Acuity Scheduling vs Setmore

Acuity Scheduling is an online appointment booking tool for service businesses. It was founded by Gavin Zuchlinski and acquired by Squarespace in 2019, and it is also sold inside Squarespace as Squarespace Scheduling. Clients pick a service, a staff member and a time from a booking page, fill in intake forms, pay a deposit or the full price, and receive email and SMS reminders, while the business manages availability, buffers and booking rules per staff member and location.

Beyond basic booking, Acuity handles the commercial side of appointments: packages, gift certificates, memberships and subscriptions, coupons, and payments through Stripe, Square or PayPal. Intake forms support conditional questions, which matters for clinics, therapists and coaches. Plans are tiered by the number of staff calendars: Starter (formerly Emerging) covers one, Standard (formerly Growing) up to six and Premium (formerly Powerhouse) up to 36 with multiple locations. There is a free trial but no permanent free plan.

Acuity fits salons, spas, therapists, tutors, fitness studios and consultants who sell time to individual clients. It is less suited to B2B sales teams that need round-robin routing and CRM enrichment, where Calendly or Chili Piper are stronger. Compared with Square Appointments it is more flexible on forms and packages, and compared with SimplyBook.me it offers a cleaner client experience, though its admin interface feels dated in places and SMS reminders have limits.

Setmore is an online appointment scheduling app launched in 2011 and run by AnywhereWorks, a US software company based in Portland, Oregon. It is aimed at service businesses (salons, spas, clinics, tutors, trades and consultants) that need customers to book specific services with specific staff members, then show up on time.

Each business gets a booking page with services, staff, prices and availability, plus booking buttons for its website, Facebook and Instagram and a QR code. Payments and deposits run through Stripe, Square or PayPal, including Tap to Pay on mobile. The free plan covers up to four users with unlimited appointments and email reminders. Pro adds SMS reminders (500 credits per user each month), deposits, recurring appointments, video meetings via Zoom or Google Meet, two-way calendar sync, branding removal and API access.

Setmore suits small teams that want staff-based booking at a very low price; the annual Pro rate of $5 per user is among the cheapest in the category. Acuity Scheduling offers deeper intake forms and packages, Calendly is better for B2B meeting scheduling, and Zoho Bookings fits companies already on Zoho.

A practical tip: the monthly Pro price ($12) is more than double the annual rate, so pay yearly once you are sure. The optional Live Receptionist add-on ($99/month, US only) staffs your phone line with real people.