Calendly vs Microsoft Bookings
Calendly or Microsoft Bookings? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Booking-link scheduler with routing forms, Stripe and PayPal payments, and AI add-ons for notes and email | Booking pages inside Microsoft 365 with Teams meeting links; included in business plans, not sold on its own |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $10/seat/mo billed annually (Standard)Calendly pricing | $5.40/user/mo billed annually (Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams))Microsoft Bookings pricing |
| What it covers | Unlimited event types, multiple calendar connections, automations and reminders, HubSpot and Mailchimp, Stripe and PayPal payments. Seats are needed only for people who connect calendars and host meetings, not for invitees. | Annual subscription that auto-renews, for 1 to 300 users. Business Basic with Teams, which Bookings uses for online meetings, is $7.00. Monthly-commitment billing is offered, but its price is not shown on the plans page. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial; the account then moves to the Free plan | One-month free trial of Microsoft 365 business plans; a credit card is required |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, API | Web, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | 100+ integrations, including Zoom, Google Calendar, Outlook, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Stripe, PayPal and Zapier | Not stated |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Calendly LLC | Microsoft Corporation |
Choose Calendly if…
- You want a free plan: Microsoft Bookings does not have one.
- You want a mobile app (iOS and Android).
- The job is sharing a booking link so clients and prospects pick a free time.
- The job is taking payment when someone books a session.
Choose Microsoft Bookings if…
- Price matters: its cheapest paid plan is $5.40/user/mo against $10/seat/mo.
- The job is organisations already on Microsoft 365 that want booking pages at no extra cost.
- The job is booking customer appointments that run as Teams meetings.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, Calendly and Microsoft Bookings are also compared with their other rivals: Calendly vs Cal.com, Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling and Calendly vs SavvyCal.
To see one of them doing real work, read Send a Feedback Survey After a Calendly Meeting Ends.
What Calendly does
- Booking links and pages with event types, buffers, daily limits and custom availability
- Connects Google, Outlook and Microsoft calendars to avoid double bookings
- Automated email and text reminders, and follow-ups
- Payment at booking through Stripe or PayPal, on Standard and above
- Round-robin and team scheduling, with routing forms that qualify and route leads, on Teams
- Notetaker: recordings, transcripts, meeting recaps and draft follow-up emails (Plus plans)
Watch out for
- Free plan: 1 event type and 1 calendar connection, with no payments
- Round robin, team scheduling and routing forms need Teams, from $16 per seat a month billed yearly
- Notetaker and Callie come only with the Plus plans, are available only in English, and Callie is in beta
What Microsoft Bookings does
- Personal booking pages with meeting types you share as a link
- Shared booking pages for teams, with services, staff, schedules and business hours
- Each online appointment gets its own Microsoft Teams meeting link
- Email confirmations and reminders, and SMS notifications in North America
- Customers can reschedule or cancel their own appointments
- Runs on the web (book.ms) and as an app inside Teams and Outlook
Watch out for
- Not sold on its own: it needs an eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription
- No payment support: Microsoft's FAQ says you cannot link a payment option
- When customers choose any staff member, Bookings assigns staff at random, with no way to ensure equal distribution or cap assignments
Questions
Is Calendly or Microsoft Bookings cheaper?
On published entry prices, Microsoft Bookings is cheaper: $10/seat/mo billed annually (Standard) for Calendly against $5.40/user/mo billed annually (Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams)) for Microsoft Bookings. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do Calendly and Microsoft Bookings have free plans?
Calendly does; Microsoft Bookings does not; its trial: one-month free trial of Microsoft 365 business plans; a credit card is required.