By Sebastiaan Smits ·
Published October 8, 2026 · Updated October 8, 2026
Small service businesses look past Acuity Scheduling when calendar count drives the price, when they want a free plan instead of a seven-day trial, or when they want booking tied to a suite they already pay for. Most go to Setmore, SimplyBook.me or Zoho Bookings, or to Cal.com and Calendly for meeting-style scheduling.
Short answer: The closest replacements for Acuity Scheduling in our appointment scheduling software ranking are Setmore, SimplyBook.me and Zoho Bookings. Choose Setmore if you run a small salon or studio and want a free plan for up to four staff. All 11 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Appointment Scheduling Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from Acuity Scheduling and when Acuity Scheduling is still the better choice.
Visibility in our rankings can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review or of this page. How it works: placement disclosure · editorial process.
Acuity's pricing page gives Starter one calendar, Standard up to six and Premium up to 36, at $16, $27 and $49 a month on annual billing. A business adding a second practitioner must move off the entry plan, whatever else it uses.
Text reminders, waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates appear from Standard. Premium adds white-label branding, API and CSS access, an AI booking assistant and a signed BAA for HIPAA. Starter has email reminders only.
Acuity offers a 7-day trial with no credit card, and then a paid plan. Setmore, Zoho Bookings, Cal.com and TidyCal list free plans of their own, so a solo practitioner can compare without paying anything.
Closest replacement first. The last column is our place in the full 12-product ranking.
| # | Alternative | Headquarters | Pricing | Key difference | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Setmore | United States | Per user / month; free plan | Free booking pages and calendars for small service businesses | you run a small salon or studio and want a free plan for up to four staff | #8 |
| 2 |  SimplyBook.me | Cyprus | Flat monthly; free plan | Booking system with add-on features for service businesses | you want a booking site with many optional features and pricing tied to booking volume | #9 |
| 3 |  Zoho Bookings | India | Per user / month; free plan | Appointment booking connected to the Zoho app suite | your customer records already live in Zoho CRM and you want bookings to feed them | #7 |
| 4 |  Cal.com | United States | Per user / month; free plan | Flexible scheduling for individuals and teams | you want an open-source scheduler you can self-host, built around teams and meetings | #2 |
| 5 |  Calendly | United States | Per seat / month; free plan | The best-known booking link for meetings and sales teams | your appointments are mostly meetings with prospects, not services sold to clients | #4 |
| 6 |  SavvyCal | United States | Per user / month; free trial | Scheduling links designed around the invitee's experience | you want a polished scheduling link for meetings and accept per-user pricing with no free tier | #3 |
| 7 |  TidyCal | United States | One-time lifetime + subscription; free plan | Lifetime-license booking pages from AppSumo's parent | you would rather pay once for a lifetime license than monthly for a subscription | #10 |
| 8 |  YouCanBookMe | United Kingdom | Per user / month; free plan | Flexible booking pages on top of your calendar | you want a free booking page on top of your existing calendar, without paying first | #12 |
| 9 |  Microsoft Bookings | United States | Included in suite; none | Booking pages and staff scheduling inside Microsoft 365 | you already pay for Microsoft 365 and want booking inside Outlook and Teams | #5 |
| 10 |  Google Calendar appointment schedules | United States | Included in suite; free plan | Booking pages built into Google Calendar | you already use Google Workspace and need only simple, bookable time slots | #6 |
| 11 |  Chili Piper | United States | Platform subscription; none | Inbound lead routing and scheduling for B2B sales teams | you actually use Acuity to book sales demos and need lead routing across reps | #11 |
Closest in audience: small service businesses. Its free plan covers up to four users with a branded booking page and payments. Pro adds SMS reminders and deposits per user, and removes Setmore branding. A Live Receptionist add-on exists but is limited to the US.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you run a small salon or studio and want a free plan for up to four staff.
Pricing: Free plan for up to four users; Pro from $5 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly). (free plan)
Priced by bookings and providers instead of calendars, with no transaction fees and no per-user charges. The free plan allows 50 bookings and one provider. SMS credits, WhatsApp and AI voice booking are paid add-ons, and the feature count rises with each tier.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you want a booking site with many optional features and pricing tied to booking volume.
Pricing: Free plan with a monthly booking cap; paid tiers from about €12 per month billed annually, with add-on features priced by plan. (free plan)
Full review: #9 of 12 in our ranking · Visit SimplyBook.me →
Part of the Zoho suite. A free plan covers one user, Basic includes one workspace and Premium three. SMS workflows, white labeling and Zoho CRM integration begin on Premium. It makes most sense for teams that already keep customers in Zoho.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if your customer records already live in Zoho CRM and you want bookings to feed them.
Pricing: Free plan for one user; Basic and Premium tiers priced per user, with more than 25% off for annual billing. Zoho One includes Premium. (free plan)
Full review: #7 of 12 in our ranking · Visit Zoho Bookings →
Open-source scheduling with a free individual plan, Teams at $12 per user and Organizations at $28 with SAML SSO and HIPAA compliance. A self-hosted version is on GitHub. It is built for meetings and teams rather than the client intake forms, packages and gift certificates Acuity sells.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you want an open-source scheduler you can self-host, built around teams and meetings.
Pricing: Free for individuals; Teams $12 and Organizations $28 per user per month billed annually, Enterprise custom. The self-hostable Cal.diy community edition is free but drops team features. (free plan)
Built for meetings. The free plan has a single event type, Standard is $10 per seat, and Teams at $16 adds round-robin and lead routing. Only hosts need a seat, since invitees do not. Enterprise starts at $15,000 a year for at least 50 seats.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if your appointments are mostly meetings with prospects, not services sold to clients.
Pricing: Free plan for one event type; paid tiers priced per seat, rising for team, routing and enterprise features. (free plan)
Per-user pricing at $10 for Basic and $17 for Premium, with meeting polls on both. Paid bookings, custom domains and delegated access need Premium. There is a free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no free plan to run on.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you want a polished scheduling link for meetings and accept per-user pricing with no free tier.
Pricing: Basic $10 and Premium $17 per user per month, with two months free on annual billing; Premium adds custom domains and paid bookings. Free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee, no free plan. (free trial)
Offers a free plan with unlimited bookings and paid bookings through Stripe or PayPal, with a 1% platform fee on Stripe. Lifetime licenses at $29 and $79 are one-time purchases, and Pro at $12 a month removes the fee. Lighter than Acuity on intake forms.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you would rather pay once for a lifetime license than monthly for a subscription.
Pricing: Free plan; Individual Lifetime for a one-time $29, Agency Lifetime with round-robin and SMS reminders for $79, or Pro at $12 per month ($99 a year). (free plan)
Free plan with one calendar connection and one booking page. Higher plans raise both limits, add workflows and analytics, and the Team plan adds round-robin. It offers a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its paid prices are not in the page text we fetched.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you want a free booking page on top of your existing calendar, without paying first.
Pricing: Free plan with one calendar connection and one booking page; Individual and Professional plans, and a Team plan priced per member per month. (free plan)
Full review: #12 of 12 in our ranking · Visit YouCanBookMe →
No separate purchase: Microsoft's documentation lists it in Business Basic, Standard and Premium, among other subscriptions. Booking pages tie to Outlook and Teams, with email and SMS notifications, and data stays in Exchange Online. Standalone intake forms, packages and memberships are not described there.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you already pay for Microsoft 365 and want booking inside Outlook and Teams.
Pricing: Included with eligible Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans at no extra charge. (none)
Full review: #5 of 12 in our ranking · Visit Microsoft Bookings →
A feature of Google Calendar, not a product. One booking page is free, while multiple pages, Stripe payments, extra reminders and verified bookings need Business Standard or higher. It handles simple slots well but has no client records, packages or memberships.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you already use Google Workspace and need only simple, bookable time slots.
Pricing: One booking page free with a personal Google account or Workspace Business Starter; more pages, payments, reminders and multi-calendar checks need Business Standard or higher, Workspace Individual or Google One Premium. (free plan)
Full review: #6 of 12 in our ranking · Visit Google Calendar appointment schedules →
A different job: inbound lead qualification, routing and instant meeting booking for sales teams, with CRM integrations and enrichment. It is not built for clinics, salons or tutors who book clients into services, so it only suits a switch from sales scheduling.
Switch from Acuity Scheduling if you actually use Acuity to book sales demos and need lead routing across reps.
Pricing: Platform pricing from about $1,250 per month including a set number of seats; a standalone calendar product with a high seat minimum. (none)
Acuity is the right choice when clients book services that need intake forms, deposits, packages or memberships, and the plan's calendar count fits your staff. A single-location practice that wants HIPAA support or white-label branding on Premium gets a lot from one product.
Acuity stores intake forms, packages, memberships and gift certificates alongside appointments. Most alternatives treat these as simpler or missing features. List which you actually sell before you shortlist, because a free booking page that lacks them only moves the work to a spreadsheet.
Acuity connects to Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo. Check that the new tool supports your processor, and recreate text and email reminder templates by hand. Run both systems briefly, then switch the booking link on your website and social profiles only after test bookings pass.
Acuity documents client and appointment exports in its help center, but we could not fetch that page, so confirm the exported fields yourself. Export before you cancel and check that intake form answers, packages and notes are in the file.
No, only a 7-day trial with no credit card needed, according to the pricing page. After that, Starter is $16 a month billed annually or $20 billed monthly. Setmore, Zoho Bookings, Cal.com and TidyCal list free plans, which is where free-tier seekers go.
Standard allows up to six calendars at $27 a month on annual billing or $34 monthly, and Premium allows up to 36 at $49 or $61. Starter has one calendar. Each staff member or location normally needs its own calendar.
The pricing page places white-label branding, API and CSS access, multiple time zones for staff and locations, an AI booking assistant and a signed BAA for HIPAA on Premium. Standard has text reminders, waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates.
Yes, the pricing page describes it as a Squarespace Company. Check who invoices you and where the cancel option sits in your account before you set a cancellation date.
Only some can. Acuity lists Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo. Calendly lists Stripe and PayPal on Standard, SavvyCal needs Premium for paid bookings, and Google Calendar needs Business Standard with Stripe. Confirm your processor before you move.
Prices, plan limits and product facts about Acuity Scheduling on this page were checked against the vendors' own pages on October 8, 2026. Vendors change both without notice, so treat the figures as of that date.
Sebastiaan Smits, Founder, wrote, edited and fact-checked this page.
Founder of The Interregnum and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Writes, edits and fact-checks every page here. Last reviewed October 8, 2026.
How we review.