Better Bookings vs Acuity Scheduling - What Changes When You Switch

Pricing

Acuity's pricing has three tiers: Emerging ($16/month for 1 staff), Growing ($27/month for up to 6 staff), and Powerhouse ($49/month for up to 36 staff). These are US dollar prices and may vary by region. For a solo practitioner, $16/month is reasonable. But for a small team of 3-6 people on the Growing plan, you are paying $27/month with limitations on advanced features that only unlock on Powerhouse. Better Bookings charges £20/month for solo operators and £40/month for teams up to 10. All features are included on both plans - there is no feature gating by tier. For a team of 4-6 people, Better Bookings at £40/month is typically 30-50% cheaper than Acuity's Growing plan, and significantly cheaper than Powerhouse. The bigger difference is the model: Acuity gates features by tier, Better Bookings differentiates only by team size.

Squarespace dependency

Since the acquisition, Acuity has deepened its integration with Squarespace. If your website is built on Squarespace, the booking embed is native and smooth. But if your website is on WordPress, Wix, Shopify, or a custom platform, the integration is less polished. You can still embed Acuity via iframe, but you lose some of the design integration that Squarespace users get. Better Bookings is platform-agnostic by design. It provides embed code (iframe, floating button, or inline widget) that works identically on any website regardless of the platform. You can also share a direct booking link that works standalone without any website at all. There is no ecosystem to lock into. Whether you have a WordPress site today and switch to Wix next year, your booking system works the same way.

Features

On core features, both platforms handle scheduling, automated reminders, and payment collection competently. The gap appears in the features that help service businesses grow and retain clients. Better Bookings includes waitlist management (filling cancelled slots automatically), loyalty stamp programs (rewarding repeat visits), branded gift cards (generating new client referrals), QR check-in (replacing reception sign-in sheets), session packs (selling bundles of appointments), recurring memberships (monthly subscriptions with Stripe billing), full team scheduling (per-staff calendars, availability, and booking pages), and a customisable dashboard with drag-and-drop cards. Acuity offers some of these (packages, memberships) but others are missing or limited at lower tiers. The net result is that service businesses on Acuity often need to add supplementary tools for loyalty, gift cards, and waitlist management, while Better Bookings handles these natively.

White-label and enterprise

If you operate multiple locations, manage a franchise network, or want to offer booking services under your own brand to other businesses, Acuity does not support these use cases. There is no multi-location dashboard, no franchise management, and no white-label licensing option. Better Bookings supports all three. Multi-location businesses manage all branches from one login with unified reporting. Franchise networks get centralised oversight with per-location independence. White-label licensing lets organisations launch their own branded booking platform for their members. These are enterprise-level capabilities that grow with your business rather than requiring a platform switch when you outgrow a single-location tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Acuity Scheduling going away?

No - it continues to operate under Squarespace. But pricing, features, and strategic direction are now determined by Squarespace, which has shifted focus toward website-first rather than scheduling-first.