Calendly Alternatives: 6 Scheduling Tools Compared for 2026

The best Calendly alternatives compared: Cal.com, Acuity Scheduling, Zoho Bookings, SavvyCal and Google Calendar. Pricing, strengths and who each suits.

Mythex Team · 2026-09-29 · 6 min read

The best Calendly alternatives are Cal.com for a generous free plan and an open-source option, Acuity Scheduling for service businesses that take payments and sell packages, Zoho Bookings for low per-user prices, SavvyCal for team scheduling with a simple two-plan lineup, and Google Calendar appointment schedules if you only need a simple booking page. Calendly itself is still a strong default for sales and team scheduling. Switch when a specific gap is costing you time or money.

All prices below are in US dollars as shown on each vendor's site as of September 2026. Several vendors localise prices, so check the page in your country.

What Calendly offers today

Calendly is the best-known scheduling link tool. As of September 2026:

Free: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling and a customisable booking page.
Standard: $12 per seat per month billed monthly, or $10 billed yearly. Adds unlimited event types, multiple calendars, automations and reminders, HubSpot and Mailchimp connections, and payment collection with Stripe or PayPal.
Teams: $20 per seat per month billed monthly, or $16 billed yearly. Adds round-robin and team scheduling, lead routing, centrally managed event types and Salesforce, Marketo and Pardot connections.
Enterprise: starts at $15,000 a year, with SSO, audit logging and advanced admin controls.

Calendly also offers AI add-ons called Notetaker and Callie, which it says are available only in English for now.

Why people look for Calendly alternatives

The free plan is thin. One event type is enough to try it, not to run a business with several meeting types.
Per-seat cost. Teams pay for every seat, which adds up quickly.
Service-business features. Salons, tutors and clinics often want packages, gift certificates, waitlists and intake forms more than sales routing.
Control over data. Some teams want a tool they can self-host.
The booking flow is part of a bigger app. If scheduling sits inside a client portal or a custom service, a stand-alone link may not fit.

Calendly alternatives at a glance

Tool	Best for	Free plan	Entry paid price (as of Sept 2026)	Standout
Calendly	Sales and team scheduling	1 event type, 1 calendar	$10/seat/mo billed yearly	Routing and CRM connections
Cal.com	Generous free use, open source	1 user, unlimited event types	Teams $12/user/mo billed yearly	Self-hosting option
Acuity Scheduling	Client appointments and payments	No (7-day trial)	$16/mo billed yearly (Starter)	Packages, memberships, gift certificates
Zoho Bookings	Low-cost team booking	1 user	$6/user/mo billed yearly (Basic)	Localised pricing, Zoho apps
SavvyCal	Simple team scheduling	Try before you pay	See pricing page	Team scheduling on the base plan
Google Calendar	One simple booking page	1 booking page	Needs Workspace or Google One premium for more	Built into Google Calendar
Mythex	A custom booking app	10 credits a day	$25/mo (Pro)	Your own rules and data

Cal.com: the generous free plan and open-source option

Cal.com is a scheduling platform with hosted plans and a self-hosted version. Its site links to the code on GitHub, a licence, and self-hosting docs using Docker.

Pricing (as of September 2026): Free for one user, with unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, 100+ app integrations, Stripe and PayPal payments, and HubSpot and Salesforce sync. Teams is $12 per user per month on yearly billing (with a 14-day free trial) and adds round-robin, managed event types, routing forms, branding removal and analytics. Organizations is $28 per user per month on yearly billing, adding SAML SSO, SCIM and compliance features. Enterprise is custom.
Strengths: the most capable free plan in this list; a self-host option if you want your data on your own servers.
Limits: self-hosting means you run and maintain it yourself.
Pick it if you're a solo professional who wants more than Calendly's free plan, or a technical team that wants control.

Acuity Scheduling: for service businesses

Acuity Scheduling is built for client appointments rather than sales calls.

Pricing (as of September 2026): Starter $20 a month billed monthly or $16 billed yearly (1 calendar, payments via Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo, email reminders, custom client forms). Standard $34 or $27 (up to 6 calendars, text reminders, waitlists, memberships, packages and gift certificates). Premium $61 or $49 (up to 36 calendars, an AI booking assistant, HIPAA BAA, custom API and CSS). Each has a 7-day trial with no card needed.
Strengths: the service-business features Calendly doesn't focus on: intake forms, packages, gift certificates, waitlists.
Limits: priced per calendar tier rather than per user, and there's no free plan.
Pick it if you run a salon, studio, practice or tutoring business and want clients to book and pay in one step.

Zoho Bookings: low per-user cost

Zoho Bookings is part of the Zoho suite.

Pricing (as of September 2026): a free plan for one user with customisable booking links and email notifications. Basic is $8 per user per month billed monthly or $6 billed yearly. Premium is $12 or $9, and adds three workspaces, payment integrations, SMS workflows, revenue reports and custom CSS. Zoho shows local-currency prices in many countries.
Strengths: low per-user cost; works well if you already use Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps.
Limits: payments need the Premium plan.
Pick it if you need team booking on a budget.

SavvyCal: straightforward team scheduling

SavvyCal is a scheduling-link tool with a short, per-user plan lineup.

Pricing (as of September 2026): two per-user plans, Basic (unlimited calendars and links, team scheduling) and Premium (adds custom domains, delegation to an assistant and paid bookings). You can try it for free before activating a plan, and SavvyCal offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. The page didn't state a currency when we checked, so see it for current prices.
Strengths: unlimited calendars and links plus team scheduling on the base plan; a money-back guarantee.
Limits: no ongoing free tier.
Pick it if you want team scheduling without paying for a higher tier, and don't need a permanent free plan.

Google Calendar appointment schedules: the simplest option

If you already live in Google Calendar, appointment schedules may be all you need. Google's help centre says you can create them with a personal Google account or a Workspace account.

As of September 2026: a personal account gets one shareable booking page. Multiple booking pages, paid bookings through Stripe, automatic email reminders and email verification of bookers need an eligible Google Workspace plan (such as Business Standard) or a Google One premium plan.
Pick it if you need one booking page and don't want another tool.

Build your own when booking is part of something bigger

Sometimes the booking flow isn't the product, it's one screen inside it: a tutoring business where students also see homework, or a clinic where bookings feed a patient list. In those cases a custom app can fit better than a scheduling link.

Mythex is an AI app builder: you describe the app in chat, an agent writes the code and shows a live preview, and you publish it to a mythex.ai address or, on Pro, your own domain. A first version is usually a services list, a booking request form and an admin list of requests, with requests saved to a Postgres database. The booking page use case walks through it.

Be realistic about what's extra work. Mythex has no built-in calendar sync, email sending or payments: the agent wires up your own providers, such as an email service for confirmations, Stripe for deposits, or the Google Calendar or Calendly API. If you only need a link people click to book time with you, Calendly or Cal.com is faster. Mythex Free is $0 with 10 credits a day; Pro is $25/month. See how to build a booking app and how to build a clinic appointment system for the details.

How to choose

Solo, want free: Cal.com, or Google Calendar if one page is enough.
Sales team with routing and CRM: Calendly Teams, or Cal.com Teams.
Service business taking payments: Acuity Scheduling.
Budget team: Zoho Bookings.
Team scheduling on a base plan: SavvyCal.
Booking inside a custom product: build it. Our guide to build vs buy for small businesses helps you decide, and replacing expensive SaaS with your own tool covers the trade-offs honestly.

How we compared

We compared the publicly stated features and prices on each vendor's own website and help centre as of September 2026. We did not do hands-on testing, and we left out anything we couldn't confirm on the vendor's own pages. Prices are in US dollars as shown on those pages; several vendors show different prices in different countries. Mythex facts come from our product documentation. Check each pricing page before you buy.

Questions

What is the best free alternative to Calendly?

Cal.com's free plan is the most generous of the tools we compared: one user with unlimited event types and calendars. Zoho Bookings also has a free plan for one user, and Google Calendar lets a personal Google account create a single booking page.

Is Cal.com really open source?

Cal.com links to its code on GitHub, publishes a licence, and documents self-hosting with Docker. Most people use its hosted plans, but you can run it yourself if you have the technical skills.

Which Calendly alternative is best for salons, clinics and other service businesses?

Acuity Scheduling is built for client appointments, with payments, intake forms, packages, memberships and gift certificates. Zoho Bookings is a lower-cost option with payments on its Premium plan.

Can I build my own scheduling tool instead?

Yes, for simple cases. A booking request form with a list of upcoming appointments is a small web app you can build with an AI app builder. Full calendar sync, reminders and payments take more work, so a ready-made tool is usually faster if that's all you need.