Acuity Plans Explained: Features, Limits, and What's Missing

Acuity Scheduling is a popular booking tool owned by Squarespace. It handles appointments, reminders, and client intake for coaches, consultants, therapists, and service providers.

But picking the right Acuity plan isn't straightforward. Features are split across tiers, the plan names have changed, and the sticker price doesn't tell the full story.

This guide covers every Acuity plan side by side, what each tier actually includes, what's locked behind higher plans, and where the gaps are.

All Four Acuity Plans at a Glance

Acuity offers three self-service plans and one enterprise tier. All paid plans come with a 7-day free trial. There is no permanent free plan. Annual billing saves roughly 20% compared to monthly.

Note: Acuity renamed its plans in late 2023. If you see "Emerging," "Growing," and "Powerhouse" referenced elsewhere, those map to Starter, Standard, and Premium respectively.

All plans share a set of core features: unlimited appointments, client self-scheduling, a shareable booking page, email confirmations, custom intake forms, Stripe/Square/PayPal integration, and automatic time zone detection.

The differences live in the details. Let's walk through each tier.

Starter Plan: The Basics for Solo Users

Starter costs $20/month or $16/month with annual billing. It's the most affordable entry point into Acuity.

What you get:

• 1 staff calendar
• Unlimited services and appointments
• Client self-scheduling with a booking link
• Email confirmations and reminders
• Custom intake forms
• Stripe, Square, or PayPal payment collection
• Zoom, Google Meet, and GoToMeeting integration
• Website embed widget
• Mobile app

What you don't get:

• No SMS/text reminders
• No packages, memberships, or subscriptions
• No gift certificates
• No group scheduling or classes
• No option to remove Acuity branding

The biggest limitation is the lack of text reminders. Email open rates hover around 20%. Texts get seen immediately. If you're running paid coaching sessions, skipping SMS reminders means more no-shows and lost revenue.

Starter also locks you out of session packages. If your business model depends on selling bundles of sessions (5-packs, monthly retainers, etc.), you'll need Standard from day one.

Who Starter actually fits: Professionals who schedule in-person appointments, already have low no-show rates, work solo, and don't sell packages. Think independent massage therapists, photographers, or consultants who schedule one-off calls.

Standard Plan: Where Most Coaches Land

Standard costs $34/month or $27/month with annual billing. It's Acuity's most popular plan for good reason: it unlocks the features that matter most for client-based businesses.

Everything in Starter, plus:

• Up to 6 staff calendars
• SMS/text message reminders
• Packages and session bundles
• Memberships and recurring subscriptions
• Gift certificates
• Group scheduling and classes
• Acuity branding removal
• Advanced customization options

The jump from $16 to $27/month (annual) buys three things that genuinely change how you run your business: text reminders, packages, and group scheduling.

Text reminders alone can reduce no-shows by 30-50%. Session packages create recurring revenue and boost client retention. Group scheduling lets you run workshops and masterclasses for multiple attendees.

The catch? If you're solo, you're paying for 6 calendar slots you'll never use. There's no "solo plus" plan that adds these features at a lower price point.

Who Standard actually fits: Solo coaches and consultants who sell session packages, small teams of up to 6 staff, anyone running group sessions, and businesses where text reminders are essential.

Premium Plan: For Teams and Compliance

Premium costs $61/month or $49/month with annual billing. This is Acuity's highest self-service tier.

Everything in Standard, plus:

• Up to 36 staff calendars
• HIPAA compliance (Business Associate Agreement included)
• Full Acuity branding removal
• Multiple time zones for distributed teams
• Custom API and CSS access
• Priority support

Premium exists for two specific use cases: HIPAA compliance and large teams.

If you handle protected health information (therapy practices, medical offices, health coaches with clinical data), HIPAA compliance is non-negotiable and only available on Premium. There's no way around this.

If you have 7+ staff members who need individual calendars, Standard's 6-calendar cap forces an upgrade.

Custom API access is also exclusive to Premium. If you want to build integrations or automate workflows with Acuity data, you're locked out on lower tiers.

Who Premium actually fits: Therapy and healthcare practices requiring HIPAA, businesses with 7-36 staff members, and developers who need API access for custom integrations.

Enterprise Plan: Custom Everything

Enterprise pricing isn't published. You contact Acuity's sales team for a quote.

What it adds over Premium:

• 100+ calendars
• Dedicated account manager
• Multiple Acuity accounts under one billing umbrella
• Centralized management dashboard
• Custom onboarding

Enterprise is built for multi-location organizations, franchises, and large companies that need centralized scheduling across dozens or hundreds of staff.

Most solo creators, coaches, and consultants will never need Enterprise. If you're reading this guide to pick a plan for yourself, you can safely ignore this tier.

What No Acuity Plan Includes

This is where the sticker price gets misleading. Regardless of which plan you choose, Acuity doesn't include several things most online coaches and consultants need.

Built-in video calls. Acuity integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and GoToMeeting, but you bring your own account. Zoom Pro costs $13/month. Google Meet requires Google Workspace at $7/month. That's an extra line item on top of every Acuity plan.

Session recording. No Acuity plan records sessions. Zoom Pro includes basic cloud recording with limited storage, but you're managing recordings through Zoom, not Acuity.

AI summaries and notes. Zero AI features on any tier. If you want automated session summaries, action items, or follow-up notes, you'll need a separate tool like Otter.ai ($17/month) or Fireflies.ai ($18/month).

A professional profile page. Acuity gives you a functional booking widget, not a branded page with your bio, services, testimonials, and social proof. You'll need a separate website for that.

Digital product sales. Want to sell recordings, courses, or downloadable resources? Acuity doesn't do that. You'll need another platform entirely.

Stack these extras together and a solo coach running paid video sessions through Acuity pays $33-$75+/month in combined subscriptions before earning a single dollar.

How Acuity Plans Compare to All-in-One Alternatives

Acuity does scheduling well. The question is whether you want a scheduling tool that needs a supporting cast, or a single platform that handles everything.

Here's how the Acuity stack compares to a platform like Talkspresso.

The tradeoff: Acuity charges a flat monthly fee no matter what. Talkspresso charges nothing until you earn. For creators and coaches who are pre-revenue or just getting started, zero fixed costs remove the financial pressure of paying subscriptions while building a client base.

For established practices doing high volume, Acuity's flat fee can be cheaper per session once monthly revenue crosses roughly $330-$400.

How to Pick the Right Plan (Decision Framework)

Here's a simple way to decide.

Go with Starter if you're a solo practitioner who schedules in-person appointments, doesn't sell packages, and is fine with email-only reminders. If you just need a calendar link, Starter does the job at the lowest cost.

Go with Standard if you're a solo coach or small team who needs SMS reminders, session packages, or group scheduling. Most people selling services online end up here.

Go with Premium if you need HIPAA compliance or have 7+ team members. Skip it otherwise.

Skip Acuity entirely if you want video, recording, and AI included without managing a stack of subscriptions. If you're a coach, creator, or consultant running paid video sessions, an all-in-one platform saves time and money at the early stages.

Talkspresso is free to set up with no trial window and no credit card. You can build your profile, list services, and start booking sessions today with built-in video, recording, and AI, all for zero monthly cost.

The Bottom Line on Acuity Plans

Acuity is a solid scheduling tool with a clear tier structure. Starter handles basic solo scheduling. Standard unlocks the features most service businesses actually need. Premium covers compliance and larger teams. Enterprise is for big organizations.

The plans are transparent at the scheduling level. But if you run paid video sessions, every Acuity plan requires you to bolt on Zoom, a payment processor, and potentially AI tools. The real monthly cost of the Acuity stack is higher than any single plan price suggests.

For professionals who already have their tool stack dialed in, Acuity is a dependable scheduling layer. For anyone who'd rather skip the assembly and get video, scheduling, payments, recording, and AI in one place, Talkspresso handles all of it with no subscription and no setup friction.