UK · Comparison
Schengen appointment alert services in the UK Compared by 7 criteria, September 2026
Check frequency, alert channel, free tier, price, auto-booking, payment model and centres covered, for Visard, Visa Catcher, VisaBot, Schengen Appointments, Schengen Alert, SlotBot and free Telegram channels.
See how Visard worksThe short answer
Which Schengen appointment alert service fits which situation?
There are at least seven services that will tell you when a slot appears in the UK, and they differ on the things that decide whether you get the date: how often they check, where the alert arrives, whether they book for you, and what you pay and when.
Free heads-up
A public Telegram channel. Everyone gets the same message at the same moment, so expect to lose most dates to the crowd.
Private alert, fastest
A paid alert service filtered to your destination and centre; the deciding numbers are check frequency and price.
Cannot be at the screen
An auto-booking service. Check whether the fee is charged before or after the booking.
Manchester, Edinburgh or BLS Spain
Check the service names your city and system; several cover London and VFS only.
Comparison
Eight options, nine criteria
Competitor values are taken from each service’s own public pages on the date in the last column; “not stated” means the service does not publish that value and we did not guess it. If you run one of these services and a value is wrong, contact us and we will correct it.
| Service | Check frequency | Alert channel | Free tier | Price | Auto-booking | Payment model | UK centres | Systems | Verified on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Visard | Every 3 seconds | Telegram (private bot) | No | £35 one destination · £65 all, 31 days | Yes, 17 UK corridors | Notifications upfront (one-off); auto-booking fee £100 + £50/extra applicant charged after the booking, visa centre fee refunded if no booking | London, Manchester, Edinburgh | VFS Global, TLScontact, BLS | 12 Sep 2026 |
 Visa Catcher | Every 5 seconds (stated) | Telegram: free public channel; paid alerts | Yes, public Telegram channel | Alerts £30/month · auto-booking from £65 (route-dependent) | Yes (premium) | Paid upfront | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff | VFS Global, TLS Contact, BLS Spain | 12 Sep 2026 |
 VisaBot | not stated | Email or app push | No | Notifications from £35/month · auto-booking from £100 per applicant | Yes | Notifications upfront, non-recurring; auto-booking per applicant | UK (cities not stated on the UK page) | VFS, TLS (per UK page) | 12 Sep 2026 |
 Schengen Appointments | not stated | Email; free web table | Yes, live availability table on the site | Email alerts £7.99 one-time, 30 days | No | One-time payment | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh | VFS centres (per site) | 12 Sep 2026 |
 Schengen Alert | not stated ("within seconds") | No | From £25 for 30 days, one route | No | One payment, refund if no alerts are sent | London, Birmingham, Edinburgh (+1) | VFS, TLS, BLS routes listed per city | 12 Sep 2026 | |
 SlotBot | Every 60 seconds | Telegram bot (+ WhatsApp chat) | No (free consultation only) | Notifications £35 one country / £130 all, 30 days · auto-booking from £85 per applicant (site) or £95 (blog), +£70 per extra applicant | Yes | Paid upfront via Stripe, no subscription | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh | TLScontact, BLS, VFS Global | 12 Sep 2026 |
 UKVFSBot (Telegram channel) | not stated | Telegram public channel | Yes, entirely | Free | No (points to a separate paid bot) | not stated | UK and Ireland centres incl. Manchester | VFS, TLS, BLS (per channel description) | 12 Sep 2026 |
| Checking manually | As often as you refresh | None | Yes | Free | No | not stated | Any | Any | 12 Sep 2026 |
Service by service
What each service actually offers
Visard
Checks VFS Global, TLScontact and BLS every 3 seconds for 20 Schengen destinations from London, Manchester and Edinburgh; Telegram alerts within a second. Notifications £35 for one destination or £65 for all, 31 days, no auto-renewal, one subscription for the whole group. Auto-booking on 17 corridors at £100 per applicant (+£50 each additional), charged only after the booking. No free tier. UK company, Trustpilot-reviewed.
Visa Catcher
Runs a free public Telegram channel that posts openings to everyone, plus paid alerts (£30 a month) and auto-booking from £65 depending on the route; states that its bots check every 5 seconds. Covers London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff across VFS, TLS Contact and BLS Spain, and publishes a live availability table per city. Values from visacatcher.bot on 12 Sep 2026.
VisaBot
Notifications from £35 a month (non-recurring) with email or app push alerts, and auto-booking from £100 per applicant. Publishes a detailed action-plan blog for UK applicants. Its UK page does not state a check frequency or list the UK cities it covers, so those cells are left blank. Values from visabot.eu/c/uk on 12 Sep 2026.
Schengen Appointments
A free, privacy-focused site showing the earliest available appointment per city and destination, with paid email alerts at £7.99 for 30 days. No auto-booking; you book yourself. Check frequency is not stated. Values from schengenappointments.com on 12 Sep 2026.
Schengen Alert
An independent WhatsApp alert service: one payment from £25 for 30 days of monitoring on one route, refunded if no alerts are sent; it does not book appointments. Lists UK routes for London, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Check frequency is described as "within seconds" rather than a number. Values from schengenalert.com on 12 Sep 2026.
SlotBot
A UK service checking visa centre availability every 60 seconds, with Telegram notifications at £35 for one country or £130 for all, and auto-booking from £85 per applicant (its blog says from £95, France £145) plus £70 per additional applicant, paid upfront. Covers London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Edinburgh across TLScontact, BLS and VFS. Values from slotbot.uk on 12 Sep 2026.
UKVFSBot (Telegram channel)
A free public Telegram channel that posts earliest-available dates for UK and Ireland routes as its bot sees them. Every subscriber gets the same message at the same moment, so competitive dates are usually gone before you open the link; it does not book for you and points to a separate paid bot for auto-booking. Values from t.me/s/UKVFSBot on 12 Sep 2026.
Checking manually
Free, and it works on quiet corridors with flexible dates if you can refresh every few seconds for hours. It does not work on Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain or Italy in the UK, where dates are taken within a minute of appearing.
Private alerts, filtered to your route, within a second.
Visard is the option on this page that checks every 3 seconds, covers VFS, TLScontact and BLS in all three UK cities, and charges its auto-booking fee only after the appointment is booked.
How we compared
The seven criteria
Check frequency
How often the service polls the calendar. A slot lasts about a minute; 3 seconds and 60 seconds are different products.
Alert channel
Telegram, WhatsApp, email or app. Push speed, and whether the alert is private to you or broadcast.
Free tier, price, payment model
Whether there is a no-cost option, what you pay and for how long, and whether any fee is charged before an appointment exists.
Auto-booking
Whether the service books the date for you, and on which routes.
UK centres
London only, or Manchester and Edinburgh too.
Systems
VFS only, or TLScontact and BLS Spain as well.
Legitimacy
Are these services allowed?
Alert services poll public calendars and tell you when a date appears; you book with your own account. Visa centres warn against slot resale and impersonation, which is a different thing. What VFS Global says and what happens to your account is covered in Do visa appointment bots actually work?
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Visard vs VisaCatcher vs VisaBot: which Schengen appointment bot is best for UK residents?
It depends on what you need. Visard checks every 3 seconds, alerts on Telegram, covers London, Manchester and Edinburgh across VFS, TLScontact and BLS, and charges its auto-booking fee only after the booking; it has no free tier. The table above gives the same criteria for Visa Catcher and VisaBot from their own pages, with the date each value was checked.
How much does a Schengen visa appointment alert service cost in the UK?
Prices in the table range from public channels to per-applicant auto-booking fees. Visard notifications are £35 for one destination or £65 for all, for 31 days; auto-booking is £100 per applicant charged only after the appointment is booked, so there is nothing to pay upfront to Visard on that plan.
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