makeabook.ing vs Acuity Scheduling

TL;DR: Acuity Scheduling (part of Squarespace) is a genuinely powerful, highly configurable booking tool — appointment types with pricing, packages, intake forms, calendar sync. The trade-off is setup time and an ongoing subscription with no lasting free tier. makeabook.ing trades some of that configurability for something you can set up in minutes and use free for your first 20 bookings a month.

At a glance

	Acuity Scheduling	makeabook.ing
Service menu with pricing	Yes — appointment types support pricing and duration	Yes — core to how it works
Packages, intake forms, class scheduling	Yes, extensively	Small-group sessions; no packages or intake-form builder
Free tier	Time-limited free trial, not an ongoing free plan	Ongoing, 20 bookings/month, full feature set
Setup effort	Higher — more to configure to get your exact flow working	Lower — list services, set hours, share link
Payment collection	Via Stripe, Square or PayPal	Not processed — collect payment separately
Best suited to	Coaches and consultants wanting deep customisation	Solo pros wanting the fastest path to a working booking link

Where they actually differ

Acuity isn't the "no pricing shown" problem that Calendly has — appointment types can carry a price and duration, and Acuity supports genuinely useful things a lot of solo pros eventually want: package deals, client intake forms, calendar sync across multiple tools, class-based scheduling. If you know you'll need that depth, Acuity earns its complexity.

The cost of that depth is configuration time. Getting Acuity to show exactly the flow you want — the right appointment types, the right payment integration, the right intake questions — takes real setup work, and its plans typically don't include an ongoing free option, just a trial period before you're on a paid tier regardless of how much you're actually booking.

makeabook.ing skips most of that configurability on purpose. The core flow is services, prices, hours, book, with optional small-group class sessions. It doesn't offer packages or a built-in intake-form builder, but there's little to configure to get it working, and the free tier isn't a countdown — it's scoped to 20 bookings a month, indefinitely.

Setting up one service, compared

On Acuity, adding a single bookable service typically means creating an appointment type, setting its duration and price, deciding whether it needs an intake form, configuring which calendar or payment processor it connects to, and setting availability rules — each a separate decision, each useful in the right context, but each also a step between you and a working booking page.

On makeabook.ing, the same task is: name the service, set its duration, set its price. There's no intake-form builder or payment-processor connection to configure, because those aren't things the product tries to do — which is exactly why there's less to set up, not evidence of a shortcut.

Pricing

Acuity offers a free trial rather than a permanent free plan. Its paid plans vary by the number of bookable calendars and features; intake forms and payment connections are available across its current plans, while packages and memberships start above the entry tier.

makeabook.ing is free for the first 20 bookings a month with the full feature set, then a flat £19/month for unlimited bookings.

Who Acuity is best for

Coaches, consultants and practitioners who want package pricing, detailed intake forms, or class-based scheduling, and are happy to invest setup time and an ongoing subscription for that flexibility.

Who makeabook.ing is best for

Solo pros who want to go from "still booking over DM" to "have a working booking link" in one sitting, without configuring integrations or working out which tier unlocks which feature — and who'd rather use a genuinely free plan than a trial.

When Acuity's depth is genuinely worth it

This isn't a page arguing Acuity is over-engineered — for the right business, its depth is the whole point. If you sell packages (say, a block of six coaching sessions at a discount to booking them one at a time), run group classes alongside 1:1 sessions, or need clients to fill in a detailed intake form before you'll confirm a booking, Acuity is doing real work that a simpler tool like makeabook.ing isn't built to replace. The question worth asking isn't "which tool is better," it's "do I actually need those features today, or am I paying in setup time for capability I won't use yet."

Switching over

There's no account data to migrate — clients don't need an Acuity login carried over, since makeabook.ing doesn't use accounts at all. Set up your services, prices and hours, and swap your Acuity scheduling link for your new one wherever you share it. If you're mid-way through an Acuity subscription, it's reasonable to run both briefly while you confirm the new setup covers what you need.

FAQ

Does Acuity Scheduling have a free plan?
Acuity has historically offered a free trial rather than an ongoing free tier — worth confirming current terms directly, since this is the kind of detail that changes. makeabook.ing's free plan is ongoing, scoped to 20 bookings a month rather than a time limit.

Can Acuity show prices before someone books, like makeabook.ing?
Yes — Acuity's appointment types can include pricing and duration, so this isn't a gap the way it is with Calendly. The difference is more about setup effort and what else you're paying for alongside that pricing display.

Which is easier to set up, Acuity or makeabook.ing?
makeabook.ing is built to be faster to set up precisely because it does less — list services, set hours, share the link. Acuity's greater depth (packages, forms, integrations) means more decisions to make before you're ready to share a link.

Can I sell packages or bundles of sessions on makeabook.ing like I can on Acuity?
Not currently — makeabook.ing is built around individual services with a duration and price, not multi-session packages. If package pricing is central to how you sell, Acuity's more likely to cover that need today.

Does makeabook.ing support intake forms before a booking is confirmed, like Acuity?
Not as a built-in form builder. Some solo pros handle this with a short message after booking instead — see our booking message templates for a first-time client info request you can send manually.

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