A beekeeper is seeking advice on how to sell three types of courses (taster, one-day, and two-day sessions) with fixed dates and a maximum capacity of 12 attendees per session.
Two main approaches suggested:
Native Shopify setup - Create separate products or variants for each course date, set inventory to 12, and enable quantity tracking. This shows remaining spots but lacks calendar views and automated reminders.
Booking apps (recommended) - Provide calendar selection, automatic capacity limits, confirmation/reminder emails, urgency messaging (“X spots left”), and calendar syncing.
App recommendations:
Sesami - Simple integration, easy inventory limits per date, low-maintenance
BookThatApp - More advanced features including waitlists and better date management
Tipo Booking & Appointment - Budget-friendly option for small catalogs
The original poster expressed appreciation for the detailed guidance and plans to explore the suggested apps. The discussion appears resolved with clear next steps identified.
Summarized with AI on October 25.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I sell beekeeping courses of which there are currently only three; a taster session, a one-day course and a two-day course. I know the dates of each of these courses at the start of the year and want to sell them to a maximum attendance of 12 people. I was thinking that I could create a product and put 12 in stock for each course but I’m sure there’s an app that will streamline the process of booking and also creating some tension when places are limited.
I’d be really happy to receive recommendations for the setup within Shopify products (or maybe variants/collections?) and any app recommendations too for such a small catalog.
You’re right you can set each course date as a product with stock set to 12, but Shopify alone isn’t ideal for handling date-specific bookings or showing how many spots are left. A booking app will make the process smoother and more professional.
Option 1: Native Shopify (no extra apps)
Create a separate product for each course date (or use variants for dates if you prefer them grouped).
Set inventory to 12 for each date.
Enable “track quantity” so Shopify automatically shows “only X spots left” as numbers get low.
Drawback: No calendar view, no automated reminders, manual date management.
Option 2: Use a booking app (recommended)
Apps will:
Let customers choose a date from a calendar
Automatically limit spots to 12
Send confirmation and reminder emails
Show urgency like “Only 3 spots left”
Sync to your calendar (Google, Outlook, etc.)
Popular Shopify booking apps for small catalogs:
Sesami – Simple, integrates directly with Shopify products, easy to set inventory limits per date.
BookThatApp – More advanced, supports multiple events/dates, capacity tracking, and waitlists.
Tipo Booking & Appointment – Budget-friendly, good for a small number of courses.
Setup idea with Sesami:
Create one product per course type (e.g., Taster Session).
Add each date/time slot inside Sesami with a capacity of 12.
Let the app manage bookings, capacity, and reminders automatically.
My recommendation: Use Sesami if you want a clean, low-maintenance setup inside Shopify. If you need more control over how the calendar looks or want to handle many dates in the future, go with BookThatApp.
Hey @Nobble , thank you so much for the very thorough explanation and thoughts on the various apps - that’s so helpful. I’ll check those out and I’m sure they’ll be just what I’m looking for. Best regards, Alun
You can use the Slot app. This will be ideal for your beekeeping courses and it will help you create exactly the booking tension you want when places are limited.
Set Capacity Limits: Under “Number of Appointments per Time Slot,” select “Limited” and set “Max number of appointments per slot” to 12 for each course. This prevents overbooking and shows remaining spots.
