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Scheduling

Cal.com (API)

The most complete scheduling API on the market for integrating appointment booking into your product. Total flexibility with real-time webhooks and customizable embeds. Open-source and free for individuals with excellent documentation.

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Who's it for?SalesOpsGrowth

Review by a Growth Engineer

My verdict: the reference scheduling API, free and open-source.

Cal.com isn't just an appointment booking tool - it's a complete scheduling infrastructure. The API is solid for integrations, webhooks work well, and you can customize everything.

The learning curve exists: you need to understand the concepts of event types, availabilities, and webhooks before being really productive. Documentation is good but sometimes incomplete on edge cases.

What I like less: some endpoints lack flexibility, and rate limits can block on large volumes. For simple use, the web interface is more than enough - the API is overkill.

My advice: if you're building a product that needs scheduling or automating workflows with n8n/Make, Cal.com's API is a good choice. Plan a few hours to understand the structure well before diving in.

Why add it to your stack?

Cal.com's API is what really distinguishes it from Calendly. You can integrate appointment booking into your product, automate event creation, react to bookings in real-time via webhooks.

For growth/ops teams building custom workflows (n8n, Make), it's perfect. Create an event type programmatically, retrieve availabilities, manage bookings - everything is doable via the API.

What you can do with it

  • 1Integrate a booking widget directly into your SaaS
  • 2Automate event creation from your CRM
  • 3Trigger actions (Slack, CRM, email) on each new booking
  • 4Sync appointments with your data warehouse
  • 5Build a personalized booking experience for your clients

What it does

  • Complete and documented REST API
  • Real-time webhooks
  • Customizable embeds
  • Multi-language SDKs
  • Programmatic event management
  • Full white-label

How much?

Starting at Free

Free API for individuals (Free plan). Paid plans for teams with higher rate limits. Enterprise with SLA and dedicated support. Self-hosted free without limits.

The detailed verdict

Do I really need this?

For integrating scheduling into a product or workflows, Cal.com's API is indispensable. It's the most complete and flexible on the market.

If you just use the web interface for booking appointments, the API isn't necessary. But as soon as you automate, it becomes central.

Does it play nice with my stack?

The API integrates everywhere. n8n and Make have native nodes. Webhooks allow real-time reactions. You can create, modify, delete events programmatically.

OAuth2 authentication is standard. Rate limits are generous. Documentation covers all endpoints with practical examples.

Is it easy to pick up?

For a developer, getting started is quick. The docs are well structured, examples are clear. 30 minutes to integrate a first booking flow.

SDKs simplify integration in common languages. Community Discord support is active.

Is the UX any good?

The developer experience is excellent. Clear documentation with examples, playground for testing, maintained SDKs. The API is RESTful and predictable.

Webhooks are reliable with automatic retry. Embeds are CSS customizable. It's designed for developers.

Is it worth it?

The API is free for individuals, which is rare. For teams, paid plans remain very competitive. Self-hosting gives access to the API without any rate limits.

Compared to Calendly which charges a lot for API access, Cal.com is a no-brainer for technical teams.

What I like

  • Integrating scheduling into a SaaS product or custom application
  • Automated workflows with n8n or Make thanks to real-time webhooks
  • Technical teams and developers who want complete white-label

What I like less

  • Simple use without technical skills where Cal.com's web interface is more than enough
  • Non-developers who don't need complex automations
  • Teams that just want a booking link without advanced customization

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