# Cal.com vs Calendly (2026): open source vs the default > Cal.com vs Calendly compared on free plans, Cal.com pricing, team costs and the 2026 open source change, plus a free option for team features. - **Authors**: Kirti Gulati - **Published**: 2026-11-08 - **URL**: https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/blog/cal-com-vs-calendly - **Page title**: Cal.com vs Calendly (2026): pricing, features, verdict - **Meta description**: Cal.com vs Calendly compared on free plans, Cal.com pricing, team costs and the 2026 open source change, plus a free option for team features. - **Keywords**: cal.com vs calendly, calendly vs cal.com, cal.com pricing, cal.com free plan, is cal.com open source, and calendly alternative --- Cal.com vs Calendly is a choice between a more generous free plan and the tool most people already know. Cal.com's free plan includes unlimited event types, payments and SMS notifications for one user, and its Teams plan costs $12 per user a month. Calendly Free allows one event type, and its Teams plan costs $16 per seat a month (both billed yearly). Both still charge per user once you add a team. Five people pay $720 a year on Cal.com Teams and $960 a year on [Calendly Teams](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/blog/calendly-pricing). On [NeetoCal](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/compare/cal-com-alternative), round robin, routing forms, recurring meetings and payments are free for the whole team, and removing NeetoCal branding costs that team $150 a year on yearly billing. ## Cal.com vs Calendly vs NeetoCal at a glance | | Cal.com | Calendly | NeetoCal | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free plan | 1 user, unlimited event types and calendars | 1 event type, 1 calendar connection | Unlimited team members, scheduling links and bookings | | Payments on Free | Stripe and PayPal | No | Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, UPI, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Dodo | | Reminders on Free | Email and SMS notifications | No automated reminders | Email and SMS reminders | | Team plan | Teams: $12 per user/month billed yearly | Teams: $16 per seat/month billed yearly, $20 monthly | Free for any team size | | Round robin and routing forms | Teams plan | Teams plan | Free | | Recurring events | Teams plan | Not available | Free, up to 25 sessions in one booking | | Remove branding | Teams plan | Standard plan | $5 per user/month or $30 per user/year | | HIPAA and SOC 2 | Organizations plan | Not listed on the pricing page | No HIPAA claim | | Self-hosting | Through Cal.diy, the MIT-licensed community version | No | No | Prices as of November 2026. Sources: [Cal.com pricing](https://cal.com/pricing) and [Calendly pricing](https://calendly.com/pricing). ## Where NeetoCal fits NeetoCal suits teams that want Cal.com-style value without paying per user for team features. It is free for individuals and teams, and Forbes Advisor's 2026 roundup of scheduling apps named it "Best for most individuals and teams". Round robin, including priority-based, [routing forms](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/features/routing-forms), [recurring meetings](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/features/recurring-meetings), payments at 0% commission from NeetoCal, webhooks, an API, Zapier, Make, n8n and a custom domain are all included. The only paid option removes NeetoCal branding and adds custom CSS: $5 per user per month, or $30 per user per year. NeetoCal is not open source and makes no HIPAA claim. If you need either, Cal.diy or Cal.com Organizations fits better. ## Cal.com pricing explained Cal.com shows yearly prices on its pricing page and says yearly billing saves 25%. - **Free:** $0 for one user. Unlimited event types and calendars, email and SMS notifications, Stripe and PayPal payments, Salesforce and HubSpot sync, and a one-click import of Calendly events. - **Teams:** $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial. Adds one team with shared availability, round robin, collective and managed events, recurring events, routing forms, analytics and branding removal. - **Organizations:** $28 per user a month billed yearly. Adds sub-teams, a company subdomain, SAML SSO and SCIM, and SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001 compliance. - **Enterprise:** custom annual pricing with a dedicated database and SLAs. Cal.com also has Cal Pay, a built-in payment option with a platform fee, so check its help center before choosing it over your own Stripe account. Calendly, for comparison, costs $10 per seat a month on Standard and $16 on Teams, billed yearly, and Enterprise starts at $15,000 a year. ## Is Cal.com still open source? Partly. On April 15, 2026, Cal.com [announced](https://cal.com/blog/cal-diy-open-source-to-closed-source) that it moved the production codebase for Cal.com from a public repository to a private one. The open source project lives on as Cal.diy, which changed from the AGPL 3.0 license to MIT. Cal.diy keeps core scheduling, booking flows, the app store framework and API v2. It does not include Teams and Organizations, routing forms, workflows, SSO or insights. So if you want to self-host round robin or routing, Cal.diy will not do it. For most people the hosted Cal.com app is the real comparison, and that is a closed product like Calendly. ## Where Cal.com is stronger - **A much bigger free plan.** Unlimited event types, payments and SMS notifications at $0. - **Cheaper teams.** $12 per user against Calendly's $16, both billed yearly. - **Recurring events.** Available on Teams. Calendly has none. - **Self-hosting option.** Cal.diy is MIT-licensed if you want to run a basic scheduler yourself. - **Compliance on a listed plan.** HIPAA and SOC 2 come with Organizations. ## Where Calendly is stronger - **Familiar to clients.** Many people have booked a Calendly link before. - **Branding removal on the cheaper plan.** Standard removes it. On Cal.com you need Teams. - **Polish for sales teams.** Mature routing, Salesforce on Teams and Microsoft Dynamics on Enterprise. - **API on every plan.** Calendly's API works on Free, though webhooks need a paid plan. ## Which should you pick? **Pick Cal.com if** you are a solo user who wants payments and reminders without paying, a developer who likes to tinker, or a team that wants round robin and recurring events for less than Calendly. **Pick Calendly if** your clients and colleagues already use it, or your sales team relies on its Salesforce routing. **Pick NeetoCal if** you want team features like round robin and routing without a per-user bill. Do not pick Cal.com only for open source anymore, because the hosted product is now closed source and Cal.diy lacks team features. ## FAQ ### Is Cal.com better than Calendly? For value, yes. Cal.com's free plan includes unlimited event types, payments and SMS, and its Teams plan costs less. Calendly is better known and more polished for sales teams. ### Is Cal.com still open source? The hosted Cal.com product became closed source in April 2026. The open source version is now Cal.diy, under the MIT license, without team features. ### Can I import from Calendly to Cal.com? Yes. Cal.com's pricing page lists a one-click import of Calendly events on the Free plan. ### Is there a free alternative to Calendly with team features? Yes. [NeetoCal is free](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/pricing) for individuals and teams, including round robin, routing forms and payments. See also [NeetoCal vs Calendly](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/compare/calendly-alternative). For more options, see our list of [the best Calendly alternatives](https://www.neeto.com/neetocal/blog/calendly-alternatives).