The shape question first
Before comparing prices, decide which shape you need. Three signals you're in the salon-style camp: more than one staff member with separate calendars, services have durations and prices (not just 'a 30-min slot'), and customers don't have your personal calendar. If any two of those are true, Calendly is the wrong shape regardless of price.
If you're a freelancer doing sales calls or a consultant scheduling discovery meetings on your personal calendar with no second staff, Calendly is genuinely the right tool. Don't overthink it.
1. Bookio by whatcanido — best for small multi-staff shops in 2026
$19/month Starter, $39 Multi-staff. Online booking for salons, yoga studios, dental clinics, tattoo studios, massage practices, and one-person shops with services, durations, prices, Stripe deposits, Google Calendar two-way sync, and (uniquely in 2026) a built-in MCP server so customers can book through Claude or ChatGPT.
Trade-off: it's a younger product than Reservio or Acuity. SMS reminders are on the roadmap; today email reminders only. Loyalty programs are not in scope.
2. Calendly — best for one-on-one meetings on your personal calendar
$12-$18/seat/month for Standard/Teams. Calendly is the canonical paste-this-link-in-an-email tool for personal scheduling. Teams plan added round-robin and collective events; both work fine but the product wasn't designed for service businesses with prices and staff calendars.
When to pick it anyway: you're a freelancer or sales rep whose calendar IS the calendar customers book on. Otherwise the multi-staff service shape will be a constant fight.
3. Reservio — best if you're already on it in Central Europe
Roughly $30-50/month depending on tier. Reservio is the Central European market leader (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, parts of DACH) with deep local-language support, customer trust, and feature breadth (loyalty cards, marketing automation, multi-location).
If you're starting fresh, Bookio is cheaper and faster. If you're already on Reservio with years of booking history, switching cost is real and the whatcanido Reservio executor lets you keep Reservio for the calendar and add the AI agent layer on top without migrating.
4. Acuity Scheduling — best for solo practitioners who need polish
$20/month Emerging, $34 Growing, $61 Powerhouse. Acuity (owned by Squarespace) is the polished mid-market option: clean UI, deep email customisation, package and gift-card features, multi-staff in the higher tiers. Strong fit for therapists, coaches, and consultants who want a presentable booking flow.
Trade-off: per-seat-style pricing means the cost climbs quickly with team size. The integrations are good but not as broad as the bigger tools.
5. SimplyBook.me — best for unusual booking shapes
Free for 50 bookings/month, $9.90 to $89.90/month for paid tiers with feature toggles. SimplyBook.me is the configurable everything-tool of booking. It can do salons, classes, equipment rental, multi-location, deposits, package deals, loyalty. The trade-off is you spend setup time deciding which 40 of the 100 features to enable.
When to pick it: your shop is a weird shape (group classes + 1:1 + equipment rental + recurring memberships) and no preconfigured tool fits. Then SimplyBook.me's flexibility pays off.
6. Setmore — best free tier for very small shops
Free for unlimited appointments and up to 4 staff. Pro at $9/seat/month. Setmore's free tier is unusually generous and the product works fine for low-volume small shops. The UI is dated compared to Acuity or Bookio, the email customisation is limited, but it works.
Where the free tier breaks down: SMS reminders, payments, custom fields, integrations — all paid tier. If you need any of those, you're at Setmore Pro and the price advantage vs Bookio narrows.
7. Square Appointments — best if you're already on Square POS
Free for solo, $29/month for multi-staff, $69 for multi-location. The killer feature is integration with the Square POS terminal: bookings, payments, customer profiles all live in the same system. If your shop is already taking payments on a Square terminal, Square Appointments is the path of least resistance.
Trade-off: outside the Square ecosystem the booking product on its own is fine but not differentiated. The lock-in to Square hardware is the whole point.
How to actually decide
Three questions in order. (1) What's your shape — multi-staff service shop or 1:1 personal calendar? Pick the right camp first. (2) Do you already have an entrenched tool (Reservio in Czech Republic, Square POS at the counter, an Acuity power user)? If yes, default to staying and look at add-ons. (3) Does the agent layer matter to you? In 2026, customers using Claude and ChatGPT to book is a small but growing fraction of demand. Only Bookio supports it natively; everyone else requires custom integration.
Whatever you pick, the first week of real use is more useful than two months of comparison spreadsheets. Pick the most plausible tool, take real bookings on it for two weeks, and only switch if you hit a concrete papercut.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use Calendly for my salon?
Probably not. Calendly is built for 1:1 meetings on a personal calendar; salons have services with durations, prices, staff with separate calendars, deposits. Bookio, Acuity, SimplyBook.me, or Square Appointments fit a salon better.
Is Bookio cheaper than Reservio?
Roughly half the price at comparable tiers. Bookio Starter is $19/month for single-staff; Reservio's equivalent tier is in the $30-40/month range in 2026. If you're starting fresh, this is meaningful. If you're already on Reservio with history, switching cost may outweigh the savings.
Does any booking software work with ChatGPT?
In 2026, Bookio is the only mainstream booking software with a native MCP server. Customers using Claude or ChatGPT can ask for available slots and book directly. Reservio supports it via Partner API + custom integration; the others don't yet.
Can I take a deposit at booking?
Bookio, Acuity (Growing tier), SimplyBook.me, and Square Appointments all support deposits via Stripe or built-in payments. Setmore and basic Calendly do not. Reservio does on higher tiers.
What about SMS reminders?
Reservio, Acuity, SimplyBook.me, Setmore Pro, and Square Appointments all support SMS reminders (often metered). Bookio currently does email only with SMS on the roadmap. If SMS is non-negotiable for your shop, this is a real factor today.
Try Bookio by whatcanido
Online booking for salons, yoga studios, clinics, tattoo shops. Multi-staff, Stripe deposits, Google Calendar sync. From $19/month.
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