Online booking: Industry portal, international tool, or your own website?
Which path to online booking fits depends on where your customers come from. If people find you through a portal, that is where you belong. If they find you through your own website, booking should happen there too, with no detour and no other company's logo over your calendar.
Path 1: The industry portal
An industry portal, something in the style of Doctolib, gives your business a profile inside an existing directory. Patients or customers searching there find you without you having built up that reach yourself. That is the real strength: the portal brings its own audience with it.
The cost of that shows up in daily use. Booking happens on the platform, not on your website: the booking page carries the portal's design and brand, not yours. The customer relationship forms there too. The portal holds the phone number, the email address, the booking history, not necessarily you. Depending on the provider, you pay ongoing fees, per calendar slot or per booking. And you sit right next to your competitors on the portal, often on the same results page, one click away. Leave later and you do not take the visibility you built there with you. It stays with the portal.
Path 2: The international booking tool
Tools like Calendly are set up in minutes, often with a free entry tier. Anyone who wants to send out a booking link quickly gets there fast.
The booking page sits on the provider's domain, in the provider's design. Your brand shows up at most as a name inside the calendar. Pricing typically scales with the number of users and runs monthly. And because many of these tools process data outside the EU, booking becomes a data protection question the moment customer data such as name, phone number, or the reason for the visit gets involved. What is free today also stays subject to whatever pricing and feature decisions the provider makes, decisions you have no say in.
Path 3: A booking system on your own website
The third option builds the booking flow directly into your website: on your domain, in your site's design, with no redirect to another interface. With PixTermin, our own booking system for small businesses, you pay no fee per appointment and no commission on the revenue you make through the booking. The data sits on German servers.
The difference from the first two paths is this: you bring the reach yourself, through Google, through referrals, through your existing customers. In return, the people who arrive get a booking page that looks like the rest of your website, not like a separate product.
The three paths compared
| Criterion | Industry portal | International tool | Your own website (PixTermin) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where does booking happen? | On the portal's platform | On the provider's domain | On your own domain |
| Ongoing cost | Depends on provider, per calendar or per booking | Usually per user, per month | 19 € per month, no fee per appointment |
| Who owns the customer contact? | Mainly the portal | Mainly the provider account | You, directly on your website |
| Data storage | Depends on provider, often inside the portal system | Often outside the EU | German servers |
| Design | Portal design, no own branding | Provider design | Your own website design |
When each model wins
Doctors, therapists, and other practices whose new patients search inside the portal are often well placed there. The portal's reach outweighs the drawbacks when a large share of new customers would never land on your own website anyway.
Individuals with purely internal appointments, a coach coordinating with existing clients, a consultant sending out calendar slots, often do fine with a free tool. What matters there is speed, not brand.
The businesses that give away the most are the ones with regular customers who find them through their own website, Google, or word of mouth: a hair salon, a garage, a beauty studio, a physiotherapy practice with its own steady flow. Redirecting these customers to someone else's portal or tool gives up reach that is already there, and you may end up paying for the privilege.
What this costs on your own website
PixTermin is built for exactly these businesses. Setup costs a one-time 390 €, ongoing operation 19 € per month, or 49 € per month with the extended feature set, plus VAT. The subscription can be cancelled monthly, with no minimum term. No fee per booked appointment, no commission.
If your customers already find you through your own website, take a look at our online booking page. It covers how setup works and what your calendar can do.
Frequently asked questions
What does a booking system for your own website cost?
With PixTermin you pay a one-time 390 € for setup, then 19 € per month for standard operation or 49 € per month with the extended feature set, plus VAT. There is no fee per booked appointment and no commission on revenue. The subscription can be cancelled monthly.
Is online appointment booking GDPR compliant?
That depends on where the data is stored and who the provider is, not on the booking process itself. If data sits outside the EU or with a provider without a suitable data processing agreement, that becomes a compliance question. PixTermin runs on German servers. This is not legal advice: when in doubt, check with your lawyer or data protection officer.
What is an alternative to booking portals like Doctolib?
Instead of a profile on someone else's portal, you can add a booking system directly to your own website. Customers then book on your domain, in your site's design, without a detour through another platform. This pays off especially when customers already find you through Google, word of mouth, or your own website.
Is a free booking tool worth it instead of your own system?
For individuals with purely internal appointments, say a consultant sending calendar slots to existing clients, a free tool is often enough. Once new customers arrive through your own website or search, and customer data such as phone numbers or requests get recorded, the design, data storage, and independence from a provider that come with your own system start to matter more.
See the software in action
Try every trade edition live (no signup) or get it in the shop.