Calendly vs Acuity for salons and med spas: 2026 prices

It's Tuesday at a small med spa with three providers. A client texts the front desk's personal phone asking to move her Thursday filler appointment. Someone else booked a facial through the free Calendly link the owner set up last spring, and nobody asked whether she was pregnant or on a retinoid. A third client didn't show at 11, and there was no reminder to blame because the free plan doesn't send one. So the owner starts comparing Calendly vs Acuity, the two names that come up every time she searches for scheduling software.

From the outside they look alike: the client clicks a link, picks a time, and the booking lands on your calendar with reminders on the paid plans. Underneath, they charge differently and they were built for different kinds of appointments. I checked Calendly's pricing page, Calendly's help article on sending text messages, Acuity's pricing page and Acuity's reminders page on November 7, 2026. Every price and feature below comes from those pages. They change, so look again before you sign up.

Calendly vs Acuity at a glance

The short version: Calendly charges per person who hosts meetings. Acuity charges per account, sized by how many staff calendars you need.

One caveat on Calendly's numbers. Its page has a "Billed yearly" and "Billed monthly" toggle with "Save up to 20%" beside it, and the $10 and $16 figures carry "Save 17%" and "Save 20%" badges. They read as yearly rates, but the page text I could read doesn't say so or show the monthly figures. Flip the toggle yourself before you budget. Acuity's page lists both prices per plan with a "Pay annually Save 20%" toggle, and notes that "Prices do not include applicable taxes."

What the bill looks like for a small salon or med spa

Because one tool charges per seat and the other per account, the gap grows with headcount. Using the prices above:

If you're solo and only want email reminders, Acuity's Starter at $16 or $20 covers it, and its reminders page says you can "send up to three customizable email reminders," timed anywhere from "1 week before an appointment or 1 hour." Calendly's Free plan doesn't include automated reminders at all.

Card fees are extra on both. Neither pricing page lists a processing rate, because the fee comes from the processor you connect. Check Stripe's, Square's or PayPal's own rates.

Which one fits how your business books

The feature lists overlap a lot. What separates them is the kind of appointment you sell.

Calendly fits when the booking is a conversation. A consultation before a treatment plan, a bridal trial call, a new-client intro. The client picks a time with a person, the meeting happens, and the real work gets scheduled afterward. Teams adds round robin and routing, so a new inquiry can land on whichever provider has room. If your front desk spends the morning deciding who should take each new lead, that's the feature you'd be paying for.

Acuity fits when the booking is the service. A 60 minute facial with an intake form, a deposit, and a package of six sessions sold up front. Acuity puts intake forms and deposits on every plan, adds packages, memberships, gift certificates and a waitlist from Standard, and is the one of the two whose pricing page offers a signed business associate agreement. For a med spa doing injectables or laser work, that Premium-only BAA row is the one to read twice. If the appointment itself is health information, start your trial on the plan you'll actually need.

A quick test: if you'd describe your calendar as "meetings," look at Calendly first. If you'd describe it as "appointments" with a service menu, look at Acuity first. My earlier posts break down Calendly pricing and Acuity Scheduling pricing plan by plan if you want the full feature tables.

The part neither one handles: replies

A reminder is only half the exchange. The other half is what the client sends back, and both tools leave that part to you.

Calendly's help article is blunt: "Replies from invitees aren't delivered or monitored." When a client answers a reminder with "can we do 5 instead," the text goes nowhere. Each message is also capped at "up to 180 characters," and you can't test texting during the trial.

Acuity's pages don't say what happens to a reply either. The reminders page suggests you "include a rescheduling link in your message so clients can manage their time without having to call." That works for clients who tap links. The ones who answer in plain words instead are the problem: if nobody reads the reply, the slot sits empty.

So whichever one you choose, plan the reply path before you turn texts on. Here's what that looks like when I set it up:

1. Reminders go out from a business number the client can actually reply to, on a schedule you choose (my appointment reminder templates has wording for each one).
2. Any reply that isn't a plain confirmation gets forwarded to the front desk phone within a minute, with the client's name and appointment attached.
3. A reply asking to move the appointment gets an automatic answer with the reschedule link, plus a heads-up to staff in case they'd rather call.
4. A no-show triggers a same-day text with a rebooking link, and your no-show policy goes out with the first confirmation so nobody is surprised by a fee later.
5. A cancellation pings the waitlist, if you have one, so the slot gets offered instead of lost.

None of that needs you to switch schedulers. It sits around the one you pick.

What stays human

The scheduler books the slot and sends the messages. Several decisions around it still belong to a person.

Someone at the front desk should read every reply that isn't a yes. A client saying "I'm running late" needs a different answer than one saying "I had a reaction after last time." The second one is a phone call from a provider, today.

Intake forms collect answers, and a provider still reviews them before a treatment. A form can flag a pregnancy or a medication. It can't make the clinical call.

Charging a no-show fee is a judgment call too. A regular who missed for the first time in two years and a new client who's done it twice aren't the same conversation, and the policy should leave room for that.

A checklist before you start either trial

• Count the people clients book with. Per seat or per calendar changes the math.
• Decide whether you need texts. Both require a paid plan, and Calendly won't send them during the trial.
• Decide whether you need a BAA. On Acuity, that's Premium only. On Calendly, ask in writing.
• List what you sell: single services, packages, memberships, gift cards.
• Decide who reads replies, and from which phone.
• Check monthly vs annual pricing with the toggle on each page.

I set up booking, reminders and reply handling for salons and med spas, connected to whichever scheduler you already use. Builds start at $500 one-time, then a flat monthly from $99 after an included run-in period, and you can cancel any time. If you're not sure which tool fits, book a free 20 minute process audit. I'll look at how clients book with you today and tell you which plan you actually need.