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.
| SimplyBook.me | zcal | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $11.90 | From $7 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | 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 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.
Scheduling with most of it on the free plan
zcal is a booking page in the Calendly shape, and its argument is how much sits on the free tier: the paid plans are mostly about branding, teams and payments rather than about how many event types you may have. Booking pages carry a designed cover rather than a plain form. For one person sending a link, the free plan is usually the whole product.
Our note
Start on free and expect to stay there if you are one person, because the paid tiers are aimed at teams rather than at power users. Cal.com is the alternative worth weighing, and it is open source if self-hosting matters to you.
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.