Calendly alternatives, compared honestly
Most “best alternative” lists are written by one of the vendors on the list, or by an affiliate paid per click. This one is written by a vendor too — the difference is that we say so, we date every price, and we tell you when a competitor is the better choice.
Why look for a Calendly alternative?
Five reasons come up repeatedly: the free plan allows a single event type, the paid plans bill per person per month, branding control sits on the $16 tier, there is no way to keep separate client brands apart, and the data is held by a US company.
The free plan is a demo
One event type and one connected calendar. Enough to see the product, not enough to work with — which is the point of the design.
Cost grows with the team
Standard is $10 per seat per month, Teams $16. A five-person team on Teams pays $2,880 over three years. The tool has not changed; the invoice has.
Branding sits on the higher tier
Removing and customising Calendly branding requires the Teams plan. On the $10 plan your booking page still advertises them.
No separation between brands
Calendly has one identity per account. An agency with eight clients needs eight accounts, eight subscriptions and eight logins.
Where the data lives
Calendly is a US company. For European organisations that need to state where personal data is processed, that is a question to answer rather than assume.
The six tools, on the criteria that decide it
Pricing model, entry price, free-plan limits, cost per extra user, multi-brand support and self-hosting. These six lines decide most switching decisions; the rest is preference. Every value comes from the vendor’s official pricing page.
| Criterion | Calenday | Calendly | Cal.com | TidyCal | Doodle | Acuity Scheduling | Microsoft Bookings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-time payment | Subscription, per seat | Subscription, per seat | One-time payment | Subscription, per seat | Subscription, per calendar | Bundled in a suite |
| Entry paid plan | $99 once | $10 / seat / month | $12 / seat / month | $29 once | $11 / seat / month | $16 / month | $7 / seat / month |
| Cost per extra user | Included | $10 / seat / month | $12 / seat / month | Included | $9 / seat / month | By calendar tier | $7 / seat / month |
| Event types on the free plan | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 | No | No |
| Separate brands in one account | Free plan | No | Higher plan | No | No | No | No |
| Remove vendor branding | Paid plan | Higher plan | Paid plan | Higher plan | Higher plan | Higher plan | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Solution | Plan used | 1 person | 5 people | 20 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calenday | Lifetime | $99 | $99 | $99 |
| Calendly | Standard | $360 | $1,800 | $7,200 |
| Cal.com | Teams | $432 | $2,160 | $8,640 |
| TidyCal | Agency Lifetime | $29 | $79 | $79 |
| Doodle | Team | $396 | $1,620 | $6,480 |
| Acuity Scheduling | Standard | $576 | $972 | $1,764 |
| Microsoft Bookings | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $252 | $1,260 | $5,040 |
· competitor pricing verified August 6, 2026
How we compared
We read each vendor’s official pricing page, recorded what it states, and refused to fill gaps with guesses. Where a vendor does not publish a limit, the cell says so instead of showing a number we invented.
Cost figures use each vendor’s cheapest paid plan — the one most favourable to them — over thirty-six months, at one, five and twenty people. Where a plan has a seat minimum, we respect it: Doodle Team requires two seats, so a solo user is priced on Pro.
Acuity Scheduling bills by calendar count rather than by seat, so its cost is driven by the tier a team of that size needs: Starter for one, Standard for five, Premium for twenty. Microsoft Bookings is not sold on its own, so it is priced through Microsoft 365 Business Basic, the cheapest plan that includes it — which also buys a full office suite, and we say so on its page.
We do not rank the tools. A ranking would be an opinion dressed as a measurement, and the right answer genuinely depends on whether you need an ecosystem, a poll, a vertical feature set or a flat price.
- CalendlyOfficial pricing page
- Cal.comOfficial pricing page
- TidyCalOfficial pricing page
- DoodleOfficial pricing page
- Acuity SchedulingOfficial pricing page
- Microsoft BookingsOfficial pricing page
The detailed comparisons
Each page follows the same structure: a summary table, a decision table that sometimes sends you to the competitor, three-year cost, a full feature matrix, what they do better, what we do better, and how migration actually goes.
Calenday vs Calendly
The market leader, billed at $10 to $16 per seat per month. Stronger ecosystem and brand; costs $2,880 for five people over three years on Teams.
Read the comparisonCalenday vs Cal.com
Genuinely open source and API-first, but still billed per seat at $12, and separate brands live on the $28 Organizations plan.
Read the comparisonCalenday vs TidyCal
The other one-time-payment scheduler, and cheaper than us at $29 or $79. The real question is what each licence actually covers.
Read the comparisonCalenday vs Doodle
Excellent at group polls, thin as a professional booking tool. The free plan carries ads and allows one booking page.
Read the comparisonCalenday vs Acuity Scheduling
Built for service businesses with packages and memberships. Billed per calendar tier, and removing the logo needs the $49 plan.
Read the comparisonCalenday vs Microsoft Bookings
Effectively free if you already pay for Microsoft 365, and deeply tied to it. Limited branding and no way to leave the suite.
Read the comparison
How to choose
Match the tool to the constraint that actually binds you. If it is budget over three years, the answer is a one-time licence. If it is an ecosystem, a vertical feature or a compliance certificate, it is not us.
| If you need… | Choose |
|---|---|
| A flat cost for a team that will grow | Calenday |
| Several client brands kept completely separate | Calenday |
| To run the scheduler on your own server | Calenday or Cal.com |
| The largest integration ecosystem and mobile apps | Calendly |
| A public repository and an open API | Cal.com |
| Group polls above everything else | Doodle |
| Packages, memberships, gift certificates, a HIPAA BAA | Acuity Scheduling |
| Nothing beyond what Microsoft 365 already includes | Microsoft Bookings |
| The lowest possible one-time price for a solo user | TidyCal |
Questions about alternatives
- What is the best Calendly alternative in 2026?
- There is no single answer, and any page that gives you one is selling something. For flat cost and multiple brands, Calenday. For open source and an API, Cal.com. For group polls, Doodle. For service businesses with packages, Acuity. For Microsoft 365 shops, Bookings.
- Is there a scheduling tool with no subscription?
- Two: Calenday at $99 once for unlimited users, and TidyCal at $29 for an individual or $79 for an agency. Everything else in this comparison bills per seat per month. TidyCal is cheaper; Calenday adds separate brands, four languages and self-hosting.
- Which alternative is best for an agency?
- The deciding feature is whether one account can hold several fully separated client brands. Calenday does this on the free plan. Cal.com does it on Organizations at $28 per seat per month. Calendly, Doodle, Acuity and Microsoft Bookings do not do it at all.
- Which is best if data must stay in Europe?
- The only categorical answer is a tool you host yourself, because then the region is your decision rather than a vendor policy. Calenday and Cal.com can both be self-hosted. Calendly, Doodle, Acuity, TidyCal and Microsoft Bookings are hosted services only.
- How current are these prices?
- They were read from each vendor’s official pricing page on the date shown at the top of every table, and each table links back to that page. Pricing changes without notice, so check the source before making a decision that turns on a few dollars.
- Do you rank the tools?
- No. We publish one of them, which disqualifies us from ranking honestly. What we do instead is state the criteria, show the numbers, and include a decision table that sends you to a competitor whenever the competitor is the better fit.
Start on the free plan. Decide later.
Unlimited bookings, no card, no countdown. If Calenday earns the $99, you will know within a week.