Free App for Driving Instructors UK: Booking, Payments and Diary
No monthly fee. No setup cost. No contract. The pupil adds a small booking fee when they book online, and you receive your full lesson price. Here's how it works and why we built it this way.
PassReady is free driving instructor software for qualified ADIs: £0 a month, with no trial, no end date and no limit on pupils. It runs your diary, pupils, lessons, reminders and records. Lessons your pupils pay for in cash or by bank transfer go in the same diary at no cost. Online card payments are optional. Every app charges something when you take card payments; on PassReady it is one published booking fee that the pupil pays, with nothing monthly on top, so on a £40 lesson the pupil pays £43 and you receive £40.23.
| Cost to the instructor | £0 a month. No setup fee, no contract |
|---|---|
| Best for | Qualified ADIs and independent driving instructors |
| Trial or end date | None. It is not a trial and has no end date |
| Pupil limit | None |
| Cash and bank transfer lessons | In the same diary, with reminders, progress and tax records. No fee |
| Online card payments | Optional. Every app charges for card payments; here it is one published fee, paid by the pupil: £43 on a £40 lesson, and you receive £40.23. Nothing monthly on top |
| Works on | iPhone, Android, tablet and computer, in the browser. Add it to your home screen, no app store download |
Why most booking systems charge you monthly
If you've ever looked for a booking system as a driving instructor, you'll have noticed nearly all of them want around £10 to £30 a month from you. Sign up, enter your card details, start paying whether you get a single booking or not. And if you take card payments through them, most add a charge on every payment as well.
That model works well for the software company. Not always for you. If you're just starting out, or you're part-time, or you're trying to decide whether online booking is even worth it — paying £19 a month to find out is a barrier. A small one, but a barrier.
We built PassReady differently. You never pay us at all — the pupil adds a small booking fee when they book online, and you receive your full price.
How the pricing works
PassReady has no monthly fee. No annual subscription. No setup cost. No minimum term.
When a student books a lesson through your PassReady booking page and pays online, a small booking fee (PassReady's 4.2% plus card processing, rounded up to the next whole pound) is added on top of your price and paid by them. On a £40 lesson the pupil pays £43; you receive £40.23. That's it. That's the entire pricing model.
On a £38 lesson, the pupil pays £41 and you receive £38.28. The fee always sits on top of your price, never inside it.
The fee is paid by the pupil, never by you. It's added on top of your lesson price at checkout, so you receive at least your asking price on every online booking, usually slightly more. There's nothing to configure and nothing to absorb — that's the whole model.
If nobody books through the platform this month, nobody pays anything. If ten people book, each adds a small fee to their own payment. Your cost is £0 in both cases.
"If it's free, what's the catch?"
Fair question. Here's the honest answer.
The catch is the pupil-paid booking fee. We make money only when your pupils book online. If you get no bookings through PassReady, we get nothing. That means we're incentivised to make the platform genuinely useful — because if instructors don't get bookings, we don't eat.
There are no hidden fees. No premium tier you'll need to upgrade to. No features locked behind a paywall. Every instructor gets every feature. We don't sell your data. We don't show ads. We don't upsell insurance or referral schemes.
The fee is a straightforward booking fee, the kind pupils already pay on tickets and takeaways — except this one funds a booking system, a calendar, progress tracking, a professional booking page, and the free app the pupil revises theory on.
Worth noting: The booking fee only applies to lessons booked and paid online through PassReady. Your regular pupils who text you and pay cash or by bank transfer go in the same diary, with the same reminders, progress tracking and tax records, and there is no fee for anyone. Nobody is ever forced into the online checkout.
What you get
Everything. There's one plan, and it includes:
- Your own booking page — a shareable link (passready.co.uk/i/yourname) where students can see your availability and book directly
- Smart calendar — set your working hours, lesson types, break times, and travel gaps. The system only shows students slots that actually work for you
- Cash lessons included — lessons paid in cash or by bank transfer sit in the same diary, with reminders and records, free
- Optional online payments via Stripe — switch them on when you want and students pay when they book. No more chasing. No more "I'll pay next week."
- Student progress tracking — record what you covered, track which skills each student is working on, and let pupils add a parent or other supervisor who can see their progress
- Fleet and vehicle management — if you have more than one car or work with other instructors
- Automatic cancellation policy — you set the rules, the system enforces them. No awkward conversations
There are no feature gates. You don't need to upgrade to "Pro" to get payments or progress tracking. It's all included from the start.
How it compares to the old way
Most driving instructors still manage bookings through a combination of text messages, WhatsApp, phone calls, and a paper diary or a Google Calendar. Payments happen in cash through the car window or via bank transfer ("I'll send it tonight").
It works. Millions of lessons get booked and paid for this way every year. But it also means:
- You're answering texts at 10pm about availability
- You're checking your bank to see who actually paid
- You're dealing with no-shows from students who had nothing to lose by cancelling
- You can't easily show a parent what their child has been working on
- Your "marketing" is a Facebook post saying "slots available this week"
PassReady replaces all of that with a single link you share. Students see your real availability, pick a slot, and it shows up in your diary. If you have switched on card payments, they pay when they book. Done.
You still teach the lessons. You still decide your hours, your prices, your cancellation policy. The platform just handles the admin that eats into your evenings.
Who this is for
PassReady is built for solo ADIs. If you're one instructor with one car and 15-30 students, this is designed around exactly how you work.
It's particularly useful if you're:
- Just starting out and don't want to pay £19/month before you've got a full diary
- Part-time and can't justify a monthly subscription for 10 lessons a week
- Fed up with no-shows and want prepaid booking without building your own system
- Tired of the admin and want students to book themselves instead of texting you
It's designed around the solo instructor's working week — if that's you, it's worth a look.
Quick answers
Is PassReady free for qualified driving instructors, or only for trainees?
PassReady is free for qualified ADIs. There is no monthly fee, no trial, no end date and no limit on how many pupils you have. It is funded by a small booking fee that the pupil pays when they book and pay online, so it does not need to charge you once you qualify.
Does PassReady keep track of cash lessons?
Yes. Lessons your pupils pay for in cash or by bank transfer go in the same diary as online bookings, with the same lesson reminders, progress tracking and tax records. There is no fee on them for anyone.
Does PassReady work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. PassReady runs in the browser on any iPhone, Android phone, tablet or computer, and can be added to your home screen so it opens like an app. There is nothing to download from an app store.
Try it
You can see exactly how the booking page works without signing up. Have a look at the demo and decide for yourself whether it's useful.
If it is, setup takes about 10 minutes. If it isn't, you haven't spent anything finding out.
Start free. Stay free.
No monthly fee, no contract, no setup cost. The small booking fee is paid by the pupil when they book online, and you always receive your full lesson price.
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