Acuity Scheduling alternatives in 2026

Q: Is Calendly free to sign up for?

Signing up for Calendly requires no credit card. That is true of the sign-up step itself; the page does not say whether a paid plan is needed later. Check what the Teams plan with Notetaker and Callie added at $16 per seat per month covers.

Five tools for online appointment booking compared by the facts, with a price table and things to check before you choose.

By Uncommon Comforts · 2026-10-30

Uncommon Comforts is published by the team behind Connections, whose products are compared here alongside other tools.

People look past Acuity Scheduling to weigh how each tool handles booking pages, calendars, and payments. This page compares Calendly, Cal.com, SavvyCal, and Connections Booking by the facts, with plan prices in a table and five questions to check before choosing.

Option	Plan price	Card processing fee
Acuity Scheduling	Starter listed at $16 a month and $20 a month ^[1]; Standard listed at $27 a month and $34 a month ^[1]	not published
Calendly	Teams with Notetaker and Callie added, $16 per seat per month ^[2]; yearly billing saves up to 20% ^[2]	not published
Cal.com	Free plan ^[3]; Teams $16 per user per month ^[3]; Organizations $37 per user per month ^[3]; Enterprise custom pricing ^[3]	not published
SavvyCal	not published	not published
Connections Booking	Free at $0 ^[4]; Pro $39.99 a month ^[4]; Business $99.99 a month ^[4]	not published

Why people who run things look past Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling is a booking tool with over 250,000 businesses using it. ^[5] Businesses set up a branded booking page where clients self-schedule appointments. ^[5] It collects client info with custom intake forms, prevents double-bookings with calendar sync, and sends timely notifications. ^[5] Businesses can offer packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, add-ons, and coupons. ^[5] It accepts payments and tracks bookings and revenue in one place. ^[5] A Starter plan is listed at $16 a month and $20 a month. ^[1] A Standard plan is listed at $27 a month and $34 a month. ^[1]

People who run things look past Acuity for reasons tied to their own setup. Some want a lighter single-person plan, some want booking that lives inside the website they already run, and some want a tool that leans on the calendar they already keep. The options on this page each handle booking differently, and the facts below say what each one does. Where the facts are silent, the page says what to check before choosing.

Calendly: scheduling for people who book meetings often

Signing up needs no credit card. ^[6] It connects calendars, sets hours, and controls exactly when you are available. ^[6] Calendly can be used with your favorite AI tool, LinkedIn, or over 150 other integrations. ^[6] It offers Callie, a 24/7 AI scheduling assistant, ^[6] and Notetaker, which produces shareable recaps for every meeting. ^[6] Built-in payment tools let you charge upfront for meetings, sell packages, and send invoices, with a $150 deposit shown in its example. ^[6]^[6] Automated email and text workflows aim to reduce no-shows. ^[6] The Teams plan with Notetaker and Callie added costs $16 per seat per month. ^[2]

Cal.com: scheduling built to connect to other tools

Cal.com says over a million people use its scheduling app. ^[3] The free plan includes unlimited event types, calendar syncing, workflow automation, Stripe payments, and Cal Video. ^[3] The Teams tier adds round-robin scheduling, shared availability, and team workflows at $16 per user per month. ^[3] The Organizations tier adds org-wide admin controls at $37 per user per month. ^[3] Enterprise offers custom pricing with priority support and higher service levels. ^[3] Cal.com provides a public API for building integrations ^[3] and components that add scheduling to an app. ^[3] Payments for bookings run through an integration with Stripe, the card payment company, ^[3] and Cal Video is its own video conferencing platform. ^[3] It supports over 65 languages ^[3] and connects to Slack, Salesforce, and over 100 other tools. ^[3]

SavvyCal: scheduling links tuned for the booker

It offers a risk-free trial, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. ^[7]^[7] Recipients can overlay their own calendar on a scheduling link to spot ideal times at a glance. ^[7] Links can sit on your own custom domain. ^[7] You can adjust the colors, banner image, and avatar that appear on your links. ^[7] Buffers and limits cap the quantity per day, week, and month. ^[7] Round robin mode distributes meetings across a pool of organizers. ^[7] Collective mode combines availability of multiple colleagues, ^[7] and group mode lets multiple schedulers join the same time slot. ^[7] You can budget time using calendar events and let scheduling honor those preferences. ^[7]

Connections Booking: a booking tool inside the Connections suite

Connections Booking is made by the team that publishes this site. Clients open your booking link and pick a time without logging in. ^[4] Each booking can get its own Google Meet link. ^[4] Booking uses Google Calendar busy times and writes events to it, and overlapping bookings are refused at the database. ^[4]^[4] Hosts can list dates that are closed or open only for set hours, and set a cancel notice, a daily cap, and buffers before and after each booking. ^[4]^[4] A booking type can carry a price. ^[4] Hosts can add their own questions to the booking form, ^[4] and clients can pick their own time zone, with slots shown in it. ^[4] The confirmation has an Add to calendar option, ^[4] and the booking page can be embedded on a website. ^[4] A client can give a reason when cancelling, and the host's cancellation email shows it. ^[4] Hosts can reschedule, cancel, or mark a no-show from the booking. ^[4] Connections Free costs $0 and stops a feature rather than billing you, ^[4] while Connections Pro, the first paid plan, costs $39.99 a month and adds premium features across every Connections product, ^[4] and Connections Business costs $99.99 a month with higher limits. ^[4]

How to pick the right Acuity Scheduling alternative

Start with how you already run appointments. If your time lives on Google Calendar and you want booking that refuses overlaps and carries only a Google Meet link, Connections Booking leans on that setup. ^[4]^[4]^[4]

If meetings come up often and you want an assistant plus automation reach, Calendly offers AI scheduling help, recaps, and over 150 integrations. ^[6]^[6]^[6]

If you build or connect software and care about what you can extend, Cal.com offers a public API, scheduling components for apps, and Stripe payments for bookings. ^[3]^[3]^[3]

If your clients juggle their own calendars and you want to control how many bookings land, SavvyCal lets recipients overlay their own calendar, caps quantity per day and month, and offers group mode. ^[7]^[7]^[7]

Then weigh price structure. Plan seats, per-user pricing, and free tiers differ across these tools, and the table below lays each one out. When a fee is not stated in the source, the cell says not published, so compare what your own plan would actually cost.

Frequently asked questions

Is Calendly free to sign up for?

Signing up for Calendly requires no credit card. ^[6] That is true of the sign-up step itself; the page does not say whether a paid plan is needed later. Check what the Teams plan with Notetaker and Callie added at $16 per seat per month covers. ^[2]

Can Cal.com handle payments for bookings?

Cal.com can take payments for bookings through an integration with Stripe, the card payment company. ^[3] Stripe is a separate business you connect for card payments. The free plan already includes Stripe payments. ^[3] Before relying on it, confirm which plan you need, since Teams and Organizations add per-user monthly costs. ^[3]^[3]

Does SavvyCal let clients see availability with their own calendar?

Yes. SavvyCal lets recipients overlay their own calendar on top of your scheduling link, so they can spot ideal times at a glance before they book. ^[7] SavvyCal also offers round robin, collective, and group modes for wider teams. ^[7]^[7]^[7] The source does not publish a plan price, so check current pricing before you decide.

Do these tools prevent double-bookings?

Acuity Scheduling says its calendar sync prevents double-bookings. ^[5] Connections Booking refuses overlapping bookings at the database and uses Google Calendar busy times. ^[4]^[4] Calendly lets you connect calendars, set your hours, and control exactly when you are available to meet. ^[6] Cal.com's free plan includes calendar syncing. ^[3] For those two, check how overlapping requests are handled before choosing. SavvyCal caps quantity per day, week, and month, ^[7] which manages volume rather than scheduling overlaps.

Which scheduling tools charge by the month per user?

Two of these tools price per person. Calendly's Teams plan with Notetaker and Callie added costs $16 per seat per month. ^[2] Cal.com's Teams tier is $16 per user per month and its Organizations tier is $37 per user per month. ^[3]^[3] Acuity lists plans per month rather than per user, with Starter at $16 and $20 and Standard at $27 and $34. ^[1]^[1] Connections Booking charges a flat $39.99 a month for its first paid plan. ^[4]

Connections Free costs $0, and going over a limit stops the feature rather than billing you. ^[4] Connections Pro, the first paid plan, is $39.99 a month and adds premium features across every Connections product. ^[4]

Try Connections Booking