About this plugin
Next Open is the appointment booking plugin that gets out of your way. Whether you run a single salon or manage 36 dental offices, Next Open lets customers book appointments online, 24/7 — with the right location, the right staff, at the right time.
Works beautifully for a single location. Scales effortlessly when you grow. Most booking plugins either overwhelm small businesses with complexity or fall apart when you add a second branch.
Next Open does both — simple setup for one location, powerful multi-location management when you need it. Each location gets its own business hours, holiday calendar, staff roster, and time slot configuration.
Why businesses choose Next Open:
- Simple to set up — guided wizard gets you live in 2 minutes
- Works for one location or one hundred — no extra configuration needed
- The only booking plugin with multi-location as a core feature, not a paid add-on
- Each location has independent schedules, staff, services, and holidays
- One shortcode powers everything — no duplicate pages needed
- Location-specific email notifications — each branch only sees their own bookings (Pro)
- Lightweight and fast — scripts only load on pages with the booking form
- No monthly fees — free version is free forever, Pro is a one-time annual purchase
Core Features (Free)
- Guided setup wizard — go live in 2 minutes, no technical knowledge needed
- Unlimited locations with individual business hours (or just one — it’s up to you)
- Real-time appointment availability checking
- Automated email confirmations for customers and admin
- Customizable time slots (15, 30, or 60 minutes)
- Customizable booking form heading to match your business
- Holiday and closure date management per location
- Mobile-responsive booking form with optional Google Maps
- Customer database with booking history
- Admin dashboard with appointment overview and filtering
- Timezone support for accurate scheduling
- Simple [next_open_booking] shortcode integration
Pro Features
Upgrade to Next Open Pro for advanced capabilities — whether you have one busy location or dozens:
- Staff Management — Add team members with photos, bios, individual availability schedules, and service assignments per location
- Location-Specific Notifications — Each location’s staff receives only their own booking notifications, not every booking across the business
- Confirmation & Cancellation Alerts — Staff are notified instantly when customers confirm or cancel appointments
- Day-Before Appointment Reminders — Automatic reminder emails sent to both customers and staff to reduce no-shows
- Services & Pricing — Create services with variable pricing and durations per location
- Stripe Payment Integration — Accept credit card payments or deposits at booking time
- Custom Form Fields — Add unlimited custom fields to collect location-specific information
- Customer Self-Service Portal — Customers cancel or reschedule via secure magic links, no account needed
- Buffer Times — Add preparation time between appointments to prevent back-to-back bookings
- CSV Import/Export — Bulk import staff, appointments, and customer data
- Priority Email Support — Dedicated support for Pro customers
Perfect For
- Hair salons and barbershops — one chair or a chain of locations
- Medical and dental practices — solo practitioners to multi-office groups
- Wellness centers, spas, and massage therapists
- Consulting, legal, and accounting firms
- Auto service and repair centers
- Veterinary clinics
- Tutoring and educational services
- Fitness studios, gyms, and personal trainers
- Any appointment-based business that needs online booking
How It Works
- Install Next Open — the setup wizard walks you through everything
- Add your location (or locations) with business hours
- Add holidays and closure dates
- The wizard creates your booking page automatically (or add [next_open_booking] to any page)
- Customers pick a location, choose a date and time, and book
- Confirmation emails are sent automatically to customer and admin
- Manage all appointments from your WordPress dashboard
Developer Friendly
Built with clean, well-documented code following WordPress coding standards. Includes action hooks and filters so developers can extend the booking functionality for custom workflows.
Support
org Forums
com
com
com/next-open