KeepsYa™ vs Amelia & Bookly
Appointments and registrations look similar from a distance. Up close they are different businesses.
Updated August 18, 2026 · KeepsYa 0.185.2 + KeepsYa Pro 0.26.55 · Amelia 2.4.1 · Bookly 27.7 (wordpress.org releases; both sell premium tiers)
The short version: Amelia and Bookly are the right tools when a customer books a staff member’s time slot: lessons, consultations, salon-style scheduling. KeepsYa is the right tool when families register players for sessions you run: camps, clinics, teams, with rosters, balances and day-of check-in. Plenty of businesses need one of each; few are well served using one for the other’s job.
The appointment model is employee + service + time slot, and both plugins execute it well, with staff calendars and slot-picking interfaces. The registration model is event + capacity + roster: thirty kids in a Tuesday clinic, some paid in cash, two on the waitlist, one with a peanut allergy the coach must see at check-in. Amelia ships a basic events module, but the season-long machinery around a roster is where the models part ways.
Side by side
| KeepsYa | Amelia / Bookly | |
|---|---|---|
| You own your data ⓘ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1-on-1 appointment slot picking | — | ✓ |
| Staff calendars and working hours | — | ✓ |
| Events with capacity | ✓ | Amelia: basic events module; Bookly: appointment-first |
| Tiered camps and multi-session schedules | ✓ | — |
| Family accounts: one parent, several kids | ✓ | — |
| Rosters with age, medical and emergency info | ✓ | — |
| Waivers and custom per-player fields | ✓ | custom fields on bookings |
| Offline payments tracked, with reminders | ✓ | — on-site payment marker only |
| QR check-in and per-day attendance | ✓ | — |
| Waitlists with promotion | ✓ | varies by tier |
| Cancellation workflow with credit, forfeit or refund | ✓ | — |
| Referrals, coupons, store credit | ✓ | coupons |
| Automatic multi-child / sibling discount | ✓ | coupons only |
| Built-in AI (discovery interview, content & ad writer, flyer maker, parent chatbot) | ✓ Pro: discovery interview, writers, flyer maker, chatbot |
— no native AI suite |
Where KeepsYa wins
The roster is the product
Registrations become rosters with everything a coach needs on the field, not appointment rows in an admin table.
Families, not customers
Parents book for multiple children with saved profiles. The system understands that the payer and the participant are different people.
Season-long money
Deposits, owed balances, reminders, credits, refunds and transfers: registration money is messy and KeepsYa embraces that.
Where Amelia or Bookly fits better
True appointments
Private lessons, assessments, consultations: a customer picking an open time slot on a staff calendar.
Service businesses
Salons, clinics, tutors and studios that sell time, not seats at events.
Zoom-style sessions
Their virtual-meeting integrations are built for one-on-one bookings.
The money math
KeepsYa’s cost never scales with your success: the core plugin is free forever, and KeepsYa Pro is one flat yearly license. Platforms priced per month, per player or per registration take a growing cut as you grow. Run your season’s numbers against their pricing page; the gap usually pays for your whole website.
What they cost
Amelia: paid tiers from $49/yr (Starter), with Standard, Pro and Elite above; current promotional and multi-domain pricing varies, see their page. Bookly: free core, then Pro $49/yr, Business $149/yr, Ultimate $249/yr (lifetime options available). Bookly pricing. See their pricing →
Keepsa: free core, flat yearly Pro license. We re-check these figures weekly; tell us if you spot a change.
or lock founders pricing: KeepsYa Pro at $149/yr for the first 500 (regular $199/yr)
More comparisons: Eventbrite · Event Tickets Plus · Upper Hand · TeamSnap · Sawyer · WooCommerce Bookings · SportsEngine · Jackrabbit Class · LeagueApps · Jersey Watch · RegFox · all comparisons
Or see KeepsYa for your activity: browse 68+ activities. Grow it with our guides and free AI marketing prompts, including the downloadable AI Prompt Pack.
Feature notes reflect each product’s public documentation and published feature lists as of June 12, 2026. Products change; check their site for current details and pricing. All trademarks belong to their owners; KeepsYa is not affiliated with or endorsed by any product compared here.
Our 30-day, no-questions-asked guarantee
Try KeepsYa Pro and love it, or get a full refund, automatically. If Pro is not right for your program, just log in and cancel within 30 days of your purchase and we will refund your charge automatically. No emails, no hoops, no questions. And if you ever get stuck before then, a real person replies within one business day.
More than an affiliate program: a growth flywheel
KeepsYa Pro turns your own families into your marketing engine and rewards them for it. Affiliate commissions, family referrals and the stored-value ledger are not three features, they are one self-perpetuating loop:
A family shares their link
Every family gets a personal referral link, and partners get an affiliate link, straight from your KeepsYa site.
A friend signs up
The new registration is tracked automatically and attributed to the referrer, first-touch, no codes to chase.
The family earns spendable credit
They receive real, owner-funded account credit (or a cash commission), held in your stored-value ledger and payable after the service is delivered.
They come back and spend it
That credit pulls the family into next season, and their friend now has a link of their own.
The result: your customers promote you, get rewarded, and keep coming back, while you keep every dollar and own all the data. One referral can pay for a whole year of Pro. See how the Pro flywheel works →