Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cal.com VS HourStack

Compare Cal.com VS HourStack and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Cal.com logo Cal.com

Cal.com (formerly Calendso) is the open source Calendly alternative.

HourStack logo HourStack

The simple, visual solution to effective time management.
  • Cal.com Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-08
  • HourStack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-04-05

HourStack is a transparent, easy-to-use time management tool customized to your team's current workflow. The all-in-one visual calendar helps you see, plan, and track your team's time across tasks and projects in a complete view. Easily schedule tasks, accurately track time, pull actionable reports, and customize your workspace and permissions.

Use HourStack on its own to track and schedule time, or enhance the experience via integrations. By integrating HourStack, you can continue to use the software you love โ€”Asana, Trello, Todoist, Google Calendar, and moreโ€” and get simple and flexible time tracking functionality across them all in a centralized view. No technical skills needed, no complicated integrations, and no more duplication of entries.

Take a tour of all of the features and get a free 14-day trial at HourStack.com(no credit card required).

Cal.com features and specs

  • Customizable
    Cal.com allows extensive customization to fit various branding and scheduling needs, which makes it adaptable for different types of users including businesses and individuals.
  • Open-source
    Being an open-source platform, Cal.com provides the flexibility for developers to modify and extend the software as per their specific needs, fostering a collaborative development environment.
  • Integrations
    Cal.com offers a wide range of integrations with other software tools like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Zoom, enhancing its functionality and making it easier to fit into existing workflows.
  • User-friendly Interface
    Cal.com has an intuitive and clean interface that makes it easy for users of all technical skill levels to set up and manage their scheduling.
  • Privacy-focused
    Cal.com emphasizes data privacy, ensuring user information is handled securely, which is crucial for users who need to comply with regulations like GDPR.

Possible disadvantages of Cal.com

  • Learning Curve
    Although it is highly customizable, the plethora of options and features may result in a steeper learning curve for new users who are not familiar with such scheduling tools.
  • Limited Free Version
    The free version of Cal.com comes with limitations that may not be sufficient for growing businesses or advanced users who require more comprehensive features.
  • Dependency on Integrations
    Cal.com's effectiveness heavily depends on its integrations. Without these integrations, some users might find the tool less useful or incomplete, especially if their primary tools are not supported.
  • Support
    While open-source has many benefits, it may also mean that immediate, personalized support could be limited compared to fully commercial solutions. This might pose a challenge for users needing quick resolutions.
  • Performance
    As an open-source platform, the performance might vary depending on how it is hosted and managed. Suboptimal configurations could lead to slower performance or downtimes.

HourStack features and specs

  • Scheduling
    Set and Shift Schedules to Optimize Workflow
  • Time Tracking
    Accurately Track Time Across Tasks and Projects
  • Reporting
    Understand Time Utilization and Improve Efficiencies
  • Integrations
    Designed to Integrate Seamlessly with Your Favorite Tools
  • Teams
    Customize Your Team's Settings and Permissions
  • Workspaces
    Manage Multiple Workspaces

Analysis of Cal.com

Overall verdict

  • Cal.com is generally considered a good option for scheduling and calendar management.

Why this product is good

  • Cal.com is praised for its open-source nature, allowing for greater customization and integration flexibility. It offers a user-friendly interface and supports various calendar integrations, making it a versatile tool for individuals and businesses alike.

Recommended for

  • Freelancers who need a simple yet effective scheduling tool.
  • Small businesses looking for a customizable scheduling solution.
  • Developers who appreciate open-source software and need a tool they can modify.
  • Businesses seeking a platform that can integrate with existing tools and workflows.

Cal.com videos

What can you do with Cal? | Cal.com Version 1.1 Launch | 10 new languages

More videos:

  • Review - Cal.com Version 1.0 Launch Event

HourStack videos

HourStack: Improving Your Workflow

More videos:

  • Review - HourStack: Standard Integrations

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cal.com and HourStack)
Appointments and Scheduling
Time Tracking
0 0%
100% 100
Calendar And Scheduling
100 100%
0% 0
Time Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cal.com and HourStack

Cal.com Reviews

Acuity Scheduling alternatives for businesses outgrowing it
The honest read: if you're leaving Acuity because your business outgrew simple scheduling โ€” you need deposits, add-ons, multiple staff and locations, and ideally a booking site you own โ€” Opencals is built for exactly that transition, and pay-as-you-go means it costs nothing until you're earning. If you're leaving for a narrower reason, match it precisely: SimplyBook.me for...
Source: opencals.com
I've poked around a while ago at some Calendly alternatives (specifically was lo... | Hacker News
I tried using https://cal.com for a bit but ended up just switching over to https://zcal.co and it has been great so far. All these other scheduling tools end up trying to do too much and always seem to end up a bit clunky and charge absurd amounts for it

HourStack Reviews

49 Best Timesheet Alternatives - Features, pros & cons, pricing | Remote Tools
By integrating HourStack, you can continue to use the software you love รขย€ย”Asana, Todoist, Google Calendar, and more รขย€ย” and get simple and flexible time tracking functionality across them all in a centralized view. No technical skills needed, no complicated integrations, and no more duplication Pricing When to use HourStack Relevance to remote workers Remote workers use...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Cal.com seems to be a lot more popular than HourStack. While we know about 60 links to Cal.com, we've tracked only 4 mentions of HourStack. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cal.com mentions (60)

  • "You Wouldnโ€™t Steal a DIV": How I Built My Portfolio
    Then for the component library, I was really into coss ui. I stumbled upon it randomly one day and loved it so much. My Nathan's AI project already had a UI heavily inspired by cal.com: send button, message suggestions... So when I saw they had a shadcn/ui library with that kind of style, it was perfect for what I needed. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • AI Almost Sold Me a Subscription I Didn't Need
    I keep coming back to what would have happened if I didn't have a strong technical understanding of how calendar technology works โ€” the difference between local and cloud calendars, what an ICS feed is, why enterprise auth blocks third-party integrations. If this was many years ago before I gained all this experience, I would have stopped at the first confident answer from my search tool, installed one of those... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Introducing Quackback: Open-Source Feedback Platform with a Built-in MCP Server
    Plausible brought open source to web analytics. Cal.com did it for scheduling. Formbricks did it for surveys. PostHog did it for product analytics. Quackback does it for feedback collection. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • ๐Ÿค Learn Front-End by Doing: Contribute to Cal.com's Open Source...๐Ÿš€
    In this tutorial, we'll be focusing on Cal.com:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • 5 Side Project Ideas for Developers to Monetize as Micro-SaaS in 2025
    Take Cal.com (https://cal.com/), formerly known as Calendso. It started as an open source alternative to Calendly which offers a free, self-hostable version for users. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

HourStack mentions (4)

  • Show HN: General Task, a free task manager for builders (beta)
    This is a solid take on task management. We've got some similar features in https://hourstack.com with dragging and dropping tasks from other platforms into a calendar (team or personal). However, our focus is on tracking time against those tasks once scheduled and then reporting, invoicing, etc. Against the work completed. So different end goals. Best of luck to you as it looks like you've got a great start. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • Search fo a day Planer with one importan funktion.
    I would take a look at Plan (free), Hourstack (paid) or Sunsama (paid). Source: almost 5 years ago
  • Ask HN: How do you track your billable working hours?
    The team and I are building HourStack - https://hourstack.com. We are focused on scheduling and tracking time at the task level, which works well with billable hours. We also integrate with task, event, and issue platforms so you can drag existing tasks onto your calendar to schedule and track time against them. This can be quite nice when working with clients across different platforms like Asana, Trello, and... - Source: Hacker News / about 5 years ago
  • Be happier with your time by tracking how you spend it...
    Calendars - newdaynew.me or hourstack.com- calendar tracking is useful, but does make things rigid and remove some flexibility or freedom to how you spend you day - like putting in your calendar 3 hours of X when you may not be in the best mood to do that. Source: over 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cal.com and HourStack, you can also consider the following products

Calendly - Say goodbye to phone and email tag for finding the perfect meeting time with Calendly. It's 100% free, super easy to use and you'll love our customer service.

Toggl - Toggl is an online time tracking tool. It features 1-click time tracking and helps you see where your time goes. Free and paid versions are available.

TidyCal - Optimize your schedule with custom booking pages and calendar integrations

Harvest - Simple time tracking, fast online invoicing, and powerful reporting software. Simplify employee timesheets and billing. Get started for free.

Acuity Scheduling - Automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & payments using the worlds friendliest online scheduling software.

Hours - Boosting productivity through live, virtual co-working.