Cal.com vs SimplyBook.me
Cal.com and SimplyBook.me are both scheduling & calendar tools. Cal.com is aimed at freelancers and small businesses, while SimplyBook.me is aimed at small businesses and freelancers. Both have a free plan.
Open-source scheduling infrastructure
Online booking system with payments and POS for service businesses
| Pricing | Open source · $12 | Freemium |
| Starting price | $12/mo | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| Built for | Freelancers, Small businesses | Small businesses, Freelancers |
| Platforms | web | web, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2021 | CY · 2009 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Cal.com if
Individuals, startups and developers who want a free or embeddable scheduler and value open source.
- Free tier is more generous than Calendly
- Open source; self-host or embed
- Rapid feature development
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need deep Salesforce routing and enterprise support today, or who prefer a fully managed, battle-tested brand.
Choose SimplyBook.me if
Small and mid-sized appointment-based service businesses that want booking, payments, memberships and light POS in one tool.
- Very broad feature set for a booking tool at this price
- Free plan is permanent, not just a trial
- Payments, POS and memberships remove the need for separate tools
Look elsewhere if: Knowledge workers who only need a meeting link or solo users who want the simplest setup (Calendly, Acuity Scheduling).
Cal.com vs SimplyBook.me pricing
Cal.com
- Free$01 user, unlimited event types and calendars
- Teams$12/user/moBilled yearly; round robin, routing forms, no branding
- Organizations$28/user/moBilled yearly; sub-teams, SAML SSO, SCIM
- EnterpriseCustomSLA, dedicated database, HRIS integrations
SimplyBook.me
- Free€050 bookings/mo, 1 provider, 1 custom feature
- Basic€13.9/mo€11.9/mo billed annually; 100 bookings, 5 providers
- Standard€29.9/mo€24.9/mo billed annually; 500 bookings, 15 providers
- Premium€59.9/mo€49.9/mo billed annually; 2,000 bookings, 30 providers
- EnterpriseCustomCustom booking volume and providers; contact sales
Cal.com · Key features
- Unlimited event types and bookings on the free plan
- Round-robin, collective and managed team events
- Routing forms, workflows and booking questions
- Cal Video plus Zoom, Meet, Teams integrations
- Platform APIs and embeddable atoms for building scheduling into apps
- Self-hostable open-source core
Cons
- UI polish and reliability occasionally trail Calendly
- Self-hosting is non-trivial at scale
- Some enterprise features require paid license
SimplyBook.me · Key features
- Mobile-optimised booking website plus embeddable widget for your own site
- Multi-provider and multi-location calendars with service-level rules
- Online payments via Stripe, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Point-of-sale module with Tap to Pay, QR codes and payment links
- Booking through Google, Facebook, Instagram and a branded client app
- Packages, memberships, gift cards, coupons and loyalty as add-on features
Cons
- Admin panel is cluttered and has a learning curve
- Monthly booking caps force upgrades for busy businesses
- SMS credits, custom domain and SMS gateway cost extra
Cal.com vs SimplyBook.me: FAQ
Do Cal.com and SimplyBook.me have a free plan?
Yes, both Cal.com and SimplyBook.me have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.