Appointment booking Last updated: October 25, 2026

Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling vs SimplyBook.me in 2026 (Compared)

Written by Saritel Abbaszade Senior Content Writer

Reviewed by Natella Zadeh Head of Marketing

Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling vs SimplyBook.me in 2026 (Compared)

Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and SimplyBook.me get compared a lot, yet they are built for different jobs. Calendly is a booking link for meetings. Acuity Scheduling is an appointment system for service businesses that sell packages and memberships. SimplyBook.me is a hosted booking website with a monthly booking quota and a long list of optional features.

This comparison uses the plans and prices on the three vendors' own pricing pages as of October 2026, their help centres and public reviews. It also covers Booknetic, which does the Acuity and SimplyBook.me job inside a WordPress site for a flat licence, with facts from our own install.

Short answer. Pick Calendly when people book calls with you or your team and you want the widest set of integrations. Pick Acuity Scheduling when you sell services, packages or memberships and need intake forms and text reminders. Pick SimplyBook.me when you want a hosted booking website with many add-on features and can live with a monthly booking quota. If your business already runs on WordPress, Booknetic gives you the Acuity-style booking flow on your own site for one yearly price instead of a monthly fee per user. The Booknetic section below shows where it fits.

The tools at a glance

Tool	Best for	Free plan	Paid from (as shown)	Staff or calendars	Billing model
Calendly	Meeting booking links for sales, recruiting and consultants	Yes: one event type, one calendar, meeting polls	$10 per seat per month billed yearly, $12 monthly	Priced per seat; six calendars per seat from Standard	Per seat, monthly or yearly
Acuity Scheduling	Service businesses: salons, coaches, clinics, studios	No, 7-day trial	$16 per month billed yearly, $20 monthly	1, 6 or 36 calendars by plan	Per account, monthly or yearly
SimplyBook.me	Hosted booking websites with many optional features	Yes: 50 bookings a month, one provider	€11.9 per month billed yearly	5, 15 or 30 providers by plan, plus a booking quota	Per account, monthly or yearly
Booknetic	Appointment booking on your own WordPress site	Yes: free version with limits	$45 per year on Basic ($89 regular); lifetime from $99	Unlimited staff and bookings, licensed per site	Per site, yearly or lifetime

Calendly: booking links for meetings

Calendly is built around a link. You connect a calendar, set your availability, share the link, and the other person picks a slot that lands on both calendars. The Free plan covers one event type and one calendar with unlimited one-on-one meetings and meeting polls. Standard adds unlimited event types, six calendars, reminders, HubSpot and Mailchimp, and payments through Stripe and PayPal. Teams adds round robin, lead routing and Salesforce. Enterprise starts at $15k a year for 50 seats or more.

Free: One event type, one calendar, unlimited one-on-ones, meeting polls, browser extension
Standard: $10 per seat per month billed yearly, $12 monthly; six calendars, reminders, Stripe and PayPal
Teams: $16 per seat per month billed yearly, $20 monthly; round robin, routing, Salesforce
Enterprise: From $15k a year, 50 seats minimum
Service features: No packages, memberships or gift cards; payments are per booking
Ratings: 4.1/5 on Trustpilot from 714 reviews

Pros and cons for the three SaaS tools come from the vendors' plan pages and public reviews. We did not run paid accounts for this update.

The simplest setup of the three for one person: a link, a calendar and a booking page in minutes.
The widest integration list, with CRM, video and marketing tools on the paid plans.
Round robin and routing on Teams make it the pick for sales and recruiting teams.

Every host needs a paid seat, so a five-person team pays five times.
No packages, memberships, gift certificates or intake forms built for service businesses.
Reviews mention that useful features such as reminders and payments only start on Standard. Agencies also note that Calendly has no partner program for resale; our guide to the Calendly reseller program explains what exists instead.

Acuity Scheduling: appointments, packages and memberships

Acuity Scheduling belongs to Squarespace and targets businesses that sell their time: salons, coaches, clinics, tutors and studios. Every plan includes client self-scheduling, payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo, email reminders, custom client forms, automatic time zone conversion and Google Meet, Zoom and GoToMeeting links. Standard adds six calendars, text reminders, a waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates. Premium adds 36 calendars, an AI booking assistant, a signed BAA for HIPAA, a hidden Acuity logo and custom CSS and API access.

Starter: $16 per month billed yearly, $20 monthly; one calendar
Standard: $27 per month billed yearly, $34 monthly; six calendars, text reminders, packages and memberships
Premium: $55 per month billed yearly, $69 monthly; 36 calendars, HIPAA BAA, hidden logo, API
Free plan: None; 7-day trial without a card, yearly billing saves 20%
Mobile app: Admin app on every plan
Ratings: 3.6/5 on Trustpilot from 687 reviews

Built for selling services: packages, memberships, gift certificates and deposits are native, not add-ons.
One price covers up to 6 or 36 calendars, so a small team does not pay per person.
Intake forms and HIPAA BAA on Premium suit clinics and wellness practices.

No free plan; the cheapest plan covers one calendar and has no text reminders.
Reviews on Trustpilot sit at 3.6 and mention support response times and billing after the trial.
It hosts your booking page on Acuity's domain; you embed it rather than own it. If you want the data on your own site, see our Acuity Scheduling alternatives, and for a US salon comparison, Acuity vs Square Appointments.

SimplyBook.me: a hosted booking website with a booking quota

SimplyBook.me gives you a booking website, a widget, an admin app and a WordPress widget on every plan, including Free. The twist is the quota. Each plan includes a number of bookings a month, a number of providers and a number of "custom features". You switch those on from a long catalogue: payments, deposits, tips, POS, client app, HIPAA, SAML SSO, accounting integrations and more. Prices on the pricing page are shown in euros with yearly billing; monthly billing is about 17% more.

Free: €0; 50 bookings a month, one provider, one custom feature
Basic: €11.9 per month billed yearly; 100 bookings, five providers, three custom features, payments and client app
Standard: €24.9 per month billed yearly; 500 bookings, 15 providers, eight custom features, HIPAA and SAML SSO
Premium: €49.9 per month billed yearly; 2,000 bookings, 30 providers, unlimited custom features, white-label footer
Billing: Yearly saves 17%; 14-day trial of premium features; Enterprise on request
Ratings: 4.5/5 on Trustpilot from 802 reviews

A real free plan with a booking website, widget and admin app, not just a trial.
The feature catalogue is the longest of the three, from POS and tips to HIPAA and SSO.
The best Trustpilot score of the three SaaS tools, with 24/5 live chat support advertised on the pricing page.

Booking quotas: a busy salon on Basic hits 100 bookings a month quickly and has to upgrade.
Custom feature slots are counted, so Basic lets you switch on only three of the catalogue.
Reviews mention that the price climbs once you add features and providers. Our SimplyBook.me alternatives for WordPress roundup compares plugin options without quotas.

Booknetic: the same booking flow on your own WordPress site

Acuity and SimplyBook.me charge a monthly fee for a booking page they host. Booknetic takes the other route. It is a WordPress plugin, so the booking page, the customer data and the payments live on your own site. The licence is a flat yearly or lifetime price per site rather than a fee per seat or a quota per booking. The widget walks customers through location, staff, service, optional extras, date and time, their details, a cart with the price and a coupon field, and confirmation.

The feature list matches what people buy Acuity for. It covers recurring appointments, packages and waiting lists, gift cards, ratings and reviews, coupons and conditional pricing. It also has custom forms and a customer panel, invoices and taxes, multiple locations and user roles. Reminders and follow-ups run through a workflow engine by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram. Google Calendar sync, Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams links and webhooks for Zapier are on the plan list too.

Type: WordPress plugin; customers book on your own domain
Free version: Yes, from booknetic.com, with limits and a branding bar
Yearly plans: Basic $45 ($89 regular), Standard $99 ($199), Premium $149 ($399), Elite $299 ($599)
Lifetime plans: Basic $99 ($199 regular), Standard $239 ($399), Premium $599 ($799), Elite $699 ($1,599)
Payments: Local payment on Basic; Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce from Standard; all 10 gateways on Elite
Reminders: Workflow automation by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram on every plan
Guarantee: 14-day money-back guarantee

Booknetic was installed and booked end to end for our WordPress plugin roundup, so these points come from a real install.

One flat price per site. A salon with five staff pays $99 a year on Standard ($199 regular) instead of five Calendly seats or an Acuity tier.
No booking quota and no per-staff pricing, which is where SimplyBook.me and Calendly bills grow.
Packages, waiting lists, gift cards, deposits, coupons and custom forms are in the plan list rather than paid add-ons.
The data stays on your WordPress site, and the booking page uses your domain and theme.

You need a WordPress site and a host; there is no hosted sign-up like Acuity's.
Basic covers local payment and one domain, and the mobile app starts on Standard.
Updates and backups are your job, as with any plugin.

Best for: salons, clinics, studios, coaches and agencies that already run a WordPress site and want the Acuity-style booking flow without a monthly fee per user. See the Booknetic pricing page for the full plan matrix and the free version.

Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling: head to head

This is the pair most people are really choosing between. The table uses yearly billing as shown on both pricing pages.

Point	Calendly	Acuity Scheduling
Model	Booking link per host, priced per seat	Booking page per business, priced by calendars
Free plan	Yes, one event type and one calendar	No, 7-day trial
Entry price	$10 per seat per month on Standard	$16 per month on Starter
Calendars	One on Free, six per seat from Standard	1, 6 or 36 by plan
Payments	Stripe and PayPal from Standard	Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo on every plan
Packages and memberships	No	Yes from Standard, plus gift certificates
Text reminders	Yes from Standard	Yes from Standard
Team routing	Round robin and routing on Teams	No routing; calendars per staff member
HIPAA	Enterprise	BAA on Premium
Branding	Remove Calendly branding on paid plans	Hide Acuity logo on Premium

Verdict. Calendly wins for meetings: calls, demos, interviews and anything where the other person just needs a slot. Acuity wins for selling services: it takes payment on Starter, sells packages and memberships from Standard and asks intake questions before the appointment. For a team that books meetings, Calendly's per-seat price is fair. For a studio with five staff, Acuity Standard at $27 a month is cheaper than five Calendly seats.

Where SimplyBook.me fits

SimplyBook.me sits closer to Acuity than to Calendly: it is a booking website for service businesses, with providers, services, payments and client apps. Two things set it apart. First, the Free plan is usable, with 50 bookings a month and a booking website, which neither Acuity nor Calendly's Free plan offers in that form. Second, the quota model: bookings, providers and custom features are counted per plan, so the price depends on how busy you are, not only on how many staff you have.

Verdict. SimplyBook.me is the pick for a small business that wants a free start and a long menu of features, especially in Europe where the pricing page quotes euros. Once you pass 100 bookings a month or need more than three custom features, compare its Standard plan at €24.9 with Acuity Standard at $27 and with a flat WordPress licence such as Booknetic.

What a team of five pays

Prices below are yearly totals from the pricing pages read in October 2026, for one person and for a five-person team with payments and reminders.

Tool	One person, per year	Team of five, per year	Notes
Calendly	$120 on Standard	$600 on Standard, $960 on Teams	Per seat; routing needs Teams
Acuity Scheduling	$192 on Starter	$324 on Standard (six calendars)	Text reminders and packages from Standard
SimplyBook.me	€143 on Basic	€143 on Basic (five providers) or €299 on Standard	Basic allows 100 bookings a month, Standard 500
Booknetic	$45 on Basic ($89 regular)	$99 on Standard ($199 regular), or $239 once for lifetime	Unlimited staff and bookings on one site

The gap is widest for teams. A five-person team spends two to ten times more per year on the SaaS tools than on a flat plugin licence. The SaaS price also keeps rising with seats or bookings.

Acuity Scheduling pricing explained

Because "acuity scheduling pricing" is one of the most searched questions around this comparison, here is the plan list as shown on acuityscheduling.com in October 2026.

Starter: $16 a month billed yearly or $20 monthly. One calendar, payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo, email reminders, custom client forms, time zone conversion.
Standard: $27 a month billed yearly or $34 monthly. Up to six calendars, text reminders, appointment waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates.
Premium: $55 a month billed yearly or $69 monthly. Up to 36 calendars, AI booking assistant, HIPAA BAA, hidden Acuity logo, multiple time zones, custom API and CSS.
Free plan: none. Acuity's FAQ says it does not offer free appointment scheduling at this time, only a 7-day trial without a credit card.
Discounts and fees: yearly billing saves 20%; prices exclude taxes; no setup, cancellation or support fees.
Enterprise: unlimited calendars, account management and extra APIs on request.

Which one should you pick?

Sales calls, demos, interviews: Calendly, Free for one person and Standard for a team.
A salon, clinic or coaching practice that sells packages: Acuity Scheduling Standard.
A free start with a hosted booking website: SimplyBook.me Free, then Basic.
HIPAA with a signed BAA: Acuity Premium, SimplyBook.me Standard or Calendly Enterprise.
A business that already runs on WordPress: Booknetic, with the booking flow on your own domain and one yearly price for unlimited staff.
Agencies setting up booking for clients: Booknetic Premium or Elite with multiple domains, since none of the three SaaS tools has a reseller plan.

How these tools were checked

Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and SimplyBook.me plans and prices were read on their own pricing pages on 25 October 2026 with both billing toggles. The Acuity help answers come from the FAQ on its pricing page. Ratings are from Trustpilot on the same day. The three SaaS tools were not run in paid accounts for this update, so their pros and cons rely on vendor pages and public reviews. Booknetic was installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end for our tested roundup of appointment booking plugins; its prices are from booknetic.com/pricing on the same day. Prices change, so check the vendor before you buy.

FAQ

Is Acuity Scheduling free?

No. Acuity has no free plan. Its pricing page offers a 7-day trial without a credit card, after which you choose Starter, Standard or Premium. Calendly and SimplyBook.me both have free plans.

Calendly vs Acuity: which is better for coaches?

Acuity, in most cases. Coaches sell sessions, packages and memberships and want an intake form before the first call, and Acuity has all of that from Standard. Calendly fits a coach who only needs a free link for discovery calls.

Does Calendly take payments?

Yes, from the Standard plan, through Stripe and PayPal. Acuity takes payments on every plan through Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo, and SimplyBook.me adds payments as a custom feature from Basic.

What does the SimplyBook.me booking quota mean?

Each plan includes a number of bookings a month: 50 on Free, 100 on Basic, 500 on Standard and 2,000 on Premium. Providers and custom features are counted the same way, so a busy business moves up the plans even with the same number of staff.

Which is cheapest for a team of five?

Among the SaaS tools, Acuity Standard at $324 a year (six calendars) beats five Calendly Standard seats at $600 and SimplyBook.me Standard at €299. A flat WordPress licence such as Booknetic Standard at $99 a year ($199 regular) is cheaper than all three and has no seat or booking limit.

Can Booknetic replace Acuity or Calendly?

For a service business on WordPress, yes: customers pick staff, service and time on your site, pay a deposit or the full price, and get reminders by email, SMS or WhatsApp. For a sales team that lives in a CRM and needs round robin routing, Calendly Teams remains the better fit.

Which tool has HIPAA compliance?

Acuity signs a BAA on Premium, SimplyBook.me lists HIPAA as a feature from Standard, and Calendly offers it on Enterprise. Booknetic runs on your own server, so compliance depends on your hosting and setup rather than on a vendor plan.