If you've landed in this article, you might be wondering if Calendly is worth it in 2025. The tool has certainly been one of the most important in the appointment scheduling market for years. But, in times that dominated by smarter features and new tools being created everyday, is Calendly still the one that makes sense?
In this guide, we’ll cover Calendly’s pros and cons with our very own opinion. And, as a disclaimer, we'll be thorough—hopefully that'll help you decide whether it fits your needs, or if other alternatives to Calendly, like Zeeg, will serve you better.
What is Calendly?
First things first, let’s see what Calendly actually is and what it can do. Calendly changed how professionals handle meeting coordination. Instead of the typical endless emails trying to find mutual availability, you share a personalized booking link showing your available time slots. Recipients pick what works for them, and meetings automatically appear on both calendars.
Since launching, Calendly has grown from a simple scheduling link into an enterprise serving everyone from solo freelancers to Fortune 100 companies. The tool connects with major calendar platforms, video conferencing services, and business applications to create an integrated scheduling ecosystem.
But here's the question: does Calendly deliver enough value to justify its cost? Let's have a look at the pros and cons of Calendly to find out.
Calendly pros and cons: Overview
Before looking at Calendly pros and cons, just a word.
Most guides will tell you things like "Calendly solves timezones in meeting scheduling", or "the costs scale as you add more users". But in this guide, we tried to give you more than that. Most of those benefits and drawbacks are things that you can say about pretty much all scheduling tools, so we're giving you what you really want to know.
Main Calendly pros
Moving on, let's talk about what makes Calendly stand out in the crowded scheduling software market.
1. It does solve your scheduling
Ok, this is not something exclusive from Calendly, but your company's scheduling will indeed feel the difference, mainly because the tool has a lot of advanced scheduling options.
By using Calendly, you can remove the tedious coordination process. Traditional scheduling would usually have you stuck in email exchanges like "Are you free Tuesday?" "No, how about Thursday?" "Thursday afternoon doesn't work for me..."; but with Calendly, this entire conversation disappears. And if you have group meetings, things are easy to coordinate as well.
2. Pricing is accessible for small and medium businesses
If you want Calendly paid versions and not free, it's better to do some investigation. Soon you'll realize that Calendly pricing isn't the best ever, but not the worst either. Compare Calendly to other alternatives and you'll see that some of them will have a limit on meetings you can have on a plan—like with Simplybook.me. Or compare Calendly to Acuity and you'll find that their pricing plans start with more features, at $16, which is considerably above what Calendly offers.
So, why do we say that Calendly pricing is accessible? A few reasons:
- Free plan available that lets you get a scheduling page with one even type. So, if you just want appointments (all of the same kind) coming in, this works
- From $10/user/month you can send reminders and follow-up messages or can have paid appointments
- And from $16/user/month, you can qualify and route leads to the right team member
Plus, there's a 14-day trial that lets you use Calendly with all the features, so that you understand the tool and know exactly what's your plan.
3. It's easy to use and to start with
The platform is easy and doesn't require much effort to start sharing your scheduling link and have your incoming bookings being added to your calendar. Basically, one can create an account, connect with their calendar app, set their availability, and embed their scheduling page (or share the link).
Overall, the platform is quite simple and clean.
4. Team coordination works
For organizations with multiple team members, Calendly offers several team features. This is something that definitely not all the scheduling tools will have it a advanced—but Calendly does.
There's collective scheduling, a feature that finds times when multiple team members are available simultaneously. A bit similar to Doodle, this makes group meetings easier to coordinate.
Also, you can also create team pages where clients choose which specific person they want to meet with.
But perhaps the most important, which not every scheduling tool has, is the Round-robin scheduling. With it, you can distribute incoming meetings among team members based on their availability or workload to ensure fair distribution of appointments. And you can route your leads according to the rules you create—for example, a demo booking request from a company with 100 employees can get assigned automatically to a more experienced sales agent.
These capabilities work especially well for sales teams managing inbound leads, support teams coordinating customer calls, or hiring managers scheduling interviews across different panel members.
5. Good integration possibilities
The platform connects with over 80 popular business applications for you to get a connected system around your scheduling. Video conferencing integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams automatically generate meeting links. CRM connections with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive log scheduling activity automatically.
Payment processing through Stripe and PayPal lets you collect deposits or fees at booking time: useful for consultants, coaches, and service providers. Marketing tool integrations with platforms like Mailchimp help you nurture relationships with everyone who books time with you.
Main Calendly cons
Now that we've covered the benefits, let's examine where Calendly falls short.
1. The free plan can feel restrictive
Yes, Calendly has a free tier, but its limitations can quickly feel frustrating for anyone with needs beyond the most basic ones. The free plan restricts you to:
- Just one event type (can't differentiate between 15-minute calls and hour-long consultations)
- One connected calendar
- No reminders can be sent
- No branding customization
- Calendly logo on all booking pages
Don't get us wrong—when we're talking about free tools, you won't find much better. But some things can indeed improve. For example, if you want more meeting types, you'll have to pay for that. Zeeg, on the other hand, would let you choose two scheduling pages on its free plan.
2. No integration with Apple calendar
Calendly no longer supports iCloud Calendar integration for new users. This is problematic for people deeply invested in Apple who manage their schedule mainly through Apple Calendar.
Without this connection, Apple users must either switch to Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook as an intermediary, or risk scheduling conflicts between their main calendar and Calendly bookings. For many professionals, reorganizing their entire calendar system around a scheduling tool's limitations isn't practical.
Zeeg maintains full Apple Calendar integration, which makes it a more suitable option for iOS and macOS users.
3. No native CRM
You do get a view of your contacts on Calendly, with some info and notes you might want to add. But that's about it. And that's normal, because Calendly isn't a CRM.
But what if you want to group your contacts by company? Wouldn't it be great if tool can already detects contacts from the same company and group them as such?
Or what if you want to add the next interaction date?
Or what about tracking other things? Let's imagine you're in Real Estate and instead of just tracking the people you talk to, you want to track properties. And within properties, you want property type, property value, etc. Calendly won't be what you need, in that case.
That's when you'll realize about the need to integrate with a CRM. And depending on the CRM you choose, that's not a horrible solution. But it will mean one more tool, and way more money spent, thus the question—why not get a CRM with advanced scheduling?
4. Customization options feel basic
Moving to another limitation, Calendly doesn’t give you a lot of flexibility in how booking pages look and function. You can add your logo and choose colors, but that's pretty much about it. You can't add videos, custom widgets, or alter the page layout too much.
For businesses with strong brand identities or those wanting to create smooth customer experiences, these restrictions become problematic. Your Calendly page may feel disconnected from the rest of your digital presence, which creates an inconsistent brand experience.
Lower-tier plans offer even less customization, with many options locked behind Professional or higher plans.
5. GDPR compliance requires extra work
For businesses operating in Europe or handling European customer data, Calendly's US-based architecture presents complications. Although the company has implemented measures addressing GDPR requirements (including data processing addendums and special handling for EU citizen data) some European businesses remain hesitant about storing scheduling data on American servers.
European alternatives like Zeeg offer complete GDPR compliance with European data hosting and end-to-end encryption, which gives you simpler compliance without requiring additional contractual arrangements.
6. Support quality varies by plan
Free users receive email support only, with response times that vary. Standard and Teams plan users get 24/7 chat support, which helps with quick questions but may not resolve complex technical issues rapidly.
Phone support remains exclusive to Enterprise customers, meaning most users must rely on chat or email even when facing urgent problems. Some users report frustration with support responsiveness, especially when technical issues affect their scheduling.
What users say about Calendly
Calendly maintains strong ratings across review platforms as it consistently scores 4.6-4.7 out of 5 stars on sites like G2, Capterra, and GetApp. However, diving deeper into user feedback reveals nuanced perspectives worth considering.
What people appreciate in Calendly
Users frequently praise:
Workflow automations: “I love the ability to automate meeting reminders, meeting prep questions, and even qualify before a meeting is booked¹.“
Integration quality: “I use Calendly for my personal business and to obtain new coaching clients. I attach the link on my various websites and media where they can promptly schedule a meeting with me. It works as described and it always syncs up with my Google calendar. I get notifications via text and email when someone schedules with me, so I am prepared every step of the way².”
Ease of use: “We are using this product to maintain our hours schedule for a working day and sharing Calendar URL to schedule the meetings. The performance of product is extremely good along with the easy usage³.”
Common complaints
But still, several recurring issues appear in reviews:
Free plan limitations: “While Calendly is a great tool for streamlining meeting schedules, we eventually moved to Google Calendar as it offered similar functionality with the added benefit of being integrated into our existing workflow. For those who need quick and simple scheduling, Calendly is still a solid choice, though upgrading to a paid plan may be necessary to unlock more features⁴.”
Technical reliability: “Has great potential but feels overall bloated and over-engineered⁵.”
Pricing concerns: “Calendly is a convenient tool for simplifying scheduling, though it could improve by offering more robust features and integrations at lower pricing tiers⁶.”
Customization frustrations: “Too expensive. No customization. I feel as if they stationed in the industry for granted and did not indulge in and attempting to satisfy the customers⁷.”
Is Calendly worth it in 2025?
After examining the pros and cons of Calendly thoroughly, here's the honest review:
Calendly makes sense if you:
- Schedule frequent external meetings and want to eliminate coordination emails
- Want to use a CRM separately
- Need reliable team scheduling coordination with round-robin or collective features
- Already use Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook as your primary calendar
Calendly may not be ideal if you:
- Operate on tight budgets, particularly with growing teams
- Want a CRM to track contacts and deals better
- Also use Apple Calendar as your main scheduling tool (since iCloud integration is unavailable for new users)
- Need extensive customization to match your brand identity
- Want full GDPR compliance
- Want more value from free or entry-level tiers
Zeeg: Built-in CRM and professional scheduling
For those concerned about Calendly's limitations, Zeeg offers a compelling alternative that addresses these pain points while delivering something competitors don't: a true CRM built around appointment scheduling.
With the same pricing tiers, you get the same advanced scheduling. But you also get CRM features that you won't have have with Calendly.
Let's see:
- Advanced booking and CRM: Every appointment automatically captures contact details, links conversation notes permanently, and tracks conversion from booking to deal. No need to juggle between scheduling tools and separate CRM systems.
- Complete calendar integration: Unlike Calendly, Zeeg maintains complete iCloud Calendar support, besides Outlook, Google and Exchange calendars.
- Custom objects: Track your contacts and deals the way your business asks. Unlike with Calendly, with Zeeg you can create custom fields and objects freely that adapt to your workflow. This is something that actual CRMs will charge a lot for.
- Round-robin scheduling: Distribute appointments fairly among team members based on availability or workload.
- Lead routing: When you get your meetings coming in, you can set things to assign your teams automatically. Fully cuztomizable.
- More complete free tier: If you just want a free scheduling tool, even then Zeeg will let you create two different types of meetings—and not one, like Calendly.
- Complete GDPR compliance: Without any extra setup, your tool will be immdiatelly GDPR compliant. That's a great benefit, in case you deal with data from EU citizens.
Calendly pros and cons: Final thoughts
Calendly deserves its popularity as a scheduling tool. The platform effectively eliminates coordination hassles, integrates with popular business tools, and provides reliable core functionality for managing appointments.
However, the cons of Calendly (restrictive free plan, discontinued Apple Calendar support, limited customization, escalating team costs, and GDPR complexity) create legitimate concerns for many users. As your needs grow beyond basic individual scheduling, these limitations become more problematic.
Before committing to Calendly, honestly evaluate your requirements:
- How many people need scheduling access?
- Do you use Apple Calendar as your primary calendar system?
- Do you want to track your contacts and deals as well?
- Do you need better customization to match your brand?
- Are you serving European customers or operating under GDPR requirements?
- What's your realistic budget?
For many professionals and businesses, alternatives like Zeeg provide better value through more generous free plans, maintained Apple Calendar integration, complete GDPR compliance, and pricing structures that don't penalize growth as heavily.
The right scheduling tool should work for you, not force you to work around its limitations. Whether that's Calendly, Zeeg, or another option depends entirely on your specific situation. Take advantage of free trials to test platforms with your actual workflows before making long-term commitments.
Source list
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6825862
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6460792
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6604324
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6528992
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6493368
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___6586138
- https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#Capterra___4101732
- https://www.capterra.com/p/239954/Zeeg/#Capterra___4898898
- https://www.capterra.com/p/239954/Zeeg/#Capterra___6710034
