Acuity Scheduling vs Chili Piper (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Acuity Scheduling grades higher than Chili Piper: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Acuity Scheduling grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Acuity Scheduling
Appointment booking, payments and reminders for service businesses
Chili Piper
Lead routing and meeting booking for B2B revenue teams
Which one is for you
Pick Acuity Scheduling if
- Fits if you run a salon, studio, tutoring or coaching business and want clients to book and pay themselves
- Works for businesses that take a deposit or the full fee at booking to cut no-shows
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to start free: there's no free plan, and the trial lasts 7 days
- Pricey if you're one person who just needs a booking link, at $16 a month ($20 monthly) for one calendar
- Tight if you have staff or locations: Starter has 1 calendar, Standard 6 and Premium 36
- Watch out: text reminders, the waitlist, packages, memberships and gift certificates start on Standard at $27
- Pricey if you need a HIPAA BAA, the Acuity footer removed, or the custom API: all Premium only, at $49
Pick Chili Piper if
- Fits if your sales team lives in Salesforce or HubSpot and routes inbound leads
- Works for revenue teams with 15 or more seats
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are a small team: $15,000 a year buys 15 seats
- Not for you if you want monthly billing, because the page says it is not available
- Skip it if you want a trial or free plan, as none is listed
- Watch out: the standalone ChiliCal is $12 per user a month but needs at least 200 seats
- Watch out: Chat AI, account identification and Signals reporting are on Scale at $3,500 a month, not Growth
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAcuity SchedulingFair | 1.8GPAChili PiperWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DStarter is $16 a month billed annually, $20 monthly, and buys exactly one calendar. The dear end of this category is $10. Then the things a real business needs climb further: text reminders, packages and memberships on Standard at $27, and the HIPAA agreement and logo removal on Premium at $49, against a $6 middle. | D$1,250 a month for 15 seats is about $83 a seat, against a category middle of $6.99 a month. It is built for revenue teams, but a small team has no cheaper way in. |
| Free plan and trial | CNothing free to keep. There's a 7-day trial of any plan with no card asked, and a week is short to build a booking page, set your availability and test a payment before the bill starts. | FNo free plan and no self-serve trial is listed. |
| Features | BCovers the whole booking job: a branded page, intake forms, deposits or full payment through Stripe, Square or PayPal, invoices, email reminders, buffers and daily limits, group classes, and tap-to-pay in the phone app. Text reminders, packages and the AI assistant wait on higher plans. | BForm routing, handoffs, scheduling links, follow-ups, spam checks and an MCP server. Chat AI and account identification start on Scale. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record, and the work falls on you before any client sees it: services to define, availability rules, buffers, daily limits, intake forms, a payment processor and a calendar to sync. Clients booking themselves from a link is the easy half. | CNo store rating on record. Routing rules, forms and CRM links all need setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb plus iPhone and Android, with no desktop app of its own. It does sync with Google Calendar, Outlook and iCloud so busy time is blocked, and connects out to Stripe, Square, PayPal, Zoom and Squarespace, with the custom API Premium only. | BWeb only, with Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Teams, Gong Engage and Clay. |
| Best for | taking bookings and payment in one go | B2B sales teams routing leads to meetings |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Acuity Scheduling and Chili Piper. How we grade
Price against what you get
Acuity Scheduling starts at $16 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Chili Piper starts at $1,250 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Acuity Scheduling starts $1,234 a month lower. Of the other calendar and scheduling apps on the chart, 17 score higher than Acuity Scheduling for less, and 18 score higher than Chili Piper for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Acuity Scheduling also covers invoicing.
- Chili Piper also covers calendar, sales pipeline, workflow automation, appointment booking and chatbots.
At a glance
| Acuity Scheduling | Chili Piper | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Paid |
| Starts at | $16 per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly) | $1,250 per month ($15,000 per year), billed annually, includes 15 seats |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of any plan, no credit card needed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Squarespace, Inc. | Chili Piper |
| Price read from | acuityscheduling.com | chilipiper.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Acuity Scheduling
- There is no free plan. When the 7-day trial ends, a paid plan is needed to keep using the account.
- Plans are capped by calendars, which map to staff or locations: 1 on Starter, 6 on Standard and 36 on Premium.
- Text reminders, the waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates need Standard or Premium.
- Hiding the "Powered by Acuity Scheduling" footer, signing a HIPAA BAA, and custom API and CSS are Premium-only.
Chili Piper
- All plans are billed annually; the pricing page says monthly billing is not available.
- Entry price is $15,000 a year for 15 seats, with no free plan or self-serve trial listed.
- Chat AI, account identification and Signals reporting are on Scale or above, not Growth.
- Standalone ChiliCal needs at least 200 seats, so it does not suit small teams.
Key features
Acuity Scheduling
- Branded booking page
- Clients self-schedule, reschedule or cancel on a page with your logo and colors. Share it as a link or QR code, or embed it in a Squarespace site or another website.
- Payments, deposits and invoicing
- Take full payment, a deposit or a card on file at booking through Stripe, Square or PayPal, and send invoices. The mobile app accepts in-person payments, including tap-to-pay.
- Reminders and intake forms
- Automated email confirmations, updates and reminders on every plan, with custom intake forms at booking. Text message reminders start on Standard.
- Calendar sync and availability rules
- Syncs with Google Calendar, Outlook and iCloud to block busy times. Set daily appointment limits, buffers between bookings and room or resource restrictions.
- Classes, packages and memberships
- Offer one-to-one services or group classes and workshops. Standard and Premium can sell appointment packages, subscriptions, memberships and gift certificates.
- AI Booking Assistant
- An AI chat bot that helps clients get booked on the scheduling page. It is available on the Premium plan only.
Chili Piper
- Form Concierge
- Shows a booking calendar to a visitor right after they submit a form, so a form fill can become a meeting on the spot.
- Lead routing and handoff
- Assigns leads, contacts and accounts to owners using rules and round robin, with caps, weighting and a territory table.
- Chat AI
- An AI chat on Scale that answers visitors from your content, qualifies them and books meetings. Growth includes chat journeys and live chat.
- ChiliCal scheduling links
- Every seat gets scheduling links that log meetings to the CRM; coworkers and time zones are handled automatically.
- Follow-ups and spam checks
- Follows up on no-shows, cancellations and abandoned forms, and uses agents to filter fake meetings and prepare reps.
- MCP server and custom triggers
- Growth and Scale list an MCP server for ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, plus custom triggers and webhooks.
Plans
Acuity Scheduling
Starter$16
per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly)
1 calendar, payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, email reminders, custom client forms and automatic time zone conversion.
Standard$27
per month, billed annually ($34 billed monthly)
Up to 6 calendars, plus text reminders, an appointment waitlist, memberships, packages and gift certificates.
Premium$49
per month, billed annually ($61 billed monthly)
Up to 36 calendars, plus the AI Booking Assistant, a BAA for HIPAA compliance, logo removal, per-staff time zones, and custom API and CSS.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited calendars and scheduling instances, VIP account management, additional APIs and a central dashboard; priced through sales.
Chili Piper
Growth$1,250
per month for 15 seats, billed annually ($15,000/yr)
Forms to meetings, routing, handoffs, 45,000 AI credits a year. Extra seats are $45 a month each.
Scale$3,500
per month for 30 seats, billed annually ($42,000/yr)
Adds Chat AI and account identification, 150,000 AI credits a year. Extra seats are $50 a month each.
EnterpriseCustom
Scale features for teams of 250 or more seats, with volume pricing and more AI credits.
ChiliCal standalone$12
per user / month, minimum 200 seats
Scheduling links only, with CRM, calendar and messaging integrations; no routing or AI credits.
Ways to pay less
Acuity Scheduling
- Annual discount
Save 20% by paying annually
Acuity's pricing page lists a 20% saving on annual billing: Starter is $16 instead of $20 per month, Standard $27 instead of $34 and Premium $49 instead of $61.
Chili Piper
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Acuity Scheduling or Chili Piper?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Acuity Scheduling is cheaper to start with: $16 a month, against $1,250 a month for Chili Piper. Acuity Scheduling starts at $16 per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly), and Chili Piper starts at $1,250 per month ($15,000 per year), billed annually, includes 15 seats.
Which has a free plan, Acuity Scheduling or Chili Piper?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Acuity Scheduling nor Chili Piper has a free plan. Acuity Scheduling has a free trial.
Which platforms do Acuity Scheduling and Chili Piper run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Acuity Scheduling lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.