Does BookMate send SMS reminders?

Yes. Every plan includes 50 free text reminders a month plus unlimited email reminders. Need more texts, buy a top-up pack any time.

14-day free trial · no card required

Stop playing phone tagjust to book a job.

Name: BookMate
Price: 19.99 NZD

BookMate gives your business a live booking calendar — customers see real availability and book in seconds, you approve every request, and reminders send themselves. $19.99/month flat. No commission, ever.

Start your free trial → See how it works

Built in New Zealand for tradespeople, mobile services and small studios.

BookMate owner dashboard showing pending and confirmed bookings

New booking requestSarah T. — Window Clean, tomorrow 10am

Why BookMate exists

It started with a window cleaner and a contact form.

My wife wanted her windows cleaned. The company's website only had a "Contact Us" form. She filled it in, then waited for a phone call to arrange a time — except the times offered didn't suit. A week later, someone cancelled and a slot opened up, but by then she'd made other plans.

That's not a booking system. That's phone tag with extra steps. BookMate is what should have existed instead — real availability, visible up front, bookable in a couple of taps, with a waitlist so a cancellation becomes someone else's lucky day instead of an empty slot.

The old wayFill in a form. Wait for a call back. Play phone tag until a time is agreed — if one ever is.

A cancellation happensThe slot just sits empty. Nobody finds out it's free until it's too late to fill it.

✓

The BookMate waySee real availability, pick a time, done. The business approves it — never double-booked, never caught out.

✓

A cancellation happensWhoever's on the waitlist gets offered the spot. The slot gets filled instead of wasted.

Everything included

One plan. No add-ons to chase.

Every feature below is included in the one flat price — nothing gated behind a pricier tier, nothing metered until it hurts.

Live availability

Closed days, blocked leave and fully-booked slots grey out automatically. Customers only ever see times you can actually take.

Every booking is a request

Nothing's confirmed until you approve it. Confirm, decline with a reason, or reschedule in one tap — you're never double-booked.

Waitlist for cancellations

A full slot doesn't have to mean a lost customer. They join a waitlist instead, and you've got a ready list the moment a spot opens.

Automatic emails

Confirmations, declines, payment requests and reschedules all email the customer the instant it happens — nothing for you to send by hand.

Text reminders included

50 free text reminders every month, sent the day before, plus unlimited email reminders. Need more texts, top up any time.

Embed on your own website

Drop one snippet in and the live calendar sits directly on your site — customers book without ever clicking away.

Multiple Stripe payment links

Save your common prices once and pick one instead of typing an amount every time you request a deposit or payment.

Automatic deposits & full payments

Connect your own Stripe account and payment happens automatically as part of booking — a deposit or the full amount, straight into your own bank account, no chasing required.

A booking link that's actually yours

bookmate.nz/bookit/yourbusiness — a clean, professional link instead of a string of letters and numbers.

Dark or light, your call

Switch the look of your dashboard any time — and your customer booking page follows along to match.

Syncs to Google & Apple Calendar

See your confirmed bookings alongside your personal life — no separate app to keep checking.

Bring a team member — free

Add one extra person to help manage bookings at no extra cost, with their own login and booking-only access.

Built for more than one worker

Assign a service to a specific worker — "Tattoo with Dean" and "Tattoo with Caroline" are booked completely independently, each with their own availability. Someone calls in sick? Pause just their bookings — pick today only or up to 7 days ahead — and notify only the customers affected.

Standing clients? Set it and forget it

Weekly guitar lesson, fortnightly clean, monthly check-in — set up a recurring booking once and it repeats automatically, with the same reminders and confirmations as every other booking.

The bit most booking apps skip

Your calendar, on your own website.

Most booking tools just hand you a link to send customers away to. BookMate gives you an embed snippet instead — paste it in once, and the real, live calendar sits directly inside your own site.

Copy one snippet from your Share Page — no developer required.

Paste it into your site — Squarespace, Wix, Rocketspark, WordPress, anywhere that accepts HTML.

It resizes itself as customers move through booking, so it never clips or scrolls awkwardly.

BookMate Share Page showing a custom booking link and website embed code

BookMate customer booking page on a mobile phone

For your customers

Booking that feels as easy on a phone as it should.

Most bookings happen on a phone, standing in the kitchen or between jobs. BookMate's customer page is built mobile-first, not squeezed to fit afterward.

No app to download. It's just a webpage — works the instant they tap the link.

Their reference number is shown clearly the moment they book, and in every email after.

Full slot? No dead end. They can join the waitlist right there instead of giving up.

Simple pricing

One price. Everything included.

BookMate

^$19.99

NZD / month, billed monthly

No commission, ever

14-day free trial — no card required to start
Unlimited bookings, services and customers
50 free text reminders a month, unlimited email reminders
Website embed & your own custom booking link
Waitlist, automatic Stripe deposits & full payments
Multi-worker scheduling with per-service pause & notify
Google/Apple Calendar sync & one free team member seat
Cancel any time — no lock-in contract

Start your free trial →

No credit card needed. You'll only be asked to pay once your 14 days are up.

Optional add-on · for BookMate customers

Don't want to set it up yourself? We'll do it for you.

Send us your services, pricing, hours and logo — we'll build your entire BookMate account for you, personally checked over before we hand it back.

Full business profile — logo, brand colour, tagline
Every service entered — pricing, duration, descriptions & icons
Operating hours & booking rules configured exactly how you want them
Payment links & payment details set up and ready to go
Your custom booking link claimed and ready to share

^$149

NZD, one-off

Get in touch →

Available to businesses with an active BookMate trial or subscription.

How it stacks up

See what the difference actually costs.

Prices and terms change — always check current rates — but the shape of each model rarely does.

	BookMate	Fresha	Timely	SimplyBook.me
Monthly price	$19.99/mo flat	"Free" core + 20% new-client commission + card fees	~$39–70/mo	~$23–40/mo
Commission on bookings	No commission, ever	Commission on every new client	No commission	No commission
Text & email reminders	Included	Extra cost / gated	Often gated to higher tiers	Often gated to higher tiers
Website embed	Included	Not standard	Link only, no embed	Widget on paid tiers
Free trial	14 days, no card	Free tier, not a trial	Free trial, card may be asked	14-day trial

Competitor pricing is indicative and can change — always check the current rate directly with each provider.

Questions

Good to know

Does BookMate take a commission from my bookings?

No. It's a flat $19.99 NZD a month, full stop. We never take a cut of what you earn, no matter how many bookings come through — unlike platforms that charge a commission on new clients on top of a subscription.

Do I need a credit card to start the free trial?

No. Sign up and you get 14 days completely free, no card required. If it's not for you, just stop using it — there's nothing to remember to cancel.

Can I put the booking calendar on my own website?

Yes. Your Share Page gives you an embed snippet that puts the real, live calendar directly on your own site — customers book without ever leaving your page.

Does BookMate send text message reminders?

Yes — every plan includes 50 free text reminders a month, sent the day before each booking, plus unlimited email reminders. Need more texts in a busy month, buy a top-up pack any time.

What happens if a time slot is fully booked?

Customers can join a waitlist instead of being turned away. If a cancellation comes in, you've already got a ready list of people to offer the spot to instead of it sitting empty.

Does BookMate support multiple workers or staff?

Yes — assign a service to a specific worker, like "Tattoo with Dean" and "Tattoo with Caroline," and each is booked and tracked completely independently, including its own availability. Five workers are included free, with the option to add more.

Can I take deposits or payment upfront?

Yes, two ways. Connect your own Stripe account and set a service to require a deposit or full payment — it happens automatically as part of booking, straight into your own account. Or request payment manually after confirming a booking, using a saved Stripe Payment Link or bank transfer details. Either way, standard Stripe processing fees apply and BookMate never takes a cut.

Is my data and my customers' data safe?

Payments run through Stripe — your customers' card details never touch BookMate at all. Your account data is secured with Firebase Authentication, and every business's data is kept separate from every other business on the platform.