Cal.com Has a Free Open-Source Scheduling Platform That Replaces Calendly

#calcom #scheduling #opensource #saas

Calendly charges $12/month per user for basic features. Cal.com gives you everything — scheduling, team management, workflows, payments, and API — for free as open source. Self-host it or use their cloud.

What Cal.com Gives You for Free

Scheduling pages — share a link, people book your time
Calendar sync — Google, Outlook, Apple Calendar, CalDAV
Team scheduling — round-robin, collective, managed events
Workflows — automated emails/SMS before and after meetings
Payments — Stripe integration for paid consultations
Embeds — inline, popup, or floating button on your website
API — full REST API for custom integrations
Self-hostable — Docker, Railway, Vercel

Quick Start (Self-Hosted)

git clone https://github.com/calcom/cal.com.git
cd cal.com
npm install
npx prisma migrate dev
npm run dev

Or use Docker:

docker compose up -d

Embed on Your Website

<!-- Inline embed -->
<script src="https://app.cal.com/embed/embed.js"></script>
<cal-inline calLink="yourname/30min"></cal-inline>

<!-- Popup button -->
<button data-cal-link="yourname/30min">Book a Call</button>
<script src="https://app.cal.com/embed/embed.js"></script>

API Integration

// Create a booking via API
const response = await fetch('https://api.cal.com/v1/bookings', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${CAL_API_KEY}`
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    eventTypeId: 123,
    start: '2026-04-01T10:00:00Z',
    end: '2026-04-01T10:30:00Z',
    responses: {
      name: 'Alice Smith',
      email: 'alice@example.com'
    }
  })
});

Workflows (Automated Communication)

Set up automated messages:

Before meeting: Send a reminder email 24h before
Before meeting: Send SMS reminder 1h before
After meeting: Send follow-up email with meeting notes
After meeting: Trigger a webhook to your CRM

Cal.com vs Calendly vs SavvyCal

Feature	Cal.com	Calendly	SavvyCal
Price	Free (self-hosted)	$12/user/mo	$12/user/mo
Open source	Yes	No	No
Self-hostable	Yes	No	No
API	Full REST	Limited	Basic
Team scheduling	Free	Paid plan	Paid plan
Workflows	Free	Paid plan	No
Payments	Free	Paid plan	No
Custom branding	Full	Paid plan	Paid plan

Who's Using Cal.com

25K+ GitHub stars
Used by companies who need scheduling without vendor lock-in
Built on Next.js, Prisma, tRPC (great tech stack to learn from)

The Verdict

Cal.com is Calendly without the monthly bill. Open source, self-hostable, with features that Calendly charges extra for. If you need scheduling in your app or business, Cal.com is the smart choice.

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