How to Set Up Squarespace Scheduling: Appointments, Classes & Intake Forms
If you've ever wanted clients to book their own appointments directly through your website — no phone tag, no back-and-forth emails, no mental load of manually managing a calendar — Squarespace Scheduling can do all of that for you. And the good news? It's genuinely not as complicated to set up as you might think.
Our team member Lindsay walked through the entire setup from a completely blank trial — appointment types, multiple provider calendars, classes, add-ons, intake forms, and finally embedding the booking page right onto your site. Watch the full video below, then keep reading for a breakdown of everything covered.
Prefer to watch? Catch the full tutorial below, or keep reading for the overview.
What is Squarespace Scheduling — and what does it cost?
Squarespace Scheduling is powered under the hood by Acuity Scheduling, a dedicated booking platform that Squarespace acquired a few years ago. It lives inside your Squarespace account (you'll find it in the main menu under Scheduling), but it runs as its own system — so when you click into it, you're technically working inside Acuity.
It's a paid add-on, separate from your core Squarespace plan. There are three tiers — Starter, Standard, and Premium. The free 14-day trial gives you access to the Standard plan, no credit card required. The key difference between Starter and Standard is the number of calendars: Starter gives you one, Standard gives you six. If your business has multiple providers or locations, you'll need Standard or above.
Step 1: Create your appointment types
Appointment types are the foundation of the whole system. They tell Squarespace what services you offer, how long they last, and how clients can book them. You'll find them in the Scheduling menu — skip past the tempting Calendar option (that's where you view your finished schedule, not where you build it) and head straight to Appointment Types.
For each appointment type, you can set:
→ The name and description clients will see
→ Duration — plus optional buffer time before or after (handy if you need a few minutes to take notes or prepare)
→ Price
→ Category — useful if you offer several distinct types of services (e.g. hair, nails, and facials at a salon)
→ Colour — helpful for reading your calendar at a glance
→ Whether the appointment is private (accessible only via a direct link)
Setting up classes
Classes and group events work slightly differently from one-to-one appointments. When you create a class, you set the appointment type first — the name, duration, category, and maximum number of participants — but you don't set the date and time yet. That comes in a separate step: once the class is saved, you click "Offer Class" to schedule the specific dates and times it will run.
This structure means you can reuse the same class template again and again. For a recurring class (say, a group that meets every Wednesday at 3pm for six weeks), you set it as recurring when you offer it and the dates populate automatically. For a one-time workshop, you simply add the single date and leave it at that.
Step 2: Set up your calendars
Each provider in your business should have their own calendar. This lets clients choose who they want to book with and keeps everyone's schedule separate. If you're a solo operator, you'll still want to set up a calendar to define your availability and organise your appointments.
Calendars live under the Availability section of the menu — not under Calendar, which is again just the view of your finished schedule. For each calendar (i.e. each provider), you can add:
→ A name and bio
→ A location — useful if a provider always works at the same address, since it will appear on confirmation emails. If a provider offers both in-person and online appointments, it's better to leave this blank so the location doesn't default incorrectly on every booking
→ Notification email settings — one address for internal team alerts (new bookings, cancellations, reschedules) and a separate reply-to address for client-facing confirmation and reminder emails
→ Which appointment types the provider offers
→ Their regular weekly hours — including lunch breaks, days off, and early finishes
→ Override hours for holidays or one-off schedule changes
A note on resources
If your business has a physical constraint that doesn't map neatly to individual provider calendars — for example, five massage therapists but only three treatment rooms — Squarespace's Resources feature lets you add a second layer of scheduling limits. It's an advanced setting that the tutorial touches on briefly; Squarespace's own documentation covers it in depth if you need it.
Step 3: Add add-ons and intake forms
Add-ons
Add-ons are optional extras clients can select during the booking process. They can be priced, and if they involve extra time (like a 30-minute appointment extension), they'll automatically adjust the slot length in the calendar — so you never accidentally double-book yourself. You choose which appointment types each add-on applies to.
Intake forms
Intake forms let you collect information from clients as part of the booking process — before the appointment happens, while it's still fresh and convenient for them. You build the form with custom questions (checkbox lists, dropdowns, open text fields), mark questions as required or optional, and assign different forms to different appointment types. Clients always get asked for name, phone, and email by default, so you don't need to add those yourself.
Step 4: Customise your scheduling page
The scheduling page is what clients see when they go to book. The default styling is pretty bare-bones, but you can update colours, fonts, and button labels to bring it closer to your brand. There's also the option to add a logo, a short block of scheduling instructions, and a header photo.
One important note: more advanced CSS customisation is only available on higher-tier plans. If you're comfortable with a little code and want more control over the look, upgrading unlocks that. For most businesses, though, the built-in style options will get you somewhere respectable.
Step 5: Embed the scheduler on your website
The final step — and arguably the most important one — is getting the scheduler onto your actual website so clients can find and use it.
There are two ways to do this:
Option 1 — Direct link. Copy the scheduling page URL and add it to a button anywhere on your site. Clients click the button and are taken to a new page to complete their booking.
Option 2 — Booking button code block. Copy the embed code from within Scheduling, add a Code Block to your Squarespace page, paste the code in, and save. This opens the scheduling page as an overlay on top of your existing site — clients stay on your page the whole time, with the booking flow floating over it. It's a tidier, more seamless experience, and it's the option Lindsay recommends in the tutorial.
Once it's embedded, clients can browse your appointment types, choose their provider, select a time, add any optional add-ons, fill in the intake form, and confirm their booking — all in one flow.
A few quick answers to common questions
Can I take payments through Squarespace Scheduling? Yes — you can connect Stripe, Square, or PayPal and accept full payments or deposits directly inside the booking flow.
What about packages or gift certificates? These are available but require either an upgraded Acuity plan or a Squarespace Commerce plan.
Can I send text message reminders? Email reminders are included on all plans. Text message reminders are only available on upgraded plans.
Once your scheduling system is live, the next thing worth checking is whether your website itself is working as hard as it should. A beautifully functional booking system won't do much if visitors are bouncing before they ever make it to the scheduler. Watch this video next:
9 website design mistakes that are costing you clients — and how to fix them.
