UK · Comparison
Schengen appointment alert services in the UK Compared side by side, October 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 worksWhat an alert service does not do for you
Every service on this page finds a date. None of them completes the application, and a file that does not match the form is refused at the counter. This walkthrough covers that side in order.
The short answer
Which Schengen appointment alert service fits which situation?
Some appointment alert services are Telegram bots, such as a Schengen visa appointment bot; others send WhatsApp or email alerts, and VisaBot also has a phone app. The table compares six services that list UK routes, including how often they check, where the alert arrives, whether there is a free tier, and whether anyone books for you.
So which one should you start with?
If you want to be told and then book the slot yourself, a notification service is enough, and the only question worth asking is how fast it checks. If you would rather not be at your phone at the moment a date appears, you need a service that books for you, and there are far fewer of those. If you are not ready to pay anything yet, a public Telegram channel will show you what the traffic looks like, but everyone on that channel sees the same slot at the same second.
UKVFSBot is Visa Catcher's free Telegram channel.
Before comparing providers, decide between notifications or auto-booking, or choose a notification method first.
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
Check the service names your city and system; several cover London and VFS only.
Comparison
Eight options, side by side
Competitor values are taken from each service’s own public pages on the date in the last column; “Unknown” means we found no published value and did not guess one. 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, 14 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, BLS | 8 Oct 2026 |
 Visa Catcher | 5-second interval (stated) | Telegram: free public channel; paid alerts | Yes, public Telegram channel | Alerts £30/month · auto-booking from £65 (route-dependent) | Yes (premium) | Alerts paid upfront; auto-booking: visa centre fee prepaid, Visa Catcher fee only after a booking | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff | VFS Global, TLS Contact, BLS | 12 Oct 2026 |
 VisaBot | Around the clock (stated) | Email or app push (App Store app) | Lowest listed plan £35/month | Notifications from £35/month · auto-booking from £100 per applicant | Yes | Notifications upfront, non-recurring; auto-booking per applicant | London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff | VFS Global, BLS International | 12 Oct 2026 |
 Schengen Appointments | Usually every few minutes, up to 15 minutes (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 | 12 Oct 2026 |
 Schengen Alert | 24/7 monitoring (stated) | Lowest listed plan £25 for 30 days | £25 for 30 days, one route · +£10 per additional destination | No | One payment; refund policy if no alerts are sent | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh | VFS (UK route pages) | 12 Oct 2026 | |
 SlotBot | 60-second interval | Telegram bot (+ WhatsApp chat) | Free consultation; lowest listed plan £35 | Notifications £35 one country / £130 all · auto-booking £85 for the first applicant (site) or from £95 (blog), +£70 per extra applicant, +£12 for a date window | Yes | Paid upfront via Stripe, no subscription; extended or refunded if no suitable slot is found | London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh | TLScontact, BLS, VFS Global | 12 Oct 2026 |
 UKVFSBot (Visa Catcher's free channel) | Not given in channel description | Telegram public channel | Yes, entirely | Free | Points to Visa Catcher's paid bot | Free | UK and Ireland centres incl. Manchester | VFS, TLS, BLS (channel description) | 12 Oct 2026 |
| Checking manually | As often as you refresh | None | Yes | Free | No | Unknown | Any | Any | 12 Oct 2026 |
Service by service
What each service actually offers
Visard
Checks the VFS Global and BLS booking calendars of 20 Schengen destinations every 3 seconds from London, Manchester and Edinburgh; Telegram alerts within a second. Visard Notifications cost £35 for one destination or £65 for all 20 covered UK destinations. Each subscription lasts 31 days with no auto-renewal, and one subscription covers the whole group. Auto-booking on 14 corridors at £100 per applicant (+£50 each additional), charged only after the booking. No free tier. UK company, Trustpilot-reviewed.
Visa Catcher
Visa Catcher runs a free public Telegram channel. Paid alerts cost £30 a month, and auto-booking starts at £65 depending on the route; it states a 5-second check interval for its bots. It covers London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff through VFS, TLS Contact and BLS, and publishes a live availability table for each city. Its free channel is UKVFSBot, linked from its UK pages. For auto-booking you prepay the visa centre fee, and Visa Catcher's own fee is charged only after a booking. Source: Visa Catcher, checked 12 Oct 2026.
VisaBot
VisaBot sends email or app push notifications from £35 a month, paid once and not renewed. Auto-booking starts at £100 per applicant. It lists London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Cardiff on VFS Global and BLS International. Source: VisaBot, checked 12 Oct 2026.
Schengen Appointments
Schengen Appointments is a free, privacy-focused site that shows the earliest available appointment for each city and destination. Email alerts cost £7.99 for 30 days. It does not book; you book yourself. It says it usually refreshes its data every few minutes, with a maximum delay of 15 minutes. Source: Schengen Appointments, checked 12 Oct 2026.
Schengen Alert
Schengen Alert is an independent WhatsApp alert service. A single payment from £25 covers 30 days of monitoring on one route, with a refund policy if no alerts are sent, and each additional destination costs £10. It does not book appointments. It lists UK routes for London, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Source: Schengen Alert, checked 12 Oct 2026.
SlotBot
SlotBot is a UK service that checks visa centre availability at a 60-second interval. Telegram notifications cost £35 for one country or £130 for all. Auto-booking starts at £85 for the first applicant (its blog says from £95), plus £70 for each additional applicant, paid upfront; if no suitable slot is found, it extends the monitoring or refunds. It covers London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Edinburgh through TLScontact, BLS and VFS. Source: SlotBot, checked 12 Oct 2026.
UKVFSBot (Telegram channel)
UKVFSBot is Visa Catcher's free public Telegram channel, linked from its UK pages. It posts the earliest available dates its bot finds for UK and Ireland routes, For auto-booking it points to Visa Catcher's paid bot. Source: UKVFSBot, checked 12 Oct 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 Global and BLS in all three UK cities, and charges its auto-booking fee only after the appointment is booked.
How we compared
The criteria
Check frequency
Monitoring frequency is 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 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
Is there an app that notifies you when a Schengen visa slot opens up in the UK?
VisaBot has an App Store app that notifies UK residents about new appointment openings. The other services in the table send alerts through Telegram, WhatsApp or email.
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 Global 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.
Trusted by 15,000+ travellers across 7 markets and 74 Schengen corridors. 4.8 stars on Trustpilot from 500+ reviews.