Description
Vollstart Appointment Desk combines online appointment scheduling with a walk-in queue system in a single plugin. Customers book online or grab a queue number at the door. Your front desk sees everything in a live reception cockpit — no WordPress login required for staff.
No double bookings. Slot holds reserve the time slot while the customer fills out the form. Other booking plugins let two customers book the same slot simultaneously — Appointment Desk prevents this.
No per-extension upsells. One plugin, one price. No surprise add-on costs for basic features like email notifications or calendar views.
GDPR-friendly by design. All customer data stays in your WordPress database. No external tracking, no third-party data sharing. Your data, your server.
Perfect for
- Hair salons & barbershops — online booking + walk-in queue for busy days
- Medical & dental practices — patient scheduling with check-in kiosk
- Consulting firms — client appointment booking with calendar sync
- Government offices & citizen services — queue numbers + TV display for waiting rooms
- Fitness studios & yoga — class booking with capacity management
- Repair shops & workshops — appointment slots with custom fields
- Coworking spaces — room and desk booking
- Any service business that handles both scheduled and walk-in customers
Free Features
- 1 calendar, 1 service, 1 team with 1 staff member — up to 100 customers and 50 appointments per month
- Mobile-friendly online booking form (Shortcode + dedicated booking page)
- Multi-column booking layout — services, calendar, and form side by side
- Inline month calendar in multi-column view
- Live price display in booking form (updates on service/extras selection)
- Email confirmations for new, cancelled, rescheduled, and declined bookings
- ICS calendar file attached to confirmation emails
- Day and week view in admin
- 2 custom fields per booking
- Auto-confirm or manual approval workflow
- Double Opt-In — email confirmation before booking is active
- Customer self-service: cancellation and reschedule via email links
- Slot holds — prevents double bookings while customer fills out the form
- Walk-in queue system: queue numbers, kiosk page, live TV display
- QR code check-in and check-out
- Customer CRM with full appointment history
- GDPR customer management — export data as JSON, import from CSV/JSON, delete all data with double confirmation
- Rating system — customers rate their experience after the visit
- Blocked times for breaks, holidays, and closures
- Reception cockpit — live front desk overview, no WordPress login needed
Pro Features
Everything in Free, plus:
- Unlimited calendars, services, and staff members
- Unlimited custom fields
- Team management — assign staff to calendars and services
- Service Extras — optional add-ons per service with price and duration
- Special Days — override business hours for specific dates
- Buffer times for preparation and cleanup between appointments
- Min. advance time / Max. booking window per calendar
- File Upload in booking form — customers attach files with secure storage
- Double Opt-In per-calendar override (global/enabled/disabled)
- WooCommerce integration for paid appointments
- ICS feed — subscribe with Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar
- Unlimited cockpit auth tokens for staff access
- Custom email attachments per email type
- Queue themes: Light, Dark, and custom CSS upload
- Staff service desk page for multi-desk setups
- Remove branding
Business Features
Everything in Pro, plus:
- Customer Self-Service Page — customers view, cancel, and manage their appointment via a secure token link
- Per-calendar override for self-service permissions (cancel, file edit)
- Custom HTML email templates — full control over email content
- Rating email — automatic feedback request after appointments
Why Appointment Desk?
Most booking plugins only handle online appointments. But real businesses also have walk-in customers, a reception desk, and a waiting room. Appointment Desk handles all of it:
- Book — Customers self-book online. Slot holds prevent double bookings.
- Queue — Walk-ins pull a number. TV display shows who is next.
- Done — Staff manage everything from one cockpit. No spreadsheets, no chaos.
Built by the team behind Event Tickets with Ticket Scanner.
Languages
Vollstart Appointment Desk is translated into 20 languages:
- English (default), German (DE/AT/CH), French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese (PT/BR), Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese
All translations are included in the plugin. Community contributions welcome via the WordPress.org translation platform.
Links
Third-Party Libraries
This plugin includes the following third-party libraries:
- FullCalendar v6.1.15 — fullcalendar.io — MIT License — Source
- DataTables v2.3.7 — datatables.net — MIT License — Source
- html5-qrcode v2.3.8 — QR code scanning — MIT License — Source
- chillerlan/php-qrcode v4.4.2 — QR code generation — MIT License — Source
All libraries are included locally within the plugin. No external CDN calls are made.
External Services
This plugin does not connect to any third-party or external services. All data is stored locally in your WordPress database. No customer data leaves your server.
The optional Pro add-on plugin (sold separately at vollstart.com) connects to vollstart.com for license validation and update checks. The free plugin hosted on WordPress.org does not make any external connections.
Screenshots

Reception cockpit — live overview of today’s appointments, check-ins, and queue 
Booking form — mobile-friendly frontend for customers to pick service, date, and time 
Queue kiosk — walk-in customers pull a queue number 
Queue TV display — live screen for waiting rooms 
Calendar week view — admin overview of all bookings 
Customer CRM — appointment history and customer details 
Settings — email templates, custom fields, and general options
Installation
- Upload the plugin folder to
/wp-content/plugins/or install directly via the WordPress plugin search. - Activate through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.
- Go to “Appointment Desk” in the admin menu.
- Create a team and add staff members (Teams tab).
- Create a calendar and assign your team (Calendars tab).
- Add a service to the calendar.
- Add the
[vollstart-appointment-desk]shortcode to any page — or use the auto-generated booking page.
FAQ
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How many bookings can I have in the free version?
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The free version includes 1 calendar, 1 service, 1 team with 1 staff member, up to 100 customers and 50 appointments per month. Upgrade to Pro for unlimited everything.
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Is the booking form mobile-friendly?
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Yes. The booking form is fully responsive and works on all devices and screen sizes. Add it to any page via shortcode or use the auto-generated booking page.
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Do customers need an account to book?
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No. Customers book without registering. They receive an email confirmation with links to cancel or reschedule on their own.
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Can I use this for walk-in customers without an appointment?
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Yes. The queue system lets walk-in customers take a number via a kiosk page. A separate TV display shows the current queue status in real time. Staff call the next customer from the cockpit.
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How does the plugin prevent double bookings?
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Slot holds reserve a time slot the moment a customer starts filling out the booking form. If another customer tries to book the same slot, it shows as unavailable. This prevents the overbooking issues common with other booking plugins.
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Can my receptionist use the cockpit without a WordPress account?
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Yes. The reception cockpit is a standalone page protected by an auth token. Share the URL with staff — no WordPress login needed. The free version includes 1 auth token. Pro includes unlimited tokens.
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Can I accept payments for appointments?
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Yes, with the Pro plan. WooCommerce integration lets you charge for appointments through the standard WooCommerce checkout. The free version handles free bookings only.
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Does the plugin require WooCommerce?
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No. Appointment Desk works fully standalone. WooCommerce integration is available in the Pro plan for paid appointments.
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Does it work with Elementor, Gutenberg, and other page builders?
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Yes. The booking form is added via shortcode
[vollstart-appointment-desk], which works in any page builder, theme, the block editor, or the classic editor. -
Does the plugin send appointment reminders?
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Automatic reminders are coming in the Business plan. Currently, customers receive confirmation, cancellation, and reschedule emails.
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Is all customer data stored on my own server?
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Yes. All data is stored in your WordPress database. No external services are used for core functionality. The plugin is GDPR-friendly by design — no customer data leaves your server.
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Can my staff subscribe to their schedule in Google Calendar?
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Yes. The Pro plan includes an ICS feed that staff can subscribe to from Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar. Appointments sync automatically.
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How is this different from Bookly or Amelia?
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Vollstart Appointment Desk combines online booking with a walk-in queue system and a reception cockpit. Most booking plugins focus only on online scheduling. Also: one price, no per-extension upsells — every Pro feature is included in the Pro plan.
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Can I export bookings?
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Yes. The admin interface includes CSV export for appointments and customer data.
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How do I get support?
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Email us at support@vollstart.com. We respond within 1 business day.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Vollstart Appointment Desk” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate “Vollstart Appointment Desk” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1 – 2026-04-07
- Show Pro version in admin header and support info
- Minor fixes and improvements
1.0.0 – 2026-04-06
- Initial release
- Online appointment booking with calendar, services, and time slots
- Walk-in queue system with kiosk page, live TV display, and staff service desk PWA
- Reception cockpit — standalone front desk, no WordPress login needed
- Slot holds to prevent double bookings
- QR code check-in and check-out
- Email notifications: confirmation, cancellation, reschedule, declined
- ICS calendar file in confirmation emails
- ICS feed for Google Calendar / Outlook sync
- Customer CRM with appointment history and ratings
- Custom fields per booking (2 in free, unlimited in Pro)
- Blocked times for holidays, breaks, and closures
- Team management with virtual members (no WP account needed)
- Multi-desk queue with auto-assign and no-show timeout
- TV display: portrait (rows) and landscape (grid) orientation
- Multi-column booking layout — services, calendar, and form side by side
- Inline month calendar in multi-column view
- Admin: day view, week view, month view with CSV export and print
- WooCommerce integration for paid appointments (Pro)
- Buffer times for preparation and cleanup (Pro)
- Custom queue themes with CSS upload (Pro)
- “Delete data on uninstall” option (default off)
- GDPR-friendly: all data stored locally, no external tracking
