If you’re looking for the best Calendly alternatives then it’s likely that you need a tool more powerful than this free online appointment and scheduling software.
While there are hundreds of Calendly alternatives to choose from, this article is composed with the intention to help project managers and working professionals by providing them a valuable insight into some of the best Calendly alternatives available today.
Let’s get started and know what Calendly is, what it offers, and its glaring drawbacks that make users switch to another tool.
Table of Contents
What is Calendly?
Calendly is a simple online appointment scheduling software that enables you to avoid the hassle of back-and-forth emails. Calendly simplifies the complex scheduling process by only offering times that sync with your availability across all your calendars. The tool caters to freelancers, institutions, organizations, and businesses of all sizes across various industries.
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Calendly: Pros and Cons
Pros of Calendly
- Great integration
- Mobile usability
- Automatic time zone adjustments
- SMS notifications
- On-demand scheduling
Cons of Calendly
- Basic plan lacks important features
- Expensive per-user fee
- No desktop software
- Lack of dashboard customization options
- Poor mobile app
- Average customer support
Pricing: The most popular Pro plan is priced at $12/month/user.
5 Calendly Alternatives You Cannot Afford To Ignore In 2021
The market is flooded with highly functional Calendly alternatives that offer more features at competitive pricing. We have conducted extensive research and compiled a list of powerful tools that you can easily replace with Calendly.
Let’s explore these tools.
1. ProofHub
ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration tool that empowers project managers and project teams to have greater control over their projects.
Featuring among the best Calendly alternatives, ProofHub offers a range of powerful features, including Project Scheduling Calendar, in a single place, eliminating the need to use multiple apps for time management, task management, file management, chat, etc. ProofHub brings all team members on a common platform to coordinate tasks, lead discussions, and stay updated on all project-related activities with a Bird’s eye view.
Unlike Calendly, ProofHub is a comprehensive tool that enables project managers to manage straightforward and complex projects efficiently. Since every team member can track their work progress, ProofHub improves job accountability and ensures everyone sticks to their deadlines.
An intuitive interface, fixed pricing plans, minimal learning curve, and a robust list of features under one roof make ProofHub a must-have in every project team’s arsenal.
Salient Features Of ProofHub Are:
- Project Scheduling Calendar
ProofHub’s Scheduling Calendar helps project managers and team members organize and schedule events, tasks, and milestones in one place. Automatic reminders ensure you don’t forget your crucial work and see all calendar data across all projects in one place.
You can add recurring events and tasks without having to add them manually. You can select your calendar view from day, week, two weeks, or even a month and schedule work suitably.
- Online Proofing
ProofHub is a strong Calendly alternative because it offers much more than what you get from Calendly. ProofHub’s online proofing tool allows users to collaborate on files and documents, review, and proof them using annotation tools right where they are.
Add clear, actionable feedback for specific regions, and mark suggestions or input as resolved once the changes are made.
You approve all files with a single click of the button. Online proofing is highly popular among graphic designers, web designers, and video creators who otherwise had to spend a lot of time on old-fashioned pen and paper and email-based proofing procedures.
- Task Management
ProofHub is labeled as “all-in-one” software because it offers a list of advanced features in a centralized location. Task Management software in ProofHub is a useful addition for project managers and team members who sometimes lose track of what work they are supposed to do and when. Using this feature, project managers can easily create, assign, and monitor projects and tasks from a centralized location.
Not only this, you can also set time estimates, due dates, attach files, and add comments at one place. Add custom labels to differentiate, prioritize, and organize tasks. Time tracking allows you to record time spent on tasks and save it in timesheets.
- Timesheets
Many users who are looking for Calendly alternatives prefer to use a tool that offers them additional features other than online scheduling. ProofHub’s time management software empowers professionals to bring all your time data at one central place. You can add timesheets to record time data, use them for payroll, client billing, estimation, tracking, and even time management at the workplace.
Set time estimates for tasks and know which tasks are taking longer than usual to be completed. A Bird’s eye view enables users to see all time data of people across all projects, billable or non-billable, project progress, and status without needing to jump through projects.
- File Management
Managing bundles of important files and documents is not easy. Paper docs and files take extra space, are prone to damage, and consume extra time when you have to search for required information, reports, or data.
ProofHub’s File Management software eliminates the need to use paper files by allowing users to upload, store, and organize all your digital files at one central place that you can access from any device connected to the internet. You can store multiple versions of the same file, access version history, compare with the older versions available, and restore if needed.
Kanban Boards in ProofHub allow project teams to move tasks through multiple stages as well as get notified for the same. This visual view of workflows makes it easy for project managers to check the status of the tasks assigned and who is working on them. Project teams can customize workflows as per their requirements by adding more sections than default settings.
- Custom Fields
Every project is unique, which necessitates the need for a dedicated space to add the information that is unique to your workflow or project. The default fields in various project management tools might not always be adequate. So, ProofHub’s custom fields are important to suit the specific needs of your projects and teams. You can add the following fields:
- Text
- Text area
- Drop down
- Tags
- Numbers
- Percentage
- Currency
- Date
- Table View
Seeing different tasks assigned to you in a listicle can confuse you; you have no idea about their type, det dates, priority, deadlines, etc. Table view in ProofHub filters all your tasks so you can plan and organize projects in a way that’s best suitable for your team. Assign tasks, filter and view data based on priority, and keep essential details front and center.
- Group Chat
Project teams end up spending valuable time and energy on scheduling and participating in video conference and audio conference calls. While such team meetings and discussions are important, frequent meetings can cut down on your team’s productivity. ProofHub’s Group Chat tool enables project managers and team members to have quick conversations by quickly sending/receiving direct messages. Users can also add emojis, attach files, ask questions, and receive answers instantly while working.
- Stickies & Bookmarks
Use Stickies in ProofHub to quickly jot down and organize your key information, like new ideas, reference links, minutes of meeting, and use them anytime you want to. With Bookmarks, users can access frequently used stuff faster, like projects, task lists, discussions, file folders, notes, and timesheets.
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2. Chili Piper
Chili Piper is an advanced scheduling and revenue software that is designed for B2B revenue teams. This powerful scheduling software system works well not only for B2B, sales, and customer support teams but also for any individual and teams that need to schedule meetings online. The reason why Chili Piper is considered as a better Calendly alternative is because while the latter works well for individuals and freelancers, Chili Piper’s features are more suitable for teams that need high functionality.
Main Features Include:
- Web Form Conversion
- In-App Conversion
- Marketing Campaigns
- Process Automation
- Individual Scheduling
- SDR to AE Handoff
- In-person Events
Pros
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Pricing: The paid plan starts from $30/user/month.
3. Sidekick.Ai
You can consider Sidekick.Ai as your smart scheduling assistant. This powerful Calendly alternative and feature-rich scheduling platform offers various ways to users to schedule meetings, like Forward to Schedule, Link Sharing, and Sidekick scheduling. Sidekick.Ai is also the first scheduling software that uses machine learning to process language for scheduling meetings. You never have to go through time-consuming tasks, like checking calendar, picking date and time, and sending it with a confirmation. Sidekick.Ai automatically emails your prospect with a list of your available times.
Main Features Include:
- Automated Scheduling
- Appointment Scheduling
- Group Scheduling
- Calendar Management
- Meeting Room Booking
- Online Scheduling
- Payment Processing
- Multi-location Scheduling
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Pricing: The Paid plan starts from $10 per month.
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4. HubSpot Meetings
HubSpot Meetings is another Calendly alternative that is popular among small and medium businesses as a reliable and efficient scheduling software. The scheduling software makes it easy for potential customers and actual customers to schedule meetings with your team, which saves hours of time spent on tedious, unnecessary emailing. Prospects can schedule group meetings or round-robin meetings, and they’ll be added to your HubSpot contacts database. You can also integrate your scheduling software with your landing pages to your website so that visitors can effortlessly get access to your team.
Main Features Include:
- Native integration with HubSpot CRM
- Direct integration with Outlook 365 and Google Calendar
- Page design and Easy link functionality
- Create round-robin or group links
- Calendar embedding
- Appointment scheduler to automate sales processes
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Pricing: Free plans are available. Paid plans start from $45/month.
5. Doodle
Doodle is a Calendly alternative and a cloud-based appointment scheduling platform that is designed for both small and large-sized companies. The platform enables users to schedule and customize meeting requests. Doodle eliminates long email threads and schedule juggling, which helps you be more productive. Its simplicity and utility make it an easy-to-use even for rookies who are not tech-savvy. Privacy and security of Doodle is a notch above many other online scheduling software. The app is free to download, and there’s no charge to use the service. To use advanced features, you would need to upgrade to a Private or Business account.
Main Features Include:
- Booking Page
- Schedule time with anyone, on any calendar platform
- Clear visual snapshot
- Easy-to-follow interface
- Seamless set up
- Top rated for enterprise scheduling
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Pricing: The Paid plan starts from $6.95/user/month.
The Final Word
Even though many Calendly alternatives claim themselves to be the best, it’s more about what your team’s requirements are. Are you just looking for online scheduling software, or are you looking for a comprehensive tool for project management and team collaboration?
If your team and organization are looking for an affordable solution that offers much more than just online scheduling, ProofHub is ideal. With a wide range of features in a centralized location, ease of usage, fixed pricing, and minimal learning curve, ProofHub can help you and your team to simplify complex project management and streamline workflow.
The choice is yours. Do you want to continue to use one-dimensional scheduling software or move on to a more prominent tool with more capabilities? Hoping you will make a well-informed decision.