Square Appointments vs Acuity Scheduling for golf simulator booking

Square Appointments vs Acuity Scheduling for golf simulator and indoor golf venues: bay booking, memberships, pricing, waivers, reminders and league holds, compared side by side.

Updated September 30, 2026

The short answer

Square Appointments is best for venues already using Square POS that want booking in the same system.
Acuity Scheduling is best for small venues wanting an inexpensive, embeddable scheduler.

Of the 10 things golf simulator venues ask for most, Square Appointments (general booking software) fully covers 4 and Acuity Scheduling (general booking software) covers 5, based on what each company publishes.

General booking software

Square Appointments

Square Appointments is Square’s scheduling product, tied to Square payments and POS. It supports online booking, SMS reminders, packages and, on the Premium plan, bookable resources such as rooms or stations.

Best for: Venues already using Square POS that want booking in the same system.

Pricing: A free plan and paid monthly plans per location, plus card processing fees. See Square’s pricing page for current prices.

General booking software

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling is a general online appointment scheduler. It offers embeddable booking pages, packages, subscriptions, intake forms and text reminders.

Best for: Small venues wanting an inexpensive, embeddable scheduler.

Pricing: Tiered monthly plans; text reminders and subscriptions need a higher plan. See Acuity’s pricing page for current prices.

Square Appointments vs Acuity Scheduling: features for golf simulator venues

Feature	Square Appointments	Acuity Scheduling
Booking widget on your own website	Yes	Yes
One schedule across every bay	Yes Resources on Premium plan	Partly Calendar per bay or shared resource limits
Peak, off-peak and seasonal pricing	Check with vendor	Check with vendor
Memberships with recurring billing	Partly Separate Square Subscriptions product	Yes Higher plans; Stripe or Square required
Member perks: early booking, included hours	Check with vendor	Partly Subscriptions can include bookings per cycle
Punch passes or prepaid packages	Yes Packages	Yes Packages
Waivers signed during booking	Partly Forms sent after booking; Plus and up	Partly Required agreement checkbox in intake form
Text (SMS) reminders	Yes	Yes Higher plans
Hold bays for leagues	Check with vendor	Yes Recurring blocked time
Built for golf simulator venues	No	No
Pricing	A free plan and paid monthly plans per location, plus card processing fees. See Square’s pricing page for current prices.	Tiered monthly plans; text reminders and subscriptions need a higher plan. See Acuity’s pricing page for current prices.

Where Square Appointments and Acuity Scheduling differ

One schedule across every bay

Square Appointments

Yes

Resources on Premium plan

Acuity Scheduling

Partly

Calendar per bay or shared resource limits

Memberships with recurring billing

Square Appointments

Partly

Separate Square Subscriptions product

Acuity Scheduling

Yes

Higher plans; Stripe or Square required

Member perks: early booking, included hours

Square Appointments

Check with vendor

Acuity Scheduling

Partly

Subscriptions can include bookings per cycle

Hold bays for leagues

Square Appointments

Check with vendor

Acuity Scheduling

Yes

Recurring blocked time

Strengths and trade-offs

Square Appointments

Strengths

Booking, payments and POS in one Square account
Free plan available
Automatic SMS and email reminders

Worth knowing

Bay-level resource booking requires the Premium plan
General scheduler: golf-specific features like league holds need workarounds

Acuity Scheduling

Strengths

Low starting price and quick setup
Packages and subscriptions with included appointments
Embeds on most website builders

Worth knowing

Built for appointments: multi-bay setups rely on calendars or resource limits
General scheduler: no simulator or access control features

Also worth a look: SimBook

If you’re weighing Square Appointments against Acuity Scheduling for a golf simulator venue, SimBook is built for exactly that job. Here’s how all three line up.

Feature	SimBook	Square Appointments	Acuity Scheduling
Booking widget on your own website	Yes Booking page plus an embeddable widget	Yes	Yes
One schedule across every bay	Yes One tee sheet for every bay	Yes Resources on Premium plan	Partly Calendar per bay or shared resource limits
Peak, off-peak and seasonal pricing	Yes By day, time, season and bay type	Check with vendor	Check with vendor
Memberships with recurring billing	Yes Auto-renewing billing through Stripe	Partly Separate Square Subscriptions product	Yes Higher plans; Stripe or Square required
Member perks: early booking, included hours	Yes Early booking windows, hour banks, member rates	Check with vendor	Partly Subscriptions can include bookings per cycle
Punch passes or prepaid packages	Yes Punch passes	Yes Packages	Yes Packages
Waivers signed during booking	Yes Signed in the booking flow	Partly Forms sent after booking; Plus and up	Partly Required agreement checkbox in intake form
Text (SMS) reminders	Yes Sent in your club’s name	Yes	Yes Higher plans
Hold bays for leagues	Yes League blocks lock bays during league hours	Check with vendor	Yes Recurring blocked time
Built for golf simulator venues	Yes	No	No
Pricing	$99/month per location, unlimited bays and staff, no per-bay fee. 14-day free trial. Enterprise pricing for multi-location groups.	A free plan and paid monthly plans per location, plus card processing fees. See Square’s pricing page for current prices.	Tiered monthly plans; text reminders and subscriptions need a higher plan. See Acuity’s pricing page for current prices.

SimBook vs Square Appointments →|SimBook vs Acuity Scheduling →

Questions owners ask

Is Square Appointments or Acuity Scheduling better for a golf simulator business?

It depends on how you run your venue. Square Appointments suits venues already using Square POS that want booking in the same system. Acuity Scheduling suits small venues wanting an inexpensive, embeddable scheduler. Based on what each publishes, Square Appointments fully covers 4 of the 10 features golf simulator venues ask for most, and Acuity Scheduling covers 5.

How much does Square Appointments cost?

A free plan and paid monthly plans per location, plus card processing fees. See Square’s pricing page for current prices.

How much does Acuity Scheduling cost?

Tiered monthly plans; text reminders and subscriptions need a higher plan. See Acuity’s pricing page for current prices.

Can Square Appointments and Acuity Scheduling sell memberships with recurring billing?

Square Appointments: Partly (separate Square Subscriptions product). Acuity Scheduling: Yes (higher plans; Stripe or Square required).

Can I hold bays for a league in Square Appointments or Acuity Scheduling?

Square Appointments: We couldn’t confirm it from Square Appointments’s website; check with them directly. Acuity Scheduling: Yes (recurring blocked time).

A note on fairness: we make SimBook, so read this with that in mind. Facts about other tools come from their own websites and were last checked September 30, 2026. Features and prices change, so for other tools we describe how they charge and point you to their pricing pages rather than quoting numbers. Where we couldn’t confirm something, we say “Check with vendor” rather than guess. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

Sources: Square Appointments (squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing), Square Appointments (squareup.com/us/en/pricing), Square Appointments (squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7065-square-appointments-resource-management), Square Appointments (squareup.com/us/en/appointments/features/reminders), Square Appointments (squareup.com/help/us/en/article/8268-create-and-manage-packages-with-square-appointments), Square Appointments (squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7104-contracts), Square Appointments (squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5355-set-up-online-booking-with-square-appointments), Square Appointments (squareup.com/us/en/subscriptions), Acuity Scheduling (acuityscheduling.com/pricing), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/16676947677325-Packages-gift-certificates-and-subscriptions-overview), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/28615820183309-Creating-subscriptions), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/16676949567757-Use-resources-to-limit-bookings), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/16676915777293-Sending-appointment-reminders-via-text), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/47291505860749-Add-terms-and-agreements-to-your-appointments), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/16676868579853-Blocking-off-unavailable-time), Acuity Scheduling (help.acuityscheduling.com/hc/en-us/articles/16676884389133-Adding-Acuity-Scheduling-to-your-website)

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