Calendly alternatives with payments, deposits and a website around them

Published November 10, 2026 · Comparisons

If Calendly's payments feel thin for paid sessions, Acuity Scheduling is the closest swap: it takes a deposit or full payment at booking, can save a card to charge for a no-show, and works with Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. Square Appointments takes partial deposits on its $0 plan, and Cal.com takes Stripe or PayPal payments on its free plan for one person. If you want a full website around your booking page, with deposits, memberships and video sessions under your own name, that is what CloserAccess builds.

CloserAccess wrote this post and is one of the options in it. Every competitor price comes from that company's own pages, checked November 9, 2026.

What Calendly does with payments today

Calendly can take money, and it is worth being exact about how before you switch.

Payments start on the Standard plan, at $10 a seat per month billed yearly or $12 billed monthly. The Free plan has one event type and one calendar connection, and no payment collection. On Standard you connect Stripe, PayPal or both, set a price on each event type, and the client pays while booking. Calendly's payments FAQ says the meeting is confirmed after the payment goes through and the money goes straight to your Stripe or PayPal account. Calendly adds no fee of its own; its payments page says Stripe and PayPal transaction fees apply.

Standard also sells meeting packages, which are prepaid bundles a client buys once and books against, plus invoices and coupon codes.

Where people run into limits:

• A deposit is just the price you set. Each event type has one price, charged while the client books, and Calendly's payments page says that is how you "collect deposits." To collect the rest later, it points to payment links and invoices, which its help center lists on Standard and up.
• No saved-card no-show fee on any Calendly page we read. Refunds happen in Stripe or PayPal, not in Calendly.
• Taxes are on you. Calendly's Stripe help article says it does not calculate or collect VAT or sales tax.
• It is a booking page, not a website. You can remove Calendly branding on Standard and up, and embed the scheduler on a site you already run, but we found no way to put the booking page on your own domain.

None of that is a flaw if all you need is a paid meeting link. It matters when your sessions need a deposit and a balance, a no-show policy you can enforce, or a home for everything else you sell.

What the alternatives cost

Acuity Scheduling is priced by calendar. Starter is $16 a month billed yearly or $20 monthly for one calendar, Standard is $27 or $34 for up to six, and Premium is $55 or $69 for up to 36. There is a 7-day trial and no free plan. Every plan connects Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, and Acuity's payments page says it charges no fee of its own on top of the processor's. Packages and memberships start on Standard.

Square Appointments is priced per location, with unlimited staff calendars: $0 on Free, $49 on Plus and $149 on Premium. Square is the processor. Online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium, and charging a saved card costs 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan.

Cal.com is free for one user, and the free plan accepts Stripe and PayPal payments. Teams costs $12 per user a month billed yearly and adds round-robin scheduling, routing forms and the option to remove Cal.com branding. Organizations costs $28 per user a month billed yearly.

CloserAccess works differently, because it is a website rather than a scheduling subscription. There are two ways in:

• Build it yourself, free. No monthly fee, no setup cost and no card to start. Your site lives at yourname.closeraccess.com. A platform fee applies only when a customer pays you, at a rate CloserAccess doesn't publish (ask before you start), and it shows as its own line on each transaction.
• Have the CloserAccess team build it. The Starter Website, Premium Website and Digital Master packages each come with a fixed price, quoted before any work starts, with the fee rate set in your quote.

Card payments run through your own Square account at Square's own rate. The money settles to your Square account, and CloserAccess doesn't mark processing up. The fees page lays it out.

The honest comparison: a monthly subscription costs the same whether you book two sessions or two hundred. A per-sale fee costs nothing in a slow month and more in a busy one. Which works out cheaper depends on how much you book and on the rate, so ask for it.

Deposits, no-show fees and refunds

If this is why you're looking past Calendly, here is each tool on its own terms.

• Acuity: you can require a deposit or full payment at booking, or let the client choose, and you can save card details to charge later for a late cancellation or a missed appointment.
• Square Appointments: the Free plan collects a partial deposit when a client books. Requiring a card at booking and charging it for a late cancellation or no-show needs Plus or Premium.
• Cal.com: each booking link either collects its price at booking or saves a card through Stripe and charges a no-show fee when you mark the client as a no-show, or on a last-minute cancellation if you turn that on. Refund rules are set per link, and payments don't work with recurring events yet.
• CloserAccess: a service can be booked by time slot, by request so you can quote it, or with a deposit taken up front. There is also a deposit-then-quote setup: the client pays a deposit to hold the booking before the total is decided, and nothing more can be charged until a final price is set, such as a quote the client accepts. Booking reminder emails go out on their own.

If charging a saved card after a no-show is a must, compare Acuity, Square Plus and Cal.com on that point. CloserAccess's approach is to take the money, or a deposit, when the client books.

A booking page, or a website around it

A scheduling link answers one question: when can we meet? A coach, consultant or reader usually needs a site that answers the questions before that one. Who are you, what does each session cover, what does it cost, and why should someone pay you instead of the next person?

• Calendly gives you a booking page and embed codes for a site you already have.
• Acuity gives you a scheduling page at YourBusinessName.as.me, and its help center says you can't point a domain you own at it. Its answer for a full site is Squarespace plus Acuity, or embedding Acuity in a site you already run. Squarespace's scheduling page notes that Acuity's payment processors are separate from the ones you use in Squarespace.
• Square Appointments includes a booking site on Free. Connecting your own domain needs Plus or Premium.
• Cal.com adds a company subdomain, yourcompany.cal.com, on Organizations.
• CloserAccess builds the website itself. Each service gets its own page with its price, details and booking button, and the same site carries memberships, courses, a blog and a links page for your Instagram bio. The free site lives at yourname.closeraccess.com, and the done-for-you Starter Website includes your own domain.

That decides whose name the client remembers. When someone books on your own site, the page carries your name with no CloserAccess watermark, payments land in your Square account, and the client list sits in your own admin. The CloserAccess pricing FAQ puts ownership plainly: "Your domain stays yours. Your content stays yours."

Video sessions and notes

For paid calls, where the call happens matters as much as how it's booked.

Calendly connects Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. It also sells Notetaker, which joins those calls and writes recaps, on its Standard Plus and Teams Plus plans ($18 and $24 a seat billed yearly). Acuity connects Google Meet, Zoom and GoToMeeting on every plan.

On CloserAccess, a booked service can run as a video call, and Meeting Reports writes an AI recap from the call's transcript afterward. For a consultant who sends follow-up notes after every session, that saves a step.

Getting found

A scheduling link only reaches people who already have it. That's fine for existing clients. New clients mostly find you through search and social, and a website helps with both.

A page for each session gives a search like "business coaching session online" or "birth chart reading" a specific page to land on, with the price and the booking button right there. A blog gives people more ways in. On CloserAccess, your bio link can point to your site's links page, which sits on the same site as your bookings; our post on a Linktree alternative with booking covers that. Done-for-you packages also include free promotion on CloserAccess's discovery pages.

Who sets it up and keeps it running

Calendly, Acuity, Square Appointments and Cal.com are self-serve, and each has a free plan or a trial, so you can try them first.

CloserAccess has a self-serve route too: pick a template and launch the same day. The route it leads with is the other one, where the team builds the site, sets up each service with booking, and quotes a fixed price before starting. Starter sites can launch in a few days. After launch you change prices, services and posts from one dashboard.

Some honest limits:

• No drag-and-drop page builder. You edit pages through form fields with a live preview. Bigger design changes go to the team.
• Square only, US dollars only. No PayPal. Calendly, Acuity and Cal.com all connect PayPal, and Calendly takes several currencies through Stripe.
• No app store. Integrations are built in rather than added from a marketplace.
• No published price. You ask for the fee rate, or get a quote for a team build.

When Calendly is the better choice

Calendly is the better pick when scheduling is the whole job, and its own pricing page shows where it is strongest.

• You schedule as a team. Teams ($16 a seat billed yearly, $20 monthly) adds round-robin and team scheduling, routing that qualifies leads and sends them to the right person, and centrally managed event types.
• Your calendars have to stay in sync. Paid plans connect up to six Google, Outlook or Office 365 calendars and check them for conflicts before anyone books.
• Your other tools need to talk to it. HubSpot, Mailchimp and Zapier connect on Standard, and Salesforce and Marketo on Teams.
• Your clients pay with PayPal, or in another currency.
• You already have a website and only need a paid meeting link on it.

The others have their own cases. Acuity fits someone who wants deposits, saved-card no-show fees and packages with a choice of processor. Square Appointments Free fits anyone who already uses Square and wants deposits at $0 a month. Cal.com fits someone who wants paid bookings on a free plan. CloserAccess fits someone who wants the website itself, with sessions, deposits, memberships and video calls under their own name. See the packages and pricing if that's you.

Three businesses that take bookings on their own sites

Jiton The Realtor's website leads with two free 30-minute video calls you can book right away: a consultation, and a live property walkthrough for buyers who can't get to a showing. Four more services, for buyers, sellers, renters and investors, start as requests. A scheduling link could book the calls; the site also explains the practice and takes the requests. Read Jiton's story.

The Star Quality Project sells priced tarot and astrology readings in three formats: recorded video, message and live video call. The Live Deep-Dive Session is an $88 live one-on-one call, and three pattern-breaking sessions can be booked together as one package. The same site sells courses and membership plans. Read The Star Quality Project's story, or our guide to the best website for tarot readers.

Inkas Tattoo Shop books a one-hour consultation with a deposit, and nothing past the deposit is charged until the client has a real quote: deposit first, price second. Read Inkas's story, or see our guide to a booking website for tattoo artists.

Frequently asked questions

Can Calendly take payments?

Yes, from the Standard plan up, at $10 a seat a month billed yearly or $12 monthly. You connect Stripe or PayPal, and the client pays the event type's price while booking. The Free plan doesn't collect payments.

Does Calendly take deposits?

Calendly charges the one price you set on an event type at booking, and its payments page says you can use that to collect deposits. For a balance due later it uses payment links and invoices, on Standard and up.

Can Calendly charge a no-show fee?

We found no saved-card no-show fee on Calendly's pricing, payments or help pages. Acuity, Square Appointments Plus and Cal.com each document one.

Which Calendly alternative is free with payments?

Cal.com's free plan accepts Stripe and PayPal payments for one user. Square Appointments Free takes deposits through Square at $0 a month, and you pay card fees per payment. CloserAccess is free to build yourself, with a platform fee only when a customer pays you, at a rate it doesn't publish.

Does Calendly charge a fee on payments?

No. Calendly says it adds no fee for its payment features. Stripe's or PayPal's transaction fees apply.

Can clients pay with PayPal on CloserAccess?

No. CloserAccess checkout runs on your own Square account, in US dollars, with Apple Pay where the browser supports it. If your clients expect PayPal, Calendly, Acuity and Cal.com all connect it.

Prices checked November 9, 2026, on each company's own pages. Plans and fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

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