With the rise of online appointments, meetings, and classes came the rise of online scheduling nightmares. Entrepreneurs, employees, and customers around the world simultaneously became inundated with internet obligations they weren't used to. Enter, Calendly.
Managing an everyday life schedule is hard enough, but managing a schedule tailored to customers' needs requires even more help. In-person businesses have the fortunate advantage of assistants to manage their clients' booking requests. Now that more services are remaining online, entrepreneurs are searching for tools to manage their clients' needs and expand their business.
Calendly was originally founded in 2010 but was not launched until 2014. During the pandemic in 2020, Calendly shot to fame due to the exponential rise in online meetings. It is now valued as a $3 billion company.
Calendly is an intuitive online scheduling platform that allows businesses to offer available hours publicly and then share them with customers. Users set their availability preferences and then can email them to their clients or post them on their website. From there, clients can book available appointments for meetings, which saves businesses time and energy when it comes to scheduling appointments.
Calendly also offers features such as text messaging, email notifications, time zone detection, buffering, and other customizations. It can also be integrated with apps such as GoToMeeting, Zoom, and Zappier. However, the most valuable tools are not offered through their basic — free — account. Even their premium membership doesn't offer features like custom branding, domain names, or custom notifications.
Here are a few pros and cons users have found with Calendly:
There are several viable Calendly alternatives for scheduling. Some alternatives offer options such as sales, brand marketing, and reporting features. Sofia Health is an online marketplace that seeks to serve a particular community of online businesses — the health and wellness community. So, here are a few Calendly alternatives and how they compare to Sofia Health.
1. Sofia Health
Sofia Health is the top Calendly alternative for health professionals and alternative wellness practitioners alike. Sofia Health has created a health and wellness marketplace community. In addition to managing online scheduling and processing payments, Sofia Health offers a space that brings together those seeking treatment and those offering help.
2. Chili Piper
Chili Piper is one of the best overall Calendly alternatives. It's a scheduling app explicitly geared toward customer success and sales teams, which makes it a favorite among small, mid-sized, and large businesses. It is not, however, ideal for freelancers. It offers a free version and additional tiered services for a monthly premium per user.
How Chili Piper Compares with Sofia Health
Chili Piper is best for customer success and sales teams, but it doesn't generate leads. Sofia Health not only provides online scheduling services but also offers a marketplace for health and wellness practitioners to market services directly to patients.
3. Sprintful
Sprintful is another Calendly alternative that looks to distinguish itself by focusing on Calendly's shortcomings. Sprintful specifically focuses on branding. Its scheduling tools are simple, easy to use, and the service is one of the most flexible options out there. Sprintful helps users create a webpage that brands their business and then offers scheduling and integration with other calendar programs.
How Sprintful Compares with Sofia Health
Sprintful is yet another scheduling service that charges businesses per user, causing costs to add up. Additionally, it limits the number of bookings per month at each tier, subsequently limiting businesses' income.
Sofia Health has a single paid tier for access to all of its features. It collects a low percentage of product sales, meaning that Sofia Health benefits only when businesses' sales benefit.
4. Acuity
Acuity is a booking and scheduling service that is directed more toward freelancers and small businesses. It is easier to use than Calendly and is customizable to users' needs. It also processes payments and — at higher tiers — allows users to offer appointment packages and payment plans. However, it's only at the highest tier that users can utilize different time-zone features.
How Acuity Compares with Sofia Health
Like Sofia Health, Acuity appeals to businesses that offer health services. However, Acuity lacks a marketplace in which businesses can connect with potential customers and market their products and services directly to a built-in customer base.
Acuity also has a very short 7-day free trial period in which users can experiment with its premium options. A free trial period this short is not enough to truly understand if the value of the premium option is worth the cost. Sofia Health, on the other hand, offers practitioners a free, 30-day trial of all its features. This allows practitioners to get to know Sofia Health more deeply and understand its benefits to them and their business.
Sofia Health isn't just an appointment scheduling service like its competitors. Sofia Health is a marketplace community. We bring together health and wellness enthusiasts and practitioners who are passionate about living their best lives. We offer health and wellness service providers a seamless way to do what they love: help those in need.
With our custom website building, Sofia Health offers providers a platform in which to build their brand and business. Users can manage scheduling, intake forms, and client messaging. We generate leads for our users to help them grow. And we have built a marketplace for providers to sell unique products, process payments, and organize their growing business into a health and wellness enterprise. Start a 30-day free trial at Sofia Health today and watch your business grow.