Calendly vs. Sessions: Discover the Best Scheduling Tool for You

Tired of countless back-and-forth emails, missed calls, and endless calendar shuffling? And all to find that elusive perfect time slot for your next client meeting or training session. It's a headache, we know. 

But the truth is this: every minute spent wrestling with your calendar is time you're not spending on what you do best - helping your clients crush their goals and achieve their dreams. And let's face it, in the coaching and training game, time is money.

Enter Calendly and Sessions, two scheduling apps meant to reduce the chaos of booking calls with clients and team members. In this article, we'll look in more detail at these tools, exploring their features, strengths, and differences. So, whether you're a coach, trainer, or HR representative, keep reading to find out what tool fits you the best.

Exploring Calendly

Calendly is a popular choice among professionals and businesses for its user-friendly interface, customizable availability, and seamless integrations. Its key features include flexible scheduling options, integrations with popular calendar platforms, and team collaboration capabilities. Calendly offers a range of benefits, making it a great solution for scheduling appointments and meetings.

Introducing Sessions: Your Ultimate Meeting Scheduler Solution

The Booking feature stands out as an integrated scheduling solution within the Sessions platform, catering to the needs of coaches, consultants, and HR professionals.

By seamlessly integrating scheduling within a video conferencing, Sessions simplifies the booking process and enhances collaboration for demos, training sessions, and interviews. With unique features tailored to specific industries and use cases, Sessions' booking feature offers a comprehensive solution for professionals seeking efficiency and convenience in their scheduling endeavors.

Key Differences Between Calendly and Sessions Booking

While the two platforms are similar, there are notable differences between the two platforms. Let’s look into them in more detail:

1. Integration with Video Conferencing 

One of the main distinctions between Calendly and Sessions' booking feature is the way they approach the integration with video conferencing platforms. While Calendly allows users to integrate with third-party video conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, Sessions has a different approach.

Sessions offers a built-in video conferencing solution that communicates seamlessly with the booking system. Since both the video conference and the booking system are part of the same platform, you don’t need to install, pay, and integrate other video-conferencing apps into the scheduling system. You get a unified scheduling and meeting experience within the Sessions ecosystem.

2. Customization and Branding 

Sessions' scheduling software offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tailor the booking pages and truly put the spotlight on your brand identity.

With Sessions, you can add custom elements such as logos, colors, and custom domains. You can even personalize email templates and have them sent from your server, enhancing the professional look and feel of your scheduling pages.

While Calendly offers some degree of customization, Sessions' robust branding capabilities give you greater flexibility in creating a cohesive brand experience for your clients.

3. Resource Management 

Sessions' scheduling software goes beyond basic scheduling. Because it’s part of a bigger platform, it offers you access to multiple other features like Memory or the agenda.

In the agenda, you can attach various resources, files, and tools that will help you present better and also keep your clients, collaborators, and team members engaged. Once you create an agenda template, you can then attach it to a scheduling page.

This way, the agenda will automatically be included in all the meetings that get booked through that link, saving time and ensuring consistency.

4. Team Collaboration 

Both Sessions and Calendly offer team collaboration features under different names and slightly different functionalities. Sessions' booking feature (Team Routing) and Calendly's Round Robin feature enable you to add multiple team members to the scheduling process.

However, Sessions allows you to add team members to your booking page, while you can also give them permissions to reassign bookings between each other if necessary. But more than that, Sessions allows you to share resources (files, videos, whiteboards, etc.) and entire agendas with your team members.

This capability enhances coordination and communication among team members, making your scheduling process seamless. With Sessions, you have greater flexibility in managing your team workflows and ensuring cohesive collaboration.

5. Booking Payment System 

Sessions' latest update introduces a crucial feature: payments for appointments. With this new capability, Sessions helps you monetize your expertise and services directly through the platform.

This feature opens up a lot of possibilities for businesses, coaches, consultants, and service providers across various industries. Whether you're offering one-on-one coaching sessions, virtual workshops, training programs, or consultations, Sessions' booking payment system provides a flexible and secure way to collect payments for your services.

By integrating payments directly into the booking process, Sessions simplifies your entire flow, from scheduling appointments to receiving payments. This seamless integration not only saves you time and effort but also enhances the overall professionalism and credibility of the booking experience.

👉 Sign up to Sessions today for free and discover how it can elevate your coaching and training sessions to new heights

Comparing Pricing: Calendly vs. Sessions 

Choosing the right scheduling tool for your business involves considering various factors, including features, integrations, and, of course, pricing. While both Calendly and Sessions offer valuable solutions for managing appointments and bookings, understanding their pricing can help you make an informed decision that aligns with your business, budget, and needs.

Calendly Pricing 

Calendly provides a range of pricing options tailored to different user requirements, from individual professionals to large enterprises. Here's a breakdown of Calendly's pricing tiers:

• Free: Ideal for individuals starting out with basic scheduling needs. This plan includes features such as one event type with unlimited meetings, basic integrations, and customization options for your booking page.
• Standard: Designed for users with more sophisticated scheduling requirements. At $12 per seat per month, the Standard plan offers unlimited event types, multiple calendars for availability, and integrations with popular platforms like Hubspot, PayPal, and Stripe.
• Teams: Geared towards teams needing advanced features like reporting, meeting distribution, and automations. Priced at $20 per seat per month, this plan includes Salesforce integration, round-robin events, and admin features for managing team events and permissions.
• Enterprise: Tailored for large teams with enterprise-grade needs, this plan offers advanced security, admin control, and support. Pricing starts at $15,000 per year, providing access to features like Single Sign-On, Salesforce routing, and expedited support.

Sessions Pricing

Sessions offers flexible pricing plans suited for various business sizes and requirements, ranging from solo entrepreneurs to large teams. Here's an overview of Sessions' pricing tiers:

• Free: Sessions' free plan provides core features at no cost, making it an excellent option for exploring the platform's capabilities. With this plan, you can host sessions with up to three attendees and access all the basic features like chat, whiteboards, and polls.
• Solo: Starting at $24 per month (billed annually), the Solo plan is designed for entrepreneurs and coaches working independently. It includes up to 3 booking links, unlimited sessions, interactive agendas, and customizable branding options.
• Starter: Priced at $34 per month (billed annually), the Starter plan caters to entrepreneurs and small teams. It offers up to 3 booking links, permanent meeting rooms, breakout rooms, and advanced customization options.
• Pro: Ideal for teams needing longer sessions with more participants, the Pro plan starts at $119 per month (billed annually). This plan allows you to have unlimited booking links and includes features such as AI Copilot, intelligent transcript, and integrations with third-party tools.
• Business: Suited for large teams with complex needs, the Business plan starts at $719 per month (billed annually). It allows you to have unlimited booking links and provides extensive features like full white labeling, advanced analytics, and custom integrations.

Comparing Value 

While both Calendly and Sessions offer competitive pricing plans, Sessions stands out for its comprehensive feature set and flexible pricing options. With Sessions, you can access advanced features like interactive agendas, permanent meeting rooms, and AI-powered tools at affordable rates. Additionally, Sessions focuses on allowing your brand to shine with all types of customization options: from adding your logo and having your custom domain to personalizing email content & sender.

We’ll end with this…

Both Calendly and Sessions' Booking feature offer valuable solutions for streamlining your scheduling processes and maximizing your productivity. Each platform has its own unique strengths and features that cater to different business needs and preferences.

As you weigh your options, consider what matters most to you and your business. Look at how seamless they work with video conferencing, if you like the customization options, how robust the team collaboration features are, or if they have payment solutions. 

So, before you make your decision, take the time to explore both platforms thoroughly. After all, the best scheduling tool for your business is the one that aligns perfectly with your objectives and workflow.

👉 Sign up to Sessions today for free and discover how it can elevate your coaching and training sessions to new heights.