Calendly vs Acuity vs Cal.com (2026)
Three scheduling tools, three fundamentally different approaches. Calendly optimises for simplicity. Acuity is built for service businesses. Cal.com is open-source and free-first. This page helps you pick the right one fast.
Cal.com's free plan beats Calendly's in almost every dimension. Unlimited event types, unlimited calendar connections, native Stripe payments — all free. The only reasons to pay for Calendly are team features, its integration library, or UI familiarity. Use the calculator below to see the team cost difference before deciding.
- Calendly — Best for simplicity and team scheduling. Free plan (1 event type). Standard $10/user/mo · Teams $16/user/mo (annual). 100+ integrations. 14-day trial of Teams plan for all new signups.
- Acuity — Best for service businesses needing payments, intake forms, packages, and memberships. No free plan — 7-day trial (no credit card). Emerging $16/mo · Growing $27/mo · Powerhouse $49/mo (HIPAA).
- Cal.com — Best free plan and best for open-source/privacy. Free (unlimited everything + Stripe). Teams $15/user/mo · Organizations $37/user/mo (HIPAA + SSO). Self-host for completely free.
| Your Situation | Best Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Need a booking link live in 10 minutes | Calendly | Fastest setup and most polished UI — productive immediately |
| Service business needing payments + intake forms | Acuity | Only tool with packages, memberships, conditional intake forms, and in-person POS |
| Most generous free plan possible | Cal.com | Unlimited event types, calendars, and bookings — Stripe payments — all free |
| HIPAA compliance for healthcare providers | Acuity Powerhouse or Cal.com Organizations | Acuity: $49/mo (Powerhouse). Cal.com: $37/user/mo (Organizations) |
| Developer team wanting full data control | Cal.com | Fully open-source, self-hostable, API-first — no other major scheduling tool offers this |
| Sales team needing round-robin + Salesforce | Calendly Teams | Native Salesforce + HubSpot integration + proven round-robin at $16/user/mo |
| Solo user who just needs one booking type free | Calendly Free or Cal.com Free | Calendly: 1 event type free. Cal.com: unlimited event types free — Cal.com wins here |
| Team of 5+ comparing monthly cost | Cal.com Teams | $15/user/mo vs Calendly Teams $16/user/mo — and Cal.com's free plan buys time to evaluate |
Team Cost Calculator
Calendly and Cal.com are per-user tools. Acuity is flat-rate (not per-user) — one price covers your whole team up to a calendar limit. This matters significantly at larger team sizes. Adjust to see the full picture.
Key Stats & Benchmarks (May 2026)
Verified from official pricing pages and product documentation, May 2026.
At a Glance
Most widely used scheduling tool — set up in under 10 minutes, 100+ integrations
- Fastest setup — booking link live in under 10 minutes
- 100+ integrations: Zoom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, PayPal
- Teams plan: round-robin, routing, Salesforce CRM integration
- Most polished UI and booking experience for guests
- Connect up to 6 calendars on Standard plan
- Free plan limited to 1 active event type
- Per-user pricing scales steeply for larger teams
- No payment collection, packages, or intake forms at Acuity's depth
- Old Essentials/Professional plans discontinued — only 4 plans now
Built for service providers — payments, intake forms, packages, memberships, HIPAA
- Intake forms with conditional logic — unique in this comparison
- Payment collection via Stripe, PayPal, Square + in-person POS
- Packages, memberships, subscriptions, and gift certificates (Growing+)
- HIPAA compliance with BAA on Powerhouse plan ($49/mo)
- Flat-rate pricing — one subscription covers all your staff
- No free plan — must pay after 7-day trial
- Interface feels more dated than Calendly or Cal.com
- Longer initial setup than Calendly
- Key features (packages, SMS) require Growing plan ($27/mo) or above
Open-source scheduling with the most generous free plan — self-host for zero cost
- Most generous free plan: unlimited event types, calendars, bookings
- Native Stripe and PayPal payments on the free plan
- Fully open-source — self-host on your own server at zero cost
- Remove Cal.com branding for free (competitors charge $15/user/mo for this)
- Round-robin and routing forms available even on free plan
- Smaller integration library than Calendly (growing but behind)
- Less polished UI than Calendly for non-technical end-users
- Getting full value requires some technical confidence
- HIPAA only on Organizations plan ($37/user/mo) — not Teams
At-a-Glance Scorecard
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Calendly | Acuity | Cal.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | ⚡ 1 event type only | ✗ 7-day trial, no free plan | ✓ Unlimited everything |
| Entry paid (annual) | $10/user/mo (Standard) | $16/mo flat (Emerging) | $15/user/mo (Teams) |
| Pricing model | Per user | ✓ Flat rate — covers all staff | Per user |
| Payment collection | ⚡ Paid plans only | ✓ All paid plans | ✓ Free plan (Stripe/PayPal) |
| Intake forms | ⚡ Basic questions only | ✓ Advanced + conditional logic | ⚡ Basic routing forms |
| Packages / memberships | ✗ No | ✓ Growing plan ($27/mo)+ | ✗ No |
| HIPAA compliance | ✗ No | ⚡ Powerhouse plan ($49/mo) | ⚡ Organizations plan ($37/user/mo) |
| Open source / self-host | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Fully open source |
| Round-robin scheduling | ⚡ Teams plan ($16/user/mo) | ⚡ Limited | ✓ Free plan included |
| Remove branding | ⚡ Paid plans | ⚡ Powerhouse plan | ✓ Free — included always |
| Salesforce integration | ✓ Teams plan | ✗ No | ⚡ Via Zapier/Make |
| Integrations count | ✓ 100+ | ~40 | Growing (100s via Zapier) |
Verified Pricing (May 2026)
All prices verified May 2026 from official pricing pages. Calendly's old Essentials and Professional plans are discontinued for new customers — only Free, Standard, Teams, and Enterprise are available. Acuity pricing is flat-rate (not per-user), making it uniquely cost-effective for service teams with multiple staff members.
| Plan | Calendly | Acuity | Cal.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 1 event type, 1 calendar | ✗ None (7-day trial, no CC) | ✓ Unlimited — best free plan |
| Entry paid | $10/user/mo (Standard, annual) | $16/mo flat (Emerging) | $15/user/mo (Teams) |
| Mid tier | $16/user/mo (Teams) | $27/mo flat (Growing) | $15/user/mo (same) |
| Top tier | Enterprise (custom) | $49/mo flat (Powerhouse) | $37/user/mo (Organizations) |
| HIPAA plan | ✗ Not available | $49/mo (Powerhouse) | $37/user/mo (Organizations) |
| True cost — 5 users (mid tier) | $80/mo (Teams) | $27/mo (Growing — flat) | $75/mo (Teams) |
| True cost — 10 users (mid tier) | $160/mo (Teams) | $27/mo (Growing — flat) | $150/mo (Teams) |
| Pricing model | Per user | Flat rate — covers all staff | Per user |
| Watch out for | Per-user pricing multiplies fast; old plans discontinued | Packages/memberships need Growing ($27) not just Emerging ($16) | HIPAA needs Organizations ($37/user), not Teams ($15) |
The Full Picture
Calendly — The Default Choice, For Good Reason
Calendly is the most widely used scheduling tool because it removes every friction point between setting up and having a booking link live. Connect your Google Calendar or Outlook, set your availability, share a link. Most users are productive in under 10 minutes. The interface is the most polished in this comparison, the booking experience for guests is frictionless, and 100+ integrations mean it fits into almost any existing tech stack — Zoom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, and dozens more.
If you're a freelancer, consultant, sales rep, or recruiter who needs a reliable booking link that works with everything, Calendly is the safe default. The Standard plan at $10/user/month unlocks unlimited event types, up to 6 calendar connections, group and collective events, and automated workflows. Teams at $16/user/month adds round-robin distribution and Salesforce integration — the features sales teams specifically need. One important note for 2026: Calendly discontinued its Essentials and Professional plans for new customers. Only Free, Standard, Teams, and Enterprise are now available — so if you see references to those legacy plan names, they no longer apply to new signups.
Best when: you need the fastest setup, most integration options, or a proven enterprise-grade tool. Not ideal when: you run a service business needing payments and intake forms at Acuity's depth, or budget is tight and Cal.com's free plan covers your needs.
Acuity — Built for How Service Businesses Actually Work
Acuity Scheduling (owned by Squarespace since 2019) is not trying to be a simple booking link tool. It's purpose-built for businesses where the booking experience is inseparable from the service delivery — coaches, therapists, wellness practitioners, tutors, salon owners, and anyone who sells time and needs the booking flow to handle payment, intake, and client management in one pass. If you're a coach who needs clients to complete an intake form, agree to terms of service, pay a deposit, and receive a customised confirmation email before their first session, Acuity does all of this out of the box.
The flat-rate pricing model is Acuity's most underappreciated advantage. Unlike Calendly and Cal.com which charge per user, Acuity's plans cover your entire team. A 10-person wellness studio on Acuity Growing pays $27/month — not $100–160/month like per-user competitors. The Growing plan ($27/mo) is the honest recommendation for most service businesses: it adds SMS reminders, bundled packages, memberships with automated billing, gift certificates, and up to 6 bookable calendars. HIPAA compliance requires the Powerhouse plan ($49/mo) and involves signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). The 7-day trial requires no credit card, making it genuinely risk-free to evaluate.
Best when: you run a service business where appointments are tied to revenue and need payments, intake, and client management alongside scheduling. Not ideal when: you just need a simple booking link, or your team is large enough that Acuity's calendar limits become restrictive.
Cal.com — The Most Generous Free Plan in the Category
Cal.com is the only major scheduling tool that is fully open source. You can self-host it on your own infrastructure for complete data control — a genuine advantage for teams with strict privacy requirements, enterprise security policies, or simply a preference to own their own data. But Cal.com's appeal isn't just for developers: the free cloud plan is genuinely the most generous in this comparison. Unlimited event types, unlimited calendar connections, unlimited bookings, native Stripe and PayPal payments, routing forms, and round-robin scheduling — all free, no credit card required, no time limit. Competitors charge $10–16/user/month for features Cal.com includes in its free tier.
Cal.com also removes its own branding from booking pages for free — Calendly charges at least $10/user/month for this, and Acuity locks it behind the $49/month Powerhouse plan. The Teams plan at $15/user/month adds advanced workflows, analytics, and priority support. The Organizations plan at $37/user/month adds HIPAA compliance, SSO, custom email domains, and dedicated support. A common misconception: HIPAA is NOT available on the Teams plan — it requires Organizations. If HIPAA is a requirement, verify you're on the right tier before assuming it's covered. Cal.com's main limitation remains integration breadth — while it connects via Zapier and Make to hundreds of tools, its native integration library is smaller than Calendly's 100+ direct connectors.
Best when: you want the most generous free plan, need self-hosting, or want open-source flexibility. Not ideal when: you need 100+ native integrations, a highly polished UI for non-technical guests, or Acuity's depth of service business features.
⚠️ Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Calendly — legacy plans discontinued
Calendly's Essentials and Professional plans are no longer available for new customers as of 2025. Only Free, Standard ($10/user/mo), Teams ($16/user/mo), and Enterprise exist. Any comparison referencing those old plan names is outdated — verify on the current pricing page.
Acuity — packages need Growing, not Emerging
Packages, memberships, subscriptions, gift certificates, and SMS reminders are on the Growing plan ($27/mo) — not the entry Emerging plan ($16/mo). If those features are why you're choosing Acuity, the correct starting plan is $27/mo, not $16/mo.
Cal.com — HIPAA needs Organizations, not Teams
HIPAA compliance is only available on the Organizations plan ($37/user/month), not the Teams plan ($15/user/month). Healthcare providers who need a BAA must be on Organizations — don't assume Teams covers this.
Calendly — per-user pricing multiplies fast
A 10-person team on Calendly Standard pays $100/month. On Teams, $160/month. Acuity Growing covers 10 staff for $27/month flat. If your team is large and doesn't need Calendly's specific integrations, the cost difference is significant.
Acuity — Powerhouse branding removal, not lower plans
Removing the "Powered by Acuity Scheduling" footer from your booking page requires the Powerhouse plan ($49/mo). Emerging and Growing plans show Acuity branding. Cal.com removes its branding for free on all plans.
All three — annual billing for advertised prices
Calendly Standard is $10/user/mo on annual billing but $12/mo on monthly. Cal.com Teams is $15/user/mo annually. Always confirm whether you're comparing annual or monthly rates — the difference is 15–20% across all three tools.
Best Tool by Use Case
Who Should Use Each Tool?
🟢 Choose Calendly if...
- You need to be live in under 10 minutes with no friction
- You rely on Salesforce, HubSpot, or 100+ specific integrations
- You're a sales team needing round-robin + CRM sync on Teams
- Your guests are non-technical and need the most polished booking UI
- Phone/email support matters and you want a proven enterprise tool
🟡 Choose Acuity if...
- You run a service business where bookings are tied directly to revenue
- You need conditional intake forms, upfront payments, or deposits
- You sell packages, memberships, or gift certificates alongside appointments
- HIPAA compliance is required (Powerhouse plan)
- Your team has multiple staff and flat-rate pricing saves money
🟣 Choose Cal.com if...
- You want the most generous free plan — unlimited everything
- Data ownership or open-source matters to your team
- You want to self-host on your own infrastructure
- You're a developer or technically capable team
- You want Stripe payments and round-robin without paying anything
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Calendly have a free plan?
Does Acuity Scheduling have a free plan?
What is Cal.com and is it really free?
Which scheduling tool is best for a coaching or therapy practice?
Can Cal.com replace Calendly for a small team?
Is Acuity's pricing really flat-rate?
Ready to Try These Scheduling Tools?
Cal.com and Calendly are free to start. Acuity offers a 7-day trial with no credit card required.