LatePoint vs. MotoPress Appointment Booking Comparison & Review
Table of Contents
What is the best appointment plugin for hourly-based service businesses? In this article, you’ll discover a blow-by-blow comparison of two booking WordPress plugins that made headway over the last year: LatePoint and MotoPress Appointment Booking.
Both solutions can be used for a wide range of industries to accept online appointments or rent out items: education, beauty & wellness, medical clinics, photography, and many more.
Full of categorized tables and feature comparisons, this post highlights the main differences and similarities between these plugins. Since the LatePoint plugin has no free version, we’ve compared their premium versions only.
| Reviewed version | Release Year | |
|---|---|---|
| LatePoint | 4.9.8 | 2018 |
| MotoPress Appointment Booking | 1.22.0 | 2020 |
*The prices and features are current as of the date of this article.
Before we dive into the detailed reviews, here are some points that catch our attention at a glance:
- Booking Form: both plugins provide responsive appointment forms for a step-by-step booking process. LatePoint includes 7 color options, while MotoPress form style adjusts to the used WordPress theme design, plus, it has several calendar schemes and color tailoring options.
- Pricing Model: when it comes to prices, LatePoint is available in basic and pro packages. The latter is packed with all 26 LatePoint addons. MotoPress sells a core plugin, allowing you to extend its functionality via extensions. The MotoPress lifetime access ensures lifetime support, while LatePoint doesn’t have the lifetime access option.
- Integrations: LatePoint supports a wider set of integrations for marketing purposes (MailChimp) and online meetings (Zoom and Google Meet).
- Payment Gateways: from the core, the MotoPress Appointment plugin has built-in payment gateways, while you require extensions or the Pro license to get them with LatePoint.
- Advanced Features: LatePoint gives more flexibility in terms of customer accounts and setting booking restrictions, with MotoPress focusing on the features essential for online appointment scheduling.
Now, it’s time to get down to the detailed comparison. Let’s cut to the chase!
LatePoint vs. Appointment Booking Comparison
Cost
Since the booking plugins differ in pricing models, let’s have a look at the cost of their powerful tools depending on the plan and number of domains:
| Cost | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | 1 domain: $49 (renews at $64) 5 domains: $170 (renews at $319) 10 domains: $290 (renews at $637) Includes product updates and support | 1 domain: $89 (renews at $116) 5 domains: $310 (renews at $579) 10 domains: $530 (renews at $1157) Includes product updates and support | 1 domain: $59 Unlimited domains: $199 Includes 12 months of support and product updates. Annual membership – $299:
|
| Lifetime cost | – | – | $799
|
| Free trial | 7-day sandbox trial | 7-day sandbox trial | 7-day free trial |
| Extensions | $714 | 26 add-ons ($714) are included in the package for free | 1 domain: $266 Unlimited domains: $796 |
The basic license for a single domain is the cheapest in LatePoint. However, it’s the cost of the first year only. The packages are based on the number of domains. In case you don’t need all 26 extensions available with LatePoint Pro, the annual cost is less expensive if you purchase LatePoint Basic + several addons.
If your website requires the functionality of most of the extensions, you may consider the LatePoint Pro package which might be more cost-effective.
One of the main differences between the compared plugins is that the MotoPress Appointment plugin has a feature-rich free version. Also, it provides both annual and lifetime cost options. With the latter one, you get access not only to the core plugin and all addons but to 40+ products from the MotoPress lineup.
Main Features
We’ve reached the key functionalities point crucial for your decision on the best booking plugin. The table compares premium versions of the LatePoint Booking and MotoPress Appointment plugins.
First off, you should consider the features essential to building the online presence for your service or rental business.
| Main Features | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited appointments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited employees | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited locations | Yes ($19) | Yes | Yes |
| Step-by-step booking wizard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Individual employee schedule | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Service categories | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Service Extras | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Minimum and maximum capacity settings for appointments | Yes (with Group Appointments addon – $19) | Yes | Yes |
| Minimum and maximum service price | Yes | Yes | No |
| Minimum time before canceling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Maximum number of future bookings per customer | Yes | Yes | No |
| Buffer times before and after appointments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple service durations with custom prices for each one | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Group appointments | Yes ($19) | Yes | Yes |
| Allow price per person in group appointments | Yes (with Group Appointments addon – $19) | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-service booking in one transaction | No | No | Yes |
| Individual employee or service booking form | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Currency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TimeZone Selector | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Booking history/log | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Documentation, email | Documentation, email | Documentation, email, tickets, videos, code reference, style kit. |
While LatePoint Basic provides a limited toolkit that caters to the basic needs of a small service business, LatePoint Pro unlocks extended features such as payment gateways, multiple locations, group appointments, and appointment capacity. It’s worth noting that these features are available with the MotoPress core plugin.
Both plugins allow you to add multiple services & employees, manage bookings from the backend office, include buffer times, and set up flexible schedules. LatePoint Pro also enables extra services added during service scheduling.
The LatePoint WordPress plugin features the ability to restrict the number of future appointments per customer, while MotoPress Appointment Booking allows customers to add multiple services to the cart during one submission.
So, both plugins turn out to be flexible solutions in terms of default functionality helpful for robust scheduling.
Booking Form Customization
The customization capabilities of a booking form stand out among other plugins’ features as a form affects the client’s first impression and the overall site’s design. So, what powers do you have with the compared plugins?
| Form Customization | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service image and description in the form | Image | Image | No |
| Edit form field labels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fonts & colors | 7 colors | 7 colors | Inherited from theme defaults, plus accent and button colors |
| Layout | Form width | Form width | Inherited from theme defaults, calendar themes, button paddings |
| Custom step image | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom CSS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Fields | Yes ($39) | Yes | In development |
| Form progress bar | Yes | Yes | No |
Both LatePoint and MotoPress Appointment Booking plugins ensure your clients come through a step-by-step booking process via a mobile-friendly form.
With the LatePoint plugin, you access 7 color options for a booking form: blue, black, teal, green, orange, red, and purple. Apart from that, you can choose the border style and upload images for steps and services. There is a Custom Fields addon (free with LatePoint Pro) to ask customers for additional information.
With the MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin, you have 2 options:
- Use it with a third-party WordPress theme, with the form design adjusting to the activated theme’s settings. Additionally, you can pick a calendar theme: dark, material blue, material green, material red, material ornage, Airbnb, Confetti.
- Opt for a pre-designed appointment WordPress theme by the plugin creators with the tailored booking form. There is a set of themes suitable for various niches (tutors, tour guides, clinics, equipment rentals, etc.) that include the plugin’s functionality for free.
So, LatePoint focuses on manual form customization, while MotoPress gives you a wide choice of ready-made design solutions.
Communication
Notifications and reminders are effectively used to keep clients and staff members informed about their appointments and thus prevent no-shows. How can you set up them with the reviewed plugins?
| Communication | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automated notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email reminders | Yes ($29) | Yes | Yes |
| SMS reminders | Yes ($29 with the Reminders addon or $19 with the Twilio addon) | Yes | Yes ($69) |
Both plugins have similar toolkits when it comes to automated email notifications about bookings sent to customers and employees. However, you need to purchase a Reminders extension (free with LatePoint Pro) to automate the workflow of sending email reminders with LatePoint Basic.
Payment Processing
If multiple payment gateways and such options as discounts, invoices, or deposit payments included with the booking plugin are crucial for your website, check out the table below:
| Payments | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment Gateways |
| PayPal, Stripe, Square, Razorpay, Paystack, Mollie, Mercado Pago, Flutterwave, Braintree |
|
| WooCommerce Payments | No | No | Yes ($89) |
| Pay on-site | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deposit Payments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Discount Coupons | Yes ($29) | Yes | Yes |
| Taxes | Yes ($29) | Yes | No |
| Refunds | Via payment gateways | Via payment gateways | Via payment gateways |
| Invoices | No | No | No |
Despite LatePoint offering a wider range of supported payment gateways, you can get them at extra cost in the LatePoint Basic package. The MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin comes with a built-in system of payment processing, with only WooCommerce and Square payments being available as paid addons.
The advantage the LatePoint plugin has over MotoPress is the Taxes option (free in LatePoint Pro). You can add taxes and service charges for bookings as a fixed or percentage value.
Both premium scheduling WordPress plugins allow for deposit payments and discount coupons.
Integrations
Comparing LatePoint WordPress vs. MotoPress Appointment Booking plugins, we’ve discovered that both plugins smoothly integrate with different services & apps. Therefore, you can bridge them to third-party solutions to empower your business website.
| Integrations | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Services & apps | Google Calendar ($39), Webhooks ($39), Twilio ($19), MailChimp ($29) | Google Calendar, Webhooks, Twilio, MailChimp | Google Calendar, Google Analytics ($49), Twilio ($69), WooCommerce ($89) |
| Online meetings | Google Meet ($39), Zoom ($29) | Google Meet, Zoom | No |
| Page builders | Block editor | Block editor | Block editor, Elementor, Divi |
As seen from the table, both plugins can be extended with Twilio SMS notifications. Also, they allow staff members to sync appointments with their Google Calendars.
While LatePoint is better at integrations with marketing and online meeting services (MailChimp, Google Meet, and Zoom), MotoPress lets you connect WooCommerce payment gateways and track performance insights of your rental or service business with Google Analytics 4.
Appointment Booking WooCommerce Payments
Integrates WooCommerce payment gateways with the Appointment Booking plugin.
Appointment Booking Twilio SMS
Automated SMS notifications via the Twilio service.
Google Analytics for Appointment Booking
Measure the success of your bookings by integrating Google Analytics.
MotoPress wins in the support of page builders important for an intuitive site-building process. While the booking form and Book Now buttons by LatePoint are added via shortcodes, MotoPress offers dedicated Gutenberg blocks, Elementor widgets, and Divi modules.
Booking Management
How can you make it easy for the admin and staff members to view and handle appointments right from the dashboard with LatePoint and MotoPress Appointment Booking?
| Booking Management | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancel appointments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reschedule appointments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backend calendar views | Day, Week, Month, List | Day, Week, Month, List | Day, Week, Month, List |
| Booking cancelation by customer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import data to CSV | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add appointments from the backend | Yes | Yes | Yes |
LatePoint is known for a separate backend area that looks like an app on mobile devices.
Both plugins ship with user-friendly dashboards and availability calendars. With them, you take full control over appointments, payments, and clients with no hassle. You can add and find the booking, edit its details, export CSV reports, and more.
Employee Accounts
Staff members (“Agents” in LatePoint and “Employees” in MotoPress Appointment Booking) can have their personal accounts to log in and manage their bookings.
| LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Role Manager addon ($49) | Free | Free |
|
|
|
| Backend access to the WordPress dashboard | Backend access to the WordPress dashboard | Backend access to the WordPress dashboard |
The Role Manager extension by LatePoint (free with LatePoint Pro) adds two default roles: Administrator and Agent. You can customize their privileges in the dedicated menu. Apart from that, the plugin allows you to create custom roles with pre-defined privileges.
The MotoPress Appointment plugin delivers two custom user roles: Appointment Manager and Appointment Employee. They differ in the number of access privileges. Staff members will be able to view appointments in a preferred layout, connect them to their Google Calendar accounts, edit their schedules, etc.
Customer Accounts
Both plugins add a customer account page with a shortcode to the website.
The shortcode by LatePoint is [latepoint_customer_dashboard]. It shows customer dashboard, if a customer is logged in, if not – it will show a login form.
In the Customer Cabinet, customers can:
- View their upcoming and past appointments on the My Appointment page.
- Submit new bookings on the My Appointment or New Appointment page.
- Reschedule and cancel appointments on the My Appointment page.
- Manage their personal information on the My Information page.
The LatePoint plugin enables you to let customers log in to their accounts:
- Using their WordPress credentials;
- With Social Login (Google or Facebook).
If necessary, it’s possible to hide the “Create Account” prompt on the confirmation step.
The MotoPress plugin allows you to choose between two options: to ask a customer if they want to have an account or to create it automatically.
In their accounts, customers will be able to view:
- Their bookings.
- Personal details.
- Details of individual appointments.
Advanced Features
The ‘advanced feature’ is a rather subjective point as lists of must-have plugin features are different for diverse business scenarios. So, we’ve tried to single out the options that are not so widely used in service businesses.
| Advanced Features | LatePoint Basic | LatePoint Pro | Appointment Booking Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing and analytics |
|
|
|
| Gift cards | Via Square addon ($29) | Via Square addon | Via Square addon ($59) |
| Customer accounts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sell extra services along with the main ones | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Show booking slots in a client time zone | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Customers can choose service duration | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| Limit appointments per customer | Yes | Yes | No |
| Social Login | Yes | Yes | No |
| Chat | Yes ($29) | Yes | No |
| QR Code for a booking | Yes ($19) | Yes | No |
| WordPress themes optimized for the plugin | Third-party | Third-party | A collection of themes by the plugin creators |
These features are mostly geared towards marketing aims, analytics data, and side services. To highlight some advanced capabilities for clients provided by the LatePoint WordPress plugin, we’d like to outline:
- Chat Extension (free in LatePoint Pro) to let agents communicate with customers and send them files via chat;
- Multiple service durations with custom charge and deposit prices for each duration (available with the dedicated addon);
- Social Login area to access the customer cabinet with Google or Facebook;
- QR Code Info extension (free in LatePoint Pro) to generate a QR Code for a booking and add appointment information to the customer’s calendar.
Useful Links
In this section, we’ve collected some helpful links to get acquainted with each plugin in more detail:
MotoPress Appointment Booking:
- A comprehensive plugin video overview
- Websites made with the MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin
- Appointment Booking addons
- WordPress themes that include the plugin for free
- MotoPress Appointment Booking Documentation
- Free Demo of the premium plugin
- Membership Packages with access to all MotoPress plugins & themes
LatePoint:
- 7-day Sandbox Free Trial
- The list of all LatePoint Addons
- LatePoint Playground to test the form, buttons, etc.
- LatePoint documentation
LatePoint Plugin vs. MotoPress Appointment Booking Plugin: Final Words
To sum up our in-depth comparison and review of the top WordPress booking plugins, let’s showcase the discovered perks these solutions bring to the service businesses.
Pros of LatePoint:
- Once the plugin is activated, there is an intuitive setup wizard to help you take the first steps in the plugin setup.
- LatePoint provides a wider choice of third-party integrations and advanced features.
- There are more color and layout options for manual form customization.
- In their cabinets, customers have more powers associated with appointments like canceling, rescheduling, adding, etc.
- The plugin allows you to sell extra services and include multiple service durations.
Pros of MotoPress Appointment Booking:
- There is a powerful free version.
- You can choose between annual and lifetime costs, with the latter giving you access to all MotoPress products. Plus, the cost of the plugin’s license renewal is the same as during the first payment.
- The plugin comes with a range of built-in payment gateways requiring no extra extensions.
- MotoPress Appointment Booking ensures robust solutions to integrate with popular page builders (Block Editor, Elementor, and Divi).
- There is a multi-service booking option to schedule several services in one go.
- A collection of business-fueled WordPress themes designed for multiple business industries.
Now, the choice of the best scheduling system is up to you! Does our comparison article come in handy to make a decision?
Disclosure: this article may contain affiliate links for third-party products. If you click a link and later make a purchase, we may earn an affiliate commission that doesn’t result in additional charges to you.
FAQ
Is LatePoint plugin free?
How to integrate LatePoint with WordPress?
Does MotoPress Appointment Booking have built-in payment options?
How to send reminders with MotoPress Appointment Booking?
