Cal.com vs Motion

Cal has changed the meaning and expectations when it comes to the standalone scheduler app category as it's the most flexible, and modern scheduling software on the market.

While Calendly was the leader in the meeting scheduling space for the past decade, over the past few years Cal has given them a run for their money, and in our opinion, has overtaken them.

Cal is by far the best overall meeting scheduler for individuals, SMBs, startups, sales & customer support teams, and even enterprises because they are incredibly flexible. Schedule meetings & appointments (checking multiple team members calendars), set up recurring appointments, take payments with scheduling, and create custom workflows.

Where meeting schedulers have become more of a feature of a product, like that of Motion, amongst others in the best calendar apps space, Cal has doubled down on that fact by not only making their tool open source core, but by also giving a robust API, allowing you to use their scheduling infrastructure for your own product. This makes it ideal for our more technical friends, enterprises, educational institutions, or even doctors offices.

That said, if you only need a basic meeting scheduler for 1:1 meetings, Cal is likely more than you need. Many of the best daily planner apps, project management tools, and even the best email clients now have a scheduler built in, so it's worth trying what you already pay for before adding another tool.

Unlike other schedulers, Cal has something called weighted round robin scheduling, which lets you distribute meetings based on actual team availability instead of splitting them evenly.

For example, if one sales rep works fewer days than others, you can assign them a lower weight so they receive fewer bookings. You can also create more complex setups, like ensuring one sales rep is always on a call (customer support) while rotating different engineers into each meeting.

Cal is also awesome if you need routing forms. E.g. if your business offers multiple services like bathroom, kitchen, or outdoor remodeling. Based on what a customer selects via a form, they can be routed to the right specialist automatically.

Cal is also open source, which means everything is transparent, and if you want, you can even run it on your own servers. That gives you full control over your data, instead of being locked into a tool you can’t change. This is more relevant to enterprises or companies concerned with security though.

• Free: Best for individuals who need simple scheduling with no usage limits.
• Teams: $12/mo per user (billed yearly). Best for small teams and startups that need collaborative scheduling features.
• Organizations: $28/mo per user (billed yearly). Best for larger teams that need more control, security, and advanced routing.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. Includes dedicated support, SLAs, advanced integrations, and enterprise-grade infrastructure.

Motion is a project management tool that has a pretty awesome scheduling feature. If you're just looking for a standalone scheduler, skip Motion. But if you're looking for a way to organize your tasks, projects, and time and you only basic scheduling needs then Motion could be a great fit. We use it ourselves and have so for 4+ years.

The meeting scheduler itself gives you the ability to share availability or create simple booking pages (you can even ask participants a few questions prior to scheduling).

That said, if your business has heavy workflows around scheduling (e.g. you need round robin for leads routing, or want to take payments before a call), then Motion isn't for you.

• Seamlessly integrated with Motion’s task and project management system
• Fully synced with your calendar and real availability
• Customize templates (e.g., solo meetings or team meetings)

• Not built for complex scheduling workflows (taking payments, etc)
• No lead routing and automation compared to dedicated tools

We use it to create general or one-time links to share our availability. You can define your working hours and control exactly when people can book with you, so it does offer some flexibility.

You have the ability to avoid back-to-back meetings and the option to set daily meeting limits. You can also create separate scheduling templates, which gives you an added layer of organization (e.g. if you work two jobs, and want one scheduling link for weekdays vs weeknights).

You can set up booking pages for multiple team members. For example, we have a booking page that checks my calendar along with my co-founders so that someone can book in with both of us.

Motions prices range from $19 to $34 per month (Individual to Team plans), and the meeting scheduler is included within that broader system.