Best Scheduling Apps: Top 10 Options for Streamlined Meeting Management
Top 10 scheduling apps simplify meeting management for professionals. Automate scheduling, reminders, and streamline collaboration with intuitive tools.
Top 10 scheduling apps simplify meeting management for professionals. Automate scheduling, reminders, and streamline collaboration with intuitive tools.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Have a quick question? I answered nearly 1500 FAQs.
“Are you free for a brief phone conversation tomorrow at 10 a.m.?” How about 4:30 on Monday of next week?” I completely understand if reading that caused you confusion. Meetings not only consume an excessive amount of the week, but I feel like I’m going to lose my mind trying to find a time that’s convenient for everyone.
Now that I utilize a meeting scheduler application, I’m glad (and relieved for my head) that I rarely have to manually schedule meetings anymore. By allowing guests to schedule meetings independently, connecting with my calendar & availability, and even automatically creating conference links, these solutions reduce the amount of back-and-forth as much as feasible.
Numerous meeting planners are available to accommodate all work styles, budgets, and scheduling requirements. Finding the best possible meeting planner software took me weeks of analyzing dozens of them. The best solutions to think about whether you’re new to meeting schedulers or are searching for an alternative to Calendly and Doodle are listed here.
After testing various meeting scheduling apps, I filtered my suggestions based on a few important factors. Here are some key points to consider:
To test these applications, I created an account for each, connected my video conferencing and calendar apps, and configured my booking page or pages. After that, I used a different email account to set up a meeting with myself while keeping an eye out for any unique features, such as reminder notifications or simplicity of use.
Calendly Pros
Calendly Cons
For a good reason, Calendly is the standard meeting scheduling tool. It is dependable and user-friendly on both ends, and the trial version is powerful enough to do the task regardless of the technology stack.
Those who use Calendly may “set it & forget it” by creating a booking page where guests can select from a variety of meeting formats, check their availability, and schedule a meeting. Anyone who frequently receives meeting requests and requires a straightforward but understandable response will find this app excellent.
When you join a service like Calendly, you must initially let it know when you’re free by linking it to your personal calendar (Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, or Google Calendar). Next, specify the various meeting alternatives you provide, such as “initial customer meeting” or “30-minute telephone interview.” You can include a variety of information in Calendly for every kind of meeting you provide. In addition to creating intake forms, you can also set up processes for automatic reminders, SMS messages, and survey responses if you have a subscription plan.
When your event kinds are configured, you can provide a link to those who need to make appointments with you so they can view your availability and make the necessary requests. Starting with the Premium package, you can set up as many different kinds of meetings as you require, whereas the free plan only allows one.
Calendly adds confirmed bookings to the calendar and allows you to establish an event on the calendars of those you have invited. Along with scheduling meetings from your Google Mail and LinkedIn account, the recently released Chrome extension also allows you to see contact details from within your browser and capture booking links.
Although Calendly is a great tool for setting up meetings with team members or individuals inside an organization, its external connections and bespoke events make it perfect for interacting with clients, customers, and coworkers outside the company. Even better, Calendly offers a routing tool that directs form-fillers to the relevant booking page based on sophisticated logic.
Additionally, the application offers a wide range of connectivity possibilities, such as Salesforce, Zoom, HubSpot, and GoToMeeting; but, in order to fully profit from these features, you must have a premium account.
All things considered, Calendly’s user and invitee interfaces are simple yet easy to use. Calendly is an excellent option if you require something with a simple setup procedure that completes the task consistently and with less effort on your part.
Calendly Cost: Free with restricted functionality; $12/month for premium plans
Calendar Pros
Calendar Cons
Calendar is an all-in-one calendar app, not just a meeting planner. The entire UI is rather similar to Google Calendar, and it has mobile and web versions. Creating customizable time slots and sharing booking links are among the meeting scheduling capabilities it provides.
However, Calendar offers its top appointment scheduling options for free, while Google hides some of them behind a barrier. With the trial plan, you can link the application to one of your current calendar providers and add up to five personalized scheduling events.
Calendar allows you to set up several workspaces on the subscription plans, which is particularly useful if you intend to use it for both your personal and professional calendars. Individual schedule pages & events, as well as the timing of each sort of meeting, will be set up within every workspace. Although the several option levels were a little difficult for me to establish, I understand how Calendar’s extensive customization would be useful for bigger groups with a variety of meeting formats.
Its comprehensive statistics part is where Calendar distinguishes itself. It keeps track of all your encounters, identifying any patterns that emerge. In addition to the apparent statistics, such as the amount of time spent in meetings during the previous days or even year, it also displays attendance data, indicating the proportion of those who were turned away or did not show up for a meeting.
Even the people you’re likely to meet with are highlighted. This is the kind of stuff that could be really helpful when attempting to improve engagement. And all of this is contained in a tidy, visually appealing, and educational overview piece.
Calendar is the best option if you want to schedule meetings and evaluate them in-depth without spending a lot of money. However, using another calendar software may seem a bit redundant, and I found the program’s interface to be less user-friendly than Calendly, for example.
Calendar price: Free; additional calendar connections and event scheduling start at $10 per month.
SavvyCal Pros
SavvyCal Cons
SavvyCal is a multipurpose scheduling app that emphasizes simple teamwork and determining the best times for meetings. Users who are prepared to pay $12 a month can also benefit from both team and personal scheduling links, however, the free plan is restricted to meeting polls.
Launch SavvyCal by creating an account, then follow the setup procedure to link your preferred calendars & video conferencing software. Once there, you’ll get a very simple and easy-to-use dashboard from which you can modify the default availability for all meeting types, view all of your future events, and immediately get to all of your appointment links & meeting polls.
You’ll be familiar with SavvyCal’s polling features if you’ve ever created a poll using Doodle. Even with the free plan, SavvyCal’s booking & polling pages are ad-free, in contrast to Doodle. To offer a few slots from your calendar, simply create a fresh poll, give it a name, and include any pertinent information. All participants should then receive the link and be asked to vote on the times that work best for them.
In contrast to numerous other meeting poll applications, SavvyCal allows invitees to instantly overlay their schedules within the voting page, which allows them to swiftly select from the available times without having to worry over double-booking themselves. This is one feature I found very appealing. You can stop switching between the poll & your own calendar.
You may also use SavvyCal’s scheduling connections if you’re on a subscription membership, which makes this polling tool a simple hybrid of Doodle and Calendly. Customized meeting locations and durations can be readily created using various scheduling links. If desired, you can even establish distinct availability times for each sort of meeting.
Should you need to plan a one-time meeting, these scheduling options can be single-use or multi-use. After creating a scheduling URL, you can send it to your invitees and allow them to schedule a time that is convenient for them.
SavvyCal Price: Free with restricted functionality, $12/month premium plans
SimplyMeet.me Pros
SimplyMeet.me Cons
SimpleMeet.me (formerly Harmonizely, which was purchased by SimplyBook.me) had been my preferred scheduling application when I worked as a freelancer. It’s a great choice for anyone searching for a powerful yet free meeting scheduler. With the help of this tool, you may set up several different kinds of meetings and provide a single link for visitors to utilize to make an appointment. After that, invitees can schedule an appointment by selecting a date and a time window that works for them.
It is comparable to a lot of the other products I examined, but its most notable feature is that it offers one of the largest free tiers. One person can use it for free, and it has up to 3 calendar integrations, 500 booked meetings each month, and limitless meeting kinds and video conference integrations.
The level of personalization available when creating any type of meeting is one feature of SimplyMeet.me that I adore. Adding screening questions, defining your availability, personalizing your SMS and email notifications, allowing payments, keeping the meeting private, and limiting the number of sessions per day are some of these choices. Additionally, I appreciate that you may change the booking page’s logo, color scheme, and theme to better reflect your business.
Every booking page, which may be integrated into your website, appears tidy, polished, and uncluttered from the perspective of your invitee. During my testing, I particularly liked that every booking page immediately displays the invitee’s time zone, which may prevent uncomfortable misunderstandings.
Furthermore, SimplyMeet.me can interface with every CalDAV calendar (including Zimbra, Zoho, FastMail, and Nextcloud) in addition to the common Google, Microsoft, and iCal calendar integrations.
SimplyMeet.me price: Individual licenses are free, while team packages begin at $9.99 per month.
Clara Pros
Clara Cons
Welcome to the AI scheduling world. Clara, your amiable robot scheduling assistant, can help you decide on a meeting schedule if you’re searching for more sophisticated technology.
I must admit that when I first began testing, I had my doubts about scheduling AI. Clara is easy to use, though, as the application will provide you with Clara’s email address after you’ve set up an account, linked your calendar, and selected your favorite meeting times. (If the initial or last name isn’t what you want, you may also alter it in the options menu.) When you want to schedule a meeting, you only have to send an email to the AI assistant. She continues from there.
As part of my testing, I sent an email to a different email account asking Clara to schedule a meeting with me. She sent my alter ego an email with a list of times. The email was cordial and expert, and it may have been written by a real person. After a few emails, Clara extended a Google Calendar invite to each of us, and we decided on an hour that works for everyone. It took just under two hours to complete, and I only had to send the first email requesting the meeting as the event organizer.
Hiring Clara to run your meetings is similar to employing a virtual assistant. Regular users probably won’t have to sign in to the site very often because you can complete all of your tasks via email and consult the calendar you connected to Clara to view your forthcoming schedule. However, your dashboard will show a list of planned and suggested meetings if you choose to log in to the site.
There’s a catch: Clara is being updated right now. I finished testing this year with my existing account, but if you’d like to create a fresh account, you will need to get on the waitlist. I talked to the Clara Labs team, and they informed me that they will be releasing faster features at a lower cost in the upcoming weeks. Based on the efficiency of the present version, I’m eager to see what they come up with next, so I highly recommend applying.
Clara Price: Personal plan was $99 per user per month; new prices will be announced.
Motion Pros
Motion Cons
You can go mad trying to streamline your timetable and task management procedure if you’re anybody like me. Motion is a great answer to the never-ending problem of scheduling, automating, and prioritizing your workload. It’s a calendar and project manager in one, with a built-in tool for organizing meetings.
The way Motion organizes your schedule using AI is what sets it apart. Begin by setting up an account and providing Motion with your daily preferred work hours. Next, when you add a new project or task, just provide its expected duration, due date, and priority level, as well as if it’s acceptable to divide it into smaller tasks. After that, the AI handles your schedule on your behalf. It divides your daily to-do list into digestible chunks, taking into account the pressing deadlines and relative importance of each activity.
Additionally, Motion’s calendar feature is always rearranging itself according to the new items you add to the timetable. Do you have an unexpected appointment on Monday that may disrupt your plans? Don’t worry; Motion simply reorganizes your assignments as you complete them.
Naturally, though, we are here to discuss meeting schedulers, therefore let’s examine Motion. I discovered that Motion’s meeting planner reminds me a lot of Calendly-like apps. You may create a fixed booking link from the Calendar page by selecting a buffer of time, a few length times that visitors can select from, and a time window for when guests can schedule meetings. Additionally, you can choose your own location or the standard video conferencing tool, set up and configure email reminders, and alter your booking link.
One special aspect of Motion’s planning tool that I liked is that you can utilize it like a regular meeting scheduler, sharing your booking URL with guests and letting them select a time that’s convenient for them, or you may manually choose certain times from the calendar. “Will any of these dates and times work?” is a query that Motion will then produce, which you may copy and paste to your email.
The receiver can choose a time that works best for them by clicking on the booking link that is supplied, or they can recommend one of the slots. This special feature saves you some time if you prefer to communicate more “manually” and don’t want to write a fresh email every time.
Motion has certain shortcomings, despite my admiration for it. The user interface is not the most visually appealing or customizable, and it’s incredibly costly for a project administration application. Although the platform offers brief video lessons for each phase of the setup procedure, some less tech-savvy users may still become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options.
Motion price: Individuals pay $19 per month (paid yearly); teams pay $12 per user per month (paid annually).
Sidekick Pros
Sidekick Cons
Sidekick is a fantastic option if you arrange a lot of in-person meetings. This free scheduling and calendar tool allows you to save a number of your preferred meeting formats. In addition to integrating with your preferred physical meeting spaces, you may also save your most frequently used video conferencing apps, such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams.
Like to socialize at your neighborhood Starbucks? Would you like interviews to take place in your office? After saving those to your My Locations section, make a special scheduling page that has that location connected automatically. Guests can schedule an appointment with you and get the address of the location right away. No more exchanging ideas about wherever to meet.
Sidekick is dependable and user-friendly in addition to offering a variety of meeting spaces. Its dashboard interface is very simple and easy to use, and you can quickly configure default meeting lengths and availability settings for every meeting type.
Sidekick also has a “transfer to Schedule” feature for paying customers, which enables you to transfer incoming emails with meeting requests to the app. You will save time by responding to each incoming meeting request with a kind response that includes a link to the booking page.
Sidekick Price: Up to three scheduling pages are available for free; more than that, together with sophisticated analytics and Forward-to-Schedule functionality, costs $5 per month.
Cal.com Pros
Cal.com Cons
I was amazed by the adaptability and personalization of Cal.com, a freely accessible scheduling application. Cal.com can let you connect to any tools or calendars you use. Additionally, the team plan allows you to create custom workflows for automating tasks like reminder notifications and form routing, even though the free personal plan is sufficient.
Setting up Cal.com is easy, and I liked that the program has a few event categories pre-installed to get you going. Even with the free plan, you can construct basic booking webpages for an infinite number of event categories, specify your availability, and decide whether to let invitees make repeat reservations.
I will caution that you might not want to use Cal.com if you’re seeking a booking page that is very personalized or colorful. You have little influence over the appearance of the booking page, apart from selecting a single brand tone for both dark and light themes. There is a limited selection of custom calendar design options, including weekly, monthly, & column options.
However, I suggest checking out Cal.com if you’re particularly interested in personalizing your bots and integrations. Cal Video, Cal’s in-house video conferencing tool, is one of more than 20 video conferencing solutions available in the app, along with eight calendar applications. You can also create your own unique integrations using Cal’s open API.
Cal.com price: Individual plans are free; team packages begin at $15 per user per month and are paid for annually.
Clockwise Pros
Clockwise Cons
After using it, I understand why many of my peers prefer Clockwise. Although its meeting scheduling features are useful, it functions more as a schedule organizer overall. Clockwise leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help you organize your day by automating internal scheduling, protecting lengthy work blocks, and dynamically rescheduling meetings.
To let external and external guests schedule a meeting with you, you can make standard booking links. An AI chatbot built inside the tool can also be used to create, postpone, or establish a bespoke meeting link. When I tested the chatbot, I discovered that it was a little limited. However, when I knew exactly what I needed, the suggestions worked well to set up a time that worked for both of us.
The tool’s emphasis on the host’s “optimal” time slots was another feature I liked. Clockwise encourages visitors to reserve the time that works best for you, whether that be to preserve your focus, provide you with a sufficient amount of time between events, or both.
Clockwise price: The base package is free; for flexible meetings & auto-secured focus time, it starts at $6.75 per user per month.
Lemcal Pros
Lemcal Cons
Although it lacks some of the more ostentatious capabilities of the other programs on this page, lemcal is a fantastic choice if you’re looking to make booking sites that are unique. When creating your booking page, provide a headshot and cover photo. For the backdrop picture, you can then select from stock photos, gradients, solid colors, or custom-imported images. Even the design of the website can be altered to incorporate widgets of your social media accounts in real-time.
Lemcal price: White-label registration pages, advanced meeting categories, up to five calendars, and more are available for $9/month. One calendar and three active meeting types are free.
A good meeting organizer makes it easy and quick to put meetings on your calendar. Workflows for scheduling and even meeting tasks can be automated to maintain productivity. By doing this, the entire process—not just the scheduling—becomes effortless.
Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.
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