Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) vs. Calendly

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iCal
Score 8.0 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 9.0 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.
$12
per month 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
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMonthly billing also available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Considered Both Products
iCal
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
I prefer iCal for it’s overall design. Many of my colleagues use Google Calendar because it is more common across other organizations. I’ve also used Calendly in the past, which can tie into other calendar systems to help schedule appointments. The overall experience with iCal …
Chose Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)
For our Mac and IOS users, the use of the native iOS calendar and the cloud associated with it was an obvious choice for us, especially with the distribution of Apple products to our teams out in the field. For android users, it is easy to access the same services using the …
Calendly
Chose Calendly
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 …
Best Alternatives
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
vcita
vcita
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
LeanData
LeanData
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Google Calendar
Google Calendar
Score 9.4 out of 10
Zoom Workplace
Zoom Workplace
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Likelihood to Recommend
5.3
(13 ratings)
9.4
(90 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
5.8
(2 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(32 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)Calendly
Likelihood to Recommend
Apple
Especially if they use apple devices, I would recommend this over other cloud based calendars for its tight integration with apple devices. You can generally add events by simply highlighting the relevant information and adding to the calendar. Or Apple mail will often automatically detect an event and give to the option to add it to your iCal with a single click of a button.
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Calendly
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.
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Pros
Apple
  • 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
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Calendly
  • Sync with multiple calendar types so my schedule is always current.
  • Integration with Zoom to schedule meetings, send invites, and populate my Zoom app accordingly.
  • Automatic email communication to all parties with all relevant details in a clear format.
  • Allowing team members to do the same in a way that I'm also notified of what meetings are taking place saves a lot of time in terms of coordinating to find out what other people are doing.
  • Well-designed interface that simplifies everything down to its clearest expression. Language instruction and interaction are wonderfully simple and clear.
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Cons
Apple
  • 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.
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Calendly
  • After a meeting is booked, having the ability to change the location without canceling the entire booking.
  • Being able to offer 2 different locked in locations for certain time periods of the day within the same event. So you're not having to create 2 events for the same thing, only different locations.
  • Giving users permission to create their own routing forms. We run an independent business model where our users like to have control over their subscriptions.
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Likelihood to Renew
Apple
No answers on this topic
Calendly
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
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Usability
Apple
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).
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Calendly
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
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Support Rating
Apple
No answers on this topic
Calendly
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Apple
For our Mac and IOS users, the use of the native iOS calendar and the cloud associated with it was an obvious choice for us, especially with the distribution of Apple products to our teams out in the field. For android users, it is easy to access the same services using the web-based client, and iCal allows various account types to be added to calendar invites. The iCal application allows the addition of 3rd party email and calendar accounts allow to be seamlessly integrated. All of the calendar accounts can be overlayed along with the native iCloud accounts. Google Calendar by comparison struggled to do all of these things as well, preferring their google Meet as the conference software and preferring Gmail accounts over all other types.
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Calendly
When I started using it, there were not many competitors in this space. I've seen some like Mixmax that seem to work well for solopreneurs or where free version might be better than Calendly's free version. I use the paid version of Calendly and it's just kept serving us well so why change?
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Return on Investment
Apple
  • 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
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Calendly
  • Positive: When people want to meet, I can simply send my Calendly link and it takes less than 5 seconds to do.
  • Positive: It integrates well with Zoom, which means that by default all my appointments include Zoom information for a remote call.
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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