# Acuity Scheduling

> Acuity Scheduling is an appointment booking platform for service businesses, owned by Squarespace, that combines client self-scheduling with the commerce features a paid-appointment business needs: prepayment and deposits through Stripe, Square, or PayPal, packages, memberships, subscriptions, gift certificates, discount codes, group classes, intake forms, multi-staff and multi-location calendars, SMS reminders, and a HIPAA-compliant option on its top tier.

- Category: Scheduling & Booking (https://saastracker.org/categories/scheduling)
- Website: https://www.acuityscheduling.com
- Starting price: $16 per month billed annually ($20 month to month)
- Free plan: No
- Free trial: 7 days, no credit card required
- Founded: 2006, HQ: New York, New York, United States (operated within Squarespace), Ownership: Owned by Squarespace, which was itself taken private by Permira in 2024
- Profile last reviewed: 2026-08-22
- Canonical profile: https://saastracker.org/products/acuity-scheduling

## Overview

Acuity was built in 2006 by Gavin Zuchlinski, who wrote it after his mother's small business asked for something better than a paper appointment book. That origin still shows in the product. Acuity is not really a booking link in the Calendly sense; it is the operational front desk for a business that sells appointments, which means the interesting features are the ones about money, staff, and clients rather than the ones about calendar links.

Squarespace acquired Acuity in April 2019 in its first ever acquisition, and now sells it both standalone at acuityscheduling.com and bundled into Squarespace sites as Squarespace Scheduling. Squarespace itself was taken private by Permira in 2024, so Acuity today is a mature product inside a private-equity-owned website platform. That is worth knowing: the roadmap is steady rather than fast, and the integration story bends toward Squarespace.

There is no free plan, which is the sharpest difference between Acuity and everything else in this category. You get a 7-day trial with no credit card, and then Starter costs $16 a month billed annually or $20 month to month. Standard at $27 annually adds SMS reminders, packages, memberships, gift certificates, waitlists, and up to six calendars. Premium at $49 annually adds up to 36 calendars, branding removal, custom CSS, API access, and the HIPAA option.

For a small business that charges for its time, that pricing is fair and the tier ladder is honest: it maps to how many staff you have and whether you sell anything more complicated than a single appointment. For a startup that just wants a demo link, Acuity is the wrong tool at the wrong price, and Calendly, Cal.com, or Zcal will serve better for less.

## How it works

1. You define appointment types (a 60-minute massage, a 30-minute consultation, a six-week course) with duration, price, padding, minimum notice, and whichever staff members can deliver them. Each type can require prepayment, a partial deposit, or a stored card, and each can carry its own intake form so the client answers your questions before they arrive rather than in the waiting room.

2. Client-facing availability comes from your working hours minus everything already booked, with two-way sync against Google, Outlook, Office 365, or iCloud so a personal commitment blocks a bookable slot. Every staff member gets their own calendar and their own hours, timezones are handled per staff member and per location, and buffers before and after appointments stop the day compressing into a single unbroken block.

3. The booking page can live on an Acuity URL, embedded in your own website or a Squarespace site, behind a QR code on a physical sign, or linked from Instagram and Facebook. When a client books, Acuity charges the card if you asked it to, sends a confirmation, then fires reminder emails and (from the Standard plan) SMS reminders, and gives the client a self-serve link to reschedule or cancel inside whatever window you allow.

4. On top of the appointment itself sits the commerce layer that distinguishes Acuity: packages of sessions sold as a bundle, memberships and subscriptions that bill on a recurring schedule and gate access to certain services, gift certificates that a third party can buy for someone else, discount codes, add-ons offered at checkout, and waitlists that fill a cancellation automatically. This is what a salon, a clinic, a tutor, or a studio actually needs, and it is what a scheduling link cannot do.

## Best for

Service businesses that charge for appointments and manage multiple staff or locations: salons, clinics, therapists, tutors, coaches, photographers, and studios that need prepayment, packages, memberships, and no-show control rather than a demo link.

## Not the right fit for

- Startups and sales teams that want a demo booking link; there is no free plan, no round-robin distribution built for inbound lead assignment, and no CRM routing, so Calendly or Cal.com fits far better for less.
- Anyone who needs to evaluate scheduling software for free indefinitely; Acuity gives you seven days and then requires a card, which is a shorter runway than almost every competitor.
- Solo operators on the cheapest tier who assume they can look unbranded; branding removal, custom CSS, and API access all sit on the $49 Premium plan.
- Buyers who want an open developer surface at the entry price; the API is Premium-only, so anyone building a custom booking flow starts at the top of the price list.
- Teams that need meeting polls, group availability voting, or collective scheduling across several internal hosts; Acuity books clients into staff calendars and does not do internal coordination.

## Features

### Appointments and availability

The scheduling core, tuned for a business that runs on a daily calendar.

- **Unlimited appointments on every plan**: No monthly booking cap at any tier, so the price you pay does not rise with volume. What changes across plans is how many calendars you run, not how busy they are.
- **Appointment types**: Each service is defined with its own duration, price, staff eligibility, intake form, padding, and payment rule, and can be shown or hidden from the public booking page.
- **Group classes and workshops**: Multi-attendee sessions with capacity limits, so a yoga class, a workshop, or a group tour books against a headcount rather than a single slot.
- **Buffers, minimum notice, and daily caps**: Padding before and after each appointment, a minimum notice window so nobody books the next ten minutes, and limits on how much can be booked in a day, all configurable per appointment type.
- **Two-way calendar sync**: Google, Outlook, Office 365, and iCloud sync in both directions, so external commitments block bookable time and confirmed appointments appear on the staff member's own calendar.
- **Timezone handling across staff and locations**: Clients see slots in their own timezone, and each staff member or location carries its own, which matters the moment you have a remote practitioner or a second branch.
- **Waitlists**: From the Standard plan, clients can join a waitlist for a full slot and get offered it automatically when someone cancels, which converts churn back into revenue.
- **Client self-reschedule and cancel**: Every confirmation carries reschedule and cancel links governed by your policy window, so schedule changes cost you nothing in admin time.

### Payments and commerce

The reason a paid-appointment business chooses Acuity over a booking link.

- **Prepayment, deposits, and stored cards**: Take the full fee, a partial deposit, or securely store a card at booking. Requiring money up front is the single most effective no-show control there is, well ahead of reminders.
- **Stripe, Square, and PayPal**: Three processors are supported on every plan including Starter. Acuity takes no percentage of its own; you pay the processor's normal rate, typically around 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction in the United States.
- **Packages and subscriptions**: Sell a bundle of sessions or a recurring package that bills on a schedule, so a client buys ten training sessions once instead of paying at every visit.
- **Memberships**: Recurring memberships that gate access to specific services or rates, which is how studios and clinics build predictable revenue rather than living booking to booking.
- **Gift certificates**: A third party can buy a certificate for someone else, redeemable at booking. This is a genuine revenue channel for consumer service businesses and one that pure scheduling tools ignore entirely.
- **Discount codes and add-ons**: Promotional codes for returning clients, plus upsells surfaced during checkout so a 60-minute service can become a 75-minute one at the point of decision.
- **In-person and point-of-sale payments**: Tap to pay, mobile payment links, and contactless card readers, so the same client record covers the online booking and the walk-in.

### Clients, staff, and locations

Front-desk operations for a business with more than one person in it.

- **Multiple staff calendars**: One calendar per staff member with individual hours and services. The plan tiers are defined by this number: one on Starter, up to six on Standard, up to 36 on Premium.
- **Staff permissions**: Control what each team member can do and which client data they can see, which matters as soon as you have contractors or front-desk staff who should not see everything.
- **Multiple locations**: Run several branches from one central booking system, with location-specific availability, staff, and timezones.
- **Client intake forms**: Custom questions attached to an appointment type, collected at booking, stored on the client record, and available to the practitioner before the session starts.
- **Client records and history**: A running record of appointments, payments, packages, and form answers per client, which is the closest thing Acuity has to a CRM and is usually enough for a service business.
- **Recurring appointments**: Standing weekly or monthly slots for regular clients booked once rather than repeatedly, with the whole series manageable as a unit.

### Reminders, branding, and reach

No-show reduction and the parts clients actually see.

- **Email confirmations and reminders**: Included on every plan, customizable in wording and timing, and attached to the appointment type so different services can carry different prep instructions.
- **SMS reminders**: Text reminders start on the Standard plan at $27 a month annually. For an appointment business this is usually the feature that pays for the upgrade on its own, because a missed hour is lost revenue rather than a rescheduled call.
- **Branding removal and custom CSS**: Removing Acuity branding and applying your own CSS both sit on the $49 Premium plan, so the entry tiers carry visible vendor branding on the client-facing page.
- **Website embedding**: Embed the scheduler directly into your own site or a Squarespace page rather than sending clients to a separate domain, which keeps the booking inside your own funnel.
- **QR codes and social booking**: Shareable links and scannable QR codes for physical signage, plus booking from Instagram and Facebook, which is how consumer service businesses actually acquire appointments.
- **Mobile apps**: iOS and Android apps for managing the day's calendar, checking clients in, and taking payment away from a desk.

### Compliance and developer surface

The Premium-tier extras, including the one healthcare buyers need.

- **HIPAA compliance option**: Available on the Premium plan for healthcare providers, which puts Acuity in reach of therapists, clinics, and allied health practices that cannot use a general scheduling link at all.
- **API and webhooks**: Developer access for custom booking flows and data sync is Premium-only, so building on Acuity means starting at $49 a month rather than at the entry price.
- **Third-party integrations**: Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams for virtual appointments, plus Zapier, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics for the surrounding stack.
- **Squarespace integration**: Sold as Squarespace Scheduling inside Squarespace sites, with native blocks and shared billing, which is the smoothest path if your website is already there.

## Use cases

- **Massage therapist working alone**: Clients book by text, forget appointments, and pay afterwards, so a no-show costs a full hour of revenue and the rebooking conversation is awkward. Outcome: A Standard plan takes a deposit through Stripe at booking, sends an SMS reminder the day before, and offers the slot to a waitlisted client automatically if someone cancels, turning the worst outcome into a filled hour.
- **Three-chair salon with two locations**: Each stylist has different hours and services, the front desk juggles two paper diaries, and gift certificate sales at Christmas are tracked on a spreadsheet. Outcome: Standard at $27 a month runs up to six calendars with per-staff hours and permissions, sells gift certificates and packages through the same booking page, and lets clients rebook themselves without calling.
- **Therapy practice needing HIPAA**: Client intake includes health information, so a generic scheduling link is not legally usable, and the practice has been collecting forms on paper. Outcome: The Premium plan's HIPAA option covers intake forms and client records inside the scheduler, with branding removed and custom CSS so the booking page matches the practice's site.
- **Group fitness studio selling memberships**: Classes have capacity limits, regulars buy ten-class packs, and revenue is lumpy because everything is paid per visit. Outcome: Class scheduling handles capacity, packages sell the ten-class pack once, and memberships bill monthly and gate member-only sessions, so the studio moves from per-visit cash to recurring revenue.

## Pricing

Flat monthly subscription across three tiers, priced by how many staff or resource calendars you run, with unlimited appointments on every plan. No free tier.

- **Starter**: $16 per month billed annually ($20 month to month). One calendar; Unlimited appointments; Stripe, Square, and PayPal payments; Email confirmations and reminders; Website embedding and mobile apps. No SMS reminders, no packages or memberships, no branding removal. Fine for a solo practitioner who only needs bookings and payments.
- **Standard**: $27 per month billed annually ($34 month to month). Up to six calendars; SMS reminders; Packages, memberships, subscriptions, and gift certificates; Waitlists; Everything in Starter. The tier most real service businesses land on. SMS reminders alone usually justify the jump from Starter.
- **Premium**: $49 per month billed annually ($61 month to month). Up to 36 calendars; Acuity branding removed and custom CSS; API access and webhooks; HIPAA compliance option; Everything in Standard. Bought for one of three reasons: many staff, HIPAA, or developer access. Rarely for the cosmetics alone.

Billing notes:

- Prices are per business rather than per seat, which is unusual in this category and makes Acuity cheap for a multi-staff shop compared with per-user schedulers.
- Annual billing saves roughly 20 percent across all three tiers; the higher figures quoted here are the month-to-month rates.
- There is no free plan at all, only a 7-day trial without a credit card, so evaluation time is short compared with competitors that let you run free indefinitely.
- Acuity takes no cut of payments collected at booking. Stripe, Square, or PayPal charge their own rate, typically around 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction in the United States.
- SMS reminders are a plan feature rather than a metered credit pack, so texting at volume does not add a line to the bill the way it does on SimplyBook.me.
- Branding removal, custom CSS, and API access are bundled together on Premium, so a solo user who wants any one of them pays $49.

Value assessment: Priced per business rather than per seat, Acuity is one of the best-value products in this category for anyone running more than one calendar. Standard at $27 a month covers six staff, SMS reminders, packages, memberships, gift certificates, and waitlists, which would cost several times that in per-seat scheduling software and would still be missing the commerce layer entirely. The weak spots are the absent free tier and the Premium bundling: branding removal, custom CSS, and API access are all locked together at $49, which feels like a toll on solo operators who only want an unbranded page. If you sell appointments, the money is well spent. If you book demos, you are buying a cash register you will never open.

## Strengths

- The commerce layer is the deepest in this category: packages, memberships, subscriptions, gift certificates, discount codes, add-ons, and deposits all sit inside the booking flow rather than in a separate billing tool.
- Priced per business rather than per seat, so a six-person shop pays $27 a month total instead of $27 per person.
- Unlimited appointments on every tier, so a busy month never produces a surprise bill.
- Prepayment and deposits address no-shows at the root, and SMS reminders plus waitlists handle the rest, which together is the strongest no-show story available to a small service business.
- A HIPAA-compliant option on Premium opens the product to therapists and clinics that cannot legally use a generic scheduling link.
- Twenty years of operation and Squarespace ownership since 2019 make it one of the most stable products on this list, with mature multi-staff, multi-location, and timezone handling.

## Limitations

- No free plan and only a 7-day trial, which is the shortest evaluation window among the major scheduling tools.
- Branding removal, custom CSS, and API access are all Premium-only, so cosmetic control costs $49 a month.
- The API is not available below Premium, making Acuity a poor choice for anyone who wants to embed scheduling inside their own product at a small-business price.
- No inbound lead routing, qualification forms, or CRM-driven assignment, so it is unsuitable as a sales scheduling tool.
- No internal group coordination: no meeting polls, no collective events requiring several hosts, no round-robin built for distributing inbound leads across reps.
- The roadmap moves slowly. Acuity is a mature product inside a private-equity-owned website platform, and its integration energy goes toward Squarespace rather than toward the wider SaaS ecosystem.
- Calendar counts are the pricing lever, so a business with many resources (rooms, chairs, equipment) rather than many staff can be pushed to Premium for reasons that feel arbitrary.

## Comparisons

- **Acuity Scheduling vs Setmore**: Setmore has a free plan with up to four users and 200 appointments a month and charges $5 per user per month annually for unlimited everything, which undercuts Acuity badly on raw price. Acuity answers with packages, memberships, gift certificates, waitlists, and a HIPAA option that Setmore does not match. Start with Setmore if you only need bookings and reminders; move to Acuity the moment you want to sell packages or memberships.
- **Acuity Scheduling vs SimplyBook.me**: SimplyBook.me matches Acuity's commerce ambitions and goes further on channels (Reserve with Google, Instagram and Facebook booking, a full booking website) but meters you on bookings per month and sells capability as individually counted custom features. Acuity charges a flat price with unlimited appointments. Choose SimplyBook.me for reach and configurability on a small booking volume; choose Acuity when volume is high and you want the bill to stop moving.
- **Acuity Scheduling vs Calendly**: These products only look similar. Calendly routes inbound leads to sales reps and syncs to a CRM; Acuity runs a front desk that takes money. Calendly has a free tier and per-seat pricing, Acuity has neither but includes the entire commerce layer. If you book demos, buy Calendly. If you sell appointments, buy Acuity, and do not try to make either one do the other's job.
- **Acuity Scheduling vs Cal.com**: Cal.com gives a single user unlimited event types, unlimited calendars, and Stripe payments for nothing, plus an open API and embeddable components. Acuity charges from $16 and has no free tier at all, but ships packages, memberships, gift certificates, class capacity, waitlists, and HIPAA. Cal.com is the better free scheduling link and the better developer platform; Acuity is the better business.
- **Acuity Scheduling vs TidyCal**: TidyCal is a one-time purchase covering booking links and simple paid bookings, and for a solo consultant that is often the whole requirement. Acuity is a monthly subscription that only makes sense once staff calendars, packages, or prepaid deposits are involved. Buy TidyCal if you sell your own time occasionally; buy Acuity if appointments are the business.

## Implementation

- Setup time: A working solo booking page takes an afternoon: appointment types, hours, payment processor, and reminder wording. A multi-staff shop with packages, memberships, and location rules is closer to a week of part-time configuration, mostly spent deciding policy rather than clicking.
- Learning curve: Moderate. The scheduling basics are obvious, but the commerce features have real depth, and the interaction between packages, memberships, discount codes, and appointment types rewards someone reading the documentation rather than guessing.
- Onboarding: Fully self-serve with a 7-day trial and no credit card. There is no mandatory onboarding fee or implementation package at any tier, which is the correct posture for a small-business product.
- Migration: Client lists and appointment history import by CSV, which covers the important part of a move from paper or from another booking tool. Existing prepaid packages and memberships generally have to be recreated and reconciled by hand, so migrate at the start of a billing cycle. Moving away later means exporting clients and appointments and rebuilding the commerce configuration, since none of it is portable.

## Platform, API & security

- Platforms: Web app, iOS, Android, Website and Squarespace embeds, Booking page on an Acuity URL
- API: REST API and webhooks, available only on the Premium plan, alongside custom CSS on the same tier.
- Compliance: HIPAA option on the Premium plan, GDPR, PCI handled through Stripe, Square, or PayPal
- Security notes: Card details are handled by the connected processor rather than stored by Acuity directly. The HIPAA option on Premium covers intake form data and client records for healthcare providers, and requires the appropriate agreement to be in place.

## Support

- Channels: Email support, Live chat during business hours, In-app help
- Documentation: Help center covering appointment types, payments, packages and memberships, staff calendars, intake forms, embedding, and the Premium API.
- Community: Large community of Squarespace designers, salon and clinic consultants, and third-party template sellers rather than an official forum.

## Company

- Founded: 2006
- Founders: Gavin Zuchlinski
- Headquarters: New York, New York, United States (operated within Squarespace)
- Ownership: Owned by Squarespace, which was itself taken private by Permira in 2024
- Employees: Not disclosed separately from Squarespace
- Funding: Bootstrapped for its first thirteen years, then acquired by Squarespace in April 2019 in Squarespace's first ever acquisition.

Funding history:

- Bootstrapped (2006): No institutional rounds. Built and grown by its founder without venture funding for thirteen years.
- Acquisition (2019): Undisclosed. Acquired by Squarespace in April 2019; also sold inside Squarespace as Squarespace Scheduling.

Timeline:

- 2006: Gavin Zuchlinski builds Acuity Scheduling after small-business clients ask for a better appointment book, and bootstraps it for over a decade.
- 2016: Grows into a widely used appointment platform for salons, clinics, coaches, and studios on the strength of its packages, memberships, and payment features.
- 2019: Squarespace acquires Acuity in April, its first ever acquisition, and later markets the product inside Squarespace as Squarespace Scheduling.
- 2024: Squarespace is taken private by Permira, placing Acuity inside a private-equity-owned website platform.
- 2026: Sold as three flat-priced tiers from $16 a month billed annually, with unlimited appointments, SMS from Standard, and a HIPAA option plus API access on Premium.

## Integrations

Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365, and iCloud (two-way sync), Stripe, Square, and PayPal, Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, Squarespace, Zapier, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Instagram and Facebook booking, REST API and webhooks (Premium only)

## FAQ

### What is Acuity Scheduling?

Acuity Scheduling is an appointment booking platform for service businesses, owned by Squarespace. Clients self-book from your live availability, pay a deposit or the full fee at booking, fill in intake forms, and get email and SMS reminders. Behind that sits a commerce layer with packages, memberships, subscriptions, gift certificates, discount codes, class capacity, and waitlists.

### How much does Acuity Scheduling cost?

Starter is $16 a month billed annually or $20 month to month and covers one calendar. Standard is $27 annually or $34 monthly, covers up to six calendars, and adds SMS reminders, packages, memberships, gift certificates, and waitlists. Premium is $49 annually or $61 monthly, covers up to 36 calendars, and adds branding removal, custom CSS, API access, and the HIPAA option. Every plan includes unlimited appointments.

### Is there a free version of Acuity Scheduling?

No. Acuity has no free plan, only a 7-day trial with no credit card required. That is the shortest evaluation window among the major scheduling tools, and it is the main reason a business testing several options often starts elsewhere. If a free tier is a requirement, Setmore, Cal.com, and SimplyBook.me all have one.

### Can Acuity take payments and deposits when a client books?

Yes, through Stripe, Square, or PayPal on every plan including Starter. You can require the full fee, a partial deposit, or simply store the card securely for later. Acuity takes no percentage of its own, so your cost is the processor's normal rate, typically around 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction in the United States. Requiring money up front is the most effective no-show control available.

### How does Acuity reduce no-shows?

Three ways, in order of effectiveness. Prepayment or a deposit at booking makes the client financially invested. SMS reminders, which start on the $27 Standard plan, catch the people who genuinely forgot. Waitlists, also from Standard, offer a cancelled slot to the next interested client automatically, so a late cancellation becomes a filled hour instead of a lost one.

### How many staff calendars does each plan allow?

One on Starter, up to six on Standard, and up to 36 on Premium. Calendars are the pricing lever rather than users or bookings, which makes Acuity unusually cheap for a multi-staff business compared with per-seat scheduling tools, but can push a business with lots of rooms or equipment upward for reasons that feel arbitrary.

### Does Acuity offer a HIPAA-compliant option?

Yes, on the Premium plan at $49 a month billed annually. That covers intake form data and client records for healthcare providers and requires the appropriate agreement to be in place. It is the reason many therapy practices and clinics choose Acuity over a general scheduling link, which they cannot legally use for health information at all.

### Can I remove Acuity branding and use my own design?

Branding removal and custom CSS both sit on the Premium plan at $49 a month billed annually, alongside API access. On Starter and Standard the client-facing booking page carries Acuity branding. You can, however, embed the scheduler into your own website or Squarespace page on any plan, which keeps clients inside your own site even if the widget is branded.

### Does Acuity have an API?

Yes, a REST API with webhooks, but only on the Premium plan. That makes Acuity an expensive starting point for anyone who wants to embed scheduling inside their own product. Cal.com's API and embeddable React components are the better route for developers, and OnceHub exposes API keys and webhook configuration lower down its price list.

### Is Acuity Scheduling the same as Squarespace Scheduling?

Effectively yes. Squarespace acquired Acuity in April 2019 and sells the same product inside Squarespace under the Squarespace Scheduling name, with native site blocks and shared billing. You can still buy Acuity standalone without a Squarespace website. If your site is already on Squarespace, the bundled path is smoother.

### Should a startup use Acuity to book sales demos?

No. Acuity has no inbound lead routing, no qualification forms, no round-robin distribution built for sales pools, and no CRM-driven assignment, and it charges from day one with no free tier. Use Calendly, Cal.com, or HubSpot Meetings for demo booking. Acuity is for businesses that sell appointments, not for businesses that sell software.

## Editorial verdict

Acuity is the right answer for a business that sells its time and the wrong answer for a business that sells software. Everything distinctive about it lives in the commerce layer: deposits at booking, packages, memberships, gift certificates, class capacity, waitlists, and a HIPAA option, all priced per business rather than per seat, which makes $27 a month for six staff calendars genuinely cheap. The complaints are real but narrow: no free plan, a stingy 7-day trial, and a Premium tier that bundles branding removal, custom CSS, and API access together at $49 so that wanting any one of them costs you all three. If you run a salon, a clinic, a studio, or a practice, buy it and stop shopping. If you are trying to get prospects onto a demo calendar, close this page and look at Calendly, Cal.com, or HubSpot Meetings instead.

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Source: SaaSTracker (https://saastracker.org), an independent editorial project. This profile is compiled from public information, carries no peer reviews or paid placement, and was last reviewed 2026-08-22. Awards are judged on published criteria: https://saastracker.org/methodology