Is it really true, free subscription loosing essential features in April?

[SR_]

As of April 26th 2022, if you are on a free plan, will it now cost £29 per month for the following?

Google Calendar sync

No-show protection

Daily appointment limit

Automated text and email confirmations

Multiple staff appointments

As far as I can make out, if you are a small business, you will have to pay for these features!

[laowaichris]

Hi SR. I came here looking for the same confirmation. It does appear we will lose those features as of 26th April. For my incredibly small side-job business, I just can’t justify £29 a month. I’m especially disappointed to lose Google calendar sync and no-show protection.

[SR_]

I know, unless I'm missing something, we now have to pay £29 a month to get the same service we were getting for free. 

Can someone from Square confirm this?

[laowaichris]

Unfortunately I think you’re right.

I agree that it would be helpful to have a response from Square on this. 

[Breffni]

Hi @SR_ and @laowaichris, thanks for your comments. 

I can confirm there will be a change our pricing plans for Square Appointments, coming into effect from 26/04/22. We will still have a Free plan, if you’d like to continue using Appointments for basic booking and payments, that is still available to you. But you may notice some of the other features you use are placed into the paid plans under Plus or Premium.

Under these new plans, you’re not being charged for staff members or for growing your team, but rather, you’ll have the flexibility to choose the plan with the features that best fit your business. 

I hope this helps provide more context. 

[SR_]

Thanks for your reply, but for me, it means I'm paying £29 for services I am currently getting for free. 

[Breffni]

I completely understand your standpoint @SR_ , but as we continue to build more complex features for Square Appointments, we realised not all features are applicable to all business types, and we wanted to allow for the flexibility for you to choose what you pay for.

Please let me know if there are any questions you would like to talk through about the new pricing plans.

[laowaichris]

I'm sorry to say, but following the changes in subscription pricing, I won't be able to afford to stay with Square for my appointments. I have researched many of the competitors and have found another solution that provides many of the features I will lose for a fraction of the price (£3.70 per month compared to £29 per month). Ironically this other booking service also links with Square for the processing of payments and the widget pop-up actually works on my website, which I could never achieve with Square.

I don't think single sole traders have been thought about in this new pricing decision. Where is the market for people like me who can't afford to pay £29 a month, but rely on features such as no-show protection? Do you not think you could have kept more customers by having a lower-priced introductory tier that includes at least some of the Plus tier features (for example, I would have paid just to have no-show protection and compromised on losing automatic email updates).

It's a shame as I really like the Square interface and will continue to use the hardware for in-person payments.