Choose Acuity Scheduling for intake forms and HIPAA; pick Calendly for quick links, team routing, and low per‑seat cost.
Acuity Scheduling
Calendly
Budget Route
- Start on a free link if solo.
- Add routing when leads grow.
- Keep per‑seat spend low.
Calendly Standard
Client‑Service Route
- Take deposits at booking.
- Use custom intake forms.
- Offer packages or memberships.
Acuity Growing
Regulated Care Route
- Need a signed BAA.
- Lock down intake and messaging.
- Scale to multi‑location teams.
Acuity Powerhouse
Appointment software shapes how clients book, pay, and show up. Acuity Scheduling leans into service‑business needs like intake forms, packages, and HIPAA. Calendly races ahead on ease, shareable links, and team routing. This guide gives you the quick verdict and the trade‑offs that matter for a U.S. buyer.
In A Nutshell
Pick Acuity Scheduling if you sell services, collect intake details, or need a Business Associate Agreement. It’s built for studios, clinics, coaches, and any workflow where the “client file” matters. Choose Calendly if speed, simple links, and sales‑team tools are the main goal. It’s ideal for interviews, demos, and cross‑functional meetings where lead routing and round‑robin save time.
Side‑By‑Side Specs
ℹ️ Good To Know: In Acuity, a “calendar” can represent a person or a location. That count drives your plan tier. Calendly charges per seat. This difference is why solo and small teams often pay less with Calendly, while multi‑staff clinics and studios often save on Acuity.
Acuity Scheduling — What We Like / What We Don’t Like
✅ What We Like
- Custom intake forms capture the details service businesses need before sessions.
- Payment‑first booking with deposits, tips, packages, memberships, and gift cards.
- Calendar‑based pricing can cover multi‑staff teams without per‑seat math.
- HIPAA option with a signed BAA on the Powerhouse tier.
⚠️ What We Don’t Like
- No free plan; trial only.
- Counting staff and locations as “calendars” can push you up a tier sooner than expected.
- Sales‑team routing isn’t a core feature; you’ll lean on forms and links instead.
Calendly — What We Like / What We Don’t Like
✅ What We Like
- Fast shareable links that book meetings without back‑and‑forth.
- Workflows send email and text reminders on paid plans to cut no‑shows.
- Round‑robin and lead routing for sales and recruiting teams.
- Low per‑seat price and an always‑free tier for individuals.
⚠️ What We Don’t Like
- No BAA; not appropriate for collecting or storing PHI.
- Packages and memberships aren’t native; payments focus on per‑event transactions.
- Some advanced CRM options sit behind higher tiers.
Acuity Or Calendly: Which Fits You Better
Automation & Flows
Both tools automate the busy work around bookings. In Calendly, Workflows handle pre‑ and post‑meeting emails and texts across paid plans. You can trigger reminders, send confirmations, and deliver follow‑ups without touching the keyboard. SMS reminders are part of this system, which makes it easy to standardize a no‑show‑reduction cadence across your team.
Acuity automates confirmations, changes, and follow‑ups as well, with SMS reminders on mid‑tier plans and above. Where it shines is the client lifecycle: you can gate bookings behind forms, collect deposits, then bundle sessions into packages or subscriptions so loyal clients return on autopilot. For fitness studios, therapists, salons, and coaching teams, that end‑to‑end flow cuts admin time and drives repeat revenue.
Segmentation & Personalization
Client‑service brands usually need more than a name and email. Acuity’s custom intake forms gather context—goals, preferences, waiver acceptance—so the session starts ready. You can require acceptance of policies right at booking. Calendly captures invitee questions, which works well for meetings and demos, but it doesn’t replace a full client file with package balances or membership data. If your work needs rich profiles, Acuity has the edge.
Deliverability & Compliance
Health‑adjacent teams care about compliance. Acuity offers a HIPAA path on its Powerhouse plan, including a signed BAA and features meant to keep data inside the right walls. Calendly does not sign BAAs, which means it isn’t suitable for PHI. Many buyers miss this during tool selection and only catch it when legal reviews flag the gap. If you handle sensitive client information, the decision leans toward Acuity.
Reporting & Attribution
Calendly’s team view and scheduling analytics give managers a read on volume, distribution, and host activity. Sales teams also value how bookings can tie into CRM attribution when routed through forms and landing pages. Acuity focuses more on operational data—who booked, who paid, who rescheduled, and which packages are being redeemed. For revenue teams that live in Salesforce or HubSpot, Calendly’s path to measuring sourced meetings feels cleaner.
Integrations & APIs
Both connect to the staples—Google or Microsoft calendars and major video providers. Calendly leans into go‑to‑market stacks with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo connections on higher tiers, plus webhooks and developer tools for custom flows. Acuity integrates payment processors (Stripe, Square, PayPal) and offers a developer API on Powerhouse. If CRM depth and lead routing matter, Calendly’s integrations list swings hard in your favor. If client billing and packages come first, Acuity aligns better.
Team Roles & Permissions
Admin hygiene matters once multiple users share booking pages. Calendly adds granular org controls, role‑based permissions, and options like SSO, SCIM, and domain control at upper tiers. That setup scales well for fast‑moving sales orgs that need to keep templates and branding consistent. Acuity manages staff across “calendars” with permission controls, location handling, and brand settings that fit service teams.
Data Model & Objects
Calendly centers on event types and hosts. Each seat maps to a human who owns availability and bookings, which matches meeting‑driven teams. Acuity centers on services, clients, and calendars—more like a lightweight client system that also books time. That’s why Acuity feels natural when you sell a package of sessions or track a client’s plan over months.
Pricing & Seats
Calendly’s yearly pricing for U.S. buyers runs $10 per seat on Standard and $16 per seat on Teams, with an always‑free tier for individuals. Enterprise starts at $15,000 per year for larger orgs that need advanced governance and support. You can review the exact plan differences on the Calendly pricing page.
Acuity’s yearly pricing starts at $16 per month for Emerging, then $27 for Growing and $49 for Powerhouse (or $20 / $34 / $61 on monthly billing). The plans scale by calendars, not seats, so one subscription can often cover several staffers. Full plan details and features are listed on the official Acuity Scheduling pricing page.
Help & Onboarding
Both offer help centers, tutorials, and fast chat support at paid tiers. Calendly’s admin controls make it simple to standardize event types and share scheduling ownership across a group. Acuity includes guided setup, clear payment flows, and class/membership tools that fit service businesses with recurring bookings.
ℹ️ Good To Know: This guide compiles details from official pricing and feature pages. Prices shown are U.S. USD figures valid when published and may change.
Price, Value & Ownership
The cost picture flips by use case. A small sales team usually spends less with Calendly’s per‑seat math when it wants routing and analytics. A multi‑staff studio or clinic often pays less with Acuity’s calendar‑based plans, especially once packages and memberships replace one‑off payments.
Where Each One Wins
🏆 Client Intake Depth — Acuity Scheduling
🏆 Lead Routing — Calendly
🏆 Packages & Memberships — Acuity Scheduling
🏆 HIPAA Path — Acuity Scheduling
Decision Guide
✅ Choose Acuity Scheduling If…
- You run a service‑based business that needs intake forms, deposits, packages, or memberships.
- You want one subscription to cover several staff or locations via calendar allotments.
- You operate in regulated care and require a BAA with HIPAA‑aligned workflows.
✅ Choose Calendly If…
- You share links for demos, interviews, customer calls, or cross‑team meetings all day.
- You need round‑robin or lead routing tied to Salesforce, HubSpot, or marketing forms.
- You prefer per‑seat pricing with an always‑free option for individual use.
Best Fit For Most Teams
For meeting‑driven teams, Calendly is the sensible starting point. It’s quick to roll out, the free tier removes friction for individuals, and the Teams plan adds routing that keeps leads moving to the right host. Sales, recruiting, and partner roles tend to see value fast.
For client‑service brands, Acuity Scheduling tends to be the better home base. Intake forms, deposits, packages, memberships, and HIPAA on Powerhouse make it feel like a lightweight client system that also schedules time. If you sell sessions and renew relationships over months, it covers the operational details without cobbling together add‑ons.
Both tools integrate with calendars and video, both send reminders, and both embed on your site. The choice comes down to what you sell. Meetings with prospects and peers lean Calendly. Services with clients lean Acuity.
Sources & verification: Plan pricing and features were referenced from the official Calendly pricing page (yearly: $10 Standard, $16 Teams; Enterprise from $15k/yr) and the official Acuity Scheduling page (Emerging/Growing/Powerhouse with calendars‑based tiers and BAA on Powerhouse). Calendly Workflows and SMS are documented in its help center, and Acuity’s HIPAA option is documented in its help articles.