Calendly vs SimplyBook.me

Calendly is the best-known meeting scheduling tool, founded in 2013 by Tope Awotona and based in Atlanta. You share a booking link or embed it on a website, invitees pick a time based on your real availability across connected Google, Outlook or iCloud calendars, and Calendly adds a video conferencing link, sends confirmations and reminders, and can follow up after the meeting.

Event types define duration, buffers, minimum notice, intake questions and payment collection through Stripe or PayPal. Team features include round-robin distribution, collective events that need several hosts, managed event templates and routing forms that qualify leads and send them to the right person, including routing based on Salesforce or HubSpot data. Workflows automate emails and text messages around meetings, and analytics show booking trends. Pricing is per seat: the free plan includes one event type and one calendar connection, Standard unlocks unlimited event types and integrations, Teams adds round robin, Salesforce and routing, and Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM and advanced security.

Calendly fits sales, recruiting and customer success teams that need reliable scheduling and CRM sync, and its familiarity among external invitees is a real advantage. Individuals can find better value elsewhere: Cal.com is open source with a generous free plan, SavvyCal lets invitees overlay their own calendar, and zcal is free for individuals. Chili Piper competes on inbound lead routing for larger sales teams, and Microsoft Bookings is included in many Microsoft 365 plans.

SimplyBook.me is an online appointment booking system for service businesses such as salons, clinics, fitness studios, tutors and consultancies. It started in Iceland in 2009 as a local project to move service bookings online, and SimplyBook.me Ltd is now headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, with offices in Iceland and Ukraine. Its core job is to give a business a mobile-friendly booking page and widget so clients can pick a service, provider and time slot and pay without a phone call.

The admin side covers calendars for several providers and locations, automatic email and SMS reminders, intake forms and client records. Optional custom features add packages, memberships, gift cards, coupons, waiting lists, tips and a point-of-sale module with Tap to Pay. Plans are priced in euros and capped by monthly bookings: the free plan covers 50 bookings and one provider, while Basic, Standard and Premium raise booking limits, providers and the number of custom features you can switch on.

It fits small and mid-sized service businesses that want booking, payments and light POS in one subscription. The admin interface is dense, the feature toggles take time to learn, and booking caps push busy studios up the tiers quickly. Calendly suits meeting scheduling for knowledge workers better, Acuity Scheduling is simpler for solo practitioners, and Setmore is easier for small teams that only need a calendar.

Buying tip: count your monthly bookings before picking a tier, because SMS credits, a custom domain and your own SMS gateway are sold separately.