Automate Basics

Microsoft Bookings vs Acuity Scheduling

Pick up to 4 tools and see their free plans, entry prices, platforms and limits in one table. Every fact comes from each vendor's own pages, checked 21 October 2026.

Compared on
Microsoft Bookings

Free trial · from $5.40/user/mo

Acuity Scheduling

Free trial · from $16/mo

What it isBooking pages inside Microsoft 365 with Teams meeting links; included in business plans, not sold on its ownClient booking for service businesses with intake forms, packages and payments, priced by number of calendars
Free planNoNo
Cheapest paid plan$5.40/user/mo billed annually (Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams))Microsoft Bookings pricing$16/mo billed annually (Starter)Acuity Scheduling pricing
What it coversAnnual 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.1 calendar; payments, email reminders, intake forms and automatic time zone conversion. Prices exclude taxes; yearly billing saves 20%.
Free trialOne-month free trial of Microsoft 365 business plans; a credit card is required7-day free trial, no credit card needed
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)Not statedCalendars, payment processors, marketing, accounting (QuickBooks, FreshBooks) and video apps, plus 500+ apps through Zapier
Open sourceNoNo
Good for
  • Organisations already on Microsoft 365 that want booking pages at no extra cost
  • Booking customer appointments that run as Teams meetings
  • Letting staff publish a personal booking page next to their Outlook calendar
  • Service businesses that take deposits or prepayment at booking
  • Selling session packages, memberships and gift certificates
  • Small multi-staff or multi-location businesses sharing one account
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
  • No free plan; the free trial lasts 7 days
  • Starter has 1 calendar and Standard up to 6; more staff or locations need Premium (36 calendars) or Enterprise
  • Text reminders, waitlists and packages need Standard; the HIPAA BAA, AI Booking Assistant and removing Acuity branding need Premium
Made byMicrosoft CorporationSquarespace

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in scheduling and booking tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.