Scheduling and booking software · Comparison
Acuity Scheduling vs Cal.com vs Zoho Bookings
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 | 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 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. | 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 | 8.3Best | 7.0 |
| Free option | 7-day free trial | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | –Not measured | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $16/mo | $12/user/mo | $6/user/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 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 (unlimited event types and calendars, payments); 14-day trial of Teams and Organizations | 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 | $36/mo on Teams ($12 × 3), computed | $18/mo on Basic ($6 × 3), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $34 on Standard ($20 / $34 / $69 for the three plans) | $16 per user on Teams ($37 Organizations) | $8 per user on Basic ($12 Premium) |
| Round robin from | Standard ($27 a month billed annually), with two or more calendars | Teams ($12 per user, billed yearly) | Basic ($6 per user, 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 | Payments and SMS through your own provider on Premium ($9) |
| 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 for Zoho cloud services |
| HIPAA BAA | Premium ($55), signed in the app | $300/mo below 15 Organizations users; included from 15 users and on Enterprise | BAA template on request from Zoho legal; HIPAA data masking on Premium |
| EU data hosting | Not offered; Squarespace stores data in US data centers | Cal.eu for Enterprise, at least 50 users, by waitlist | EU data centers (Amsterdam, Dublin), chosen by sign-up country |
| SSO | Not listed | SAML and SCIM on Organizations ($28 per user, billed yearly) | SAML SSO stated in a buyer’s guide; plan not named |
| 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; 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, 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, 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; Cal.com: 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 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 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 Cal.com review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Cal.com when
- You want routing forms, payments, text messages and branding removal on the round-robin plan.
- Pick Zoho Bookings when
- You want the lowest cost for 3 hosts ($18 a month on Basic, billed yearly) and EU hosting chosen at sign-up.
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 Zoho Bookings review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Zoho Bookings when
- You want the lowest cost for 3 hosts ($18 a month on Basic, billed yearly) and EU hosting chosen at sign-up.
- Pick Cal.com when
- You want routing forms, payments, text messages and branding removal on the round-robin plan, and a BAA with a published price.
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
- 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
- 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, Cal.com 2026-10-16, Zoho Bookings 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
- 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
- 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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