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The cheapest appointment scheduling for a team in 2026
Booking tools look free until you need a second event type, a second person, a card payment, or a text reminder. These are the real free-tier limits and prices for the four schedulers we track, re-checked from the vendors' own pages this week.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-12. Every number below is read from the vendor's own pricing page.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Cal.com if you need the most generous free tier. Visit Cal.com
- Pick Calendly if you need the best known booking link. Visit Calendly
- Pick Square Appointments if you want booking and the card payment in one vendor. Visit Square Appointments
- Pick Acuity Scheduling if you take payment or send SMS at booking. Visit Acuity Scheduling
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Most generous free tier: Cal.com Cal.com is free for one user with unlimited event types, unlimited bookings and calendar connections - where Calendly's free plan stops at one event type. Teams are $12 per user per month and Organizations $28, and the project is open source, so self-hosting costs no licence fee.
| Tool | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 1 user, unlimited event types, unlimited bookings, calendar connections |
| Teams | $12/mo billed annually | Per user. Labeled YEARLY at $12 per user/month with a Save 25% badge. The month- |
| Organizations | $28/mo billed annually | Per user. Labeled YEARLY at $28 per user/month with a Save 25% badge. The month- |
Prices checked 2026-10-12.
Most generous free tier: Cal.com
Cal.com is free for one user with unlimited event types, unlimited bookings and calendar connections - where Calendly's free plan stops at one event type. Teams are $12 per user per month and Organizations $28, and the project is open source, so self-hosting costs no licence fee. The trade-off: Calendly's native integration list is longer, and self-hosting is your own server bill.
See Cal.com pricingBest known booking link: Calendly
Calendly is free for one user and one event type, then $10 per seat per month on Standard billed annually ($12 monthly) for unlimited event types and multiple calendars, and $16 on Teams for round-robin and meeting routing. If the value is that everyone already recognises the link, this is the one. The trade-off: routing rules start at Teams, and the free tier is one event type.
See Calendly pricingBest if you want booking and the card payment in one vendor: Square Appointments
Square Appointments Free is $0/mo per location. Card processing is billed on top, and that plan includes no text-message marketing. Square Plus is $49/mo per location and Square Premium is $149/mo per location. Both paid plans include a free 30-day trial. The page prints no annual rate.
See Square Appointments pricingBest if you take payment or send SMS at booking: Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is $20/mo on Starter ($16/mo billed annually) for 1 calendar, unlimited appointments, 100 SMS credits a month and payment processing, and $34/mo on Standard for 6 calendars and 500 SMS credits. It bundles payment processing and text reminders into the monthly price. Square Appointments Free is $0/mo per location and bills card processing separately, with no text-message marketing on that plan. The trade-off: Acuity is per calendar rather than per seat, so a large team pays differently - and there is no free tier.
See Acuity Scheduling pricingThe prices, plan by plan
Cal.com
Cal.com is free for one user. Teams is $12 per user/month and Organizations is $28 per user/month, both labeled YEARLY with a Save 25% badge. The page does not print a month-to-month price. Both paid plans say 14-day free trial. Enterprise is custom and the page says annual pricing.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 1 user, unlimited event types, unlimited bookings, calendar connections |
| Teams | $12/mo billed annually | Per user. Labeled YEARLY at $12 per user/month with a Save 25% badge. The month-to-month price is not printed. Round-robin, collective events, routing forms, and a 14-day free trial. |
| Organizations | $28/mo billed annually | Per user. Labeled YEARLY at $28 per user/month with a Save 25% badge. The month-to-month price is not printed. Sub-teams, SAML SSO, managed event types, and a 14-day free trial. |
What to watch: Cal.com's free tier is one user but unlimited event types, which is more generous than Calendly's free tier. On 2026-10-11 the paid cards were labeled YEARLY and carried a Save 25% badge, and the page did not print a month-to-month price, so that column says not printed. Self-hosting has no licence fee, but the server bill is yours and is not in the table.
Source: https://cal.com/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See Cal.com pricingCalendly
Calendly Standard is $10/seat yearly ($12 monthly) and Teams is $16 ($20); Notetaker and Callie make those $18 and $24 yearly ($24 and $32). Enterprise starts at $15,000 a year, from 50 seats. The Teams card's Popular plan badge is Calendly's, not a customer count.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 1 user, 1 event type, 1 calendar connection, unlimited bookings |
| Standard | $12/mo, or $10/mo billed annually | Per seat. Unlimited event types and multiple calendars. The yearly card says save 17%. |
| Standard Plus | $24/mo, or $18/mo billed annually | Per seat. The Add Notetaker and Callie price. The base Standard card says Notetaker is not included. The yearly price says save 25%. |
| Teams | $20/mo, or $16/mo billed annually | Per seat. Round-robin, routing, and Salesforce. The card carries Calendly's own Popular plan badge. This page does not treat that badge as a count of customers. The yearly card says save 20%. |
| Teams Plus | $32/mo, or $24/mo billed annually | Per seat. The Add Notetaker and Callie price on Teams. The page says Teams Plus adds Notetaker. The yearly price says save 25%. |
| Enterprise | custom quote | Starts at $15,000 a year and starts at 50 seats. SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and dedicated support. Not a per-seat rate. |
Prices checked 2026-10-12.
What to watch: Calendly prints the yearly per-seat rate by default. The month-to-month rates and the Notetaker prices are in the same page's plan data, which is what the billing toggle and the Add Notetaker and Callie control use. The free plan is one event type and one calendar connection. The Teams card carries Calendly's own Popular plan badge. This page does not treat that badge as a count of customers.
Source: https://calendly.com/pricing, read 2026-10-12.
See Calendly pricingAcuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is $20 a month on Starter, $34 on Standard and $61 on Premium, or $16, $27 and $49 a month billed annually, per account.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $20/mo, or $16/mo billed annually | 1 calendar, unlimited appointments, 100 SMS credits/mo, payment processing |
| Standard | $34/mo, or $27/mo billed annually | 6 calendars, 500 SMS credits/mo, coupons, gift certificates, add-ons |
| Premium | $61/mo, or $49/mo billed annually | 36 calendars, 1,500 SMS credits/mo, custom packages, advanced reporting |
Prices checked 2026-10-12.
What to watch: Acuity prices per account rather than per seat, so a team of five pays the same as a team of one - the opposite of Calendly and Cal.com. That makes it cheaper for teams and more expensive for a solo operator.
Source: https://acuityscheduling.com/pricing, read 2026-10-12.
See Acuity Scheduling pricingSquare Appointments
Square Appointments is $0/mo per location on Square Free, then $49/mo per location on Square Plus and $149/mo per location on Square Premium. Card processing is billed separately on every plan, and Square Plus and Square Premium each include a free 30-day trial.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Square Free | $0/mo | $0/mo per location. No monthly subscription cost - you only pay processing fees when you take a payment. No text-message marketing. 2.5% gift card load fee. |
| Square Plus | $49/mo | $49/mo per location. Free 30-day trial. 500 marketing texts/mo per account, then 3 cents per text. 2.5% gift card load fee. |
| Square Premium | $149/mo | $149/mo per location. Free 30-day trial. Lowest processing fees. 2,500 marketing texts/mo per account, then 1.5 cents per text. 0% gift card load fee. |
Prices checked 2026-10-12.
What to watch: Square prices per location and charges card processing on top of every plan - the monthly fee is not the whole cost. The marketing-text allowances are per account, not per location, and Square Free includes no text-message marketing.
Source: https://squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See Square Appointments pricingQuestions people ask
What is the cheapest option here?
Cal.com is free for one user with unlimited event types, and Calendly is free for one user with one event type. Square Appointments Free is $0/mo per location, and card processing is billed on top. The cheapest paid per-seat step is Calendly Standard at $10 per seat per month billed annually, then Cal.com Teams at $12 per user/month on the yearly card and Acuity Starter at $20/mo ($16 billed annually). Square Plus is $49/mo per location.
What is the difference between the free tiers?
Event types, and whether a card payment is included. Calendly's free plan allows one event type, so a 30-minute call and a 60-minute consult need a paid plan. Cal.com's free plan allows unlimited event types for one user. Square Appointments Free is $0/mo per location and bills card processing when you take a payment. It includes no text-message marketing.
Do I need SMS reminders?
If no-shows cost you money, yes. Acuity includes 100 SMS credits a month on Starter and 500 on Standard. Square Free includes no text-message marketing. Square Plus includes 500 marketing texts a month per account, then 3 cents a text, and Square Premium includes 2,500, then 1.5 cents a text. Calendly and Cal.com send email reminders and leave texting to a paid add-on or your own tool.
Are these prices first-party?
Every number on this page is read from the vendor's own pricing page or from the source named under each tool. Where a vendor renders prices in JavaScript, the caveat under that tool says so and names the source we used instead.
How often are these prices re-checked?
The dataset behind this page is re-checked against the vendors' own pricing pages every week, and the date at the top of the page is the last time every tool on it was confirmed.
Do you take payment for placement?
No. Some links on this page are affiliate links and we may earn a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. The order of the picks is set by price and fit, not by commission.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for placement, and the price tables are generated from the same dataset we re-check weekly. Full disclosure. How we check prices.