Acuity vs Calendly: Which is better for your meetings?

Doğa Kaplan
October 9, 2024
10
 min read
Contents

When it comes to online scheduling tools, Calendly and Acuity are two of the most popular options. Calendly is well-known for its user-friendly interface and team collaboration features, which makes it perfect for online scheduling and managing your workflow tools. Acuity, on the other hand, has a lot more tools for service-based businesses, including exclusive client management and payment processing capabilities. 

But we won't stop there. We'll also introduce you to Zeeg, which is a brand-new alternative that combines the power of both Calendly and Acuity all while offering unique features of its own. By the end of this comparison, you'll have a clear understanding of how these scheduling tools stack up and which one might be the perfect solution for your business in 2025 and beyond.

What is Calendly?

First of all, let's check what Calendly is and how it works. It's a user-friendly scheduling tool designed to minimize the hassle of back-and-forth emails when you arrange appointments and meetings. Its mission is simple: To improve your scheduling process and make it as easy and effortless for both you and your clients in the best way possible.

Calendly offers:

  • Customizable scheduling links and booking pages that integrate easily with popular calendar platforms like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Office 365
  • It supports various meeting types, including one-on-one, round-robin scheduling, and group events
  • With over 100 integrations, Calendly makes sure you incorporate everything smoothly into your workflows.

Calendly works especially well for professionals looking to optimize their time management, team leaders managing multiple calendars, and businesses scheduling discovery calls, check-ins, interviews, and team meetings. Calendly does all the scheduling work for you, so you can focus on what matters most – your business and clients.

What is Acuity Scheduling?

Acuity Scheduling is an online booking platform that goes beyond simple appointment scheduling. It offers a complex but comprehensive set of features designed to manage your entire client interaction process from managing bookings to scheduling payments.

Acuity provides:

  • Customizable availability and bookings
  • Advanced client management tools
  • Online payment processing and invoicing capabilities, as well as wide automation options for workflows.

This platform is especially helpful for service-based businesses such as personal trainers, coaches, and consultants. It's also a good choice for businesses that offer paid services like online classes or in-person appointments as well as organizations looking to improve their client experience through easy scheduling.

Interface: Calendly is easier to use

Both Acuity and Calendly have intuitive interfaces, but they have different user preferences. Calendly, however, gets the plus points for a smoother interface, which makes it easier to use than Acuity’s interface packed with advanced features. But at the end of the day, the choice is up to you.

Calendly is known for its clean interface that sets the standard for user-friendly scheduling tools. It makes it possible for users to quickly set up their account and start scheduling immediately, and for this exact reason; it is ideal for individuals and teams looking for an easy solution. 

  • The platform simplifies the booking process and reduces the need for back-and-forth emails that often plague appointment setting. Its customizable scheduling links are also easy to share, and allows users to integrate the tool into their workflows and communication channels like a breeze. This combination of simplicity and functionality makes Calendly a go-to option for those who prioritize ease of use in their scheduling software.

Acuity, on the other hand, sets itself apart with a comprehensive interface that comes with a whole bunch of advanced features. While all this richness in functionality makes Acuity a bit complicated to use, it also makes it the best option for businesses with complex scheduling needs. 

  • The platform offers a deeply customizable client-facing scheduling page, which allows businesses to tailor the booking experience to their needs. Service providers especially benefit from Acuity's wide range of options for managing their offerings, which allows them to create a more specific and flexible scheduling system. This mix of depth and customization makes Acuity a powerful choice for businesses that need more than just basic appointment booking functionality.

Acuity vs Calendly: A detailed feature comparison

Now that we've covered the interface, we can focus on the features that Calendly and Acuity offer and their unique strengths designed for different business needs.

Calendly has a small advantage in mobile scheduling

In today's modern business environment, managing schedules on the go has become more important than ever. Both Calendly and Acuity recognize this need and offer a variety of mobile solutions. At the end, both platforms have strong mobile accessibility: The only difference is that Calendly's slightly broader browser support might give it a small advantage for users who work across multiple browsers.

Calendly

  • Offers flexible scheduling options across various platforms and devices. The platform has a responsive mobile app for both iOS and Android to make sure users manage their schedules easily whether they're at their desk or on the move. 
  • It also has browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, which allows quick access directly from your preferred web browser.
  • Additionally, Calendly's booking links can be easily embedded on websites for a smooth scheduling experience for your clients or colleagues directly from your own web.

Acuity

  • Acuity Scheduling matches the mobile-friendly approach of Calendly, and lets users manage their schedules efficiently on the go. The platform provides mobile apps that make on-the-go scheduling possible, and allow business owners as well as service providers to stay on top of their appointments from anywhere. 
  • Just like Calendly, Acuity offers a Chrome extension for desktop users for quick access to scheduling functions directly from the browser. 
  • Acuity also supports website embedding of booking pages to integrate the scheduling process into your business's online presence.

Integration: Calendly takes the lead 

As for integration capabilities, Calendly takes the lead with its almost infinite range of connections to popular business tools. This broader integration ecosystem gives Calendly an edge, especially for businesses that rely heavily on CRM systems and video conferencing platforms. 

Calendly

Calendly offers an impressive amount of approximately 100 integrations with a strong emphasis on CRM and video conferencing platforms. This wide range of connections allows Calendly to be extremely versatile across various business tools, which makes it an excellent choice for companies looking to incorporate scheduling into their many existing workflows. From sales and marketing to customer service and human resources, Calendly's integrations cover quite a range of business functions.

Acuity

Acuity, while still offering solid integration options, provides around 40 integrations with a focus mainly on accounting software and payment processing tools. This makes Acuity especially useful for businesses that prioritize smoother financial operations in their scheduling process rather than workflows. While the number of integrations is smaller compared to Calendly, Acuity's targeted approach can be beneficial for service-based businesses that need strong financial tool connections.

Calendly shines in team scheduling

In team scheduling, Calendly stands out with its more advanced and flexible options. Its features for managing team availability and distributing bookings give it an edge over competitors, especially for larger teams or organizations with more complex scheduling needs. 

Calendly 

  • Has advanced team scheduling options for all kinds of organizational needs. Its round-robin scheduling feature automatically distributes appointments among team members to make sure that you have an equitable workload. 
  • It also has a collective scheduling option which allows for booking meetings with multiple team members simultaneously, which is ideal for scenarios like panel interviews or multi-department consultations. 
  • What's more, Calendly's routing features direct bookings to the most suitable team member based on customizable criteria to maximize efficiency and improve client experience.

Acuity

Acuity also offers solid team scheduling features, though less advanced than Calendly's.

  • It supports multiple staff members and locations that allow businesses to manage a diverse workforce across various sites. 
  • One of Acuity's strengths is its client-centric approach that allows clients to choose specific team members when booking appointments. This feature can come especially handy for businesses where personal relationships with specific staff members are important, such as in consulting or healthcare services.

Acuity is better at payment processing

Calendly 

When we look at payment processing through scheduling platforms, Acuity takes a slight lead over Calendly. With broader payment options available across all its plans, Acuity offers more flexibility for businesses that count on upfront payments or deposits. This can be especially useful for service-based businesses or those that offer paid appointments as it gives you the possibility to do bookings and payments at once.

Calendly integrates payment processing into its platform using popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. However, it's important to keep in mind that these payment features are only available in Calendly's paid plans

Acuity

Acuity, on the other hand, is a bit more inclusive when it comes to payment processing. It offers integration with multiple payment gateways, including Square, Stripe, and PayPal, across all its plans. It may also be good to add that Acuity has no free plans available. Regardless, it having more options gives Acuity an edge in this comparison, especially for businesses that prioritize flexible payment options for their clients.

Automated Notifications: Acuity is simple but beautiful

In the world of online booking and appointment scheduling, both Calendly and Acuity offer certain automation features for bettering your scheduling process and client communication. However, after a closer look, Acuity seems to take the lead in this area.

Calendly 

For automation, Calendly focuses on its Workflows feature. 

  • This system allows users to create customizable reminders and follow-ups to reduce no-shows and improve the overall meeting experience. 
  • Calendly's Workflows can also be used to remind invitees of upcoming meetings, reconfirm event attendance, prompt for post-meeting feedback, send thank-you notes, and follow up for the next meeting. 
  • An interesting feature is the ability to mark invitees as no-shows to prevent sending follow-up Workflows.

Acuity

Acuity Scheduling’s automated notification system allows for customizable email and text message reminders, confirmations, receipts, and follow-ups. 

  • The notification templates can be manually adjusted to match your brand and tone as well as the ability to create multiple templates for different appointment types. 
  • The platform also offers a number of notification options including summary emails about upcoming appointments and the ability to track all notifications sent for a specific appointment, all through a changelog. 
  • Acuity's Growing and Powerhouse plans are also impressive: They include text message reminders, which is a feature highly effective in reducing no-shows.

Security and Compliance: Calendly does it better

Both Calendly and Acuity have strong security measures against protecting your clients' information in online booking, but Calendly does it better with its more exhaustive certifications and security features.

Calendly

Calendly has enterprise-grade security features and an impressive set of compliance certifications. 

  • According to their official documentation, Calendly is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified
  • The platform also complies with GDPR and CCPA regulations, which protects the data of users in various regions. 
  • Calendly applies uses encryption for data in transit and at rest, uses secure data centers, and conducts regular third-party penetration testing. For businesses handling payments through their scheduling tool, Calendly also maintains PCI DSS compliance.

Acuity

Acuity Scheduling, now part of Squarespace, also prioritizes data privacy and security. 

  • While they don't explicitly mention SOC 2 or ISO certifications, Acuity emphasizes its compliance with GDPR and CCPA. 
  • One of Acuity's standout features is its HIPAA compliance option, which is available on higher-tier plans. This makes Acuity especially attractive for healthcare-related businesses that need to make sure their patients’ data is protected during their appointment scheduling process.

Calendly vs. Acuity Pricing: Calendly has a free option

When comparing Acuity’s pricing with Calendly’s pricing, Calendly takes the advantage by offering more flexible options, including a free tier and generally lower prices across plans. This makes Calendly a better option for individuals and small businesses looking for cost-effective scheduling solutions.

Here's a detailed comparison of their pricing plans:

Plan Calendly (Monthly) Calendly (Annual) Acuity (Monthly) Acuity (Annual)
Free/Basic Free Free - -
Entry-Level $12/seat/mo $10/seat/mo $20/mo $16/mo
Mid-Tier $20/seat/mo $16/seat/mo $34/mo $27/mo
Advanced - - $61/mo $49/mo
Enterprise Custom Custom Custom Custom

Note: Calendly Enterprise starts at $15K/year. Prices are in USD. Annual plans show monthly equivalent cost.

Key pricing advantages for Calendly

  • Free tier available for basic needs
  • Lower entry point for paid plans
  • Per-seat pricing model, which can be more cost-effective for small teams

Key pricing advantages for Acuity

  • More features included in base paid plan
  • Flat-rate pricing for multiple users on all plans
  • HIPAA compliance available on higher-tier plans

Note: Pricing information was sourced directly from Calendly (Pricing | Calendly) and Acuity Scheduling (Pricing & Sign up - Acuity Online Appointment Scheduler) websites. This information was last verified on 7 October 2024. Please check the official websites for the most up-to-date pricing and features, as they may change over time.

The best of both worlds: Discover Zeeg

Yes, both Calendly and Acuity are good scheduling tools with their own strengths. But imagine having the option where the best features of both are combined into one powerful app. This is exactly where Zeeg enters the scene, and it's not just good – it's exceptional.

Why Zeeg?

Zeeg takes the user-friendly interface that Calendly users love, pairs it with the advanced functionality that Acuity users rely on. Zeeg then goes above and beyond to offer some solid and unique features that address the pain points many businesses face with their current scheduling solutions.

 Here's why Zeeg may be the ideal scheduling tool for your business:

  1. Extensive Integrations: Seamlessly connect with essential tools like Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, PayPal, Stripe, HubSpot, and Salesforce to take your workflow to a whole new level across platforms.
  2. Smart Routing Forms: Automatically direct meeting requests to the right team member based on customizable criteria to save time and increase efficiency in scheduling.
  3. Customizable Booking Pages: Tailor your scheduling page to match your brand aesthetics and create a better experience for your clients.
  4. GDPR Compliance and Data Privacy: Prioritize your clients' data security with Zeeg's strong focus on GDPR compliance and strong privacy measures.
  5. Flexible Scheduling Options: From one-on-one meetings to group events and round-robin scheduling, Zeeg manages to fill the cracks and focus on various business needs.
  6. Scalable Pricing: With plans ranging from free to business-level, Zeeg grows with your organization.

Is Zeeg right for you?

Zeeg might be the perfect solution if you're looking for a scheduling tool that:

  • Offers a balance between simplicity and advanced functionality
  • Prioritizes data privacy and GDPR compliance
  • Provides flexibility to grow with your business
  • Combines the best features of Calendly and Acuity in one platform

To get a more in-depth understanding of how Zeeg compares to Calendly and why it might be the ideal choice for your scheduling needs, we recommend checking out our detailed comparison: Calendly Alternative: Why Zeeg is the Best GDPR-Compliant Option

And, if you're looking for more options, check out our guide on Calendly alternatives for a broader perspective on scheduling solutions.

Conclusion

When deciding between Calendly and Acuity Scheduling, consider your specific business needs and preferences. 

And what is the difference between Calendly and Acuity? Now, Calendly has an undeniable advantage with its user-friendly interface and team collaboration features, which will attract businesses that are looking for an easy and effective tool to manage their schedules.

Acuity, on the other hand, is a bit more complex to use - but for a reason. It has more advanced tools for service-based businesses, including extensive client management and payment processing. It's the better choice if you need to handle complex booking scenarios, offer packages or subscriptions, or need more in-depth customization options for your scheduling page. 

As both platforms come with powerful tools to better your workflow, it is not realistic to conclude that one is better than the other - simply because they shine in different areas. In the end, your choice will depend on your specific needs, budget, and desired features.

But don't overlook alternatives that might better suit your requirements. Zeeg, a rising player in the scheduling market, combines the best of both worlds. It offers a user-friendly interface, advanced features, and a strong focus on data privacy and GDPR compliance. 

Ready to take your scheduling to the next level? Visit Zeeg to discover how this innovative platform can revolutionize your appointment booking process. With its user-friendly interface, strong features, and specific focus on data privacy, Zeeg might just be the perfect solution you've been looking for.

Remember, the right scheduling tool can significantly boost your productivity and professional image. Take the time to explore all options, including Zeeg, to find the perfect fit for your scheduling needs.