Acuity Scheduling vs Microsoft Bookings

Acuity Scheduling

• Salons, studios, coaches, tutors and other appointment-based businesses
• Taking a deposit or full payment at the time of booking
• Selling packages, memberships and gift certificates alongside appointments

Microsoft Bookings

• Organizations already paying for Microsoft 365 that need appointment booking
• Teams that hold customer appointments as Microsoft Teams meetings
• Internal booking pages limited to people inside the organization

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.

Microsoft Bookings

• Bookings is not available as a standalone app; it requires an eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription with Outlook on the web enabled.
• Microsoft's FAQ states there is no payment support, so it cannot charge customers when they book.
• SMS notifications are limited to North America, and staff cannot be given their own time zones.
• Appointments can only be edited in the Bookings web portal, not from an Outlook calendar, and reports cover the past 120 days.

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.

Microsoft Bookings

Personal booking page

Personal Bookings gives one person a page for their own time slots, with meeting types for different purposes. Anyone with the link sees the free times and books one.

Shared booking pages for teams

Shared Bookings covers a team: define services, add staff, set business hours and scheduling policies, and run several Bookings calendars, each with its own setup.

Teams meetings for appointments

An appointment booked as an online meeting gets a unique Microsoft Teams link sent to attendees. Bookings also runs as an app inside Teams and Outlook.

Self-service booking and changes

Customers book, reschedule or cancel on the page, which can be embedded in a website through an iFrame or restricted to accounts in your own organization.

Email and SMS notifications

Confirmation and reminder emails go to staff and customers with a calendar file attached. SMS text notifications are currently available in North America.

Group bookings and staff assignment

Several people can book the same slot, for example for a class. If customers are not allowed to pick a staff member, Bookings assigns an available one at random.

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.

Microsoft Bookings

• Business Basic (no Teams)$5.40

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Microsoft 365 with web and mobile Office apps, business email and 1 TB of storage per user. Bookings is included, Microsoft Teams is not.

• Business Basic$7.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  The same plan with Microsoft Teams, so Bookings appointments can be held as Teams meetings. For up to 300 users.

• Business Standard with Copilot$23.50

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Adds desktop versions of the Office apps and Microsoft Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Bookings is included.

• Business Premium with Copilot$32.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Adds device security and management, threat protection and data protection on top of Standard. Bookings is included.

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.

Microsoft Bookings

• Nonprofit

  Business Basic free for eligible nonprofits

  Microsoft's nonprofit page lists Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which includes Bookings, as a grant that is free for up to 300 users, with nonprofit staff pricing on Standard and Premium.