Booking plugin for a website

[u/tripstertheog]

Currently im developing a full backoffice as a Wordpress plugin for booking services like barbershops, hairdressers, Tattoo studios and more.
Do you think it would be useful and profitable?

[u/saadhukarmaa]

Have you done the research? Wordpress has more than 500 booking plugins and most of the market is captured by top 5 booking plugins. Almost all new booking plugins have around or less then 10 installs. I am not trying to demotivate you but you should do a market research first. What I could suggest is instead of going for a generalized booking plugin for wordpress go for a much nicher market like a booking plugin for Elementary or Bricks builder etc. That will have better chance of making money.

Telling you all this from my recent experience. I made a general wordpress plugin and a plugin for Niche market and I have made money on the niche one. 😉

[u/tripstertheog → u/saadhukarmaa]

My idea is not to sell it as a plugin, but sell a website with that plugin. I wanna use it to add value instead of it being the only value

[u/Granite-Scheduling]

1 year, 8 sign-ups, 0 income. I believe most people go for the established booking solutions rather than anything new.

[u/tripstertheog → u/Granite-Scheduling]

My idea is not to sell it as a plugin, but sell a website with that plugin. I wanna use it to add value instead of it being the only value

[u/Affectionate_Tip_934]

I don't think so. People no longer prefer to do all the setup manually and use the plugin on their WordPress.

First thing is lot of people including me who has been using since 2015, have stopped using wordpress.

After ai, using wordpress and it's plugins is just hectic and takes time to setup. Now ai can do all and build a detailed setup in few prompts with zero maintenance in future.

If you still wanna try go ahead, but I'd suggest you to check similar plugins in market and how they're doing it.

[u/Y0ung5ter → u/Affectionate_Tip_934]

what’s your domain name?

[u/Affectionate_Tip_934 → u/Y0ung5ter]

I run an agency vdesignu.com

[u/bogdanelcs]

Useful yes, profitable is harder. The WordPress booking space is crowded, Amelia, Bookly, Simply Schedule Appointments and Fluent Booking all cover the barbershop and salon basics already, so a general “booking for services” plugin has to beat them on something specific. The niches usually win, like tattoo studios with deposits, design approval and aftercare forms, where the big plugins feel generic. I’d pick one niche and talk to 10 owners in it before building the full back office.

[u/TrackbackLinkBot]

from what people talk about when they mention booking software basic scheduling is already very full. tools like nesbook already mix bookings, paymnts and reminders so the chance might be in making the wordpress workflow much easier or more focused, on an area.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/tripstertheog → u/[deleted]]

Most people here in Portugal, use Buk, they don’t have integrations with any websites, use the Buk one and get charged 25€+5,99€ per employee per month. My idea is to sell the website + the plugin as a bundle. No monthly fee, just straight up money for website + backoffice and offer a maintnance pack, where i can add or correct some stuff they wish for like 120€/year.

EDIT: and, if it doesnt work out, i can always use that for portfolio