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Acuity Scheduling review 2026: pricing, plan limits and the catches

By Booking Shortlist · Published · Updated · Prices checked on · Based on public documentation

Disclosure: Our #1 pick is MeetScarlet, and we are affiliated with them. We also cover competing tools and where they shine. We may earn commissions from links on this page. Details

The short answer: Acuity Scheduling, a Squarespace company, is online booking software for appointment businesses, from solo therapists to teams. Starter is $16 a month billed annually, or $20 monthly, for one calendar, and Acuity adds no fee on card payments. The catches: texts, waitlists and memberships start on Standard ($27 or $34), there’s no client app since February 2026, and monthly plans aren’t refunded. Our #1 pick, MeetScarlet, includes a branded app, and its terms say “Scarlet is live”, but its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”. Checked November 5, 2026.

Key takeaways

  • Acuity Scheduling has no free plan for new customers. Starter is $16 a month billed annually, or $20 billed monthly, for one calendar; Standard is $27 or $34 for up to 6 calendars; Premium is $55 or $69 for up to 36 (checked November 5, 2026).
  • Text reminders, the appointment waitlist, packages, memberships and gift certificates start on Standard. Starter has email reminders and one calendar.
  • Acuity adds no fee on payments. You connect Stripe, Square or PayPal and pay that processor's own rates, which Acuity's pages don't list.
  • There's no app for clients: Acuity retired its client app on February 20, 2026, and offers no app under your business's name. Clients book on a web page with your logo and colours.
  • Monthly plans and renewals aren't refunded. Annual plans cancelled within 14 days of purchase are refunded in full.
  • Its admin app averaged 4.8 out of 5 from 30,354 US App Store ratings, and Trustpilot showed 3.6 out of 5 from 695 reviews (third-party opinion, checked November 5, 2026).

What Acuity Scheduling is (and isn’t)

Acuity’s homepage calls it “Scheduling software to power exceptional client experiences” that can “Book appointments, take payments, and automate the busywork”. It says “Acuity is for anyone in the business of time”, from “solo practitioners to multi-location teams”. Its about page says “Acuity Scheduling is a Squarespace company”, acquired in 2019.

Clients book on a web page with your logo and colours. You run the business in a web dashboard or Acuity’s admin app. Payments go through your own Stripe, Square or PayPal account.

Its solution pages cover barbershops, hair and nail salons, spas and medspas, massage, yoga, Pilates, personal training, gyms and studios. So it’s relevant to our barbershop, spa, massage and fitness studio readers.

What it isn’t: we found no Acuity page for tanning salons, padel or any court sport. Its help centre adds that it “isn’t a great fit” for bookings “that last more than a day”.

How we reviewed Acuity Scheduling

  • We read Acuity’s pricing page, in annual and monthly views, and its plan comparison table on November 5, 2026.
  • We read its payments, class, staff, integrations and solution pages, and its public status page.
  • We read the Squarespace Terms of Service, which say they cover acuityscheduling.com, and Squarespace’s Acuity refund policy.
  • We read help-centre articles on trials, billing, cancelling, renewals, processors, staff, exports, switching, the client app and support.
  • We looked up third-party ratings on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot, labelled as other people’s opinions. G2 and Capterra blocked our requests, so we have no ratings from either.
  • We haven’t used Acuity hands-on, so we couldn’t count booking steps or time a setup. This review is documentation-based.

Our method explains how we put pages together.

Acuity Scheduling pricing (checked November 5, 2026)

PlanBilled annuallyBilled monthlyCalendarsWhat the plan adds
Starter$16/month$20/month1Email reminders, custom client forms, payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, and automatic time zone conversion
Standard$27/month$34/monthUp to 6Text reminders (not in every country; the page says “check global availability”), an appointment waitlist, memberships and packages, and gift certificates
Premium$55/month$69/monthUp to 36An AI Booking Assistant, a signed BAA for HIPAA, hiding the Acuity logo on your booking page, time zones per staff member or location, and custom API and CSS
EnterpriseNot publishedNot publishedUnlimited“Contact our Enterprise team”: a centralized dashboard, VIP account management and custom contracts
For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick)$3,490 a year, setup free$349/month plus $999 one-time setupOne location, 5 staff loginsA branded iPhone, Android and web app, booking, memberships and check-in. Scarlet Pro (20 logins and, per its terms, up to 3 locations) is $499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990 a year

Source: Acuity’s pricing page, checked November 5, 2026. “All prices are in USD”, and “Prices do not include applicable taxes”. The page loads on annual billing and says annual saves 20%.

There’s no per-staff fee; you pay for a plan with a calendar cap. By our arithmetic, one person on Starter pays $192 a year billed annually, or $240 billed monthly. A team of 3, each with their own calendar, needs Standard ($27 or $34 a month). A team of 10 needs Premium ($55 or $69). Staff who don’t take bookings can be added as contributors without their own calendar. Compare what other booking apps cost.

Payments and other fees:

Fee or ruleWhat Acuity says
Acuity’s own payment feeNone: “Acuity itself does not charge additional fees for using payment features”
ProcessorsStripe, Square or PayPal (with Venmo through PayPal). Stripe and Square can’t be connected at the same time. Rates are on each processor’s own site, not Acuity’s
Saved cards, subscriptions and in-person paymentsStripe and Square only. PayPal can’t store cards, sell subscriptions or take in-person payments
Not supported“Buy Now, Pay Later services like Afterpay or Klarna”, and Squarespace Payments or its card reader
Text messages“free to you”, on Standard and Premium; one text reminder per appointment
Setup, cancellation and support“No set-up fees, no cancellation fees, no support fees—nada.”
Subscribing inside the mobile app“at a higher price” (amount not published) if you started your trial in the app
Legacy plans only“2% of your monthly subscription revenue, up to a maximum of $15”
For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick)Card payments in its app are Stripe’s fees plus 1%, through your own Stripe account, and turn on once Stripe finishes checking that account. Its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card deposits or no-show fees (checked November 5, 2026). We found no price for its email and text automation bundle

Sources: payments page, processor article, plans article, trial article and legacy plans article, checked November 5, 2026.

Contracts, cancelling and your data

There’s no contract length. You pay monthly or annually, and the plan renews on its own: the Squarespace terms say “we’ll automatically bill you … on each renewal period”. The terms say you can turn off auto-renewal, but Acuity’s renewals article says “You can’t disable auto-renew. Instead, cancel the subscription.” Annual plans get an email reminder 15 days before renewal.

Cancelling: its cancel article says “You can cancel your Acuity subscription at any time”. The plan runs to the end of the billing cycle unless you choose to cancel straight away.

Refunds: Squarespace’s Acuity refund policy (updated September 30, 2026) says “Annual Acuity subscriptions canceled within 14 days of purchase are automatically fully refunded.” There are no refunds for monthly plans, renewals, legacy accounts, or annual plans after 14 days.

The terms also say “We may change our fees at any time”, with advance notice. US users agree to arbitration and a class-action waiver, under New York law.

Your data: you can export appointments and clients yourself as CSV files (export article). After cancelling, “You can view past appointments and export client data”. The export article doesn’t say whether package, gift certificate or subscription balances can be exported.

Appointments, classes and rooms

Acuity is built around appointments: services, availability controls, buffer times and “Automatic time zone conversion” on every plan. Group classes have a “Max number of people”, with recurring offerings and class series (class scheduling page). Shared rooms or equipment can be set up as “resources”, so two massages can’t land in the same room.

The waitlist on Standard is for appointments; we found no class waitlist. Its booking page comes in 12 languages, and clients can also start bookings from Instagram, Facebook and “Reserve with Google” (integrations page).

Premium adds an AI Booking Assistant and a signed BAA for HIPAA, which matters for massage and medspa practices that keep health notes.

Memberships, packages and marketing

Standard and Premium can sell packages, subscriptions and gift certificates. Subscriptions can bill “Forever, until canceled”, with an optional setup fee. Coupons, deposits, tips, invoices and Tap to Pay are there too.

Three catches for studios. Subscriptions need Stripe or Square: “They aren’t available with PayPal”. And if a client’s card fails on a scheduled payment, “their subscription is canceled”; we found no automatic retry described. Changing processor makes active subscriptions fail until cards are re-entered.

Marketing is mostly through other tools. Email marketing runs through integrations such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Squarespace contacts. Texts are reminders only: “It’s not possible to use Acuity to send additional text messages to clients.”

Reports cover appointments, revenue, staff, intake forms, add-ons and tips, with CSV export. Commission tracking isn’t built in: its staff page says it “would typically be managed in a separate accounting system”.

Switching to Acuity Scheduling

You import clients and appointments from CSV files of up to 500 rows each. Its switching guide explains the steps, and there’s a separate guide for moving from Square. Its import article says “It’s not possible to import packages, gift certificates, or subscriptions”, and payment details can’t be imported either.

Setup is self-serve. For hands-on help, Acuity points you to a paid expert you hire yourself, and the Squarespace terms say Squarespace “does not employ, is not affiliated with and does not endorse” them. The 7-day trial (14 days when added to a Squarespace website) can’t send emails or automated texts, so you can’t try reminders before paying.

What Acuity Scheduling does well

  • A low, public price with no per-staff fee: $16 a month billed annually for one calendar, and up to 36 calendars for $55 a month billed annually.
  • No cut of your payments, and a choice of Stripe, Square or PayPal, with Venmo through PayPal.
  • No setup, cancellation or support fees, and a written 14-day refund on annual plans.
  • Your data stays reachable: self-serve CSV exports of appointments and clients, even after you cancel.
  • Appointments, classes and shared rooms in one tool, with a HIPAA BAA on Premium for massage and medspa practices.
  • A public status page with a dated incident history (status page).

Where Acuity Scheduling falls short

  • The $16 plan is thin. Text reminders, the waitlist, packages, memberships and gift certificates all need Standard (pricing page).
  • No app for clients. “As of February 20, 2026, the Acuity Scheduling Client mobile app is no longer available for download” (client app article), and there’s no app under your own name.
  • Support hours don’t match. There’s no phone line, and English live chat runs “Monday to Friday 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET” (support article, updated November 5, 2026). Its no-show page promises “24/7 email support and live chat”.
  • Few refunds. Monthly plans and renewals aren’t refunded; annual plans only within 14 days (refund policy).
  • Fragile client memberships. A failed card cancels the client’s subscription, and PayPal can’t run subscriptions at all.
  • Partial switching. Packages, gift certificates, subscriptions and card details don’t import.
  • Some outages on record. Its status page logged “critical” incidents on June 4, July 19 and August 12, 2026.

Acuity Scheduling reviews and complaints

Third-party opinion, not our own research: on November 5, 2026, Acuity’s admin app, which business owners use, averaged 4.8 out of 5 from 30,354 ratings on the US App Store and 4.3 out of 5 from 5,145 ratings on Google Play. On Trustpilot, Acuity showed 3.6 out of 5 from 695 reviews (43% five-star, 18% one-star). Trustpilot says the company “invites their customers to review, whether positive or negative”. Its reviewers include both businesses and their clients. G2 and Capterra blocked our requests. We didn’t sort individual reviews by topic, so we can’t say which complaints come up most. For comparison, we found no third-party ratings for our #1 pick, MeetScarlet (checked November 5, 2026).

Acuity Scheduling or our pick, MeetScarlet?

Acuity SchedulingMeetScarlet
PriceStarter $16, Standard $27, Premium $55 a month billed annually; $20, $34 or $69 billed monthly$349/month plus $999 setup, or $3,490/year with setup free, for one location. Its terms page offers founding studios on monthly billing $299 a month “instead of $349 for the first 24 months of its subscription”, with the $999 setup fee included; it plans 10 places (checked November 5, 2026)
Staff1, 6 or 36 bookable calendars by plan; no per-staff fee5 staff logins, counting the owner; 20 on Scarlet Pro ($499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990/year with setup free)
App under your own nameNone. The client app was retired on February 20, 2026; clients book on a web page with your logo, and removing “Powered by” needs PremiumIncluded: iPhone, Android and web, published under your own Apple ($99 a year) and Google Play ($25 once) developer accounts
Classes and roomsGroup classes with a set capacity, class series and shared resources; the Standard waitlist is for appointmentsWeekly classes with pick-your-spot maps (up to 100 spots) and an automatic waitlist, on every plan, per its class-booking page
Memberships and packagesStandard and Premium; subscriptions need Stripe or Square, and a failed card cancels the client’s subscriptionPlans that repeat, are paid up front for a set term, or are paid once for packs and passes, per its memberships guide; sold by card through Stripe (see card payments)
RemindersEmail on every plan; texts from Standard, one per appointment, “free to you”Text reminders (coming soon) on Scarlet Pro only. Its Jane comparison page says email reminders are “built but not sending yet”, and its appointments help says “Email sending isn’t switched on yet” (checked November 5, 2026)
Card paymentsLive now through Stripe, Square or PayPal, including in person with Stripe or Square (Tap to Pay or card readers); no Acuity feeStripe’s fees plus 1% to MeetScarlet, through your own Stripe account; card payments turn on once Stripe has checked that account, but its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card deposits or no-show fees. We found no card reader or in-person card rate on its pages
SwitchingCSV import of clients and appointments, 500 rows a file; no packages, gift certificates, subscriptions or card details“Scarlet imports clients, not booking or payment history”, with “no direct importer” for other apps
LocationsTime zones per location on Premium; a central dashboard on EnterpriseScarlet is “For one location”; its terms say Scarlet Pro “includes up to 3 locations”. Its class page says “Each Scarlet studio has one schedule”
Support and uptimeNo phone; live chat on weekdays and email around the clock, per its help centre; a public status pageEmail (“A person reads every message”) and Instagram, with “Priority support” on Scarlet Pro. Its terms say “We aim to reply within one business day” and “there are no service credits”; we found no published hours or status page
Availability and termsNow, with a 7-day trial and a written refund policyIts terms page says “Scarlet is live, and founding studios can join now” and “There is no free trial.” Cancelling “takes effect at the end of the period you’ve paid for”, and “We don’t refund part-used months”. Store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks”, mostly for Apple’s enrollment; the web app is live sooner
Third-party reviewsOver 35,000 admin-app ratings (our arithmetic) and 695 on Trustpilot (see above)No third-party ratings found (checked November 5, 2026)

Sources: MeetScarlet’s pricing and FAQ, terms, payments help, appointments help, white-label page, class booking page, switching page, Jane comparison and support help, checked November 5, 2026.

Choose MeetScarlet, our pick, if you want an app under your own name on iPhone, Android and web, with class spot maps and a class waitlist. Its store apps take about 4 to 6 weeks. It suits you if you can manage without email reminders, which are “built but not sending yet”, while text reminders on Scarlet Pro are “coming soon”. Choose Acuity Scheduling if you want a much lower monthly price, several staff calendars without per-staff fees, a HIPAA BAA, or card payments and reminders working today (MeetScarlet’s appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”).

Who should pick Acuity Scheduling, and who shouldn’t

If you are…Acuity?Why
A solo massage therapist or practitioner who’s fine with email remindersStarter fits$16 a month billed annually for one calendar, with no Acuity fee on payments; see our massage picks
A small salon, barbershop or spa with 2 to 6 staffStandardUp to 6 calendars, text reminders, a waitlist, packages and gift certificates for $27 or $34 a month
A massage or medspa practice that needs a HIPAA BAAPremiumThe BAA is on Premium ($55 or $69 a month)
A yoga, Pilates or fitness studio selling membershipsCheck the payment rules firstA failed card cancels the client’s subscription; compare our fitness class picks
A team that needs commission reportsLook elsewhereAcuity says commission tracking belongs in a separate system; see our barber picks
Wanting phone supportLook elsewhereAcuity offers none
A tanning salon or padel clubLook elsewhereNo tanning or court pages found; see our Tan-Link review or our padel clubs guide
Wanting an app under your own name on iPhone, Android and webSee our pick, MeetScarletAcuity has no client app. MeetScarlet includes a branded app for $349 a month plus $999 setup, or $3,490 a year. Its store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks” (the web app is live sooner), and its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”

The verdict

Acuity Scheduling suits appointment businesses, from a solo massage therapist to a team of up to 36, that want a low published price, no cut of card payments and their choice of processor. The catches are a thin $16 plan, no client app, weekday-only live chat and few refunds. Studios that live on memberships should read its failed-payment rule first. For other options, see our best booking software shortlist. If Acuity works for you, see Acuity Scheduling. Its pricing page offered a “7-day trial, no credit card needed” when we checked on November 5, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Acuity Scheduling cost?
Starter is $16 a month billed annually, or $20 billed monthly, with one calendar. Standard is $27 or $34 for up to 6 calendars, and Premium is $55 or $69 for up to 36, in US dollars before tax (checked November 5, 2026).
Does Acuity Scheduling have a free plan or a free trial?
There's no free plan for new customers; its pricing page says "Acuity doesn't offer free appointment scheduling at this time". There's a 7-day free trial (14 days if you add Acuity to a Squarespace website), but trial accounts can't send emails or automated texts.
What are Acuity Scheduling's card processing fees?
Acuity charges no fee of its own on payments. You connect Stripe, Square or PayPal (with Venmo through PayPal) and pay that processor's own rates, which aren't listed on Acuity's pages.
Can you cancel Acuity Scheduling anytime?
Yes, its help centre says you can cancel "at any time", and its pricing page lists "no cancellation fees". Monthly plans and renewals aren't refunded, though, and annual plans are refunded only if you cancel within 14 days of buying.
Does Acuity Scheduling have an app for clients?
Not any more. Its help centre says the client app "is no longer available for download" as of February 20, 2026, so clients book on your web booking page, which shows your logo and colours on every plan. There's no app under your business's name.
Can Acuity Scheduling sell memberships and packages?
Yes, on Standard and above. Subscriptions need Stripe or Square, not PayPal, and its help centre says a client's subscription is cancelled if a scheduled card payment fails; we found no automatic retry described.
Does Acuity Scheduling have phone support?
No, its help centre says "We don't offer phone support". English live chat runs "Monday to Friday 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET" and email runs around the clock, though some of its feature pages promise "24/7 email support and live chat".
Does Acuity Scheduling work for tanning salons or padel clubs?
We found no Acuity page for tanning salons, padel or any court sport. Its solution pages cover barbershops, hair and nail salons, spas, massage, yoga, Pilates, personal training, gyms and studios.

Sources

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