TidyCal Vs Calendly

Having an online calendar is a great way to enable people to book appointments with you at a time that suits them. It also means they don't have to call or email you directly, which can be a big help if your inbox is always full.

You can also use the calendar to create paid-for meetings, which are perfect if you charge for consultancy, Power Hours or coaching and mentoring. Your clients select when they would like their meeting, the app takes their payment and voilà! You've got a paid-for booking with no effort on your part.

Investing in a paid online calendar system is one of the first investments I made as a business owner, and it has consistently been one of my most essential purchases.

While both Calendly and TidyCal are designed to help you manage your appointments, they cater to slightly different needs:

• User Experience: Calendly offers a more feature-rich experience, especially for those who need advanced functionalities like meeting polls or workflow automations. TidyCal, on the other hand, focuses on simplicity and ease of use.

• Pricing: Calendly has both free and paid plans, with the paid plans unlocking more advanced features. TidyCal, however, offers a one-time payment option, which is perfect if you prefer not to commit to ongoing monthly fees.

• Customisation: Calendly offers extensive customisation options, while TidyCal is more straightforward, providing just what you need to get started quickly without the confusion.

Calendly is a calendar management service that enables users to easily create, share, and manage their schedules. In addition to scheduling meetings with others, Calendly also provides tools for setting up recurring meetings, events, and reminders.

Calendly does have a free account if you are unsure you are ready to invest in the paid version. It's worth remembering that on the free Calendly account you can only have one live ‘event' at a time.

This is fine if you only have one type of meeting, such as a discovery call. But what if you have a 15-minute discovery call and a 60-minute coaching call? You can only have one event live and functioning at a time.

This can be frustrating as it requires you to log into Calendly to toggle the different meetings on and off (and to remember to do it!) which detracts from the whole appeal of having a platform that can automate your bookings for you.

The other thing to note about the free Calendly account, is that you are unable to create ‘paid for' meetings such as Power Hours. This is only accessible on their paid plans.

If you upgrade your Calendly account you will unlock a whole host of time-saving features.

It's worth noting here that Calendly has a cheaper ‘Essentials' plan which has a good range of features, however, you can not create paid-for events on this plan.

So I'm going to jump straight into the features of their Professional Plan which is $12 per month and includes:

• 6 Calendar connections per person
• Unlimited active event types
• Unlimited one-on-one events
• Create meeting polls
• Create one-off meetings
• Customize your booking link
• Create group events
• Automated event notifications
• Customize email notifications and reminders
• Create automated workflows
• Redirect your invitees
• Collect payments with Stripe and PayPal
• Track with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel

These features make it a powerful tool if you need more than the basics.

Just like Calendly, TidyCal is an online calendar booking system. It is similar to Calendly, you can set up free and paid-for meetings. Over the past couple of years, TidyCal has gone from strength to strength with more functions added to the app, to rival the top players in the online calendar space.

TidyCal is a much simpler and easy-to-use application. It’s the perfect solution if you need something low-fuss that gets the job done.

TidyCal provides a range of useful features, including:

• Unlimited booking types
• Paid bookings
• 10 calendar connections per account and automatically detected recipient time zones
• Zapier integration
• Custom day availability
• Add your colours
• Paid bookings
• Automatic translations that tailor your booking page and booking emails to the local language
• Embed a booking page widget directly on your website
• Get all the information upfront about your client or prospect who booked
• Confirmation email or redirect
• Easy options to cancel or reschedule the meeting
• Custom email reminders

These features make TidyCal a strong contender for anyone looking for a straightforward and affordable scheduling solution.

Yes, TidyCal offers a free plan that covers the basics, such as creating your own booking page, setting custom availability, embedding on any site, and more. It’s perfect if you need a simple tool to manage unlimited bookings without any cost.

However, if you’re looking for more advanced features—like custom email reminders, group bookings, guest invites, and the ability to offer paid bookings—the Lifetime Plan is a no-brainer.

For a one-time payment of just $39, you unlock all premium features, connect up to 10 calendars, and eliminate TidyCal branding. It’s a small investment for a lifetime of hassle-free scheduling!

TidyCal is perfect if you’re a light meeting user, perhaps you only book in a few calls per year – enough to need a tool like this, but not enough to justify a monthly expense.

Absolutely! If you're looking for a cost-effective solution that covers the essentials, TidyCal is a great choice. For a one-time fee, you get all the basic features you need to manage your bookings, including paid meetings, without the hassle of monthly subscriptions.

Yes, TidyCal seamlessly syncs with Google Calendar, as well as other major calendar systems like Office 365 and Apple Calendar. This ensures that all your appointments are in one place, reducing the risk of double bookings and missed meetings.

When I discovered TidyCal, I had previously already used two different calendar booking systems and I found them far too complex for my needs.

I really only need a simple function to allow clients to book free and paid-for meetings with me. The simplicity of TidyCal appealed to me in the first instance, and then when I realised there was a low one-off payment, it was a no-brainer decision for me when deciding between TidyCal and Calendly.

I haven’t looked back since, and have recommended it many times to my business friends and other social media managers who have all loved it too.