Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) vs. Calendly

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iCal
Score 3.9 out of 10
N/A
The Apple iCloud Calendar (formerly iCal), is the calendar tool associated to Apple's productivity product suite.N/A
Calendly
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
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
Pricing
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$10
per month (billed annually) per seat
Teams
$16
per month (billed annually) per seat
Enterprise
Starts at $15k
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
iCalCalendly
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMonthly billing also available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Best Alternatives
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
vCita
vCita
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
LeanData
LeanData
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Google Calendar
Google Calendar
Score 9.5 out of 10
Zoom Workplace
Zoom Workplace
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
2.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Likelihood to Recommend
In my experience, Ical is very useful in organizing various calendar sources into one place, as well as real-time synchronization in the cloud. It is easy to integrate links, and media sources, as well as add attendees and make edits. A good example of a scenario is inviting everyone in various time zones to a meeting, and many attendees have their iCloud accounts, but some don’t. Everyone is able to be added to the meeting, showing in their correct time zone and seeing the necessary event details, as well as any virtual meeting, and invite details.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Pros
  • Perfectly syncs between all devices
  • It allows me to set multiple reminders before a meeting
  • When I add an address it automatically links to Apple Maps so I can see where i am going and also how long it will take me. I can easiy click on the link and it will start navigation for me, pretty cool
Read full review
  • 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.
Read full review
Cons
  • I would love it to have more visualizations and not just the classic one in a common calendar and that it could be customized
  • You have the possibility to have a face-to-face call by sharing a link that, in my opinion, could be improved by creating groups of only contacts and limiting access to the meeting.
Read full review
  • 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.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
Usability
As I've said, Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) does not work well when integrated with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook calendars. It's not very usable. Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) does not stay in sync well at all with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook. You will waste a lot of time manually resyncing your calendars and you will never be able to fully trust Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal).
Read full review
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
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Google Calendar and Apple iCal offer basically the same thing. If you have Google devices, Google Calendar is going to work better for you. If you have Apple devices, Apple iCal will work better. Both have issues with cross platform support, however, Google Calendar on an Apple device at least works whereas Apple iCal on a Google device is difficult to setup and difficult to manage.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • As mentioned previously iCal provides more info to me than just an appointment
  • i can add attachments like notes or links to other services inside the appointment and these will synchronise across my devices.
  • The search functionality in iCal allows me to save items in the notes and then find them at a later stage. An example - I save key information about meetings or activities and then when I am looking for it at a later stage i can jjst search iCal and find it without having to look for documents or through my notes.
  • There is no default video call setting (like Google has Meet as a default and Microsoft has Teams) this is a problem in that I can't schedule video calls so the work around is that I sync to a Gmail calender and then schedule the video call (Meet) in Google
Read full review
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Calendly Screenshots

Screenshot of how to share a scheduling linkScreenshot of automated workflowsScreenshot of browser extensionsScreenshot of routing formsScreenshot of round robin & collective eventsScreenshot of admin management