Best scheduling software without a subscription

Cal.com

Cal.com is the hosted version of a well known open source scheduler, and its free tier is unusually generous for one person: unlimited event types, unlimited calendars and no cap on the number of meetings you take. It is also one of the few free plans that will take a payment for you, through Stripe or PayPal, and it imports existing Calendly events in a click. The trade-off is that anything collaborative, such as shared team availability, round robin routing or removing Cal.com branding, starts at the paid plans.

Cal.diy

Cal.diy is the community fork of Cal.com with every commercial feature removed and the whole codebase relicensed under MIT, so there is no license key, no account and no vendor to pay. It is the closest thing here to owning your scheduler outright, and there is no hosted option at all: you run it on your own infrastructure. Its own README warns that self-hosting demands real server administration skills and recommends it for personal, non-production use, so it suits a developer rather than a salon owner.

Calendly

Calendly is the scheduling link most people already recognise, which matters when you are sending it to clients. Its free plan is deliberately narrow: one event type and one connected calendar, but no cap on how many meetings people book through it. That fits a single link for one kind of meeting, such as a 30 minute intro call. A second meeting type, automated reminders or taking payment all require a paid seat.

Zoho Bookings

Zoho Bookings keeps a Forever Free plan for a single user that covers the fundamentals: an online meeting link, notification emails and reminders, and two-way sync with Zoho, Google and Microsoft 365 calendars. It makes most sense if you already work in other Zoho apps, since bookings land beside the rest of your records. Collecting payments, routing customers to the right booking page and team scheduling are all reserved for the paid tiers.

Setmore

Setmore is the rare free plan built for a small team rather than one person: up to four users share the calendar and a branded booking page, with unlimited appointments, email reminders and iOS and Android apps. It is aimed at appointment businesses such as salons, trainers and clinics, and it will take payments through Stripe, Square or PayPal. Two-way calendar sync, SMS reminders and recurring appointments sit on the paid Pro plan.

SimplyBook.me

SimplyBook.me gives one provider a free booking website and widget, an admin app and a WordPress widget, with 50 bookings included and a single custom feature slot you spend on whichever extra matters most, such as Google or Outlook calendar sync. That modular design keeps the free plan honest but means the thing you want may be the one slot you have. A busy calendar will run through 50 bookings quickly, at which point the paid tiers start at around $12 a month.

Picktime

Picktime's free tier is the most generous here for a small operation: three team members, unlimited appointments, three resources, two locations, class bookings and PayPal payments, all at no cost, with iOS and Android apps included. Its integrations list covers Google, Outlook, Apple and Office 365 calendars. The interface is plainer than Calendly's, and Stripe and Square payments only appear on the paid plans, which start at $3 per user per month.

Koalendar

Koalendar is a straightforward Calendly alternative whose free plan keeps the two things people most often pay for elsewhere: unlimited bookings and unlimited booking pages. It connects Google, Outlook and Apple calendars, has mobile apps, and translates booking pages into more than 30 languages. It is built for personal use, so accepting payments, automated reminders, group sessions and removing Koalendar branding all sit behind the Pro plan.

TidyCal

TidyCal is the one product here you can simply buy: a $29 lifetime licence through AppSumo, bought once and kept. There is a free tier too, so the licence is really about connecting more calendars, group and recurring bookings, and automatic Zoom, Meet or Teams links. Paid bookings carry a 1% platform fee on top of Stripe's own processing charges unless you move to the monthly Pro plan, which is worth checking if you take money through it often.

Appointlet

Appointlet's free plan is unusual in allowing up to five members on one account, which suits a small team sharing a single scheduling page. The trade-off is a hard cap of 25 meetings a month, so it fits low volume booking rather than a full appointment book. Calendar sync covers Google and Office 365 and the video conferencing integrations are included, but collecting payment through Stripe or PayPal is a Premium feature at $9 per member per month.

YouCanBookMe

YouCanBookMe gives away one booking page and one connected calendar, and unusually it lets the free plan take Stripe payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. The booking page itself is more customisable than most free tiers allow, with your own logo, text, questions and confirmation emails. Support on the free plan is limited to the help site, community forum and video resources, with one to one help reserved for paying customers.

Square Appointments

Square Appointments costs nothing per month for a single location, because the scheduling software is really a front end for Square's payments business: the money comes from the 2.6% plus 15 cents it takes on a card tapped in person and 3.3% plus 30 cents online. In exchange the free tier is broad, with an online booking site, appointment reminders, invoicing and unlimited staff calendars. If you do not want to process payments through Square, most of the appeal disappears.

Easy!Appointments

Easy!Appointments is a PHP application you install on your own server, free under an open source licence with no monthly fee and no commission on bookings. It handles services, providers with their own schedules, booking rules, group sessions and Google or CalDAV sync, and it ships WordPress, Joomla and Drupal plugins plus a Docker image. The real cost is the hosting and the setup: you need a server with PHP and MySQL, and paid help is available from the maintainers if you want features built.

Amelia Lite

Amelia Lite is the free version of a widely used WordPress booking plugin, so appointments live on your own site and in your own database instead of on someone else's booking page. It covers services, employees, events, Google Calendar sync and, unusually for a free plugin, payment collection through Square at no extra charge. The developer is explicit that an unlimited number of employees, custom notifications, reminders and multilingual support are held back for the paid versions.

FluentBooking

FluentBooking is a WordPress plugin sold with a lifetime licence, which is the reason it belongs here: pay once for a single site and you keep updates and support without renewing. Even the entry tier removes the caps that free cloud plans lean on, with unlimited hosts, calendars and meetings, plus Google, Apple, Outlook and Nextcloud sync and Stripe or PayPal payments. There is a free version on WordPress.org, so you can run it before deciding whether the licence is worth it.