When freelancers or projects use meeting scheduling tools, they are looking to streamline the process of scheduling meetings online, which will free up time in their schedule and allow them to be more productive.
Today we highlight two such tools, YouCanBookMe (YCBM) and Calendly.
We’ll go overtheir main features, their subscription pricing and what each one offers, and their differences. We also present a third option if none of them convince you, and that is Cronos.
YouCanBookMe (YCBM)
YouCanBookMe is an appointment scheduling software that provides a customized experience for organizations, supported by an accessible user experience and an easy-to-use interface for meeting participants.
This tool relies heavily on customization, offering clients different ways to adjust the booking page so that it matches the brand identity and image presented to meeting attendees.
You Can Book Me works like Tidycal, Acuity, or any other software of its kind, . Organizers can create events according to their preferences and availability, and can share those events through a customized link by any means they deem appropriate.
Features
To be a popular tool among the public, YouCanBookMe provides useful features for meeting organizers. Some of them are:
Synchronization with your personal calendar.
YouCanBookMe connects with your personal calendar, whether it’s Google, iCloud or Microsoft, and shows your real-time availability to others.
This way, you can avoid schedule conflicts and duplicate appointments. Plus, you can set your own availability rules, such as the days and times you want to work, intervals between appointments, minimum and maximum booking times, and more.
Customized booking pages
YouCanBookMe allows you to customize your booking page with your branding, logo, colors, and form. You can also send automatic emails and text messages to confirm and remind appointments.
This way, you can create a professional and tailored booking experience for your clients, colleagues, or friends. You can have multiple booking pages for different types of appointments, and share them via email, social media or your website.
Integration with other apps
YouCanBookMe integrates with other apps like Zoom, Stripe, Zapier and many more, to give you more features and options.
For example, you can create virtual meetings with Zoom, collect payments with Stripe, send surveys with Typeform, or automate workflows with Zapier. YouCanBookMe adapts to your needs and helps you save time and money.
Pricing
Unlike other programs of its kind, YouCanBookMe offers only two subscriptions, free and paid. The latter can be paid for in three ways: monthly, annual fee, or a fee for two years of service.
Depending on the type of subscription you choose, you can pay $12 per month, an annual fee of $129.6, or $230,4 for two whole years of service.
Free plan
The first plan of this tool includes some interesting features for organizers, but limits the customization possibilities that make it stand out from others. Still, it’s a useful plan for people who want to start planning their meetings better.
With this plan, organizers will be able to integrate services such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams into appointments, and also link a calendar from their Google or Microsoft account.
They’ll also be able to include questions on appointment forms to gather more information from people.
Paid plan
In addition, the plan allows you to automate workflows, add your brand image and logo, schedule group meetings and compare attendee availability, and more.
Calendly
An alternative to YouCanBookMe for scheduling appointments on the Internet is Calendly, a service widely used by global companies for all the functions it offers and its adaptability for demanding work processes.
Organizers using Calendly will be able to create multiple events on the platform based on the meetings they want to hold, and share those meetings with customized links via email, social media, website, and other means.
It’s not necessary for the person receiving the Calendly link to have an account, as they only need to mark the day and time that best suits them in order to schedule a meeting with the organizer(s).
Features
Like YouCanBookMe, Calendly is based on interesting and useful features for its target audience that make them prefer the tool over others. Let’s see.:
Event capacity control
Calendly allows you to control the seating capacity of the events you create, i.e., the maximum number of people who can attend each event.
You can limit the capacity of individual, group or group events, and see how many seats are available on your booking page. This way, you can better manage your resources and avoid overbooking.
Recurring event scheduling
Calendly allows you to schedule recurring events, i.e., events that repeat with a certain frequency. You can choose the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), the interval (every day, every two weeks, etc.), and the start and end dates.
You can also set specific availability rules for each recurring event. This saves time and simplifies your planning.
Data analysis and reporting
Calendly provides you with data analysis and reports on your events and bookings. You can view statistics such as number of events, number of attendees, attendance rate, average event duration, time saved, and more.
You can also filter data by date, event type, organizer, attendee, and more. This way, you can evaluate your performance and make better decisions.
Pricing
Calendly offers 4 subscriptions for all users. The first one is free; the next two have fixed prices in monthly and annual billing, and the last subscription has a price customized to the needs and requirements of each organization.
Free
The first plan of the tool is completely free, and offers basic functions for people who want to improve their online meeting planning.
With this plan, you’ll be able to connect a calendar in your account, create unlimited meetings for 1 type of event, customize the booking link, create meeting surveys, and integrate services such as:
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Meet
- Zoom
- Webex
- GoToMeeting
Standard
It’s Calendly’s first paid plan. In annual billing, it is priced at $10 per month ($120 annually), and in recurring monthly payments, its cost is $12 per user ($144 per year). It’s designed for those who want to go a step further in scheduling meetings.
In addition to the features of the previous plan, this subscription allows group events, with one organizer and several attendees, and group events, with two organizers and attendees.
Along with that, with this plan you will:
- Receive payments via Stripe and PayPal.
- Connect to MailChimp
- Connect to HubSpot CRM
- Integrate Gmail and Outlook for workflows
- Remove Calendly branding on the booking page.
Teams
This plan is priced per user at $16 per month for annual billing ($192 annually) and $20 for recurring monthly payments ($240 per year). It’s a plan prepared for intermediate teams and companies that need advanced features such as:
- Rotating events
- Data synchronization with Marketo
- Single sign-on
- Lead routing to HubSpot, Marketo or Pardot
Enterprises
It’s Calendly’s most advanced plan, dedicated especially to those global companies that need a very complete platform to automate and optimize processes around the world. It doesn’t have a fixed price, as each organization must get in touch to negotiate a customized treatment.
Users of this tool will have accelerated help desk services, advanced user provisioning, full access to the SalesForce suite, and use a dedicated domain to work on it.
YouCanBookMe and Calendly: face to face
Now it’s time to compare the two tools to see how they differ in key aspects for the user. This will help you define which one is better according to your criteria and decide which one to choose for your project or organization.
Features
Although YouCanBookMe has useful functions for scheduling Internet meetings, the tool remains just that, as it offers no processes or features that make it attractive for marketing purposes.
Calendly, on the other hand, doesn’t only offer online meeting scheduling functions. It also relies on native integrations and features that will make it easier for organizations to integrate the tool into digital marketing processes.
Pricing
YouCanBookMe offers only two subscriptions to the tool, free and paid. The free subscription includes basic features, while the paid subscription expands these features to prepare a more personalized experience.
Calendly, on the other hand, divides its features into 4 subscription packages, 1 free and three paid, which have a scalable scheme as clients’ projects become more profitable and generate more revenue.
Design
The design of YouCanBookMe is simple. It doesn’t have an interface overloaded with various elements, but is dedicated to present the most important things in a straightforward and attractive way for people.
Calendly, on the other hand, presents a more professional interface for organizers. Although it’s no big deal for people who are already used to programs of this type, for others it can be a real challenge.
Which is better?
YouCanBookMe is a good option for individuals and teams who want to better plan appointments on the Internet and offer a personalized experience when doing so.
Calendly, on the other hand, has a stronger focus on businesses, as it has features that YCBM doesn’t have that are very useful for automating workflows, scheduling online meetings, tracking metrics, and more.
Meet Cronos, a better alternative for scheduling appointments online
As we mentioned at the beginning, there is a third alternative for scheduling meetings on the Internet that may catch your attention if neither YCBM nor Calendly are enough for you. That is Cronos, and here we will explain what it is all about.
Features
Cronos is an appointment scheduling program where users can create events according to their preferences and availability. Each event will have an appointment form with its own link that you can share as users prefer, either on social networks, email, website, or other.
With the link, attendees will be able to schedule appointments with the organizer on the days and times you have defined. With each new meeting, the organizer will receive an automatic email notification and the creation of the event in Google Calendar.
From Google Calendar, users can include other important details to the meeting, and can also add a Google Meet video call.
Pricing
Cronos is completely free for everyone, you will not have to pay anything to use all the features of the software.
Conclusion
YCBM and Calendly are two interesting alternatives for scheduling online meetings. People with basic to intermediate meeting needs may see YCBM as a better option. On the other hand, for more demanding dynamics, Calendly is a better platform.
In any case, Cronos is an option that you should not discard, since it offers a user-friendly environment, features focused on streamlining online appointment scheduling, and an integration with Google Calendar that allows you to see your entire agenda in one place
