Microsoft Bookings vs Acuity Scheduling (2026) compared

Choose Acuity Scheduling if you run a client-facing service business that needs to take payment at booking (Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo), send text reminders, or sign a HIPAA BAA, and you are happy to pay per account rather than per seat. Keep Microsoft Bookings if your meetings run on Microsoft Teams, your organisation already has Microsoft 365, and you don't need payments or custom CSS.

Acuity is owned by Squarespace and is built for practitioners, studios and small service teams. Bookings is part of Microsoft 365 and is built around Exchange mailboxes and Teams meetings. They overlap on basic service scheduling but differ in almost everything around it.

Side-by-side comparison#

Acuity prices in USD as listed on Acuity's pricing page in September 2026. They change, so check before you buy.

Scheduling and routing#

Bookings handles services, staff and business hours on shared booking pages, plus personal "Bookings with me" pages. If a customer chooses "Anyone", Microsoft's FAQ says staff are assigned randomly, with no equal distribution and no cap per staff member. Field reports on Microsoft Q&A describe alphabetical assignment, so the sources conflict. Staff time zones can't be set individually.

Acuity counts calendars rather than seats: Starter has 1, Standard up to 6 and Premium up to 36, described as "separate calendars per employee or location". Premium adds multiple time zones for staff and locations, plus an "AI Booking Assistant". Round-robin or automatic staff assignment is not described on Acuity's pricing page, so check with Acuity if you need it.

Reminders: Bookings sends email reminders from 15 minutes to two weeks before an appointment. SMS is part of Teams Premium and needs a US, Canada or UK number, while an older FAQ passage says SMS covers North America through Skype or Twilio. SMS reminders in Bookings explains the difference. Acuity lists text reminders on Standard and Premium and asks you to "check global availability".

Embedding and branding#

Bookings offers an iframe, found on the Booking page tab of a shared booking page, and lets you set colours and a logo. Custom CSS isn't documented (see custom CSS in Bookings).

Acuity's developer docs point to embed code from inside the app. They document URL parameters that prefill the form (firstName, email, appointmentType, calendarID, datetime and custom field: values), and note the HTML embed can run inside mobile WebViews. "Custom API and CSS" and hiding the "Powered by Acuity Scheduling" footer are Premium features.

Tracking and analytics#

Bookings' native tracking is the RefID URL parameter, which feeds a downloadable TSV report. Microsoft gives two windows for that report: four months in one article, 120 days in the FAQ. There's no documented GA4, Google Ads or Meta integration and no redirect after booking. Meta Pixel and Bookings covers what you can and can't track.

Acuity's integrations page lists "Google Analytics: Send events about scheduled appointments to Google Analytics", "Custom Conversion Tracking: Enter code from any conversion tracking application", and a Facebook integration that lets you "use your Facebook Ads Pixel". Which plans include these is not stated on the pages we could read.

Integrations and webhooks#

Microsoft doesn't provide Bookings webhooks. The Graph API covers shared bookings only, and application permissions need tenant admin consent. The Power Automate connector is in preview, only Bookings admins can use its triggers, and each Bookings mailbox allows five flows.

Acuity documents static webhooks under Integrations and a dynamic Webhooks API. Events are scheduled, rescheduled, canceled, changed and order.completed, signed with HMAC-SHA256. Which plan includes webhooks is not stated on their site. The pricing page ties "Custom API" to Premium. The API uses HTTP Basic auth or OAuth2, and Acuity notes it "does not support cross origin requests".

For Microsoft 365, Acuity's integrations page says it can "sync Acuity Scheduling to your existing Outlook calendar". Microsoft Teams isn't among the video-conferencing integrations listed. That page names Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting and Join.me, and the pricing page mentions "Google Meet, Zoom, and GoToMeeting integrations". Bookings, by contrast, creates a unique Teams link for each appointment booked as an online meeting.

Payments#

This is Acuity's clearest advantage. Its pricing page lists "Payments via Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo" on every plan. Microsoft's FAQ says "there's no payment support in Bookings". If you currently send payment links separately, see can Bookings take payments.

Data and compliance#

Microsoft stores Bookings data in Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online, using shared mailboxes. Compliance policies for shared mailboxes in Exchange also apply to Bookings mailboxes. Bookings is cloud-only. A consent checkbox can be made required, and the consent time is recorded.

Acuity's Premium plan includes "Sign BAA for HIPAA compliance". Its pricing FAQ says "Squarespace, and its affiliated products, comply with data privacy laws applicable to them". Health practices comparing the two should read Microsoft Bookings for clinics and ask each vendor about their compliance obligations directly.

Pricing#

Bookings is included in listed plans, including Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, E1, E3, E5, A3, A5, F1 and F3, Teams Essentials and Teams Premium, and several Office 365 plans. Microsoft doesn't sell it standalone, and Outlook on the web must be enabled. Check Microsoft's site for current plan prices.

Acuity, as listed on Acuity's pricing page in September 2026 (USD per account per month):

"Acuity doesn't offer free appointment scheduling at this time", but you can try any plan for 7 days without a credit card.

When to keep Microsoft Bookings#

• Your consultations run on Teams and you want a unique Teams link on every online appointment.
• You already have an eligible Microsoft 365 plan and don't want per-account fees on top.
• Payment happens elsewhere (invoicing, an existing billing system) or not at all.
• You want booking data held in Exchange Online under your current Microsoft 365 policies.

When to switch#

• Collecting payment at the moment of booking matters to your business.
• You need a signed HIPAA BAA from your scheduling vendor.
• You need text reminders outside the US, Canada and UK, subject to Acuity's own country coverage.
• You want custom CSS and to hide the vendor footer.
• Staff work in several time zones.

Keeping Bookings and filling the gaps with BookingsXP#

If your team is staying on Teams and Bookings but the website booking experience is the problem, BookingsXP adds a styled widget built from your public booking page link, with templates, brand colours and no admin consent. Appointments are still created in Microsoft Bookings, so Microsoft's confirmation email and Teams link are unchanged. The widget also reports each funnel step to GA4, Google Ads and Meta (analytics). It doesn't take payments or provide a BAA, so Acuity remains the better fit for those needs.

BookingsXP is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. Microsoft Bookings, Microsoft 365, Outlook and Teams are trademarks of Microsoft. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.