account42 vs Acuity Scheduling
Facts about Acuity Scheduling come from its public pricing and feature pages as of September 15, 2026; check their site for current terms.
account42 is class booking first: every product is a session with a seat count, a price and a cancellation window. A one-to-one slot is a session with one seat. Every plan includes memberships, credit packs, waitlists with automatic promotion, the assistant and settlement on your own Stripe or PayPal account, with no charge per calendar. Acuity Scheduling is appointment scheduling for service businesses: salons, therapists, coaches and consultants who book one client at a time. It prices by the number of calendars, from $20 a month for one, and also books classes, workshops and group events.
At a glance
| Feature | account42 | Acuity Scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $29 a month on Solo, or $23 a month billed annually | $20 a month on Starter billed monthly, or $16 billed annually; Standard $34 ($27) and Premium $61 ($49)1 |
| Per-booking fees or commission | None. Stripe or PayPal charge their own processing fees and nothing else is added | Not stated on the pricing page; each tier is a flat monthly fee and your connected provider charges its own processing fees1 |
| Where payments settle | Your own Stripe or PayPal account, as direct charges | Your connected Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo account1 |
| Feature gating across tiers | None. Plans differ by bookings, messaging balance and locations, never by feature | Yes. Waitlists, memberships, packages, gift certificates and text reminders start at Standard; the AI Booking Assistant, API access, custom CSS and multiple time zones are Premium1 |
| Waitlists | Every plan, with automatic promotion and time-limited offers | Standard and Premium, as an appointment waitlist that fills last-minute cancellations12 |
| Memberships and credit packs | Every plan, alongside free sessions and drop-ins | Subscriptions, memberships and appointment packages from Standard1 |
| Assistant | Every plan, from 100 to 1,500 conversations a month | AI Booking Assistant on Premium, described as a chat bot that gets clients booked12 |
| Booking page languages | 12 | Not stated; the Acuity site itself is offered in six languages1 |
| Countries | 46 | Not stated; text reminders are described as worldwide and card readers as US-only1 |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 7 days, no credit card1 |
- 1. Acuity Scheduling pricing page: https://acuityscheduling.com/pricing, as fetched on September 15, 2026.
- 2. Acuity Scheduling features page: https://acuityscheduling.com/features, as fetched on September 15, 2026.
Where account42 is the better fit
- You run classes with a seat count. account42 counts capacity per session and promotes the waitlist with a time-limited offer when a seat frees. Acuity lists classes as one availability type beside 1:1 appointments, and its waitlist fills last-minute cancellations.
- You sell memberships or packs from day one. Acuity gates memberships, packages and the waitlist behind Standard at $34 a month; account42 carries all three on Solo at $29.
- You have several instructors and don't want to pay per calendar. Acuity prices by calendars: Starter holds one, Standard up to six, Premium up to 36. Four instructors need four calendars, so the studio starts at Standard, $34 a month or $27 billed annually. On account42 four instructors cost nothing extra on any plan.
- You want the assistant without buying the top tier. Acuity's AI Booking Assistant is on Premium at $61 a month, or $49 billed annually; account42 includes its assistant on every plan with a monthly allowance.
- You sell outside the US. account42 names 46 countries and 12 booking page languages; Acuity's pricing page states no country list, describes card readers as US-only and offers its site in six languages.
- Your site is on Squarespace, Webflow, WordPress, Wix or Shopify. account42 installs as a WordPress plugin, a Wix app, a Shopify app or an embed snippet for Squarespace, Webflow or plain HTML. Acuity's features page names Squarespace and an embed on any website.
Under the hood
Every hold and booking on account42 is a single database transaction against the session's seat count. Two people taking the last seat at the same second cannot both succeed, a case a diary-shaped tool never has to handle.
Where Acuity Scheduling is the better fit
- Most of your bookings are one client with one person. Acuity is appointment software first, with staff calendars, intake forms, buffers between appointments and a Look busy setting for a diary.
- You want a mobile app for the business today. Acuity's pages list a mobile scheduling app and in-person payments through the Acuity app; account42's owner app is on the roadmap.
Switching from Acuity Scheduling
Clients move by email or phone, and packages in progress are re-issued as credit packs with the sessions each client has left. Recurring classes are described once as a weekly pattern; one-to-one slots become sessions with a single seat. Intake form answers and invoices stay behind. A Squarespace site keeps its pages and takes the account42 embed where the Acuity scheduler was.
Questions people ask
- For a studio with 500 bookings a month and four instructors, is Acuity or account42 cheaper?
- Compare the configuration a class business needs: waitlists, memberships and the assistant, with four instructors. account42 puts 500 bookings on Studio: $59 x 12 = $708 a year billed monthly, or $47 x 12 = $564 billed annually, everything included, no charge per instructor. On Acuity, waitlists and memberships start at Standard and the AI Booking Assistant is Premium only, so the like-for-like plan is Premium. Four instructors are four calendars, within Premium's 36. That is $61 x 12 = $732 billed monthly, or $49 x 12 = $588 billed annually. account42 is cheaper by $24 a year on monthly billing and $24 on annual. A studio that skips the assistant takes Standard, whose six calendars hold four instructors: $34 x 12 = $408, or $27 x 12 = $324. Then Acuity is cheaper by $300 or $240, and the difference buys the assistant, seat counting per session and automatic waitlist promotion.
- Is Acuity built for classes or for appointments?
- account42 is built for seats: every product is a session with a seat count, and a one-to-one slot is a session with one seat. Acuity's own pages describe it as appointment scheduling software, with classes, workshops and group events listed as one availability type beside 1:1 appointments.
- Which Acuity plan includes a waitlist?
- On account42 the waitlist is on every plan, including Solo at $29, and promotes the next person automatically with a time-limited offer when a seat frees. On Acuity, Standard and Premium carry it, and the Starter plan at $20 does not list one. Acuity describes its waitlist as an appointment waitlist that fills last-minute cancellations.
- How do Acuity's AI Booking Assistant and the account42 assistant differ?
- account42's assistant is on every plan and works for the owner as well as the customer. It adds classes, changes times and books seats through the same rules as the buttons, within a monthly allowance of conversations. Acuity's is a chat bot on the Premium plan, described on its features page as getting clients booked.