Cal.com

Cal.com is an open-source scheduling platform that competes head-on with Calendly, offering both a cloud-hosted version and the option to self-host the entire stack on your own infrastructure. The free tier for individuals is generous, with no caps on bookings or event types and full access to core scheduling features.

Paid plans start at $12/user/mo for Teams with round-robin and group events, and $28/user/mo for Organizations with advanced controls and admin features. The self-hosted route is free in license terms, but you'll cover server costs and the ongoing work of running it yourself.

For podcast guest booking, Cal.com works well: build dedicated intake event types, embed booking links in pitch emails, route different guest categories to different calendars, and chain workflow automations that send pre-show questionnaires or post-recording thank-you emails. The open-source angle matters most for teams that care about data sovereignty or want to extend the platform with custom logic.

The trade-offs versus Calendly are real. Cal.com still has fewer native CRM and ecosystem integrations, the UI is improving but still feels slightly rougher in places, and self-hosting is only sensible if you have engineering capacity.

For a solo show or small network that wants a polished scheduling link without infrastructure overhead, Cal.com's cloud free tier is excellent. For privacy-conscious teams or those already running their own stack, the self-hosted path is genuinely useful.