Some tutoring businesses need lesson packages, per-student billing and tutor payroll tied straight to the calendar. Others just need parents to grab an open slot and get a reminder. Buying the wrong one means paying $30–$240 a month for billing tools you’ll never touch, or drowning a multi-tutor center in spreadsheets a $7 booking page was never meant to replace. Here’s the honest map, with 2026 prices checked against each vendor’s own site.
If you run a tutoring center or agency with multiple tutors, sell lesson packages or prepaid credits, and need billing, payroll and attendance tied to every session, a plain scheduler like Bookafy is not enough — you need tutoring-specific management software. If you’re a solo tutor, or a small operation that already handles billing separately (or doesn’t need packages at all), that same management software is a lot of subscription and per-lesson fees for a job a $7–$16 scheduler already does.
| Your business looks like… | Buy this |
|---|---|
| A tutoring center or agency: multiple tutors, room/location scheduling, lesson packages or credits, per-student invoicing, tutor payroll — all tied to the same calendar | A tutoring management platform (Shelf 1 below) |
| Solo tutor, or a small team that just needs students/parents to book a slot and get a reminder — billing happens elsewhere, or there’s nothing to bill beyond a flat rate | A scheduler (Shelf 2 below) — a fraction of the cost, no per-lesson fees |
Get this wrong and it costs real money either way. A solo tutor paying $30–$80/month plus per-lesson fees for franchise-grade payroll tools is paying for tutor commission tracking they’ll never use. A 10-tutor center trying to run packages, attendance and payroll through a $7 booking page is going to be reconciling invoices by hand within a month.
These bundle scheduling with the rest of running a tutoring business: multi-tutor calendars, room/branch management, lesson packages and prepaid credits, automatic invoicing, tutor payroll, and often a parent/student portal. Booking is one feature among several. Prices below were checked directly against each vendor’s own pricing page in 2026.
Best for: private tutors and small centers wanting one flat price, no per-lesson fees
Price: $16.95/month for one tutor or staff account, plus $4.95/month for each additional tutor — no per-lesson or per-invoice fees on top. 30-day free trial, no credit card required, 90-day money-back guarantee. Bundles student management, scheduling with SMS/email reminders, invoicing and online payments, a parent/student portal, and a drag-and-drop website builder. Where it falls short: no built-in payroll splitting for W-2 employees beyond basic reporting, and the website builder is a nice-to-have most centers won’t use if they already have a site.
Best for: established centers that want to pay for what they use
Price: Starter $16.49/month + $0.32 per student lesson, Growth $47.99/month + $0.189/lesson (adds API access), Premium $187.99/month + $0.065/lesson (first 5 branches included, then $35/branch). 21-day free trial, no setup or cancellation fees. In business since 2014 with 70,000+ users. Where it falls short: rescheduling doesn’t auto-update billing the way it does in some newer tools — you’ll adjust invoices manually — and per-lesson fees mean the bill grows with your booking volume, not just your plan tier.
Best for: multi-branch agencies with commission-based tutor pay
Price: Pay-as-you-go $30/month (3.85% card fees), Startup $80/month (3.5% card fees), Enterprise $240/month (negotiated rates) — plus $50/month per extra branch and $100/month for a custom domain. 2-week free trial. Strong API, split payments and payroll, and a built-in video-calling tool (20,000 free minutes, then metered). Where it falls short: card-processing fees stack on top of the subscription and can add up fast at volume, and the calendar itself is commonly described by users as harder to learn than its competitors.
Best for: newer centers wanting scheduling and billing in one place at no fixed cost
Price: Free core plan, with a 1% fee only on invoices you actually bill through it — no monthly minimum. Drag-and-drop calendar with room-capacity conflict blocking, and rescheduling cascades automatically to billing and payroll. Where it falls short: launched in 2024, so it’s the newest and least field-tested platform on this shelf; no built-in video conferencing (pair with Zoom or Meet); and no native mobile app yet, web-only.
If your unit of work is a slot on a calendar — a private lesson, a group class, a free consult call with a new family — and billing isn’t tied to attendance in a complicated way, you don’t need tutoring-specific software. You need a booking page, reminders that cut no-shows, and a card on file. These cost a fraction of Shelf 1 and carry no per-lesson fee.
Best for: solo tutors and small teams who just need lessons booked and shown up to
Price: Free plan; Pro $7/user/month; Pro+ $11/user/month. Unlimited users on every paid tier, SMS and email reminders included (not metered), two-way calendar sync, and recurring-appointment support for a student’s weekly slot. Where it falls short: no lesson packages or prepaid credits, no per-student invoicing tied to attendance, no tutor payroll or commission tracking, no parent portal for homework or progress notes. If your center runs on those, this is the wrong shelf — go back to Shelf 1.
Best for: tutors who want light package/add-on selling without a full center platform
Price: $16 / $27 / $49 per month billed annually ($20/$34/$61 monthly); no free plan, 7-day trial. Supports intake forms and paid packages at booking, which edges toward Shelf 1 territory. Where it falls short: no attendance tracking or payroll, and costs more than Bookafy for the same core booking job.
Best for: tutors who mainly book single sessions or intro calls
Price: Free; paid tiers $10 / $16 per seat/month. Fast, familiar link that any parent can use. Where it falls short: no recurring lesson-series management built for tutoring, no packages, and not built for anything past “grab a time.”
Best for: a solo tutor or a team of up to four, on $0
Price: free for up to 4 users; paid Pro roughly $5/user/month billed annually. Where it falls short: lighter reminders and integrations than Bookafy or Acuity as a center grows past a handful of tutors.
Best for: technically-minded tutoring businesses that want open-source and self-hosting
Price: free for individuals; Teams $15 per user/month. Where it falls short: developer-flavoured setup — more configuration than most tutoring businesses want to do.
| Tool | Type | Entry price (2026) | Packages & payroll | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TutorBird | Tutoring platform | $16.95 + $4.95/tutor | Billing yes, basic payroll reporting | Private tutors & small centers, flat price |
| Teachworks | Tutoring platform | $16.49–$187.99 + $0.065–$0.32/lesson | Yes | Established centers, pay-for-use |
| TutorCruncher | Tutoring platform | $30–$240 + card fees | Yes, commission-based | Multi-branch agencies |
| Tutorbase | Tutoring platform | Free core + 1% on invoices | Yes | Newer centers, no fixed cost |
| Bookafy | Scheduler | Free / $7 / $11 per user | No | Solo tutors & small teams |
| Acuity | Scheduler | $16 / $27 / $49 | No (light packages) | Booking + add-on sales |
| Calendly | Scheduler | Free / $10 / $16 per seat | No | Single sessions & intro calls |
| Setmore | Scheduler | Free ≤4 users | No | Solo / tiny teams on $0 |
| Cal.com | Scheduler | Free / $15 per user | No | Technical / self-hosting |
Prices verified in 2026 directly against each vendor’s own pricing page and reflect published rates at the time of writing; tiers and per-lesson fees change, so confirm the current number before you buy.
We’d rather send you to the right tool than sell you the wrong one. Bookafy is a scheduler, so it’s a strong, cheap fit for the booking side of tutoring: private lessons, group sessions, and intro or consult calls with new families. Unlimited users start at $7, SMS and email reminders are included rather than metered, and two-way calendar sync keeps a tutor’s personal and teaching calendars from double-booking.
What Bookafy does not do, plainly: no lesson packages or prepaid credits, no per-student invoicing tied to attendance, no tutor payroll or commission splits, no room-capacity conflict blocking, no parent portal for homework or progress notes. If your center runs on those — which most multi-tutor centers do — buy from Shelf 1, and if a salesperson tells you a pure scheduler can replace tutoring management software, they’re wrong, including if that salesperson is us.
A scheduler books lessons and sends reminders — that’s it. A tutoring management platform (TutorBird, Teachworks, TutorCruncher, Tutorbase) also tracks lesson packages, bills per attendance, runs tutor payroll, and often adds a parent portal, all tied to the same calendar. Schedulers cost a fraction of the price; management platforms earn their cost once packages and payroll are part of your workflow.
Probably not. If you charge a flat rate per lesson and don’t sell prepaid packages, a scheduler like Bookafy ($7/user), Setmore (free up to 4) or Calendly (free) covers the actual job: let students or parents grab a slot, take a reminder, show up.
For booking only, Setmore is free for up to four users and Bookafy is $7/user with no per-lesson fee. For a full platform with packages and payroll, Tutorbase’s core plan is free (1% fee only on billed invoices) and TutorBird starts at $16.95/month flat — the gentlest on-ramps into Shelf 1.
No. Bookafy books appointments and sends reminders; it doesn’t sell prepaid lesson bundles, deduct sessions from a package balance, or generate per-attendance invoices. Pair it with a separate billing tool, or use a Shelf 1 platform that includes packages natively.
Yes — Bookafy supports recurring appointments, so a student’s weekly slot with the same tutor can be set up once. It won’t automatically deduct that lesson from a prepaid package balance, since Bookafy doesn’t track packages.
Bookafy doesn’t run payroll. If you pay tutors a percentage per lesson or need commission tracking across branches, a Shelf 1 platform — Teachworks or TutorCruncher both handle this directly — is the right tool, not a scheduler.
Booking lessons or intro calls and tired of no-shows or double-booked tutors? Try Bookafy free — unlimited users from $7/month, reminders included.
