Scheduling · ranked shortlist
Best Scheduling software for Startups in 2026
20 approved scheduling listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- Tools ranked
- 20
- Entry price range
- $2.25-$189
- Publish a $0 plan
- 9 of 20
How this ranking is derived
The sort key
Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.
Where the ratings come from
No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.
What the pool is
Approved scheduling listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the scheduling category page.
The ranking
Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.
- #1
Acuity Scheduling
Highest rated hereScheduling made simple
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $20 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $61.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- squarespace, scheduling, customizable, integrations
- #2
Amilia SmartRec
Registration and activity management for community recreation, with a 1% fee on top of the subscription
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $99 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $499 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per month plus 1% of invoiced items
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- Recreation, registration, memberships, municipal
- #3
Appointlet
The simple way to schedule meetings
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- scheduling, appointments, sales, meetings
- #4
Appointy
Smart scheduling for modern businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $19.99 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $79.99.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- scheduling, versatile, free-tier, multi-industry
- #5
Bookedin
Appointment scheduling priced per calendar rather than per business
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $19 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $39 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per calendar per month
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- scheduling, appointments, online-booking, reminders
- #6
Booker by Mindbody
Complete spa management solution
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $129 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $399.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- spa-software, mindbody, booking, pos
- #7
Boulevard
Client experience platform for salons
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $140 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $328 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- client-experience, premium, salon-management, spa-software
- #8
Cal.com
Scheduling infrastructure for everyone
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $16 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $37 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- scheduling, Open Source, booking, Self-Hosted
- #9
Chili Piper
Meeting scheduling and lead routing for revenue teams
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $12 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $3,500 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- #10
Doodle
Find the best time for anything
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $15 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- scheduling, polls, group-meetings, coordination
- #11
iClassPro
Flat per-location class management for gymnastics, dance and swim schools, from 139 USD a month
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $139 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $299 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per location per month
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- Class Management, Gymnastics, Dance, Swim School
- #12
Motion
Your intelligent calendar that prioritizes for you
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $19 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $29.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- calendar, ai, tasks, productivity
- #13
Picktime
Appointment, class and resource booking with an unusually capable free tier
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $2.25 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $3.
- Billing
- Per user per month
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- appointment-booking, scheduling, Small Business, Resource Booking
- #14
Planday
Danish workforce scheduling and shift management software for shift-based businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $2.99 a month, with no free plan.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- #15
Sawyer
Class and camp booking software for children activity businesses, with a marketplace that takes up to 30 percent
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $189 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $379 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per business per month, plus marketplace commission
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- class-booking, Kids Activities, scheduling, marketplace
- #16
Schedulicity
Easy online booking & payments
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $34.99 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $44.99.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- easy-to-use, free-tier, class-scheduling, wellness
- #17
Setmore
Free appointment scheduling and customer management
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $5 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $12 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- Free, appointment, scheduling
- #18
SimplyBook.me
Online booking system for service businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $8.25 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $24.90.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- booking, scheduling, service-business, website
- #19
Zcal
Scheduling with an unusually large free tier and heavy branding control
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per user per month
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- scheduling, booking, calendar, meetings
- #20
Zeeg
German-hosted scheduling with GDPR positioning and CRM features built into the upper tiers
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $10 a month.
- 5 published tiers, topping out at $30 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per user per month
- Published tiers
- 5 tiers
- Tags
- scheduling, meetings, gdpr, calendar
What scheduling software costs
Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $2.25Picktime
- Median entry price
- $19across 19 priced
- Dearest entry price
- $189Sawyer
- Publish a $0 plan
- 9of 20
Paid scheduling plans in this set start anywhere from $2.25 a month for Picktime to $189 for Sawyer. The median entry price across the 19 tools that publish one is $19, half of them start below that figure and half above it.
Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Chili Piper's at $3,500 a month, 18.5× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.
9 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 1 of those charge nothing at all. 11 tools have no free tier of any kind.
11 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.
How these vendors bill
The billing model each of the 20 scheduling listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.
- subscription
- 6
- freemium
- 4
- Per user per month
- 3
- Per business per month, plus marketplace commission
- 1
- Per calendar per month
- 1
- Per location per month
- 1
- Per month plus 1% of invoiced items
- 1
Separately, 11 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.
What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for
Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 18 scheduling tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.
Named most often
- Priority support , 4 of 18
- Advanced analytics , 2 of 18
- Calendar sync , 2 of 18
- Client management , 2 of 18
- Custom branding , 2 of 18
Named by fewer
- Gift certificates , 2 of 18
- Mobile app , 2 of 18
- Online booking , 2 of 18
- Unlimited appointments , 2 of 18
- Unlimited bookings , 2 of 18
Named by exactly one vendor: ABM targeting, Basic payroll reporting, Dedicated support, Memberships/packages, Re-engagement flows, Team creation and team pages. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.
What “Scheduling” covers in practice
The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.
- scheduling12
- booking5
- appointments3
- calendar3
- meetings3
- Free2
- free-tier2
- registration2
- Small Business2
- spa-software2
Carried by a single tool: Activity Management, billing, coordination, group-meetings, marketplace, Open Source, Recreation, service-business. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.
How to choose between them
Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.
Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them
9 of 20 scheduling tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with priority support, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.
Read the spread before you read the features
$2.25 to $189 is a $186.75 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $189 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.
Check which tier you actually land on
17 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3.5 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, priority support, advanced analytics, calendar sync, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.
The billing model matters more than the headline number
This category splits across 7 billing models: subscription on 6 listings, freemium on 4, and 5 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.
Compare scheduling tools directly
Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.
- Acuity Scheduling vs Amilia SmartRec
- Amilia SmartRec vs Appointlet
- Appointlet vs Appointy
- Appointy vs Bookedin
- Bookedin vs Booker by Mindbody
- Booker by Mindbody vs Boulevard
- Boulevard vs Cal.com
- Cal.com vs Chili Piper
Go straight to the numbers
- Acuity Schedulingpricingalternatives
- Amilia SmartRecpricingalternatives
- Appointletpricingalternatives
- Appointypricingalternatives
- Bookedinpricingalternatives
- Booker by Mindbodypricingalternatives
Questions people ask about scheduling software
Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.
- How is this scheduling ranking decided?
- Mechanically. The 20 approved scheduling listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
- Is this list re-ordered for startups?
- No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- How much does scheduling software cost?
- Across the 20 scheduling tools listed here, paid plans start between $2.25 and $189 a month, with a median entry price of $19. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $3,500 a month (Chili Piper). 9 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
- What is the cheapest scheduling software?
- 1 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Picktime has the lowest published entry price at $2.25 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
- Is there free scheduling software?
- Yes, 9 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
- What features should scheduling software have?
- Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are priority support (4 of 18 tools that publish plan detail), advanced analytics (2) and calendar sync (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as abm targeting or basic payroll reporting, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
- How is scheduling software usually billed?
- subscription (6), freemium (4), Per user per month (3), Per business per month, plus marketplace commission (1), plus 3 less common arrangements, counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 11 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
- What does scheduling software actually cover?
- The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are scheduling (12), booking (5), appointments (3), calendar (3), meetings (3). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under scheduling may overlap on very little.
- How many pricing tiers do scheduling tools offer?
- 18 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3.5 tiers. 17 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
- How many scheduling tools are listed on Softwr?
- 20 approved scheduling listings appear on this page, including Acuity Scheduling, Amilia SmartRec, Appointlet, Appointy. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/scheduling, which ranks the same set by published rating.
Keep reading
Neighbouring categories
Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.