Calendly vs Microsoft Bookings

Calendly

• Sales, recruiting and customer teams that book many external meetings
• Individuals who need one free booking link
• Teams that need round-robin assignment and lead routing

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

Calendly

• The Free plan allows one event type and one calendar connection, for one-on-one meetings only.
• Round-robin scheduling, lead routing and Salesforce sync need Teams; SSO is an add-on on Teams and built into Enterprise.
• Notetaker and Callie are not in base Standard or Teams. They need a Plus plan (Teams Plus is $24 per seat / month, billed yearly) and are English-only.
• Enterprise starts at $15k per year and 50 seats and is billed in USD 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.

Calendly

Event types and booking pages

Set up event types and share a link so invitees choose a time from your availability. Free allows one event type; paid plans allow unlimited.

Team scheduling

Group and collective events come with Standard. Round-robin distribution and centrally managed event types start on Teams.

Routing and CRM sync

Teams adds lead qualification and routing along with Salesforce sync. HubSpot connects from the Standard plan.

Automations and payments

Standard and above send automated reminders and can take payment at booking through Stripe or PayPal.

Notetaker and Callie

Notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls to record, transcribe and recap them. Callie is a beta AI assistant that schedules over email. Both come with the Plus plans.

Apps, extensions and API

iOS and Android apps, extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari, add-ins for Outlook, Gmail and LinkedIn, website embeds, and a REST API with webhooks.

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.

Calendly

• Free$0

  One event type, one calendar connection and one-on-one scheduling.

• Standard$10

  per seat / month, billed yearly

  Unlimited event types, up to 6 calendar connections, group events, automations, and Stripe and PayPal payments.

• Teams$16

  per seat / month, billed yearly

  Adds round-robin scheduling, lead routing, Salesforce sync, admin tools and an optional SSO add-on.

• EnterpriseFrom $15k

  per year, starting at 50 seats

  SSO and advanced provisioning, audit logging, the full Salesforce routing suite and priority support.

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.

Calendly

• Annual discount

  Save 17% to 20% with yearly billing

  Calendly's pricing page lists a 17% saving on Standard and a 20% saving on Teams when billed yearly instead of monthly.

• Other savings

  Volume pricing on annual Teams plans

  On annual Teams plans, seats beyond the first 30 cost less: $14.50 per month for seats 31 to 50, stepping down to $12 from seat 301.

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.