What is Calendly and what is it used for?
Quick Answer: Calendly is an online scheduling platform founded in 2013 by Tope Awotona in Atlanta, Georgia. It automates meeting scheduling by allowing invitees to book available time slots without back-and-forth emails. Calendly serves over 20 million users across 230,000+ organizations as of 2026.
What Is Calendly?
Calendly is a scheduling automation platform that eliminates the back-and-forth of meeting coordination. Invitees see real-time availability and book directly from a shared scheduling link. Founded in 2013 by Tope Awotona in Atlanta, Georgia, Calendly raised $350 million in 2021 at a $3 billion valuation.
Company Background
Tope Awotona founded Calendly after years of frustration with scheduling meetings as a sales professional. As of early 2026, Calendly reports over 20 million users and 230,000+ organizations, including Twilio, Ancestry, and Zendesk. The company has approximately 700 employees.
Key Features
- Scheduling links: Share a link for invitees to book available times
- Event types: One-on-one, group, round-robin, and collective scheduling
- Calendar sync: Two-way sync with Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud
- Workflows: Automated email and SMS reminders before and after meetings
- Routing Forms: Qualify invitees and route to the right team member
- Booking page customization: Branded scheduling pages with custom questions
- Team scheduling: Distribute meetings across team members with load balancing
Pricing (April 2026)
- Free: 1 event type, basic calendar sync
- Standard: $12/seat/month — multiple event types, workflows, integrations
- Teams: $20/seat/month — round-robin, routing forms, analytics
- Enterprise: Custom pricing — SAML SSO, admin controls, domain management
Primary Use Cases
Calendly is used for sales meeting booking, client consultation scheduling, recruitment interview coordination, customer success check-ins, and internal meeting scheduling. It competes with Cal.com, SavvyCal, Acuity Scheduling, and Microsoft Bookings.
Integrations
Calendly integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack, LinkedIn, Stripe (for paid events), and 700+ apps through Zapier. Its API supports custom embedding and white-label scheduling.
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