Calendly vs Cal.com 2026: Honest Comparison

Overview

Calendly and Cal.com are scheduling platforms that let people book meetings with you without the back-and-forth emails. Calendly is the market leader with a polished interface, extensive integrations, and enterprise features trusted by millions. Cal.com is the open-source alternative that offers self-hosting, full customization, and a developer-friendly approach. Both solve the same problem, but Calendly prioritizes ease of use while Cal.com prioritizes flexibility and ownership.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Calendly	Cal.com	Winner
Ease of Use	Extremely polished	Good, improving	Calendly
Open Source	No	Yes, fully open source	Cal.com
Self-Hosting	Not available	Full self-host option	Cal.com
Calendar Integration	Google, Outlook, iCloud	Google, Outlook, Apple	Tie
Team Scheduling	Round-robin, collective	Round-robin, collective	Tie
Payments	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe	Calendly
Customization	Limited branding	Full CSS/JS customization	Cal.com
Routing	Routing forms (paid)	Routing forms (free)	Cal.com

Pricing

Calendly offers a free plan with one event type and basic integrations. The Standard plan is $12/user/month with unlimited event types, group events, and workflows. The Teams plan is $20/user/month with round-robin and routing. Enterprise is custom. Cal.com offers a free plan with unlimited event types, calendar connections, and workflows. The Team plan is $15/user/month. The Organization plan is $37/user/month. Self-hosting is completely free.

Cal.com’s free plan is more generous with unlimited event types (Calendly limits to one). Self-hosting makes Cal.com free forever for those with technical ability.

Pros and Cons

Calendly Pros

• Most polished scheduling experience on the market
• Extensive integration ecosystem
• Trusted by millions with proven reliability
• Excellent enterprise features with SSO and admin

Calendly Cons

• Free plan limited to one event type
• No self-hosting option
• Limited customization of booking pages
• Pricing adds up for larger teams

Cal.com Pros

• Open-source with full self-hosting option
• Free plan includes unlimited event types
• Full CSS and JavaScript customization
• Developer-friendly API and webhooks

Cal.com Cons

• Less polished interface than Calendly
• Smaller integration ecosystem
• Self-hosting requires technical knowledge
• Less brand recognition may reduce booking trust

Who Should Use Which?

Choose Calendly if you want the most polished, reliable scheduling experience that just works. It is ideal for professionals, sales teams, and enterprises that need proven scheduling with extensive integrations and do not need self-hosting or deep customization.

Choose Cal.com if you value open source, want to self-host, or need full customization of your scheduling experience. It is ideal for developers, startups, and organizations that want to own their scheduling infrastructure or customize every aspect of the booking flow.

Verdict

Calendly is the safer, more polished choice for most users and teams. Cal.com is the better choice for developers and organizations that want open-source flexibility and self-hosting. For enterprise environments, Calendly’s reliability and integrations win. For tech-savvy users who want control, Cal.com offers more freedom at a lower cost.