Bookly Stripe (Add-on) is a paid extension for the Bookly PRO appointment booking plugin that lets clients pay for appointments by credit card inside the booking form itself, with no redirect to an external checkout page. It connects a WordPress site to the Stripe payment gateway and is aimed at service businesses already running Bookly PRO that want to collect money at the moment a booking is made. The add-on is sold on CodeCanyon by the developer Nota-info for $49 and has been purchased 4,499 times, with a 4.5 out of 5 rating across 16 reviews.
What the add-on actually adds to a Bookly booking flow
The single job of this extension is to place a Stripe payment step inside the classic Bookly booking form. Everything else follows from that. Because payment happens on the same page as the appointment details, the client never leaves the site to complete a transaction. That matters for conversion: every redirect to a third-party gateway is a point where a booking can be abandoned.
Three capabilities are worth separating out.
Card payments without leaving the booking form
Stripe handles the card data, so the WordPress site never stores raw card numbers. The client sees a card entry field as part of the normal step-by-step flow, alongside the date, time, service and staff selections they have already made. For the site owner this removes a category of compliance worry, and for the client it removes a page load and a second confirmation screen.
Price correction for Stripe payments
Bookly includes a price correction mechanism, and this add-on exposes it for the Stripe payment method. In practice that means the appointment total can be adjusted when a client chooses to pay by card — for example to add a small card processing surcharge, or to apply a discount that only applies to prepaid bookings. It is a per-payment-method adjustment rather than a global price change, which is the useful part: cash-on-arrival clients are unaffected.
Payment method selection alongside other gateways
Stripe becomes one option among the payment methods enabled in Bookly PRO. A salon or clinic can therefore keep a local gateway or offline payment for domestic clients while offering Stripe to everyone else. The choice is presented inside the booking form rather than being forced on every visitor.
Two constraints are stated plainly by the vendor and should be read before purchase. The add-on requires Bookly PRO — it does nothing on its own. And it is not supported in the Search, Services or Staff booking forms; it works only with the classic step-by-step form. Sites that have switched to one of the newer form layouts cannot use it. The vendor’s own listing does not state a workaround.
Where this add-on fits, and where it does not
The natural buyer is a service business running Bookly PRO on the step-by-step form that wants card payment collected up front. That covers a lot of ground:
- Salons, barbershops and spas where no-shows are expensive and a prepaid deposit is the simplest defence.
- Clinics and private practitioners that need payment captured at booking rather than invoiced afterwards.
- Consultants, tutors and coaches selling fixed-length sessions where the price is known before the appointment.
- Rental and equipment operators taking a booking fee or deposit to hold a slot.
- Agencies building client sites where the brief specifies Stripe and the booking layer is already Bookly.
Stripe’s own coverage is a factor. The vendor states the platform operates in over 25 countries, so a business taking bookings from outside those markets may find that a regional gateway serves its customers better.
The clearest case against buying is a site that has moved to Bookly’s Search, Services or Staff booking form. The add-on simply will not appear there, and no amount of configuration changes that. A second poor fit is a business that takes payment after the appointment — invoicing, pay-on-arrival or insurance billing. Adding a card step at booking would work against that workflow rather than with it. A third is anyone who has not yet bought Bookly PRO, since the $49 here is on top of that purchase.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Payment is completed inside the booking form, which removes the redirect that typically causes drop-off at checkout.
- Stripe processes the card data, so the WordPress installation is not handling raw card numbers.
- Price correction lets the appointment total differ when Stripe is the chosen method, without affecting other payment options.
- Installation follows the same pattern as other Bookly add-ons, and the vendor publishes setup documentation and video tutorials.
- Source files are included — JavaScript, CSS and PHP — so a developer can inspect or extend the integration.
- Compatibility is stated for WordPress 6.8.x and WPML, and the add-on is marked as Gutenberg-optimized.
- Stripe can sit alongside other payment methods rather than replacing them.
Limitations
- It is useless without Bookly PRO. The listing is explicit that this is an add-on, not a standalone plugin.
- Only the classic step-by-step booking form is supported. Search, Services and Staff forms are excluded, which rules the add-on out for sites built on those layouts.
- Stripe’s availability is limited to the countries where the platform operates, so some markets cannot use it at all.
- The feature set is narrow — one payment gateway, one integration point. There is no subscription billing, no saved cards for repeat clients and no partial payment logic beyond what Bookly itself provides.
- 16 reviews is a modest sample. The 4.5 rating is a useful signal but not a deep one.
- The price is $49 on top of the cost of Bookly PRO, so the true outlay is higher than the add-on page suggests.
How it compares with other ways of taking payment for bookings
There are three broad alternatives, and the right choice depends on how much of the booking flow needs to be owned by the site.
The first is a general-purpose WordPress payment plugin — a form builder with a payment field, or a checkout extension for WooCommerce. These are more flexible about what is being sold and usually cheaper or free, but they do not understand appointments. Availability, staff assignment, buffers and time slots all have to be reconstructed or bolted on. They suit businesses selling a small number of fixed products rather than a calendar of bookable slots.
The second is a hosted booking platform that bundles its own payment processing. Setup is faster and there is nothing to maintain on the WordPress side, but the booking data lives with the vendor, styling is constrained, and transaction or subscription fees apply on top. Businesses that want the booking experience to look and behave like the rest of their site tend to move away from these.
The third is a different gateway add-on for Bookly. The choice here is driven by geography and by which processor the business already has an account with. Bookly Stripe (Add-on) is the right pick when Stripe is the processor of choice and the site uses the step-by-step form; if either of those is untrue, a different Bookly payment add-on is the better fit.
Against all three, Bookly Stripe (Add-on) wins on integration depth and loses on breadth. It does one thing inside an existing system rather than being a system of its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Bookly Stripe (Add-on) work without Bookly PRO?
No. The add-on requires Bookly PRO and will not function on its own. It is an extension that plugs into the Bookly PRO booking system, so the $49 price is additional to the cost of the main plugin. Anyone who has not yet purchased Bookly PRO should factor both costs in before deciding.
Which Bookly booking forms support the Stripe add-on?
Only the classic step-by-step booking form is supported. The vendor states that the add-on does not currently work with the Search, Services or Staff booking forms. Sites using those layouts cannot offer Stripe through this add-on, and the listing does not describe a workaround or a planned update for them.
Can the appointment price change when a client pays by Stripe?
Yes. The add-on exposes Bookly’s price correction feature for the Stripe payment method, so the appointment total can be adjusted when a client chooses to pay by card. This is scoped to that payment method, meaning clients using other payment options are not affected by the adjustment.
Is the client redirected to Stripe to complete payment?
No. Payment is collected inside the Bookly booking form itself, so the client stays on the site throughout. Stripe still processes the card data behind the scenes, but there is no redirect to an external checkout page. That keeps the transaction within a single flow from service selection through to confirmation.
Verdict
Bookly Stripe (Add-on) is worth buying for one specific situation: a WordPress site already running Bookly PRO on the classic step-by-step booking form, where the business wants card payment collected at the point of booking and Stripe is an available processor in its market. The 4,499 sales and 4.5 rating suggest it does that job reliably, and the price correction feature gives it a bit more range than a bare gateway connector.
It is the wrong purchase for anyone without Bookly PRO, anyone using the Search, Services or Staff booking forms, and anyone who bills after the appointment rather than at booking. Those buyers would be paying $49 for something that will not appear in their booking flow.
Buyers should also weigh the narrow scope. This is a single-gateway connector, not a payments platform, and the total cost includes Bookly PRO. Within those boundaries it is a clean, well-integrated solution; outside them it has nothing to offer. Note that Nota-info last updated the add-on on 28 November 2025, which is a reasonable signal that the integration is being maintained against current WordPress releases.
