Square Appointments Comparison (Pricing, Features, & Benefits)

Manage and Grow Your Fitness Business Better with Exercise.com. Learn more below.

Choose Exercise.com’s All-In-One Fitness Business Management Software. Review our head-to-head Square Appointments software comparison and see for yourself. Get a custom web and smartphone app designed for your brand with additional customization available throughout your custom-built software. Grow your business, turn leads into clients, and increase revenue.

Choosing the right software to run your business is an important choice. The software you decide to purchase and the components it carries are crucial to running your business successfully.

Within this review, you will read about Square Appointments, a booking and scheduling software, along with its capabilities in comparison to Exercise.com’s all-in-one fitness business software. You’ll learn an overview of their platform and features available to business owners which will give you an idea of the type of business that Square Appointments serves.

We will go over Square Appointment’s specs and pricing against their competitors to give you all the tools you will need to make the best, most educated decision for your company’s success.

You will learn why Exercise.com is the top choice for fitness entrepreneurs to effectively and successfully grow their business, increase revenue, and maintain and grow their clientele.

The fitness industry is constantly moving and evolving following new trends and fads. For a fitness business to stay relevant and lucrative, its software must be also able to change and evolve with the times. This is just one of the many reasons why you should choose Exercise.com. We are creating a platform that adapts to every client and their needs as it is customized to the client’s brand. This sets companies up for future shifts in the industry and will always adapt to a business’s needs.

If you’re ready to learn more about software that can learn and adapt to your companies needs, then book a demo today.

Fitness Pros Who Trust Exercise.com

Square Appointments Software Review

Square Appointments is a scheduling, payment, and customer management app whose simplistic design is aimed at keeping small businesses organized via a fee-based platform.

Square Appointments started as a small, white, portable credit card reader and has since expanded their corresponding app integrating scheduling and alerts.

Electricians, food trucks, beauty salons, coffee chains, clothing retailers, bakeries, and more can utilize the Square Appointment platform.

When a business casts such a wide net to hundreds of different types of companies, that usually means that the business is unable to cater to a specific need over another and users may end up paying for features they may never use. One such user noted this dilemma:

“Just set [Square Appointments] up yesterday. I’m a massage therapist and work in 2 locations. I hate that I have to sign out and then back in to change locations. Very inefficient. On the computer, I just use the drop-down to easily switch but not on my phone. Might be a deal-breaker for me.”

Naturally, with an app so unable to adapt to a company’s needs, there are bound to be complaints. Luckily, Exercise.com is prepared for such issues and has developed an advisory board that listens and preempts our customers’ needs when it comes to future features, adaption, and integration.

Square Appointments vs Exercise.com

When it comes to your business, the platform that you utilize to represent you must do just that: represents YOU. What separates Exercise.com from Square Appointments is our ability to supply your company with a fully customizable experience from A to Z including a one-of-a-kind, unique app. With Square Appointments, you will get one option: one app, that comes stocked with only the standard calendar, alerts, and point-of-sale functions. They cannot add on extra features to fit your needs; instead, they offer the ability to partner their app with other apps, making the platform jumbled and confusing.

Owning a fully-branded app that is unique to your business is just one piece of the full-featured platform offered by Exercise.com

Unless otherwise stated, all images and reviews below are of/about Exercise.com’s All-In-One Fitness Business Management software platform.

Fitness Business Management Software

One of the most popular aspects of Exercise.com’s software is that you can manage all aspects of your business from one place. Much like their app, Square Appointments does not come with everything your fitness business needs on just their single software platform. You will need to utilize other companies’ platforms to complete tasks outside of Square Appointment’s capabilities.

Conversely, Exercise.com’s software is fully-customizable and user-friendly. Our platform allows you to manage personal training, memberships, schedule and track workouts, alerts, payments, generate reports, and even integrate with other programs if desired. Let’s take a deeper look into everything Exercise.com can do for your business.

Client/Class Scheduling

Scheduling is one of the aspects that Square Appointments does well. Clients can sign up for upcoming classes, schedule and book personal training and receive automatic scheduling alerts. However many users have noted that with each update, Square is losing its functionality:

“I think the more square ‘updates’ their service the worse it gets. Clients used to get reminders; now half of them don’t, their[sic] not receiving their receipts as well.”

Exercise.com also contains a customizable calendar function. However, we take it one step further by accommodating multiple trainers, multiple class and location calendars, scheduling add-on options, and more. Customers can pay for services they’ve purchased, book new appointments, and even sort the view to their liking.

Gym/Facility Management

When owning a fitness business, it’s important the services and amenities that you offer match with pricing that ensures your business remains profitable. Both Exercise.com and Square Appointments offer competitive pricing that can reach all sorts of client types. The difference, however, is in the features offered. Management software must offer all the customizable options a fitness business owner needs while never making you pay for features you’ll never use.

With Exercise.com’s software, you can generate reports to see anything from total purchases to gross revenue while itemizing everything individually. A business owner needs to have these features at their fingertips to analyze the growth and profit to make decisions on changes needed.

For example, you might want to analyze your small group training schedule. After generating a report, the results show that you have more revenue coming in from the morning and evening classes over your midday offerings. Simply eliminating your midday class options might save you in payroll and facility costs.

Similarly, a report can showcase revenue from one group class instructor over another to give you the option to utilize your staff most profitably. You can even manage staff roles and availability within the Exercise.com dashboard.

Client Automation

Square Appointments and Exercise.com both offer automation features. Square Appointments’ automation is limited to scheduling alerts, payment features, and online booking. While Exercise.com offers an array of customization.

To maintain a smooth operation, you want your business to operate as easily as possible. Exercise.com offers automated features to keep your clients engaged with their workouts and your facility in general. Here are a few of the offerings:

• Automatic Emails and Texts/Other Automatic Features
• Highlight Exercise.com
• Automate Workout Delivery
• Automate Resource Delivery
• Automate Assessment Delivery
• Automate Reminders/Alerts via app, text, and email

Dedicated Zapier Support

At Exercise.com, we provide our clients with a plethora of integrations – but, sometimes, you want a bit of a boost. Our partnership with Zapier allows you to, in Zapier’s words, “Integrate (link your web apps with a few clicks, so they can share data), Automate (pass info between your apps with workflows called Zaps), and Innovate (build processes faster and get more done – no code required).

Part of this partnership includes dedicated Zapier support to help you through every step of the process. With over 2,000 apps to choose from, you can rest assured that your company’s website is as efficient and user-friendly as possible.

Similar to Exercise.com, Square Appointments offers a simple marketing tool via customizable mass email campaigns. Utilizing Zapier through Exercise.com enables a business owner to integrate directly into the most popular marketing tool with Zap. It’s fast and easy and allows you to continue on with your daily business tasks without the hiccups of bumpy electronic transitions.

Dedicated Account Manager

At Exercise.com, we take customer service very seriously; which is why we provide our clients with a dedicated account manager to help them through every step of the process – indefinitely.

If you want to redesign your website, your account manager will get it done. If you want to set up an e-commerce store, your account manager won’t blink twice. Whatever you need, our world-class dev team will come through. From the mundane to the complex, we have you covered.

Customized Software

Purchasing the use of Square Appointments’ platform enables the use of their dashboard and corresponding app as the business owner. However, it is not customizable to your business’s logo or colors and there is no app offered to your clients. Exercise.com, however, provides custom websites and apps for no additional charge. When you sign up to use our software, custom apps and websites are included — no additional costs, no headaches.

Custom-Branded

As stated above, Square Appointments offers the business owner the use of their branded dashboard, app, and point-of-sale hardware, however, without the ability to customize the look or features to match your business. Additionally, Square Appointments’ logo is located everywhere on the site and there is no option to add your fitness logo. Exercise.com’s custom software is fully customized so that your company is front and center.

iOS & Android Apps

Square Appointments’ point-of-sale named Square Point is available for use on iOS and Androids, however, Square Appointments’ full dashboard platform is only available for use via iOS. One fitness group instructor noted:

“[Square Appointments] is the worst appointment app because Android users can only see their schedule. It does no good when you have a team of people using the same equipment and certain users cannot see the entire schedule.”

With that being said, only Exercise.com provides fully customized apps at no additional cost on both Android and iOS.

Websites

Square Appointments does not build custom websites for its customers. Instead, it outsources website integrations to do what Square Appointments cannot. Exercise.com does not require integrations to create a custom website for your business. Our top-rated dev team will create a one-of-a-kind website that reflects your wants and needs as a business owner.

Some of the features our custom websites include are:

• Responsive
• SEO optimized
• Unlimited theme changes
• Built to convert visitors to leads
• Custom graphic work
• Google Certified Partner

Some words from a professional Square Appointments user:

“What I really dislike about Square Appointments is the website integration. My clients would have to click a link to click another link to pull up a page full of redundant info to book an appointment. This app and integration cannot be modified for branding and is difficult to navigate. I hope for a lot of significant changes in the update so that I and other therapists can find it integrates well with our business.”

Security Features

Square Appointments and Exercise.com both provide users with added security features so that their business and client information remains safe and secure.

Exercise.com’s security features include:

• SSL Secure
• Privacy Shield Framework
• Google Cloud

Marketing Integrations

Square Appointments offers a limited source of marketing solutions through mass email campaigns. While business owners can create templates and run reports off their mass email campaigns, they are limited to this one single source of outreach.

Exercise.com has built-in integrations but the possibilities are endless with our focus on custom-branded solutions for retention, client and lead follow-ups, marketing, advertising, along with other features intended for faster, easier, and more automated business growth.

Some of our more popular integrations include:

• MailChimp
• ConstantContact
• ConvertKit
• Zapier
• Google Analytics
• Facebook Pixel

Workout Software

As fitness trends lean more towards leading a healthy lifestyle over temporary yo-yo dieting and temporary fads, it’s imperative for a fitness professional to be able to easily create, update, send, and track workouts for all their clients.

Does Square Appointments rise to the challenge? Let’s find out.

Workout Creator/Logger

Square Appointments severely lacks in creating or delivering custom workouts. The software to date has no function for workout creation templates, a client and trainer workout logging app, exercise library creation, workout progress, or high-level automated workout progress engagement. The only way to contact your clients via Square Appointments is through email or schedule alerts.

The Exercise.com business app knows that tracking progress is a major component of client retention and happiness, which can be quantified in business revenue. The more a client feels valued and that their hard work is paying off, the longer they will stay with that business/trainer and the happier they will be over time. That type of value is often marketed to the friends and family of each happy customer by word of mouth.

We know what it takes to keep your clients happy and that’s why our workout creation is full-featured and allows an array of customizations for your brand.

Our workout creator/logger provides users with endless possibilities for delivering workouts, tips, and encouragement to clients in any scenario, including:

1-1 Training

There are few aspects more valuable than a personalized 1-on-1 session with a personal trainer. By utilizing Exercise.com’s workout software, personal trainers can add a personal touch to their training sessions; creating individualized sessions for each client.

Square Appointments does not have a function to speak directly to clients within their online dashboard or app. They are limited to email or phone calls only.

Group Training

Our workout software also allows for seamless group training sessions and provides clients with the ability to be a part of a “community” with like-minded, goal-oriented fitness enthusiasts.

Online Training

Online training is becoming more and more popular as people transition to a more digital lifestyle. Fitness clients in today’s society find it easier to look to their phones or devices for workout plans rather than coordinate schedules for in-person training. The Exercise.com workout software allows you to send workouts to anyone, at any time, anywhere.

Exercise Library

At the time this article was written, Square Appointments does not provide its customers with an exercise library.

Numerous free and paid fitness platforms offer pre-built workout libraries to their users. However, the videos and tutorials are done by professionals who are not affiliated with your company and do not know the individual needs of your clients. This creates a disconnect between you and your clients and does not offer value to your company individually.

With Exercise.com, however, video libraries and exercises can be customized. This gives you full ownership of what your clients are using for their workouts as well as creating even more value for your price point.

Custom Exercises

As mentioned above, giving your clients a video featuring someone they have never seen or met does not showcase your business the same way it would if your fitness staff was featured. Your clients and their fitness needs are unique and so is your business. Give them the best experience possible by using videos filmed at your business, featuring your staff members.

TV Workouts

Aside from providing clients with the ability to watch demos of the exercises you’ve sent them within their workout plans, gyms can use the exercise library as well as a great way to cast exercise demos onto gym television screens during group classes or one-on-one training sessions.

The ability to cast your videos within your studio or club is a great way to brand your company as well as create buzz and market the types of class and training offerings you offer.

This is just another way Exercise.com helps you add that “personal touch” so many people look for when choosing a gym.

E-Commerce Software

Square Appointments offers two types of payment options: either in-person via their Square hardware or online through their purchasing portal.

Although the Square Appointment point of sale function allows users to add and itemize items, while also allowing for refunds and auto charges for no-show clients, the customization ends there. There is only one point of sale page to use and cannot be amended for various types of services.

When it comes to selling membership training packages, running workout challenges, delivery of individual training, and selling single workout plans, Exercise.com allows for purchases within any of these platforms with customizable functions at every step of the way.

Payment Processing

Square Appointments has great payment processing capabilities and gives users the option to accept payments online or in-person via their Square hardware. Users can have access to their funds right away if a business debit card is used or transfer directly to your account for a fee per transfer. Square Appointments accepts every type of payment and credit card and can save credit cards on file for recurring charges. Charges can also be customized to require a deposit, taxes, or no-show fees.

Exercise.com also provides users with payment processing options and can accept payments for any product or service in a secure manner.

Using Stripe, our software can accept one-time payments for products or services, send recurring monthly membership invoices, sell packages for personal training or group classes, or combine all accrued payables into one monthly bill for customers. Unlike Square Appointments, payments through Exercise.com can truly be customized to whatever will work most efficiently for your business

Sell Products

Both Square Appointments and Exercise.com provide users with e-commerce capabilities to sell products and services online.

However, Exercise.com goes a step further and provides users with the ability to also sell training packages like the below examples:

Sell Workout Plans

Personal training or custom designed workout plans offer many benefits, but they may not necessarily be for everyone. Some members might already have a good base of fitness knowledge and want a more generic plan that helps them generate ideas and gives them something to follow.

Despite the level of fitness experience of your users, there is a workout plan that will benefit them all at every level.

Exercise.com gives you the chance to sell pre-built workout plans for members who might fall into this scenario. They may not be comfortable paying for personal training or asking for a custom plan, but by having pre-built plans available, you are offering a tool that they can use to be successful while generating revenue for your business. The great thing is that the same plan can be purchased by dozens of different people, meaning that it carries a high value for your business.

As we mentioned earlier, the majority of society today is more comfortable working with electronics than a live person. The ability to reach this population by offering something they wouldn’t normally ask for themselves increases your business revenue while allowing you to track the most purchased and, therefore, most popular workout plans.

Offer Online Workout Memberships

For the virtual clients who do want a customized program, your business can charge a premium price, but that normally dictates a higher time commitment from the individual generating the program. Taking time out to create custom workouts for each client is time-consuming and normally cannot be used for any other client.

Exercise.com helps to save you time and energy by providing automated programming delivery.

Rather than having to take the time to send a new workout at the end of each cycle, the workouts can all be created in advance and be sent automatically at a predetermined time that works for you and the client. Your client can then complete these workouts on their own time and at a location of their choice.

Sell Workout Challenges

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, fitness businesses promote a sense of community. Gym members see the same faces several days per week, develop friendships, and share in the success of others. By running a workout challenge, you are providing an opportunity for members to engage with others as a team or in friendly competition.

The more your business feels like a community, the more members will want to tell their friends about it. This is an amazing marketing opportunity for your fitness business. Fitness challenges like boot camps, weight loss challenges, and running or biking competitions are some of the most popular programs run at gym clubs all over the world to this day.

Performance Health Software

Another key to being a great fitness business owner and trainer is knowing where your clients are in their fitness journey and having a plan set in place for how you will help them meet their fitness goals. To be an effective fitness entrepreneur, you’ll need effective performance software.

Performance health assessment software should allow you to:

• Turn leads into clients
• Engage clients through fitness assessments
• Track measurement data, injuries, etc.
• Show current fitness level and compare to an optimal level of fitness specific to the client
• Optimize the delivery of personalized workouts and nutrition

Square Appointments does not give users the ability to conduct fitness assessments on their main dashboard or via any third-party apps.

Exercise.com’s Performance Health Assessment software, however, is fully customizable from A-to-Z and allows you to onboard clients and deliver workouts automatically without the need for a third-party app.

You can onboard leads into clients by gauging their fitness and health levels through a set of customizable assessments and re-engage clients at set intervals to show progress and increase retention. Most importantly, the data collected is customized to your business and clients. This smart data ensures you have the data that’s important for your clients’ fitness journies, personalized to them. The value this data adds to your business is unmatched.

Assessments

As a fitness business owner, the benefits of offering fitness assessments to your clients and members add up to increased revenue and member retention. For the client, the information obtained in the assessment gives them a glance at the information they cannot get elsewhere and is priceless to working towards their overall fitness goals. These assessments showcase where they are now at their baseline fitness level and give you and your trainers a plan of attack for each member specific to their goals.

Performance & Measurement Reports

Client and member retention is a top priority when it comes to running a business. No business ever wants to lose a client, and fitness businesses are no exception. One way to keep your clients engaged with your business is by automating your interactions with them. Reminding clients of their goals and progress is a great way to keep them engaged with your company and being able to automate this service saves you time.

Exercise.com’s performance health software allows you to deliver recurring assessments, progress photos, and measurements to promote client re-engagement and retention.

Nutrition

When speaking of performance health software many people think of workouts alone; however, our software takes it one step further to include nutrition. After all, for performance to be at its peak, your clients need to take stock of their daily dietary choices – that’s where Exercise.com’s nutrition tracking and logging comes into play.

Your clients can track their daily intake and you can see what they’re eating and whether they prioritize pre and/or post-workout meals.

Square Appointments Software Pricing

The pricing breakdowns for Square Appointments are based on the number of employees a company has that will utilize the platform. There is monthly pricing plus a fee charged for every transaction used by the Square card reader.

Package	Individual	2-5 Employees	6-10 Employees
Price per Month	$10*	$50	$90
% Per Tab, Dip, Swipe	2.60%	2.50%	2.50%
Fee per Transaction	$0.10	$0.10	$0.10

*Price per month at the Individual level is $30/month but the booking site is free.

With each tier for pricing comes upgrades, as we saw in the features section, where we listed a comprehensive table showing almost exactly what each business owner has access to at each tier, but the simple breakdown is showcased above.

Square Appointments is not a fitness-based system and does not come with the type of pricing tiers that would accommodate a large gym or studio. For pricing beyond 10 employees, a user must contact sales to discuss the options.

Square Appointments Software Competitors

Below is a list of competitors to the Square Appointment platform including a listing of basic features and functions.

Competitor	Price Range	Features
TeamUp	$0-$80/month	Shared Calendar, Organized Events, Scheduling Alerts
MIDAS	$336-$738/year	Room Booking, Scheduling, Staff Management, Confirmations and Invoicing
Appointment Plus	$49-$199+/month	Appointment Booking, Reporting, Staff Management, 3rd Party Integrations
Appointlet	$0-$10/month	Appointment Scheduling, Booking, Calendar Automation, Website Integration
Agendize	$30-$50+/month	Online Booking, Agenda & Calendar Alerts, Customer Database, Marketing
Shore	$29-$49+/month	Online Calendar, Booking, Reminders, Alerts, Website, App, POS
OnSched	$299-$1799/month	Customizable Booking, Website & App, Calendar Sync, Alerts, Custom Email Templates

The Bottom Line: Pros and Cons

Choosing the right software to run your business can mean the difference between success and failure, but it doesn’t have to be a hard choice. Exercise.com has all the customization and features your fitness business needs to succeed well into the future.

Square Appointment Cons

Many small business owners of shops like salons, therapists, florists, and caterers love the Square Appointment platform for the simplicity of their Point of Sale hardware. If you are willing to donate a chunk of each sale to them for every transaction and don’t mind utilizing their dashboard, themes, and colors, then this app is for you.

However, for fitness businesses, trainers, or studio owners, Square Appointments does not supply them with the features they’ll need to run their businesses fully and effectively. As mentioned above, Square Appointments cannot work directly with your clients, create personalized workouts, communicate directly to clients, complete fitness assessments, or customize the website or app to your company.

Additionally, catering to too many different types of businesses means not meeting all your needs while fulfilling needs that don’t fit your company.

Notes from another professional user:

“I’m struggling a bit with navigating this app. I am a therapist and am only able to check clients out on my phone or device. I also would like it if the app had a way to allow clients to book certain types of appointments on their own, while I manage and have control over the other appointments. I also dislike the appointment reminders automation. I have no way of confirming they are sent.”

Exercise.com Pros

If you’re looking for an all-in-one fitness business management software that will allow you to grow and manage your business with ease at a competitive price point, then Exercise.com should be your first choice.

Exercise.com builds your web and smartphone apps with your brand in mind. It’s not a simplistic, unbranded software platform. It’s your app, your software, and your brand front and center. So, if you need a feature, integration, and more engaging performance health software, let us know. Our world-class dev team has a proven track record of delivering software that just works.

What features are most important for your business?

If you’re ready to grow and manage your business with a software that can be customized to your business, book a demo with Exercise.com.