Acuity Scheduling Alternatives in 2026 (Now Squarespace Scheduling)

Acuity Scheduling (now Squarespace Scheduling in some regions after the Squarespace acquisition) is a solid booking tool. It is not the reason most people leave it. The usual reasons are pricing changes, Squarespace lock-in concerns, or a feel that the product has stopped evolving. If that is you, here are the alternatives actually worth a look in 2026, and a note at the end about the gap none of them close.

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What Acuity Is Good At

Quick fairness check first. Acuity is genuinely good at:

• Clean booking pages with customization options.
• Intake forms with conditional logic.
• HIPAA-compliant add-on for healthcare.
• Squarespace integration for anyone on that platform.
• Appointment types, packages, and memberships.

If you are only leaving because of price or the Squarespace nudge, and the features above matter to you, there is nothing wrong with staying.

That said, here are the real alternatives.

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1. Calendly

Calendly is the lean choice. Ideal for 1:1 meetings, consults, sales calls, and team round-robins. Beautiful booking pages, fast setup, strong team features on the paid plans. Less ideal if you need deep intake forms or salon-style packages.

Pick Calendly if: you run meetings and consults more than salon-style appointments.

2. Fresha

Fresha charges nothing monthly and instead takes a cut on card transactions. That makes it very attractive for beauty and personal-care businesses starting out. Good marketplace exposure, decent scheduling, reasonable marketing tools.

Pick Fresha if: you want zero fixed cost and you are comfortable with the transaction-fee model.

3. GlossGenius

GlossGenius is the boutique pick. Clean design, flat monthly fee, small-team-friendly. Opinionated in the best way.

Pick GlossGenius if: you are a solo pro or tiny team that wants something simple and pretty.

4. Vagaro

Vagaro is the heavyweight. Multi-staff, POS, inventory, payroll, loyalty, marketplace. It is a lot to learn, but it does a lot.

Pick Vagaro if: you run a bigger operation and want everything in one place.

5. Booksy

Booksy is strong for personal care, especially barbershops. It has a real consumer marketplace that sends new clients your way.

Pick Booksy if: you want marketplace-driven discovery plus a solid scheduler.

6. Square Appointments

Square Appointments is free for solo pros and tightly integrated with Square's payment ecosystem. If you are already on Square for payments, this is worth a hard look.

Pick Square Appointments if: you want minimal cost and tight payment integration.

7. SimplyBook.me

SimplyBook is flexible for unusual booking flows and multi-currency international businesses. Less polished than Acuity but very customizable.

Pick SimplyBook.me if: your booking flow is weird and you need to bend the tool.

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Pick Based on How You Work

A short decision guide:

• Meetings and consults: Calendly.
• No fixed cost: Fresha.
• Solo and boutique: GlossGenius.
• Big operations: Vagaro.
• Marketplace discovery: Booksy.
• Already on Square: Square Appointments.
• Weird custom flows: SimplyBook.me.
• Squarespace website and happy with Acuity: stay on Acuity.

All of those are legitimate booking tools. None of them are wrong.

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The Gap All of These Leave Open

Here is the thing every Acuity alternatives list misses: the problem you are actually running into might not be the scheduler at all. A lot of bookings start as messages long before anyone clicks a booking link.

They start in DMs. WhatsApp at 11pm, Instagram mid-afternoon, Messenger over the weekend. "Do you have anything Saturday?" "How much for a deep tissue?" "Do you take walk-ins?" Acuity never sees those messages. Calendly, Fresha, GlossGenius, Vagaro, Booksy, Square Appointments and SimplyBook.me do not see those messages either. None of them are built to receive and act on inbound messaging.

That is the layer you have to build yourself, and that is where Wabery fits. It is not another scheduler.

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Build Your Messaging Layer on Top of Whichever Scheduler You Pick

Wabery is a messaging API and platform you build on top of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. It does not replace your booking tool. It gives you the primitives so you can wire your messaging channels into whatever scheduler you picked from the list above, in an afternoon instead of a quarter.

What you can build with Wabery, yourself, without standing up your own WhatsApp Cloud API integration from scratch:

• A unified channels API so one inbound message from WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger hits the same endpoint in your code. You write the reply logic once.
• Signed event webhooks that fire on every inbound message, so your stack reacts in real time. When a lead asks for Saturday, your code decides what happens next.
• Native WhatsApp Flows (in-chat forms) to collect service, timing, budget, and contact details right inside the chat, no link required. The structured answers arrive at your webhook as clean JSON.
• Automations for the parts you do not want to hand-code, like an instant first reply or routing rules.
• A CLI and an MCP server so you can scaffold, test, and ship from your terminal or drive the whole thing from an AI assistant.

Concretely, lead capture you would otherwise build for weeks looks like this:

// Webhook fires when a Flow is submitted
app.post("/wabery/webhook", verifySignature, async (req) => {
  const { contact, flow } = req.body;
  // flow.data is the structured intake you defined: service, date, phone
  await scheduler.createLeadAndBooking({
    name: contact.name,
    phone: contact.phone,
    service: flow.data.service,
    preferredDate: flow.data.date,
  });
});

A WhatsApp Flow collects the data, the webhook delivers it to your stack, and your code hands it to Acuity (or Calendly, or Fresha) through that tool's own API. You built the lead-capture step yourself, and it took an afternoon.

If you switch from Acuity to Calendly, or Fresha, or GlossGenius later, your Wabery layer keeps working. It is tied to your messaging channels, not to any one scheduler.

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The Bottom Line

The best Acuity alternative depends entirely on how you work. Calendly, Fresha, GlossGenius, Vagaro, Booksy, Square Appointments, and SimplyBook.me are all real options. Pick the one that matches your business.

Then, if you get serious inbound on WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger, build the capture layer on Wabery so the messages stop falling through the cracks between "hey are you open Saturday?" and your booking page.

Keep your scheduler. Build the messaging layer that feeds it.

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Related reading: Acuity vs Wabery, booking software comparison, how to choose booking software.