LovingBooking vs Setmore: Which Fits Your Singapore Business?

Setmore is one of the better-known free booking tools, and for good reason — it has been around a long time, the free plan is genuinely usable, and it works across most industries. If you are weighing it up against LovingBooking for a Singapore business, this comparison lays out where each one is stronger so you can pick on facts rather than marketing.

The short version: Setmore is a mature, global product with a wide feature list and a free tier that solo operators can run on for a long time. LovingBooking is built specifically for Singapore service businesses, with PayNow, flat SGD pricing, and unlimited staff on a single plan. Which one fits depends mostly on your team size and how your customers pay.

How Setmore's pricing works

Setmore's headline is that it is free, and that part is true. The free plan carries no monthly fee and covers a limited number of staff logins plus the core booking essentials — a booking page, calendar, and appointment management.

The catch is the same one most freemium tools have: the features a growing business needs sit on the paid tiers, and those tiers are billed per user, in USD. Removing Setmore's own branding, SMS reminders, and higher staff counts all live behind Pro or Team plans. So the moment you add a second or third staff member and want the paid features, your monthly cost multiplies by headcount — and you are paying in US dollars, which adds currency conversion on top.

For a genuine solo operator, none of that matters and the free plan can be plenty. For a team, the per-user shape is the thing to watch.

LovingBooking's pricing model

LovingBooking charges a flat monthly fee with no per-user pricing and no commission on bookings.

• Free plan: 1 staff, 1 location, 30 bookings/month — no credit card required
• Plus plan: SGD $12/month — unlimited staff, unlimited locations, unlimited bookings, PayNow QR, custom branding, and an embeddable widget

The key difference is that the price does not move with your team. A five-stylist salon pays the same SGD $12/month as a one-person studio. There is no card rail and no booking commission either — the platform never touches the money your customers pay.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Where Setmore has an advantage

A longer feature list and video appointments

Setmore has had years to build out. It offers built-in video appointments, a broad set of app integrations, and a large template of workflows for different industries. If you run online consultations or classes and want video baked into the booking, that is a real, concrete edge — LovingBooking is built around in-person service booking.

SMS reminders

Setmore includes SMS reminders on its paid plans. LovingBooking currently sends reminders by email only. Email with a reschedule link does most of the no-show-reduction work at no per-message cost, but if your customers genuinely respond better to a text, Setmore does something here that we do not yet. We would rather say that clearly than bury it.

Global brand familiarity

Setmore operates worldwide, so some customers and staff may already recognise it. For a business with an international clientele, that familiarity has a small value.

Where LovingBooking has an advantage

PayNow, the way Singapore actually pays

This is the biggest one for local businesses. Setmore's payments run through card processors, which take a percentage of every transaction. LovingBooking lets you show your own PayNow QR on the booking page — the customer pays straight into your bank account, uploads a screenshot as proof, and you mark it paid. No platform fee, no card cut. Our guide to accepting PayNow for bookings walks through the setup.

Flat pricing that ignores your headcount

Because LovingBooking does not bill per user, adding staff never changes your bill. For a growing salon, clinic, or studio, that predictability is worth more than a slightly longer feature list you may never use. Setmore's per-user model does the opposite — it charges you more precisely as you succeed.

Built for Singapore

LovingBooking is priced in SGD, designed around how Singapore service businesses run, and does not put you through USD conversion. Small margins matter, and a flat local price is easier to plan around than a per-seat USD bill.

Multi-staff booking that customers actually navigate

When a customer lands on a LovingBooking page they see your services, your team, your prices, and open slots, and they choose the specific staff member they want. That is the standard expectation for a salon or clinic, and it is native here rather than an add-on.

Which should you choose?

Choose Setmore if:

• You are a solo operator and the free plan covers everything you need
• Video appointments are central to how you work
• SMS reminders are a hard requirement today
• You want the broadest possible integration list

Choose LovingBooking if:

• You have a team and do not want per-user pricing that grows with it
• You want PayNow payments with no card commission
• You prefer flat, predictable billing in SGD over USD per seat
• You want a Singapore-built product with an embeddable widget for your site

The bottom line

Setmore is a solid, mature tool, and for a solo operator its free plan is hard to argue with. But for a Singapore business with staff — or one that wants its customers to pay by PayNow — the per-user USD pricing and the missing PayNow support are the two facts that decide it. LovingBooking keeps the price flat as you grow, settles payments the local way, and is built for exactly this market.

If you are also weighing other tools, our LovingBooking vs Fresha and LovingBooking vs Calendly comparisons cover the same ground for those platforms.

Try LovingBooking free at lovingbooking.com — no credit card required. The free plan includes 1 staff member and 30 bookings a month, and Plus is a flat SGD $12/month with unlimited staff.