Automate Basics

Zoho Bookings vs Calendly vs 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.

Written head to head: Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling · Calendly vs Microsoft Bookings, with when to choose each side.

Compared on
Zoho Bookings

Free plan · from $6/user/mo

Calendly

Free plan · from $10/seat/mo

Microsoft Bookings

Free trial · from $5.40/user/mo

Acuity Scheduling

Free trial · from $16/mo

What it isZoho's appointment scheduler with a free one-user plan, round-robin algorithms and resource bookingBooking-link scheduler with routing forms, Stripe and PayPal payments, and AI add-ons for notes and emailBooking 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 plan1 user; online meetings; email notifications and reminders; two-way calendar sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft 365/Outlook.com1 event type and 1 calendar connection; one-on-one scheduling, a customizable booking page and the browser extension; no paymentsNoNo
Cheapest paid plan$6/user/mo billed annually (Basic)Zoho Bookings pricing$10/seat/mo billed annually (Standard)Calendly pricing$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 covers1 workspace; round robin, collective bookings and email workflows. Payments, routing forms and SMS workflows need Premium.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.1 calendar; payments, email reminders, intake forms and automatic time zone conversion. Prices exclude taxes; yearly billing saves 20%.
Free trial15-day Premium trial, no credit card needed; the account can then continue on the Free plan14-day free trial; the account then moves to the Free planOne-month free trial of Microsoft 365 business plans; a credit card is required7-day free trial, no credit card needed
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, Browser extension, APIWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, APIWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)75+ Zoho and third-party apps, and 850+ apps through Zapier or Zoho Flow100+ integrations, including Zoom, Google Calendar, Outlook, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Stripe, PayPal and ZapierNot statedCalendars, payment processors, marketing, accounting (QuickBooks, FreshBooks) and video apps, plus 500+ apps through Zapier
Open sourceNoNoNoNo
Good for
  • Teams already using Zoho CRM or Zoho One
  • Booking rooms and equipment alongside staff
  • Distributing appointments across staff by workload or priority
  • Sharing a booking link so clients and prospects pick a free time
  • Taking payment when someone books a session
  • Routing inbound leads to the right sales rep with round robin
  • 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
  • The free plan is limited to 1 user
  • Payments, routing forms, group and resource bookings, SMS workflows and white labelling need Premium
  • Basic includes 1 workspace and Premium 3; extra workspaces and resources are paid add-ons
  • 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
  • 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 byZoho CorporationCalendly LLCMicrosoft 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.