Bookly Custom Duration (Add-on) is a paid extension for the Bookly PRO appointment booking plugin that lets customers choose how long a session lasts instead of accepting a fixed slot length. It recalculates the price from the number of time units selected and records the whole session as a single entry in the Bookly calendar. It suits businesses selling time by the hour or by the session — consultants, clinics, venues and trainers — rather than shops that sell identical appointments. Among the Bookly Custom Duration (Add-on) Add-ons on CodeCanyon, this is the one that turns a fixed-duration booking form into a variable one, and it is developed by Nota-info, the same team behind the core Bookly plugin.
What the add-on actually changes in a booking form
The core idea is small but consequential. Bookly normally ties every service to a duration set in the admin panel: a haircut is 30 minutes, a massage is 60, and the customer cannot alter that. This add-on removes the assumption that duration is fixed. Instead, the customer picks a number of time units at the start of the booking flow, and the rest of the form adjusts around that choice.
Duration becomes a customer decision, not an admin setting
The first thing a visitor sees on a flexible service is a control for choosing how much time to book. That control sits at the beginning of the Bookly form, before date and time selection, so the available slots shown afterwards already reflect the length the customer asked for. For a meeting room, a coaching session or a conference slot, this mirrors how the service is really sold: the buyer knows roughly how long they need, and the calendar should follow that rather than force them into a preset block.
Pricing recalculates from the units chosen
Once a duration is selected, the price updates to match. The vendor describes this as automatic price calculation, and the practical effect is that a single service can cover a range of booking values without the site owner creating a separate service entry for every possible length. That reduces admin overhead and keeps the service list readable. It also means the price a customer sees at checkout is derived from their own choice, not from a manual quote arranged afterwards.
Multi-unit bookings stay legible in the calendar
Long bookings can otherwise clutter a schedule. The add-on shows a flexible booking as one appointment in the Bookly Calendar, annotated with how many units were reserved. Staff reading the day view see a single block rather than a chain of adjacent slots, which makes it easier to judge workload at a glance and to spot double-bookings. This is a small detail, but calendar readability is where variable-length bookings usually fall apart in lesser implementations.
Compatibility and technical footprint
The listing declares compatibility with WordPress 6.8.x, WPML for multilingual sites, and the major browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Edge. It is marked as Gutenberg-optimized, and the package includes JavaScript, CSS and PHP source files, so a developer can inspect or extend the front-end behaviour. The vendor states the setup takes only a few minutes, consistent with other Bookly add-ons, and points to documentation and a live demo for configuration guidance.
Where flexible-duration booking earns its place, and where it does not
The clearest fit is any business that rents expertise or space by time rather than selling a standardised appointment. Management consultants billing in hourly blocks, therapists offering 50- or 80-minute sessions from one service entry, photographers quoting half-day and full-day shoots, and coworking or meeting-room operators renting by the hour all benefit from letting the client state the length up front. Training providers running workshops of varying length, and clinics where a first consultation takes longer than a follow-up, also get value from a single flexible service instead of a dozen fixed ones.
It is also useful for agencies building client sites on Bookly PRO. A single add-on licence covers a capability that would otherwise need custom development against Bookly’s booking engine, and the included source files make it easier to match the duration selector to a client’s design.
The wrong choice is straightforward: any business with genuinely fixed appointment lengths gains nothing here. A barber with 30-minute cuts, a dentist with standard check-ups, or a salon with set treatment times will pay $39 for a control that only adds a decision the customer should not be making. Sites not already running Bookly PRO should also stop here, because the add-on does nothing on its own. And anyone wanting customers to book arbitrary start and end times — rather than a count of units — should check the demo carefully, since the vendor describes unit-based selection rather than free-form time ranges.
Strengths and limitations in plain terms
The case for the add-on rests on a narrow, well-executed function. The case against rests on its dependence and its price relative to what it adds.
Strengths
- Removes the need to duplicate services for every possible appointment length, which keeps the Bookly service list short and maintainable.
- Price recalculates automatically from the chosen duration, so variable-length bookings do not require manual quoting.
- Duration selection happens before slot selection, so the times offered are genuinely available for the length requested.
- Multi-unit bookings appear as one annotated block in the Bookly Calendar, preserving schedule readability.
- Declared WPML compatibility makes it viable for multilingual sites, which is not universal among niche booking add-ons.
- Source files are included, giving developers room to adjust the front-end behaviour.
- A track record of 1,847 sales and a 4.43 out of 5 rating across seven reviews suggests a product that works as described for most buyers, though the review base is small.
Limitations
- It is useless without Bookly PRO. The $39 is an addition to the cost of the main plugin, not a standalone purchase.
- The rating rests on only seven reviews, so it is a weak signal either way — neither a strong endorsement nor a warning.
- Duration is chosen in units defined during setup. The vendor does not state that customers can enter arbitrary start and end times, so anyone needing free-form scheduling should verify against the demo first.
- Declared compatibility stops at WordPress 6.8.x. Sites on later WordPress releases are outside the vendor’s stated support envelope until the listing is updated.
- The feature set is deliberately thin: duration choice, price calculation and calendar display. Buyers wanting buffers, deposits tied to duration, or per-unit resource allocation should confirm those behaviours exist before purchasing.
- Seven reviews is too few to judge how the add-on behaves across the wide range of Bookly configurations in the wild.
How it compares with the wider field of booking add-ons
Most booking plugins treat duration as an administrative property: the site owner defines it, the customer accepts it. Variable-duration booking is usually handled in one of three ways. The first is service duplication — creating a 60-minute version, a 90-minute version and so on — which is free but bloats the catalogue and confuses customers. The second is custom development against the plugin’s API, which offers total control at the cost of ongoing maintenance. The third is a dedicated add-on like this one, which buys a purpose-built implementation for a fixed price.
Against duplication, the add-on wins on tidiness and on price accuracy, since a single service covers the full range of lengths. Against custom development, it wins on cost and support but loses flexibility: a bespoke build can implement any duration logic, while this add-on implements the vendor’s model of unit-based selection. Against generic form-and-calendar tools that let users pick start and end times freely, it is more constrained — but it is also more integrated, because it works inside Bookly’s existing availability, pricing and calendar systems rather than bolting a separate scheduler onto the site.
The honest positioning is that this is a specialist component for an established ecosystem. It is not competing with all-in-one booking platforms; it is competing with the workarounds Bookly users would otherwise adopt. On that measure it is a reasonable buy for the right site and an unnecessary one for the wrong site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Bookly PRO to use Bookly Custom Duration?
Yes. The add-on is an extension and will not function without the Bookly PRO appointment booking plugin installed and active. The $39 price covers only the duration add-on, so the total cost of ownership includes the main plugin licence as well. Sites running the free version of Bookly cannot use it.
Can customers choose any appointment length they want?
Customers choose a number of time units, not arbitrary start and end times. The site owner defines what a unit represents during setup, and the customer selects how many units to book. That keeps pricing predictable and availability accurate. Anyone needing fully free-form time ranges should test the live demo before buying.
How is the price calculated for a longer booking?
The price is derived automatically from the duration the customer selects. Longer bookings cost proportionally more, based on the pricing configured for the service. This removes the need for manual quotes and means a single flexible service can serve customers booking different lengths without separate service entries for each one.
Does a multi-hour booking block out several slots in the calendar?
No. Bookly shows the booking as one appointment in the calendar, labelled with the number of units reserved. Staff see a single block covering the full session rather than a row of adjacent slots. This keeps the day view readable and makes it easier to spot genuine conflicts when schedules are busy.
Verdict: who should buy it and who should not
Buy this add-on if the site already runs Bookly PRO and sells time in variable amounts — consulting, coaching, room hire, workshops or any service where the customer knows how long they need. The unit-based model, automatic pricing and single-block calendar display solve a real problem cleanly, and the WPML support and included source files add practical value for agencies. Skip it if appointments are genuinely fixed in length, because the add-on adds a decision customers should not be making. Skip it too if the project is not already on Bookly PRO, or if the requirement is free-form start and end times rather than selectable duration units. At $39 it is a modest addition to an existing stack, but it only pays off where duration is genuinely a customer choice.
