Calendly has been one of the most popular scheduling software since 2013. It is a scheduling tool that is used widely by recruiters, marketers and sales teams.

The platform boasts a ton of functionality. You can send out booking links and meeting reminders, automate scheduling workflows, collect payments, and integrate with a myriad of third-party applications.

However the platform is not a perfect fit for every type of business, particularly service-based businesses that depend on selling appointments in bulk or hosting group events.

As Calendly shifts its focus to target the scheduling needs of enterprises, small to medium-sized companies find that their needs are unmet or go unheard using Calendly.

That’s why we need to talk about Calendly alternatives. But first, we’ll take a closer look at Calendly and then see what the alternatives have to offer.

What is Calendly?

Calendly is a comprehensive appointment scheduling platform. More than 10 million professionals use it, and over 5 million of them active monthly users.

Calendly allows professionals to automate appointment scheduling by creating booking pages, setting availability, syncing with external calendars, viewing analytics, and managing events across teams.

The software comes in five versions: Basic, Essentials, Professional, Teams and Enterprise.

The Basic version of Calendly is free to use on sign-up and allows users to:

• Automatically schedule meetings
• Customize and send booking links
• Collect payments through Stripe and PayPal
• Set up unlimited meeting polls
• Create unlimited one-off meetings
• Create as many one-on-one events
• Establish automated event notifications

The paid version of Calendly provides a lot more advanced functionality, such as automated workflows, the ability to update cancellation policy, meeting notifications via SMS, and removing branding.

Pricing Plans

• Basic version - FREE on sign-up.
• Premium version - $8 per user per month.
• Pro version - $12 per user per month.
• Teams - $16 per user per month.
• Enterprise - Custom pricing.

Drawbacks

Calendly has some notable shortcomings. Calendly customers complain about the following issues:

• Calendly’s customer support service isn’t up to scratch. The company only provides customer support via email and live chat, and no phone support. Some users have complained that its email customer support can be unresponsive at times.
• Some users find it difficult to navigate the platform.
• No features to support resource booking, selling bundled appointments in packages, and booking recurring events.

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Alternatives For Service-Based Businesses

For service-based businesses, there is a number of good Calendly substitutes out there, which come with more versatile features for supporting an automated online appointment scheduling flow.

CozyCal

CozyCal (disclaimer: this is our scheduling tool) is a lightweight and elegant Calendly alternative that you can easily integrate with any website. As a smaller, nimbler company than Calendly (a two-person husband and wife team), CozyCal is built to meet the scheduling needs of small businesses with a tight feedback loop.

But what aspects of CozyCal really stand out and differentiate it from Calendly?

What stands out?

• CozyCal is a hybrid tool that offers team scheduling for optimizing appointment scheduling for multiple users, as well as resource scheduling which supports booking meeting rooms, studios, co-working spaces and equipment rental.

• CozyCal allows users to manually approve or decline guest event requests – a functionality unavailable in Calendly.
• Compared to Calendly’s lackluster support and absence of phone support, CozyCal responds to support emails within 12 hours and provide scheduled support Zoom meetings for more hands-on help.
• CozyCal supports package booking that allows businesses to sell bundled services, offer discounts, and get paid for multiple appointments in advance.
• CozyCal’s Stripe integration supports transactions for more regions than Calendly, including New Zealand and Singapore.
• CozyCal’s minimalistic interface is intuitive to navigate for users with varied tech-savviness

Since CozyCal shares its changelog and product roadmap, it is highly transparent about its future plans. Users can submit, upvote and discuss feature requests openly within the community. Regular updates mean that CozyCal maintains a tight feedback loop so that the product is continuously improving to meet user demands.

Calendly, on the other hand, tends to be slower in announcing news about their products’ news features and changes in their public forum.

What to bear in mind when using CozyCal?

There is no free plan, but the paid plan involves a flat rate, which lets you access all premium features.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

CozyCal software primarily suits individuals and small to medium-sized business owners across all industries that need appointment scheduling. Its resource booking is best suited for studios, co-working space and facilities that rent out space for activities.

One of CozyCal’s many happy customers is Brown Lawyers. They managed to reduce no-shows and simplified client scheduling by using CozyCal. One of the main reasons the company turned to CozyCal was because it offers a direct integration with Clio CRM, which Calendly does not.

Pricing

CozyCal has two pricing plans, both of which come with a complete list of features and integrations. CozyCal pricing plans:

• The monthly plan costs $20 a month per user or resource.
• The yearly plan costs $15 a month per user or resource.

And if you have a team of ten or more, you can get a team plan discount. Sign up to CozyCal today for a 10-day free trial and see if it is the right fit for your business.

SetMore

Setmore is another Calendly alternative that offers an all-in-one calendar and lets you book 1:1s or group classes with a few easy clicks.

As for its key features, SetMore comes with a website widget, desktop app, and the ability to display customer reviews.

Setmore also offers automatic confirmation email and SMS reminders. You can even offer VIPs priority spots with the recurring appointment feature. Since Setmore is HIPAA compliant, it meets the regulatory requirements for companies that operate in the healthcare sector.

What stands out?

Setmore’s users can collaborate easily thanks to its team platform. Compared to other scheduling apps, Setmore has competitive pricing that starts from $5 per month. It also offers native integration with the video conferencing software Teleport. While Zoom is a more popular option, Teleport actually has higher ratings on many review sites.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

Setmore does not offer features to sell packages and subscriptions. Some customers have also criticized the employee scheduling calendar, while others have claimed to have experienced glitches.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Setmore best suits small businesses, NGOs, community organizations, and entrepreneurs.

Pricing

Setmore has three available price packages:

• A free version that comes with limited features. Up to four users can use this option.
• A Premium edition, which comes loaded with all SetMore features. It is currently priced at just $5 per month, with a 58% discount applied, meaning the normal price would be around $12 a month. The premium package allows up to two users.
• A Pro edition, a package for three or more users with all the features SetMore has to offer. The pro edition also costs $5 per month with a discount applied (as of August 2022).

Both the Premium and Pro packages come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

OnceHub

Like CozyCal and Setmore, this scheduling app can be integrated with your website. OnceHub was formerly known as ScheduleOnce. It comes with features that include booking pages, automated chatbots, a webform plugin, and the ability to offer instant meetings only when you are available.

What stands out?

Compared to other scheduling apps whose core functionality is appointment scheduling, Oncehub comes with automated chatbots and a smart form builder that can qualify and route your website visitors to staff on your team.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

OnceHub has a complicated tired pricing plan segmented by its feature set, making it cumbersome to calculate. If you have a sizable team who requires most or all of its features, OnceHub's pricing might not be cost-efficient.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Typical customers of OnceHub include small and medium size businesses across all service industries.

Pricing

OnceHub has three payment options:

• A Starter plan provides access for up to three users. This package offers free scheduled meetings, instant meetings, and a live chat. You can choose whether you want to use one, two, or all three of these feature sets.
• A Growth package allows you to benefit from advanced features, no matter the number of users. Again, you can decide whether you need one, two, or all three sets of features as mentioned above. Each feature set costs $10 per month per user, assuming you are using the advanced features.
• The Enterprise package is the top-level package the company offers. This is a custom plan for users and prices start at $950 per month. You’d need to get in touch with OnceHub if you’d like to arrange an Enterprise plan.

YouCanBook.Me

You Can Book Me (YCBM) is a simple online scheduling tool equipped with a basic set of features appointment booking. As with most scheduling services, it helps you set availability, manage bookings, customize notifications, and take payments. You can manage and share availability of multiple users across your entire team. of your entire team. It’s also possible to view and export your data as a CSV for detailed reporting.

What stands out?

As mentioned earlier, many customers have criticized Calendly’s navigability. In contrast, many customers have praised YCMB’s helpful instructions and how-to-use videos, which would make it easier for them to learn the ropes.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

YCBM lacks some useful features that you’d find with Calendly, such as collective meeting types and event tracking. YCBM has no PayPal integration either, while Calendly does.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

YCBM is a good option for freelancers and businesses that schedule one-on-one meetings. It can be used for customer-facing teams, including Customer Success, UX, Sales and Recruitment.

Pricing

Here are the YCBM pricing plans on offer:

• The free version comes with basic features, a single personalized booking page, and one linked calendar from your Google or Microsoft account.
• The paid plan, which offers a far more comprehensive features list charges $10 per month paying monthly, $9 per month paying yearly, or $8 per month for a two-year plan.

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Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling is a popular appointment scheduling platform for service-based businesses. It has features to support online scheduling including website integration, automated notifications and payment processing.

What stands out?

Acuity Scheduling has a robust set of features including scheduling recurring appointments, issue gift certificates and selling subscriptions, which are not offered by Calendly and many other scheduling app alternatives. It also offers an API so that users can build custom scheduling processes using the platform.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

Compared to Calendly’s clean interface, some find Acuity Scheduling to be difficult to navigate and the online embed look outdated. In addition, since Acuity Scheduling acquisition by Squarespace in 2019, it has been slow in developing new features to meet customer needs. There is also a lack of public roadmap or forum to users to submit feature requests.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Acuity Scheduling is suitable for individuals and small to medium-size businesses in the service industry such as beauty salons, wellness centres, and spas.

Pricing

Here is Acuity Scheduling’s pricing plans (paid annually) with a free 7-day trial.

• Emerging plan is $15 per month with limited features, 1 seat included
• Growing plan is $25 per month, 6 seats included
• Powerhouse is $50 per month, 36 seats included

Doodle

If you want a fast and democratic way of finding the right time for a meeting or event, you could consider Doodle. With Doodle you can set your hours, add power settings, and prevent no-shows by sending out reminders ahead of events.

As for the group polls specifically, you can invite anyone, track responses and automatically send out calendar invites.

What stands out?

Doodle’s key selling point is time polling, which simplifies the process of coordinating collaborative booking. It gives a clear overview of all participants’ availability so the event host can pick a time that works for everyone quickly.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

If you run a service-based business, Doodle might not be the right fit for you since it lacks key features to create an automated scheduling flow that allows external attendees to book pay events on your calendar.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Doodle is still an option worth considering for large companies and organizations that require time polling. Since it can auto-detect timezones, it’s well suited for attendees who are located in different timezones.

Pricing

There are three Doodle price plans:

• Free plan is available
• Pro version is available for $6.95 a month. It only allows one user.
• The Team plan is priced at $8.95 a month and gives access to five users.
• The Enterprise package provides access for 20+ users.

Calendar

Calendar lets you export user data, manage team availability, add appointment padding time, and password-protect booked appointments. It also lets you set up meetings with smart links that find availability across multiple synced calendars, allowing participants to choose a time that works for each party.

What stands out?

Calendar’s ‘Find a Time’ feature involves Calendar’s AI making sense of as many as 50 attendee calendars to find times that suit all potential guests. It can then help you create a suitably-timed event based on this data. It has an analytics dashboard tracks booking history across all meeting types, offering insights on how your meeting time is distributed.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

Compared to Calendly’s large number of integrations, Calendar only offers four integrations (HubSpot, Stripe, Zapier and Zoom). Calendar also lacks features to support package scheduling and recurring session booking which are integral for service-based businesses.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Calendar’s Find a Time feature makes it a good option for companies that need to coordinate the schedules of a large number of attendees and finding the best time slot that works for everyone.

Pricing

The cost of Calendar’s packages:

• A free plan that offers limited functionality.
• A standard plan which comes with scheduling for teams of up to 25 members. It costs $8 per month if you pay monthly or $6 per month with annual billing.
• The Pro Plan costs $10 per month when billed monthly or £$8 a month if you choose annual billing. This option works for a team of up to 50 members.

Timekit

Last but not least, we have Timekit, an advanced online scheduler for those seeking as much customization as possible. It is a set of unified APIs for time that can be used to build highly customizable scheduling flows and booking rules tailoring to specific scheduling needs. It supports various appointment types, booking rules and settings, and integrations.

What stands out?

Timekit’s versatile API allows companies to build their own booking flows through a simple visual interface. You can incorporate Timekit into your own app or platform and make it a native part of your application. For developers, the booking widget is 100% open source.

What to bear in mind when using this scheduling app?

Obviously, this scheduling app is not for the faint-hearted. You need coding knowledge to use Timekit or the budget to hire a developer. A business should preferably have in-house developers if they want to use Timekit in case issues arise or they need to update their scheduling tools.

Who is this scheduling app best suited for?

Timekit is ideal for large businesses and enterprises that have complex scheduling requirements and high standards for customizations. It is not suitable for individuals or small businesses.

Pricing

Unsurprisingly, Timekit is not the cheapest scheduling app on the market. However, the first three of its paid plans come with a 14-day free trial. There is no free version. Here is Timekit’s pricing plans:

• Essential - $49 a month (3 resources included).
• Professional - $149 a month (15 resources included).
• Platform - $349 a month (75 resources included).
• Enterprise - Offers unlimited resources, but you must contact Timekit for a quote.

Finding the Calendly alternative that best suits you

Today we looked at a list of Calendly alternatives. Whether these scheduling apps are superior to Calendly or are more suitable for your business will depend on your needs. While Calendly is a well-rounded scheduling app for consultations and interviews, it falls short in meeting the scheduling needs of small businesses and service professionals.