Calendly is a scheduling tool that eliminates "when are you available?" email chains.

How it works: You share your Calendly link, candidates pick a time, it auto-books on both calendars.

Many recruiting teams use Calendly for interview scheduling.

But Calendly isn't built specifically for recruiting. It's a general-purpose scheduling tool.

The question: Is Calendly good enough for hiring, or do you need a recruiting-specific scheduling tool?

Pricing: Free (basic), $12/user/month (Professional), $16/user/month (Teams)

We used Calendly for 90 days across 15 roles.

What Calendly Does

Core features:

• Share booking links (candidates pick available times)
• Auto-syncs with Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal
• Automatic email confirmations and reminders
• Zoom/Google Meet integration (auto-generates meeting links)
• Buffer times between meetings
• Team scheduling (round-robin or collective availability)

Target users: Anyone who schedules meetings (sales, customer success, recruiting, etc.)

Positioning: "Scheduling automation for everyone"

What Works Well

1. Setup Takes 10 Minutes

Setup process:

1. Connect your calendar
2. Set your availability (e.g., Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)
3. Create an event type (e.g., "30-minute phone screen")
4. Share your link

Done.

No training required. No complicated configuration.

Our team was up and running in under 15 minutes.

2. Candidates Love The Experience

Old process:

• Recruiter: "Are you available Tuesday at 2pm?"
• Candidate: "No, but Wednesday at 3pm works."
• Recruiter: "Wednesday doesn't work for the hiring manager. How about Thursday at 1pm?"
• (This continues for 3-4 emails)

With Calendly:

• Recruiter sends link
• Candidate picks time
• Done in 60 seconds

Candidate feedback:

• "This was so much easier than the back-and-forth at other companies"
• "I appreciated being able to pick a time that worked for me"

Candidates strongly prefer self-scheduling over email coordination.

3. Reduces No-Shows With Automatic Reminders

Calendly sends automatic email reminders:

• 24 hours before interview
• 1 hour before interview

Our no-show rate:

• Before Calendly: 12% of candidates no-showed
• With Calendly: 4% no-show rate

Automatic reminders significantly reduce no-shows.

4. Buffer Times Prevent Back-To-Back Burnout

You can set buffer times:

• 15 minutes before interviews (prep time)
• 15 minutes after interviews (notes, breaks)

This prevents interviewers from being booked for 8 straight hours of back-to-back interviews.

Our hiring managers appreciated this.

5. Integrates With Zoom And Google Meet

Calendly auto-generates video meeting links when someone books.

No more:

• Forgetting to send the Zoom link
• Scrambling to create a meeting link 5 minutes before the interview
• Candidates emailing "where's the link?"

Everything is automated.

What Doesn't Work Well

1. No Multi-Person Panel Scheduling

Calendly can check one person's availability.

What it can't do: Check availability for 3+ people simultaneously and find times that work for everyone.

Example:

You need to schedule a panel interview with:

• Hiring manager
• 2 engineers
• 1 recruiter

With Calendly:

• You have to manually check all 4 calendars
• Find overlapping availability
• Book manually

Calendly's "collective availability" feature only works if everyone uses Calendly (most hiring teams don't).

For panel interviews, Calendly doesn't save time.

2. No ATS Integration

Calendly doesn't integrate with applicant tracking systems (Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, etc.).

This means:

• Candidates book interviews via Calendly
• You manually copy interview details into your ATS
• You manually update candidate status in ATS after interviews

For teams using an ATS (most teams), this creates extra manual work.

Recruiting-specific tools like GoodTime and Calendly's competitor Chili Piper integrate with ATS systems.

3. Limited Interview Type Customization

Calendly event types:

• 15-minute call
• 30-minute phone screen
• 60-minute interview

What you can't do:

• Create multi-stage interview workflows
• Automatically send different links for different interview rounds
• Customize confirmation emails per role or interview stage

Recruiting-specific tools offer more customization for hiring workflows.

4. No Candidate Pipeline Visibility

Calendly tracks individual bookings but doesn't show:

• How many candidates have interviews scheduled this week
• Which roles have interview bottlenecks
• Recruiter performance (how many interviews each recruiter scheduled)

For recruiting teams managing 10+ open roles, this lack of visibility is a problem.

5. Round-Robin Scheduling Is Clunky

Round-robin: Distribute interviews evenly across a team of interviewers.

Example: You have 3 recruiters. You want phone screens distributed evenly.

Calendly offers round-robin, but:

• It's based on calendar availability, not workload balance
• If one recruiter has more availability, they get more interviews (not equal distribution)
• No way to set max interviews per day per recruiter

Recruiting-specific tools have better round-robin logic.

Pricing And ROI

Plans:

• Free: 1 event type, unlimited bookings (good for single use case)
• Professional: $12/user/month (unlimited event types, integrations)
• Teams: $16/user/month (team scheduling, round-robin, admin controls)

ROI:

If you're scheduling 20+ interviews per month, Calendly pays for itself in time saved (2-3 hours/week).

But: If you need panel scheduling or ATS integration, you'll still be doing manual work.

Who Should Use Calendly For Recruiting

Good fit for:

• Small teams (1-3 recruiters)
• Simple interview processes (mostly 1-on-1 phone screens)
• Teams not using an ATS (or using a very basic one)
• Budget-conscious teams ($12-16/user/month is affordable)

Not a good fit for:

• Panel interviews (multi-person scheduling doesn't work well)
• Teams using ATS systems (no integration)
• High-volume hiring (lacks pipeline visibility and analytics)
• Complex interview workflows (limited customization)

Alternatives To Consider

If Calendly doesn't fit:

• GoodTime (recruiting-specific, ATS integration, panel scheduling)
• Chili Piper (similar to Calendly, better for sales and recruiting teams)
• Modern Hire (includes scheduling + video interviewing + assessments)
• Your ATS's built-in scheduling (Greenhouse and Lever have native scheduling)

The Bottom Line

Calendly works well for:

• Simple 1-on-1 interview scheduling
• Eliminating email back-and-forth
• Reducing candidate no-shows
• Budget-friendly teams

Calendly struggles with:

• Panel interview coordination
• ATS integration
• Complex recruiting workflows
• Pipeline visibility and analytics

Our recommendation:

If you're a small team doing mostly 1-on-1 phone screens, Calendly is a great affordable option.

If you do panel interviews, use an ATS, or hire at high volume, invest in a recruiting-specific tool like GoodTime.

Rating: 7/10 (Excellent for simple scheduling, but recruiting-specific tools offer more value for hiring teams)

Pros: ✅ Dead simple setup and use ✅ Great candidate experience ✅ Automatic reminders reduce no-shows ✅ Affordable pricing ✅ Reliable Zoom/Google Meet integration

Cons: ❌ No panel scheduling (multi-person availability) ❌ No ATS integration ❌ Limited customization for recruiting workflows ❌ No pipeline visibility or analytics

Price: $0-$16/user/month depending on plan

Learn more: calendly.com (Note: Pricing and features as of November 2025)