When it comes to simplifying your scheduling, YouCanBookMe and Calendly are two popular booking tools you might consider using.
Both of these platforms have overwhelmingly positive reviews from users, making it a bit tricky to know which one is best for you.
To make your decision easier, we compared YouCanBookMe vs Calendly to see what the pros and cons of each app are and to try and determine which one wins in terms of features and usability.
YouCanBookMe Vs Calendly: Overview
YouCanBookMe
YouCanBookMe is a scheduling app that provides you with a personalized booking page (connected to your calendar) to eliminate back and forth when trying to find meeting times that work for everyone.
You can share your unique booking page via email, a CRM, or by embedding YouCanBookMe on your website to allow customers and/or team members to schedule appointments with you.
YouCanBookMe pros:
- Free version available
- Can be embedded in a website
- Allows flexible scheduling preferences
- Can manage availability of teams
- Has payment integrations for pre-booking
- One paid plan gives access to all features
YouCanBookMe cons:
- Free version booking pages are watermarked
- Paid version is priced per calendar connection
Calendly
Calendly is very similar to YouCanBookMe in that its main purpose is to help reduce scheduling conflicts and make booking appointments with you easier for both clients and colleagues.
Like YouCanBookMe, Calendly provides you with a unique link to a booking page synced with your calendar, where anyone who has the link can simply click on an open time slot to book it. You can also embed Calendly on your business website.
Calendly pros:
- Free version available
- Can be embedded in a website
- Allows flexible scheduling preferences
- Can manage availability of teams
- Has payment integrations for pre-booking
Calendly cons:
- Free version offers limited customer support
- Paid versions only allow up to six calendar connections
- Different paid plans give access to different features
As you can see from the overviews of Calendly vs YouCanBookMe above, the two platforms are almost indistinguishable at a glance.
To give you the best idea of which of these two tools would be best for you, we’ll review YouCanBookMe and Calendly in the following five categories: features, ease of use, integrations, customer service, and pricing.
Features
Both YouCanBookMe and Calendly offer essential scheduling features like the ability to set scheduling preferences, manage group or individual bookings, and share your booking page either via a link or by embedding it on your website.
One unique feature of Calendly is the ability to create meeting polls, which you can use to vote on what meeting time works best for multiple team members.
Calendly also lets you set up routing forms, which request information from users to screen and qualify them before they can book with you.
Winner: Calendly
In the battle of Calendly vs YouCanBookMe, Calendly wins in the features category.
Even though both apps appear to have very similar features and both can reduce your scheduling-related headaches, Calendly has a couple of unique features that could come in handy for more specific uses.
Ease of use
Calendly is a favorite among users because of how easy and intuitive it is to set up and start using. YouCanBookMe is not hard to use, but it can take a bit longer than Calendly to get the grasp of.
Once you get up and running with either tool, the administration of either platform is just as easy.
Winner: Calendly
Calendly barely eked out a win in this category, just because YouCanBookMe has a bit more of a learning curve to get comfortable with.
Integrations
Calendly has 100 integrations listed on its website. Some of the most popular include:
- Zoom
- Typeform
- Webex
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Microsoft Teams
- HubSpot
- Zapier
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Google Analytics
- Chrome
YouCanBookMe’s primary integration is with Zapier, and through Zapier it connects with 5,000+ other apps. In order to connect YouCanBookMe with other apps, users must create a new “Zap” in Zapier for each new connection.
Winner: Calendly
We’re going to go with Calendly in the integrations category.
We chose Calendly over YouCanBookMe for integrations because you don’t have to use Zapier to integrate it with other useful apps and tools, whereas YouCanBookMe only connects with other apps through Zapier.
Since Calendly integrates with Zapier too, you can also make Calendly Zaps for the 5,000+ apps Zapier integrates with.
Customer Service
Calendly and YouCanBookMe both have online help centers on their websites, which are full of different types of support documentation.
YouCanBookMe also provides a direct link to their community forum, where you can get support from other users.
Calendly has a support email, but they don’t make it easy to find — it’s embedded in the site’s “Terms of Use.”
YouCanBookMe has a link to contact support on the site’s “Help and Support” page, but you have to have a paid account to contact them.
Winner: YouCanBookMe
YouCanBookMe wins in the customer service category because, even though you have to log in to a paid account to contact customer support, it’s clear that you can contact support. The help page also offers more support options with the inclusion of a community forum.
Calendly only provides support documentation on the help page, and it’s not easy to find the support email on the site. The only contact form on the site is for contacting the sales department.
Pricing
YouCanBookMe and Calendly both offer “Free Forever” versions that provide you with access to the apps’ basic scheduling features.
These free versions could work well for more casual, personal use, but, to get access to all the features you need for business use, you’ll want to upgrade to a paid version of either app.
This is where Calendly and YouCanBookMe differ quite a bit — YouCanBookMe only has one paid version that costs $10/month per calendar connection and gives you access to all of the app’s features.
The cost of Calendly, on the other hand, can vary quite a bit depending on what features you want access to.
Calendly’s “Essentials” plan costs $8/month/seat and gives you access to a limited range of features. The “Teams” plan costs double at $16/month/seat, but provides you with all of Calendly’s features.
Winner: YouCanBookMe
We chose YouCanBookMe as the winner in the pricing category because there is such a difference between the different Calendly pro vs free plans.
Since YouCanBookMe lets you unlock all the features by paying as low as $10/month per calendar, we think it’s a better value overall. Calendly could get quite a bit more pricey if you’re using it with a team.
YouCanBookMe Vs Calendly: Which One Should You Pick?
When should I choose YouCanBookMe?
If you want a scheduling app that gives you access to all its features in one paid plan, YouCanBookMe might be the best choice for you. Paying just $10 per calendar connection, you instantly unlock all of YouCanBookMe’s features.
Additionally, if you’re a Zapier user, you may also appreciate YouCanBookMe for its heavy integration with Zapier and the ability to connect the scheduling app to 5,000+ other apps using Zaps.
When should I choose Calendly?
If you want a booking tool that gives you more options in terms of pricing and features, making it easier to tailor the tool to your needs as they grow or change, Calendly may be just what you’re looking for.
Also, if you just want a scheduling app that’s very easy to use out of the box and has direct integrations with 100 other apps and platforms you may already be using, Calendly could be the better choice for you.
Final Words
YouCanBookMe and Calendly are two very user-friendly and useful booking apps, but they aren’t the only ones out there.
WEBBA Booking is a powerful booking plugin built specifically for WordPress sites that you can use as an alternative to embedding Calendly or YouCanBookMe on your website.
With 80+ appearance customization options, flexible scheduling, easy admin, multiple secure online payment options, two-way Google Calendar integration, and more, WEBBA is one of the most feature-rich and flexible alternatives to Calendly and YouCanBookMe out there.
If you have a WordPress site for any type of service-based business, we highly recommend trying WEBBA to solve all your scheduling conflicts.
