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11 best scheduling software for companies of all sizes

Choose scheduling software that helps your company save time, get more done, and hit goals faster.

Rachel Burns

Rachel Burns
Mar 22, 2024

21 min read

Over the last several years, “Here's my scheduling link!” has become a common refrain in the business world. Scheduling software has changed the way we book meetings — with a simple link instead of lengthy email back-and-forths.

The best scheduling platforms go beyond a scheduling link. They make all the admin tasks surrounding meetings easier. Your team saves time, delights clients and customers, and hits the goals that help grow your business.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose software that fits your company’s scheduling needs. We’ll also walk through 11 of the top scheduling software solutions for businesses of all sizes.

How to choose the right scheduling software for your business

As you consider scheduling solutions, keep these questions in mind:

  1. Is it easy to use? The more intuitive the software, the sooner you’ll have a meeting on the books. Your scheduling tool should be easy to set up and navigate for internal teammates and customers alike, so everyone has a great experience. Platforms with mobile apps and browser extensions make it extra simple to book meetings whenever and wherever your team needs.

  2. Does it work across departments and meeting types? Some scheduling software only works for internal meetings, while others are hyper-focused on a single use case, like sales calls or one-on-one appointments. If you need internal and external scheduling — team meetings, sales calls, interviews, collaboration with agencies or partners, client meetings, or a combo of all of the above — look for one platform that works across departments.

  3. How customizable is it? Can you customize your booking page and event communications to match your brand? Can admins set meeting and communication templates for use across the org? With customization options, you can create a consistent, on-brand experience for attendees and teammates.

  4. How much control do employees have over their schedules? Scheduling software should give you more control over your calendar, not less. Look for a tool that lets users set parameters, like the number of meetings per day, which holidays are blocked off, how close together meetings can be, and how far in advance meetings must be scheduled.

  5. What can we automate with this tool? Does the tool send automatic appointment confirmations, reminders, and other notifications via SMS and email, so you can stop worrying about no-shows? What about follow-up communications? Different apps offer different levels of automation, from simple reminders to more advanced workflows like lead routing and meeting distribution.

  6. Does it integrate with the tools our team already uses? Your team can have top-notch software, but if your tools don’t play well together, you’ll miss out on opportunities to keep info organized and get more done. Integrations include the basics, like the calendars you can sync and the video conferencing tools you use — but they can also include your organization’s entire tech stack, including email marketing, CRMs, and payment processing.

  7. Does this fit our budget? The software prices in this guide range from free plans to enterprise custom pricing. If you’re not sure about taking the plunge with a paid plan up front, many tools offer a free trial of paid plan features, so your team can get a feel for the software before committing to a subscription.

  8. Does it meet our industry’s regulations and compliance standards? Your scheduling platform should keep your business and customer data secure and align with the latest data standards — including for highly regulated industries like financial services.

 eBook: How to implement modern scheduling for high-performing teams

E-book: How high-performing teams achieve even more with scheduling automation

Whether it's sales revenue, recruiting pipeline, or customer retention, learn how scheduling automation can help your team save time and hit your goals.

11 best scheduling software for companies in 2024

1. Calendly

Calendly is a user-friendly, cloud-based scheduling platform for teams of all sizes across industries. Users connect their calendar(s) and share their booking link, and invitees can instantly choose from available times. Real-time availability means you never have to worry about double bookings.

When it comes to professional scheduling features, Calendly offers much more than just a scheduling link — whether you’re booking sales calls and product demos with inbound prospects, vendor and partner meetings, customer onboarding, or all of the above.

 Key features

  • Control over your calendar: Automatically block off holidays, avoid back-to-back bookings with buffers, prevent last-minute bookings, and set custom schedules. Connect professional and personal calendars so meetings don’t get booked over family obligations (or time off!).

  • Round Robin scheduling: Automatically assign new meetings to team members based on availability, team member priorities, or equal meeting distribution. This feature lets you respond to customers faster and offer them more available meeting times.

  • Collective events: Collective events pool the availability of everyone in a group, so the invitee can only select meeting times that are open on every host’s calendar. For example, a sales engineer and account executive can co-host a demo for a prospect.

  • Group events: Let multiple people sign up to meet with a team member at once. Group events are an excellent option for webinars, Q&A sessions, or training sessions. Offer multiple time slots, so people can get the information they need at a time that fits their schedule.

  • Lead routing: Instantly route qualified leads to the right person or team’s booking page based on a lead’s form responses.

  • Customizable booking pages: Use your brand colors, add your logo, and create booking pages for every team and custom meeting type. You can even embed your booking page right on your company website.

  • Workflows: Automate and customize communications before and after events, including templates for event reminders, thank-you emails, follow-up meeting requests, and more.

  • Embed meeting availability in emails, LinkedIn messages, and more: Chrome, Firefox and LinkedIn extensions and mobile apps for iOS and Android let you use Calendly wherever you work.

  • Centralized team management: Admins can align all users with company standards and best practices. Managed Events let admins create, assign, and templatize the events teams use, so everyone stays up-to-date and on-brand.

  • Reporting and analytics: Discover employee scheduling activity and trends — like popular meeting times, top performers, and in-demand meeting types — for better staff planning and forecasting.

  • Enterprise security features: Calendly offers SAML SSO, Domain Control, admin governance, self-serve data deletion, and more. Calendly is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified and PCI, CCPA, and GDPR compliant.

Calendly works. It’s got a great UI, great support, and no complaints from our compliance team. If your organization is spending a lot of time going back and forth just to get on a call, it’s a no-brainer.

Testimonial author

Alek Relyea

Manager, Customer Success at HackerOne

Who is it for?

Teams of all sizes use Calendly to bring together … 

… just to name a few! (For more Calendly use cases, check out these customer stories.)

Integrations

Calendly integrates with many of the tools you use every day, so you can add it to your processes without reinventing the wheel. Some of the 100+ available integrations include:

Calendly pricing

Calendly has four pricing tiers:

  • Free: Includes one connected calendar, unlimited event scheduling, Meeting Polls, and automated event notifications

  • Standard: $10 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Teams: $16 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organizations that need advanced security, control, and customer support

Explore Calendly’s Teams features with a 14-day free trial

2. Microsoft Bookings

Microsoft Bookings is the appointment scheduling system built into Microsoft 365 ( previously called Microsoft Office). If your team already has a paid version of 365, you may already have access to Bookings.

Key features

  • Create an online booking page where customers and clients can schedule appointments in just a few clicks

  • Show availability on your scheduling page based on your Outlook calendar

  • Open events to multiple attendees for multi-person meetings like webinars or group fitness classes

  • Assign multiple employees to a single event

  • Send meeting confirmations and reminders via email and SMS

Who is it for?

Microsoft Bookings is a simple appointment scheduling option for teams already working in and paying for higher-tier subscriptions of Microsoft 365. It’s a good choice for teams who exclusively use Microsoft apps, because it only integrates with other Microsoft tools, like your Outlook calendar and Microsoft Teams.

If your organization works in Microsoft 365 but needs more flexible scheduling, consider adding a third-party scheduling app to the mix. Calendly syncs with your Outlook calendar, offers an Outlook add-in for email, and integrates with Microsoft Teams for video conferencing. Plus, your availability isn’t limited to your work schedule — avoid scheduling conflicts across calendars by syncing with Google Calendar, too.

(See how Microsoft Bookings compares to Calendly.)

Microsoft Bookings pricing

Microsoft Bookings is included in all three pricing tiers of Microsoft 365:

  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $22 per user per month (billed annually)

All plans include a one-month free trial.

3. Acuity Scheduling

Part of Squarespace, Acuity Scheduling is an appointment scheduling tool that lets clients self-schedule appointments online. Acuity’s client appointment management software includes business admin features like client management, customizable intake forms, and invoicing.

Key features

  • Sync availability with Google Calendar, Office 365, Outlook, and iCloud Calendar

  • Integrate with a variety of business tools, including accounting (QuickBooks and Freshbooks), payment providers (PayPal, Square, and Stripe), email marketing (Mailchimp and AWeber), and workflow automation (Zapier)

  • Customize your scheduling page with your logo, colors, and copy, or embed your booking page right on your website

  • Offer classes, workshops, or group events

  • Sell subscriptions, memberships, appointment packages (including payment plans), and gift certificates 

  • E-commerce features: Receive tips, offer coupons, require deposits, and upsell clients at checkout

  • Avoid no-shows with automatic confirmation and reminder emails and text messages

  • Create custom intake forms to gather important client information before the appointment

Who is it for?

Acuity is a solid choice for service-based businesses who need business admin and e-commerce features. If your business’s website is built on Squarespace, Acuity makes it easy to add appointment booking to your website.

That said, many features that make Acuity stand out are only available on higher-priced plans, including scheduling for multiple staff members or locations, appointment packages, e-commerce features, text message reminders, and the ability to schedule across employee work hours in multiple time zones. Plus, if you need to connect calendars for more than 36 employees, you’ll need to contact the Acuity team to inquire about their Powerhouse Plus and Enterprise plans, which you can’t read about on their website.

If you need scheduling beyond straightforward client appointments, or have more than 36 employees, Acuity’s scheduling features and pricing plans can be limiting — especially for businesses that are growing quickly.

(See how Acuity compares with Calendly.)

Acuity Scheduling pricing

Acuity shares three pricing plans on their website:

  • Emerging (one user): $16 per month (billed annually)

  • Growing (six users): $27 per month (billed annually)

  • Powerhouse (up to 36 users): $49 per month (billed annually)

All plans come with a seven-day free trial. More expensive plans (Powerhouse Plus and Enterprise) are available for larger teams, but no information is included on the website.

4. Google Calendar

Google Calendar is part of Google Workspace, making it the go-to calendar app for individuals and teams using Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Drive. Google Calendar offers basic appointment scheduling features.

Key features

  • Set your availability for appointments. Limit how early or last-minute people can book an appointment with you, add buffer time in between appointments, and set a maximum number of appointments per day

  • Create and share booking pages for one-on-one and co-hosted appointments

  • See employee availability side-by-side to find time slots that work for internal-only meetings

  • Email all event invitees right from your calendar

  • Automatically add video conferencing details to virtual events

  • Integrate with other Google apps, like Google Meet and Google Maps

Who is it for? 

Google Calendar works best for booking internal group meetings or simple one-on-one appointments. Appointment booking pages are created based on individual Google accounts and are branded with the user’s photo, which means you can’t customize the scheduling experience to match your brand and present a consistent brand to customers. When you need to meet with multiple people outside of your org, like customers or vendors, scheduling gets a little more tricky.

If you want to make scheduling with Google Calendar easier, consider adding Calendly to the mix. It’s easier to share your Google Calendar availability, book multi-person meetings with any combination of attendees, and automate scheduling admin tasks.

(See how Google Calendar compares to Calendly.)

Google Calendar Pricing

You can create a single booking page to let invitees schedule unlimited appointments on your calendar for free. To access all of Google Calendar’s appointment scheduling options, your business needs a Google Workspace subscription. (All plans require a one-year commitment.)

  • Business Starter: $6 per user per month

  • Business Standard: $12 per user per month

  • Business Plus: $18 per user per month

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

5. HubSpot Sales Hub meeting scheduler

HubSpot’s meeting scheduler (formerly HubSpot Meetings) is part of their Sales Hub CRM software. As prospects schedule meetings, they’ll automatically be added to your HubSpot contacts database, so your sales team stays organized.

Key features

  • Automatically trigger sales emails before and after meetings

  • Embed your calendar on your website

  • Sync your availability with Google Calendar and Office 365

  • Integrate with Zoom, Google Meet, and UberConference for online meetings

  • Group Availability: Let prospects book time with multiple team members

  • Round Robin Availability: Automatically schedule prospects with the first available sales rep

Who is it for?

HubSpot's meeting scheduler works well for teams that 1) already use HubSpot CRM and 2) only need scheduling for sales use cases. The app is designed solely for prospects to book appointments with a sales rep or team.

If you need scheduling functionality for other teams, consider choosing a tool you can integrate with HubSpot CRM and use across departments. For example, sales and customer success teams use Calendly to schedule and collaborate on sales handoffs and customer onboarding — without having to pay for HubSpot seats for the whole CS team.

(See how HubSpot’s meeting scheduler compares to Calendly.)

HubSpot Sales Hub pricing

HubSpot’s meeting scheduler is included for Sales Hub users. There are four Sales Hub pricing plans. (All paid plans require a one-year commitment.)

  • Free Tools (One personal meeting link)

  • Starter: $18 per month, billed annually (iIncludes two users; $9 per user per month for additional users)

  • Professional: $450 per month, billed annually (includes five users; $90 per user per month for additional users)

  • Enterprise: $1,500 per month, billed annually (includes 10 users; $150 per user per month for additional users)

6. YouCanBookMe

YouCanBookMe is a simple online scheduling tool. Users connect their calendar and share their booking link, and invitees choose the available time that works best for them.

Key features 

  • Team booking pages: Let invitees choose which team member they’d like to schedule a meeting with

  • Pooled availability: Show all available times across the team, so invitees have more options

  • Mutual availability: Only show times when all co-hosts are available

  • Embed your booking page on your website

  • Customize email and SMS notifications

  • Automatically create virtual meeting links with Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams

  • Sync availability with Google Calendar and Office 365

Who is it for?

YouCanBookMe is popular with individuals and small teams, especially educators. Teachers use the app to schedule time with students and parents, and to manage schedules for spaces like labs and art studios. YouCanBookMe’s limited integrations and bare-bones UX make it less suited to large teams with more complex professional scheduling needs.

(See how YouCanBookMe compares to Calendly.

YouCanBookMe pricing

YouCanBookMe offers two pricing plans:

  • Free: Includes one linked calendar

  • Paid: $10.80 per linked calendar per month (billed annually)

Free users can try a 14-day free trial of the paid plan.

7. Square Appointments

Square Appointments is part of Square’s point-of-sale (POS) payment processing solution. Clients can self-schedule appointments, and you can track multiple staff schedules and locations. Square also gives you the option to accept or decline appointments.

Key features

  • Let clients schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments 24/7 from your website, Square Assistant chatbot, or Facebook and Instagram pages

  • Control your availability by connecting your Google Calendar, setting regular business hours, and blocking out specific times when you’re unable to accept appointments

  • Manage schedules for multiple staff or locations from one central dashboard 

  • Create and schedule one-time or recurring group classes

  • Automatically send customized text and email confirmations and reminders

  • Make physical resource management easier by assigning rooms, chairs, stations, etc.

Who is it for?

Square Appointments is a good appointment management tool for individual service providers and service-based business owners who already collect payments via Square POS. For salons and studios that need an employee scheduling solution, Square Appointments’ Premium plan includes workforce management features like time tracking, shift scheduling, tip management, and payroll prep.

Keep in mind that Square is designed for one type of booking: client appointments. If you need to schedule meetings with partners, candidates, vendors, or internal teams, you’ll need to add an additional scheduling tool to your tech stack.

Square Appointments pricing

Square Appointments offers tiered pricing:

  • Free (except for transaction fees): Includes one location 

  • Plus: $29 per location per month, plus transaction fees

  • Premium: $69 per location per month, plus transaction fees

Transaction fees start at 2.5% + 10 cents per transaction for in-person transactions and 2.9% + 30 cents for online transactions.

8. Zoho Bookings

Zoho Bookings is an appointment scheduling platform that lets customers and prospects make appointments from your team’s booking page. Zoho offers a wide range of business apps, including CRMs, marketing tools, HR software, and team collaboration platforms.

Key features

  • Customize your booking page to match your brand (or embed it on your website)

  • Send automated SMS and email reminders

  • Prevent overbooking and last-minute changes with buffers, scheduling windows, set office hours, and time limits for cancellation and rescheduling

  • Integrate with calendars, CRMs, online meeting tools, and payment processing platforms

  • Collective Booking Services: Pool the availability of multiple staff members for a many-to-one appointment, like a sales engineer and account executive co-hosting a product demo

  • Group Bookings: Let multiple attendees sign up for the same time slot (one-time or recurring events, like classes or workshops)

Who is it for?

Zoho’s scheduling tools work best for teams already using Zoho’s suite of business apps, especially Zoho One, which includes Zoho Bookings. Zoho is designed for small businesses with fewer than 500 employees — enterprise organizations might find the platform limiting.

Zoho Bookings isn’t the only appointment scheduling option for Zoho users — Zoho Recruit integrates directly with Calendly, and you can connect Zoho CRM to Calendly via Zapier.

Zoho Bookings Pricing

The Premium plan of Zoho Bookings is included in the Zoho One app suite. Zoho Bookings offers four pricing plans:

  • Free (one-on-one, online meetings only)

  • Basic: $6 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Premium: $9 per user per month (billed annually)

  • FLEX Plan: Custom pricing

9. Setmore

Setmore is an appointment scheduling tool for service-based businesses that lets customers book appointments in just a few clicks.

Key features 

  • Add your booking page or a custom “Book Now” button to your website or Facebook page

  • Offer one-on-one appointments, recurring bookings, and group classes 

  • Automatically send customizable SMS and email reminders to clients

  • Customize your booking page URL and logo

  • Manage appointments on the go with apps for iOS and Android 

  • Sync with Google Calendar and Office 365 calendars

  • Integrate with social media platforms, sales and marketing tools, business apps, video conferencing, and payment processors

Who is it for?

Setmore is a solid choice for individual service providers and small service-based businesses looking for a straightforward way to let clients self-schedule appointments. Larger teams who need department-specific solutions — like lead management for sales reps or ATS integrations for recruiters — may find Setmore limiting.

Setmore pricing

Setmore offers four pricing tiers:

  • Free plan for up to four users

  • Pro plan (up to two users): $5 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Team plan (unlimited users): $5 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Enterprise plan: Custom pricing

10. Chili Piper

Chili Piper is a scheduling tool designed for B2B sales, marketing, and customer success teams who want to streamline scheduling for prospects and customers.

At its most basic, sales and CS reps can use Chili Piper to create and share booking links with prospects. On more expensive plans, teams can use Chili Piper to automatically assign meetings and qualify leads.

Key features

  • Sync your Google Calendar, Office 365, and Outlook calendars

  • Embed suggested times in emails for one-click scheduling

  • Track meeting details, follow-ups, no-shows, and reschedules in your connected HubSpot or Salesforce CRM

  • Automatically route leads from your website forms to the correct rep’s booking page

  • Qualify and route leads with your web forms

  • Integrate with video conferencing, sales and marketing automation, web forms, direct mail, and chat tools

Who is it for?

Chili Piper is designed for revenue teams — sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps — and revenue teams only. If other teams at your company need scheduling software, you’ll need to pay — and get IT approval for — an additional tool. When each team uses a different combination of tools, information gets siloed, and costs add up fast.

In addition, teams looking for the most cost-effective scheduling software should be wary of Chili Piper’s pricing — add-ons and tiered platform fees can add anywhere from $30 to $1,060 per month to the stated tier price.

(See how Chili Piper compares to Calendly.)

Chili Piper pricing

Chili Piper’s pricing includes three tiers, plus add-ons:

  • Instant Booker: $15 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Handoff: $25 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Form Concierge: $30 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Form Concierge + Concierge Live: $60 per user per month (billed annually)

If your team needs automated Salesforce routing and assignment, you’ll need to add on Distro, which adds $20 - $30 per user per month (billed annually). In addition, Chili Piper charges a tiered platform fee based on how many people fill out your booking forms — regardless of whether they’re qualified leads:

  • Up to 100 form fills: $150 per month

  • 100 - 1,000: $400 per month

  • More than 1,000: $1,000 per month

11. Doodle

Originally a simple polling tool for groups to vote on a meeting time, Doodle has evolved to include appointment scheduling. Users share a customized link to their booking page, and invitees can choose from available meeting times. 

Key features

  • Group polls: Find a time that works for internal and/or external invitees by sending out a group poll.

  • Co-host meetings with up to five hosts per booking page

  • 1:1s: Book one-on-one meetings by sending invitees a one-off scheduling link with pre-selected time slots

  • Customize your booking page to match your brand

  • Avoid no-shows with automatic email reminders 

  • Sync your availability from Google Calendar, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft Exchange calendars

  • Connect to Zoom, Google Meet, or Webex to automatically add a video link to every online meeting

Who is it for?

Doodle works best for individual users looking to book one-on-one meetings or send scheduling polls.

Group polls, 1:1s, and booking pages are all standalone features. For example, you can send out a survey to determine the best meeting time for your group, but Doodle won’t automatically turn that time into a calendar invite. Busy teams using Doodle can end up with a manual, time-consuming scheduling process — especially compared to apps designed with professional team scheduling in mind.

(See how Doodle compares to Calendly.)

Doodle pricing

Doodle offers a 14-day free trial and four pricing plans:

  • Free plan (with ads for users and invitees)

  • Pro: $6.95 per user per month (billed annually) 

  • Team: $8.95 per user per month (billed annually)

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Grow your business faster with easier scheduling

Whether you're hosting sales calls, team meetings, or customer onboarding, the right scheduling app makes booking meetings easier and faster for everyone involved. Take Calendly, for example: A study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that Calendly saved a composite organization more than 9,000 hours over three years.

That efficiency means spending less time on admin tasks — and more time collaborating, closing deals, and hitting your business goals.

Get started with Calendly
Ready to make scheduling easier than ever?

Ready to make scheduling easier than ever?

Rachel Burns

Rachel Burns

Rachel is a Content Marketing Manager at Calendly. When she’s not writing, you can find her rescuing dogs, baking something, or extolling the virtue of the Oxford comma.

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