For Photographers

Scheduling Software for Photographers, from Enquiry to Shoot

Clients pick the shoot, the place and the time from your portfolio, pay a deposit if you ask for one, and get reminders before the shoot.

Start Free Today See All Features

Hosted in the EU

Fixed deposits through Stripe

Embeds on your portfolio

Luka Breitig

Updated 5 October 2026

The Problem

Why do photographers lose bookings between the enquiry and the shoot?

Someone finds your portfolio, likes the work and sends an enquiry. Then the email chain starts: which dates are free, studio or outdoors, how long, what it costs, what to wear. Eight messages later they may have booked someone who answered faster. Tymeslot puts those answers on one page. Each kind of shoot has its own duration, location options and price, the client picks a free slot, and the shoot's description tells them what to wear and where to go. You reply to the enquiries that need a conversation and let the rest book themselves.

Why generic schedulers fit photographers badly

Most schedulers are built around a 30-minute video call. A photographer's week mixes short headshot slots, two-hour portrait sessions on location and consultation calls, each needing different travel time and preparation. Fit them all into one meeting length and either the calendar fills with impossible days or you block whole afternoons by hand.

The other gap is commitment. A date held for a client who never pays a deposit is a date you turned other people away from. Tymeslot handles both: every shoot type has its own length and its own availability schedule, and on Pro a fixed deposit through your own Stripe account is taken before the slot is confirmed. The balance, contracts and image delivery stay in the tools you already use.

Features

Everything Photographers need. Nothing they don't.

Scheduling features shaped around how your practice works.

📅

A Booking Page for Each Kind of Shoot

Headshots, family portraits and product shoots each get their own meeting type with its own duration, location options and direct link, so a client never books a 30-minute slot for a two-hour session.

⏰

Travel and Pack-Down Time

Put a buffer of up to two hours between bookings on an availability schedule for travel, setting up lights or backing up cards, and cap how many sessions of a type can land on one day.

💳

Fixed Deposits Through Stripe

On Pro, charge a fixed amount when a client books, such as a €100 deposit on a portrait session. The slot is confirmed once payment clears and the money settles in your own Stripe account.

✅

What to Wear, Before They Book

Write a short what-to-wear guide and directions into each shoot type's description, so clients read it on the booking page, then send reminders days ahead for outfit planning.

🔗

Booking on Your Portfolio Site

Embed the booking page on your portfolio as an inline calendar, a popup or a floating button, or link to tymeslot.app/yourname from your Instagram bio.

🔐

No Ad Trackers on the Booking Page

Booking pages load no advertising trackers or third-party analytics, and the managed service stores client details in Germany. On tymeslot.app, Google reCAPTCHA loads once a client starts the booking form, to block spam bookings. Self-host if you want every booking on your own server.

Before & After

See the difference

Same profession. Completely different scheduling experience.

Without Tymeslot

1 Client emails to ask about dates, prices and what to wear

2 Several messages to agree the shoot type, place and time

3 Deposit requested by bank transfer and chased before the date is safe

With Tymeslot

1 Client opens your booking page from your portfolio or bio link

2 Picks the shoot type, studio or location, and a free slot, and pays the deposit

3 Confirmation and reminder emails go out on their own

Use Cases

Common scheduling scenarios

How other Photographers use Tymeslot every day.

Scenario 1

How do photographers turn portfolio enquiries into booked shoots?

Most enquiries ask the same three things: when are you free, how much is it, and what happens next. A booking page answers all three, and a short call is there for the clients who want to talk first.

Create a 20-minute "Discovery call" with an automatic video link for clients who want to talk through a project before committing.
Create a meeting type for each shoot you sell, with its duration, its price in the description and, on Pro, a fixed deposit at booking.
Add booking questions (a Pro feature on the managed service) about who is in the photos, where the client would like to shoot and a link to reference images.
Embed the page on your portfolio's contact page and link it from your Instagram bio, so ready clients book straight away.

Result: Clients who know what they want book without an email exchange, and the rest book a call instead of waiting for a reply.

Scenario 2

How do photographers run a corporate headshot day?

A company wants headshots for twelve people on one day. Coordinating twelve diaries by email is a job in itself. A private meeting type lets each person book their own slot.

Create a private "Headshot day" meeting type with 15-minute sessions. Private types do not appear on your public page, only through their direct link.
Give it its own availability schedule with no weekly hours, open only on the shoot date through a date-specific override, and a 5-minute buffer to check each set of images.
Send the direct link to your contact at the company to forward to the team.
Each person books a slot and gets a reminder; you see the whole day in your calendar.

Result: A full day of headshots arranged by the people being photographed, not by you.

Scenario 3

How do photographers make sure clients arrive prepared?

A client who turns up in the wrong outfit, or at the wrong entrance, eats into the session. The answers belong on the booking page and in timed reminders, not in a message you remember to send the night before.

Put the essentials in each shoot type's description: what to wear, what to bring, how to find the studio or the meeting point.
Offer the studio and an outdoor location as two options on the same meeting type and let the client choose when booking.
Set reminder emails at the times you choose, for example 3 days before for outfit planning and 2 hours before for the address.
Consultation calls get their video link in both the confirmation and the reminders.

Result: Clients arrive at the right place with the right clothes, and the session starts on time.

Starter setup

A starter setup for Photographers

Recommended settings to start from. You can change any of them in your dashboard.

Discovery call

Duration: 20 min
Buffer: 10 min
Minimum notice: 12 hours
Bookable ahead: 30 days
Payment at booking: None

Portrait session

Duration: 90 min
Buffer: 60 min
Minimum notice: 3 days
Bookable ahead: 120 days
Payment at booking: €100 deposit at booking

Headshot session

Duration: 30 min
Buffer: 10 min
Minimum notice: 2 days
Bookable ahead: 60 days
Payment at booking: Full fee at booking

Intake questions

What kind of shoot are you planning, and who will be in the photos?
Where would you like to shoot? A town or venue name is enough.
Is there a date the photos are needed by?
A link to reference images or a mood board, if you have one.

The portrait session carries an hour's buffer for travel and pack-down, while calls and headshots need far less. Buffer, minimum notice and booking horizon belong to an availability schedule, so give each of these three types its own schedule.

Intake questions and payments at booking are part of Pro on the managed service, and free when you self-host.

How payments at booking work Add booking to your website

Compare

Tymeslot compared with HoneyBook, Calendly and Cal.com

Facts from each vendor's own pages, with the date we checked them.

Feature	Tymeslot	HoneyBook	Calendly	Cal.com
Free plan	Yes: unlimited bookings and meeting types	No: 30-day free trial on each plan	Yes, limited to 1 event type and 1 calendar	Yes: free forever for 1 user
Entry price	Pro €9/month, flat; self-hosting is free	$29/month, billed yearly (Starter)	$10/seat/month, billed yearly	Teams $12/user/month, billed yearly
Hosting in the EU	Yes, in Germany	Not checked	No: data is stored in US data centres	EU data residency on request
Self-hosting	Yes: Docker, Cloudron or Railway	No: hosted service only	No: hosted service only	Only the Cal.diy community edition
Open source	Yes, GNU AGPLv3	No: hosted service only	No: hosted service only	Cal.com is closed source; Cal.diy is open source
Booking page without third-party scripts	No ad trackers; reCAPTCHA on the booking form	Not checked	No: third-party scripts are referenced (Stripe, reCAPTCHA, Airbrake, Google Tag Manager)	Yes: only Cal.com hosts contacted
Deposit or payment at booking	Pro or self-hosted: a fixed amount via Stripe	Yes: scheduler can require payment to lock the slot	Paid plans only: Stripe or PayPal at booking	Yes, on the free plan: Stripe or PayPal
Custom intake questions	Pro or self-hosted: 10 question types	Yes: questions block before the scheduler	Yes: up to 10 questions per event type, on all plans	Yes: customisable booking questions
Signed data processing agreement	Enterprise plan only	Yes: DPA is part of the terms for businesses	Yes: accepted with the customer terms	Not checked

How to choose

What to check before you choose

Try embedding the booking page on your portfolio site.
Check whether you can take a deposit for a shoot or project at booking, and on which plan.
See whether enquiry questions can be asked before a call is booked.
Decide whether you need contracts and invoicing in the same tool, or scheduling alone.
Open the booking page as a client would and note what it shows.

Compare Tymeslot's plans

ROI Calculator

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200

minutes saved per week

173.3

hours saved per year

€25,995

annual value of saved time

Integrations

Which calendar and video apps do photographers use with Tymeslot?

Connects to the tools you already use. No extra setup.

Google Calendar

Outlook

Google Meet

Teams

Zoom

CalDAV

Nextcloud

Connect Google Calendar Add Tymeslot to your website How calendar sync works Self-host Tymeslot

Pricing

Start free, upgrade when you're ready

Core scheduling is always free. No credit card required.

Free

€0 / month

Unlimited bookings and meeting types
Calendar sync (Google, Outlook, CalDAV)
Auto video rooms (Meet, Teams, Zoom, Jitsi, Nextcloud Talk and more)
Booking page at tymeslot.app/you
Email reminders & notifications
Both booking themes and website embeds

Pro

€9 / month

Everything in Free
Custom booking questions for intake
Payments at booking via your own Stripe account
Remove Tymeslot branding from booking pages
Booking analytics and automation

Start free, no credit card required

See full pricing, including free self-hosting

Booking Themes

See Tymeslot in action

Try both booking themes live - no account needed.

Quill

Professional Glassmorphism

Try Live Demo

Rhythm

Immersive Experience

Try Live Demo

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tymeslot GDPR compliant for photographers?

Tymeslot keeps a photographer's booking page free of advertising trackers and third-party analytics and hosts it in Germany, so a parent booking a newborn shoot is not passed to an ad network. On tymeslot.app, Google reCAPTCHA loads once a client starts filling in the booking form, to block spam bookings; a self-hosted instance runs it only if you configure it. Whether your business as a whole meets GDPR also depends on how you store contracts, galleries and model releases, which Tymeslot does not handle. A signed data processing agreement comes only with the Enterprise plan, not with Free or Pro. If you photograph children or private events and want every booking on your own server, self-host Tymeslot.

Is Tymeslot a studio management or CRM tool for photographers?

No, Tymeslot is scheduling software for photographers: it takes the booking, the deposit and the reminders, and stops there. It has no contracts, invoices for the balance, galleries or image delivery. Most photographers pair it with the tools they already use for those, and keep the booking form to what they need to plan the shoot.

How can photographers stop clients holding a date without paying?

Photographers on Tymeslot Pro can charge a fixed deposit when a client books, and the slot is only confirmed once the payment clears. Set the amount per shoot type, for example €100 on a portrait session and the full fee on a 30-minute headshot. The money goes to your own Stripe account, and Tymeslot adds a 0.5% platform fee on the managed service. Tymeslot does not charge a balance later or enforce a cancellation deadline, so state your rebooking and refund terms in the shoot description. Reminder emails at the times you choose cover the forgotten bookings.

How does Tymeslot compare with HoneyBook for photographers?

HoneyBook is a client-management platform for photographers and other freelancers, while Tymeslot is only the booking part, with a free plan and EU hosting. HoneyBook's pricing page lists proposals, contracts, invoices and a client portal in its Starter plan at $29 a month billed yearly, after a 30-day trial, and its scheduler can require payment before the slot is locked. Choose HoneyBook if you want contracts and invoicing in the same product. Choose Tymeslot if those already live elsewhere and you want booking pages hosted in Germany, a free plan, or the option to self-host.

Can photographers offer studio and on-location shoots on one booking page?

Yes, a Tymeslot meeting type can list several locations, so photographers can offer the studio and an outdoor location on one shoot type and let the client choose. For a client's own venue, add an in-person option labelled "At your venue" and agree the place after booking, or ask for it in a booking question. Directions to the studio can go in the shoot type's description.

Can photographers self-host Tymeslot?

Photographers who already run their own server for client galleries can add Tymeslot to it with Docker, Cloudron or Railway. The self-hosted version is free and open source under the GNU AGPLv3, and deposits carry no platform fee, only Stripe's own. If you have never run a server, the managed service in Germany is the simpler choice, because updates and backups are then not your job.

Is Tymeslot free for photographers?

Yes, a photographer can list every shoot type on Tymeslot's free plan, embed it on a portfolio and link it from an Instagram bio, but deposits need Pro. Pro (€9/month) adds deposits and payments at booking, booking questions such as who is in the photos, booking analytics and automation, and removes Tymeslot branding from your booking page.

Which calendars and video tools do photographers connect to Tymeslot?

Tymeslot checks a photographer's Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple iCloud or other CalDAV calendars such as Nextcloud, so a wedding or a commercial job already in your diary blocks those hours on the booking page. Discovery calls get a link in Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Jitsi when the client books. Clients see only that a time is taken, never what the event is.

Moving from another booking tool? See how Tymeslot compares with Calendly, Cal.com and others

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