Acuity vs Setmore for Coaches: An Honest 2026 Comparison

Acuity vs Setmore comes down to this: Setmore is the cheaper pick for a coach who mainly needs a booking page, free for small teams and a few dollars per user on its annual Pro plan, while Acuity Scheduling costs more but bundles intake forms on every plan and adds packages, memberships and gift certificates from its Standard plan. Both are appointment schedulers, not coaching platforms. If your clients only ever book a call, either works. If you also sell programs, collect agreements and support clients between sessions, a third option is worth a look, and we cover it honestly near the end.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so read the final section with that in mind. Everything about Acuity and Setmore below comes from the vendors' own pricing pages as listed in October 2026 and from what public reviewers report. We have not run either product through hands-on testing for this piece; we describe what each vendor documents.

What is the short answer by use case?

Pick Setmore if cost is the deciding factor and your business is mostly one-off sessions. Pick Acuity if you sell session packages or memberships and want intake questions built into booking. Pick neither if your real job is running multi-week programs.

• Brand-new coach, tight budget: Setmore Free gives you a branded booking page, unlimited appointments and online payments for up to 4 users, as listed in October 2026. The catch is one email reminder and no SMS.
• Coach selling 6-session or 12-session packages: Acuity Standard, which lists packages, memberships, gift certificates, text reminders and a waitlist.
• Small team of coaches on a budget: Setmore Pro is priced per user and allows unlimited users, so three coaches pay three seats. Acuity Standard covers up to 6 calendars on one plan price.
• Health or wellness coach who needs a BAA: Setmore lists a HIPAA BAA on Pro; Acuity lists one only on Premium. That makes Setmore the far cheaper route to a signed BAA.
• Coach delivering programs, habits, check-ins or courses: neither. Both vendors' own notes list no client programs, habits, check-ins, courses or community. This is where an all-in-one coaching platform such as Coachful fits better.

How do Acuity and Setmore compare side by side?

Side by side, Setmore wins on entry price and free-plan generosity, Acuity wins on built-in intake forms and selling packages, and both stop at the booking. The table puts Coachful first as the reference point for coaches who need more than a calendar.

Ranking criteria for this comparison: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost, and setup effort (including Coachful's free white-glove build).

Public sentiment differs sharply too. On Trustpilot, Setmore showed 4.9 from 3,274 reviews and Acuity Scheduling showed 3.6 from 687 reviews when we looked in October 2026. Review counts and scores move, and reviews come from all kinds of businesses, not only coaches, so treat them as a signal rather than a verdict.

How much do Acuity and Setmore cost?

Setmore starts free and its Pro plan is listed at $12 per user, or $5 per user per month on annual billing. Acuity has no free plan and runs from $20 a month (Starter) to $69 a month (Premium) on monthly billing, with annual billing saving 20%. All figures below are as listed in October 2026.

Two notes on reading Setmore's page. The Pro card shows both "$12" and "$5" per user, and a footnote ties $5 to annual billing, so $12 is presumably the monthly-billed price, though the page does not label it. A comparison table further down the page also shows "$125 user/month", which looks like a typo. Confirm the figure at checkout before you commit. Setmore also sells a Live Receptionist add-on at $99 a month (US only) and extra SMS credits, with no price shown for the credits.

Acuity's prices exclude tax. Its Premium plan went up from $61 to $69 monthly ($49 to $55 on annual billing) compared with our September 2026 profile, and the page now also shows an Enterprise tier. For the full breakdown, see our Acuity Scheduling pricing guide and our Setmore pricing guide.

What does a year cost in practice?

These are worked examples using list prices, not quotes:

• Solo coach who needs SMS reminders, annual billing: Setmore Pro at $5 a month is $60 a year. Acuity Standard (the first Acuity plan with text reminders) at $27 a month is $324 a year.
• Solo coach, monthly billing, no SMS needed: Setmore Free costs $0. Acuity Starter at $20 a month is $240 a year.
• Three coaches who all need SMS, annual billing: Setmore Pro at 3 x $5 is $15 a month, or $180 a year. Acuity Standard covers up to 6 calendars at $27 a month, or $324 a year.
• Health coach who needs a HIPAA BAA, annual billing: Setmore Pro at $60 a year per user against Acuity Premium at $660 a year.

Neither tool charges a platform fee on payments according to its pricing page, but you still pay your processor's rates (Stripe, Square, PayPal or similar). And the subscription is rarely the whole bill. A coach on either scheduler usually adds a separate tool for contracts, a course or program host, an email platform and a website builder. That total stack cost is the number to compare, not the scheduler line alone.

Which has better booking pages and scheduling rules?

Both give you a branded booking page and unlimited appointments. The difference is what each plan adds: Setmore puts recurring and video appointments and 2-way calendar sync in Pro, while Acuity includes time zone conversion and intake forms from Starter and adds a waitlist on Standard.

For a coach, the practical questions are simple. Can a client in another time zone see the right slot? Can you stop people booking you at 6 a.m. tomorrow? Can a weekly client book a recurring slot without rebooking every time? Acuity documents time zone conversion on Starter and multiple time zones on Premium. Setmore lists recurring appointments on Pro, which suits coaches who see the same client at the same hour each week. Setmore's Free plan does not include 2-way calendar sync, which means a busy coach on Free risks double bookings unless they manage the calendar by hand.

Acuity's Premium plan now lists an AI Booking Assistant, and its Premium plan also allows custom CSS so the booking page can match a website more closely. Setmore Pro removes the Setmore branding from your page. If you embed booking on a site you already built, both are workable. Acuity is owned by Squarespace.

Which handles reminders and no-shows better?

Setmore gives you SMS reminders at a lower price: Pro includes 2 reminders plus SMS with 500 SMS credits per user each month. Acuity's text reminders start on Standard. On free or entry plans, both rely on email: Setmore Free sends 1 email reminder, Acuity Starter sends email reminders.

Reminders matter more than most coaches expect, because a missed session is lost income and a weaker client relationship. If you mostly coach working professionals who live in their phone, a text the day before does more than an email that lands next to a hundred others. For the lowest cost of SMS, Setmore Pro is hard to beat on paper. Watch the 500-credit limit if you run high volume, and note that extra credits cost more, at a price not shown on the page.

Deposits are another no-show tool. Setmore lists deposits on Pro. Acuity does not list deposits by name in the pricing summary we used, but it lists packages and memberships, where clients pay upfront for a set of sessions, which has a similar effect on commitment.

How do payments, packages and memberships compare?

Acuity is stronger for coaches who sell bundles: packages, memberships and gift certificates come with Standard. Setmore takes payments on every plan, including Free, and adds deposits on Pro, but its pricing page lists no package or membership feature.

Processor choice is close. Setmore lists Square, Stripe, PayPal and LawPay. Acuity lists Stripe, Square, PayPal and Venmo. If your clients like paying by Venmo, Acuity has the edge; if you take payment in person at a studio, Setmore's Tap to Pay on the Free plan is useful.

What neither documents on its pricing page is the rest of a coaching sale: a signed coaching agreement, a payment plan spread over a 12-week program, an order bump, or an invoice trail tied to each client's record. Setmore's own notes say no contracts or invoicing workflow is shown on its pricing page. If you sell high-ticket programs, you will need another tool for those steps. Our guide to coaching payment software covers what that layer usually includes.

Which has better intake forms and client records?

Acuity, clearly. Custom intake forms are included on every Acuity plan, so you can ask about goals, background or availability at the moment someone books. Setmore's pricing page does not list custom intake forms among its plan features.

Neither tool is a client record in the coaching sense. Acuity's notes are explicit: no client portal for programs, habits, check-ins or messaging. You will see a client's appointment history and their form answers, but not their goals, their progress between calls, or notes tied to a program week. Many coaches keep that in a spreadsheet or a notes app, which works until you have 20 clients and forget who promised what.

On data export, our September 2026 profile notes that Acuity exports clients and appointments to CSV from the admin. Setmore's data export was not documented on the pages we checked. If you might switch later, ask before you sign up how you get your client list out.

Which works better for a team of coaches?

It depends on team size and who needs which features. Setmore Free covers up to 4 users at no cost, and Pro is priced per user with unlimited users. Acuity prices by calendar ranges: 1 on Starter, up to 6 on Standard, up to 36 on Premium.

For two or three coaches who all need SMS, Setmore Pro is cheaper on the worked examples above. Once you reach five or six coaches, Acuity Standard's single price for up to 6 calendars becomes competitive, because Setmore keeps adding a seat per person. Larger practices with more than 6 practitioners land on Acuity Premium or either vendor's Enterprise plan, which is quote-based.

Which is better for health and wellness coaches?

If you need a signed HIPAA Business Associate Agreement, Setmore Pro is the cheaper path, because Acuity offers its BAA only on Premium. Whether you need one depends on your role and the data you hold, so check with an attorney or compliance adviser where it is unclear.

A scope reminder for health, nutrition and wellness coaches: coaching is not medical treatment. Coaches support behaviour change; diagnosing, treating or prescribing belongs to licensed clinicians. Refer a client to their doctor or a licensed professional if they report new or worsening symptoms, an eating disorder, thoughts of self-harm, or a condition that needs medical clearance before they change exercise or diet. Clinical records belong in a clinical system.

That matters for the third option below too: Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not the right home for clinical record-keeping. It suits coaches doing non-clinical coaching who want programs, check-ins and habits in one place. More on that in our page for health coaches.

What does the client experience feel like on each?

On both, the client experience is a booking page, a confirmation and reminders. A client picks a slot, pays if required, answers any intake questions, and gets reminded. After the session, there is nothing else for them to log into.

That is a strength when the relationship is transactional. A one-off strategy call, a single consultation or a discovery call does not need more. It is a weakness when the coaching happens between calls. A client on a 12-week program wants to see this week's focus, tick off a habit, answer a check-in, rewatch a lesson or message you. With Acuity or Setmore, each of those lives in a different tool, with a different login, which is where clients drop off.

Setmore lists review requests on Pro, which helps you collect feedback after sessions. Acuity's Standard waitlist lets a client grab a slot when someone cancels. Both are pleasant touches; neither changes what happens on day 3 of week 5 of your program.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

Match the tool to the shape of your offer, not to the feature list. Here is how the three options line up for common coaching setups.

If you are leaning toward Acuity but still unsure, our Acuity Scheduling review goes deeper, and Acuity vs Calendly and Calendly vs Setmore cover the other common pairing.

Is there a third option that beats both?

For coaches who deliver programs rather than single sessions, yes. Coachful is a coaching platform where booking is one part of a single subscription that also covers payments, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for you and one branded app for your clients.

What it is. Coachful is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, for solo coaches growing into a small team, and for coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and shows 4.5 on Trustpilot from 21 reviews.

How does Coachful's scheduling compare with Acuity and Setmore?

On scheduling, Coachful covers what most coaches use in Acuity or Setmore. Booking pages have availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection. Calendars sync two ways with Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook. Sessions get built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links. Clients get email reminders, plus SMS 24 hours before and WhatsApp 1 hour before once messaging is enabled. You can sell paid sessions and session credits, ask intake questions on booking, and assign multi-coach session types round-robin or to the least-busy coach.

Here is a short walkthrough of scheduling in Coachful:

See our scheduling software page for the full detail, or Coachful as an Acuity alternative if you are moving off Acuity today.

What happens after the booking?

This is where Coachful differs from both schedulers. After the booking, the client lands in a branded coaching home with their next session, their program, their progress and their documents. You can run multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks.

Courses (modules, lessons, drip, completion tracking), downloads and videos are delivered into the same home. A community feed, group chat, direct messages and video events sit alongside, and cohort groups are created automatically when someone enrolls in a program.

How are payments and contracts handled?

Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account: one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Stripe Tax. Each transaction gets an invoice, and you can send manual invoices. Since August 2026 Coachful charges a 0% platform fee; you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and are stored on the client record, which covers the gap neither scheduler fills. Our coaching contracts page explains how that works.

What does Coachful cost compared with a scheduler stack?

Coachful uses flat monthly plans: lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, and team plans add coach seats. Monthly plans cancel in one click, and there is a free trial. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.

For a coach with around 15 clients, the relevant plan is here: Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients. Set that against a scheduler subscription plus whatever you pay for contracts, a course host, email marketing and a website. The comparison that matters is the whole stack, and Coachful's scheduling, contracts, programs, courses, community, website and email are all included in your Coachful membership.

Why Coachful stands out

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create > We'll build it for you in the app, you describe what you want built: a website, a funnel, a sales page, a program, a course outline and written material, an email sequence, a form, a link-in-bio page and more. You can attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as logos, photos and brand guides. The Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not cover recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more in our guide to the free white-glove service.

Recent builds give a sense of scope. A leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away got one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. A business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. A menopause and midlife health coach starting from nothing got a five-page site in sage and cream, with every button leading to a free 20-minute consultation. During onboarding, your clients, programs and content are imported for you as well.

When does Coachful beat both, and when does it not?

Coachful beats Acuity and Setmore when the coaching happens between sessions: programs, habits, check-ins, courses, group work and contracts, all under one login. It also wins when you are paying for four to six separate tools and want one, and when you would rather have the setup built for you.

Be honest about where it does not fit:

• You only need a free booking page. Setmore's entry plan costs nothing, and that is not something Coachful matches: every Coachful plan is paid after the trial.
• You need a HIPAA BAA. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA. Setmore Pro or Acuity Premium list one.
• Your clients pay by PayPal or Venmo. Coachful does not support PayPal; Acuity supports both PayPal and Venmo.
• You need routing forms that pick a host from form answers. Coachful does not offer that.
• You want the client app under your own App Store account. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful app listing.
• You run a large sales team that needs a multi-stage deal board or a Salesforce or HubSpot integration. Coachful has neither.

How to start. Start a free trial, then request a free white-glove build from the Create page so your booking page, first program or website is ready to review. You can compare other options on our comparison hub or in our list of Acuity alternatives for coaches. If you are moving from Acuity specifically, this switch guide walks through the steps.

Frequently asked questions

Is Setmore cheaper than Acuity?

Yes, on list prices as of October 2026. Setmore has a free plan and its Pro plan is $5 per user per month on annual billing, while Acuity starts at $16 a month on annual billing and has no free plan. For larger teams the gap narrows, because Setmore charges per user and Acuity charges by calendar range.

Does Acuity or Setmore have a free plan?

Setmore does: up to 4 users, unlimited appointments, a branded booking page and payments, but only 1 email reminder and no SMS. Acuity has no free plan; it offers a 7-day free trial on every plan with no credit card.

Which sends SMS reminders more cheaply?

Setmore. Its Pro plan includes 2 reminders plus SMS with 500 SMS credits per user per month. Acuity's text reminders start on Standard, at $27 a month on annual billing.

Can I sell coaching packages in Acuity or Setmore?

Acuity lists packages, memberships and gift certificates on its Standard plan. Setmore's pricing page lists payments and deposits but no package or membership feature, so Acuity is the better pick if you sell bundles of sessions.

Do Acuity or Setmore offer a HIPAA BAA?

Both do on certain plans: Setmore on Pro and Acuity on Premium, as listed in October 2026. Whether your coaching practice needs a BAA depends on your role and the information you hold, so check with an attorney or compliance adviser.

Can Acuity or Setmore deliver coaching programs?

No. Both are appointment schedulers. Neither lists client programs, habits, check-ins, courses or a community, so coaches who deliver programs usually add other tools or move to a coaching platform.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

It is a build service included on every Coachful plan. You describe what you want (a website, funnel, program, course outline, email sequence and more), attach references, and the Coachful team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include video recording, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.

Does Coachful replace Acuity or Setmore for booking?

For most coaches, yes. Coachful's booking pages include availability rules, buffers, minimum notice, time-zone detection, two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook sync, video links, reminders and paid sessions. It does not support PayPal or routing forms, so check those first if you rely on them.

Can I export my data if I leave?

Our September 2026 profile notes Acuity exports clients and appointments to CSV. Setmore's export was not documented on the pages we checked. Coachful offers a full client data export as a ZIP, covering roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses.

Which is better for a brand-new coach?

If you only need people to book calls, Setmore Free is the lowest-risk start. If you plan to sell a program within your first few months, starting on a coaching platform saves a migration later. Our page for new coaches covers that path.