Are you comparing TidyCal vs Calendly and wondering which tool to choose (or switch from)? You might be at the stage where you want to save some time from arranging your meetings manually, or you just might want a fuss-free way to take payment for a call.
Calendly and TidyCal are services that allow you to create online calendars for your business, but which is best for you?
Let's look at some of the features of both products, and I'll let you know which one I use and why!
Table of contents
Why use an online calendar?
Having an online calendar is a great way to enable people to book appointments with you at a time that suits them. It also means they don't have to call or email you directly, which can be a big help if your inbox is always full.
You can also use the calendar to create paid-for meetings, which are perfect if you charge for consultancy, Power Hours or coaching and mentoring. Your clients select when they would like their meeting, the app takes their payment and voilà! You've got a paid-for booking with no effort on your part.
Investing in a paid online calendar system is one of the first investments I made as a business owner, and it has consistently been one of my most essential purchases.

Calendly £10pm plan
- Unlimited event types
- Paid meetings
- Syncs with Google, Office 365, Outlook, and iCloud calendars
- Meeting polls
- Reminders & workflows
- Paid meetings
- Group meetings
- Confirmation redirect

TidyCal $29 Lifetime
- Unlimited event types
- Paid meetings
- Syncs with Google, Office 365, and Apple calendars
- Meeting Polls
- Custom email reminders
- Paid meetings
- Group meetings
- Confirmation redirect
What is Calendly?
Calendly is a calendar management service that enables users to easily create, share, and manage their schedules. In addition to scheduling meetings with others, Calendly also provides tools for setting up recurring meetings, events, and reminders.
Calendly Free Account
Calendly does have a free account if you are unsure you are ready to invest in the paid version. It's worth remembering that on the free Calendly account you can only have one live ‘event' at a time.
This is fine if you only have one type of meeting, such as a discovery call. But what if you have a 15-minute discovery call and a 60-minute coaching call? You can only have one event live and functioning at a time.
This can be frustrating as it requires you to log into Calendly to toggle the different meetings on and off (and to remember to do it!) which detracts from the whole appeal of having a platform that can automate your bookings for you.
The other thing to note about the free Calendly account, is that you are unable to create ‘paid for' meetings such as Power Hours. This is only accessible on their paid plans.
Calendly Paid Account
If you upgrade your Calendly account you will unlock a whole host of time-saving features.
It's worth noting here that Calendly has a cheaper ‘Essentials' plan which has a good range of features, however, you can not create paid-for events on this plan.
So I'm going to jump straight into the features of their Professional Plan which is $12 per month and includes:
- 6 Calendar connections per person
- Unlimited active event types
- Unlimited one-on-one events
- Create meeting polls
- Create one-off meetings
- Customize your booking link
- Create group events
- Automated event notifications
- Customize email notifications and reminders
- Create automated workflows
- Redirect your invitees
- Collect payments with Stripe and PayPal
- Track with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel
You can see the full list of all the features here – there are many, many more.
What is TidyCal?
Just like Calendly, TidyCal is an online calendar booking system. It is similar to Calendly, you can set up free and paid-for meetings. Over the past couple of years, TidyCal has gone from strength to strength with more functions added to the app, to rival the top players in the online calendar space.
TidyCal is a much simpler and easy-to-use application. It’s the perfect solution if you need something low-fuss that gets the job done.
TidyCal features:
- Unlimited booking types
- Paid bookings
- 10 calendar connections per account and automatically detected recipient time zones
- Zapier integration
- Custom day availability
- Add your colours
- Paid bookings
- Automatic translations that tailor your booking page and booking emails to the local language
- Embed a booking page widget directly on your website
- Get all the information upfront about your client or prospect who booked
- Confirmation email or redirect
- Easy options to cancel or reschedule the meeting
- Custom email reminders
TidyCal pricing
TidyCal is an AppSumo product and currently has a one-time fee of only $29. The value of this product is incredible! For one low payment, you can create stress-free and paid-for meeting links without the monthly commitment that you have with other similar tools.
TidyCal is perfect if you’re a light meeting user, perhaps you only book in a few calls per year – enough to need a tool like this, but not enough to justify a monthly expense.
If you’re looking to reduce your monthly outgoings, then TidyCal is the perfect solution.
TidyCal
TidyCal is an online calendar booking system similar to Calendly. For a one-time fee of only $29 you can set up free and paid-for meetings.
TidyCal is a simple and easy-to-use application. It's the perfect solution if you need something low-fuss that gets the job done.
- No hidden costs
- Easy to use
- Regularly updated with new features
Why I switched to TidyCal
When I discovered TidyCal, I had previously already used two different calendar booking systems and I found them far too complex for my needs.
I really only need a simple function to allow clients to book free and paid-for meetings with me. The simplicity of TidyCal appealed to me in the first instance, and then when I realised there was a low one-off payment, it was a no-brainer decision for me when deciding between TidyCal and Calendly.
I haven’t looked back since, and have recommended it many times to my business friends and other social media managers who have all loved it too.
How to use Tidycal in 2023 (Video Tutorial)
TidyCal lifetime deal
You can sign-up to TidyCal for their low one-off fee of $29 here (it works out to be about £21).
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Thank you this is so helpful