Five WooCommerce rental and booking plugins, compared row by row on what a hire business actually uses: the booking calendar and duration pricing, send and return, serial numbers, inventory reports, deposits and contracts, and the newer rows for the REST API, subscriptions and custom fields. A calendar on the product page is the easy part; the difference between a booking plugin and a rental system is what happens after the order. Published by Sales Igniter, and every competitor cell is read from that vendor’s own documentation, linked under Sources and re-checked on 18 September 2026.
WooCommerce rental booking plugins compared
| Feature | Sales Igniter | WooCommerce Bookings | YITH Booking | Tyche Booking | RnB (RedQ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform compatibility | |||||
| Works with current WooCommerce | |||||
| Works with the WooCommerce product CSV importer / exporter | Booking records only | Not documented | Own CSV tool | Not documented | |
| Rental calendar and pricing | |||||
| Rental calendar on the product page to reserve by date | |||||
| Set rental pricing per day | |||||
| Tiered duration pricing that calculates in-between prices automatically | |||||
| Maximum or minimum rental period | |||||
| Pro-rated rental pricing | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | |
| End date chosen by the customer or fixed by the admin | Customer only | ||||
| Exclude dates, times or days of the week from pricing | |||||
| Exclude dates or days of the week from the booking calendar | |||||
| Calendar or search widget that can be placed on any page | Availability add-on | Search add-on | |||
| Choice of calendar mode: inline range picker, popup range picker, separate date pickers or the classic picker | Inline or on click | Dropdown or inline | Inline or popup | Not documented | |
| Calendar Styler: four visual styles, brand colour, time intervals and editable labels, no CSS | Colours and labels | 24 themes, labels | Not documented | ||
| Inventory, send and return | |||||
| Send (check-out) and return (check-in) of rentals | |||||
| Send and return history report | |||||
| Return early and release inventory | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | ||
| Turnover (buffer) time before and after each reservation | After only | Rental add-on | |||
| Serial-number (barcode) tracking of individual units | Not documented | Not documented | |||
| Admin serial-number report | |||||
| Variable products and Bundle / Composite products as rentals | |||||
| Put a quantity or specific serial numbers into maintenance mode | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | ||
| Manually reserve inventory for dates in admin without an order | |||||
| Admin tools, reports and emails | |||||
| Admin rental calendar of all rental orders | |||||
| Daily, weekly and monthly inventory availability report | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | ||
| Admin can create rental orders with dates | Backend add-on | ||||
| Email return reminders before the rental ends | Before booking date | Not documented | |||
| Email late-return reminders | After end date | After booking date | Not documented | ||
| Rentals dashboard: movements, revenue and top products | |||||
| Usage report: utilisation, turns and revenue by product | |||||
| REST API for bookings, availability, serials, pricing and send / return (WooCommerce API keys) | Read and availability | Not documented | Bookings, availability, price | Not documented | |
| Subscriptions, memberships and rental queue | |||||
| Rental subscriptions with recurring billing (daily, weekly, monthly or annual), trials and setup fees | Pro | With WC Subscriptions | |||
| Memberships with rental allowances and tiered access to inventory | Pro | ||||
| Rental queue: subscribers queue items, the next one ships when the last is scanned back in | Pro | ||||
| Contracts and deposits | |||||
| Rental contract PDF | Pro | ||||
| Rental contract signing (touch or typed signature) | Pro | ||||
| Refundable security deposits | Pro | Down payments only | Down payments only | Deposits add-on | No refund flow |
| Custom fields, ID verification and damage waiver | |||||
| Custom checkout, product, registration and account fields with conditional logic and priced options | Pro | Product Add-Ons | Separate plugin | Options add-on | |
| ID verification: document upload at checkout with an approval queue and secure storage | Pro | ||||
| Damage waiver fee, mandatory or opt-in, recorded on the order | Pro | ||||
| Features supported (of 39) | 39 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 13 |
What the differences mean in practice
- Booking plugin or rental system. WooCommerce Bookings, YITH and Tyche are built around appointments, resources and time slots, with rentals handled as multi-day blocks. RnB is rental-first but stops at the reservation. None of the four documents a send and return step, so the store never knows an item is late or came back early, cannot release inventory, and cannot send a late-return email.
- Pricing by duration, not just per day. A nine-day hire priced from a weekly rate plus two daily rates needs tiered pricing that calculates the in-between prices itself. The other plugins price per block, or let you write explicit rules for each range of days, and leave the maths to you.
- Serial numbers and maintenance. Tracking which physical unit went out, putting a damaged one into maintenance and printing barcodes for the rest is what separates a rental system from a reservation widget. YITH’s own FAQ says the plugin “does not manage any stock”; the others track a quantity pool at best.
- Bundles, composites and variations. Camera kits, event packages and sized products are usually WooCommerce Bundle, Composite or Variable products. WooCommerce Bookings lists Bundles and Composites as not compatible and YITH does not support variable products; Tyche supports variable products, with Bundles only on its Business tier.
- Contracts and deposits. Signed rental agreements at checkout and a genuinely refundable security deposit matter for equipment, vehicle and event hire, where the order is rarely a simple click-and-pay. None of the four documents a contract PDF or a signature step. On deposits the picture differs: WooCommerce Bookings and YITH sell deposit extensions that split the payment into instalments, which is a down payment rather than money held against damage; Tyche charges one through a paid add-on; RnB charges one in core but documents no refund or release step. Sales Igniter bundles contract signing and refundable deposits with the Pro edition, including the release back to the customer.
- Recurring revenue. Subscriptions, memberships and a rental queue turn one-off hires into monthly billing: a subscriber picks a tier, queues the items they want, and the next one ships when the last is scanned back in. Failed payments retry, customers pause or upgrade from their account, and the admin sees monthly recurring revenue and utilisation. None of the other four plugins documents subscriptions, memberships or a queue.
- Custom fields, ID checks and waivers. Equipment and vehicle hire usually needs a licence on file, a waiver and a few extra questions per product. The Custom Fields add-on gives nineteen field types across checkout, product page, registration and account with conditional logic and priced options, an ID verification queue with secure storage and automatic purging, and a damage waiver fee that is mandatory or opt-in and recorded on the order.
- API and calendar design. Our REST API covers bookings, availability, serials, pricing and send / return with WooCommerce API keys, so barcode scanners, kiosks and integrations work without the admin. Two competitors document an API of their own: WooCommerce Bookings exposes bookings, products, resources and slots, though its create-booking endpoint is marked do not use, and Tyche covers bookings, availability and price. YITH and RnB document PHP hooks only. On the storefront, our calendar comes in four modes and the Calendar Styler matches it to the theme with four styles, a brand colour and editable labels; YITH offers an inline or dropdown calendar with colour and label settings, Tyche ships 24 themes and editable labels, and WooCommerce Bookings documents CSS edits only.
- Licence model. WooCommerce Bookings, YITH and Tyche are annual subscriptions. RnB is a one-time CodeCanyon licence with paid add-ons for admin orders, seasonal pricing and search. Sales Igniter is a one-time purchase with optional yearly support and updates, and the full source code is open.
Read the head-to-head reviews
Each plugin above has a longer comparison with realistic rental scenarios, verified pricing and a three-year cost of ownership: WooCommerce Bookings alternative, YITH Booking alternative, Tyche Booking & Appointment alternative and RnB alternative. The round-up of WooCommerce booking plugins covers the wider field, and the rental software directory lists hosted platforms as well as plugins.
Sources
The comparison is drawn from each vendor’s own documentation and product page. Every competitor column was re-read and re-verified against the vendor’s current documentation on 18 September 2026, and the Sales Igniter rows were updated the same day for version 1.0.62 and its add-ons. Where a vendor documents a feature only in a separately priced add-on, the cell says so and names it; “not documented” means we could not find the feature either way, not that it is absent. A green tick with a label under it means the vendor has the feature but in a separately priced add-on, and it is counted as supported, the same way our own Pro add-ons are counted. Hover a cell for the detail behind it. Vendors change their feature lists, so check the current page before you decide, and let us know if a row is out of date.
- WooCommerce Bookings (v3.10.0): product page, creating a bookable product, costs, availability, extension compatibility, emails
- YITH Booking and Appointment (v5.35.0): product page, documentation, FAQ, check-in and check-out, emails, Request a Quote integration
- Tyche Softwares Booking & Appointment Plugin (v9.0.0): product page, documentation, Rental System add-on, import / export, reminders
- RnB by RedQ (v18.0.8): CodeCanyon listing, documentation, add-ons, locations, request for quote
- Sales Igniter: feature list, documentation, changelog
See it running
The fastest way to check a row is to try it. The free live demo of the WooCommerce rental plugin has the admin side open, so you can send and return an order, print a serial label and run the inventory report yourself. Selling on Magento instead? The same rental engine ships as a Magento 2 rental booking extension, compared with its competitors in the Magento 2 rental module comparison chart, and the Magento vs WooCommerce comparison covers which platform suits which business. Comparing hosted rental software too? See the rental software alternatives hub.