Calendly Reviews

Pros

I love the simplicity of Calendly both on the front end and the back end. My clients can book through a Calendly link that takes them to a professional looking booking page where only my available times can be selected while my personal information (calendar appointments and such) is kept private. On the back end, it is easy to create various kinds of events and include in them features such as booking questions, FAQs and various other information and options.

Cons

I have yet to find anything about calendly that i don't like. One place they can improve is to allow clients to book recurring events without having to answer the scheduling questions for each booking.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Choosing Calendly

I'm actually currently weighing the benefits of both in order to make a final decision. I was told to try Calendly as a part of a collaborative project that I'm participating in. I enjoy using both softwares, but Calendly seems to have more features and seems to be more intuitive and easy to use because of that. That said, I still love Koalendar.

Switched From

Koalendar

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Essentially the main reason is because the project I'm working on is not my own, that said, Calendly offers similar features to both, but in a more streamlined, easy to use way. Even though I use Wix as my website builder, I prefer calendly as my booking software.

Pros

Most of my experience with Calendly is as someone sent a link to one's Calendly account in order to book an appointment with them (job interview, client meeting, etc). I love how straightforward the scheduling is; the interface clearly shows what dates that person is available for the rest of the month and for several months in the future. Once you select your date of choice, it lists specific times for that day that you can schedule your time to meet. It allows you to compare time slots on different dates, which is great if your own availability is best for a certain time of day (such as in the evening). The scheduling feature completely removes the annoying back and forth emailing and phone calls and allows you to pick a date and time that works best for both parties in a matter of minutes. Recently I have gained experience as someone who sends my Calendly link to others in order for them to make appointments to meet with me, and I can tailor my booking availability according to my own schedule and calendar prior to sending the link to the person I want to meet with it. Once the person clicks my email link and books an appointment with me, Calendly immediately updates the program to reflect that I have an appointment booked with that particular person on that date and time, and sends me confirmation emails as well. If something comes up on either end and the date and/or time of the meeting needs to be changed, doing so through Calendly allows you to immediately reschedule.

Cons

As someone with somewhat limited experience with Calendly, I don't really have any complaints- I am looking forward to exploring Calendly's many features in the months to come. Thus far I do not have any cons to list.

Pros

Pretty straightforward if you're good with tech. Clean and well laid out booking system. Really good for individuals who have a single calendar and need simple bookings. Has everything you would expect from a booking tool such as reminders, custom fields, time zones, etc...

Cons

Poor implantation with multiple calendars.

Pros

Great interface: Calendly feels modern and intuitive, it is extremely easy to find what you are looking for and accomplish the tasks you need.Feels modern: The whole experience in Calendly feels fresh and modern, while this might not be important to some people, when you use something on a daily basis it definitely feels good.Easy to manage: Managing multiple calendars and team members is easy, you have all the options at hand and you can make changes, creates new calendars, add team members in few clicks.Automations: The automation options are great, although they could be better. For a basic user

Cons

Would be great to have some extra Zaps to be used in Zapier, right now the existing options are limiting to a point where you need to integrate other tools to be able to accomplish certain workflows.After creating a calendar and defining the type, you can't really change it, instead you have to create a brand new calendar from scratch, quite annoying to figure this out after you have created and configured everything.

Pros

The ability for customers to quickly view the appointment calendar and schedule an appointment at their convenience is a time-saver. Additionally, the integration with multiple apps and website widgets makes the product well worth the cost.

Cons

It would be helpful to manually bypass appointment rules and schedule appointments as the user / admin.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Bookings

Pros

Streamlined scheduling has saved me an immense amount of time. One link is all it takes for partners to pick a time that works for me and them. Additionally the ability to integrate multiple calendars (Personal + private) is amazing for productivity, connecting with new partners and clearly managing my availability.

Cons

Providing and extending more options and better UI for building conditional questions in the event scheduler, would really help streamline and extend complex data collection.

Alternatives Considered

Chili Piper

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Price point and ease of use.

Pros

Online booking allows me book with people easily at the click of a button.

Cons

The outlook and integration needs improvement.

Pros

For the price, this has all the features you could need. It's simple to setup and use, and very effective

Cons

the ability to manage multiple email/calendars for the same individual in one account

Pros

I like the ability to clearly state my availability for consultation appointments. I can highlight specific block of times and even change them later on. That allows the vendor reaching out to me to plan accordingly without back and forth emails, calls etc.

Cons

For those that may be a little technologically challenged it is a little redundant when all sorts of appointment reminders and scheduling tools are in our hands already

Pros

Intuitive interface, reminders are useful, and great for collaborating with sales team

Cons

Hard to think of anything bad to say about Calendly.

Pros

The User Interface is really friendly, and that makes everything very easy to accomplish. Since the beginning, the power of calendly was very easy to use. I could do complicated scheduling setups without having to know all the ins and outs, screens, menus of calendly. I cannot say this of many software tools, to be honest.

Cons

What I still do no understand why it is not allowed to be done is that sometimes I want to allow to be booked although I have other calendar items scheduled. I should be allowed by calendly to purposefully allow double booking on my calendar, given a set of rules.

Pros

I absolutely love this product and have been using it for over 3 years. I introduced it at my last corporate workplace and switched all recruiters over to using this product instead of calling and booking in candidates for interviews - we simply sent over a link and they plugged time into our calendars! The functionality and emails you can send to the people using your link are also super helpful.

Cons

They introduced a fee to pay, I always have stuck to the free version which has been great for me. I wish you were able to book in multiple time durations and not have it split up, also I wish that you could integrate it with more platforms such as Wordpress.

Alternatives Considered

Boomerang for Gmail

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Boomerang only offers so many free emails to be sent per month, causing you to switch over to the paid Boomerang. I did not find this useful as Calendly allows for it to be free no matter how many emails you're sending just as long as you are using one time frame.

Pros

If you have a complex schedule or need to manage a complex schedule for someone else, Calendly will be an exceptional asset. The ease of use is wonderful, as is the setup process.
It is optimized for online scheduling however it's suited for in person scheduling as well.
Rescheduling is dramatically easier with Calendly.
Features a client portal, reminders, automated scheduling, team or group calenders, notifications and alerts in real time, and convenient mobile access plus payment processing via third party integrations.

Cons

The one thing that really hinders me are the meeting location options and how they're set up. In person and phone/ video can't be included in the same meeting type.
The only other con I've experienced thus far is the customer service and the lack of ease in contacting an actual customer service representative vs the incompetent chat bot.

Alternatives Considered

TimeTap and Zoho Meeting

Reasons for Choosing Calendly

The previous product was not suitable for our needs and didn't meet our expectations for overall quality.

Switched From

SimplyBook.me

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Calendly was highly recommended by other businesses in our industry.

Pros

Most appointment schedule tools offer similar features, but Calendly's prices are much sweeter. Perhaps other software offers more bells and whistles, but I wouldn't know because Calendly does all I need it to do for about 1/3rd the price

Cons

I'm not sure yet. I wish I could have all the different type of offerings on one schedule. Right now if I offer appointments at one site they have to be in a separate calendar from another site because I need to make sure I'm physically present at the site and set the calendar up for those dates only.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Choosing Calendly

It was included in my 365 subscription so that was great but there is no support and literally it just stopped working.

Switched From

Microsoft Planner and Microsoft 365

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Pricing for the features

Pros

I love being able to set my availability and just send a link. It keeps my calls in manageable blocks, and saves me hours of back and forth trying to find a time. I also think it's much less intimidating for a potential client to book some time via my website, than to have to email me directly about a consult.

I use Calendly for all my non-client calls because it gives me control over how far in advance and how far into the future someone can book.

Cons

I'd prefer to have more control and functionality around automated emails, but current functionality works fine for confirmations and reminders.

You can set a limit on how many of each type of appointment is booked per day, but no overall limit per week/for all events. I like to offer more timeslots as options, but without increasing the number of calls I take per week. Currently I manually block days off in my calendar as I see things fill up, but it would be helpful to have this automated.

Pros

It's a breeze to ensure that my clients can easily plan appointments with me. Calendly is how I schedule all of my interviews and appointments. It eliminates the guessing and the need for further communication, making everything simple and straightforward.

Cons

The program wasn't constantly updated by developers. It hasn't changed all that much throughout the years. In addition, the system's handling of meeting kinds was somewhat cumbersome.

Pros

I like that the free version is pretty robust. You can calendar sync and ask pre-qualifying questions so you are better prepared for clients at the meetings. I also like that even on the free version you can connect to zoom and schedule the meeting for either Zoom or or a phone call. With the paid version of Calendly you can also collect payment in advance to avoid no call no show appointments.

Cons

It would be nice to have more than one event type available for free. I also don't like that the first tier paid version does not allow for payment or notification. Probably not a major thing to everyone but they don't have an affiliate program which sucks for those of us who are regularly recommending products that we use to our clients.

Alternatives Considered

Setmore

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

The ease of use and the style. The price for the paid version was also well within a reasonable budget. Integration with WordPress was definitely a plus.

Pros

The thing I like most about Calendly is probably how it looks to the end user when booking an appointment. Personally, it's the most attractive (and simplest) one I've come across, and I've tried a few competitors.

Cons

I have nothing particularly negative to say about Calendly. The only thing is the recent rebranding; the logo really irks me.

Luckily this design hasn't leaked into the design of the actual calendar software though.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Choosing Calendly

I can't pinpoint exactly "why", but some softwares you just naturally prefer. This is an example of Calendly vs Acutiy, TidyCal etc.

Switched From

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Calendly is simpler and in my opinion looks nicer when embeded into your webpage.

Pros

The ability to customize meeting names, meeting times, and send unique links to clients is so helpful. Additionally, I truly appreciate the ability to integrate with Zoom and create buffer times between meetings. Without Calendly, scheduling meetings with clients would be extremely cumbersome and I'm confident we would lose at least 25% of our current bookings.

Cons

I would like the ability to have a signup as part of the software. At this point, I don't believe that someone can register for a standing weekly meeting.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

User friendliness, user interface, ease of team access.

Pros

Calendly is about the easiest scheduling solution on the market. You can share a standing meeting link (or set of links for different lengths, types, etc.), and it's incredibly simple to integrate with calendars confidentially. I know that my Calendly link won't – and can't – double-book me, but it gives folks access to my calendar.

Cons

Out of the box customization isn't always the richest. You can extend Calendly with tools like Zapier, but it's a bit like Zoom in that way. Your average user might struggle to deliver a truly awesome CX.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling and Google Calendar

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

Calendly lets you easily generate meetings that you know will never double-book you. Incredibly important or a consultant or someone else who takes a number of external meetings daily.

Pros

This program is great for those looking for online scheduling. It is easy to use, both for us and our clients. It is clean looking and integrates easily into different landing pages and our website. We especially use this feature when we are opening new online programs.

Cons

I don't have any cons about this program. It works smoothly, and easily and the price is affordable.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Switching to Calendly

It is easier to use, looks more professional, and integrates smoothly into the different software our company uses.

Pros

TheThe best thing about Calendly is the ability to set schedules for specific event types! You can set blackout dates, available times, control meeting lengths, automatically add buffer time, limit the number of events scheduled for a single day, and more. This is perfect for setting up live events or meetings on an ongoing basis, but giving yourself enough heads up and flexibility to be in control. You basically give prospective customer the freedom to choose a date and time--but ensure that it fits in your schedule, too. Use this to schedule live demos with clients, training events, or even webinars. It's a great tool, especially for small sales teams that need a controlled flow of sales calls/demos.

Cons

Calendly is restrictive in analytics; for instance, I can't easily see how many people clicked to schedule an event, but didn't follow through. It's also difficult from a user interface standpoint. I find myself looking for settings and menus that are hidden within the slick, clean interface. On the scheduling side, it's pretty easy for clients to schedule events, but you can't customize the date picker--and that's really unfortunate, because I'd like to use it in more places but can't customize the look and feel or functionality.

Pros

Scheduling appointments with clients and prospects is much easier without the need to email potential meeting times/places/methods back and forth.

I like that clients can choose whether to call or use one of several video conferencing methods (ie Zoom or Google Meet or MS Teams), all within a single appointment type. Other products I have used do not have this option and require that multiple appointment types be created to allow clients to choose this.

Calendly is ubiquitous enough that many third party vendors integrate with them. It also works well with Zapier for those vendors that do not directly integrate.

Cons

I would prefer not to pay a monthly subscription, but most of their competitors also charge a subscription fee and the ones that don't are less capable, so this is a necessary expense.

I wish it were possible to also choose an in-person meeting from the location options, rather than just between phone or video. I had to create a separate meeting type for in person meetings, leading to redundancy in the appointment listing.

Pros

I got to know about this awesome tool when a consultant from one of the world's top companies sent me a link to his Calendly calendar so that I can book a slot. I liked the feature because I could choose an available slot as if I was making a booking in my Outlook with someone from my organization. However, I did not start using it immediately. A few months later, I joined a project in which there were consultants from four organizations and it became very inconvenient for everyone to book a meeting with people from the other three organizations. It is when one of my colleagues suggested using Calendly and setting up my account with it. I can not thank him enough because after that I started using a link to my Calendly calendar in my Outlook signature. Other people also recognised the power of this excellent collaboration tool and within a week almost everyone on the project started putting their Calendly link in their Outlook signature. This greatly increased the productivity of the project team. Among many good features is a feature to set up multiple calendars (e.g. office and personal).

Cons

Once a new team member, belonging to another organisation, asked for a time slot to book a meeting with me and I gave her with link to my Calendly calendar. It was around 9:30 am and I had a couple of time slots available around noon time e.g. one at 11:30 am and another at 2:30 pm and then the next available slots were at 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm. Since she wanted the meeting as soon as possible, she informed me that my Calendly calendar did not have any time slot available before 4:00 pm and whether I could prioritise meeting with her over some low-priority meeting. It is when I realized that Calendly had hidden my all available slots within 6 hours. Though this is a feature to prevent someone from scheduling a meeting on too short notice, there should be a way to customize it e.g. if I want to decrease this time from 6 hours to 1 hour. I tried finding this customization feature but I could not find it.Maybe the feature is already there and I haven't found a way to use it.

Pros

I am thrilled that I can seamlessly integrate Calendly with various software in my tech stack, leading to a diverse range of use-cases. One such example is embedding Calendly into our marketing emails, simplifying the appointment scheduling process for potential customers. With Calendly, they can effortlessly click on the link, pick a suitable day and time to meet with my team, and provide all the essential information for the meeting without the need for any initial contact with us.

Cons

After using Calendly for the majority of the past five years at two different companies, I can confidently say that there isn't anything I dislike about it. Calendly has consistently enhanced and served its intended purpose throughout its deployment.