# Calendly vs Acuity: meeting links or appointment software?

> Calendly and Acuity Scheduling are the two schedulers most people compare, and they are built for different jobs. Calendly is a meeting link: a free plan for one event type, per-seat paid plans, routing and round robin for teams. Acuity is appointment software for service businesses: calendars per staff member or location, classes, packages, deposits and a waitlist, with no free plan. Both are compared here from their own pricing pages, read on 2026-11-14, with Vonza shown as a third option for people who also sell courses or a community.

Vendor figures read on 2026-11-14 from each vendor’s own pages. [Compare more platforms](https://vonza.net/compare).

## Calendly or Acuity: the short answer

Calendly for meetings, Acuity for appointments, Vonza when the booking is part of a bigger business.

### Choose Calendly if

- You book meetings rather than services: one-on-one calls, group or collective meetings, meeting polls and one-off links.
- You want a free plan to start: one event type and one calendar connection cost nothing.
- Your team qualifies and routes leads before they see a calendar, and your bookings must land in Salesforce, HubSpot or Marketo.
- You pay per seat and want Standard at $12 a seat a month, or $10 billed annually.

### Choose Acuity if

- You run a salon, studio, clinic or multi-location business with a calendar per staff member or location.
- You sell classes, packages, subscriptions, memberships and gift certificates from the scheduler, with deposits through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo.
- You need a waitlist for full times, intake forms, terms accepted at booking, or a HIPAA agreement on Powerhouse.
- Your site is on Squarespace and you want Reserve with Google, QuickBooks or Mailchimp connected.

### A third option: Vonza

- The new Vonza Scheduling offers six meeting types, 137 templates, nine price kinds including deposits and session packs, round robin and meeting polls.
- Every booker becomes a CRM contact, and a booking can enrol them in a course, tag them or start an email or text sequence.
- Scheduling is included in every Vonza plan beside courses, community, email, SMS, funnels, invoicing and a store, with a 14-day free trial.

## Calendly vs Acuity pricing

Each vendor’s figures as its own pricing page stated them on 2026-11-14. Vonza’s price is its live price today.

| Pricing | Calendly | Acuity Scheduling | Vonza |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Lowest monthly price | $12 per seat a month (Standard); a free plan | $20 a month (Emerging, one calendar); no free plan | See vonza.com/pricing |
| Higher plans | Teams $20 per seat a month; Standard Plus $18 per seat billed annually; Teams Plus $32 per seat; Enterprise from $15k a year for 50 seats | Growing $34 a month (up to 6 calendars); Powerhouse $69 a month (up to 36 calendars, HIPAA agreement) | Higher plans and their live prices are on the pricing page |
| Annual billing | Standard $10 and Teams $16 per seat a month billed annually; Teams Plus $24 | Emerging $16, Growing $27 and Powerhouse $55 a month billed annually | Pay monthly, or save up to 30% with annual billing. |
| Transaction fee | Not published on Calendly’s pricing or payments page; payments through Stripe and PayPal | Not published on Acuity’s pricing page; payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo | Your payment provider’s own processing fee, plus a Vonza platform fee per transaction that depends on your plan (see the pricing page). |
| Free trial | A free plan: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one meetings | No free plan; a 7-day trial of any plan with no card | Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial. |
| Priced by | Seat: every user who connects a calendar and hosts meetings | Calendar: one, six or 36 staff or location calendars | Plan: hosts are your staff members with Scheduling turned on |

Sources: [calendly.com](https://calendly.com/pricing) (calendly.com/pricing, /payments and /integration/zoom, read on 2026-11-14); [acuityscheduling.com](https://www.acuityscheduling.com/pricing) (acuityscheduling.com/pricing, /features and /integrations, read on 2026-11-14). A copy of each page as read is kept so the figures can be checked. Vonza’s price is its live price on the day you read this page.

## Calendly, Acuity and Vonza feature by feature

Calendly’s and Acuity’s columns quote their own pages as read on 2026-11-14. “Not listed” means the page did not mention it, not that the tool lacks it. Vonza’s column is the new Vonza Scheduling, which you opt into beside the classic scheduler.

| Area | Calendly | Acuity Scheduling | Vonza |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Meeting types | One-on-one meetings on the free plan; unlimited event types from Standard; group, collective and other shared formats; meeting polls and one-off meetings; round robin on Teams | One-to-one services and group classes, workshops and events; appointment packages, subscriptions and memberships sold from the scheduler | Six: one-on-one, group sessions with a seat count, round robin, collective, one-off links and meeting polls; 137 templates in 15 categories, or a page drafted by Vonza AI from one line (uses AI credits) |
| Booking page | A customizable booking page; embed on your website with custom colours; Calendly branding removed on a paid plan (which plan is not stated); a mobile app and browser extension | A scheduling page shared as a link or QR code and embedded on your Squarespace or other website; intake forms; terms and cancellation policies accepted at booking; the “Powered by” footer removed on a paid plan (which plan is not stated) | A /book directory and one page per meeting; up to 30 questions in 13 types including file upload and signature; 88 languages; 16 colour pairs or your brand colour, logo and cover; inline, floating-button or text-link embed; QR code; secret meetings and one-time links |
| Calendars and conflicts | Google, Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Office 365 calendars; one calendar connection on the free plan, six on paid plans; availability and booked meetings kept in sync | Separate calendars per staff member or location: one on Emerging, up to 6 on Growing, up to 36 on Powerhouse; syncs with Google Calendar, iCloud and Outlook; automatic time zone conversion for clients | Google Calendar and Outlook / Microsoft 365: busy times checked and bookings added, each a switch per calendar; Apple iCloud busy times read only; up to 6 calendars checked; bookers get Google, Outlook, Office 365, Exchange and .ics links |
| Availability rules | Rules for when you are available; unlimited meetings with no booking cap; booking on behalf of teammates on team plans | Availability controls, buffers between appointments, blocked personal time, and a Look busy setting that hides some availability | Reusable schedules with date overrides; minimum notice, buffers before and after, a daily cap, a booking window in calendar or business days and a start-time step per meeting; time off with a holiday list; a locked time zone for in-person meetings |
| Payments | Collect payments at booking through Stripe and PayPal from Standard; custom payment links for one-off services, deposits and fees; the fee is not published on the pricing page | Payments and deposits through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo on every plan; packages with payment plans, subscriptions, memberships and gift certificates; the fee is not published | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna through Stripe, PayPal for one-time prices, Paystack in Nigerian naira; nine price kinds per length including deposits and session packs (deposits, instalments and flexible prices on eligible plans); up to 5 add-ons and coupons |
| Reminders and no-shows | Automations & reminders from Standard; Workflows send customizable emails and texts to cut no-shows | Confirmation, reminder and follow-up emails on every plan; text reminders from Growing (check global availability); a waitlist for fully booked times; terms accepted at booking to reduce no-shows | Confirmation, reminder and follow-up emails on by default; reminders by minutes, hours or days before, or at a set time the day before; text reminders from your SMS allowance; approval before a booking is confirmed; a 1 to 5 feedback email after the meeting; mark no-shows and reassign |
| Team scheduling | Round-robin distribution, team scheduling, centrally managed event types and lead qualifying and routing on Teams; every host needs a seat | Calendars per staff member or location, staff permissions, and a different time zone per staff member or location on Powerhouse; round robin is not listed on the pages we read | Each host keeps their own hours and calendar; round robin shares bookings evenly or to the host with the lightest day, with priorities and weights; collective meetings every host attends; a team page listing every host; up to 20 hosts per meeting |
| Integrations and automations | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other video tools; HubSpot, Mailchimp and Zapier; Marketo, Pardot and Salesforce on Teams; Microsoft Dynamics 365 on Enterprise; 100+ integrations stated | Google Meet, Zoom and GoToMeeting; Mailchimp, Squarespace Email Campaigns, QuickBooks, Reserve with Google, Facebook and Instagram booking; 500+ apps through Zapier; an AI Booking Assistant | Vonza Stream, Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams joining links; HubSpot and Mailchimp; signed webhooks to Zapier, Make, n8n or your own server (no native Zapier app); Slack, Discord and Teams channel posts; 16 booking triggers with email, text, tag, list, webhook and course-enrolment steps |
| Analytics | Team scheduling analytics and insights (plan not stated); Google Analytics and Meta Pixel for conversion tracking | Reporting on appointments, no-shows and performance | Booked, completed, rescheduled and cancelled meetings, no-show rate, lead time, busiest hours, where bookers are, revenue and top hosts; Vonza AI explains the period and flags no-show risk per booking (uses AI credits) |
| Courses and CRM | Invoices for project-based work; connections to HubSpot, Salesforce and Dynamics rather than a CRM of its own; courses, community and email marketing are not listed on the pages we read | Client profiles with intake forms, appointment history, packages and gift certificates; courses, community and email marketing are not listed (email goes through Squarespace Email Campaigns or Mailchimp) | Every booker becomes a Vonza CRM contact; a booking can enrol them in a course, tag them or start an email sequence; courses, community, email, SMS, funnels, invoicing and a store in the same plan |
| Pricing | Free; Standard $12 per seat a month; Teams $20 per seat; Enterprise from $15k a year | Emerging $20, Growing $34, Powerhouse $69 a month; $16, $27 and $55 billed annually; no free plan | See vonza.com/pricing |

## Where Calendly is stronger, and where Acuity is

An honest split, from the same pages as the tables.

### Calendly is stronger at

- A free plan, and per-seat prices from $12 a month for a single user.
- Meeting formats: one-on-one, group, collective, meeting polls and one-off links, with round robin and lead routing on Teams.
- Sales and enterprise connections: Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Microsoft Dynamics, SSO and SAML.
- Apps: a mobile app, a browser extension, and a Notetaker that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams on the Plus plans.

### Acuity is stronger at

- Service businesses: a calendar per staff member or location, classes, workshops and events, and a waitlist for full times.
- Selling from the scheduler: deposits, packages with payment plans, subscriptions, memberships and gift certificates through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo on every plan.
- Intake: client intake forms, terms and cancellation policies accepted at booking, and client profiles with appointment history.
- Compliance and sites: a HIPAA business associate agreement on Powerhouse, and a native fit with Squarespace websites and email campaigns.

## A third option: Vonza

If the booking is one step in a business that also sells courses, a community or a programme, a scheduler that lives in that account saves the hand-offs between tools.

- The new Vonza Scheduling offers six meeting types (one-on-one, group, round robin, collective, one-off links and meeting polls), 137 templates in 15 categories, or a booking page drafted by Vonza AI from one line.
- Each meeting length can carry one of nine price kinds, including deposits and session packs, paid by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Klarna through Stripe, PayPal for one-time prices or Paystack in Nigerian naira.
- Every booker becomes a CRM contact; 16 booking triggers can email, text, tag, enrol in a course or call a webhook, and HubSpot and Mailchimp connect natively.
- Scheduling is included in every Vonza plan beside courses, community, email, SMS, funnels, invoicing and a store; every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.

[See Vonza Scheduling](https://vonza.net/appointment-scheduling)

## Calendly vs Acuity: your questions

### Is Calendly or Acuity better?

Calendly is better for meetings: one-on-one calls, group and collective meetings, meeting polls, and routing and round robin for sales teams, with a free plan to start. Acuity is better for appointments at a service business: calendars per staff member or location, classes, packages, deposits, intake forms and a waitlist. Pick by what you book, then by how you want to pay, per seat with Calendly or per calendar with Acuity.

### Is Calendly or Acuity cheaper?

For one person, Calendly: its free plan covers one event type, and Standard was $12 per seat a month billed monthly, or $10 billed annually, when we read its page on 2026-11-14. Acuity has no free plan; Emerging was $20 a month, or $16 billed annually, for one calendar. For a team the units differ: Calendly charges per seat (Teams $20, or $16 annually), Acuity per calendar (Growing $34 for up to six, Powerhouse $69 for up to 36), so count your hosts before comparing.

### Does Acuity have a free plan?

No. Acuity’s pricing page says it “doesn’t offer free appointment scheduling at this time” and offers a 7-day trial of any plan with no card. Calendly’s free plan includes one event type, one calendar connection and one-on-one meetings. Vonza has no permanent free plan either; scheduling is included in every Vonza plan, with a 14-day free trial.

### Which one takes payments and deposits?

Both, on paid plans. Acuity lists payments and deposits through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo on every plan, plus packages with payment plans, subscriptions, memberships and gift certificates. Calendly lists payments at booking through Stripe and PayPal from Standard, and payment links for deposits and one-off fees. Neither publishes a fee of its own on the pages we read. The new Vonza Scheduling takes deposits, session packs and subscriptions per meeting length through Stripe, PayPal or Paystack, with deposits on eligible plans.

### Which one handles classes and group bookings?

Acuity is built for them: its pricing and features pages list class scheduling for groups, workshops and events, with packages and memberships to sell them. Calendly lists group and collective meeting types, which suit a webinar-style call rather than a class with a seat count. Vonza’s group sessions set the spots per time, show spots left, and can be sold as a session pack.

### Does Acuity do round robin like Calendly?

Round robin is not listed on the Acuity pages we read; Acuity shares work by giving each staff member or location its own calendar. Calendly lists round-robin distribution and team scheduling on its Teams plan. The new Vonza Scheduling shares bookings evenly or to the host with the lightest day, with a priority and share weight per host.

### Which one sends text reminders?

Acuity lists email reminders on every plan and text reminders from Growing, with a note to check global availability. Calendly lists Workflows that send customizable emails and texts from Standard. Vonza sends confirmation, reminder and follow-up emails on every meeting, and text reminders from your SMS allowance once you switch them on.

### Can I embed Calendly or Acuity on my website?

Yes, both. Calendly embeds on your website with custom colours and removes its branding on a paid plan. Acuity embeds on a Squarespace or other site, shares as a link or QR code, and hides its “Powered by” footer on a paid plan. On both, which plan removes the branding is shown as an icon rather than a plan name on the pricing page. Vonza embeds inline, as a floating button or as a text link, and shares a QR code.

## Or try the third option

Vonza Scheduling is included in every Vonza plan beside courses, community, email and a CRM, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.

## Related pages

- [Calendly alternatives](https://vonza.net/compare/calendly-alternatives): Vonza and other platforms beside Calendly, with its dated prices and free-plan limits.
- [Acuity Scheduling alternatives](https://vonza.net/compare/acuity-scheduling-alternatives): Vonza beside Acuity, with its per-calendar prices and when to stay.
- [Vonza vs Calendly](https://vonza.net/compare/vonza-vs-calendly): Vonza and Calendly side by side, area by area.
- [Vonza Scheduling](https://vonza.net/appointment-scheduling): Six meeting types, 137 templates, payments, reminders and automations.
- [Best appointment scheduling software](https://vonza.net/best/appointment-scheduling-software): Twelve scheduling tools compared from their own pricing pages.
- [Compare Vonza](https://vonza.net/compare): One page per competitor: dated prices, capabilities, when to switch or stay.