Calendly is a simple and elegant way to schedule meetings. It is the easiest way to book meetings online without the hassle of back and forth emails, phone calls, and scheduling conflicts.
Best Calendly Alternatives
What Are Calendly Alternatives
Online scheduling tools are pretty much the norm these days. From online event calendars to online appointment booking,
there is really no shortage of options when it comes to using an online appointment scheduling tool as your main method of booking appointments.
But what if you want something more? What if you want to be able to book appointments from your phone? Or even better, what if you want to book them from a website without having to open up a new browser window?
Well, that’s where Calendly comes in! It’s the perfect solution for all these problems and more. Let’s take a look at how Calendly works so you can decide if it’s right for your business!
What is Calendly?
Calendly helps you easily schedule meetings and appointments with your clients, customers, or colleagues.
With Calendly you can:
- Schedule meetings from your own calendar (e.g., Google Calendar)
- Build a library of your existing free/busy timeslots from any source (e.g., Microsoft Outlook).
- Manage automatically generated meeting links for recurring meetings that get updated each time a meeting is scheduled
- Provide multiple options for booking a meeting (e.g., Skype, phone call, etc.)
Calendly Features
Calendly is a calendar scheduling tool that helps you schedule meetings in advance. The app allows you to create an online booking form for any meeting or appointment on your calendar.
Clients fill out the form, and then they receive an email with all of their details, including the meeting time and location.
You can also add custom fields to your booking forms, such as “How did you hear about us?”, “What would you like to talk about?”, and more.
Calendly Features:
- Scheduling Tools: Schedule meetings with clients and collaborators directly from your inbox or desktop calendar.
- Forms: Create customized booking forms for each event with your own branding, colors and logo.
- Automation: Send follow-up reminders through email or SMS text messaging to help attendees confirm their attendance.
Pros
Easy to use interface.
Calendly has a simple interface that makes it easy to set up new events or edit existing ones.
Customizable availability options.
Calendly offers multiple ways for customers to select their availability, including by date range, time frame, or specific days of the week.
Customizable booking options.
Customers can book appointments through email or mobile apps, or directly through the Calendly website without having to leave your site.
Automated scheduling tools.
Calendly includes automated scheduling tools that enable you to set up recurring meetings with no additional work on your part — just change your settings once, and then Calendly will send new meeting requests automatically based on the frequency you choose (e.g., every Monday).
Cons
- It’s not free
- It’s not intuitive
- You can’t cancel a meeting once it’s scheduled
What Are The Best Calendly Alternatives?
Calendly is a great tool for scheduling meetings, but there are some limitations to it. For example, if you want to create an online calendar that can be shared with your clients or customers, you need something else.
Here are the best Calendly alternatives:
1. Doodle
Doodle is one of the most popular online scheduling tools out there. It offers a free version, which allows you to schedule up to 100 events per month.
If you need more than that, the paid plan starts at $34 per month and includes unlimited events.
2. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is one of the most popular online calendars out there, so it seems like an obvious choice for anyone looking for a Calendly alternative. You can use it to schedule appointments with your clients or customers (or even just personal appointments), and then share the link with them so they can access it from anywhere!
3. Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook isn’t necessarily an alternative to Calendly, but it does have some features that make it worth mentioning here — especially if you’re already using Microsoft Office 365 or have a business account with Microsoft Azure Cloud Services.
1. Doodle
Doodle is a free, simple and fun way to plan your day. Doodle is a handy online calendar tool that lets you create your own custom calendar view to share with others.
The app allows you to schedule events, to-dos and reminders, as well as set up recurring events.
It also supports multiple calendars, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange Server accounts. Doodle offers three different views: The daily view shows everything on one page; the weekly view displays events on a seven-day grid; and the monthly view shows all events for the current month on a single page.
You can also see event details by clicking on them from any view or from the calendar bar at the top of each screen.
In addition to creating new calendars, Doodle supports importing existing calendar data from Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange Server accounts (including iCloud calendars).
Best Doodle Features
Doodle is a great tool to use for scheduling meetings, but it has many other features that can help your business. Here are some of the best.
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Doodle Polls
Doodle polls make it easy to gather feedback from co-workers or clients on specific topics. For example, if you’re planning an event and want to know what type of food people prefer, you can create a poll and share it with the group.
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Doodle Invites
You can send invites to people who aren’t already on Doodle in order to invite them to join your project or event. You can also use this feature if you want to add new members or change the status of someone who isn’t participating anymore.
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Doodle Chat
Doodle chat allows users to communicate directly from within their browser window without having to leave the page they’re working on. This makes it easier for teams collaborating on projects (like presentations) and meetings where there are multiple participants involved in the conversation at once.
Doodle is the appointment scheduling software that helps you to book and organize events with colleagues, clients, and teams. You can use Doodle in all kinds of ways to help you organize your calendar and streamline your busy life of meetings.
2. Simplybook.me
Simplybook.me is a cloud-based booking software that allows you to take bookings instantly on your website, social media pages and email. With Simplybook.me you can start accepting bookings in minutes, your clients will be able to book instantly, request changes or cancel their reservations with ease using our simple interface.
The Simplybook.me booking engine can be used on any website and automatically generates an instant quote for your customers without having to call you. You can set prices per day, hour or minute and have multiple price plans available for your customers to choose from.
Simplybook.me offers two different pricing plans: Free and Premium. The free plan allows for unlimited online bookings with no obligation, however premium plans come with many additional features such as unlimited emails, custom branding and more!
Best Simplybook.me Features
– Multiple payment methods – We accept all major credit cards and PayPal. You can also pay using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and others.
– Bookings from anywhere – You can book appointments from anywhere in the world with Simplybook.me services. Our platform is available in several languages including English, Hindi, French and Russian among others.
The tool allows users to send out promotions, set up recurring services, link service providers or select services and customize options for the booking site.
5. Calendar.com
Calendar.com is the place to be for all your calendar, scheduling and time management needs. Our selection of calendars includes wall calendars, desk calendars, family calendars, pet calendar and more.
Some of their most popular products include:
- Family Calendar – With space for each member of the family to enter appointments, activities and birthdays, this calendar will keep everyone on track!
- Pet Calendar – With room for up to six pets’ names and photos, this is a great way to keep track of their daily routines (feeding times, walks) or simply document when they were born!
- Desk Calendar – We have a wide selection of desk calendars that are perfect for home or office use. You’ll find cute designs like pets or flowers as well as inspirational quotes and humorous sayings in many sizes (3 x 3″, 4 x 6″, 5 x 7″ & 13 x 13″)!
Best Calendar.com Features
Customizable Calendars
The main reason to use Calendar.com is because it’s easy to customize the calendar templates to fit your needs. You can also create custom events and reminders, so you’ll never miss an important meeting or appointment again!
Easy Sharing with Others
You can share any event or reminder with other people by simply sending them an email invitation or by inviting them to join you on your private calendar group (which is basically just like a Facebook group). If they’re not already members of your group, they’ll receive an email invitation and will need to accept before they can see anything on your schedule.
Embed Your Calendar in Your Website or Blog
If you have a blog or website, you can easily embed a calendar into it without having to worry about creating a whole new layout from scratch every time you want to post something new on there!
Calendar app is an online calendar and team scheduling software for people like me and you. We make it easy to schedule appointments on your calendar.
4. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is the leading provider of online appointment scheduling software for businesses.
Acuity Scheduling provides a complete solution that integrates seamlessly with your website or CRM system. No more clunky phone trees, confusing voicemail prompts or missing messages! Acuity helps you schedule appointments faster and with less effort, while also improving your customer experience.
With the easy-to-use features, you can:
- Schedule appointments via email or phone
- Track the status of your appointments in real time
- Import your existing customers into Acuity Scheduling so they can book future appointments without ever having to call you (or vice versa)
- Send automated reminders to customers who haven’t booked an appointment yet
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling pricing is based on the number of agents you have and the number of appointments you need to schedule. The more appointments you book, the better your price.
The more agents you have, the less each agent costs. 
There are three pricing plans: Basic, Pro and Enterprise. They offer custom pricing for agencies and large companies that need more than 100 agents or $1 million in bookings per year.
Basic Plan: The Basic plan includes everything you need to get started with Acuity Scheduling, including unlimited agents and users, free online training, no contracts and no setup fees, with no limit on the number of appointments booked.
Pro Plan: Additional features include advanced reporting, customer service metrics, client portal functionality and more. The Pro plan also includes unlimited users and agents (up to 10), plus support for multiple locations and languages for each location.
Enterprise Plan: Enterprise-level customers receive dedicated account management from our team of experts who will work with you to customize a solution based on your specific needs and goals.
Best Acuity Scheduling Features
Roles and Permissions
With Acuity Scheduling’s role-based permissions, you can assign access to specific users based on their roles. For example, if a user is in charge of managing the schedule for a certain location or department, they will have full permissions for that location or department.
Users without permission won’t be able to see those locations or departments in the dashboard. This helps prevent scheduling conflicts by limiting access to only those who need it.
Task Management Features
Task management features help organize your tasks and streamline your workflow. Some tasks may require approval from multiple people before they can be completed.
With task management features, you can assign tasks to specific users and set due dates so that everyone knows what needs to be done and when they need to do it by. You’ll also have access to reports that show how much time has been spent on each task so that you know how much work needs to be done before an event takes place.
Squarespace Scheduling is cloud-based appointment scheduling software that's ideal for individuals and small to midsize businesses. You set your availability and preferences, and clients self-schedule their appointments.
5. Appoint.ly
Pricing
Appoint.ly is a web app that allows you to manage online appointments and meetups. It’s ideal for businesses looking to schedule services, appointments and events using their website.
The Appoint.ly pricing model consists of two plans: Basic and Premium. The Basic plan costs $29 per month while the Premium plan costs $49 per month and comes with additional features like unlimited admins, unlimited organizers, recurring events and more.
Appoint.ly also offers a 14-day free trial so you can try out their service before committing to a subscription plan.
Best Appoint.ly features
Schedule Meetings in Seconds: Appoint.ly allows you to schedule meetings in minutes. You can create new appointments, invite attendees and accept or reject requests with just a few clicks.
Automatically Suggest Times: Appoint.ly will automatically suggest available times based on your schedule, so you don’t have to waste time finding a suitable time slot.
A web-based scheduling software. No back-and-forth emails, no double booking and only a few seconds to schedule an appointment with you.
What’s Your Favorite Calendly Alternative?
I’m a big fan of Calendly. It’s one of those tools that I use all the time. But it’s not for everyone.
And there are plenty of Calendly alternatives out there. I’ve tried a few and here are my favorites:
The best alternative to Calendly is Appointy, which is also free. You can schedule meetings, events, calls and even classes in Appointy.
It works great on desktop and mobile devices — and it has an easy-to-use interface.
If you want something similar to Calendly but more powerful, check out Doodle.
Doodle has all the features of Calendly plus some additional features like reminder emails and more options for booking times (e.g., “anytime between 9am and 5pm on Friday works best”).
If you want something similar to Doodle but simpler, check out ScheduleOnce.
