Scheduling and booking software · Comparison
Acuity Scheduling vs Cal.com vs Calendly
3 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 | Cal.com | Calendly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 priceA free plan that already takes paid bookings, team routing and round robin from $12 per user, and SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA BAA with a published price. | Saves engineering timeBooking links with round robin, routing forms and CRM routing for sales and recruiting teams, backed by Calendly’s own SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001. |
| Overall score | 5.0 | 8.3Best | 6.9 |
| Free option | 7-day free trial | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $16/mo | $12/user/mo | $10/seat/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per account, by number of calendars (staff or locations) | Per user per month; text and WhatsApp messages use credits | Per seat per month; invitees need no seat |
| Free option | No free plan; 7-day trial, no card (14 days when added to a Squarespace site) | Free plan for 1 user (unlimited event types and calendars, payments); 14-day trial of Teams and Organizations | Free plan (1 event type, 1 calendar); 14-day Teams Plus trial for new users |
| Reference scenario (3 hosts, annual) | $27/mo on Standard (up to 6 calendars), computed | $36/mo on Teams ($12 × 3), computed | $48/mo on Teams ($16 × 3), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $34 on Standard ($20 / $34 / $69 for the three plans) | $16 per user on Teams ($37 Organizations) | $20 per seat on Teams ($12 Standard) |
| Round robin from | Standard ($27 a month billed annually), with two or more calendars | Teams ($12 per user, billed yearly) | Teams ($16 per seat, billed yearly) |
| Payments and SMS reminders | Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo on every plan; text reminders from Standard | Stripe and PayPal on every plan; SMS by credits, 750 per member a month on Teams | Stripe and PayPal, and text reminders, from Standard |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated on the pages we read | SOC 2 Type II report and ISO 27001 certificate (security page) | SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 (security page) |
| HIPAA BAA | Premium ($55), signed in the app | $300/mo below 15 Organizations users; included from 15 users and on Enterprise | Not offered; the help center says Calendly is not designed for HIPAA |
| EU data hosting | Not offered; Squarespace stores data in US data centers | Cal.eu for Enterprise, at least 50 users, by waitlist | Not offered; the DPA says processing occurs in the US |
| SSO | Not listed | SAML and SCIM on Organizations ($28 per user, billed yearly) | SAML as a Teams add-on (price not published) or on Enterprise |
| API and export | Webhooks and CSV export on every plan; API on Premium | Webhooks on every plan; API v2; Insights CSV download from Teams | API on every plan; webhooks and meeting CSV export from Standard |
| 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, Cal.com gives the most for the money here: a usable free plan, team routing from $12 per user and audits in its own name. SSO and audit logs start on Organizations, text messages run on credits, and a few pages place HIPAA and EU hosting differently. | From its public pages, Calendly is a full-featured scheduler for sales and recruiting teams, with routing, round robin and CRM integrations on Teams and audits in its own name. It costs more per host than the other per-user tools here and offers no HIPAA BAA or EU hosting. |
Evidence: Acuity Scheduling: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Cal.com: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Calendly: 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 sell services to clients and want packages, memberships, gift certificates, a HIPAA BAA and one account price for up to 6 staff calendars.
- Pick Calendly when
- You book sales or recruiting meetings and want routing forms, collective events and Salesforce on the round-robin plan.
From our Acuity Scheduling review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Acuity Scheduling when
- You want Square or Venmo payments, gift certificates and text reminders without a credit balance.
- Pick Cal.com when
- You want a free plan, routing forms, and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 reports at $12 per user billed yearly.
From our Cal.com review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Cal.com when
- You want a free plan that takes payments, round robin at $12 per user billed yearly, and a HIPAA BAA with a published price.
- Pick Calendly when
- You want SAML SSO added to the round-robin plan rather than a plan change, and Salesforce and Marketo on Teams.
From our Cal.com review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Cal.com when
- You book meetings across a team and want routing forms, collective events and SSO on a self-serve plan.
- Pick Acuity Scheduling when
- You run a service business and want packages, memberships, gift certificates and a HIPAA BAA signed in the app.
From our Calendly review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Calendly when
- You want SAML SSO added to the round-robin plan rather than a plan change, and Salesforce and Marketo on Teams.
- Pick Cal.com when
- You want a free plan that takes payments, round robin at $12 per user billed yearly, and a HIPAA BAA with a published price.
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
- Cal.comTeams$12/user/moBilled yearly; $16 month to month; 14-day trial
- 1 team with shared availability
- Round robin, collective and managed event types
- Routing forms, Insights, no Cal.com branding
- 750 messaging credits per member a month
- CalendlyStandard$10/seat/moBilled yearly; $12 month to month
- Unlimited event types, 6 calendar connections
- Group and collective meeting types
- Reminders, workflows and text reminders
- Stripe and PayPal payments, webhooks, no Calendly branding
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Acuity Scheduling 2026-10-16, Cal.com 2026-10-16, Calendly 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Cal.comSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 3 self-serve products here (8.3/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- Acuity Scheduling7-day free trial, no card needed; scored 5.0/10.
- Lowest starter price
- Calendly$10/seat/mo for the Standard (billed yearly) plan.
- Highest overall score
- Cal.com8.3/10 (Excellent). 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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