Booked vs Acuity Scheduling
Acuity is general-purpose scheduling that suits consultants, coaches and clinics equally. Booked is built only for salons, barbershops and studios, so the defaults — chairs, services, deposits, no-shows, walk-ins — already match how a shop runs.
Side by side
| Acuity Scheduling | Booked | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Appointments in general, across many industries | Salons, barbershops, nail and massage studios only |
| Shop page | An embeddable scheduler on your own site | A complete public page with services, staff and photos |
| Defaults | Configurable to almost anything, which takes time | Opinionated for shops. Live in about five minutes |
| Card processing | Bundled with the booking product on most plans | Optional. 3.75% + 45¢ per successful charge, all-in, and only if you turn it on |
| Leaving | Export what the platform chooses to export | Export customers and bookings as CSV, any time, without asking support |
Choose Acuity Scheduling when
- You are not a shop. Acuity's generality is a genuine strength for consultants and clinics.
- You already run a Squarespace site and want scheduling inside it.
- You need intake forms, packages and appointment types that vary widely per client.
Choose Booked when
- You run chairs and want staff, services and buffers to work without configuration.
- You want a public shop page rather than a booking widget.
- You want no-show handling and deposits as first-class features, not add-ons.
Questions
- I have a Squarespace site. Can I still use Booked?
- Yes. Link to your Booked page from your site's booking button. You keep the site you have and clients book on a page built for shops.
- Does Booked have intake forms?
- Not the way Acuity does. You get a notes field per booking and customer notes in the CRM. If you need long custom intake forms per service, Acuity handles that better.