Setmore vs Calendly vs Talkspresso: Best Scheduling for Coaches in 2026

Setmore: The Budget-Friendly Team Option

Setmore's biggest advantage is its free plan. You get scheduling for up to 4 staff members, which is generous compared to most competitors. It also includes a basic video calling feature called Teleport.

What Setmore Does Well

Free team scheduling. If you have a small coaching team, Setmore's free plan is hard to beat. Four staff members can manage their calendars, accept bookings, and send reminders without paying anything.

Basic video built in. Teleport, Setmore's built-in video feature, lets you do video calls without a separate Zoom subscription. It's not HD, and it's limited in features, but it works for basic calls.

Social media booking. Setmore lets you add booking buttons to your Instagram and Facebook pages, which is useful for coaches who get clients through social media.

Simple interface. The dashboard is straightforward and easy to navigate. You can be up and running in 15 minutes.

Where Setmore Falls Short for Coaches

Video quality is basic. Teleport works, but it's not comparable to Zoom or dedicated video platforms. For coaching sessions where clients pay $100+, video quality matters.

No session recording. You can't record Teleport calls. If you want to give clients a recording of their session or review it yourself, you need a separate tool.

Limited payment integration. Payments aren't part of the core booking flow. You need to connect Stripe or Square separately, and the integration isn't as seamless as purpose-built payment flows.

No AI features. No session summaries, no action item extraction, no smart follow-ups.

No digital product sales. You can't sell templates, worksheets, or recordings alongside your sessions.

Scaling costs. The free plan works for small teams, but premium features (payment integration, SMS reminders, custom branding) require $5-12/month per user.

Setmore Pricing

Calendly: The Clean Scheduling Standard

Calendly is the scheduling tool most professionals think of first. Clean interface, simple sharing, and integrations with everything. It's excellent at what it does. The question is whether what it does is enough.

What Calendly Does Well

The simplest scheduling experience. Send someone your Calendly link and they pick a time. No back-and-forth emails. No confusion. It just works.

Deep integrations. Calendly connects with Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Google Meet, Salesforce, HubSpot, and hundreds of other tools through native integrations and Zapier.

Workflows and automation. You can set up automated emails before and after meetings, survey links, and custom follow-up sequences.

Team scheduling. Round-robin assignment, collective availability, and team pages make Calendly work well for growing teams.

Professional appearance. Calendly's booking pages look clean and professional. Your clients get a polished experience.

Where Calendly Falls Short for Coaches

No built-in video. Calendly schedules the meeting. You still need Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams for the actual call. That's an extra subscription and an extra tool to manage.

Payments require a paid plan. Payment collection via Stripe is only available on the Standard plan ($10/month) and above. On the free plan, you're sending invoices separately.

No session recording. Calendly has no awareness of what happens during the meeting. No recording, no notes, no summaries.

No AI features. No automatic summaries, no action items, no smart follow-ups based on session content.

No digital product sales. You can't sell resources or session recordings alongside your coaching.

Per-seat pricing adds up. At $10-16/month per seat, a small coaching team of 3-4 people is paying $30-64/month just for scheduling.

Calendly Pricing

For a deeper look at costs, see our guide on how much Calendly costs in 2026.

Talkspresso: The All-in-One Coaching Platform

Talkspresso takes a different approach. Instead of being a scheduling tool that integrates with other tools, it's a complete coaching platform that includes scheduling, video, payments, recording, and more.

What Talkspresso Does Well

Built-in HD video. No Zoom subscription needed. Video calling is part of the platform, so booking and video are seamlessly connected. One click from the booking page to the video room.

Payments in the booking flow. When a client books, they pay. No separate invoicing, no chasing payments, no third-party payment links. It's built into the booking experience.

Automatic session recording. Every session is automatically recorded. You and your client get access to the recording without any extra setup.

AI-generated summaries. After each session, Talkspresso generates a summary with key takeaways and action items. This saves coaches 10-15 minutes of note-taking per session.

Digital product sales. Sell session recordings, worksheets, templates, and other resources alongside your coaching. One platform for sessions and products.

Group sessions and workshops. Run group coaching sessions or workshops for up to 500 people. Setmore and Calendly don't support this.

No monthly fee. Talkspresso charges 10% on paid sessions only. If you don't book, you don't pay. No subscription to maintain during slow months.

Where Talkspresso Falls Short

No marketplace discovery. Unlike platforms with marketplaces (Intro.co, Clarity.fm), Talkspresso doesn't bring you clients. You drive your own traffic.

No email marketing. There's no built-in email newsletter or drip campaign tool. You'll need Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or similar.

No course creation. Talkspresso handles live sessions and digital products, not pre-recorded course creation like Teachable or Kajabi.

10% fee on paid sessions. For high-volume coaches, the percentage fee can exceed what a flat monthly subscription would cost. (At $1,500+/month in bookings, the 10% fee exceeds what Calendly + Zoom would cost.)

Newer platform. Less brand recognition than Calendly. Some clients may be less familiar with the experience.

Talkspresso Pricing

Head-to-Head Feature Comparison

The Real Cost Comparison for Coaches

Let's look at what each option actually costs a solo coach doing 20 paid sessions per month at $100 per session ($2,000/month gross):

Setmore Stack (Setmore Premium + Zoom Pro)

• Setmore Premium: $5/month
• Zoom Pro: $13/month
• Stripe processing: ~$60/month (2.9% + 30c)
• Total monthly cost: ~$78
• You keep: ~$1,922

Calendly Stack (Calendly Standard + Zoom Pro)

• Calendly Standard: $10/month
• Zoom Pro: $13/month
• Stripe processing: ~$60/month
• Total monthly cost: ~$83
• You keep: ~$1,917

Talkspresso (All-in-One)

• Platform fee: $200/month (10% of $2,000)
• Total monthly cost: $200
• You keep: $1,800

At $2,000/month in sessions, the DIY stack is cheaper in raw fees. But this doesn't account for:

• Time savings. Talkspresso's automatic recording and AI summaries save 10-15 minutes per session. At 20 sessions, that's 3-5 hours/month.
• One tool vs. three. Managing Calendly + Zoom + Stripe means three dashboards, three subscriptions, three potential failure points.
• Features you'd pay extra for. Session recording, AI summaries, and digital product sales would require additional tools with the DIY stack.
• No fixed costs during slow months. If you have 0 sessions, Talkspresso costs $0. The DIY stack still costs $23-28/month.

The Breakeven Point

The 10% fee exceeds the DIY stack cost at roughly $830/month in bookings. Below that, Talkspresso is cheaper. Above that, the DIY stack is cheaper in raw fees, but you're managing multiple tools and missing features.

For most coaches, the convenience and features of an all-in-one platform are worth the difference. But if you're doing high volume and want the lowest possible fees, the DIY stack has lower variable costs.

When to Choose Each Option

Choose Setmore if:

• You have a small team (2-4 coaches) and want free scheduling
• Basic video quality is acceptable for your sessions
• Budget is the top priority
• You don't need session recording or AI features
• Your clients book through social media

Choose Calendly if:

• You're a solo professional who values clean, simple scheduling
• You already have Zoom and Stripe set up
• You need advanced workflows and automation
• You want deep CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot)
• Scheduling is your only problem (video and payments are handled)

Choose Talkspresso if:

• You want video, scheduling, and payments in one tool
• You want automatic session recording and AI summaries
• You want to sell digital products alongside coaching
• You prefer no monthly subscription (pay only when you earn)
• You want group sessions or workshops (not just 1:1)
• You're building a coaching brand and want a professional, unified experience

The Scheduling Tool vs. Coaching Platform Question

This comparison reveals a fundamental question: do you need a scheduling tool or a coaching platform?

Scheduling tools (Setmore, Calendly) solve one problem extremely well: getting meetings on the calendar. They're optimized for that and nothing else. You build your coaching tech stack by combining a scheduling tool + a video tool + a payment tool + recording software + note-taking.

Coaching platforms (Talkspresso) solve the whole workflow in one place. Scheduling, video, payments, recording, and follow-up are all integrated. You trade the flexibility of choosing individual best-of-breed tools for the convenience of everything working together.

Neither approach is wrong. It depends on your priorities:

• If you value flexibility and already have tools you love: Use Calendly or Setmore as your scheduling layer and build around it.
• If you value simplicity and want one tool to handle everything: Use Talkspresso and eliminate the tool juggling.
• If you're just starting out: Start with Talkspresso (no monthly cost, everything included) and switch to a DIY stack later if you outgrow it.

The Bottom Line

Setmore wins on free team scheduling. Calendly wins on clean, professional scheduling for individuals. Talkspresso wins on being the complete coaching solution.

For most coaches, the question isn't which scheduling tool is best. It's whether a scheduling tool alone is enough. If you need video, payments, recording, and AI summaries alongside scheduling, an all-in-one platform will save you time, money, and headaches.

For a full breakdown, see our 9 best platforms for paid video calls or read how creators sell paid video calls to their followers.

For a full breakdown, see our 9 best platforms for paid video calls or read how creators sell paid video calls to their followers.

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