Calendly books the meeting.
Riverd runs the practice.
Calendly is a genuinely good scheduler with broad calendar support. But it is a scheduler, not a practice management system. There are no SOAP notes, no client records, no clinical documentation. Riverd is built for providers who need everything around the booking too.
Riverd starts at $0/month and includes client records. Calendly is scheduling only, at any tier.
Last updated June 2026
Start Free, No Credit Card4 signs Calendly isn’t enough for your practice
If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to consolidate.
You're paying for Calendly plus three other tools
If your stack is Calendly for booking, a separate notes app for SOAP notes, a payments tool, and a directory listing somewhere else, you're stitching together what one practice tool should do. Riverd consolidates the booking, the clinical notes, and the client records into a single place.
You see clients, not meetings
Calendly books a meeting on a free time slot. It has no concept of a returning client, a treatment history, or a clinical record. If your work is sessions with people you see again and again, you need records that travel with them.
Your notes live outside your scheduler
Calendly does not store SOAP notes or any clinical documentation. If your session notes live in a notebook, a Google Doc, or a separate EHR, your booking and your record-keeping never talk to each other.
You want your calendar private by default
When Calendly checks your calendar it accesses your event data to add and manage meetings. Riverd reads only your free or busy time, never your event titles, and that privacy default is locked. Personal events block client bookings without ever exposing what they are.
Side by side
Calendly details verified against Calendly’s published documentation in June 2026: Connect your calendar to Calendly (supported providers and the August 20, 2024 end of new iCloud connections) and Calendly Platform Security and Compliance (what Calendly accesses from connected calendars). Riverd’s calendar behavior is documented on the Google Calendar Sync feature page. Features and tiers can change; check each tool’s current pricing and docs before deciding.
The honest summary
Calendly wins on raw scheduling polish, broader calendar integrations, and a decade-long head start on the booking experience. It connects two-way with Google, Office 365, Outlook.com, and Exchange. If you only need scheduling, you may already have what you need, and there is no shame in keeping a tool that does its one job well.
Riverd wins when a provider needs everything around the booking: clinical SOAP notes, client history, a branded practice page, and a wellness directory listing, all tied to the schedule. If you are currently paying for Calendly plus an EHR plus a separate notes tool plus a directory listing, Riverd consolidates that into one platform. Our calendar sync is two-way with Google, free or busy only by design, and we are honest that Outlook and iCloud two-way sync are not here yet.
“I used Calendly for years and loved how clean it was, but I was still keeping client notes in a separate app and chasing my own history before every session. Riverd put the booking and the clinical record in one place. I kept Google Calendar; I just stopped paying for three tools.”
Dana P.
Licensed Massage Therapist, switched from Calendly
Common questions
What does Riverd have that Calendly doesn't?
Riverd is a practice management system, not just a scheduler. It includes clinical SOAP notes, an AI SOAP note generator, patient books with full treatment history, a branded practice page, and a listing in a wellness directory. Calendly is a well-built scheduler that books a meeting on a free time slot, but it has no SOAP notes, no client records, no clinical documentation, and no healthcare directory. Both tools sync two-way with Google Calendar. The honest difference: if you only need scheduling, Calendly may already cover you. If you run an actual clinical or wellness practice and want the bookings to flow into notes and client records, that is what Riverd is built for.
Does Calendly sync with more calendars than Riverd?
Yes, today Calendly has broader calendar coverage. Calendly connects two-way with Google Calendar, Office 365 or Outlook.com, and Exchange (per Calendly's own connect-your-calendar documentation, which also notes Calendly stopped accepting new iCloud connections on August 20, 2024). Riverd's two-way sync is Google Calendar only in version 1, with Outlook on the version 2 roadmap and iCloud deferred. Riverd also offers a one-way iCal subscription on the free tier so Outlook and Apple Calendar users can see their Riverd bookings, just not write back from those calendars yet. If you need two-way Outlook or iCloud sync today, Calendly is the stronger fit on that single dimension.
How is Riverd's Google Calendar sync different from Calendly's?
The core difference is privacy. Riverd reads only your free or busy time from Google Calendar and never reads your event titles, and that setting is locked, so there is no way to expose what your personal events are. Calendly, per its platform security documentation, accesses the calendar data it needs to check conflicts and add meetings, including writing meeting subject and attendee details to the destination calendar. Both tools are two-way: a personal event on your calendar blocks a client from booking that time, and a new booking writes itself back into the calendar you choose. Riverd pushes a confirmed session into your Google calendar within about a minute. The trade-off is coverage: Calendly supports more calendar providers, Riverd is Google-only for now but free or busy only by design.
When is Calendly the better choice?
Calendly is the better choice in a few clear cases. If you need two-way Outlook or Apple iCloud sync today, Riverd's two-way sync is Google-only in version 1, so Calendly fits better right now. If your booking is genuinely a meeting rather than a clinical session, and you do not need SOAP notes, client records, or a healthcare directory, Calendly's scheduling polish and decade of UX refinement are hard to beat. And if you already have an EHR you are committed to and only need a scheduler bolted on, Calendly does that one job very well. Riverd makes sense when you want the whole practice in one tool, not just the booking.
How do I switch from Calendly to Riverd?
Create your free Riverd account, set up your services and availability, and connect your Google Calendar so personal events block client bookings. Recreate the event types you used in Calendly as Riverd services, then share your new booking link. Note that Riverd does not import Calendly bookings automatically, since Calendly does not store clients in the way a practice tool does, so you set up your services fresh. Most practitioners complete the move in well under an hour, and they gain client records and clinical notes that Calendly never had.
Riverd is a practice management tool, not a medical or legal provider. Clinical documentation features support your own professional judgment and do not constitute medical advice. Always follow your jurisdiction’s scope-of-practice and record-keeping requirements.
Keep the calendar you love. Lose the patchwork.
Connect Google Calendar to Riverd and get the booking, the SOAP notes, the client records, and a branded practice page in one tool built for wellness.
Create Your Free Riverd AccountFree up to 20 appointments/month. No credit card required.