of the four built into a texting platform your shop already uses, so there's no separate login for your team and no new app for your customers.
How is Appointments different from Booxi, Acuity & Calendly?
Booxi is built and priced for enterprise retail chains with dozens of locations, not independent shops. Acuity and Calendly are horizontal scheduling tools built for any kind of business, not retail specifically, so neither one connects to what happens after the appointment. Ikeono Appointments does and syncs straight to Lightspeed R-Series.
Does Appointments integrate with Lightspeed R-Series?
Yes. An appointment can be directly converted into a Lightspeed workorder, no retyping of customer or item details necessary.
Appointments vs. Booxi, Acuity & Calendly pricing: which costs more?
Booxi is priced for multi-location retail chains, often hundreds of dollars a month. Acuity and Calendly both charge more as your team grows, either by calendar count or by seat. Appointments is included to your existing Ikeono Premium plan and is based on locations.
See the difference for yourself
The fastest way to know if Appointments fits your shop is to actually use it.