Calendly vs. OnceHub: Which free scheduling tool is better?

Dive into our detailed comparison of Calendly and OnceHub to discover which scheduling tool best suits your needs.

Calendly and OnceHub are both key players in the appointment scheduling niche, each offering unique capabilities to enhance appointment management. 

In this article, Calendly, known for its intuitive interface and robust features, goes head-to-head with OnceHub’s specialized functionalities and customization options.

Join us as we delve into the intricacies of Calendly and OnceHub, and don’t forget to check out our comprehensive reviews of each for a more in-depth understanding.

Calendly vs. OnceHub: At a Glance

To have a better understanding of the features we look at in this comparison between Calendly and OnceHub, check out our detailed evaluation process on the SMB Guide Evaluation Criteria page.

Criteria	Calendly	OnceHub	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	9/10	8/10	Tie
Appointment Workflow Automation	✅	✅	Tie
Customization Options	✅	✅	Tie
Calendar Management Features	✅	✅	Tie
Automated Reminders and Notifications	✅	✅	OnceHub
Client Management & Communication	❌	✅	OnceHub
Automatic Rules	✅	✅	OnceHub
In-Meeting Tools	❌	❌	Calendly
Meeting Templates	✅	✅	Calendly
Meeting Analytics	✅	✅	Tie
UX and UI	High user-friendliness	Easy-to-use	Tie
Integrations & API Capabilities	✅	✅	Tie
Supported Platforms	✅	❌	Calendly
Customer Support	Live chat, automated chat box, email support tickets	Live chat Email Self-help	OnceHub
Pricing	Free – $20/mo (per seat)	Free – $47/seat/mo	Tie
Scalability	✅	✅	Calendly

Calendly: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Calendly has earned its reputation as a top-notch, web-based tool for streamlining the process of arranging meetings.

Its intuitive design and flexible features have garnered widespread appreciation from both individuals and organizations.

Key highlights of Calendly include seamless syncing with diverse calendar systems, tailor-made meeting options, automatic reminders, and efficient handling of time zones.

However, despite its user-friendly appeal, some may find the pricing options a bit restrictive for certain requirements.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Calendly offers four plans, including a generous free plan you can use.

• Free: $0
• Standard: $10/seat/month
• Teams: $16/seat/month
• Enterprise: Custom

For users requiring more than 30 accounts, Calendly offers a custom/enterprise plan with tailored quotes.

OnceHub: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

OnceHub, previously ScheduleOnce, is a robust scheduling solution aimed at optimizing operations and boosting conversion rates.

It effectively manages complex scheduling needs, adapting to various sales team configurations, meeting styles, and web acquisition channels.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

OnceHub offers a tiered subscription model catering to diverse business needs. It includes a free trial allowing limited access to most features. 

The available plans are:

• Starter — Free
• Growth — $10/user/month
• Enterprise — Custom

Appointment Workflow Automation

Calendly streamlines appointment setting by providing clients with a link to your scheduling page.

Here, they can pick from your listed event types and find a suitable date, autonomously booking their meetings.

The system thoughtfully incorporates adjustable buffer periods before and after appointments, ensuring there are no consecutive meetings without intervals.

After securing an appointment, clients get email confirmations that include links for conference calls and the flexibility to alter or cancel their bookings as needed.

OnceHub supports scheduled and live interactions, multi-channel scheduling, and a variety of meeting modes like phone, email, online, and in-person.

Users can set up automatic or approved bookings, single or multiple sessions, and individual or group sessions tailored to their needs.

It also allows control over the frequency of bookings and the number of participants in group sessions.

The platform supports team usage, enabling managers to manage multiple calendars and workloads efficiently.

It ensures correct timing for calendar invitations, accommodating different time zones.

Additionally, OnceHub offers the option to include various links in invitations, such as video conferencing or supportive resources.

✅ Winner: Tie

Customization Options

Calendly’s paid subscriptions provide ample scope for creating diverse types of bookable appointments.

With the free version, you’re limited to one event type, yet it offers considerable adaptability. This includes designating meeting venues like Zoom or Google Meet, enabling attendee additions, setting booking horizons, inserting buffer times, and capping daily meetings.

Customization of the scheduling interface is somewhat restricted in the free plan, but it does allow for URL personalization, including for specific events.

The Standard plan or higher elevates your branding options, such as incorporating your company logo while eliminating Calendly’s branding from the booking page.

However, the free plan also includes a feature to display your logo, positioned in the top-left, but doesn’t provide an option to hide Calendly’s branding.

The OnceHub platform allows for extensive personalization of the scheduling process, including meeting types, availability settings, and booking page branding.

Users can also specify different types of appointments, overall meeting availability, and set daily or weekly booking limits and desired intervals between appointments.

The platform also allows users to tailor the booking page to reflect their brand, offering the option to modify system themes or create new ones. 

Furthermore, OnceHub provides a range of notification customization options, enabling users to choose between email or SMS for various booking-related communications, including confirmations, cancellations, rescheduling, and more.

✅ Winner: Tie

Calendar Management Features

Calendly offers smooth integration with various calendars like Google, Outlook, iCloud, and Exchange to avoid overlapping appointments.

In its free version, Calendly allows linking with a single external calendar, which can be increased to six with a premium upgrade.

It also features automatic time zone conversion for meetings, facilitating clear coordination across different regions.

For rescheduling, navigate to “Scheduled events” in the menu, choose the relevant meeting, and adjust as needed.

While giving a reason for the change is not mandatory, clients are notified of the alterations and have the option to reschedule from their side.

OnceHub also streamlines appointment management by integrating with popular calendar services like Google Calendar, iCloud, and Office 365, ensuring synchronized schedules and preventing double bookings.

The platform simplifies scheduling across time zones, automatically adjusting for daylight saving time changes, and reducing the risk of booking errors or missed appointments.

Users have the option to enable automatic time zone conversion for meetings or display time slots in the booking page’s time zone only.

Additionally, OnceHub provides control over cancellation and rescheduling policies. Users can set their own rules regarding when and how clients can cancel or reschedule appointments, including the option to impose cancellation fees.

✅ Winner: Tie

Automated Reminders and Notifications

Upon scheduling a meeting through Calendly, clients instantly get a calendar invite sent to them. To access enhanced automated reminder features, opting for a paid plan is necessary.

Starting from the Standard plan, Calendly enables the configuration of SMS or email reminders, guaranteeing that participants are well-informed about all crucial meeting information.

OnceHub automates a range of tasks including scheduling, invitation dispatch, and handling cancellations or rescheduling.

Users have the flexibility to choose between email or SMS for sending reminders and notifications. These notifications can either be from a default template or customized by the user.

The platform supports automated notifications for various scenarios such as:

• Instant bookings
• Bookings pending approval
• Calendar events
• Cancellations or rescheduling of bookings
• Cancellation or resubmission of booking requests
• Reminder and follow-up messages

Additionally, OnceHub allows setting up to three reminders before a meeting at chosen intervals, and the option to send a follow-up message post-meeting at a specified time.

OnceHub offers slightly more automated reminder options here.

✅ Winner: OnceHub

Client Management and Communication

Calendly doesn’t offer the ability to store meeting information in a client database.

OnceHub, on the other hand, does offer the option to store client responses as booking details or a contact field.

This collates the data from when customers/clients fill out a default booking form requesting basic details like name, email, and phone number.

Users have the flexibility to customize these forms with additional fields.

For paid meetings, OnceHub integrates with PayPal, allowing direct payment collection at booking and the option to impose a cancellation fee.

Users can also access comprehensive booking reports, summarizing details from any chosen date and time.

These reports are exportable in formats like Excel, CSV, or PDF.

✅ Winner: OnceHub

Automatic Rules

Calendly introduces a variety of automated rules and settings to streamline appointment scheduling. Key features include:

• Auto-Cancellation Policies: This allows users to define conditions under which appointments are automatically cancelled, such as deadlines for clients to cancel or reschedule.
• Time Zone Adjustments: The platform automatically aligns meeting times to accommodate different time zones, ensuring precision in scheduling and avoiding confusion due to time zone differences.
• Defining Working Hours: Users can specify their available hours, restricting client bookings to these specified times only.

OnceHub’s automation rules offer a suite of features designed to streamline and optimize various aspects of appointment scheduling and resource management. These features include:

• Scheduling Rooms and Resources: This helps in avoiding conflicts and ensures that necessary resources are available and properly scheduled alongside the meetings.
• Timeframe Rules for Bookings: OnceHub allows users to set specific rules regarding the timeframe for accepting bookings. This includes setting limits on how far in advance a booking can be made and how close to an event bookings can still be accepted. 
• Workload Management Rules: These rules can be tailored to balance the distribution of meetings and ensure that no individual or team is overwhelmed. This could include setting limits on the number of meetings per day or week, thus helping to maintain a manageable and productive workflow.
• Automatic Billing and Refunds: This feature is especially useful for businesses that charge for appointment bookings. It ensures that payments are processed efficiently and that refunds, if necessary, are handled promptly and accurately.

✅ Winner: OnceHub

In-Meeting Tools

Calendly and OnceHub both specialize in simplifying the process of appointment scheduling, offering features that allow users to define availability, automate reminders, and integrate with various calendar platforms. 

However, for additional tasks like note-taking, file-sharing, or live collaboration within meetings, users might need to rely on external tools or applications, as these functions are not inherently included in Calendly or OnceHub.

One key distinction between the two platforms is that Calendly offers a meeting poll feature, which OnceHub does not.

This feature in Calendly assists attendees in determining the most suitable times for meetings.

Users can create and share polls to collect availability preferences from attendees, facilitating the selection of mutually convenient meeting times.

This reduces the need for lengthy back-and-forth communication, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the scheduling process. 

In contrast, OnceHub users would need to coordinate meeting times without this specific polling feature, possibly relying on external methods or tools for consensus.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Meeting Templates

Calendly’s free version offers users the capability to design templates ideal for individual meetings.

Upgrading to a paid subscription unlocks a broader range of features, including the ability to craft specialized templates for different types of meetings like Group, Collective, and Round Robin formats.

These enhanced options allow for tailoring settings and preferences to fit the unique requirements of each meeting type.

Users can establish and apply specific templates for varied meeting situations, thereby simplifying the coordination process for an array of meeting types.

In addition, Calendly offers suggestions on the most appropriate meeting type to match a user’s specific preferences or requirements.

OnceHub offers a selection of pre-set booking templates to accommodate different meeting needs, including options for 15-minute, 30-minute, and 60-minute meetings.

These templates provide a quick and efficient way to schedule meetings of standard durations, streamlining the setup process for common appointment types.

Users also have the flexibility to create their own event types tailored to specific needs or preferences.

This customization extends to the visual aspects and organization of the events; users can set unique images or icons for each event type, aiding in easy identification and categorization.

Furthermore, internal tags can be added to these custom events, enhancing the ability to organize and manage various meeting types effectively.

However, it’s important to note that the range of existing templates in OnceHub is somewhat limited.

While the platform offers basic and commonly used durations, users looking for a wider variety of pre-configured templates might find the options somewhat restricted.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Meeting Analytics

Calendly’s paid plans, including Calendly Groups, provide advanced analytics features that deliver insightful meeting metrics and detailed booking data for teams.

The Analytics leaderboard is a key tool, helping administrators identify high-performing team members based on their meeting booking rates.

This insight assists in recognizing effective meeting strategies, and promoting the sharing of best practices for improved team performance. 

Furthermore, these analytics aid in understanding meeting trends and peak times, contributing to better capacity planning.

They also highlight areas for celebration and identify training needs within teams, supporting ongoing skill development and organizational growth.

OnceHub offers robust meeting analytics features that provide valuable insights into user interactions and team performance.

This includes:

• Tracking Leads via Booking Page: OnceHub allows users to monitor leads who have accessed the booking page. This feature is crucial for understanding user engagement and identifying how potential customers interact with the booking platform. 
• Resource Pool Statistics for Teams: For operations involving team scheduling, OnceHub unlocks resource pool statistics. This feature offers real-time visibility into the bookings handled by the team collectively. It enables managers and team leaders to track overall performance, assess workload distribution, and ensure efficient utilization of team resources. 
• Customer and Master Page Reports: OnceHub also provides detailed customer and master page reports. These reports offer in-depth insights into customer interactions and the performance of various booking pages.

✅ Winner: Tie

User Experience and User Interface

Calendly features an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Right after logging in, users can readily access their scheduling link.

The dashboard is designed for simplicity, ensuring effortless navigation.

The setup process, which includes defining availability and event creation, is remarkably straightforward, enhancing the overall user-friendly experience of the software.

OnceHub is renowned for its user-friendliness and straightforward navigation, receiving positive reviews for its ease of use across various platforms.

The initial setup process is simple, allowing users to efficiently organize meetings and set availability, with options for future edits.

Its uncomplicated user interface (UI) facilitates quick booking setups, complete with customizable notifications and templates.

Additionally, OnceHub’s embed feature enhances customer convenience by enabling direct booking on a business’s website, eliminating the need to redirect to a separate page.

✅ Winner: Tie

Integrations & API Capabilities

Calendly offers a wide array of over 100 integrations, including tools for marketing automation, project management, and applicant tracking.

It also effortlessly integrates with your calendar application to efficiently manage your schedule.

For further customization, Calendly provides an API, giving developers the flexibility to craft bespoke integrations, thus allowing users to tailor its features to meet their unique requirements.

OnceHub seamlessly integrates with various tools, enhancing its functionality for businesses:

• Calendar Integration: OnceHub synchronizes with key calendar services including Google Calendar, Exchange/Outlook Calendar, Office 365 (via OAuth), and iCloud Calendar, centralizing all meeting schedules.
• Video Conferencing Tools: It supports popular platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and Webex Meetings for efficient online meetings.
• Website Integration: Through API integration, OnceHub allows direct bookings on your website, enhancing customer experience and potentially increasing conversion rates. This is particularly beneficial for B2C, but also useful for B2B sectors.
• Payment Processing: The platform enables payment collection through PayPal integration.
• CRM Integration: It ensures streamlined customer interaction tracking and data integrity by integrating with leading CRM systems, such as Salesforce.

✅ Winner: Tie

Supported Platforms

Calendly provides a web-based platform complemented by mobile applications for both iOS and Android, facilitating easy scheduling of appointments on-the-go.

These mobile apps are well-received, boasting a 4.9-star rating on the App Store and a 4.7-star rating on Google Play Store.

OnceHub operates seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. Although it lacks specific apps for Android and iOS, it remains accessible and functional via smartphone browsers.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Customer Support

Calendly’s free plan provides multiple support avenues, including an automated chat for fundamental inquiries and a support ticket system for tailored help, accessible through Calendly account login.

The Help Center is available for DIY assistance, featuring instructional articles and video guides. Enhanced support, like live chat, becomes accessible with the Standard or Teams subscriptions.

Higher-tier custom plans offer prioritized support, assisting with troubleshooting, team onboarding, and software deployment.

OnceHub provides responsive support, providing 24/7 email and live chat assistance.

OnceHub’s support team is always ready to help solve any issues and offers a wealth of resources for self-help, including guides, blog articles, help articles, onboarding webinars, and various use cases.

Moreover, OnceHub maintains a presence on major networking and social media platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter), offering helpful insights and tips.

✅ Winner: OnceHub

Pricing

Calendly offers four different pricing plans that are summarized in the below table:

Plan	Price
Free	Always free
Standard	$10/seat/mo
Teams	$16/seat/mo
Enterprise	Custom

Here are the pricing plans for OnceHub:

Plan	Price
Free	Always free
Schedule	$12/seat/mo
Route	$23/seat/mo
Engage	$47/seat/mo

✅ Winner: Tie

Scalability

Calendly’s scalable nature is showcased through its varied pricing tiers, catering to the growth needs of businesses of different scales.

Its higher-tier packages, particularly aimed at large enterprises, offer features like team scheduling, extensive integrations, and strong security capabilities.

Calendly emphasizes that its enterprise-level solution aids in:

• Boosting team efficiency.
• Improving overall business performance and customer interactions.
• Streamlining and expanding scheduling processes.
• Providing stringent security for company data.

OnceHub’s scalability in terms of pricing plans is somewhat limited compared to Calendly. It offers only one standard pricing tier at $10 per month per user before progressing to its enterprise or custom plan.

This structure may present a challenge for businesses seeking a range of pricing options to match their specific needs and growth stages.

On the other hand, Calendly provides two distinct pricing tiers before escalating to its enterprise-level offerings. 

Despite this limitation in pricing scalability, it’s noteworthy that OnceHub’s enterprise plan shares many features to those offered by Calendly.

This plan is designed to cater to more complex and demanding enterprise needs, offering a suite of advanced functionalities that align closely with what Calendly offers at a comparable level.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Standout Features of Calendly

Key features that stand out include:

• Crafting diverse types of events to cater to various scheduling requirements.
• Automatically aligning meeting times across different time zones for consistent scheduling.
• Implementing buffer periods, setting minimum notification times, and establishing daily appointment caps to avoid consecutive bookings.

Standout Features of OnceHub

OnceHub offers some unique features that set it apart from the rest.

• OnceHub provides exceptional security and business advertising capabilities. It upholds rigorous and transparent privacy policies, ensuring top-tier security for customer data, crucial in today’s digital landscape. 
• OnceHub is GDPR-compliant and trustworthy for businesses concerned about data safety. 
• The platform enhances business promotion by allowing users to include various links in invitations, such as video links and other supportive resources, facilitating effective traffic redirection.

Calendly vs. OnceHub: SMB Guide’s Verdict

After a detailed comparison between Calendly and OnceHub, we’ve arrived at a tie. 

Calendly shines as a comprehensive scheduling solution, offering a broad range of features that cater to both small businesses and growing enterprises, including diverse functionalities, analytics capabilities, and scalability to meet evolving business requirements. 

Conversely, OnceHub presents itself as an equally robust alternative, particularly businesses that prioritize specific scheduling needs or require advanced customization.

While it may not offer as wide a range of features as Calendly, OnceHub is perfect for users who need a streamlined, efficient scheduling tool.