Calendly vs. Zoom Scheduler: Which is best for your team?

These days automated scheduling is essential — especially for professionals who book a lot of external meetings. Zoom noticed, and recently launched an appointment scheduling feature called Zoom Scheduler. 

We know that sometimes it’s tough to figure out which vendor is the best fit. If you’re shopping for scheduling apps to save time and hit your goals faster, you may be wondering: Can I use Zoom Scheduler instead of Calendly? 

Both Calendly and Zoom Scheduler let users create and share booking links where invitees can see openings in your calendar and instantly book meetings with you. Both let you automate email reminders to reduce no-shows, and build in meeting buffer time so you aren’t stuck in endless back-to-back meetings. 

But that’s about where the similarities end. Essentially, Zoom’s meeting link offering operates much like Calendly did 10 years ago. Today, Calendly’s functionality goes way beyond just a scheduling link, with features designed to help teams and entrepreneurs save time, get more done, and earn more revenue. With Calendly, customers can expect to see huge economic impact — namely, an ROI of 318%, according to the latest Forrester Total Economic Impact study. 

Here’s a breakdown of key similarities and differences so you can choose the best tool for your team. 

The main differences between Calendly and Zoom Scheduler 

Zoom Scheduler only works with in-person meetings or Zoom virtual meetings. That means Scheduler isn’t an option if you have prospects, customers, vendors, or partners who use other video conferencing tools, like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or GoToMeeting. Calendly integrates with six video conferencing platforms — including Zoom, of course. 

Zoom Scheduler is in its infancy. It can only connect with one calendar, and doesn’t offer any integrations with other apps. Calendly is the OG scheduling automation platform — it already integrates with more than 100 apps, and offers so many more features designed to help teams drive pipeline, close deals, improve recruiting, and retain customers.

Zoom Scheduler isn’t compatible with iCal, so if you’re a Mac shop or use your iPhone calendar, that’s a dealbreaker. 

Compare Calendly vs. Zoom Scheduler: A quick overview

Zoom Scheduler’s biggest advantage is that Zoom already has 300 million daily active users. For a small monthly fee, you can add Zoom Scheduler to your existing Zoom account — even if you only have a free Zoom account now. 

This makes Zoom Scheduler the easiest and cheapest tool for people who:

• exclusively use Zoom

• exclusively use one calendar

• only need a simple way to schedule appointments to a calendar

• don’t need integrations with other apps
  

With Calendly, you do have to take the time to connect your calendars. But Calendly’s calendar integrations let you mix and match if, say, you use an Outlook account at work, and an iPhone calendar for your family. Your scheduling link isn’t helpful if people can avoid your work conflicts, but double book you during your child’s birthday party. 

For a complete view of your availability, Calendly connects with these calendars: Google Calendar, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Outlook Desktop, and Office 365.

Calendly also works where you work, with apps for iOS, Android, and web extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Browser extensions, Calendly’s Gmail integration, and the Calendly Outlook add-in make it easy to add available times to emails, so recipients can instantly book a meeting right from their inbox.

Calendly’s Workflows increase show rates and decrease busywork by automating routine communications before and after meetings, like reminders and follow-ups, via email and SMS text. 

This means Calendly’s free plan is already more feature-rich than Zoom’s paid meeting scheduling product.

"Ease of use" is difficult to compare — if you’re already set up with Zoom, both its scheduling tool and Calendly’s are similarly straightforward. If you aren’t all-in on Zoom, though, it’s unlikely you’d choose it for its scheduling functionality over Calendly. Customers frequently praise Calendly for its easy onboarding. 

Appointment scheduling features beyond the booking link

For most teams, time-to-meeting is unnecessarily long. The biggest culprit? Most teams haven’t mastered the meeting lifecycle — the necessary steps before and after meetings — usually because they’re hyper-focused on the meeting itself.

Most new scheduling software that’s popped up in the last year or two really only focuses on providing a scheduling link. But even with a link, there’s still friction around the traditional approach to meetings. Calendly’s No. 1 focus is improving the meeting experience from start to finish, for prospects, customers, candidates, and teams. 

Calendly is built for cross-functional teamwork. Team scheduling with Calendly makes it easy to bring together …

• Sales, marketing, and customer success collaborating on a deal

• Recruiting, HR, and hiring panels interviewing candidates to fill roles

• Customer support, IT, and engineering teams resolving customer issues

• Higher education admissions and enrollment teams scheduling student meetings

Calendly offers 100+ integrations: Zoom = zero

Calendly’s compatibility with other apps is one of its main differentiators from in-app calendar features within huge software like Zoom. Calendly supports you from first contact through renewal, in harmony with your existing tech stack.

For companies and teams, Calendly’s neutrality is a huge boon. Calendly serves multiple departments by offering integrations with the software you’re in all day, including your CRM, ATS, and communication tools. Examples include:

• Sales tools and CRMs (like Salesforce and Gong)

• Marketing automation software (like HubSpot, Mailchimp, and ActiveCampaign)

• Job applicant tracking systems (ATS) (like Greenhouse and Lever)

• Communication tools (like Slack and Microsoft Teams)

• Workflow automation (like Zapier and Outfunnel) 

Why is this important? Let’s use the Salesforce CRM as an example. When sales reps schedule meetings with new prospects using Calendly, the Salesforce integration automatically creates a new lead, contact, or opportunity. If the prospect already exists in Salesforce, the event is simply added to the existing record.

Sales reps love using the integration because less data entry means they can speed up their sales pipeline to close more deals. Sales managers love that Salesforce data is always accurate so they don’t have to chase down reps for updates. With the Calendly+Salesforce integration, it’s all automated and reps never need to leave Salesforce. 

Compatibility with other apps matters for individuals, as well. Say you’re doing consulting or tutoring. You can embed a Calendly link on your website, create a meeting type where the Google Meet link populates instantly, and configure Stripe or PayPal to require a downpayment online before your meeting. Setting up these automations is easy, shrinks your to-do list, reduces no-shows, and ensures you’re compensated for your valuable time. 

Calendly is the routing automation pro

Because Zoom Scheduler is in its infancy, Calendly offers way more features to help you meet your business goals faster. One example is Calendly Routing, which lets you qualify, route, and schedule meetings instantly. Calendly helps you close deals faster with real-time website scheduling for high-value leads and customers. 

1. Qualify: Screen and qualify new leads directly from HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, or Calendly forms.

2. Route: Automatically look up and match known leads to assigned account owners from Salesforce.

3. Schedule: Book meetings on the spot with the right person on your sales team using Calendly’s Round Robin feature. 

Round Robin scheduling automatically distributes new meetings to team members, saving you the time of manually assigning them.

Calendly looks at the availability of every eligible team member and assigns the meeting to a rotating host based on customizable event logic:

• Optimize for availability: Assign the meeting to the next available person to reduce wait times.

• Set team member priorities: When more than one person is available, you can prioritize which team member will take the meeting.

• Optimize for equal distribution: Spread meetings evenly among team members to avoid overloading one person.

These time-saving features work within and across departments. Another good example is recruiting, where Calendly takes care of all the manual scheduling tasks that slow down hiring. 

With automated scheduling, candidates can choose an available interview time in just a few clicks, interviewers are never double-booked, and reschedules are simple. Your company shortens time to hire, impresses candidates, and saves staff time since important meeting details, attachments, and correspondence are automatically routed to your ATS. 

How Calendly and Zoom work really well together

When you connect your Zoom account with Calendly, video conferencing is made simple. Choosing Zoom as your event location automatically creates video conference details and saves them to your Calendly event. 

Once an event is scheduled, the Zoom details will be automatically included in the confirmation notifications and calendar event sent to your invitees. Attendees have instant access to the meeting details, so you can save time and reduce no-shows.

“Zoom Scheduler has streamlined my interview process by allowing integration with Calendly. Applicants may schedule within the times designated within Calendly, and the times will be imported into Zoom as planned calls,” said Philip V. in a G2 review. “This is hugely beneficial to me as it removes a large amount of manual labor.”

Pricing: Calendly vs. Zoom Scheduler

While we’d be remiss not to mention pricing here, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, since the core offerings of Zoom are fundamentally different from Calendly’s scheduling automation platform. Still, just to be thorough, here are the links to Zoom pricing and Calendly pricing. (Not ready to commit to a paid plan? Calendly offers a free plan and a 14-day free trial of all Teams features.)

"Ease of use" is also difficult to compare — if you’re already set up with Zoom, both its scheduling tool and Calendly’s are similarly straightforward. If you aren’t all-in on Zoom, though, it’s unlikely you’d choose it for its scheduling functionality over Calendly.

The Total Economic Impact of Calendly

Forrester Consulting found that Calendly provided customers a 318% ROI over three years.

Download the study

Calendly vs. Zoom Scheduler: Choose according to your needs

Zoom Scheduler’s appointment schedule feature is a simple approach for people who have Zoom accounts and just want to pay a little extra monthly to save some time scheduling one-on-one meetings. This is a practical choice for people who work exclusively in Zoom, and don’t need their scheduling software to connect to tools other than one calendar. 

But businesses, teams, and entrepreneurs who need real financial outcomes can’t waste time when prospects express interest, or when customers need answers. Calendly is more than just a scheduling link: It’s a time-saving system that’s proven difficult for others to match.

At Calendly, scheduling automation isn’t an afterthought feature, but a strategic part of your tech stack, designed to drive more revenue, delight customers, and improve time to hire. 

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Click here to compare other Calendly alternatives like HubSpot Meetings, Google Meet, and Acuity Scheduling.