My Favorite Calendly & Acuity Alternative (Breely Review)
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I've tried a LOT of online schedulers over the years, including Acuity, Calendly, TidyCal, Cal.com, plus a handful that don't even exist anymore. Running this business for ten years means for every tool I've tried, I've migrated every appointment type, rebuilt every reminder email, and then possibly side-eyeing the next cool scheduler that promised to fix whatever the current one couldn't.
Breely is different than ALL of them though. I started using it over a year ago and I still love it, which (if you know my track record with software) is kind of a big deal. 😅
Paid plans are only $7 a month, there's a generous free plan, and it does stuff I've NEVER seen a scheduler do, especially not at this price. It's even HIPAA compliant, has conditional logic in its forms, and it has an AI assistant that will actually build things for you if you ask it.
So in this Breely review, I'm showing you inside my actual account. You'll see how I've set it up for my web design business, the features I use every week, and the ones I haven't touched yet. If you'd rather watch than read, the full video walkthrough is right here. 👇
👉🏼 Want to try it? Sign up for Breely here.*
Breely Was Co-Founded by the Founder of Acuity Scheduling
Before I show you the inside of my account, you should know who's behind Breely, because it's a big part of why I trusted it so quickly.
Breely was co-founded by Gavin Zuchlinski, the same guy who founded Acuity Scheduling, and later sold it to Squarespace.Now he's building Breely from scratch so he can do all the things he never got Acuity to do (or never had the time to dig into, who knows).
I'm happy to say I've met Gavin, and he's a genuinely nice guy! I'm also in the Breely expert group, and over the past year I've noticed that when we've submitted feature requests in there, they actually get attention. Many of them (not 100% of them, but a large chunk of them) get added too, and some show up shockingly fast (more on that in a sec!).
I was actually introduced to Breely by Christy Price. She mentioned it while we discussing how Cal.com had changed their free plan & I was feeling irritated by their removal of basic features. When she mentioned it, my brain kinda went 'OMG, I need to check this out', so I set up a call with Gavin to talk about it and signed up for the free plan.
...And I've been using it ever since! So shout out to you, Christy, for introducing me to Gavin and to Breely! 💙
Breely Features at a Glance
Breely truly does work a bit differently than every other scheduler I've used before, and at first that confused the hell out of me. I kept expecting it to behave like Acuity or Calendly, and it's not either of those. It's BETTER.
It seems almost simplistic on the surface, but once you dig in you can start to see how robust it is under the hood. So it can do a LOT, but after you conquer the minor learning curve, it still manages to feel easy to use.
Their website's tagline is "flexible scheduling, limitless possibilities," and honestly, that's what it feels like!
A quick list of Breely’s included features:
Embeddable booking forms. Breely gives you a booking link or code for each form you build, and you can embed them anywhere: Showit, Webflow, Squarespace, Kitchen portals, it doesn't matter.
Events of all kinds. One-on-one appointments, classes, and workshops, including RSVPs—paid or free!
Payments. Accept payments for paid appointment types through Stripe or Square.
Standalone forms. Forms don't even have to be used for scheduling. Use them for lead capture, support tickets, package purchases, gift certificates, whatever you dream up.
Booking conditionals. Each section of a form can also have conditional logic that sends people down a different path. It's not the most robust conditional logic I've ever seen, but the fact that it exists at all (when most schedulers don't have it) is a big deal.
Video conferencing. Connects with Google Meet and Zoom.
Calendar sync. Works with iCloud, Google, and Office 365.
Selling tools. Packages, gift certificates, subscriptions, invoices, and your own coupon codes.
HIPAA compliance. This is absolutely unheard of in this price range. 🤯 The only catch I'm aware of is that the built-in AI assistant isn't, so if this is important for you, only use it before you begin collecting client information, during your account setup.
Signatures. They're basic, but you can have someone agree to terms with a checkbox, or sign an actual contract term. I may not support multiple signers, but I haven't tested that to be certain.
Reporting. Pretty customizable, but it looks like a spreadsheet with CSV exporting.
People or resources. You can set up event types to book time with a person on your team, or book a resource, like a service, spot or a room.
Waitlisting. I haven't tried this one yet, but I love that it's built-in.
Scheduling rules. Booking limits, prioritization, round robin, and a "make me look busy" option if you want your calendar to look a little fuller when people check it out.
Texts & automations. On top of custom email automations per form, you can also send text reminders for appointments.
Basic email marketing. It even includes a few account-wide automations you can set up for things like sending 1 year anniversary notices with optional gifts/discounts, celebrate when clients have booked 10 sessions, rebooking reminders, celebrate the new year, ask for reviews, and empty class alerts.
And that's not even everything! Let's look at how it all works in practice though.
Inside My Breely Account: Calendar, Clients & Reports
I've been running Launch the Damn Thing for ten years as a Squarespace designer and educator, and I'm not using the same tools I used five years ago.
I don't think we need to stay loyal to tools that stop working for us as our businesses change and grow, whether that's the price skyrocketing, missing features that never get addressed, or something else.
So this isn't a "here's what it says on the box" review. 🤭 I've actually been using Breely for my own business for over a year, BEFORE sharing this review with you, and this is just what it looks like from the inside.
Color-coding: resources can be one color, while appointments can be another!
The Color-Coded Calendar
The joke's legit on me, with this one. It took me an embarrassing amount of time (a little more than a year 🫠) to realize that we can color code the bookings on our calendar view within Breely; not because it’s hard to find, but because I never thought to investigate whether it was possible.
This is really useful if you have multiple People or Things (Spots/Resources) clients can book. When I finally found it, I literally said out loud, 'oh my god, has this been here the whole time?!' 😂
In my account, people can either book a service with me to hold a few hours of time on my calendar (but NOT need to literally meet with me), or they can book time to meet with me on a video call, and those are two different things.
Now those can show up in different branded colors in my Breely account's calendar, which makes it super easy to see what my appointments & events looks like at a glance. You also get day, month, and list (agenda) views in this area.
Custom fields shown in the Client list
Client Profiles & Internal Notes
The client list area can show a custom field label if you've added any, effectively labelling clients in the list however you want.
When you open a client's profile, you can:
Write internal notes and adjust those labels to identify what type of contact they are
Add details like "ghosted me," so you're aware the next time they book
See their past appointments, gift certificates they've bought or used, and any forms they've filled out
Subscribe them to marketing emails (which I do NOT recommend unless they've opted in themselves in any form they've submitted)
Custom Reports
The reports section is fully customizable. I can pull a list of all appointment-specific payments and transactions, all contacts, all leads, all submissions for a specific form, whatever I need.
There are several starter reports to work from, or you can build your own from scratch. Everything lives in a spreadsheet-style view that you can export to a CSV and pull into Airtable, Notion, Dubsado (or any CRM), or wherever else you keep your client data.
Booking Links Pro tip:
On a Mac, you can create "Text Replacement" shortcuts in Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements for commonly used meeting links! For every shortcut you create, when you type it anywhere on your computer, it'll replace the typed shortcut with whatever you set it to. For example, I have shortcuts for these, among many others:
omw = On my way.
hi@launch = hi@launchthedamnthing.com
#copper = (my brand color's hex code)
1:1sesh = one-on-one service appointments/meetings (book, sign, pay)
vip-day = booking form for Design Days (book, sign, pay)
misc-meeting = booking form for miscellaneous free client meetings
casual-meeting = booking form for personal meetings with work friends, etc
inquiry-form = a general lead capture form that can vet leads & allow discovery call bookings
Booking Links, Availability & Event Types
You can grab booking links in a couple of clicks, which is always handy when someone emails you asking for a time to chat.
Availability settings in Breely can be pretty granular. I have different availability for services people can book with me, versus time people can meet with me. Being able to separate those two things has been a HUGE help when your week is a mix of client work and meetings/calls.
Event types also come with automatic categories, and you can add your own custom categories to group them into buckets so your event list doesn't turn into one long eeeeeendless scrolling list.
Using Breely as a Lightweight CRM
Please hear me when I say that Breely is NOT trying to be Dubsado or HoneyBook. But between packages, contracts, and invoices, you could use it as a very light CRM if your business is on the simpler side because there is a bit of crossover in features. Let's dive into those now, actually!
Invoices, Packages, & Subscriptions
You can sell packages through Breely, and since clients can sign contracts too, a lot of the basics are covered here. You can also create invoices, connect them to Stripe or Square for checkout, and send them to people straight from Breely.
For full transparency: I haven't used the invoice feature myself yet. So far I've only had people pay for appointments inside one of my forms, so I haven't needed it. That means I can't tell you what it's like for bigger invoices that may need to be split into multiple percentage-based payments (like breaking a website project payment into 33%, 33%, and 34% to pay off the invoice total in 3 separate payments). It's an interesting feature, but I can't vouch for it personally yet!
Subscriptions are great for offering recurring appointments, services, or resources, especially if it's tied to an appointment on your calendar. I may have no more than 1-2 clients on recurring maintenance plans, and I use Breely to collect those payments, and my client portal in Kitchen to manage the tasks, files & communication about the work, each month. For subscriptions, clients can log in and:
Book new appointments
See past appointments
Update their billing info
Cancel their subscription anytime
That makes it easy for both of us to manage the financials, and it also means I'm not chasing anybody for a card update or a late payment. 🙌
Gift Certificates & Coupons
There's a separate section for gift certificates (with their own automations, forms, codes, and settings), and when you add this 'block' to any form, you can also set which appointments or resources it can be applied to. The form allows any client or customer to purchase one for themselves, or for someone else, and set delivery options as well!
Inside the coupon settings, you can choose what percentage discount, what the code will be, which types of paid appointments or resources they can be applied to, the usage limits, and expiration for the discount code.
Email Marketing Automation Templates in Breely
Automation Templates
On top of the automations you can customize for each of your forms, Breely also has a separate set of automations with templates to get you started. Those automation templates include:
A special message on a client's one-year anniversary
A coupon after a client's tenth session, so the eleventh gets a discount
Rebooking reminders
A Happy New Year email
Review requests
An empty class alert (which is a really clever one if you run classes or workshops)
For appointment or resource automations in form settings, you can customize the emails or texts that are sent for things like booking confirmations and reminder emails (& texts), as well as webhooks, or even sending an invoice. They're surprisingly flexible!
Creating an account login via form, for clients using Breely with us
Client Account Logins
Since forms in Breely can be used for a lot of different reasons, it's important to note that you can also create forms that don't have a Submit button, but do have a Client Login block, and maybe some instructions.
The reason for this, is so you have a link to this 'form' which allows the client to login and access or update their information on file, without asking you to do it for them. This can give our clients the autonomy they need, in order to cancel their subscriptions, get receipts for past invoices, update their billing information, and even see past appointment details.
You can send this link anywhere, in emails outside of Breely, in Breely's automations, share it in meetings, or your portal, etc. You can also embed the form anywhere too, either via the link, or the provided embed code. So you really can share it wherever you want!
Breely's Form Builder
The form editor in Breely may seem pretty basic to look at. I wouldn't call it "attractive" necessarily, but it's extremely functional. At this stage of my business, that matters way more to me than just being pretty (& maybe not very functional). 🤷♀️
Form Styling Options
Each form can have your logo at the top, your brand colors, and set your button & input fired shape (squared, rounded or pill-shaped). In the style settings, you can also choose a background image or color theme, pick a serif or sans serif font, adjust the font size, choose your accent color for buttons & links, and even add some custom CSS.
The CSS area also provides an element selector which prefills the code area with the correct selector so you don't have to go into Inspect mode to find it, then you can quickly type your properties. These simple but easy customizations are my favorites so far (swap out the colors for whatever matches your brand). 👇🏼
/* input fields */
[data-breely-part='input'] {
border: solid 1px #000000;
}
/* question labels */
[data-breely-part='label'] {
font-weight: bold;
}
/* required asterisk style */
[data-breely-part='required-marker'] {
color: red;
}
One quirk to know about is that, as of publishing, these styles are set per form, not globally for your whole account. That's useful when you want one form to look different from another, but once you have a bunch of forms you need to update brand styles for individually, you'll probably wish that global styles was also an option. 🤭
Form Blocks
The builder is drag and drop, but elements stack vertically only, so no side-by-side or place-anywhere options. Here's the different elements you can add to forms:
Client login. Asks for their name and email, and also provides a register & skip button, so you don't have to require clients us it while including it in your forms.
Client contact info. This contact block collects both name and email together in the same group, but does NOT allow clients to log in. If clients have logged in using the Client Login element, it may fill in the Client Contact Info element for them so they don't have to fill in both sets of the same information.
Email, and phone fields. Great for collecting additional email addresses for guests, or a phone number for texted appointment reminders.
Standard fields:
Single line of text
Paragraph(s) of text
Dates
Location
Yes/No questions
Checkbox (multi-select) questions
Dropdown (single-select) questions
Radio (single-select) questions
File Uploads
Agree To Terms (checkbox + terms)
URL Parameters
Appointment blocks. When you add an appointment element, you choose which event type(s) they can book in that form, then which person or resource they're booking, and a few other scheduler options. And if your form has multiple sections (pages), then you can also allow clients to book multiple event types in the same booking process.
Class booking. I haven't needed this one for my business yet, but it's there and I know other Breely customers love it!
Selling blocks. These elements include Add-ons, Packages, Payments, gift certificates, and even Variable Payments which let you set a minimum, a maximum, and a default amount the form can collect.
Gift certificates. In forms, you can customize the label, set an expiration, add a background image for the certificate itself, set price points or allow a custom value, and choose which events or packages it can go toward. Really robust! Clients can even choose the delivery options (let Breely's system deliver it for them, or deliver it themselves).
Display text. Great for instructional information, separate from questions with input fields, to explain whatever needs explaining or provide additional information in that section of the form. I use this element a LOT!
Video embeds. My favorite recent addition allows us to embed videos into our form sections or thank you pages.
Signatures & Agree To Terms. Signature elements allow a drawn, typed, or uploaded signature file. The Agree To Terms element provides a long-text area for us to type or paste in the terms alongside an agreement checkbox for clients. Agree To Terms can be set to required, and Signatures can be set to pre-fill the client's last signature so if they're logged in they won't have to fill out that field differently each time.
Video Embeds
Video embeds weren't available Q3 of 2026. I requested the feature in Breely's expert group, and they added it the same day, within hours of my post. That's an insane turnaround time for a software company to add new features. 🤯🤩
The Video Embed element can embed content from various video hosts including: YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Wistia, Tella, and Livid (Vimeo's latest competitor).
These are fantastic for including a walkthrough of how to book the event, or how the service works, or even a thank you note shown on the customizable thank you page after they submit the form, maybe also walking them through next steps, etc.
Conditional Logic: One Inquiry Form for Every Kind of Inquiry
This is my favorite way to show off how robust Breely actually is!
These days, my inquiries come from all over the place. Sometimes they are software companies, potential clients, students, customers with questions, podcast hosts, or people who just want a backlink. A traditional service inquiry form stopped working for me because the wrong people kept filling it out, and all those pitches (good and bad) got dumped in with my real leads in my CRM even though they'd never be "clients" I needed to manage there. They were just filling up my CRM with bullshit 'contacts.'
So I've built one inquiry form in Breely that uses conditional logic to route people down different paths, skipping the parts that aren't relevant to them as they fill out the form. The same form handles ALL of the following:
Someone selling software who wants a backlink mention
Someone inviting me to be a guest on their podcast, or other guest collab opportunities
A client who wants to book a discovery call
A client who wants to book a paid service appointment, without waiting on me to facilitate that process
If someone's sending me what's basically a spammy cold pitch, the form won't let them book a call with me, because that's not relevant for the reason they're filling out the form. But if they're a potential client interested in hiring me for a custom website, they'll get routed to book a discovery call to chat about it with me instead.
The best part is that from the visitor's side, the form looks & feels simple. There are only a couple of questions per page, and it shows something like "step 1 of 3," because each person only sees the steps that apply to them. Behind the scenes, the full form is eight or nine pages long with just a couple questions per page.
You get to make it as complex or simple as you need to on the back end while it still feels easy for whoever fills it out!
Breely's AI Assistant Can Do the Setup for You
I mapped out that whole Lead Capture form on a simple whiteboard first (outside of Breely) to figure out the logic first, then used Breely's AI assistant to help build it for me. The assistant isn't just informational, it's also agentic, which is a fancy way of saying it can take action in your account for you, with your permission. You can ask it questions about how Breely works, and you can also ask it to do things for you, which is especially helpful in the beginning stages of setting up your account before you are familiar with the tool.
For example, you could ask whether it's possible to have one set of availability for appointments where people book time on your calendar (say, Monday through Friday), and a different set for services or classes you lead. It'll tell you yes, and here's how it would set that up. Then it may follow up by asking if can you just want it to do that for you. If so, it explains what it's going to do and asks your permission before running anything. That has saved a ton of time, especially for the parts of Breely that work differently than you're used to. 🤖
Automations Based on Form Answers
You're thinking, 'okay, but how do I handle automated follow-up for all those different submissions?'
Here's how I set that up:
People who book an appointment get Breely's automatic confirmation email with their appointment details and the option to cancel or reschedule, a recap of what they submitted in the form, and appointment reminders closer to the date. These appointment-specific emails only go out when an appointment is scheduled, so it bypasses everyone else automatically (who haven't booked an appointment).
People sharing a guest opportunity get their own autoresponder, but don't get booking confirmations, or appointment reminders. They don't get any further follow-up emails, unless I personally respond.
People with a general question (or "other") get their own confirmation email letting them know what to expect from my response times, with links to helpful resources to look through while they wait, and a recap of their form submission's answers for reference. They don't get any further follow-up emails, unless I personally respond.
People pitching a sponsorship, backlink, or guest post get their own email follow-up to confirm submission went through, get a copy of their form responses, and a note about what I typically respond to or ignore, to correctly set their expectations. They don't get any further follow-up emails, unless I personally respond.
That's three custom follow-up email automations, plus the confirmation email for appointments, all triggered by how someone fills out ONE form.
Breely Insights, Integrations & Settings
Account Insights
Breely provides us with insights specific to our account too, which are basically quick wins we can knock out to run things more efficiently. Depending on how you've set things up in your account, it might suggest fixing services, planning promotions, creating emails, or improving reminders. I love that it's actively helping us get more out of the tool if we want to know what we might be overlooking.
Turn Off Features You Don't Use
In the features and integrations area, you can also switch off any features you don't plan to use in your account, in order to clean up the lefthand sidebar & simplify it. For example, if waitlisting isn't relevant to you, disable it and it will disappear from the sidebar. Less clutter in the menu, could mean less overwhelm as you navigate and use the tool. 🙏
Integrations
You can connect Google Tag Manager, conversion tracking, Zoom, Zapier, Google Meet, and Microsoft Clarity.
Interesting Settings Options
Subdomain. You can set your own Breely subdomain. There's no custom domain option yet, but that's fine with me. I'm always happy to tell people I use Breely, so I don't mind it showing up in the links I share.
Test mode. This quick toggle in settings allows us to test our forms and payment options before anything goes live.
Duplicate your business. We can also copy our whole setup into a new 'business' (within our same Breely account) without carrying over any private client data to the new sub-account. If you run a second business and don't want to start from scratch, this is a lifesaver!
Template links. Want to make your whole account setup a one-click template installation? You can do that, and the shareable link is available in settings.
Multiple Businesses & Shareable Templates
You can run multiple businesses inside the same Breely account, and each one has its own billing, so one can be on the free plan while the other uses a paid plan so it won't have monthly limitations.
I've set up a template sub-account ("business") that I can share with a copyable link. When someone starts their Breely account from that template link, all of the templates' forms, automations, and reports get copied into their new account, minus any client data. They can change anything they want in their copy, but they don't have to start from a blank page, which is really cool!
This particular template of mine is built for web designers. Anyone who starts with it gets:
Paid appointment forms already set up
Form automations, including the confirmation email, reminder emails, reminder texts, rescheduling confirmations, and cancellation confirmations
Preset availability (because figuring out people vs. services confused me at first too, until I talked it through with Breely's AI)
Example event types, waitlisting, packages, subscriptions, and coupons
Custom reports ready to go
They'd just need to add their business mailing address to the settings for automations, since that's required by law in the US. And Breely's insights will start suggesting improvements based on how they customize their copy of my template account.
You can create as many free accounts as you want. I only pay for the one I use for my own business; my template(s) all use the free plan.
For web designers who work with therapists or other healthcare providers, Breely could be an excellent fit for a small telehealth or local practices, letting their clients book sessions, pay, and sign what they need to, all while keeping everything HIPAA compliant. A designer could build that entire system as a template, then hand the client ONE link to start their Breely account with everything already set up for them, and ready to customize. That's literally plug and play—fucking amazing!
Breely’s Pros & Cons & my Final Verdict
After more than a year of using Breely very regularly myself, and sharing it with my students & members in the Club, here's what I love and don't love about Breely:
What I Love About Breely
The price. $7 a month for paid plans, and a generous free plan to explore or try it first. Nothing else I've tested comes close for what you get at that price!
HIPAA compliance at a price point you'd never expect it to be.
Conditional logic in forms, which lets one form do the job of several.
The agentic AI assistant that can set things up for you, with your permission.
Subscriptions & client logins, so recurring clients can manage their own billing and bookings, without needing my help.
Shareable account templates are a game changer for designers who set up systems for their clients.
A team that listens: feature requests often get added, and updates roll out frequently, communicated in the Breely expert group.
What Could Be Better
It's not the prettiest. The form editor is functional, not gorgeous, and the UI is modern but not 'attractive.'
No global form styles. Styling is per form, which can get tedious once you have a lot of forms to update styling in, one by one.
Vertical-only form layouts, with no side-by-side layout options yet.
No custom domain for your booking pages (at least not yet), so you can't fully white-label it.
Basic signatures, fine for short agreements, but not great for long multi-page contracts.
A learning curve, because Breely works differently than other schedulers.
Powered by Breely is at the top & bottom of forms on free plans, and only at the bottom of forms on paid plans; you can't ever remove it entirely & I'm not certain whether the hyperlinked "Breely" in this section is our referral link. (I should ask!)
My Final Verdict
Breely might not be the most gorgeous app out there, but it's by far the most affordable and absolutely most functional scheduler I've ever used. And I've tested a LOT of schedulers!
The team behind it is responsive, they listen to how we actually use the tool, and they keep shipping improvements.
If your current scheduler isn't working for you anymore, whether that's the price creeping up or features that just aren't there, you don't owe it any loyalty.
Breely is a great option to try, especially since you can start on the free plan and see how it fits before ever paying a dime.
👉🏼 Ready to try it? Sign up for Breely here. Whether or not you use my affiliate link is totally up to you, but my reading fund will thank you if you do. 📚
And if you try it and love it, leave a comment and let me know! I'd love to hear how you're using it. If you want more honest tool reviews like this one, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss the next one. 😄
