Chili Piper vs Calendly: The Scheduling Showdown (with a Dark Horse in the Ring)

Business thrives on meetings - they're our decision-making powerhouses, networking hubs, and get-it-done stations. But scheduling these crucial interactions can be a time-sucking monster, juggling clashing calendars, time zones, and location woes. Remote teams add a virtual layer of complexity, where tech gremlins join the party.

That's where scheduling tools like Chili Piper, Calendly, and Leadmonk step in, promising to streamline the process and free up your time for what truly matters. These tools sync calendars, track availability, and let guests book time with you like magic, saving you precious hours and endless "what time works?" emails.

But with so many options vying for your attention, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. But don't worry! This blog helps you identify your specific scheduling needs and matching you with the software that fits perfectly, whether you're a solopreneur seeking simplicity or a sales team needing advanced automation.

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What is Calendly?

Calendly needs no introduction. It’s been around for several years and many businesses use its software.

Calendly is a web-based scheduling tool that helps users schedule and manage appointments and meetings with others. It allows individuals and teams to easily schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails that are often associated with finding a mutually convenient time.

It supports one-on-one, group,round-robin, and collective meeting scheduling algorithms

You can also conduct a poll to determine the best time for ameeting and quickly convert the most popular slot into a confirmed appointment.You can also create a basic routing form or import from HubSpot or Pardot orMarketo form to route incoming leads. Calendly has a basic lead routingfeature.

In addition to personal meetings, Calendly enables you to manageteam meetings as well. You can create different meeting types, assign specificteam members to handle group meetings and rotate incoming meetings among yourteam members.

Calendly has extensive integration options, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom,GoToMeeting, and Zapier, but you do need to subscribe to a paid plan to get thefull benefits here. It instantly qualifies, routes, and books prospect meetingsusing your existing web forms such as Calendly, HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardotforms.

Calendly may not be the perfect fit for everyone, so it's important to explore other options to find the best scheduling solution for your business or personal needs.

Here's a breakdown of some limitations and missing features in Calendly:

Lead Capture and Qualification

• Limited form support: Calendly offers basic forms, but you cannot create multi-step forms or connect webforms to qualify and route leads. It only integrates with HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot forms.
• Basic lead qualification and routing: Calendly's qualification and routing capabilities are limited, making it unsuitable for complex scenarios or large organizations.

Lead-to-Account Matching

• Limited to Salesforce and Enterprise plans: Lead-to-account matching is only available for Salesforce users with enterprise plan (it starts at $15k/annum) and requires SF Package installation and customization.

Reporting and Analytics

• ‍Limited reporting: Calendly offers basic reporting features, but lacks in-depth analysis of form submissions and lead conversion statistics.

Lead Management

• No real-time email verification: Calendly doesn't support real-time email verification to improve lead quality and reduce unqualified leads.
• Limited lead distribution: Calendly doesn't offer weighted average round robin algorithms for distributing meetings based on lead weightage.
• No meeting allocation calibration: You cannot calibrate meeting allocation for factors like no-shows, cancellations, vacations, or manager overrides.
• Hand-off limitations: Calendly lacks functionality to hand-off leads across different stages of the sales funnel.
• No cross-rep scheduling: BDRs/SDRs cannot directly book meetings on AEs' calendars based on lead distribution logic.

Meeting Scheduling Limitations

• Meeting caps: Calendly only allows meeting caps at the event type level, not daily or monthly breakdowns per user.
• Calendar limitations: You can connect up to 6 calendars, but meeting booking is restricted to the primary calendar.
• Limited meeting duration options: Cannot define multiple durations for a single meeting type.
• No mobile appointment scheduling: Scheduling appointments using mobile numbers is not supported.
• WhatsApp notifications: Sending text notifications via WhatsApp is not supported.

Additional Limitations

• Shared resource booking: Calendly lacks centralized management for booking shared resources.
• Package/session sales: You cannot sell packages or multiple sessions at once (e.g., 5 branding consultations for a set price).

Branding and Customization

• Limited booking page themes: Calendly offers minimal customization options for booking page themes.
• Custom Domain and notification branding: You cannot host booking pages on your domain (CNAME) or send branded email/SMS notifications using your own email domain and phone number (SMTP and Twilio integration not supported).

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Calendly Pricing

• Standard: $12 per user per month.
• Team: $20 per user per month.
• Enterprise Plan: Starts at $15k/year. Salesforce routing is part of this plan.

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See how Leadmonk compares with Calendly.

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Overall

Calendly offers basic scheduling functionality but lacks features for complex lead qualification, routing, advanced reporting, and in-depth customization. These limitations can hinder its effectiveness for larger organizations or businesses with complex sales processes.

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What is Chili Piper?

Chili Piper is a lead conversion and scheduling software. They targets big sales teams handling high volumes of meetings. They offer scheduling, lead routing, and qualification tools like Instant Booker, Handoff, Form Concierge, and Distro. Sounds fancy, right? But buckle up, because these unbundled products can quickly turn into an unexpected price explosion.

• Instant Booker is a scheduling tool designed for revenue reps who want to convert leads into meetings instantly using high-powered automation and qualification rules.
• Form Concierge instantly qualifies, routes, and books meetings directly from your existing forms — allowing you to double your inbound leads.
• Distro prevents leads from slipping through the cracks. Companies can quickly and easily route leads to the right rep — every time. (Currently not compatible with HubSpot CRM).
• Handoff gives your team an easy way to pass the baton from one rep to the next, connecting buyers with a sales rep immediately.
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Missing Features‍

Chili Piper is a powerful lead conversion platform, but it lacks some features that may be essential for specific businesses, such as:

• ‍Multiple-duration options - Give your invitees multiple appointment duration options to choose from when they book. This is more efficient than creating a separate meeting type for each duration.
• Real-time Email Verification - Eliminate invalid, disposable, personal, and temporary email addresses from your lead capture forms. Reduce bounce rates, improve deliverability, and prevent wasted resources on invalid leads.
• Multiple calendar support - Ability to connect multiple calendars to a user account, so they can manage their work and personal life efficiently.
• SFCRM Opportunity creation - Automatic creation of an Opportunity in SFCRM when a meeting is booked.
• HubSpot Deal creation - Ability to create Deals in HubSpot, not just Contacts.
• Contact owner update without engagement creation - Ability to update the contact owner even when engagements are not created in HubSpot.
• Group event type availability - for webinars and training events, to direct inbound leads to those events instead of one-on-one product demos.
• WhatsApp reminders - to keep leads engaged and on track. Outside of the USA and Canada, WhatsApp reminders are preferred over SMS reminders because they have higher open rates, more features, and better security.
• Enhanced branding features - to customize the look and feel of the appointment scheduling experience to match your brand.
• Collect  payments using Stripe and PayPal: Some customer may need the payment gateway integrations to collect payments at the time of appointment booking to reduce no-shows.
• Limit the number of appointments per day or per month - Specifying per day appointments limit at an appointment type level or at the user account level.
• Custom domain support - to create a more professional and branded experience for your leads.
• Customer Support: Some users have reported slower and subpar customer support experiences, which can be frustrating when you encounter technical difficulties or need assistance.

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Cost structure‍

ChiliPiper's higher subscription fees, tiered platform fees based on the number of form submissions per month, and the requirement to purchase minimum user licenses can make it a costly choice for many organizations. The monthly platform fee can be quite steep, especially for businesses with high volumes of leads.

Below is their pricing plan and monthly tiered platform fee if you opt for annual plan.

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Here's why Chili Piper can be more expensive than you bargained for:

A) Tiered Platform Fees: You're charged for every form submit, not just booked meetings. This includes junk leads, pushing you into higher fee tiers.

• Upto 100 form submissions: Costs $150 pm on an annual plan and $225 pm on a monthly plan
• 100 – 1000 form submissions: Costs $400 pm on an annual plan and $600 pm on a monthly plan
• > 1000 form submissions: Costs $1000 pm on an annual plan and $1500 pm on a monthly plan

B) Admin Licenses: Chili Piper requires a separate, paid license for each product your admins manage. So, if you choose to use Instant Booker, Form Concierge, and Distro even if you only have one admin, they would need licenses for all 3 products in order to access and manage them. This can add up in cost if you have multiple admin users and require access to various features.

C) Minimum License Requirement: You must pay for a minimum number of licenses, even if you don't need them. Below is the minimum license requirement for all their products:

• Distro: 5 users (annually) / 4 users (monthly)
• Handoff: 4 users (annually) / 3 users (monthly)
• Instant Booker: 7 users (annually) / 5 users (monthly)

D) Implementation Costs: Expect a lengthy implementation process with significant developer assistance needed for customization, adding time and resource costs.

E) Customization Conundrum: Simple tweaks like brand color changes require developer assistance and custom coding, draining your resources.

F) HubSpot Integration Issues: Many users report integration problems between Chili Piper and HubSpot CRM.‍

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See how Leadmonk compares with Chilipiper.

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Leadmonk

Leadmonk is an inbound lead conversion and scheduling software. It helps B2B revenue teams convert leads into meetings by qualifying, routing, and scheduling in real-time from anywhere — be it your web form, cold calls, campaigns, and more.

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We think Leadmonk is the truly versatile inbound lead conversion and scheduling software available in the market for the following reasons:

• ‍Book Meetings From Your Web Form - Leadmonk seamlessly integrates with HubSpot, and custom web forms such as webflow form. When a form is submitted on your website, Leadmonk instantly qualifies the lead, routes it to the right sales rep, and displays the booking page so your prospect can book a meeting - all in a matter of seconds.

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• Real-time Email Verification - Make use of Leadmonk's inbuilt lead qualification feature to automatically disqualify leads with invalid, disposable, personal, and temporary email address. Reduce bounce rates, improve deliverability, and prevent wasted resources on invalid leads.

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• Lead qualification - Build a real-time lead qualification track that assesses leads based on their self-provided information and enriched data. Reduce junk meetings by 90% and increase qualified meetings by 35%.
• Real-time Lead Routing - Route and assign leads to the right sales reps, at the right time using round-robin, account-based, or territory-based distribution. Quickly and accurately route leads from all GTM channels. Go straight to meetings with qualified leads.
• ‍Route your leads from hidden fields - With Clearbit or ZoomInfo, you can enrich your marketing forms with industry, company size, and other data. This will help you shorten your forms and route your leads to the right sales rep.‍
• Ownership Routing - Create routing rules that automatically match and schedule known leads and existing customers with the right sales rep based on real-time CRM account ownership.

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• Scheduling Simplified - Make it easy for your customers to schedule meetings on demand without the back and forth. Schedule meetings quickly by adding Leadmonk to your website, emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social profiles.

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• Handoff Leads Like a Pro - Automate lead routing and scheduling for lightning-fast handoffs across your entire sales funnel. SDRs can book meetings for AEs from anywhere, with just a few clicks. No more back-and-forth emails or scheduling conflicts.
• Ditch the Spreadsheet, for Good - Stop wasting time with manual lead routing. Leadmonk ensures every rep gets the same number of meetings—even when cancellations and no-shows happen.

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• Round Robin Meeting Distribution - Distribute incoming meetings fairly using round robin, prioritizing availability, or with equal weight or a weighted average. Suitable for sales calls, support calls, and client onboarding.

• ‍SFCRM Opportunity creation - Automatic creation of an Opportunity in SFCRM when a meeting is booked.
• HubSpot Deal creation - Ability to create deals in HubSpot, not just Contacts.
• ‍One form: many forms - Build a routing form in Leadmonk in minutes. Easy to customize and can be embedded on your website or shared as a link. You can build one-at-a-time form, step form or all-at-once form easily. Leadmonk also works with your existing forms such as HubSpot,Pardot, and Custom web forms.

• Schedule any type of meeting: Meet one-on-one or in a group or as a team (multi-host scheduling and round-robin). Meet online or in person. Leadmonk supports all meeting combinations. 🤝
• Give multiple duration options to invitees. At the time of meeting booking, the invitee can choose his/her preferred meeting duration. ⏱️
• Give multiple meeting location options to invitees. At the time of appointment booking, the invitee can choose his/her preferred location.🗺️Multiple calendars support - Not only you can connect 6 calendars to your account but also you can take appointments to any of these calendars. This is helpful to manage your work life efficiently.🗓️
• Invitees can reschedule/cancel appointments before the start of the appointment by default, but this standard behavior can be changed as per your requirements. 🔄
• Admins can reassign meetings on-the-fly between sales reps, with automatic updates to your CRM and individual meeting counters for each rep.

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• Segregate Duties with Clear User Roles : Make use of roles such as Owner, Admin, Team admin, and User for better segregation of duties.

• Easily restrict personal, temporary, and bot email domains from booking the meetings.

• Leadmonk's "no-show" feature allows hosts to mark whether an invitee attended a previously scheduled event,and if marked as a no-show, they will not receive post-appointment workflow notifications. 🚫
• Limit the number of appointments per day or per month - You can specify per day or per month appointments limit at the user account level.
• ‍All-in-One Meeting Hub for Every Team: Single platform that meets the needs of Sales, marketing, customer success, recruiting, and other meeting heavy teams.
• Automatic time zone detection, setting lead time and buffer time for appointment booking, automatic SMS/WhatsApp/Email reminders to reduce no-shows, and many more.

• Integrate Google Analytics with Leadmonk to get valuable insights into how your clients engage with your booking page. 📈
• Add UTM parameters to your booking links to track conversions directly within Leadmonk.
• Meeting insights: Track meeting conversions, distribution, and outcomes to identify friction points and take action to improve efficiency.

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• ‍Standardize Meetings: Leadmonk's admin-managed meeting templates empower administrators to create consistent and efficient meeting experiences across your organization.

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• Connected to your revenue stack: It integrates natively with G-Suite, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Outlook, Office365 Calendar, MS Teams, Zoom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and other popular business apps to support your business in a wide range of prospect and customer scheduling scenarios.

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Pricing - Get the features you need at a price you can love

• Essential Plan - $12/user/month (annual plan) - When you need essential scheduling features.
• Advanced Plan - $30/user/month (annual plan) - For teams requiring routing form, lead qualification and routing automation features.
• Premier Plan - $45/user/month (annual plan) - For teams requiring lead handoff.
• ‍No platform fees
• No minimum license requirements
• No Admin License: Admins do not require a subscription for any of our paid plans in Leadmonk. We only charge for users who have meetings booked on their calendars. Users who access Leadmonk for account setup and reporting purposes are not charged a subscription fee.
• Free trial for 14 days for upto 10 seats - no credit card required.

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Do the Math Yourself

We've created a calculator to help you compare the costs of Chili Piper and Leadmonk based on your team size. See the price difference for yourself!

‍See how Leadmonk compares with Chilipiper.

See how Leadmonk compares with Calendly.

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For example, for a team of 10 Sales reps and having more than 100 form submissions in a month, the annual subscription plan from Leadmonk costs just USD 4,800 (57%) less than Chilipiper. If you add complimentary admin seats cost to it, then the cost difference will be even more.

For example, for a team of 20 Sales reps and having more than 1000 form submissions in a month, the annual subscription plan from Leadmonk costs USD 12,000 (57%) less than Chilipiper. If you add complimentary admin seats cost to it, then the cost difference will be even more.

Here's why Leadmonk stands out from ChiliPiper

• No platform fees: Unlike Chili Piper's tiered platform fees that pile up with every form submission, Leadmonk's pricing is transparent and straightforward. You pay for what you get, period.
• No minimums: Need just a few users? No problem! Leadmonk doesn't force you into minimum subscriptions. Scale up or down as your needs evolve.
• Unlimited form submissions: With Leadmonk's Advanced plan, qualify, route, and schedule leads from your forms without any limitations. Stop paying per submission and focus on conversions.
• No admin license: Unlike Chili Piper, admins do not require a subscription for any of our paid plans in Leadmonk. We only charge for users who have meetings booked on their calendars. Users who access Leadmonk for account setup and reporting purposes are not charged a subscription fee.
• Free Trial with No Credit Card Required: Leadmonk offers a free 14-day trial of the Premier plan for up to 10 seats. You can create a trial account directly from our website without needing to enter any credit card information. This allows you to thoroughly test Leadmonk's features and see if it meets your needs before committing to a paid plan.
• All-in-One Meeting Hub for Every Team: Single platform that meets the needs of Sales, marketing, customer success, recruiting, and other meeting heavy teams.
• Reduced onboarding time: By offering complimentary setup support during trial stage itself, Leadmonk eliminates the burden of figuring out the platform on your own. This allows you to start using Leadmonk quickly and efficiently.
• Seamless transition from existing tools: Migrating rules and workflows from existing scheduling platforms like ChiliPiper or Calendly can be a hassle. Leadmonk's complimentary migration support removes this hurdle, making it easier to switch to our platform without disrupting your current workflows. In contrast, ChiliPiper does not offer a free trial. You would need to purchase a one-month subscription to experience the application and assess its suitability for your team.

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Chilipiper vs Calendly vs Leadmonk

However, before you choose your champion, let's delve into the nitty-gritty of cost and features:

• Solopreneur Alert! Chili Piper requires a minimum of five licenses, making it a no-go for lone wolves just starting their hustle. Calendly and Leadmonk, on the other hand, welcome you with open arms.
• Integration Tango: All three platforms waltz with Salesforce, and Chili Piper is the only option to woo Salesloft. However, all three offer native integrations with the industry's Marketo, & HubSpot forms. Bonus points to Calendly and Leadmonk for having built-in forms, so you don't need a separate provider to get started.
• Calendly is the only one compatible with Apple iCloud calendars.
• Beware the Volume Villain! Chili Piper charges "platform fees" based on the number of form submissions, regardless of lead quality. This price can fluctuate wildly, making budgeting a real headache. Calendly and Leadmonk offer more predictable pricing models.
• No Admin License: Unlike Chili Piper, admins do not require a subscription in Leadmonk. We only charge for users who have meetings booked on their calendars. Users who access Leadmonk for account setup and reporting purposes are not charged a subscription fee.
• Transparent Pricing: Both Calendly and Leadmonk boast transparent pricing, with what you see being what you pay. No hidden fees, no surprises, just clear and consistent pricing. Leadmonk's advanced plan combines features of Chili Piper's Form Concierge, Instant Booker, & HandOff plans.
• Return on Investment: Unless you're already a Salesforce subscriber, Chili Piper's ROI might not be as stellar as its marketing materials suggest. Leadmonk offer strong value propositions for businesses of all sizes, regardless of their CRM usage, with suitable pricing plans.

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So, who wins the crown?

It all depends on your needs. If you're a solopreneur or a small team, Calendly might be your perfect match. If you're a sales-focused team with complex workflows, Chili Piper could be your knight in shining armor. But for those who want the best of both worlds – simplicity, automation, marketing magic and affordability – Leadmonk is the champion you've been waiting for.

Ready to ditch the scheduling struggles and skyrocket your revenue?

‍Book a demo today or take Leadmonk for a spin with a free trial.