SavvyCal vs. Calendly: Which scheduling software is better?

Delve into the comparison between SavvyCal and Calendly, two leading scheduling tools. Discover their features and which scheduler best fits your needs.

SavvyCal and Calendly are both prominent contenders as appointment scheduling platforms.

While Calendly is celebrated for its streamlined scheduling prowess, SavvyCal enters the scene with its distinctive approach to managing appointments, offering a unique set of features.

Our comprehensive comparison endeavors to unravel the individual qualities and capabilities of these platforms, empowering you to make an informed decision aligned with your specific scheduling requirements.

Feel free to also explore our detailed reviews of SavvyCal and Calendly.

SavvyCal vs. Calendly: At a Glance

We evaluated SavvyCal and Calendly under strict and specific criteria by the team. For detailed insights into this evaluation process, you can read the SMB Guide Evaluation Criteria.

Criteria	SavvyCal	Calendly	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	8.8	9/10	Calendly
Appointment Workflow Automation	✅	✅	Tie
Customization Options	✅	✅	Tie
Calendar Management Features	✅	✅	Calendly
Automated Reminders and Notifications	✅	✅	SavvyCal
Client Management & Communication	❌	❌	Tie
Automatic Rules	✅	✅	Tie
In-Meeting Tools	❌	❌	Tie
Meeting Templates	❌	✅	Calendly
Meeting Analytics	✅	✅	Tie
UX and UI	Simple and easy to use	High user-friendliness	Tie
Integrations & API Capabilities	20+ integrations	50+ integrations	Calendly
Supported Platforms	❌	✅	Calendly
Customer Support	Email	Support tickets	Calendly
Pricing	Free – $20/mo	$20/mo – $61/mo	Calendly
Scalability	❌	✅	Calendly

SavvyCal: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

SavvyCal empowers users to craft personalized booking links that showcase availability and preferences, facilitating streamlined scheduling tailored to individual needs.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

SavvyCal caters to the diverse needs and budgets of remote businesses through three plans. The Basic Plan, priced at $12 per user per month, allows unlimited booking links and meetings, incorporating features from the free plan.

• Free
• Basic: $12 per user per month/allows unlimited booking links and meetings
• Premium: $20 per user per month/connect unlimited calendars, create numerous booking pages, and tailor links to align precisely with their business requirements

Opting for annual billing provides a 2-month free trial.

Calendly: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Calendly is a prominent online tool for arranging appointments and simplifying the coordination of meeting schedules.

Its user-friendly interface and adaptable features have received widespread praise from both individuals and businesses.

Calendly offers smooth integration with various calendars, a range of customizable meeting choices, automatic reminders, and effective recognition of different time zones.

Nonetheless, some users may find its pricing model somewhat limiting for specific needs.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Calendly provides four pricing tiers, starting with a free plan that caters to fundamental scheduling requirements:

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

For large organizations that need more than 30 accounts, you can directly contact Calendly for a tailored pricing estimate.

Appointment Workflow Automation

SavvyCal streamlines the booking process for clients and administrators with features like auto-assigning appointments, setting up recurring sessions, and providing self-service booking options.

Clients can easily find suitable time slots, choose preferred staff, or let SavvyCal suggest the best option based on availability and priority.

You also have the function for administrators to create different appointment types, such as consultations or demos, and automate follow-up communication like satisfaction surveys or post-appointment resources.

Calendly streamlines the process of scheduling appointments by enabling clients to access your scheduling page through a shared link.

On this platform, they can choose from your available event types and select their desired date, empowering them to autonomously arrange meetings.

You can designate time gaps before and after appointments, which can be adjusted in the settings. This setup aims to prevent back-to-back bookings without any breaks in between.

Once a booking is confirmed, clients receive email invitations with links for the conference call. They also receive options to make changes or cancel the appointment if necessary.

✅ Winner: Tie

Customization Options

SavvyCal allows businesses to tailor their scheduling page to align with their branding. This feature is exclusively available in the Premium Plan.

The software facilitates the management of various appointment types and durations, enabling customization for specific services, like 15-minute calls, 30-minute demos, or 60-minute coaching sessions.

Businesses can also change booking rules, buffer times, and availability settings to prevent scheduling conflicts.

Moreover, SavvyCal offers customization options for the scheduling page’s appearance, including the addition of logos, colors, fonts, images, or videos. 

Additionally, you can integrate custom fields or questions to gather more information from clients before appointments.

Calendly’s paid subscription packages offer extensive flexibility in creating various types of bookable appointments.

The free version of Calendly limits users to a single event type, but still allows significant customization within that scope.

This customization includes specifying meeting platforms (such as Zoom or Google Meet), enabling guest additions by invitees, defining booking time limits, setting intervals between appointments, establishing minimum advance notice requirements, and controlling the number of meetings per day.

Choosing the Standard plan or higher provides access to additional features such as integrating company branding and removing Calendly’s logo from the scheduling interface.

On the other hand, while the free version permits the inclusion of your business logo at the top left, it lacks the option to eliminate Calendly’s branding.

✅ Winner: Tie

Calendar Management Features

SavvyCal facilitates efficient management of multiple staff schedules and resources by offering a shared calendar for businesses.

This means you can conveniently oversee and modify staff availability and appointments in a centralized location.

Additionally, SavvyCal empowers businesses to assign or reassign appointments based on staff skills or availability, optimizing the scheduling process.

You can also handle appointments across various time zones, automatically converting them to the client’s local time.

This not only eliminates the confusion associated with time zone differences but also ensures that both parties are present at the scheduled time. 

Furthermore, SavvyCal provides convenient options for clients to reschedule or cancel appointments through a link in their confirmation email or by sending a request to the administrator.

The platform seamlessly integrates with popular calendar tools like Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud, ensuring synchronized appointments and preventing conflicts.

Calendly seamlessly integrates with Google, Outlook, iCloud, and Exchange calendars, preventing any overlap or double bookings.

In the Free version, users can synchronize with one external calendar, but this capability can be expanded to six calendars with a paid upgrade.

Calendly also easily adapts meeting schedules to different time zones, ensuring clear communication for clients located in various regions.

To reschedule, users can go to the “Scheduled events” section in the menu, select the particular meeting, and make necessary adjustments.

While providing a reason for the change is optional, clients are notified of the modifications and have the freedom to reschedule the meeting themselves.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Automated Reminders and Notifications

SavvyCal automates the sending of reminders and notifications to both clients and administrators before and after scheduled appointments.

Businesses can dispatch client reminders via email, contributing to the reduction of late arrivals.

The customization feature also means you can tailor reminder messages by incorporating pertinent details like appointment specifics, meeting links, or cancellation policies.

Furthermore, SavvyCal ensures administrators are promptly informed of any new bookings or modifications in their schedules.

This proactive notification system allows administrators to stay well-informed about their upcoming appointments and make necessary preparations. 

Beyond these features, the platform offers access to workflow automation templates, enabling businesses to craft personalized and compelling messages for clients.

After setting up a meeting using Calendly, clients promptly receive a calendar invitation.

Access to additional automated reminders requires an upgrade to a premium plan.

From the Standard plan and above, you can manage reminders using text or email, ensuring that meeting attendees receive comprehensive information about the scheduled meeting.

✅ Winner: SavvyCal

Client Management and Communication

Although SavvyCal lacks a dedicated database for storing client information, businesses have the flexibility to personalize the content and timing of messages sent to meeting attendees, aligning them with their brand and desired tone.

Additionally, the platform supports the use of variables, meaning you can insert dynamic information like meeting details, client names, or locations into the messages.

Calendly, on the other hand, doesn’t offer client information storage capabilities as of now.

✅ Winner: Tie

Automatic Rules

Here are some of the automatic rules you can set up with SavvyCal: 

• Setting Buffers: Users have the power to set buffer periods between appointments, ensuring a smooth transition and avoiding scheduling conflicts.
• Creating Start Time Increments: SavvyCal empowers users to define start time increments, offering precise control over the available time slots for scheduling.
• Reusable Workflows for Customized Messages: The platform introduces workflows to automate the meeting lifecycle, allowing users to automate and personalize post-meeting communication. Users can create and send customized messages, such as thank-you notes or feedback requests.

Calendly offers a variety of automated configurations and guidelines such as: 

• Automated Cancellation Policies: Users can establish rules to automatically cancel appointments based on specific conditions, such as defining a timeframe within which clients can cancel or reschedule.
• Time Zone Adaptations: The platform automatically adjusts meeting times to accommodate different time zones, ensuring precise scheduling and minimizing confusion arising from time differences.
• Establishing Working Hours: Users can define their work hours, limiting client bookings to these specified times.

✅ Winner: Tie

In-Meeting Tools

Both SavvyCal and Calendly focus primarily on streamlining the scheduling process rather than providing direct in-meeting functionalities.

SavvyCal, much like Calendly, does not incorporate features like note-taking, file-sharing, or live collaboration within meetings.

However, both platforms offer a valuable Meeting Poll feature, allowing users to efficiently decide on optimal meeting times.

It’s important to note that, while these tools excel in scheduling and coordinating meetings, users seeking in-meeting tools may need to explore additional integrations or complementary platforms to meet those specific needs.

✅ Winner: Tie

Meeting Templates

SavvyCal offers a robust link editor feature, providing users with comprehensive control over their meeting links and setups.

It doesn’t provide pre-configured meeting templates.

Instead, users have the freedom of complete customization, allowing them to define and set every aspect of the meeting type.

This includes fine-tuning details such as duration, attendees, and more. This tool enables users to manage and customize meeting links according to their specific needs.

In Calendly’s free version, users have the option to create templates suitable for individual meetings.

Upgrading to a premium subscription grants access to advanced features, enabling the creation of specialized templates for diverse meeting formats such as Group, Collective, and Round Robin.

You can also customize the design for different meeting types. Users can generate and implement distinct templates for each format, thereby streamlining the scheduling process across various meeting scenarios.

Additionally, Calendly provides recommendations on the most suitable meeting type based on the user’s preferences and specific needs.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Meeting Analytics

SavvyCal’s analytics feature is split into three different categories:

1. Traffic Analysis

• Users can assess the traffic on their scheduling links, gaining a clear understanding of the engagement and popularity of their meetings.
• Further granularity is achieved by viewing activity for individuals, teams, scheduling links, referrers, and section activity.

2. Event Activity Tracking

• SavvyCal enables users to monitor event activity, offering a detailed overview of how frequently and actively their scheduled events are being accessed.
• Users can drill down into specific metrics, exploring activity for both individuals and teams, per scheduling links, referrers, and section activity.

3. Link Availability Insights

• The Link Availability feature provides valuable data on the accessibility of scheduling links, allowing users to gauge the overall availability and usage patterns.
• Additional statistics within this category encompass activity for people and teams, per scheduling links, referrers, and section activity.

Users can also explore activity trends for individuals and teams, scrutinize the performance of individual scheduling links, identify referral sources, and analyze section-specific engagement.

This holistic approach to analytics equips users with a full picture of their scheduling ecosystem, facilitating informed decision-making and optimization of their scheduling processes.

Calendly’s analytics, available within its premium plans like Calendly Groups, delve deep into the dynamics of meetings.

These tools furnish comprehensive insights into meetings and offer specific data regarding team bookings. 

Through the Analytics leaderboard, administrators can identify top-performing team members based on their meeting booking statistics.

This valuable information enables companies to acknowledge effective meeting approaches, facilitating the cultivation and dissemination of best practices to enhance overall team performance.

Furthermore, Calendly’s analytics contribute to predicting capacity requirements by examining meeting patterns, peak booking times, and team performance metrics.

Therefore it celebrates accomplishments but also highlights areas that might benefit from additional training, fostering continuous improvement and skill advancement throughout the organization.

✅ Winner: Tie

User Experience and User Interface

SavvyCal is crafted with a user interface and experience that prioritizes simplicity and enjoyment in the process of scheduling meetings.

The software boasts a clean and intuitive design, ensuring easy navigation and usability.

Its layout is both clear and consistent, presenting relevant information and options at each stage of the booking process.

New users benefit from a smooth and rapid onboarding experience facilitated by the software.

SavvyCal guides users through the initial setup with helpful tips and tutorials, enhancing the overall ease of use.

Calendly presents an intuitive and effortlessly navigable interface, granting instant access to your scheduling link upon logging in.

Its dashboard is purposefully crafted for ease of use, ensuring a seamless experience.

Setting up Calendly is remarkably straightforward and user-friendly. It primarily involves configuring your availability and creating events, both of which are intuitive and simple tasks.

✅ Winner: Tie

Integrations & API Capabilities

SavvyCal seamlessly integrates with various tools and systems commonly employed in the field, fostering compatibility with popular project management, communication, and collaboration platforms.

For instance, users can link SavvyCal with platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams to automatically generate meeting links.

Additionally, integration with Zapier, Webhooks, or APIs enables users to initiate workflows and actions based on booking events.

Moreover, SavvyCal provides a robust API that empowers users to develop custom integrations with other applications or services.

The API documentation offers comprehensive instructions and examples for utilizing API endpoints and parameters.

The API also supports webhooks, facilitating real-time notifications for users when specific events transpire in SavvyCal.

Calendly offers more than 100 integrations, covering various third-party apps such as marketing automation, project management, and applicant tracking.

It seamlessly syncs with your calendar app, streamlining schedule management.

Regarding API functionalities, Calendly furnishes an API empowering developers to create customized integrations.

This flexibility permits users to extend Calendly’s functionalities according to their specific needs.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Supported Platforms

SavvyCal is a web-based software designed for compatibility with various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

This flexibility allows users to access and oversee their bookings seamlessly from any device equipped with an internet connection and a web browser.

Regrettably, SavvyCal is not currently accessible through mobile applications.

Calendly offers an online platform along with dedicated mobile apps designed for both iOS and Android devices, enabling convenient appointment scheduling while on the move.

These mobile applications have garnered positive feedback, boasting a 4.9-star rating on the App Store and a commendable 4.7-star rating on the Google Play Store.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Customer Support

SavvyCal places a strong emphasis on delivering outstanding customer support to its users.

The responsive and helpful support team is available through email at [email protected], operating from Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 5 PM US Central Time, with a usual response time of within 24 hours.

In addition to direct support, users have access to various self-help resources, including documentation, FAQs, video tutorials, and community forums.

Whether users have questions, need troubleshooting assistance, or wish to share feedback and suggestions, SavvyCal’s dedicated support team is always ready to provide assistance.

Calendly’s free plan itself covers various support channels. Users have access to an automated chat feature for general inquiries

For more detailed assistance, they can submit a support ticket after logging into their account.

The Help Center offers a range of written guides and video tutorials for self-directed issue resolution.

Customers subscribed to the Standard or Teams plans enjoy live chat support. Custom plan subscribers receive priority support, encompassing troubleshooting aid and guidance for team onboarding and software deployment.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Pricing

SavvyCal offers three pricing plans to know about:

Plan	Price
Free	Always free
Basic	$12/seat/month per month
Premium	$20/seat/month per month

Calendly’s four pricing plans are detailed below:

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

✅ Winner: Calendly

Scalability

It’s important to note that SavvyCal has limited scalability options as it lacks an Enterprise-level plan. The highest tier available is the Premium plan, which offers delegation options to enhance collaboration and coordination within teams. 

However, for organizations requiring advanced scalability features, it’s worth considering the available options and assessing whether the Premium plan meets their specific needs.

Calendly demonstrates its scalability by offering diverse pricing structures that cater to organizations of varying sizes.

Its top-tier packages, specifically designed for enterprise-level teams, provide features like collaborative scheduling, extensive integrations, and heightened security measures.

According to Calendly, this package assists enterprises in:

• Enhancing team productivity.
• Elevating overall business outcomes and customer engagements.
• Streamlining and expanding scheduling procedures.
• Reinforcing data security measures within the organization.

✅ Winner: Calendly

Standout Features of SavvyCal

Here are the unique features that make SavvyCal extra special:

• SavvyCal has an innovative overlay mode, allowing schedulers to effortlessly compare their calendar with the recipient’s calendar. This feature streamlines the process of finding the optimal time slot that accommodates both parties seamlessly.
• The Analytics feature is detailed and offers graphical insights into bookings and other crucial details. This functionality empowers users to gain a comprehensive understanding of their time management, facilitating effective scheduling and planning.
• SavvyCal ensures a smooth transition for users migrating from platforms like Calendly. The user-friendly interface and intuitive design make onboarding easy, allowing users to quickly adapt to the new scheduling environment.
• SavvyCal goes the extra mile by offering a 25% discount on annual payments for students and non-profit organizations.

Standout Features of Calendly

Key highlights of Calendly include:

• The ability to create a wide array of event types, enabling the arrangement of different kinds of appointments.
• Automatic adjustment of meeting schedules to suit various time zones, ensuring precise and consistent scheduling on a global scale.
• Features allowing the inclusion of buffer times, setting minimum notification durations, and imposing daily meeting limits, all contributing to preventing back-to-back bookings without intervals.

SavvyCal vs. Calendly: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Calendly is the winner in this face-off of schedulers. 

Calendly’s wide feature set makes it a great fit for businesses of all sizes while adapting to changing business needs. 

SavvyCal, on the other hand, is perfect for smaller businesses and freelancers who need a great feature set without the concern of scalability. being. 

So, SavvyCal is perfect for businesses with smaller scale-operations while Calendly is the best of the two overall.