Calendly lets people pick a time on your calendar without the back-and-forth emails. Its free plan gives you one event type and one calendar. If you need more for free, or a feature Calendly charges for, several tools do the same job in a different way.
All facts below come from each vendor's own pages, in US dollars unless noted, as of October 2026.
What Calendly offers today
Calendly's pricing page lists:
- Free: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling and a booking page you can customize.
- Standard: $10 per seat a month billed yearly, or $12 billed monthly. Unlimited event types, up to 6 calendars, reminders, and payments through Stripe and PayPal.
- Teams: $16 per seat a month billed yearly, or $20 billed monthly. Adds round-robin and team scheduling, and lead routing.
- Enterprise: from $15,000 a year, from 50 seats.
So the usual reason to look elsewhere is the free plan. One event type means you cannot offer, say, a 15-minute intro call and a 60-minute session on the same free account.
The short version
- Cal.com: you want a strong free plan for one person, or you want to host the tool yourself.
- TidyCal: you want paid bookings on a free plan, or a low yearly price.
- Zoho Bookings: you already use Zoho tools, or want a free plan for one user.
- Google Calendar or Microsoft Bookings: you already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
- Acuity Scheduling: you sell appointments, packages or memberships to clients.
Cal.com
Cal.com's pricing page lists a free plan for one person with unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, payments through Stripe and PayPal, and a one-click import of Calendly events. The Teams plan is $12 per user a month billed yearly and adds round-robin scheduling, routing forms and the option to remove Cal.com branding. It has a 14-day free trial. Cal.com also links to a self-hosted version on GitHub.
Suits you if you work alone and want more than Calendly's free plan gives. Less of a fit if you want team features for free, since round-robin and routing start on the Teams plan.
TidyCal
TidyCal's pricing page lists a free plan with unlimited booking types and bookings, paid bookings through Stripe and PayPal, and one calendar to check. On the free plan, TidyCal takes a 1% platform fee on Stripe payments. The Pro plan is $12 a month or $99 a year and removes the fee and the TidyCal branding. At the time of writing, TidyCal also sold one-time lifetime plans through AppSumo.
Suits you if you take paid calls and want to start for free. Less of a fit if you need to check many calendars on the free plan.
Zoho Bookings
Zoho Bookings' pricing page lists a free plan for one user, with online meetings, email reminders and two-way sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft calendars. Paid plans are priced per user and differ by country, so check the page for your price.
Suits you if you already use Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps. Less of a fit if you want a tool you can set up in five minutes with nothing else around it.
Tools you may already have
Google Calendar. With a personal Google account or Google Workspace Business Starter, you can create a single booking page. Google says more features, such as more than one schedule, email reminders and payments, need an eligible Google Workspace or Google One plan (Google's comparison). Workspace Business Standard lists appointment booking pages on its pricing page.
Microsoft Bookings. Microsoft lists Bookings in its Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium plans, in the versions that include Teams (Microsoft's plan comparison).
Zoom. Zoom's free Basic plan includes one personal booking page, and its Business plan includes unlimited booking pages (Zoom pricing).
If you already pay for one of these, try it before you add another tool.
Acuity Scheduling
Acuity is built for businesses that sell appointments, such as salons, coaches and clinics. It has no free plan, but offers a 7-day trial with no card needed. Plans start at $16 a month billed annually, or $20 billed monthly, for one calendar. Higher plans add text reminders, packages, memberships and gift certificates (Acuity pricing). See Calendly vs Acuity for the full comparison.
How to choose
- List the meeting types you offer, with length and price.
- Count the calendars the tool must check for conflicts.
- Decide if you take payment when people book.
- Check what your email and office plan already includes.
- Set up your two most common meeting types in your top choice and send the link to a friend.
A booking link works best with a short note on what the call is for. Ask a few questions on the booking form, then use them on the call. The guide to discovery call questions helps with what to ask. For keeping meetings from taking over your week, see time management for business owners.