- Naveen S G
Top 10 Best Meeting Scheduling Apps and Appointment Booking Apps of 2023
Updated: 6 days ago
Business depends on meetings. They are how we make decisions, connect with others, and get work done. They provide opportunities for face-to-face communication, enabling decision-making, networking, exchanging information, developing relationships, ensuring everyone is on the same page, and getting work done.
Importance of scheduling meetings in today's fast-paced business world
No two meetings are alike. Depending on the purpose of the meeting, the participants, and the location, each meeting has the potential to be unique. Meetings are a crucial part of business operations but scheduling meetings can be time-consuming and complex due to several factors such as conflicting schedules, time zone differences, different availability, finding a suitable location, and coordinating with external attendees. Additionally, with the increasing number of remote employees, scheduling virtual meetings adds an extra layer of complexity as technology and internet reliability also become factors to consider.
Attending multiple meetings can be a draining experience, especially when it comes to the administrative tasks involved. The endless email back and forth to find a suitable meeting time can take up precious time and be quite tedious. Even when it's necessary to meet with a colleague or potential client, it's all too easy to waste valuable time trying to coordinate schedules. "Can we meet on Monday at 11 AM?" "No? How about Tuesday at 3 PM?". These conversations can be time-consuming and frustrating.
But what if we told you that you don't have to waste time scheduling and tracking your meetings anymore? To reduce the time spent on meeting preparation and automate the scheduling process, meeting scheduler apps are the solution. The most effective scheduling tools simplify the process by syncing with your calendar, tracking your availability, and allowing guests to book time with you at their convenience. There are now several scheduling apps available that can help you meet with others with ease. Meeting scheduling apps like Leadmonk make the process much smoother. With just a few clicks, your guests can book a meeting at a time that works for everyone, and that's it! The scheduling process is fully automated and synced with your calendar, and you'll never have to worry about conflicting schedules again.
What to look for in a Meeting Scheduling App for your business?
Consider the following factors while deciding the best meeting scheduler application for your business:
1. Ease of Use: The app should be user-friendly and easy to navigate. It should allow your invitees to easily schedule, reschedule, and cancel meetings.
2. Integration Capabilities: The app should be compatible with your existing calendar system such as Google/GSuite/Outlook/Office 365 Calendars. The app should be able to integrate with other tools you use, such as your email, Zoom, video conference tools such as Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet, Integration applications such as Zapier, and popular CRM applications such as HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce. This will help you to streamline your scheduling process.
3. Automation Capabilities: The app should automate routine tasks, such as sending appointment reminders, and follow-up emails, and updating CRM applications with contacts and meetings. This will save you time and resources. Automating your workflows can help you work smarter, not harder. By automating notifications, reminders, follow-ups, and thank you messages, businesses can improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. It should be possible to customize workflow steps and email and SMS templates as per your business requirements.
4. Customization: The app should be customizable to fit the needs of your business. You should be able to customize meeting types, meeting durations, and meeting settings.
5. Customer Support: The app should have excellent customer support, which will help you with any questions or issues you may have.
6. Pricing: The app should be reasonably priced and offer a range of pricing options to fit the needs of different business sizes.
7. User Reviews: Consider reading user reviews to get an understanding of the experience of other businesses using the app.
By considering these factors, you can make an informed decision on the best meeting scheduler app for your business. Say goodbye to the tedious and time-consuming process of scheduling and tracking meetings, and hello to a more efficient and stress-free way of meeting.
Top 10 Best Meeting Scheduling Apps
With the ever-growing number of tools available, finding the right meeting scheduler app for your business can be a challenge. In this blog, we will be exploring the top 10 best meeting scheduling apps of 2023, giving you all the information, you need to make an informed decision. From ease of use to integrations, we’ll cover all the key features of each app to help you find the perfect solution for your business.
1. Leadmonk
Leadmonk is a mobile-first scheduling platform that offers flexible booking options, automated reminders, and promotional landing pages.
A mobile number has come to be widely accepted as a mode of customer identification in the digital world. Leadmonk gives the flexibility to schedule an appointment without needing a customer's email address, as specifying a customer’s mobile number can do the trick in a few seconds.
As you know not everyone is comfortable using an email address. Think about people in the informal sectors, retired professionals who are not net savvy. For them, it will be friction if they are asked to book appointments using only an email address.
The flexibility to book an appointment using a mobile number or email address without the back and forth reduces the booking friction for the customers and makes the process much simpler for everyone involved.
You can let invitees opt-in for WhatsApp or SMS notifications if they book with their mobile number, so they get updates on the go.
It is built for customer-facing teams such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Freelancers/Consultants. It is also suitable for industry sectors such as Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, Entrepreneurs, Educators, Coaches, Recruiters, and Professional Services companies such as Legal, Accounting, and Real Estate.
It is perfect for any person or business no matter if you are starting off or have been around for a while.
We think Leadmonk is the truly versatile appointment scheduling software available in the market for the following reasons:
All the other tools available in the market support appointment scheduling only using the email address. 📧 Whereas Leadmonk is the first online appointment booking software that lets your customers book time with you using their mobile number or email address without the back-and-forth emails or messages. 📱
Leadmonk is good in traditional email bookings as well. 📧
It gives an option to your customers to choose between WhatsApp and SMS to receive appointment notifications. 📱💬
Meet one-on-one or in a group or as a team (Collective and Round Robin). Meet online or in person. Leadmonk supports all meeting combinations. 🤝
Easy Repeat Business with Packages - Sell multi-appointment bundles, combine different types of appointments, and even include group classes in your packages.🎁
Give multiple duration options to invitees. At the time of appointment 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.🗺️
Provision to make each appointment type behave as a standalone calendar for free-busy availability checks instead of checking the connected calendar. This avoids the need to have multiple Leadmonk user accounts or multiple calendars. This feature comes in handy to manage shared resources centrally (e.g.: meeting rooms, gaming devices etc).📅
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 behavior can be changed based on your requirements. 🔄
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 workflows. 🚫
Leadmonk offers two types of notifications by default: calendar invitation and email confirmation, both of which provide detailed information about the booking, including date, time, location, and any additional notes or instructions. Additionally, the email confirmation includes an ICS file that can be added to the invitee's calendar. 📩
If you know your invitee's availability and would like to schedule on their behalf, you can make use of the Schedule Invitee Again feature to go through the booking flow and their information will be pre-populated in the form to expedite the booking process.
It integrates natively with G-Suite, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Outlook, Office365 Calendar, MS Teams, Zoom, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and other popular business apps to support your business in a wide range of prospect and customer scheduling scenarios. 🔌
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
Collect payments using Stripe and PayPal.
Collect required details using custom intake forms at the time of appointment booking.📝
You can have a personalized booking page for the team.
The org owner and admin have access to all team members’ bookings. 👀
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.
You can pre-populate the booking page form with invitee information using URL parameters. 🌐
Promote your branding at every touch point using a custom domain, branded email notifications, and branded SMS notifications.
Who is it for?
Leadmonk simplifies scheduling meetings with your prospects, customers, candidates, and other external stakeholders. It is built for customer-facing teams such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Freelancers/Consultants. It is also suitable for industry sectors such as Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, Entrepreneurs, Educators, Coaches, Recruiters, and Professional Services companies such as Legal, Accounting, and Real Estate. It is perfect for any person or business no matter if you are starting off or have been around for a while.
Pricing
Basic Plan - Enjoy our free forever plan, designed for those seeking the essentials. This plan offers a generous range of features, including unlimited event types and appointments with seamless integration options for HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Zapier. Additionally, you can take advantage of our multi-host event type and round-robin event type functionalities, supporting up to three team members within this plan.
Teams Plan - $12/user/month (annual plan) - For teams requiring advanced features with personalized branding at every touchpoint
Enterprise Plan - For larger teams that need advanced security, control, and support
2. Google Calendar Appointment Schedule
Google Calendar is a free online calendar service provided by Google. It allows users to create and manage appointments and events, and it has an appointment scheduling feature that can be used to schedule appointments with individuals or groups.
Google Calendar Appointment Schedule is focused on booking external meetings. It lets individuals create professional-looking booking pages. Each page is specific to every individual user and their personal calendar. It updates as meetings are scheduled, then sends out automatic notifications through emails. In this way, Google Calendar further helps workers master their busy schedules, even if meetings are requested and booked outside internal domains/servers.
Google Calendar Appointment Schedule includes a wide variety of features, including:
You can limit how people who book early or last minute can book an appointment with you.
You can limit the max number of appointments per day.
You can customize the window for appointments.
You can automatically add custom buffer time in between appointments.
You can collect extra information from people who book appointments through the appointment booking form.
To use Google Calendar Appointment Schedule:
Open your Google Calendar account
Click on the “Create” button on the left-hand side of your home page
The button will create a drop-down list with many options, including Appointment Schedule
Click "Appointment Schedule” to make a new booking page
Enter appointment details such as title, duration, meeting location, and more.
Share your booking page with your invitees.
Google Calendar's ‘Appointment Schedule’ Is Good, Not Great. Features missing in Google Calendar Appointment Schedule:
No SMS or WhatsApp notifications or reminder feature
You can not connect more than one calendar. If you are managing multiple businesses or multiple calendars, then this becomes an issue.
No feature to book appointments using just the mobile number of the Invitee.
No support for Outlook or Office365 calendar.
No support for Zoom or MS Teams integration.
Basic Custom Intake form.
Website Embed option not available.
No collective event support (feature to schedule meetings by taking multiple team members’ availability).
No Round Robin event support (feature to pool the availability of all team members and automatically distribute new meetings to team members).
No Stripe integration support to collect payments as part of appointment booking.
No Webhooks or Zapier integration support.
No workflow feature to send emails or SMS as part of the appointment life cycle.
No integration with popular CRM such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM.
Pricing
Appointment schedules are a premium feature available to Google Workspace Individual, EDU, Business, and Enterprise plan subscribers (not available for Business Starter subscribers).
3. Calendly
Calendly needs no introduction. It’s been around for several years, and many businesses use its software. It supports one on one, group, round-robin, and collective meeting scheduling algorithms. With Calendly, users can set the availability, receive notifications when appointments are made, and even accept payments for services. Calendly streamlines the process of scheduling meetings, making it easy for both you and your guests. The platform's intuitive interface features an attractive calendar view that displays your available days and times. Guests can quickly schedule a meeting by selecting a date and time from your available options.
You can also conduct a poll to determine the best time for a meeting and quickly convert the most popular slot into a confirmed appointment. In addition to personal meetings, Calendly enables you to manage team meetings as well. You can create different meeting types, assign specific team members to handle group meetings, and rotate incoming meetings among your team members.
While Calendly works well for scheduling meetings with individuals or team members within an organization, its custom events and outgoing links make it ideal for connecting with external clients, customers, and colleagues. Calendly has extensive integration options, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Zapier, but you do need to subscribe to a paid plan to get the full benefits here.
Features missing in Calendly:
No support for mobile number-based appointment scheduling.
No provision to send text notifications on WhatsApp. SMS notifications work only from the professional plan onwards.
Appointments are booked only to the main calendar even though you can connect 6 calendars.
No provision to define multiple durations for an event type.
No provision to centrally manage shared resources booking.
No provision for recurring appointments
No provision to sell packages or multiple sessions at once (e.g.: 5 sessions of Brand Building consulting for $500)
No provisions for subscriptions or membership management
Not possible to have the booking pages on your domain (CNAME)
Not possible to send email and SMS notifications using your own email domain and phone number (SMTP and Twilio number integration). Having booking pages on your domain or sending branded notifications helps to promote your branding at every customer touch point.
Only support for minimal booking page theme
Pricing
Basic: Free, one calendar per user.
Essentials: $8 per user per month, 2 calendars per user.
Professional: $12 per user per month, 6 calendars per user.
Team: $16 per user per month.
Enterprise Plan: For larger teams.
4. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is an all-in-one appointment scheduling app that makes scheduling appointments and meetings effortless. With Acuity, you can set the availability, receive appointment notifications, and even process payments. The app offers unmatched flexibility and customization, allowing users to tailor their scheduling process to meet their unique needs, leading to a more efficient and streamlined experience.
Acuity Scheduling is an appointment scheduling app that is now part of Squarespace. With Acuity, you can allow clients to choose recurring appointments, complete intake forms, and pay in advance for services. You can also offer coupons and add-on services. During setup, you can choose between monthly and daily view for clients, create intake forms, set a time zone, and decide on various booking options. Acuity integrates with many powerful apps, such as QuickBooks, ClassPass, Salesforce, and Zoom. You can also integrate Acuity with Zapier to connect to thousands of other apps and automate scheduling-related tasks.
Acuity Scheduling is suitable for service-based businesses such as training and tutoring centers, coaching and consulting, photography and video production companies, fitness studios, salons and spa centers, and health and dental clinics.
Features missing in Acuity Scheduling:
No support for mobile number-based appointment scheduling.
No provision to send text notifications on WhatsApp.
Only one calendar you can connect to your account.
No provision to define multiple durations for an event type.
Not possible to have the booking pages on your domain (CNAME)
Not possible to send email and SMS notifications using your own email domain or phone number (SMTP and Twilio number integration). Having booking pages on your domain or sending branded notifications helps to promote your branding at every customer touch point.
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling’s plans start at $20 a month. Number of staff/locations: 1
The Growing plan costs $34 a month. Number of staff/locations: 6.
Finally, the Powerhouse plan costs $61 a month. Number of staff/locations: 36.
You can try these plans for free for a maximum of one week.
5. ScheduleOnce
ScheduleOnce is a flexible meeting scheduler app that allows users to schedule appointments and meetings with ease. With ScheduleOnce, users can create appointment forms, set availability, and receive notifications when appointments are made. The app also integrates with other tools such as Google Calendar and Zapier, making it easy to work with other team members.
One of the key benefits of using ScheduleOnce is its flexibility and customization options. ScheduleOnce allows users to tailor their scheduling process to fit their specific needs, which results in a more efficient and streamlined scheduling process.
ScheduleOnce offers reporting capabilities that allow you to gain valuable insights into your meetings. The platform allows you to create reports on various aspects of your meetings, including performance, meeting type, team member, customer, and revenue. This allows you to track your progress and make data-driven decisions to optimize your meeting outcomes.
Features missing in Schedule Once:
No support for mobile number-based appointment scheduling.
No provision to send text notifications on WhatsApp.
Only one calendar you can connect to your account.
No provision to define multiple durations for an event type.
Minimal booking page theme
No provision for recurring appointments
No provision to sell packages or multiple sessions at once (e.g.: 5 sessions of Brand Building consulting for $500)
No provisions for subscriptions or membership management
Not possible to have the booking pages on your domain (CNAME)
Not possible to send email and SMS notifications using your own email domain or phone number (SMTP and Twilio number integration). Having booking pages on your domain or sending branded notifications helps to promote your branding at every customer touch point.
Pricing
Growth: Advanced features for unlimited users - $10/user/month
Enterprise: Advanced security, compliance, and support. Custom plans for large teams.
6. HubSpot Meeting scheduler
HubSpot Meeting Scheduler is a feature of the HubSpot platform that enables businesses to schedule and manage meetings directly from the HubSpot CRM. It provides a convenient and efficient way for sales and customer service teams to connect with their prospects and customers, saving time and increasing productivity.
With HubSpot Meeting Scheduler, you can send a personalized meeting link to prospects and customers, who can then select a time that works best for them based on your availability. The tool integrates with your calendar, so you can easily keep track of your schedule and avoid double bookings. Additionally, you can customize the meeting request with a personalized message, further personalizing the customer experience.
One of the biggest advantages of HubSpot Meeting Scheduler is that it is available as a part of the HubSpot CRM platform, which means that all your customer interactions and meeting details are stored in one place, providing a single source of truth for your team.
Pricing
HubSpot Meeting Scheduler is available as part of the HubSpot CRM, which is free to use. The CRM includes a variety of other features such as lead capture forms, email tracking, and contact management, making it an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to streamline their customer interactions. For businesses looking for more advanced features and integrations, HubSpot offers a range of paid plans starting from $50 per month.
7. Chili Piper
Chili Piper is a cloud-based appointment scheduling platform that automates the booking process for sales and marketing teams. It allows prospects to schedule appointments with the appropriate person, at the desired time, without the need for manual intervention.
Chili Piper is designed exclusively for sales teams who use Salesforce and HubSpot CRMs. It differs from other tools discussed thus far because it caters to a very niche audience. Chili Piper offers various features that are indispensable and unique to sales teams. For instance, as soon as a lead contacts a sales representative, Chili Piper adds the lead to the CRM. It also captures and correlates the lead's existing data to facilitate a personalized and efficient appointment booking experience.
One of its standout features is the “Form Concierge”, which enables prospects to book appointments directly from your website. The software integrates with your calendar, so all your appointments are visible in one place, reducing the risk of double bookings. The appointment booking process is efficient and convenient for both you and your prospects.
Other notable features of Chili Piper include Distro, Handoff, and Instant Booker. The platform also offers lead routing capabilities, directing leads to the appropriate person based on established rules, enhancing lead handling efficiency, and improving the customer experience.
In addition to appointment booking and lead routing, Chili Piper provides a suite of tools to manage appointments and leads, such as appointment reminders, real-time analytics, and custom branding options. These features ensure smooth appointment management and lead tracking. Chili Piper has seamless integration with Salesforce and HubSpot CRMs.
Pricing
Instant Booker: $15/user/month
HandOff: $25/user/month
Form Concierge: $30/user/month
Distro: $20/user/month
8. Appointlet
Appointlet is a cloud-based appointment scheduling solution that helps businesses to connect with their prospects through emails, landing pages, and a sales funnel. Key features include individual or organization scheduling pages, automated reminders, multiple time zone support, and calendar integration.
One of the key features of Appointlet is its online scheduling page, which can be embedded on your website or shared as a link. This allows clients to easily schedule appointments with you, without having to send emails or make phone calls. Appointlet integrates with your calendar, so you can see all your appointments in one place and avoid double bookings.
Another key feature of Appointlet is its flexible scheduling options, which allow you to set availability rules, define custom time zones, and choose the length of appointments. This means that you can schedule appointments with clients from around the world, at a time that works for both of you.
It does not support mobile number-based appointment scheduling. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications. They don’t have a mobile app.
Pricing
Basic - Free-forever plan when you just want the basics
Premium plan - $8/user/month - When you need advanced scheduling features
9. SavvyCal
SavvyCal provides a user-friendly scheduling platform with a calendar-like interface. Your guests can easily view your availability and schedule a meeting that works for both of you by overlaying their calendar with yours.
This scheduling software simplifies the process of setting up meetings with its straightforward design. You can easily sync SavvyCal with your existing Google and Outlook calendars, and integrate it with various other apps, such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Zapier, to automate your scheduling.
SavvyCal offers both single-use and multi-use meeting options. Single-use meetings are ideal for one-time events and are archived after the meeting is scheduled. Multi-use meetings, such as one-on-one meetings, team meetings, or panel meetings, can be scheduled repeatedly. Additionally, you have the option to create multiple meetings under a single scheduling page and share it with guests. You can create meeting polls to share with guests, and convert the most polled time slot into a meeting