Trying to cut down on scheduling emails? Here are the appointment booking tools I’ve tested, what I liked, and what I ended up using.

You love what you do, and you love your clients (or at least most of them 😉 ) But you probably don’t love spending valuable time going back-and-forth to schedule appointments. And don’t get me started on cancellations and reschedules!

There are a lot of ways to simplify booking appointments, and I’ve tried quite a few.  I’ve listed them below, along with what I liked and why I moved on. I hope this helps you find one that works for you.

Appointment Scheduling Tools I’ve Tried

Contact Form

The first thing I tried was to add a field to my Gravity Forms contact form, allowing clients to suggest three possible times for a phone call.

What I liked:

• No additional cost
• No added stress on my website

Why I stopped using it:

• I still had to send an email to the client to confirm the time
• Some clients had unrealistic expectations, like the woman who emailed me late  Thursday night looking for an appointment at 4:30 pm on the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, or the one that emailed at lunchtime looking for a phone call at 1:00, 1:30 or 2:00 that day. I generally need a little lead time!

Overall:

It was only marginally better than no system at all, so I eventually set out to find a more practical solution.

Doodle

Doodle was my go-to for group scheduling, so I decided to try their one-on-one appointment feature as well.

What I liked:

• Easy to connect to my calendar
• Made my availability visible to clients
• A familiar platform

Why I stopped using it:

• Some clients found the booking process confusing and didn’t complete all the steps
• Appointment requests didn’t always trigger reliable email notifications
• I still had to manually review and confirm appointments
• The overall process wasn’t as smooth or automated as I needed

Overall:

It wasn’t as seamless as I wanted. I’m sure they’ve made improvements since then, but by that point I had switched to a different solution.

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling kept popping up in the Facebook groups I’m in, so I decided to check it out.

What I liked:

• Customizable reminder emails for me and my clients
• Automatic time zone conversion
• Branding customization
• Ability to embed the scheduler on my website
• Integration with
  • Google Calendar
  • Zoom
  • Mailchimp
  • PayPal
• Ability to create different schedulers for different appointment types

Why I stopped using it:

• While implementing Profit First, I decided to switch to a less expensive solution.

Google Appointment Scheduling

As part of my financial review, I realized that by signing up for Google Workspace Individual, I could access premium Google Meet features (allowing me to cancel  Zoom) and use their appointment scheduler (allowing me to cancel Acuity).

What I liked:

• Cost savings

Why I stopped using it:

• Fewer customization options than Acuity
• All appointment types appeared on the same page, so I couldn’t separate client-only bookings
• Each appointment type had to be managed separately

Overall

This would be a great option if I didn’t have two separate audiences.

Calendly

Before giving up on Google Appointment Scheduling, I created a free Calendly account (which allows only one appointment type) for my Get to Know You sessions and continued using Google for clients.

What I liked:

• No extra cost

Why I stopped using it:

• Using two systems was more complicated than it was worth.

Overall

The point of using this type of software is to simplify things, so this setup wasn’t working for me.

That said, I did like Calendly and still recommend it. Just keep in mind you’ll need a paid plan for multiple event types or advanced features.

TidyCal

Because I was frustrated with the low-cost options I’d tried, I decided to purchase TidyCal as a one-time deal from AppSumo.

What I liked:

• Low price with no ongoing fees
• Customizable reminder emails
• Automatic time zone conversion for clients
• Integration with Google Calendar and Google Meet
• Ability to set up multiple appointment types

Overall

So far, it’s working well for me. In fact, while writing this post, I discovered another feature that will streamline my admin work even more!

Which Appointment Scheduling Tool Is Best?

There are a lot of great scheduling tools out there, and the best one really depends on your needs.

I recommend Calendly if the free plan meets your needs, or TidyCal if you’re looking for more flexibility without a monthly fee.

Either way, an appointment scheduler is one tool that can easily pay for itself in time saved and a smoother experience for your clients.

How Do You Schedule Your Appointments?

What do you like (or dislike) about your system?

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