Trying to book internal meetings when you have access to each other’s calendars is tough enough, but trying to book external meetings across multiple time zones can be a nightmare with endless back-and-forth emails.

How many times have you sent someone your availability, only for it to change a few hours later?

Contents

• What’s a Scheduling App?

• What’s the Best Scheduling App?

• How to Choose the Best Scheduling App for YOU

• TL;DR (just show me the list!)

With a scheduling app, you can eliminate back-and-forth emails and make things easier for your prospects, clients, and team members.

I’ve been driving digital transformation projects and researching small business apps for over a decade. There are a lot of options out there, but this article includes the ones I’ve used or heard of most frequently.

What’s a Scheduling App?

A scheduling app, sometimes known as a booking app or appointment app, is a tool that lets someone see your up-to-the-minute availability (in their time zone!) and choose a time that works for them. Once selected, a meeting invite can be automatically sent.

Many scheduling apps send automated reminders and/or follow-ups and can handle multiple calendars (such as a work calendar and a personal calendar) and/or multiple people (such as pooling the availability of a group of salespeople).

Worried that you’ll need to keep your calendar 100% up-to-date including travel time and lunch breaks? You can limit the availability that’s visible to others.

Ways most scheduling apps can customize your availability:

• Limit by specific days of the week (e.g. just Tuesdays)

• Limit by specific times (e.g. just Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings)

• Limit by number of bookings (e.g. only accept one per day)

• Require minimum notice before all bookings (e.g. 2 days)

• Public links that show limited availability, and private links for your clients or VIPs that can have greater access to you.

What’s the Best Scheduling App?

My take on tech is that there is no single best app for every person and every use case. My goal is to help you understand what’s out there so you can make more informed choices, so here are my top ten.

Start with what you’re already using

• Do you use Microsoft 365 and Teams? Microsoft Bookings has come a long way in the last few years and is definitely worth a look. It’s included on all Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans (E3, E5, F3) and the Office 365 E1 license.

• Do you use Google Workspace and Google Meet? Appointment booking pages are available on Business Standard plans and higher.

• Do you use Zoom? They have a scheduling app too! On their pricing page, it’s listed as Zoom Scheduler and is included in the Business, Business Plus and Enterprise Plus plans.

• Is your website built with Squarespace? They purchased Acuity in 2019, so integrating Acuity into your Squarespace website is smooth. Acuity can also be used as a standalone scheduling app.

• Already using some Zoho products? They also have a bookings app.

• Familiar with Doodle Polls? They also have a scheduling app.

• Many CRM products have integrated booking apps, so check out the latest updates on any tools you already use for client management. (Not familiar with CRMs? Follow for more content on small business apps!)

Go for brand recognition with Calendly

Calendly was founded in 2013, long before many of us started working remotely. With over 20 million users, it’s been tried and tested and has earned the Polka Dot Innovations distinction of “The Cheese.” 🧀

Calendly has a free version and their paid versions are reasonably priced. They handle multiple calendars easily, which is important for anyone juggling a side hustle or a work and a personal calendar.

Pay once and get lifetime access with TidyCal

If you want to minimize monthly subscriptions, you should check out TidyCal. They also have a free plan, but for a single payment of $29 USD, you get lifetime access. (Price may vary after publication.)

Other scheduling apps to consider

YouCanBookMe has been around for a while with over 1 million users.

SavvyCal combines polls and a scheduling app, although the free plan is only for polls.

How to Choose the Best Scheduling App for YOU

What do you value when it comes to tech?

If you collect health information when booking appointments, your privacy needs will be very different from those of a company that just needs to collect an email address.

Give some thought to what’s most important to you and your company regarding tech. Establishing this before doing any trials or demos will help you avoid getting too caught up in a great sales pitch.

Here’s a sampling of potential tech values to use as a jumping-off point:

• cost

• all-in-one

• privacy and security

• strong brand reputation

• high degree of customization

• integration with other core apps

• lots of opportunities for automation

• beautiful design and user experience

• support via dedicated contact, phone or chat

• a community of other users to share ideas with and learn from

Some of these will matter a lot to you, and some of them won’t matter at all. That’s ok, but that’s why there’s no single best app.

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?

Leave a comment if you want me to go deeper, but here’s a simplified process for discovering, prioritizing, and outlining your needs BEFORE you start looking at specific apps.

If you’re a solopreneur or freelancer, you can complete this exercise on your own. If you have a team, I strongly suggest involving them in this process. When folks are involved in solving the problem, they’re much more likely to actually use the solution.

Start with a blank piece of paper or a digital whiteboard and set a timer for 10 minutes. Do a brain dump of every single thing that sucks about your current scheduling process.

• Do people get time zones mixed up?

• Are you manually sending reminders and/or struggling with no-shows?

• Are you trying to spread appointments among multiple salespeople?

• Are there intake forms to be completed or other screening processes before the actual meeting?

• Is it a pain to manually enter the contact’s info into your CRM?

Next, take a highlighter and pick a maximum of 3 core problems to solve. Then, take a highligher in a different colour and pick a maximum of 5 additional nice-to-solve problems. (If you do manage to find the app that solves ALL your problems — please let me know because I haven’t found it yet 😉)

Combine your values list with your problems-to-solve list, and use them both to rank and evaluate different options.

Always review the terms and conditions and the privacy policy of any new app you try.

TL;DR

• Calendly (The Cheese 🧀)

• Microsoft Bookings

• Google Appointment Scheduling

• Zoom Scheduler

• Acuity Scheduling

• Zoho Bookings

• Doodle

• TidyCal

• YouCanBookMe

• SavvyCal