What Are Top Calendly Alternatives?
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Looking for the best Calendly alternatives to help you efficiently manage and schedule your meetings and appointments? Look no further, as in today’s post, we’ll go over 10 popular and promising solutions that can make your business’s scheduling a smooth experience.
With both free and premium tools available in our curated collection, you’ll be able to easily choose what’s best for your business without sacrificing functionality or spending your whole budget on it.
Before we begin reviewing apps similar to Calendly, here are the top 3 solutions we recommend trying right away.
| Name | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Setmore | Free or from $5/user per month | Multipurpose bookings |
| MotoPress Appointment Booking | Free or from $49/year | Scheduling appointments on service-based WordPress websites |
| FluentBooking | Free or from $79/year | Business meetings and events |
Top 5 Premium Calendly Alternatives (SaaS)
Calendly is certainly one of the most popular scheduling tools for businesses worldwide. However, it may not always be possible to use it due to certain limitations in your budget or the functionality that you need. Besides, there are diverse options available that may be more suitable for your business than Calendly. Below, we have gathered 5 best alternatives showcasing not only their core functionality but also unique features that may fit your company’s scheduling needs.
Acuity Scheduling
We begin our list of premium Calendly alternatives with Acuity Scheduling. Being one of the highly popular online scheduling platforms, it offers advanced schedule customization, client management, and payment processing for service-based businesses. With its help, you can create well-designed booking pages, set up automated email reminders to avoid no-shows, and sync with various calendars. Thanks to these and other features, the platform provides a flexible and client-friendly scheduling experience for salons, studios, and creative businesses.
Key features:
- Centralized online booking system;
- Customizable booking rules and availability;
- Branded online booking pages;
- Time zone detection;
- Full and partial deposit support.
| Name | Owned by | Price | Launched in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acuity Scheduling | Squarespace | From $16/mo | 2006 |
Setmore
Another one of Calendly competitors in terms of scheduling and booking management is Setmore. Unlike previously mentioned Acuity scheduling, it provides a free plan to help small businesses get started without a financial commitment right away. With its premium plans, it offers unlimited appointments, automated reminders, and integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, and Stripe for seamless scheduling and payments. These and other features make it a suitable choice for many businesses, regardless of their size and the industries they belong to.
Key features:
- All-in-one booking calendar;
- Automatic confirmations;
- Easy-to-use website widgets;
- Dedicated desktop app;
- Recurring appointment support.
| Name | Owned by | Price | Launched in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setmore | Setmore Appointments | Free or from $5/user per month | 2011 |
Square Appointments
Next on the list of Calendly alternatives is Square Appointments. It is a powerful & robust solution built for small and medium businesses that need a smooth scheduling experience. With built-in payment processing, appointment reminders, and calendar syncing, this platform allows you to automate scheduling processes. In addition to these features, Square Appointments helps with no-show protection, staff scheduling, and invoicing. Like Setmore, it provides a free plan to help you get started, while also having some similarities if you compare Calendly vs Square Appointments.
Key features:
- Perfect for class booking and recurring events;
- Free online booking website;
- Automated email and SMS reminders;
- Customer profiles for easier client management;
- Point-of-sale system support.
| Name | Owned by | Price | Launched in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square Appointments | Block, Inc. | Free or from $29/mo | 2014 |
Doodle
Doodle is one of the user-friendly Calendly competitors, and its functionality is also varied. It is a great choice for group scheduling and individual meetings. As a fully functional tool, it allows users to create polls to find the best time for appointments, making it perfect for teams, clients, and large groups. Additionally, the platform integrates with other solutions, such as Google Calendar or Slack. Doodle simplifies the process of organizing meetings without the back-and-forth emails.
Key features:
- Perfect for business scheduling;
- One-on-one and group meeting support;
- Event information export;
- Calendar synchronization and video conferencing integrations;
- Ad-free and easy-to-use scheduling experience.
| Name | Owned by | Price | Launched in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doodle | TX Group | Free or from $6.95/user per month | 2007 |
SimplyBook.me
One more of the free Calendly alternatives is SimplyBook.me. It is built for service-based businesses that need a comprehensive scheduling solution. It offers customizable booking pages, automated reminders, and integration with popular payment processors. With SimplyBook.me, businesses can manage staff schedules and accept online bookings in just a few clicks. It also comes with extra features like membership management and marketing tools. All this makes the said platform a perfect choice for healthcare providers, salons, and other appointment-based services.
Key features:
- Responsive online booking management;
- Customizable booking website design;
- Mobile apps for staff and clients;
- Multiple location support;
- A wide range of integrations.
| Name | Owned by | Price | Launched in |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimplyBook.me | SimplyBook.me Ltd. | Free or from €8.25/mo | 2011 |
Top 5 Free Calendly Alternatives for WordPress Websites
While premium apps similar to Calendly may be a great start for your personal and corporate scheduling needs, there are also free apps and WordPress plugins out there to help you get started with planning your meetings. From appointment booking functionality to seamless calendar integration, they provide a varied selection of features that your business website may need. Let’s look at the top 5 Calendly free alternatives, including standalone ones and those designed for WordPress, one of the leading CMS for web development and running a business online.
MotoPress Appointment Booking
If you own a WordPress website or plan to build one with scheduling features, MotoPress Appointment Booking may be just what you need. Being one of the free Calendly alternatives for WordPress users, it allows businesses to accept online bookings without having to develop such functionality from scratch. With the support of online payment gateways in its premium version, multiple locations, staff availability management, and other awesome features, the plugin can help you solve dozens of tasks at once. Moreover, it offers customizable booking forms and calendar syncing, being just what salons, clinics, and service-based businesses require.
Key features:
- Wizard-like booking form with responsive design;
- One-on-one and group booking support;
- Optimized for Gutenberg and Elementor;
- Email notifications and reminders;
- A range of paid add-ons and integrations (Square Payments, Zoom, Google Analytics).
| Name | Developer | Price | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appointment Booking | MotoPress | Free or from $49/year | 1k+ |
Simply Schedule Appointments
Simply Schedule Appointments is one of Calendly competitors that is available as a WordPress plugin. Being used by owners of service-oriented businesses, it is one of the best options that combines an easy scheduling process with calendar syncing and payment integrations to streamline scheduling. Moreover, it offers a quick initial setup using the built-in wizard. Being fully customizable, this solution can adapt to your website’s and business’s needs, regardless of the services you provide, making it one of the proper alternatives to Calendly.
Key features:
- Unlimited booking calendars;
- Diverse visual customization;
- Timezone detection;
- Ready for translation;
- Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder.
| Name | Developer | Price | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simply Schedule Appointments | NSquared | Free or from $99/year | 50k+ |
FluentBooking
FluentBooking is one of the recommended & free alternatives to Calendly when it comes to flexible scheduling with a variety of essential and advanced features. From supporting multiple meeting types to providing customizable booking forms, this platform and the plugin it provides can be a perfect fit for any modern business. It integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar, Zoom, and email marketing tools, making it ideal for businesses, coaches, and freelancers who look for websites like Calendly.
Key features:
- Stunning booking pages;
- Diverse availability management tools;
- Unlimited meeting reminder emails;
- Stripe payment gateway support;
- Integrated analytical tools.
| Name | Developer | Price | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| FluentBooking | WPManageNinja | Free or from $79/year | 10k+ |
Bookly
One more mention on our list of Calendly alternatives is Bookly. It is a multi-featured and powerful tool for WordPress users. Being available in both free and premium versions, it delivers automated appointment scheduling, mobile-friendly booking forms, support for secure online payments, and a wide range of other advantages. Whether you choose a free option or a premium one, you’ll get one of the Calendly free alternatives suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Key features:
- Easy & quick appointment scheduling;
- Unlimited booking forms;
- WPML integration for multilingual UI;
- Varied service duration;
- Multiple available add-ons and integrations.
| Name | Developer | Price | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookly | Booking Technologies, Inc. | Free or from $9.95/year | 70k+ |
WP Booking Calendar
Moving to the next Calendly alternatives, we need to mention WP Booking Calendar. It is a powerful Calendly alternative designed for various businesses, ready to assist with booking management, online payment integrations, and dynamic pricing tools. In addition to this functionality, you get access to advanced booking rules customization aimed at making your scheduling experience smooth and sometimes better than Calendly.
Key features:
- Customizable booking form & templates;
- An unlimited number of bookable services & properties;
- Auto cancellation & approval of appointments;
- Booking rules with changeover days and advanced availability;
- Coupon support.
| Name | Developer | Price | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| WP Booking Calendar | wpdevelop | Free or from $39/once | 2009 |
Conclusion
We hope this overview of 10 popular Calendly alternatives helped you choose what’s fitting for your scheduling needs. While Calendly may be a popular choice, it is not always the best for every task. That’s why considering alternatives is always useful, especially if you need something that the highly popular scheduling platform does not provide. Additionally, selecting an alternative to Calendly may give you other benefits:
- Better customization: Many paid and free alternatives to Calendly listed above offer diverse customization possibilities, ranging from creating a well-designed booking page to changing how your booking calendar looks. Additionally, most Calendly alternatives go beyond providing simple customization, making them a great fit for many businesses.
- Improved free plans: Many plugins and apps like Calendly provide free plans or free trials. This allows business owners to try out the core features before considering something premium.
- Advanced integration: While the core functionality of any scheduling tools like Calendly can help with essentials, diverse add-ons and integrations provided by various platforms, apps, and WordPress plugins can extend their features even further. Such integrations range from calendar synchronization to supporting video conferencing and multiple payment methods.
- Team collaboration: Finally, most of the best Calendly alternatives are also designed for team collaboration. This means you can assign various tasks to different team members to ensure the services & products your customers book are delivered properly.
We’ve been using Calendly to manage our scheduling, but it’s become a major problem for our business. A long-standing issue with UK time zones causes our UK prospects to book at the wrong time — without fail. This recurring glitch isn’t just frustrating — it’s directly responsible for losing us around 10 clients each week.
Our repeated attempts to get help have gone nowhere. Support offers nothing beyond canned responses, and there’s no route to escalate the issue. The lack of accountability is glaring, and it’s clear Calendly has no intention of prioritizing customer-impacting bugs.
Even more concerning is the complete absence of leadership involvement. There’s no ownership from the top, no updates, and certainly no solutions. It feels like our concerns are simply being ignored.
Considering the number of better, more affordable scheduling platforms out there, staying with Calendly makes no sense. We’ve made the decision to move on — and we strongly suggest others do the same.
Hi Yanny, thanks for your feedback! Would you mind sharing which solution you decided to go with?