Microsoft Bookings vs. Calendly: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Introduction

Connecting with customers is at the heart of most businesses.

Whether that’s prospects or existing clients, being able to set up time to meet quickly and efficiently is essential.

Business is faster-paced than ever, meaning any sense of friction could potentially derail a sale — so you need the tools to help.

In this article, we’re going to compare two such tools: Microsoft Bookings and Calendly. Both of these are solid choices for arranging meetings digitally without any fuss, but which one is the right choice for your company?

That’s what we’re here to find out.

What is Microsoft Bookings?

Just as we covered in a recent return of our “What’s That App?” series, Microsoft Bookings is an appointment management system available as part of the Microsoft 365 for Business suite of apps and services.

When using Microsoft Bookings, you can create a customized appointment booking page complete with your own branding. This booking page shows the services you offer, a calendar of dates to choose from, and time slots to choose. Customers or prospects can also choose a specific team member if you have larger teams. The best part for Microsoft 365 users is that Bookings syncs seamlessly with your team’s existing Microsoft 365 (or Office 365) calendars, so there’s no need to check if the person is free – it all happens automatically. Talking of integration, Bookings also syncs effortlessly with Microsoft Teams, making it easy to see which team members are meeting who and when (with their permission, of course). Teams is also used to host the meetings or calls, so there’s no need to pay for third-party systems like Zoom or Slack.

Microsoft Bookings is not available as a standalone application, so users will need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use it. Bookings is available with all subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Business Standard and above, which starts at £9.40 per user per month.

What is Calendly?

Calendly is a SaaS-based application first founded back in 2010. It is designed to scale from individual users to large-scale enterprise customers with huge multi-national teams.

Just like Bookings, Calendly’s main aim is to reduce the back and forth often associated with booking appointments. Rather than asking when someone is free and trying to find a matching slot, the app automatically shows the person’s latest availability and the customer or prospect can book a slot in a few clicks.

Calendly supports multiple third-party meeting vendors, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, WebEx, and more – though you will of course need to manage these subscriptions separately. The platform can also be extended through other integrations via Zapier. For example, if you wanted to have a Slack message sent to you when someone books a meeting, Calendly can make this happen.

In terms of pricing, Calendly is free for individuals, though for small businesses, the minimum subscription you’ll need is likely to be the “Professional” plan which allows for 6 calendar connections per user and is the first plan which allows team management by a team leader or admin. This plan is currently priced at $15 USD per month for an annual subscription.  

The pros and cons of Microsoft Bookings

Now you’re familiar with how Microsoft Bookings works, let’s consider why you might choose to use it for managing your customer appointments.

Our aim is to be entirely fair to both platforms, so we’ll share what we see as the positives and the negatives of each one.

The pros of Microsoft Bookings:

• Bookings syncs seamlessly with the Microsoft 365 suite, meaning Teams can be used for calls and the 365 calendar can be used for scheduling.
• You don’t need any third-party software to host meetings, because every Bookings appointment automatically has a Teams meeting link created and added to the email invite by default.
• Thanks to the 365 back-end, admin users are able to manage appointment bookings on behalf of team members, making it much easier to manage multi-person teams.
• Everything is customisable, including your appointments booking page, at no additional cost.

The cons of Microsoft Bookings:

• Microsoft Bookings requires a subscription to at least the Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan for Microsoft 365. This plan starts at £9.40 per user per month.
• If you’re not already set up with a Microsoft 365 plan, there is some work involved in getting everything up and running. (Though we know a team who can help).
• Bookings doesn’t integrate with as many third-party applications as Calendly, though Microsoft 365 includes many equivalents in its plans.

The pros and cons of Calendly

Next up, we’ll give the Calendly appointments system the same treatment, exploring what we see as the positives and negatives of this platform.

The pros of Calendly:

• Calendly can be used entirely free of charge, though this option is best suited to individuals and freelancers, meaning teams larger than two will need a paid subscription to make the most of the app.
• Users can use Zapier to set triggers based on appointment activity, such as sending an instant message when someone books or cancels.
• Calendly sends automated follow-ups and reminders about meetings, with customization of these assets available with the “Professional” plan and above.

The cons of Calendly:

• Unless you’re a single-person business or freelancer, you will need to upgrade your subscription to manage multiple-user calendars.
• Calendly branding cannot be removed from your appointment page without subscribing to at least the “Professional” plan.
• Every third-party integration (e.g. Slack, Zoom, and Zapier) must be individually managed, set up, and paid for. These monthly subscriptions can quickly exceed the cost of a basic Microsoft 365 plan.

Which meetings app should your business use?

You’ve heard both sides and it’s time to decide… which appointment booking platform is right for you?

In truth, the answer here will depend a lot on how your business already operates.

For example, if you’re an existing Microsoft 365 subscriber, or you’re even thinking about going with the 365 suite, Microsoft Bookings is a no-brainer. You won’t require any additional subscriptions for call software or Zapier integrations, and everything will sync up by default via Microsoft Teams.

On the other hand, if you’re already using different platforms like Zoom or Slack – and you’re happy to pay for them separately outside of a single subscription like 365 – Calendly is a good option too. It offers flexibility across third-party apps especially which aren’t available with Microsoft Bookings (mainly because Microsoft has an app for pretty much everything already).

Get started with Microsoft 365 and get going with Bookings

Of course, the choice of which meeting tool is the best for your business is entirely up to you.

But, if you like the sound of the huge range of apps and services — including Bookings — that Microsoft 365 brings, we can help you get started right away.

To discuss which Microsoft 365 subscription is right for you, just give us a call today on 01865 594 000 or drop your details into the form below and we’ll call you back.