Square Appointments vs Planday

Two scheduling tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	Square AppointmentsBlock	PlandayXero
In one line	Free booking with unlimited staff calendars and Square payments	Shift scheduling and time tracking for hourly teams, from $2.99 a user
Starting price	Free	From $2.99/person
Six-person team	$0/mo	$17.94/mo
Plans	Free $0/mo per location; Plus $49/mo per location; Premium $149/mo per location; in-person 2.6% + 15¢ on Free (2.5%/2.4% on Plus/Premium); online 3.3% + 30¢ on Free	Starter $2.99 per user/mo, min. 5 users (scheduling, punch clock and kiosk app, compliance rules, basic payroll reports, 1 department, help centre and chat support); Plus $4.49 per user/mo plus a $15.00 monthly subscription fee, min. 10 users (leave and absence, revenue vs. staff costs, payroll and POS integrations, API, documents and e-signature, 10 departments, email support); Pro by quote (auto-fill schedules, custom planning KPIs and user roles, unlimited departments, call-back phone support); users are billed in bundles of 5, so 23 users are billed as 25; billed monthly or quarterly, no yearly price shown; each SMS costs extra, in-app messaging included; paid onboarding and product training ($150 an hour in the US); 30-day free trial of Plus, no credit card; no free plan; USD prices are the ones shown to US and Canada visitors
Pricing model	Free tier	Free trial
Free trial	—	30 days
Users	Unlimited staff calendars	Per user; at least 5 on Starter, 10 on Plus
Both connect to	No shared connections on record.
Also connects to	None in our catalog	QuickBooks Payroll
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people · 51–200 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	Every plan (US)	None listed
Live chat	Plans not stated	Every plan
Support hours	Phone: 6am–6pm PT M–F for the first 90 days (Square Free only), 6am–6pm PT M–F (Square Plus only), 24/7 (Square Premium only)	Live chat: 7 days a week with extended hours; an English-speaking team covers evenings and weekends
Incidents posted	14 incidents posted on Block's status page, which covers all Block products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 0 marked major or critical by Block. Status page	2 incidents posted on Xero's status page in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 0 marked major or critical by Xero. Status page
Capterra score	4.5 / 5 from 263 reviews	Not listed
Fit: Retail shop	50	82
Fit: Restaurant or café	15	92
Fit: Service business	90	60
Fit: Agency or studio	30	15
Fit: Trades or contractor	45	40
Fit: Online store	20	20
Why people pick it	Free plan with unlimited staff Payments and POS built in	Punch clock, kiosk app and shift swaps on every plan Plus tracks staff costs against POS revenue
Where it falls short	No-show fees need Plus Tied to Square payments	5-user minimum, billed in bundles of five Leave, payroll integrations and email support need Plus
	Visit Square Appointments ↗	Visit Planday ↗

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. How we calculate prices

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