How to Use Acuity Scheduling with Squarespace in 2026: Setup, Pricing and Alternatives

The easiest way to take bookings on a Squarespace site is Acuity Scheduling: Squarespace owns it, it plugs straight into the editor through the Scheduling block, and it handles appointments, classes, payments and intake forms in one place. The catch is that it is a separate paid subscription from your website plan, so it is worth knowing exactly what you get, what it costs and when something else would serve you better.

I am a Squarespace Platinum Partner and booking setup is one of the most common jobs on our service-business builds at Altitude Design. This guide covers how Squarespace and Acuity fit together in 2026, the current plans and prices (checked against the official pricing page today), a step-by-step setup, the honest limits, and the alternatives I reach for when Acuity is not the right fit.

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What Is Acuity Scheduling, and Is It Now "Squarespace Scheduling"?

Acuity Scheduling is an online booking platform that Squarespace acquired in 2019. For a period Squarespace marketed it as "Squarespace Scheduling", which is why you will still see that name in older tutorials and in some forum threads. Today the product is branded Acuity Scheduling, described on its own site as "a Squarespace Company", and Squarespace's own scheduling page now presents it under the Acuity name. If you search for "Squarespace Scheduling" and land on Acuity, you are in the right place: it is the same product. For a shorter feature rundown, see our Acuity Scheduling extension guide.

What it does, in short:

• Lets clients book appointments, group classes and workshops from your website, 24 hours a day.
• Syncs with your calendar and shows only the slots you are actually free.
• Takes payment or deposits at the point of booking through Stripe, Square or PayPal.
• Collects client details through custom intake forms.
• Sends confirmation and reminder emails automatically (text reminders on higher plans).
• Converts time zones for clients booking from elsewhere.

The relationship with Squarespace is close but not total. Acuity has its own dashboard, its own subscription and its own billing. You can run it on a Squarespace site, a WordPress site or no website at all. What Squarespace adds is the native Scheduling block, so the booking flow sits inside your page rather than sending visitors off to another domain.

Acuity Scheduling Pricing in 2026

Acuity has three paid plans and no free plan. These are the prices shown on the official Acuity sign-up page today, in US dollars and excluding tax:

Plan	Monthly billing	Annual billing	Key inclusions
Starter	$20/month	$16/month	1 calendar, online payments, email reminders, custom intake forms, time zone conversion
Standard	$34/month	$27/month	Up to 6 calendars, text reminders, waitlist, packages and memberships, gift certificates
Premium	$69/month	$55/month	Up to 36 calendars, AI Booking Assistant, HIPAA BAA, removes "Powered by Acuity" footer, multiple staff time zones, API and custom CSS

There is a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. Annual billing saves 20%. You can start the trial from the Acuity Scheduling sign-up page. Acuity says it generally adds no transaction fee of its own on top of your payment processor's standard fees (older legacy plans may differ), but the processor will still take its cut.

Two points that catch people out. First, Acuity is billed on top of your Squarespace website plan, not included in it. If you are budgeting a new site, read Squarespace pricing explained alongside this. Second, prices are listed in dollars, so UK businesses should check the figure at checkout and allow for VAT.

For most solo practitioners, Starter is enough to begin. Move to Standard for text reminders, packages or a second practitioner; Premium is mainly for multi-staff clinics or sites that need custom styling.

How to Add Acuity Scheduling to Squarespace: Step by Step

This is the order I follow on client builds. Doing the Acuity setup before you touch the website saves a lot of back and forth.

Step 1: Start the trial and decide whether to attach it to your site

When you start an Acuity trial you choose whether the subscription stands alone or is attached to a Squarespace website. According to Acuity's help centre, you cannot change this choice later, so think about it for a moment.

• Attached means Acuity appears alongside the website in your Squarespace dashboard. Contributor access then follows the website subscription's contributor rules.
• Standalone keeps Acuity separate with unlimited contributors. You can still embed it on any Squarespace site, attached or not.

Either way, keep the subscription in the business owner's own account.

Step 2: Build your appointment types, calendars and availability

In Acuity, create each service as an appointment type (name, duration, price, description), or as a class if several people book the same slot. Then set your working hours, buffers between sessions and how far ahead people can book or cancel. Connect your Google, Outlook or iCloud calendar so personal commitments block out time automatically.

Step 3: Add the Scheduling block to your Squarespace page

In the Squarespace editor, open the page where bookings should live (usually a dedicated "Book" page), click to add a block, search for "Scheduling" and insert it. Follow the prompts to connect your Acuity account, then save. The full booking flow now runs inside that block on your own domain.

Give the block a full-width section so the calendar is not cramped, keep the intro above it short so it stays visible on mobile, and set your brand colours and logo in Acuity's own scheduling page settings rather than expecting it to pick up your Squarespace styles.

Step 4: Use buttons, a booking bar or direct links where they fit better

The block is not the only option. Acuity also gives you:

• A booking button: copy the code from Acuity and paste it into a Code block.
• A booking bar across the top of the site, added through Code Injection in the footer.
• Direct links to your whole scheduling page, a single appointment type or a single calendar.

Direct links are underrated. On a therapist's "Couples Therapy" page, for instance, a button that opens straight onto the couples appointment type is far better than dropping the visitor into a list of every service. If code blocks and injection are new to you, my beginner's guide to adding plugins to Squarespace covers where each one lives.

Step 5: Connect payments

Acuity takes payments through Stripe, Square or PayPal, and you can pair PayPal with Stripe or Square. You can require full payment at booking, take a deposit, or save card details and charge later (some options depend on your processor). Money goes into your processor account, not into Squarespace Commerce.

Note that Acuity does not calculate tax automatically, so if you are VAT registered, build it into your prices.

Step 6: Set up intake forms

Intake forms collect anything beyond name, email and phone: reason for visit, health questions, goals, consent tick boxes, even file uploads (one file per question, up to 5 MB). You choose which appointment types each form appears on. A useful trick is a separate "New client consultation" appointment type that carries your longer form, so returning clients are not asked the same questions every time.

One limitation: clients cannot complete intake forms when buying packages, gift certificates or subscriptions. You can require them to accept terms instead.

Step 7: Book yourself as a client, on your phone

Before launch, make a real booking from a mobile phone and check the confirmation email, payment, calendar invite and cancellation link. Most problems I find here are availability rules stricter than the owner intended.

What Acuity Does Well on Squarespace

• Native integration. The Scheduling block is part of the editor, so there is no third-party script to maintain and bookings stay on your domain.
• Depth for service businesses. Packages, memberships, gift certificates, waitlists, classes, deposits and intake forms cover most of what therapists, coaches, salons and studios need.
• Restricted booking via member areas. Acuity's help centre notes you can place the Scheduling block inside a Squarespace member site to limit certain appointment types to members. If that interests you, see how to build a membership site on Squarespace.
• It scales. From one calendar on Starter to 36 on Premium, so a solo practitioner can grow into a small team without changing systems.

The Limits Worth Knowing Before You Commit

• No free plan. After the 7-day trial you pay, every month, on top of Squarespace.
• Styling is limited below Premium. You get colours and a logo, but the booking flow looks like Acuity rather than like your site. Custom CSS and removal of the "Powered by Acuity" footer are Premium features.
• The attach decision is permanent. As above, standalone versus attached cannot be changed later.
• Separate admin. Bookings, clients and payments live in Acuity, not in your Squarespace dashboard or Squarespace Commerce.
• Health sector caveats. Acuity does not integrate directly with electronic medical record software. The HIPAA BAA on Premium is a US requirement; UK practices should check their own data protection obligations rather than treat that as a UK GDPR answer.
• Not built for ticketed events. Classes work, but if you are selling tickets to a gig, talk or workshop with tiers and capacity, a dedicated ticketing tool is a better fit.

When to Use an Alternative Instead

Acuity is my default for paid appointments, but it is not the answer to every booking problem. Here is how I decide:

Your situation	What I would use
Paid sessions, packages, intake forms	Acuity Scheduling
Free discovery or sales calls only	Calendly free plan
Very simple requests on a tight budget	Common Ninja Free Booking widget
Showing a public timetable or what's on	Elfsight Event Calendar
Busy native Squarespace Events pages	SQS Mods Event & Calendar Filter
Selling tickets to events	A dedicated ticketing tool such as Eventually

Calendly is the obvious alternative for meetings rather than services. Its free plan covers one event type and one calendar connection, which is plenty for a consultant who just wants people to grab a discovery call. Payment features are not part of the free plan. Visit Calendly, or read our Calendly extension guide.

The Free Booking widget by Common Ninja is worth a look for side projects and early-stage sites where a monthly subscription is hard to justify. It will not match Acuity for payments or automation. Pair it with their Calendar Widget if you also want to display dates.

For studios and venues whose visitors mainly want to see a timetable, the Elfsight Event Calendar does the display job much better than native Squarespace pages, and works happily alongside Acuity for the actual bookings. You can browse the full widget range through Elfsight, see our Elfsight extension guide, and I cover which ones are worth paying for in my Elfsight for Squarespace review. If you rely on native Squarespace Events, the SQS Mods Event & Calendar Filter adds category filtering once the calendar gets busy.

For ticketed events, read my Eventually review or the Eventually extension guide. And for a wider comparison of every option, see the full roundup of the best Squarespace booking and calendar plugins in 2026, or browse all Squarespace plugins and free Squarespace plugins.

Which Squarespace Templates Work Best with Acuity?

A booking system only converts people who have already decided to book. The template around it does the persuading, and templates designed for booking-led businesses build that path in from the start.

• Therapists and counsellors: calm layouts, room for approach and fees, and a gentle route to a first session. See best Squarespace templates for therapists and counsellors or the therapist templates collection.
• Coaches: strong personal branding with discovery-call and package pages. See best Squarespace templates for coaches and the coaches collection.
• Fitness studios and personal trainers: timetables, class types and memberships, which suit Acuity's classes and packages. See best Squarespace templates for fitness businesses, the fitness collection and templates for personal trainers.
• Wellness practitioners and yoga teachers: treatment menus and class schedules. Browse wellness practitioner templates and yoga teacher templates.
• Consultants: service pages that lead to a booked call. See best Squarespace templates for consultants and the consultant templates collection.
• Clinics and medical practices: see templates for medical practices, bearing in mind the health sector caveats above.

A few specific templates I would happily pair with Acuity: Wellness by Kseniia Krasilich for practitioners, Balance by Applet Studio for wellness and fitness brands, and Consultant by Kseniia Krasilich for professional services.

Whichever you choose, put "Book" in the main navigation and link each service page straight to its own appointment type.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Acuity Scheduling the same as Squarespace Scheduling?

Yes. Squarespace bought Acuity Scheduling in 2019 and for a time marketed it as Squarespace Scheduling. It is now branded Acuity Scheduling, "a Squarespace Company", and it connects to Squarespace sites through the Scheduling block.

Is Acuity Scheduling included with my Squarespace plan?

No. Acuity is a separate subscription billed on top of your Squarespace website plan. There is a 7-day free trial with no credit card required, but no permanent free plan.

How much does Acuity Scheduling cost in 2026?

The official pricing page lists Starter at $20 a month ($16 billed annually), Standard at $34 a month ($27 annually) and Premium at $69 a month ($55 annually), in US dollars excluding tax. Check the Acuity sign-up page for current pricing in your currency.

How do I add Acuity to my Squarespace website?

Set up your appointment types and availability in Acuity first, then edit your Squarespace page, add a Scheduling block and connect your Acuity account. You can also use an Acuity booking button in a Code block, a booking bar via Code Injection, or direct links to specific appointment types.

Can I take payments and deposits with Acuity on Squarespace?

Yes. Acuity connects to Stripe, Square or PayPal, and you can require full payment or a deposit at booking. Payments go to your processor account rather than Squarespace Commerce, and Acuity does not calculate tax automatically.

What is a good free alternative to Acuity for Squarespace?

For simple meeting bookings, Calendly's free plan covers one event type. For a basic booking form, the Common Ninja Free Booking widget on SquareLocator costs nothing to try. Neither matches Acuity for paid services, packages or intake forms.

Final Thoughts

If people pay you for booked time, Acuity is the right default for a Squarespace site: it sits inside your pages through the Scheduling block and covers payments, packages and intake forms without extra plugins. Start on Starter, set everything up in Acuity first, and test it on your phone. If you only need free discovery calls or event tickets, use an alternative and save the subscription.

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