It's tiring, and nearly impossible, to try all the appointment schedulers on the market and then choose the one that works for you.
One aspect of product management is understanding the competition. Zoho Bookings launched in February 2020 and is over three years into the market; meanwhile, many competing appointment scheduling apps have been around for a decade or more. There are numerous ways for us to learn from them.
Like customers in search of the best appointment scheduling software, we also went through G2Crowd and influencer reviews. None of those places answered the question of which is the best, and more importantly, why? G2Crowd reviews sent us in all directions, including toward CRM systems, when all we wanted was to find appointment scheduling software. Influencer reviews are unhelpful; every app in a listing of "best apps" is good, which is the nicest (and least-effective) way to do a review!
We spent six months studying multiple appointment scheduling software options and drew our own conclusions. This made us realize how tiring it would be for a customer to do the same research. We've written up this comparison of appointment schedulers in order to give valuable information and definite answers about the best appointment scheduling apps.
You might argue that there's no definite answer, and that it's more important to find an appointment scheduling software that suits a company's specific needs. We disagree—we can find the best choice if we filter the apps based on principles that guide the universal buying process.
Up until this point, it's a very logical process. Next, we enter the subjective areas, where we ask:
Our team applied the same thought process to find the best appointment scheduling software on the market. We restricted our study to those appointment scheduling apps that frequently come up on the first page of Google search results.
Needs vs budget plot: We plotted 75 appointment scheduling features against the best plan each app can offer for $25. The appointment scheduling app that has the most features for $25 is the best value-for-money app.
Why did we choose $25? We've seen in reviews that people are happy to pay that much for a month to automate appointment scheduling. We have included Square Appointments as an exception (its base plan costs $29).
Quality of support: After we made the needs vs. budget plot, we took a trial of all these appointment booking apps. We interacted with their support staff and learned from their help documentation. Even if a product offers the best value for the money, you will have a hard time using it if it isn't reliable or customers aren't well-supported. It's usually better to pay more for another app.
User experience: Do you like your interaction with the appointment scheduling software? It could be the design, ease of use, navigation, consistency, or some other aspect of the app. In our study, there is a distinct group of apps that provide a better user experience than the rest.
To pick the best appointment booking app, identify your needs first. Is scheduling just one part of your business, or is that the foundation of your business? For a sales manager looking to automate customer appointments with their team, Calendly or Zoho Bookings are the best options. Their features suit sales teams well, and sales managers don't have to spend the whole day setting up the app.
However, if you're in the service industry and your revenue depends on the appointments, you need to look at Setmore, Acuity, Appointy, Sign In Scheduling, Square Appointments, or SimplyBook.me.
Acuity's founder developed the app based on the requirements of his mother's massage practice. Calendly's founder was a salesperson. The influence is visible in the direction the two appointment schedulers take. Acuity has tried to cover almost every use case in appointment scheduling, while Calendly focused on sales and recruitment teams. That resulted in Calendly being able to manage everything without complicating things, whereas Acuity added a lot of features that can make it harder to use. Acuity can do all that Calendly can do, but Calendly can do everything that Acuity can do. However, Calendly can do what you want in a shorter amount of time than Acuity.
The best appointment scheduling software is Acuity Scheduling, as it provides the most features under $25.
Based on the needs vs budget plot we made this objective, definitive list of the best appointment scheduling software.
Sometimes, it's easier to work with a simpler product with fewer features. Plus, another product could have better support for a company's needs.
All the appointment scheduling apps have good help documentation, community forums, and email support. The real differentiator is live chat support. Zoho Bookings, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Setmore, Appointy, and SimplyBook.me offer live chat support. Among them, Setmore is the app that always responded to questions in the promised time frame: under five minutes. SimplyBook.me and Appointy also respond well during their work hours. It is hard to evaluate the quality of email support and the community forum, because that varies for every individual; meanwhile, response times and 24/7 live chat support are clearly measurable benefits.
One of the positive aspects of Zoho Bookings, especially when compared to these more senior apps, is its UI. Since it's newer, it has a fresh feel and adheres to latest UX standards. Except for Zoho Bookings, Calendly, and Setmore, we found it difficult to navigate the apps. The other appointment scheduling apps are feature-rich, but it took a lot of effort to set them up. Our sample case was to set up a scheduling app for our sales team and while all appointment schedulers were capable, the speed of setup and the learning curve determined our experience. The time to "go live" can be a common denominator when it comes to measuring the overall user experience.
It is hard to offer many features and great UX at the same time. Each appointment scheduling software solution has its priorities and plans. Calendly has chosen to keep it simple, offering a straightforward UI and support (live chat for more than 10 users). Setmore and Zoho Bookings have covered more use cases than Calendly, and the UI for each app is clean and easy. Square Appointments has managed not to overwhelm users, even when you activate paid modules like Square Inventory and Teams.
Setmore and Calendly are the most balanced appointment scheduling tools. If we had to pick one of them, we would choose Calendly for the slightly better, minimalistic UI, and overall market standing.
We've given you answers from a few different points of view. Here are some final thoughts.
If you need an appointment scheduler to automate your sales, hiring, or customer calls, go for Zoho Bookings or Calendly. These are simple appointment scheduling apps, and you can fully evaluate them in a few days.
Sign up for a 15-day free trial of Zoho BookingsIf you're in the service industry, start with Acuity Scheduling and Sign In Scheduling. Acuity offers only a seven-day trial, whereas Sign In Scheduling has a 30-day trial period.
If you need live chat support, check out Appointy. Try SimplyBook.me if you want a-la-carte pricing.
Go for Setmore if your feature requirements are not exhaustive, and you just need a simple, user-friendly appointment scheduler for your service business. Square Appointments is a great choice if you are already using Square for your other needs (like Square POS).
Note: Vendors are always changing their pricing plans, so we recommend verifying the information here on the respective appointment scheduling app websites. We plan to update this page quarterly.
Scroll right to see how they compare
Optional: In the Standard Plan, you can only opt 8 of these features in Simplybook.me's custom feature list.
We included Square Appointments instead of Appointlet. Square started appearing more on the first page of Google and has expanded its reach outside of US.
Zoho Bookings has moved to the third place with new feature additions and SimplyBook.me has reduced the number of users/providers included in their Standard Plan from 25 to 15.
Meeting polls, staff booking pages, customized booking pages, and appointment reports were included in the list of features.
Acuity Scheduling and Sign in Scheduling (formerly 10to8) retained their first and second positions with a few additional features.
In this update, we considered Calendly’s $16 Teams pricing plan. They released their meeting poll feature, CRM, and email marketing integration, which moved them up to the third position.
Appointy secured more points in the feature updates and maintains the fifth position, while Setmore slid from fourth to sixth place.
Simplybook.me revised their pricing plans to be more user-friendly. In this update, we considered their Standard plan, which is now priced at $24.90. Earlier, when it was $29.90, our study also included their Basic plan at $9.90. They added 20+ features to their custom feature list, but Standard users can only choose eight of these options, compared to three in their Basic plan. Even with these new features, they still finish last on the list.
Zoho Bookings moved to a per-user pricing model in July 2021, so its position changed from sixth to third in this update.
Acuity Scheduling and Sign in Scheduling (formerly 10to8) retained their first and second positions.
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