Calendly helps organizations globally automate the meeting lifecycle by removing the scheduling back and forth, with the goal of enabling companies to close deals, hire candidates faster, and build relationships.
$10
per month (billed annually) per seat
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Gist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.
$29
per month
Pricing
Calendly
Gist
Editions & Modules
Standard
$10
per month (billed annually) per seat
Teams
$16
per month (billed annually) per seat
Enterprise
Starts at $15k
per year
Professional
$29.00
per month
Premium
$99.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Calendly
Gist
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Monthly billing also available.
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Calendly
Gist
Considered Both Products
Calendly
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Calendly
I used You Can Book Me to set up meetings, but there were a number of things I didn't like about it. When using the free version of You Can Book Me, I could only make my meeting times available in one-hour increments. With Calendly, I can select the length of meetings that I …
Calendly has a much more specific purpose geared toward business meetings or any kind of meetings where as google makes more sense in an internal meeting or a school project or something like that. Calendly is really good at getting a smooth schedule down between client and …
Calendly seems the most easy to use and has all or most of the functionality that we need. We were looking to use other tools that we already pay for that have meeting functionality, but they didn’t have automated text and email reminders or some can’t allow clients to cancel …
I didn’t use HubSpot meeting schedules in the same capacity because I wasn’t a sales rep so it’s hard to compare but I think Calendly is my preferred option.
Everything I've said previously. It takes me entirely out of the loop of coordinating people's schedules, sending invites, booking time, ensuring they get a Zoom invite, etc. It does everything while I do next to nothing, which is as it should be. As a team of one, my time …
Calendly is superior to both scheduling tools - it is easier to use, allows for a lot of customization and options for reminders, and allows the users to adjust their settings as they see fit. Other tools are more expensive and quite complex that don't allow modifications as …
Bookings is ok - but the game changer or I guess the deal breaker was bookings wasn't offering reminders or notifications to clients. This is important so our users are not wasting their time once again with emails that could be automated. With Calendly not only are you set …
Initially I used only Zoom to set up meetings. Had no clue how to make the best scheduling process in place. And them, Calendly came in. This was a game changer.
Zoom allows to just create meetings, but Calendly is absolute convenience! There's zero requirement to follow up …
Acuity’s interface was difficult and clunky to navigate. It was not intuitive and overpriced for its level of outdated design. Calendly is way more efficient and their customer service is top-notch and actually available.
Before making the switch to Calendly, we used Doodle polls a ton for big meetings to avoid the constant back and forth and long email chain messages between external partners, stakeholders, donors, funders, and other clients. Doodle poll is fairly informal compared to the …
I have not used any other products other than Calendly. Calendly was actually chosen by the broker-dealer company my boss works for so we did not have an option to shop and explore other products that work similar to Calendly.
When I started using it, there were not many competitors in this space. I've seen some like Mixmax that seem to work well for solopreneurs or where free version might be better than Calendly's free version. I use the paid version of Calendly and it's just kept serving us well …
Square Appointments I like it as well it just doesn't have the robust ability that Calendly does. Personally, if there were an ability to do that, Square Appointments could give Calendly a run for their money for their own customers. I don't see how they could move the compete …
More recently, I have started using Meetingbird by Front. They are essentially the same product, but Meetingbird has a decidedly better design and user experience. It's just easier to use. Also - the product is free because Front is just using it to generate leads for its …
We didn't really have any competition for Calendly. We have used them previously and thought it was so easy that it made sense to implement Calendly right away. It made sense and created an easy solution to our problems.
Gist is a much more robust software with a variety of marketing tools in its arsenal. Things like website tracking is also extremely robust and it has many more features.
The ease of setup is also more enjoyable and intuitive in Gist so the overall result is that you can learn …
Gist is more refined and its tools are very well integrated overall. However, its pricing is on the expensive side and this doesn't really help it stand-out. HubSpot has significantly more generous Free plan, while Dashly offers many of the Premium Gist tools at a fairer price, …
My main use for Gist is live chat. I personally find their live chat to be one of the best, and their mobile app to be invaluable for small businesses on the go. I can receive and response to messages wherever I am, which is imperative for my use case.
Intercom increases its price on a monthly basis. Besides they don't offer some features as Gist, specially about on forms. We think Gist is targeted to SMB companies, differentially from Intercom that seems to be appropriate for larger companies. One main difference between then …
We went with Gist because it had the features we needed at a price we liked. The feature list has grown over time, which is really appreciated. We joined Gist a long time ago (it was still called ConvertFox back then) and have been happy customers for a long time. Happy with …
Gist is much more than a basic mailing list system with chatbot integration and automation that connects you to your prospects in real-time live from your website. Administering your contacts on Gist is much easier with less hassle. And Gist can integrate with most of the major …
Gist is slightly slower than ActiveCampaign but MUCH easier to use than Mailchimp. Overall, you can't beat the bang for the buck you get with Gist. And its messenger bot is the best I've used, it works on not only our main site but also our subdomains, kicking the competition …
We've used Dashly and Tawk.to. Gist looks better than Tawk and that's the reason we switched from Tawk to Gist. But the feature that puts Gist above Dashly is the ability to collect user names and emails before they start the chat automatically. It is important for our business …
Gist is better because easy of use and pricing. Hands down. It has an unbeatable cost-benefit ratio. Customer service has been with us since we started using it. That's great. For us, shortcomings such as no CRM are manageable. We like its front end appearance and customization …
Gist is my first email and chat multi-purpose automated SAAS tool so can't really comment on others I've tried. They came recommended to me by an entrepreneurial group I am a member of. Anecdotally I evaluated it against ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp and it was far better in …
Gist a more integrated and unified product for Sass companies. Some competitors don't have strong chat + email automation + help desk. Other competitors have the features, but they are not well integrated. Gist has integrated complete customer contact with a very finished …
Having a support ticket system is good and will help you resolve issues but, having an all-in-one tool that can let you not only resolve an issue but also to go above and beyond with customer support that later on translates into sales is priceless. That is the kind of tool …
You can do everything you can with AC or Mailchimp (minus dynamic cart recovery for ecom) at a fraction of the cost, and you can do MORE -- better integration with FB ads than MailChimp, more powerful workflows, unified inboxes, live chat and chatbot, etc. It's just a more …
I have a lifetime deal with Gist so I may be a bit biased, but Gist is quite easy to use and has a free tier so it's worth a serious look compared to the other players on the market. Personal preference does play a big role in your final decision, as feature-wise, Gist has most …
Intercom was pricy and less user-friendly in comparison to Gist. It did have a broader range of features that we could use in our plan. However, we didn't see any return of investment in having many features to choose from if the price was too high for what was being offered at …
It's well suited for music students' lessons. It's well suited for online coaching, primarily through places like Zoom and more. It helps simplify things for your clients, lets you program your schedule, and allows it all to go automatically! If you are working with a senior population, it may be a little tricky for them to sign up and then really hard for them to cancel lessons. There isn't a way to go to the site and cancel. You have to pull up the confirmed email and cancel from there, but people can lose emails.
Gist is perfect for SaaS I'd say, and perfect for long sales cycles with lots of lead nurturing involved, and for scenarios where you re-market via FB ads, because there's FB custom audience integration built into the workflows. Perfect for customer service and support. Really outstanding there. It's a little less suited to ecom but they're hammering out the finishing touches to make ecom cart recovery easier.
Sales. Easy for people to book so less back and forth.
Managed access. Easy for me to offer people the "right kind" of slot - I have like 5 hidden event-types I share only with certain people so they can access different availability.
Collaborative events! Some of us frequently meet in pairs or groups, e.g., one of our regional leaders and I have a shared link we can send out to people to find a time that works for all of us. LOVE this.
Gist provides endless ways of interacting with customers. I can chat and email with them, track their usage on my site, qualify them, add tags and other profile information, and so much more.
There is even an awesome live view that lets me spy on visitors to see how they're using the site.
The tools are powerful, easy to use, and constantly getting improvements. It seems like every week there is another update being rolled out that substantially extends the functionality or usability of the features in Gist.
If you have more than one company, you cannot use one account. This is the most difficult hurdle to me but still one I am willing to jump over considering all the benefits of Calendly.
Adding custom color ability on event types. Example: One of my companies doesn't use any of the color choices. I would like to be able to color code those to my brand.
Brand/Asset kit would be a wonderful addition. In profile settings, have a place to upload brand logo, assets, and brand color codes.
Chatbots should work not only for Gist's native online chat, but also for the other chat-based channels such as Facebook. (instead of having to use another software for that purpose)
Pricing structure - Support bot should not be an add-on but a core feature.
For all reasons like workflows, UI, and the way Calendly keeps all of us engaged through the Collective forum. It's indeed undeniable that no other product covers all business needs like Calendly does. On the other side, this has also reduced the workload by enabling us to focus more on other tasks for the day
Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
Calendly is extremely easy to use for selecting times and days for meetings. From my end, it's very easy to indicate the days and times that I am available for meetings. I have used other scheduling products, but Calendly has the smoothest way of operating. I highly recommend it for scheduling meetings
Gist does pretty much anything you want it to when it comes to managing your contacts. Sometimes I wish it updated faster, but wait a few beats and it gets there. I really love that I can show a colleague how to use the chat messenger and they understand it right away. Very user friendly!
There is a lot of support for Calendly. Whenever I have had issues navigating through it, especially as a new user, I found multiple support on the web addressing my questions or concerns. There is a lot of in app informative notes accessible to users to navigate through Calendly when needed.
I have communicated with their team multiple times and every time they have been very responsive, knowledgeable, and polite. They work to make sure you are happy and informed of what is going on. Better their team keeps up to date with their app, giving you new features, and keeping you notified and educated about what they are and how to use them. A+
Everything I've said previously. It takes me entirely out of the loop of coordinating people's schedules, sending invites, booking time, ensuring they get a Zoom invite, etc. It does everything while I do next to nothing, which is as it should be. As a team of one, my time should be spent doing what I do best and getting paid to do: coaching, teaching, consulting, speaking, writing, and creating training content and workshops.
They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable. Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist is so intuitive I had it setting up and running the basics in a few hours.
Over 300% as of last year. We had done a case study which was phenomenal because even I didn't know the numbers were that huge until we finally put pen to paper.
Time!! I'm in the money business and you know Time is Money if you're in the same industry.
Affordability. It doesn't break the bank for anyone - having an affordable product along with it being user friendly is a no brainer.
Our ROI has increased significantly because of Gist's chat and app integration into our website. Contact forms are great but a real-time conversation means you can be more effective in meeting your customer's needs.
The additional features in the recent upgrade mean we can use Gist for more. They have always been effective for email campaigns, but the addition of the knowledge base and more effective workflows means we can automate more. This has saved us from buying more software.