TL;DR
- Cal.com:
- $12-25/user/mo. Per-seat monthly (cloud) or self-hosted (free).
- FairCal:
- $0.10-0.25/booking. No subscription. Full features from day one.
A Cal.com alternative that charges what it costs.
Cal.com charges $12-25/user/mo. The infrastructure to run scheduling — servers, APIs, storage, delivery — costs roughly $0.03/booking. FairCal charges $0.10-0.25/booking. No subscription. No seat limits. No annual contract.
Why people leave Cal.com
Self-hosted requires technical knowledge
Cloud pricing is per-seat like Calendly
Newer product, some rough edges
FairCal vs Cal.com
| FairCal | Cal.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per use | Per-seat monthly (cloud) or self-hosted (free) |
| Price | $0.10-0.25/booking | $12-25/user/mo |
| Free tier | Free actions included | Self-hosted is free; cloud has free tier |
| Contract | None | Monthly available |
| Zero-usage month | $0 | Still charged |
| Feature gating | All features included | Some features gated |
| Infrastructure cost | $0.03/booking | Not disclosed |
What it actually costs to run
The infrastructure cost for scheduling — servers, APIs, storage, delivery — is roughly $0.03/booking. Cal.com charges $12-25/user/mo.
Fair charges $0.10-0.25/booking — cost plus a small margin.
When to choose which
Choose Cal.com if
Developers and teams who want open-source scheduling
Choose FairCal if
You want scheduling without a subscription. FairCal charges $0.10-0.25/booking. Use a lot? Pay a little more. Use nothing? Pay nothing. All features included from the first use.
Where Cal.com gets expensive
- Self-hosting is a maintenance burden
- Cloud version is similarly priced to Calendly
Switch from Cal.com. Keep the features. Lose the subscription.
FairCal — $0.10-0.25/booking. No subscription. No seat pricing. No annual contract. Your first actions are free.
Related comparisons
Fair is the anti-subscription. 13 tools, one account, pay for what you use.