Acuity Scheduling Alternative for Paid Classes and Workshops
Acuity Scheduling is a well-known appointment scheduling tool, now part of the Squarespace ecosystem. It helps service providers manage calendars, appointment types, client intake forms, reminders, packages, and booking pages. For appointment-based businesses, that is a valuable job.
Heights Platform is an Acuity Scheduling alternative when the paid offer is a class, workshop, coaching program, replay library, course, or membership that needs more than a booking page. A scheduled session may be the live moment, but the product also needs prep materials, checkout, resources, recordings, community, and follow-up.
Acuity helps someone reserve time. Heights helps creators sell and deliver the learning experience around that time.
Create classes, courses, resources, and communities in one place.
Acuity Scheduling vs Heights Platform
Acuity is scheduling-first. Heights is learning-product-first. If your buyer is paying for an appointment, Acuity may be enough. If the buyer is paying to learn, apply, and continue after the session, Heights is the better foundation.
| Feature | Heights Platform | Acuity Scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly pricing | $19/mo annual | $20, $34, $61/mo |
| Annual pricing | $228/yr | $192, $324, $588/yr |
| Free trial | 30 days | 7 days |
| Calendars included | Live-session details inside products | 1, 6, or 36 calendars |
| Appointment scheduling | External scheduler links if needed | |
| Intake forms and reminders | Student onboarding and emails | |
| Paid class checkout | Appointment payments | |
| Course delivery | ||
| Replay and resource hub | External tools | |
| Community | ||
| Projects and certificates | ||
| Best fit | Paid learning products | Appointment booking |
*Pricing updated as of July 2026
Where Acuity Scheduling genuinely wins
Acuity wins for service businesses that primarily sell appointments. A consultant, therapist, salon, tutor, photographer, or advisor may need a clean way for clients to choose a time, complete an intake form, pay a deposit, and receive reminders. Acuity is built for that booking workflow.
It also wins when the offer is intentionally simple. If the product is a one-hour consultation with no course, resource library, community, or follow-up curriculum, a scheduling tool may be the fastest and clearest option.
Creators should be honest about this distinction. Not every paid session needs to become a course. The moment the session is part of a repeatable learning product, however, scheduling becomes only one piece of the value.
Why Heights is better for paid classes
Paid classes need more than attendance. Students often need to prepare before the class, download materials during the class, watch the replay afterward, ask questions, complete assignments, and decide what to do next. Heights gives all of that a home.
In Heights, a workshop can become a product with a welcome lesson, live session information, worksheets, replay access, community discussion, and an upsell to a deeper course or membership. A class series can become a cohort. A repeat workshop can become an evergreen course. Acuity can book the time, but Heights turns the teaching into an asset.
That matters for revenue. A single appointment is limited by calendar availability. A class with replays, resources, and community can continue creating value after the live time is over.
Heights Platform vs Acuity Scheduling: Key Summary
Choose Heights Platform if:
Your paid class needs checkout, replay access, worksheets, lessons, community, assignments, and ongoing product access after the calendar booking.
Heights Platform overview
Heights gives creators a branded home for paid classes, workshops, courses, communities, replays, downloads, products, certificates, and student progress.
Choose Acuity Scheduling if:
The product is a simple appointment or consultation where buyers mainly need booking, intake forms, payment collection, packages, and reminders.
Acuity Scheduling overview
Acuity is an appointment scheduler for availability, client self-booking, intake questions, packages, reminders, payments, and calendar management.
Pricing and total stack considerations
Acuity's current pricing page shows a 7-day trial, Starter at $16/month billed yearly for 1 calendar, Standard at $27/month billed yearly for up to 6 calendars, and Premium at $49/month billed yearly. Those plans are appointment scheduling costs. If you use Acuity as the center of a paid education business, you still need a course platform, landing pages, checkout, replay hosting, community, downloads, progress tracking, and student support.
Use Heights as the revenue and delivery platform for the class business. You may still keep a scheduler if you need advanced appointment features, but the learning product should not be reduced to a calendar booking.
Switching plan from Acuity-led classes to Heights
Choose the class that creates the most follow-up questions or replay requests. Build it in Heights as a product with a welcome lesson, prep resources, live-session details, replay area, downloads, and a community prompt. Update Acuity links so paid buyers access the class hub in Heights rather than receiving scattered emails.
FAQs: Acuity Scheduling alternatives
Can I still use Acuity with Heights?
Yes. You can keep Acuity for appointment booking and use Heights for the paid learning product.
Can Heights sell workshops?
Yes. Heights can sell workshops, courses, bundles, digital products, memberships, and coaching-style offers.
When should I move beyond scheduling?
Move beyond scheduling when buyers need prep lessons, replays, downloads, community, assignments, or ongoing access.
Is Heights better for class series?
Yes. A class series benefits from modules, resources, replays, progress, and discussion in one platform.
Why trust Heights Platform?
Built by creators, informed by 10,000+ creator businesses
Since 2019, Heights Platform has helped more than 10,000 creators in over 100 countries build and grow online knowledge businesses with courses, communities, coaching, and digital products. We are a small, creator-led team that takes pride in giving creators thoughtful, personal service, not simply access to software.
Our team can work directly with you to help build your program in Heights, drawing on what we have learned from helping thousands of creators launch and improve their offers.
We design for both sides of an education business: helping creators grow while giving their students and members a clearer path to apply what they learn and achieve meaningful results.
We run our own courses and community at Creator Climb, where more than 10,000 members learn alongside other creators.
Our experience also extends beyond the platform. On The Creator's Adventure, Heights founder Bryan McAnulty has interviewed nearly 200 creators, educators, and entrepreneurs from around the world, bringing those practical lessons back into how we build Heights and support creator businesses.