Scheduling and booking software · Comparison
Acuity Scheduling vs Zoho Bookings
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Acuity Scheduling | Zoho Bookings |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeClient self-booking with payments, intake forms, packages and memberships for a service business, priced per account rather than per staff member. | Worth the priceRound robin and collective team booking from $6 per user, backed by Zoho’s SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 audits and connected to Zoho CRM and other Zoho apps. |
| Overall score | 5.0 | 7.0Best |
| Free option | 7-day free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $16/mo | $6/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per account, by number of calendars (staff or locations) | Per user per month; extra workspaces and resources as add-ons |
| Free option | No free plan; 7-day trial, no card (14 days when added to a Squarespace site) | Free plan for 1 user (1 event type, 1 calendar); 15-day Premium trial, no card |
| Reference scenario (3 hosts, annual) | $27/mo on Standard (up to 6 calendars), computed | $18/mo on Basic ($6 × 3), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $34 on Standard ($20 / $34 / $69 for the three plans) | $8 per user on Basic ($12 Premium) |
| Round robin from | Standard ($27 a month billed annually), with two or more calendars | Basic ($6 per user, billed yearly) |
| Payments and SMS reminders | Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo on every plan; text reminders from Standard | Payments and SMS through your own provider on Premium ($9) |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated on the pages we read | SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 for Zoho cloud services |
| HIPAA BAA | Premium ($55), signed in the app | BAA template on request from Zoho legal; HIPAA data masking on Premium |
| EU data hosting | Not offered; Squarespace stores data in US data centers | EU data centers (Amsterdam, Dublin), chosen by sign-up country |
| SSO | Not listed | SAML SSO stated in a buyer’s guide; plan not named |
| API and export | Webhooks and CSV export on every plan; API on Premium | API on every plan; appointments export as CSV or XLSX on every plan |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Acuity Scheduling is built for service businesses: client booking with payments, intake forms and packages at one account price, and a HIPAA BAA on Premium. It lists no routing forms, collective meetings, SSO or audit reports. | From its public pages, Zoho Bookings is the lowest-cost way here to give a 3-host team round robin and collective booking, with Zoho’s audits and EU hosting behind it. Payments, text messages, routing forms and the audit log sit on Premium, and the plan for SSO is not stated. |
Evidence: Acuity Scheduling: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Zoho Bookings: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Acuity Scheduling review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Acuity Scheduling when
- You want payments and text reminders without moving to a higher plan, and a BAA you sign in the app.
- Pick Zoho Bookings when
- You want a free plan, collective bookings and a lower cost for 3 hosts ($18 a month on Basic, billed yearly), with EU hosting chosen at sign-up.
From our Zoho Bookings review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Zoho Bookings when
- You want a free plan, collective bookings and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits.
- Pick Acuity Scheduling when
- You want payments and text reminders without a higher plan, and a HIPAA BAA you sign in the app.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- Acuity SchedulingStarter$16/moBilled annually; $20 month to month; 1 calendar
- Payments and deposits via Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo
- Email reminders and confirmations
- Custom client intake forms
- Automatic time zone conversion
- Zoho BookingsBasic$6/user/moBilled yearly; $8 month to month
- Unlimited event types, 2 synced calendars per user
- Round robin (four distribution methods) and collective bookings
- User roles, pooled availability and booking reassignment
- Email workflows, Zapier and Zoho CRM sync
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Acuity Scheduling 2026-10-16, Zoho Bookings 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Zoho BookingsSelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (7.0/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- Zoho BookingsFree plan, no card needed; scored 7.0/10.
- Lowest starter price
- Zoho Bookings$6/user/mo for the Basic (billed yearly) plan.
- Highest overall score
- Zoho Bookings7.0/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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