5 Most Powerful Calender Booking Plugins
As part of our job, we encounter a lot of clients wanting to hire a WordPress programmer for developing their websites. These clients come from different business fields such as consume products, niche luxury goods, B2B selling and customer-centric services. In recent years, an increasing number of clients come to us to design portals for booking tickets online for various events. This is typically sought by business in the field of event management. In such websites, much greater in significance than user experience is the ease of functionality of the core purpose – that is booking with hassle free payments.
What makes for a great booking management system? That is what we seek to discuss in this blogpost where we will also further take a look at a few awesome plugins that satisfy the aforementioned desire. Any good booking management system must firstly have a decent information display of the said event – time, event, place in a clean and indulging interface. Depending on the events they host, businesses can differentiate elegantly and attract more customers with the help of the following plugins.
Bookly Pro
This plugin emphasises on complete customisation built on a robust automated platform for making appointments. There is a reason that it enjoys widespread patronage – keeping the customer at the centre of their plugin functionality. This is reflected in their features such as dashboard for managing appointments, provision for notifications, scalability with the Pro version, support for different payment systems. But perhaps, the greatest feature is the built in analytics tool for gaining insights from booking data. This can especially prove to be useful small businesses. More functionality can be added with Bookley’s add-ons.
Amelia
This plugin tool is for the true professional enterprises catering to specialised services like consulting. Advocating a modern design, this tool makes booking appointments hassle free in trustworthy approach. This professionalism is reflected in their provision of a CRM functionality which lets clients manage their customer relationships. Even the name Amelia goes to say that the plugin is all about making the entire process easier – picking the right event, making payments, reminding via SMS in case of cancellation or rescheduling of events – and ultimately doing away with the need for writing down appointments.
Booking Calendar
As the name suggests, this plugin adopts a no-frills approach in making appointments providing the basic functionalities associated with making appointments. What does the plugin offer? A calendar that customer can use to book slots and leave a request via mail directly to the client. They can also receive notifications on such bookings, thereby staying updated. It deploys a simple user interface but with sufficient scope for limited customisation that better aligns with the client’s website. Anyone starting anew like renting equipment or reserving rooms in a small scale can go for this plugin.
Calendarista
This plugin is loaded with many features that allows for high flexibility with regard to booking appointments. For instance, there is even provision for a two-way sync with Google Calendar. Payment systems like PayPal and WooCommerce are supported. Even things like group bookings, custom form fields, innovative costing, cancellation mechanism are addressed in Calendarista making it a truly holistic plugin. In addition, clients can also design mechanism for booking packages. In other words, sky is the limit and clients can come up with more ideas for their business using Calendarista’s responsive design.
EventOn
Is your client also focusing on visuals? Then this plugin might be for them. Adopting a minimalistic, colourful card design, EventOn provides a good mix of good UI and functionality. For instance, customers can easily filter and sort the events they are looking for. The material design is sure to appeal many clients, given that more customers are booking events on their mobile. The plugin also syncs the different events to customer’s calendars, making for a dedicated event management practice.
Having gone through the list of calendar booking plugins, which plugin appeals to you the most? Share us your opinions below.
For further queries related to hiring a WordPress developer, contact us now.
WordPress Plugins for Two-Factor Authentication
In today’s world with the proliferation of the internet services, along with the massive growth in information consumption and online goods-services purchase, there is also an equivalent threat to the security and stability of websites. Websites, if not protected adequately, may face virtual attacks. This can lead to loss of credibility of websites, loss of site traffic and even de-listing from search engines – the last thing business owners want. In simple terms, businesses are vulnerable to malware attacks which can subsequently hurt their bottom lines. Therefore, there is a need to secure websites in an effective and efficient way.
The need for two-factor authentication
Most of us would be familiar with two-factor authentication, especially since we would have had so much experience in creating new accounts or installing new applications. However, for the uninitiated, two-factor authentication is essentially an additional layer of security along with the default password. This two-factor authentication can range from simple forms such as entering picture captcha or pattern to more secure forms of providing device-linked OTPs (One Time Passwords). These two-factor authentications ensure that only the rightful owner of the website is able to access the website.
Depending on the kind of authentication that clients want they can go for either of the following means to implement two-factor authentication:
1) E-mail – the secret code is sent via the client’s registered mail ,
2) SMS – OTP is sent to the client’s registered mobile number,
3) App-Generated code – Some apps come with the feature of generating random codes which the client has to enter while accessing,
4) Tokens – Inserting dedicated tokens into USB ports
Now, in this blogpost, we take a look at some of the popular WordPress plugins that can be used to setup two-factor authentication. Why WordPress? Because, it is one of the most widely used CMS platforms.You can also hire a wordpress programmer from us who can help you with this.
Duo Two-Factor Authentication
First in this list, we have Duo developed by the folks at Duo Security. This software proclaims to setup two-factor authentication within minutes to prevent data theft. Initially, clients will need to verify themselves with a device of their choice – a mobile phone for example – to increase security manifold. In our time with the software, we can say that Duo is easy to setup without complexity. Having provision for different user roles like admins, authors, editors Duo also has multiple ways to provide authentication ranging from one-tap passcodes, phone call-backs to one-tap authentication using Duo’s own app.
Two Factor
This is a free-to-use open source software which in our opinion is one of the simplest two-factor authentication in this list. All one needs to setup is to go to Users section, click on Profile and then click on Two-Factor options. The plugin claims to have provision for Email codes, OTPs, Backup codes. A delightful feature is the presence of a simple testing provision that clients can use to check their authentication.
Google Authenticator
Google Authenticator is an easy recommend for those clients who want to hire a WordPress developer for implementing complete end-to-end security solutions. All of this without having to pay anything – always good news for developers. Needless to say, we found the software that has a beautiful UI, easy to install. What’s more? It is GDPR compliant and has support for multiple languages. The free plugin features include even two-factor authentication on login page itself. It distinguishes itself from other plugins from monitoring user logins. Clients can do more by going for the premium versions.
GatewayAPI
GatewayAPI is a no-nonsense two-factor authentication service that banks on purely on SMS sent from the back-end. All one needs to do is signup for a free account and clients can choose from a range of features including short-codes, integration with Contact Form 7, import of recipient list, remember device for 30 days and more. The software also adds a bit of personalisation by providing clients the freedom to use their own keywords to receive as SMS.
Rublon Two-Factor Authentication
Last on our list in Rublon – yet another software that emphasises ease of use and simplicity.It supports email, SMS, QR code, Time OTP among other two-factor authentications. The best highlight of Rublon is that there is no need for any configuration. Clients only need to install the plugin and connect to the API using the relevant security key. Having support for five languages and a friendly interface, it makes for a satisfying security implementation.
Get in touch with our team at HireIndianProgrammers to enlist our services.