Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover scheduling & booking. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Acuity Scheduling | SimplyBook.me | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $16 | From $11.90 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Scheduling & Booking | Scheduling & Booking |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Booking pages with intake forms
Acuity handles the part of booking that Calendly leaves out: intake forms, packages, deposits and paid appointments, with the money taken before anybody shows up. Squarespace owns it now and the two share an account. There is no free plan, so it is bought by people whose calendar already earns.
Our note
No free plan at all is the clearest difference from everything else here. Setmore and Cal.com take bookings for nothing, so the $16 is worth paying only when the intake form and the payment at booking are the point.
Booking for a business with staff
SimplyBook.me is built for the appointment business rather than the meeting: several providers, a service list, deposits taken at the point of booking, and an app for the client. Its plans are counted in bookings a month instead of seats. That is the right unit for a studio with four staff and the wrong one for a consultant taking four calls a week.
Our note
This is the answer when a business has staff and takes deposits. For a personal booking link it is more machinery than the job needs, and Cal.com or TidyCal will be set up in ten minutes.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.