Acuity Scheduling vs Square Appointments Comparison 2026
Both cover scheduling & booking. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Booking pages with intake forms
Booking and payments in one account
At a glance
- Acuity Scheduling starts cheaper, at $16.
- Only Square Appointments has a free tier.
Side by side
Acuity Scheduling | Square Appointments | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $16 | From $49 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 7 days | 30 days |
| API |
Acuity Scheduling
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.
Square Appointments
Booking and payments in one account
Square Appointments runs a booking site, staff calendars and reminders, and takes the payment through Square rather than through a separate processor. The free plan covers one location with no monthly fee at all, and the processing rate is where Square earns instead. Paying lowers that rate and adds the scheduling controls a team needs. Anybody who only wants a calendar link and never takes a payment is paying attention to the wrong half of this product.
Our note
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.