Expert Guide Editorially reviewed

The Best Appointment Scheduling Software in 2026

One of these is $29 once. Another is already in Microsoft 365. Calendly's free plan allows one event type. Cal.com's does not.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 840,000+ readers · Updated Sep 2026

Independently researched. No pay-for-placement. 5 tools compared

TL;DR

Calendly is free for one event type, then $10 per seat per month billed yearly ($16 on Teams). Cal.com is free forever for one user with unlimited event types; Teams is $12 per user per month billed yearly. SavvyCal has no standing free plan: Basic is $10 per user per month billed yearly, Premium $17. Microsoft Bookings is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7 per user per month (USD, from 1 July 2026), not sold on its own. TidyCal is free with unlimited booking types, or $29 once for Individual Lifetime.

Appointment scheduling software is the same product in a screenshot and five different products on an invoice. Calendly sells a seat after one event type. Cal.com gives an individual unlimited event types at $0. TidyCal sells a lifetime license.

Microsoft puts Bookings inside a suite you may already pay for. SavvyCal charges from the first link.

You are not choosing a booking page. You are choosing whether the next event type, the next teammate, or the next year costs money.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

Best Appointment Scheduling Software in 2026: 5 tools compared, updated Sep 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Calendly	Free: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling. Standard $10/seat/mo billed yearly (save 17% vs…	External meetings where the other person already expects a Calendly link
Cal.com	Free forever for one user: unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, Stripe and PayPal, two-way…	Founders who want unlimited event types without paying, or who will self-host later
SavvyCal	No standing free plan. Basic $10/user/mo billed yearly (save 2 months vs monthly): unlimited calendars, unlimited…	People who care more about the invitee's calendar overlay than about a free tier
Microsoft Bookings	Not sold as a standalone product. Included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7/user/mo USD, with Teams), Business…	Teams already on Microsoft 365 who only need Outlook and Teams bookings
TidyCal	Free forever: unlimited bookings, unlimited booking types, paid bookings via Stripe and PayPal, 1 calendar connection…	Solo operators who want unlimited booking types without a monthly seat

Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Sep 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.

Lowest monthly figure each vendor publishes, checked Sep 2026. A tilde marks a figure the vendor states approximately. Per-seat and usage charges can sit on top of it. Every tool here publishes a monthly price.

Calendly

Top Pick

Best for: External meetings where the other person already expects a Calendly link

PricingFree: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one scheduling. Standard $10/seat/mo billed yearly (save 17% vs monthly). Teams $16/seat/mo billed yearly (save 20%): round robin, lead routing, Salesforce. Enterprise starts at $15,000/year, 50-seat minimum, USD only. Seats are for hosts; invitees do not need one. Notetaker and Callie are add-ons on Standard and Teams, not in the base price. 14-day trial on paid plans. Checked 1 September 2026.

+Invitees recognise the page, which cuts the 'is this a real link' pause on sales and recruiting calls

+Conflict checking across Google, Outlook, Exchange and iCloud is reliable on paid plans (six calendars)

+Teams at $16 adds round robin and Salesforce, which is the actual sales use case

−Free is one event type. The moment you add a follow-up, you are paying

−Per-seat pricing adds up for a team where only a few people take bookings

Visit Calendly →

Cal.com

Best for: Founders who want unlimited event types without paying, or who will self-host later

PricingFree forever for one user: unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, Stripe and PayPal, two-way Salesforce and HubSpot sync, 1-click Calendly import. Teams $12/user/mo billed yearly (save 25%): shared availability, round robin, routing forms, remove branding. Organizations $28/user/mo billed yearly (save 25%): SSO, SCIM, SOC 2 / HIPAA / ISO 27001. Enterprise custom. 14-day trial on paid plans. Self-hosted open-source is a separate path. Checked 1 September 2026.

+Free for one user with unlimited event types, which is the cut Calendly uses to force an upgrade

+Teams at $12 yearly undercuts Calendly Teams at $16 for the same round-robin job

+You can self-host the same product if cloud lock-in is the reason you have not picked a vendor

−Invitees will not recognise the brand, which matters a little when the booker is a customer

−Team features (round robin, managed events, branding removal) start at the $12 plan, not Free

Visit Cal.com →

SavvyCal

Best for: People who care more about the invitee's calendar overlay than about a free tier

PricingNo standing free plan. Basic $10/user/mo billed yearly (save 2 months vs monthly): unlimited calendars, unlimited links, team scheduling, round robin, collective and group modes. Premium $17/user/mo billed yearly: custom domains, delegated access, paid bookings, remove branding. Trial before you activate; 30-day money-back. Checked 1 September 2026.

+Calendar overlay is a real difference: invitees see their own busy time while they pick a slot

+Ranked availability lets you push preferred times without hiding the rest

+Basic already includes team scheduling and round robin, which Calendly holds for Teams at $16

−No standing free plan, so you pay to find out if the overlay matters to your invitees

−Paid bookings, custom domains and branding removal sit on Premium at $17

Visit SavvyCal →

Microsoft Bookings

Best for: Teams already on Microsoft 365 who only need Outlook and Teams bookings

PricingNot sold as a standalone product. Included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7/user/mo USD, with Teams), Business Standard ($14), and Business Premium ($22), prices effective 1 July 2026 per Microsoft's commercial price update. Also included in Microsoft 365 / Office 365 E1, E3, E5, F1, F3 and education/government equivalents, plus Teams Essentials and Teams Premium. No extra per-booking fee. If you already hold one of those licences, the incremental cost is $0. Checked 1 September 2026.

+No second vendor and no second seat if Business Basic or above is already paid

+Native Outlook and Teams, so the booking stays inside the tenant your IT already approved

+Staff, services and a public booking page cover the salon-and-office use case without another login

−The booking page is plainer and less familiar to people who expect Calendly

−Weak outside Microsoft: Google-first companies will fight the calendar instead of the calendar fighting for them

Visit Microsoft Bookings →

TidyCal

Best for: Solo operators who want unlimited booking types without a monthly seat

PricingFree forever: unlimited bookings, unlimited booking types, paid bookings via Stripe and PayPal, 1 calendar connection, 1% platform fee on paid bookings. Individual Lifetime $29 one-time via AppSumo: auto-create Zoom/Meet/Teams links, group bookings, 10 calendars. Agency Lifetime $79 one-time: round robin, collective meetings, 25 calendars, SMS reminders (US and Canada). Pro $12/mo or $99/year ($8.25/mo billed yearly): no TidyCal branding, custom domain, no platform fee. Checked 1 September 2026.

+Free includes unlimited booking types and paid bookings, which is the opposite of Calendly's one-type cap

+$29 once for Individual Lifetime is less than three months of Calendly Standard

+Agency at $79 once adds round robin without a per-seat subscription

−Free does not auto-create Zoom, Meet or Teams links. That starts at the $29 lifetime plan

−Lifetime plans are sold through AppSumo, which is a different checkout and a different support path than a normal SaaS

Visit TidyCal →

What it is

Appointment scheduling software is a booking link. You connect a calendar, define meeting types (a 30-minute intro, a 15-minute follow-up), set availability rules, and send a URL. The other person picks a slot that is actually free.

A confirmation, a video link, and a reminder go out without another email thread.

The category now splits into three shapes. Per-seat cloud (Calendly, SavvyCal, Cal.com Teams) charges every host. Buy once (TidyCal Lifetime) is a one-time AppSumo license.

Bundled (Microsoft Bookings) is a line inside Microsoft 365, not a second vendor. The booking page looks similar. The bill does not.

Why it matters

The free-tier cut is where the real cost sits, and it is the number each vendor puts in the smallest type. Calendly Free allows one event type and one calendar. The week you need both an intro call and a follow-up, you are on Standard at $10 a seat.

Cal.com Free allows unlimited event types for one user. TidyCal Free allows unlimited booking types, but not auto-created Zoom or Meet links. Those are not variations on a theme.

The second cost is double-paying. A company on Microsoft 365 that also buys Calendly Teams is paying twice for the same booking job.

That can be the right call when the invitee already knows the Calendly link. It is rarely the accidental one people think they made.

Key features to look for

What the free plan allows

Event-type caps, calendar connections, and whether video links generate automatically. This decides the three-year cost more than any feature row.

License shape

Per-seat subscription, one-time lifetime, or bundled in Microsoft 365. A $10 seat and a $29 lifetime look close in month one and are not close in year three.

Team routing and round robin

Whether inbound bookings land on one person or spread across a team. This is the feature that moves you off the individual plan, and it is gated on every product here except Bookings-in-a-suite.

Calendar connections

How many calendars the tool reads so it does not double-book you. Free tiers often allow one. Paid tiers allow several. A second personal calendar is how a free plan stops being free.

Invitee experience

Whether the person booking already knows the link, and whether they can overlay their own calendar. Calendly wins on recognition. SavvyCal wins on the overlay. The rest are fine and unfamiliar.

Mistakes to avoid

×Buying Calendly seats for a company that already pays for Microsoft 365. Bookings is on Business Basic at $7 a user. The second bill is only justified when the invitee experience is the reason you are paying.

×Comparing booking pages and skipping the event-type cap. Calendly Free looks complete until the second meeting type. Cal.com Free and TidyCal Free do not have that cap. Read that line first.

×Treating TidyCal Lifetime as a full white-label. Individual and Agency reduce branding. Removing it, and the 1% fee on paid bookings, is Pro.

Expert tips

→Count the event types you actually send before you pick a plan. One type can live on Calendly Free. Two types is $10 a month there, or $0 on Cal.com or TidyCal.

→Only buy seats for people who host. Invitees never need a seat on any of these. A ten-person company with two people taking calls is two seats, not ten.

→If you already run Outlook and Teams, open Bookings before you open a new vendor. The incremental cost is zero. Switch only after you have seen the booking page a customer would see.

The bottom line

Pay once or pay nothing if you can. TidyCal at $29 for Individual Lifetime, or free if you can live without auto-created video links, is the cheapest way to own a booking page. Cal.com Free is the right cloud default for one person: unlimited event types, payments, and CRM sync at $0.

Move to Cal.com Teams at $12 only when round robin is a real requirement.

Calendly at $10 a seat is the right call when the person booking already expects that link. Teams at $16 is for Salesforce and routing, not for a nicer page.

Microsoft Bookings is the correct first stop on Microsoft 365. SavvyCal at $10 is for the overlay, and only if you have already decided a free plan is not the constraint.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free appointment scheduling software?

Cal.com Free if you want a cloud product with unlimited event types, payments, and CRM sync for one user. TidyCal Free if you want unlimited booking types and can create video links yourself. Calendly Free is enough for a single event type and one calendar, and it stops there. Microsoft Bookings is free only in the sense that it is already inside a Microsoft 365 licence you pay for.

How much does Calendly cost?

On calendly.com/pricing, checked 1 September 2026: Free for one event type and one calendar; Standard $10 per seat per month billed yearly (17% off monthly); Teams $16 per seat per month billed yearly (20% off); Enterprise from $15,000 a year with a 50-seat minimum. Invitees do not need a seat. Notetaker and Callie are add-ons.

Calendly vs Cal.com vs TidyCal: which should I get?

Calendly if the invitee already knows the brand and you will pay $10 a seat for that. Cal.com if you want unlimited event types free, or $12 a user for team routing, or to self-host later. TidyCal if you want to pay $29 once (or $0) and do not need Calendly's Salesforce depth. Do not buy all three.

Is Microsoft Bookings free?

It has no standalone price. It is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium, and in many Enterprise, Frontline, education and government SKUs. Business Basic is $7 per user per month in USD as of 1 July 2026. If that licence is already on the invoice, Bookings costs nothing extra. If you are not on Microsoft 365, you are buying a suite to get a booking page.

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