Comparison pages written by the company selling you something are hard to trust, and they should be. Of course we're going to say we're better. So we didn't write this one from our own opinions.

We also reviewed the comparison page they wrote about us, and it was filled with inaccuracies, written about the old version of our platform - so its incredibly difficult to get a real honest comparison when its written by one of the parties being compared.

We interviewed operators who moved to BoothBook from CheckCherry and asked them straight: what made you leave, what did you wish you'd known, and would you start there again. This page is what they told us. We're biased, obviously, but the points below came from people who actually ran their business on CheckCherry first.

CheckCherry is a fine place to start

The switchers were clear about this, so we will be too. When they began, CheckCherry did the job:

It takes online bookings, contracts, and deposits, and it does the basics cleanly.
It's quick to set up. Most were live within a day.
It's built for event people, so nobody was translating "deals" and "pipelines" into event language.

If you're right at the start and you're based in the US, it's a reasonable first tool. The operators we spoke to didn't regret starting there. They regretted not realising how soon they'd outgrow it.

What made them leave

This is the part that came straight from the interviews. The same frustrations kept coming up:

Every CheckCherry booking flow looks the same. You can't really change it. More than one operator told us they realised the booth business down the road had an identical flow to theirs. When a client is comparing two of you, looking interchangeable is the last thing you want.
No custom domain. Bookings and follow-ups run on CheckCherry's domain, so every client can see which tool you're using. The "personal" follow-up stops feeling personal the second it's obviously coming from off-the-shelf software. That one came up a lot.
It's US-only, really. No multi-language support, so the client experience is English, full stop. And it isn't built for the rest of the world, so the moment someone took an international client or needed to let the client switch languages, they were fighting the tool.
Support runs on US hours. The chat is offline through the European and Australian working days. The operators outside the US told us this was the breaking point: something goes wrong the morning of a big event and there's nobody to reach.
No multi-day or date-range bookings. A festival across a weekend, a three-day corporate activation, a multi-date package, the system isn't built for it. Anyone whose work grew past single-day events hit this wall.
You can't book two services into the same event, without having to go through the whole booking process twice. Running a photo booth and a DJ at the same wedding meant juggling two separate bookings instead of one event.
Automations are single, basic flows. Send email, wait, send email. No branching, no logic, no "if the client hasn't paid do this, if they have do that." The operators running real volume said one straight line wasn't enough.
Proposals are static and plain. No drag-and-drop editor, no custom elements, no real design control. Your proposal is your closer, and theirs all looked the same.

The thread through all of it: none of this hurts on your first few bookings. All of it hurts once you're running a proper operation. And by then you're migrating mid-season, which everyone agreed is the worst possible time to switch the system your bookings run through.

What they found when they moved

Everything on that list is a deliberate design choice for us, which is why these operators landed here:

Your booking flow is yours. Customise it, brand it, make it look like nobody else's. Run it on your own custom domain so clients see your business, not the software behind it.
A language switcher on your customer-facing pages. Your clients pick their language, so the whole thing, proposal to contract to payment, runs in theirs. Ideal if you're serving Latin America or French Canada, or anywhere your clients don't all speak English.
Teams across the US, EU, and Asia. We run in 33 countries with support teams spread across US, European, and Asian timezones, so wherever you are, the tool fits and there's someone awake when you need them.
Multi-day and date-range bookings handled properly. Festivals, multi-date corporate work, weekend runs, all one coherent booking. Multiple dates all handled inside a project, with a combined invoice and contract.
Proper automations with logic and branching. Different paths for different situations, not one rigid sequence. The follow-up that fires depends on what the client actually did.
Proposals with a real drag-and-drop editor. Your photos, your video, custom elements, designed to look like a business that's worth the money. The client opens it, picks options, accepts, and the booking confirms itself.

So, which one?

If you want the same booking process everyone else has, you're in the US, and you're happy to revisit the decision once you've grown, CheckCherry will get you off the ground.

But every operator we interviewed said the same thing in the end: they wished they'd started where they meant to finish, and skipped the painful migration. So that's our pitch. Start the way you mean to carry on. Build it your way, on your domain, looking like your business, with room to grow into the operator you're trying to become.

And if you're right at the start, we'll back that decision with $100 in startup credit to get going on BoothBook. Begin where you intend to end up.

Startup Program

Get $100 in starting credits, on us.

Just launched your photo booth business? We'll help you get off the ground. New companies registered in the last 6 months can claim a $100 BoothBook voucher to put toward their first months on the platform.

Company registered within the last 6 months
Submit proof of registration (certificate or registry link)
Voucher applied to your account within 2 business days

Apply for startup credits

One voucher per business. Subject to verification.

Voucher

BB-STARTUP

Credit value

$100

Redeemable against any BoothBook plan. For new photo booth businesses.

BoothBook vs CheckCherry

CheckCherry is a fine place to start

What made them leave

What they found when they moved

So, which one?

Get $100 in starting credits, on us.

Start where you mean to finish