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The cheapest scheduling app in 2026
Booking tools look identical until you count how they charge. Cal.com and Calendly charge per seat. Acuity charges per account. Square Appointments charges per location, and Square Free is $0/mo per location with card processing billed on top. These are the real prices, re-checked from each vendor's page.
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 cheapest option for one person. Visit Cal.com
- Pick Square Appointments if the visit takes a card. Visit Square Appointments
- Pick Acuity Scheduling if you pay per account rather than per seat. Visit Acuity Scheduling
- Pick Calendly if you need the best known booking link. Visit Calendly
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Cheapest for one person: Cal.com Cal.com is free for one user with unlimited event types and unlimited bookings. Calendly's free tier is one user and one event type only. See Cal.com pricing Best if the visit takes a card: Square Appointments Square Appointments Free is $0/mo per location.
| 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.
Cheapest for one person: Cal.com
Cal.com is free for one user with unlimited event types and unlimited bookings. Calendly's free tier is one user and one event type only.
See Cal.com pricingBest if the visit takes a card: 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 pay per account rather than per seat: Acuity Scheduling
Acuity prices per account, not per seat: Standard is $34/mo ($27/mo billed annually) for six calendars and 500 SMS credits, so five people cost the same as one.
See Acuity Scheduling pricingBest known booking link: Calendly
Standard is $10 per seat per month billed annually ($12 monthly) and Teams is $16 per seat for round-robin and routing.
See Calendly 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 - free for one user with unlimited event types and unlimited bookings. Calendly's free tier is one user and one event type only.
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 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.