In this article:
Need a scheduling solution but struggling to pick the right one? Today, we’ll pin two popular booking tools against each other and examine their:
In one corner, we have Cal.com, the open-source powerhouse offering robust customization and control.
In the other, we have Calendly, the user-friendly titan known for its seamless interface and plethora of integrations.
Who will come out on top? Let’s find out!
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Cal.com |
Calendly |
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Best for |
Thanks to its open-sourced nature, Cal.com is great for code-savvy software enthusiasts who want to build custom solutions within the tool. |
This flexible and user-friendly booking tool is a good fit for teams looking for ready-made booking solutions, especially those in recruiting, sales, or marketing. |
| Free trial available | ❌ | ✅ |
| Free plan | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pricing | Starting at $15/user/month | Starting at $12/user/month |
Cal.com, formerly known as Calendso, is an open-source scheduling tool designed to offer more transparency and privacy than its competitors. Although founded pretty recently (in 2021), it’s already become a fan-favorite for tech and code-savvy software enthusiasts.
As Cal.com is a community-developed project, its users can extend or develop features, meaning new, unique features come out more regularly than on a closed platform such as Calendly.
As Benjamin D. shares:
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“The open-source approach of Cal.com is of great value for our company. Our product team can check the code instead of writing support tickets and we have already built an integration for a different tool in our stack.” |
Karan N., a team lead at a small business, dives into the pros and cons of using Cal.com:
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While he appreciates the “scheduling of calls without manual intervention - google and apple calendar sync” and “multiple options of video call - zoom, facetime, gmeet,” he feels there are “too many steps/clicks to reach the final dashboard. Maybe all the steps in one form would be easier and faster.” |
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4.6/5 (15+ reviews) |
4.5/5 (30+ reviews) |
It’s time to meet a long-standing and well-known player in the scheduling game: Calendly. Founded way back in 2013, it's a flexible and user-friendly booking tool designed to save you time on scheduling meetings.
Offering over 100 integrations, Calendly is a top choice for businesses aiming to streamline scheduling across multiple teams and industries.
Laurie W., a Small Business Consultant, explains why he chose Calendly:
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“Once set up and synced with your preferred calendar application, Calendly eliminates all the guesswork and back and forth associated with making appointments. In my recruitment business I conduct phone screening calls with suitable candidates. Before Calendly this required major brain damage to set up a time. Now, I send the applicant a link and they pick the time that suits both of us!” |
Randi A. expands a bit on his experience using Calendly:
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“If it wasn't for the almost zero customer service, I'd give Calendly 4 stars. The product is pretty good. It's nice to have a free version of an appointment calendar. However, when I upgraded to the paid version, it suddenly became much harder to find any help to contact, difficult to find my subscription and status.” |
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4.7/5 (2,100+ reviews) |
2.1/5 (100+ reviews) |
Since Cal.com is open-sourced, its ideal users are those with development resources. If you have developers on hand, you can customize the scheduling tool to fit your exact needs and workflows.
It’s also great for companies that prefer to control their own data, as the self-hosting feature allows you to do just that.
Calendly may be a better fit for teams looking for out-of-the-box collaboration tools without the need for technical expertise in setup or management.
It also offers many integrations and updates tailored to specific types of teams, such as sales, marketing, customer success, and recruitment.
Both Cal.com and Calendly are designed to do one thing: simplify your scheduling. That being said, it’s no wonder that the two share several essential booking features, including:
Now, let’s jump into the features that set these two tools apart from one another.
Since Cal.com’s target audience is software enthusiasts and power users, those looking for a simpler scheduling solution (in which they don’t have to interfere with the code to customize it) may find it a bit too complex.
Although boasting an impressive array of features, Calendly’s closed code means you won’t be able to tailor it to your needs as precisely as you can with Cal.com.
Finding a scheduling tool that aligns with your current software is crucial. After all, you don’t want to complicate your workflow using tools that don't play well together.
The good news is that both Cal.com and Calendly integrate with a multitude of popular apps, including:
Each booking tool additionally offers a robust selection of integrations the other doesn’t. Let’s take a look at those to see whether Cal.com or Calendly syncs with your preferred apps.
While generally offering fewer integrations than its competitor (65 to Calendly’s 116), Cal.com manages to stand out in a few categories:
Aside from these, Cal.com’s unique integrations include Albie, Sendgrid, Deel, Giphy, n8n, Raycast, Pipedream, Vital, Basecamp3, Deel, Zoho Bigin, Google Tag Manager, Plausible, and Fathom.
Calendly stands out in integration rankings, offering an extensive selection of over 100. Notably, Calendly's booking tool seamlessly syncs with various popular apps, some of which, like Notion, Jotform, Squarespace, Asana, Monday.com, Slack, and Trello, are not supported by Cal.com.
Aside from the sheer number of integrations, Calendly shines in a few team-specific categories:
Cal.com’s plans (billed monthly) include:
Cal.com doesn’t offer a readily accessible free trial; you’ll need to contact the team to request one.
Calendly’s plans (billed monthly) include:
Calendly offers a 14-day free trial of their Teams plan.
Who has the best insights on these scheduling apps? Current users, of course!
Take a glance at user reviews for both Cal.com and Calendly to gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each scheduling software.
Jeroen C., a pre-incubator program manager, explains why he chose Cal.com over Calendly:
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What do you like best about Cal.com? I came from Calendly, where I had a lot of features I didn't need in a paid account. Cal.com's free account for a freelancer like me is great. It packs quite some features, including Google Analytics and workflows. Support has been very responsive in fixing things, big plus! |
An employee in a mid-market company specializing in computer software shares their experience using Cal.com:
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What do you like best about Cal.com? We moved from the incumbent to Cal.com 1.5y ago for our sales and marketing efforts because the design is much better, and we wanted prospects to have a better experience. After moving, we realized there were a lot of useful hidden features, my favorite being the ability to create links that combine the availability of multiple people, by doing cal.com/name1+name2+name3. This is a lifesaver when you would otherwise have to maintain 30+ links to include all permutations of client success and engineering across all time zones. Onboarding took less than 5 minutes, and support responded pretty much instantly, so we never looked back. What do you dislike about Cal.com? Not much outside of my frustration about not being able to use cal.ai with everyone because it's not fully socially acceptable, which is a shame because having an AI schedule calls makes complete sense and saves a lot of time. |
Kate M W., Head of International at a small business, shares her experience using Calendly:
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What do you like best about Calendly? |
Morgan M., a recruiter for a mid-market enterprise, delves into their thoughts on the tool:
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What do you like best about Calendly? Calendly is very user friendly and provides plenty of resources and customer support to understand all of its offerings. Allowing candidates to schedule their own phone interviews has been such a game changer and frees up a large portion of my time. This is a must have tool for me that I use every single day. The integration with our applicant tracking system, JazzHR, was very simple as well. What do you dislike about Calendly? One of the downsides for me has been the inability to override my own schedule when attempting to reschedule phone interviews. I'll typically have to make a lot of adjustments to my Outlook calendar just to make a specific space appear as available. |
In the end, the decision between Cal.com and Calendly hinges on the scope of your business and your specific priorities.
👉 Have developers ready and willing? Cal.com excels with teams capable of developing custom solutions thanks to its open-source nature. It’s also a good choice for those placing a premium on data control and privacy, as well as teams seeking deep integration with their systems.
👉 Prefer a ready-to-go tool? Calendly may be a better choice for teams looking for out-of-the-box solutions, where customization doesn’t require any coding knowledge. Thanks to its vast integrations, it’s also a valuable pick for teams in specific industries (such as recruiting, marketing, or sales).
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Have tools you already love using? No problem! YCBM seamlessly connects with your preferred tools like Google Calendar, Zoom, Google Meet, Stripe, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and thousands more via Zapier. |
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