When most people think of bookable calendar scheduling, they often remember the last ad that the internet sent their way. This might have been a full-scale commercial with actors and a Morgan Freeman voice-over, or it could have been a humble meme.
Typically, however, when people talk about emailing a calendar link, they often have one service in mind: Calendly. Now, this makes sense after Calendly has been around for a bit, and have a strong online presence. However, there are so many more options within the world of calendar scheduling.
There are open-source calendar schedulers and ones built with a single product in mind. There are apps for people who love bright, bold colors, and even Google has started rolling out bookable calendar features for select accounts. The world of calendar scheduling is growing day by day, so let's take this opportunity to explore a few Calendly alternatives.
Cal.com
Cal.com is an open-source scheduling platform that's also GDPR and HIPAA compliant. Cal.com is easy to use, minimalistic, and supports various integrations through their app store. Cal.com is for people who value transparency and like to keep things simple. Cal.com has various enterprise features like round-robin scheduling and also supports white-labeling. Cal.com also has a very generous free plan, which helps to ensure that its platform is accessible to everyone regardless of income.
Pros: Free Plan, Simple sign-up process, Lots of easy integration options, Open-Source, Secure and customizable.
Cons: While the product is fully customizable, there are only two themes available out of the box.
SavvyCal
SavvyCal is one of the most cheeky options on the calendar scheduling block. Everything from their bright, poppy colors to their calendar overlay feature tells us that their company wants to do things differently. SavvyCal is great for people who aren't a fan of minimalism and like their calendars bright and bold. Savvycal offers an extremely limited free plan. The free plan lets a person discover all of SavvyCal's different features; however, these features are disabled unless you upgrade to one of their paid plans, so you can't actually use it for appointment setting until they have your credit card.
Pros: Easy to use, Bright & Colorful.
Cons: Closed source, Extremely limited free plan
Google Calendar Appointment Slots & Appointment Scheduler
Google Calendar Appointment Slots is a great feature to take advantage of if you have a Google Work or Education account. You can use it together with the new Google Appointment Scheduler to create and share booking pages, as well as block off time for appointments. Google Calendar Appointment Slots and Google Appointment Scheduler aren't the exact same product but rather versions A and B of what seems to be a work in progress. These two Google Calendar features are great for people who want to stay in the Google ecosystem and already have a paid Gmail account.
Pros: It's part of Google's ecosystem, Free for Google Workspace subscribers
Cons: No free plan, Closed source
Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is a Squarespace company, which means that it integrates perfectly with that specific product. For people who use Squarespace, Acuity Scheduling is often their first choice. It's easy to understand why since the tool is already part of the Squarespace ecosystem and has easy customization options that let users adjust the colors of the calendar and add a custom logo. Acuity Scheduling is specifically for people who don't need a free plan, want to stay within the Squarespace ecosystem, and are comfortable spending $14 to $45 per month.
Pros: Works with Squarespace, Lets users sell gift certificates
Cons: No free plan, Closed source
Hopefully, now you have a better idea of the different types of calendar scheduling products that are available. If you haven't found exactly what you're looking for yet, just remember that as time goes on, more and more products will be developed. After all, the world of online calendar scheduling, remote work, and video conferencing is still in its infancy. The landscape is going to change and grow as new players join the game, and older ones fine-tune their infrastructure. I think it’s safe to say that calendar scheduling products like Cal.com are here to stay, not just due to their convenience, but rather due to their impact. Time saved is gained.
