Best Interview Scheduling Software - 2023
The Best Interview Scheduling Tools, Pricing Information, Common Pitfalls and More
The many steps between sourcing candidates and making an offer can easily become a logistical nightmare, especially when you’re dealing with a high volume of applicants. Modern scheduling tools allow for faster time to fill, a better candidate experience, and decreased recruiter headaches. Interview scheduling is a critical part of the hiring process with impacts to both the candidate and hiring team, yet one that can be the most prone to error.
Manual scheduling requires coordinating multiple schedules, sending countless emails back-and-forth, and juggling potential last-minute schedule changes. The process itself is antiquated, time-consuming, inefficient, and creates an inconsistent candidate experience. Some recruiters estimate that they spend up to 90% of their time on scheduling!
We put together this guide after researching the various vendors in the automated interview scheduling space, and talking to recruiting teams about their experiences with these tools. We hope you’ll find the list of best vendors helpful, along with the various advice we’ve outlined below on implementation best practices, questions to ask on demos, etc. Good luck!
Best Interview Scheduling Tools
When shortlisting the best scheduling software, simplicity, flexibility, automation, integrations, and branding were key factors we had in mind. We participated in dozens of demos, tested tools firsthand, analyzed verified user reviews, and spoke with industry experts to finalize our selection.
- Simplicity: Our goal was to find interview scheduling tools that are user-friendly, even for those who are not tech-savvy. The features we assessed include drag-and-drop calendar views, automated email notifications, and effortless scheduling and rescheduling capabilities.
- Flexibility: We made sure our software picks can accommodate various interview types (in-person, phone, and video). You should also be able to access the software and manage interview schedules on your pc or on the go. Additionally, it must take time zones into account so you don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts or confusion when coordinating interviews across different locations.
- Automation: Interview scheduling software should work for you and not the other way around, which is why features like automated email notifications, seamless calendar integration, and candidate self-scheduling are vital.
- Branding: We picked software that lets you add your company logo, tweak those email templates, and create a scheduling experience that's truly yours. This helps you maintain a professional image and provide a consistent brand experience to candidates.
If you're curious and want to learn more about our evaluation process, here’s how we evaluate HR Tech.
Paradox
Paradox makes scheduling fast, simple, and friendly to candidates in over 100 languages, thanks to its AI assistant Olivia. Teams hiring globally frequently benefit from the tool for having their interview scheduling, rescheduling, and reminders automated and synced with other apps.
PROS
- Paradox implementation with dedicated support is very efficient.
- Less time on back-and-forth communication between job seekers and recruiters.
- Unlimited interview scheduling.
- Automated rescheduling.
- Available in more than 30 languages for users and over 100 for candidates.
- Their implementation and customer service is very efficient and accessible. You will not only get a Customer Success Manager to help you with every step during your implementation phase but your issues will also likely be resolved within the same day. Unlike many vendors, you can contact their support team via phone and explain your issue in real-time.
- It’s very time-saving and cuts down on back-and-forth communication between job candidates and recruiters. As Derek B, Head of Recruitment at a large-sized enterprise puts it, “Olivia helped us shave our response time from 7 days to under 24 hours. This time saving ensured that the applicants we chose to interview were the best of the bunch.”
- Olivia, their AI chatbot is programmed to respond to candidates in a way that feels personal, as if a real person is responding. What’s even better is that despite complete automation, you can see all chats and manually override them if need be.
CONS
- Custom workflows can take a while to be executed.
- The AI assistant is intelligent and has a human touch but can’t fully replace humans. At times when you want nuanced answers in conversations, you’ll have to operate the chat manually.
- At times, the resolution to an issue isn’t thoroughly tested from Paradox's end before sending it to customers.
- Lacks transparent pricing. Doesn’t have a free trial.
- Although you can get some data and feedback about your company and its processes, analytics is not very robust in Paradox. If you’re looking for advanced features that let you slice and dice your data in various ways, you’ll have to look for other applications.
- Their AI assistant is intelligent and has a human touch but at the end of the day, Olivia is still AI. At times when you want nuanced answers in conversations, you’ll have to manually operate the chat.
Paradox's shining star is undeniably its AI Olivia. This AI marvel handles automation with a smooth and simple touch. The process begins by integrating Olivia with your crucial tools like calendars, ATS, and video interviewing software. While the available integrations aren't exhaustive, they cover popular choices. Additionally, Paradox's multilingual capabilities are impressive. It supports over 30 languages for users and more than 100 for candidates.
Our experience with Paradox was pretty impressive. Olivia takes the reins in communicating with candidates for interview scheduling. Once booked, the interview time syncs with our calendar, ensuring we're well-prepared. Candidates receive interview reminders, and if the need arises, Olivia can efficiently handle rescheduling and keep everyone in the loop. Another big plus with Paradox is its real-time application status updates on both the platform and the integrated ATS.
However, Paradox does stumble a bit in a few areas. It falls short on transparent pricing or a free trial. Implementation speed can be a bit slow if you require a custom workflow, although the dedicated support compensates for that delay. Surprisingly, the tool lacks native LinkedIn integration. Lastly, while Paradox has its own ATS and video interviewing tools, they don't quite match up to top-tier vendors in the market.
Major customers of Paradox are enterprises, followed by mid-market businesses. Some of the names are Unilever, McDonald’s, and Amazon.
Pricing is not published on the website. You must get on a demo with its team for more details.
Best For
Paradox is a top interview scheduling software tool for large businesses and international teams that hire frequently.
VidCruiter
VidCruiter has well-earned, expert knowledge of the interviewing space. The platform has built excellent automation and customization features into its tool, making it a powerful solution for hiring at scale at fast-growing companies.
PROS
- VidCruiter can easily configure workflows to auto-book all interviews in the pipeline.
- Knowledgeable and responsive customer support.
- Keep hiring managers and candidates up to date with timely reminders and notifications.
- Integrations include major calendars (Google, Outlook) and Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication.
- Scalable and customizable — users pay for what they need and can purchase more features as they grow.
- Robust pre-recorded and live video interviewing with advanced automation.
- Browser-based, so it works across devices without installing apps.
- Available for recruiters in eight languages and supports job seekers in dozens more.
- 24/7 live agent support, assigned account manager, and on-demand training.
CONS
- No free trial or free plan.
- Not the cheapest option in the market.
- Mid-market and enterprises focus. Not the best bet for smaller teams.
- Because the product is feature-rich and highly customizable, the implementation phase can be time-consuming.
- Advanced search and technical skills testing features within the assessment module leave room for improvement.
- No free or trial version.
- Undisclosed pricing.
We were drawn to VidCruiter's scheduling tool because it really stands out when it comes to handling interview scheduling automatically, syncing with different calendars, and keeping everyone updated in real time.
The best part? This scheduling tool isn't just about setting up interviews. It goes above and beyond to enhance both the candidate's and interviewer's experiences. Candidates get the flexibility to pick their preferred interview format, whether it's a pre-recorded video interview, a live video chat, a hybrid interview, or even an in-person meeting. This level of choice and customization sets it apart from other scheduling tools we've seen.
Another outstanding aspect is the scheduler’s personalized approach based on the user role and the interview process. Interviewers receive guides, reminders, candidate profiles, and rating keys. On the candidate side, there are instructions, reminders, and if the position requires it, a prompt for their relevant certifications.
To put the software to the test, we booked an in-person interview using it as a candidate, and not only did the tool send us an SMS with all the interview details, but it also gave us Google Maps directions.
And we weren't the only ones impressed — several TA users we consulted with have felt the same way, loving how the tool's automation freed up more time for candidate interactions, all while seamlessly managing the logistical side.
With that said, there's no free trial or free plan available with VidCruiter. And it might not be the most budget-friendly option out there. It has been focused on mid-market and enterprise-level teams from the get-go. So, if you're a smaller team, it might not be the perfect fit.
Lowe’s, Lionsgate, and United Nations are a few names of VidCruiter’s customers. The platform has been used by over 10,000 TAs and is popular among enterprise orgs.
The pricing of VidCruiter’s solutions is not disclosed on their website. You can contact VidCruiter’s Sales team for a custom price quote.
Best For
VidCruiter is best for organizations with packed interview schedules, ideally medium and large-sized companies, and recruiting agencies with more than 100 job openings annually.
GoodTime
GoodTime knows what they’re doing: The scheduling software has got automation and personalized communication down pat. They even possess screening capabilities and can now handle high-volume hiring.
PROS
- SMS, WhatsApp, and email interview scheduling.
- Candidate-driven availability selection and rescheduling options.
- Customizable workflow automation.
- The platform recently introduced a high-volume hiring product for scalability.
- Mobile-optimized platform with Chrome extension for easy communication.
- Pre-built screening questionnaires and knock-out questions.
- 24/7 chat support and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
- Multiple integration options.
- Because of how automated it is, GoodTime makes the process of scheduling and hiring very fast. From scheduling an interview to sending an offer letter – you can close the entire candidate pipeline in two weeks.
- GoodTime is highly customizable. You can create custom tags to group interviewers based on various criteria and areas of expertise, customize the maximum time you want each team member to spend on interviews daily or weekly, as well as create custom templates for interview panels and emails. The branding that you can set with GoodTime helps show your company's personality and makes it feel like it isn't just some boring, standard tool.
- Their customer service is great. You get 24/7 customer support via chat, a Customer Success Manager to guide you every step of the way, and a customer support team who regularly fixes bugs that are reported and takes your suggestions into consideration. They’re also incredibly quick to respond to your queries.
CONS
- The Hire products have no free plan or trial and undisclosed pricing.
- It focuses solely on scheduling and lacks other recruiting capabilities.
- Lengthy implementation process, especially for complex workflows.
- The user interface can be somewhat challenging to navigate.
- Great customer service, yet only available in English and no other language.
- Occasional bugs were reported, primarily related to calendar and ATS syncing.
- The implementation process can be lengthy, depending on the complexity of your own workflows.. There are many configuration choices to be made , which can be time-consuming and overwhelming without help from the GoodTime team.
- GoodTime’s user interface includes many options, and at first blush, can be challenging to navigate. The learning curve is initially due to its complex functionality.
- Occasional bugs are reported by its users, mainly related to syncing with the calendar and ATS. Although the customer support is extremely responsive and would resolve your issue in a speedy manner, this is something you should be aware of when considering buying GoodTime.
One of the reasons we chose GoodTime is because it’s fast. The interview scheduling software’s automation can handle the entire candidate pipeline, from scheduling interviews to sending offer letters, within two weeks. This efficiency makes the hiring process significantly faster and more streamlined.
GoodTime is highly customizable. You can make your own tags for interviewers, set time limits for interviews, and even adjust templates for interview panels and emails. This flexibility makes the scheduler feel like it's made just for you, not a one-size-fits-all tool.
The interview scheduling app’s customer service is pretty awesome. You get help through chat 24/7. Plus, they give you a dedicated Customer Success Manager to guide you through the process. Feedback from users we engaged with underlines the tech support team's quick response to reported bugs and user inputs, earning them high praise.
However, implementing GoodTime can be lengthy, especially for complex workflows, and it may require assistance from the team. Initially, the user interface can be overwhelming to some due to the large number of options and features GoodTime provides. Thus, it’ll take time to feel familiar with the tool.
Sometimes there are a few bugs related to syncing with calendars and ATS, but the customer support team is quick to sort these out. Still, it's important to keep this one in mind when considering the scheduler. Better safe than sorry!
GoodTime scheduling apps have been used by over 300 companies for both hiring and sales. These companies are mostly large, with at least a couple hundred employees, such as HubSpot, Slack, and Quora.
GoodTime offers two modules:
- GoodTime Hire (pricing undisclosed) is designed for recruitment teams, providing solutions for Corporate Hiring, High-Volume Hiring, and a Hire Bundle that covers both.
- GoodTime Meet is suitable for individuals and businesses, especially Sales teams, and offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $9 per seat per month on an annual basis.
Best For
GoodTime has leveled up with its high-volume hiring product, making it even more powerful for midsized companies and enterprises. And with the free-to-start module GoodTime Meet is best for scheduling interviews and meetings with colleagues, prospects, or clients, whether your team is working hybrid or remotely.
HireVue
HireVue is more than just AI-powered on-demand interviews and assessments. The platform also has a scheduling tool that complements their other recruiting solutions, plus 24/7 customer support in 20+ languages to ensure you're in good hands.
PROS
- Supports candidate-driven availability selection, self-rescheduling, and rescheduling.
- Responsive implementation team and 24/7 customer support in 20+ languages.
- HireVue is open to customizing their packages to suit unique business needs.
- Offers solutions for video interviewing, assessments, conversational AI, and text recruiting, consolidating recruiting tech in one place.
- Mobile-friendly.
- HireVue is very useful when it comes to screening a large number of job candidates in a short frame of time. Its virtual assistant can do an initial screen of applicants on its own, leave messages for them, and get responses in return. All of this frees up recruiters’ time.
- It has a great on-demand interviewing feature. Recruiters can sit and watch candidates’ interviews as per their convenience. The ability to change the speed of the interview while watching can also help recruiters save time.
- Their implementation team and customer support is extremely responsive or in the words of a Global Talent Attraction Director, “I love the support, tenacity and just constant desire to do the right thing. They take the time to understand our business and I never feel like it is a ‘catch and release’ relationship that is so common in this space”
CONS
- No option for WhatsApp invitations. It’s currently limited to email and SMS.
- No free plan or free trial.
- Caters to organizations with at least 2500 employees.
- Limited integration partners. Pre-built ATS integrations are an add-on.
- HireVue is not very affordable compared to its alternatives, especially when you factor in the functionality. Their pricing plans are geared towards companies with at least 2500 employees and even then, you only get a small set of features.
- HireVue does not have a lot of integration partners and the range of software it integrates with is also very limited (mostly ATS).
- Too much automation can at times lead to unwanted candidates. For instance, the asynchronous interview feature can allow candidates to adjust their responses in order to fit the job criteria. However, HireVue wouldn’t screen such candidates out and your company may need human intervention to pick up on visual cues and body language.
HireVue’s scheduling tool is quite handy. It’s fully automated and comes with conversational AI that coordinates with the job candidates. Candidates can easily self-schedule based on their availability, and it's perfect for managing virtual career fairs and graduate hiring events.
We were impressed with their super-responsive implementation team and customer support, available 24/7 in 20+ languages. Plus, HireVue isn't just about scheduling. While GoodTime is hyper-focused on scheduling and doesn’t touch other aspects of recruiting, HireVue covers video interviews, assessments, conversational AI, and text recruiting, making it a one-stop shop for your hiring tech.
However, again, when compared to GoodTime, we noticed that HireVue only sends candidates email or SMS invitations without a Whatsapp option. Another thing to note is that there's no free trial or plan. HireVue pricing plans are undisclosed and cater to companies with at least 2,500 employees, but the vendor is open to customizing their offerings to meet customers’ specific needs.
In case you’re curious about the software’s integration capabilities, HireVue does fall short in this aspect, with only a few partners and most of them are ATSs. So, the choices here are quite limited.
HireVue serves over 800 businesses, including major players such as Unilever, SmartLynx Airlines, and National Safety Apparel.
HireVue offers an interview scheduling product as an add-on, but they don't disclose the pricing upfront. To get a quote, you'll need to request a demo.
Best For
If you've already got other recruiting solutions from HireVue or want a robust hiring platform tailored for enterprises with great support, their interview scheduling tool is a top addition to your hiring tech.
Sign In Scheduling
Sign In Scheduling (formally 10to8) stands out from other scheduling tools with its free plan, perfect for solo business owners. But the real gem is the free SMS reminder system, a feature others charge for separately. Sweet deal, isn’t it?
PROS
- Offers an indefinite free pricing plan and a 14-day free trial for paid plans.
- Reduce back-and-forth communication with automatic appointment reminders and a 2-way chat feature to update or cancel bookings.
- Cloud-based and works on multiple devices.
- Supports both 1-to-1 and panel interviews.
- Works for several appointments with no service limitations.
- Can connect with 5,000 apps in multiple categories.
- You don’t have to think too much before using 10to8. Unlike many scheduling tools, you can be on an indefinite free pricing plan with 10to8. For paid plans, there’s also a 30-day free trial so you could test the waters before committing.
- You can cut down on back and forth communications and no-shows. Not only does 10to8 send automatic appointment reminders to attendees, it also lets you have a 2-way chat with them where they could update or cancel their booking. You could also include calendars for your teammates to coordinate better.
- 10to8 is completely cloud-based and you don’t need to install any app. You could also view it on any device – whether that’s mobile, tablet, or a desktop.
- 10to8 is extremely versatile and you could use it for any kind of appointment. There is also no limit on the number of services that you can offer.
CONS
- The system can be clunky and inflexible when booking time slots.
- No upper limit for daily appointment requests, requiring manual time blocking.
- Overloads users with messages for repeat appointments, necessitating manual booking.
- Accessing appointment history may require scrolling through the calendar or personal records.
- Only offers solutions for appointment scheduling.
- The booking times are a little clunky. One user complained about how “You are only able to book in certain slots e.g. 9-10 but you can't select 9:30-10:30 if you're available for an hour between 9-11. But it can make it simpler to make a choice to book.”
- There’s no upper limit for how many users can book an appointment with you in a day. So, for example, if you don’t want more than 10 appointment requests for a day, you can’t set that as a limit. You’ll have to manually block time.
- If you have repeat appointments with a single individual or group, 10to8 overloads them with messages about each appointment. You also have to manually book every single appointment.
- If you want to look at a candidate’s appointment history, you’ll have to scroll through the calendar or resort to your own records.
We found Sign In Scheduling really helpful for managers and HR professionals to make coordination simple and save time. The two-way chat feature is a big advantage. It connects interviewers and candidates and lets them easily confirm, change, or cancel interviews.
Sign In Scheduling is fairly easy to use. Along with Calendly and GoodTime Meet, it's one of the few in the market that offers a free pricing plan that you can stick with forever. While there have been some changes in Sign In Scheduling's pricing since our last review, like fewer appointments on the free plan and a shorter free trial, you still get the chance to try it out before committing. It's affordable and gives you plenty of choices.
However, we did notice that booking times can be a bit tricky. You have limited options to choose specific time slots. Also, there's no maximum limit for daily appointment requests. So, if you want to block out certain times, you have to do it yourself. The platform also lacks automatic booking for recurring appointments. To see a candidate's appointment history, you have to search through the calendar or use your own records.
From the candidate's side, receiving messages for repeat appointments might feel a bit overwhelming.
Sign In Scheduling's interview scheduling software has a diverse customer base of over 200,000 businesses, from solopreneurs to companies with thousands to dozens of thousands of employees. Yale University, US Bank, and ResMed are a few examples of large organizations that use 10to8.
Sign In Scheduling now offers 4 plans:
- Starter: Free for 1 seat and 10 appointments/month.
- Pro: $7.20 per seat per month for 100 appointments.
- Premium: $19.00 per seat per month for 100 appointments.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
Best For
Sign In Scheduling’s free pricing plan makes it one of the best choices for small businesses, sole entrepreneurs, and teams looking for affordable and scalable interview scheduling software. It's particularly useful if you don't require the interview solution from the same vendor but need a seamless integration with your existing or future HR tools.
I used 10to8 for all of my professional encounters on a daily basis. We check the app early in the morning for upcoming meetings and midday for any comments or messages or reschedules. Within a busy working day, we used the application first of all to schedule appointments and to manage our email campaigns. When we have separate projects that we are working on simultaneously the branding feature helped us a lot with the schedules as well as the reporting feature. As an HR rep, I was in charge of attendance so I used the reporting feature to better understand the attendance ratio and fix issues related to it.
- Easy to use: the app has a friendly user interface and a well-explained manual anyone can use from day one
- Customization and branding: the website has branding options where you can customize, add logos and much more to your meetings.
- Free: The application offers multiple plans and there is the free plan that pretty much includes most of the features.
We started using 10to8 after we finally automated all of our HR processes. At the time, we were overwhelmed with clients/partner meetings and we needed a tool that would help us coordinate our appointments. Within just a few weeks of use, the app became a crucial part of the organization. It helped us organize all of our appointments easily, especially with our clients. It also provides us with client satisfaction surveys so we would always know what to improve. and within the company, the personalized communication feature was a great tool for us to improve ongoing communication. When I was with the company we used it for 1 year but personally, I kept using it for 2 years after that.
- Appointment Limit: Depending on the plan there is a monthly limit on the appointments so for big businesses it is hard to use the application.
- Not phone friendly: The calendar screen on the phone is cluttered and it is really hard to use the phone version.
- Limited integration: for CRM and other calendar integrations, the application needs to expand. It also doesn't support a lot of e-commerce websites.
I prefer 10to8 because it offers many options other applications don't like surveys and branding. They also have a great customer support team that get on the problem swiftly and they take less than 24h to fix it.
The size of the business is something you need to consider before getting the application since it has a limited number of appointments each month and you also need to consider the compatibility of the tool with your website.
When I first started using the application it was about schedules only. Now they add great features and functionalities within every update such as surveys, branding, team management, and emailing campaigns, in addition, they also improved their customer support experience which helped them get more users.
10to8 is perfect for startups and small businesses. As for big companies, the platform doesn't have the capacity to support a huge amount of requests and schedules on a daily basis.
10to8 won't be a good fit for big-size businesses that schedule and a lot of meetings daily, and companies that need CRM integration.
Calendly
Calendly stands out as a straightforward and user-friendly event scheduling tool suitable for various business settings, including candidate interview scheduling. The free version offers ample functionality for ongoing use.
PROS
- Calendly streamlines the interview scheduling process by enabling self-service. Simply share your Calendly link, and candidates can easily book, reschedule, or cancel meetings on their own. Automatic confirmations and meeting links are sent to their email.
- Personalized scheduling preferences enable recruiters and managers to set their own criteria for availability, meeting durations, and buffer times.
- The seamless integration with popular calendar and mailing tools ensures automatic schedule updates and video conferencing links.
- A LinkedIn integration allows candidates to book interviews directly from the site.
- Calendly’s simplicity is its biggest pro. It has an elegant user interface, it's very easy to navigate, it promptly gets the task done, and connects seamlessly with other applications.
- The reduction in back-and-forth emails. Your invitees can book a meeting slot, without reaching out to you multiple times. Calendly automatically sends them a confirmation and they can reschedule or cancel on their own. It’s even better for virtual meetings because once your invitees schedule a meeting with you, Calendly will automatically generate a meeting link based on your preferred video conferencing tool.
- The ability to set your own rules so that you can get complete control over your availability preferences. For example, you can decide how long a particular kind of meeting should be, buffer time between meetings, how many appointments can be booked per day, etc.
- Calendly seamlessly integrates with popular calendar and mailing tools. Meetings are automatically reflected on your personal calendar and video conferencing links with tools like Zoom or Google Meet are generated without any extra steps.
CONS
- Customization options in Calendly are limited beyond branding and color choices. This can pose a challenge for users aiming to embed Calendly in their website while maintaining a consistent visual appearance.
- Calendly's mobile-friendliness has been criticized by some users and our own research, indicating that it may not offer the same level of functionality as the desktop version.
- The free plan may feel restrictive for users with more extensive scheduling needs, as it allows only one type of time slot to be booked.
- Besides branding and the ability to choose different colors, Calendly does not offer a lot of options for customizations. This could be frustrating for users who want to embed Calendly in their website without making it seem like a completely different component.
- Calendly is not very mobile-friendly. You can’t perform all the functions on the mobile version.
- The payment collecting feature is not available in all currencies. Your invitees can only pay in the United States Dollar (USD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Pound Sterling (GBP), and Euro (EUR).
- You’ll be severely limited in terms of features if you choose the free plan or the cheaper ones. According to Craig, a Customer Success Manager at a small business, “All advanced functionality is locked behind higher subscription levels – We have the Professional level so that we can set up a team, but they locked the most obvious and useful meeting type for teams behind yet another upgrade to the sub level.”
What we really like about Calendly is how it puts candidates first. The scheduling tool gives candidates more control by letting them take charge by booking, changing, or canceling meetings by themselves. You can make the tool fit your preferences too. You set when you're available and how much time you need between meetings for a smooth process.
Calendly's ability to connect with other tools is also quite impressive. It can connect with over 100 different apps, so you have lots of options. And if you're on LinkedIn, you can use it to schedule interviews directly from there.
Calendly is making strategic moves to improve its features. They recently acquired Prelude, a company specializing in automation software for job recruitment. This shows their dedication to offering better capabilities, especially for larger firms and more complex scheduling needs.
While Calendly is solid, we did notice a few limitations in the mobile version compared to the desktop version. Is Calendly free forever? Calendly does have a free-forever plan. However, it might not work well for users with more complex scheduling needs, as it only allows one type of time slot to be booked. And for more complicated tasks like group bookings, setting up a series of meetings, or using multiple calendars, things might get a bit tricky.
Calendly has over 50,000 customers, including big firms like eBay, Dropbox, and Stack Overflow. However, most of its customers are SMBs, which can be explained by its free entry-level pricing.
Calendly offers five pricing plans, billed monthly or annually with a 20% discount. Here are the monthly rates for annual billing:
- Basic: Free with limited features.
- Essentials: $8 for scheduling automation.
- Professional: $12 for customizations, integrations, and basic team features.
- Teams: $16 for collaborative scheduling.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
All paid plans include a 14-day trial, with an automatic downgrade to the free plan afterward. Non-profit organizations can inquire about special pricing with customer support.
Best For
Thanks to its affordable pricing plans, including a free version, Calendly emerges as a top-rated interview scheduling software for sole business owners and small businesses. It manages to deliver budget-friendly scheduling capabilities without compromising on essential features.
As a Recruiter and Business owner, Calendly has been beneficial in my business and profession. I used it for scheduling interviews with job candidates. I used it to book one-on-one meetings with prospects and clients, allowing me to specify the duration and location of each meeting. I also used it to coordinate events such as training, and coaching session with my mentees. That said, these key workflows, allow me to simplify the scheduling process to save time so I can focus on other important tasks.
What I like about Calendly is that it eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails. It makes it a simple and easy way for others to book time with me based on my availability. This process helps to schedule more effectively and efficiently thereby saving time and energy.
We use Calendly as it eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails. It makes it so easy for our candidates, clients, stakeholders, and others to book time with us based on our availability. This can save us a lot of time and energy and make scheduling a more efficient and effective process.
I have been using Calendly since 2018 and so far, I haven't come across anything I don't like about Calendly. That said, I am completely satisfied with Calendly and have no negative feedback to provide.
What I like about Calendly is that it is user-friendly making it so easy to navigate. It has customizable event types as it allows me to create various types of events and I can customize the details for each type. It has real-time availability. I don't need to check timebuddy.com anymore to ensure that the time and date are accurate as Calendly integrates with my calendar.
It has email and calendar integrations such as Gmail, Outlook, and Google Calendar too, making it easy to manage my appointments and meetings. Finally, it has an automated email reminder. I don't miss a single meeting since Calendly sends automated email reminders to me.
- User-friendly: This is the number priority that each has to consider. A tool that is easy to use and navigate will make your life easier and help you save time and energy.
- Customizability: The ability to customize events and appointments to meet your specific needs is also crucial.
- Integration: Look for a tool that integrates with your existing email and calendar tools. This will make it easier to manage your appointments and meetings.
- Multi-user support: If you are part of a team, it's crucial to find a tool that supports several users and makes it easy for everyone to coordinate their schedules in real time.
- Automated email reminders: Run the risk of missed appointments which will definitely affect your reputation as a professional. Automated email reminders can help reduce the risk and keep everyone on track.
- Pricing: Make sure you understand the pricing structure. Identify if the price is within your range.
By considering these criteria, you can ensure that you choose a scheduling tool that meets your needs and helps you streamline your processes.
Calendly has evolved through time and has added changes and additions. The goal is to ensure customer satisfaction and streamline the process. It has enhanced customization options. They also improved integration options and added a mobile app.
These are just some of the changes that have evolved and added through time showing their commitment to having a seamless scheduling process.
Calendly is ideal for Freelancers, Small Business Owners, Event Planners, Real Estate Agents, Sales Agents, and the like.
Large companies
Clara
Clara is a scheduling app like no other. You simply email or cc Clara, and she’ll take care of your scheduling needs. The best part? Clara even gets trained by a team of skilled Executive Assistants to ensure she understands manners and delivers natural language.
PROS
- Clara is cloud-based and quick to set up, with no software installation required.
- It lives in your email, so there's no new user interface to learn.
- Removes you from the process of scheduling meetings, cutting down on back-and-forth emails.
- Provides high visibility for tasks.
- The AI feels like a human assistant.
- Has a free trial and a transparent pricing structure.
- No software installation. Clara is completely cloud-based and lives inside your email. This makes it very quick to set up and easy to use.
- No new user interface to familiarize yourself with. Implementing Clara is as good as bringing a new person on your team who only interacts with you over email.
- Cuts down on back-and-forth emails. Clara removes you from the process of scheduling meetings and saves you time and mental energy caused by distraction.
CONS
- Limited features. Good for straightforward scheduling, not for advanced needs.
- Can't directly edit meeting invites via Clara. You must use a calendar to make changes.
- Limited third-party integrations.
- Pricing starts at $99, which is quite expensive.
- Limited features. Clara is great if you have straightforward scheduling needs. If you need advanced features like payment integration, meeting polls, routing forms etc., you’re better off using other scheduling tools.
- Clara's philosophy to never ask for more access than necessary can become a hindrance at times. For example, if you need to make last-minute changes, you will not be able to directly edit your meeting invites via Clara. You’ll have to use your calendar to make such changes.
- Although they’re constantly building new integrations and you could reach them out with a suggestion, at present Clara integrates with a very limited amount of third-party applications.
Clara is a league of its own for its simplicity and a virtual assistant that makes you feel more like a human than a machine.
Clara, powered by AI, lives in your email and takes care of interview scheduling without needing any extra software. When you want to set up interviews, you can just email or cc Clara, and it will handle the rest. You'll be in the loop for your first three meetings, and then Clara adapts to your preferences. It arranges interviews, sends reminders, and even seeks feedback later.
Our choice to include Clara as one of the best interview scheduling software wasn't only due to its smart algorithm but also the human touch from Clara Labs behind the scenes. If Clara doesn't fully understand your message, a real person steps in to make sure everything's on track.
Clara has a free trial you can easily opt for on its website. And it is very transparent about its pricing and what each plan has to offer. But keep in mind, Clara works well for simple scheduling needs, though it might be pricey for some, with plans starting at $99 per user per month. For advanced features like payment integration or meeting polls, other options might be better.
Another downside we found is that if you need to make last-minute changes, you can't edit your meeting invites directly through Clara. You'll need to use your calendar. And while Clara is working on more integrations, currently, it connects with only a few third-party apps.
Clara has been used by over 1,000 organizations, including Mattermark, InVision, and Rubrik.
Clara offers four pricing plans, with a 20% discount available for NGOs:
- Clara Essential: $99/user/month on @claralabs.com domain with branded email signature.
- Clara Professional: $199/user/month on your domain (clara@yourdomain.com) with a non-branded email signature.
- Clara Executive: $99/user/month on your domain (name@yourdomain.com) with a custom Clara name and email signature.
- Clara for Teams: Custom plan for high-volume scheduling and growing businesses, contact sales for pricing.
Best For
Clara is a top interview scheduling software for businesses reliant on email-based scheduling and those requiring an efficient virtual assistant for booking tasks.
Interview Scheduling Software Key Use Cases
We think every company hiring more than a few people per year can benefit from adding interview scheduling software to the recruitment process, regardless of your HR/TA team’s structure, or organization’s size. That’s why we’ve done the research to save you time and help you pick the best solution for your company.
These solutions take a tedious, administrative task and automate it, allowing for more efficiency and productivity. Here are some of the core use cases for automated interview scheduling software:
- Better Interviewers: Many platforms offer training modules that allow interviewers to gain the key skill sets they need to be more effective in vetting job seekers. The right training means more consistency across your interview process. This means a better candidate experience, and better hires.
- Matching the right interviewers: Research has shown that who someone interviews with is just as important as what they talk about. For example, if you have a female engineering candidate coming in, you’re going to want to match them with a female engineer interviewer, preferably early in the process. This creates a better candidate experience which leads to higher offer acceptance rates.
- Scheduling: Ok, this one is obvious, but these tools will actually schedule the interviews for you without any intervention on your part! Eliminating the wasted time spent going back and forth over email to schedule candidates for interviews means a shorter recruitment cycle. Your team can conduct more interviews in less time, getting you to the right candidate faster.
Common Pitfalls and Misconceptions about Interview Scheduling
While we strongly recommend automating the interview scheduling process, we’ve seen HR practitioners make mistakes in the process that can negate many of the benefits. Here are a few things to keep in mind to avoid:
- Technology won't replace good human interactions. Yes, interview scheduling software makes the recruitment process much easier, but as with any tech, it’s not a complete replacement for your team members. The burden still rests on you to humanize the process and engage with your candidates in a way that lets them know that you value their time and interest in your company. For example, don’t just send a calendar link to your prospective colleague asking them to setup a time to chat. Sell them on working with your company by giving them materials they can look over in the meantime that dives into your employee value propositions.
- Setting the right expectations for your candidates. Interview scheduling software contributes to a seamless candidate experience, but it’s up to you to let candidates know what to expect as they move through the hiring process. People want to understand how long the process will be, how many steps there are, what you’re looking for, and of course why they should want this job in the first place. Don’t fall into the trap of optimizing for efficiency and forgetting there is a human on the other side of that email.
- Not just scheduling: A solution that can automate scheduling is great. But you should be looking at tools that can do a lot more than that. Let’s face it, unemployment is incredibly low and the war for talent is on. Beyond that, you are probably in an organization that needs to hire the right people faster. Leveraging interview training, interview matching (right interviewers for the right candidates), and interview analytics (who are your best interviewers) all contribute to a better hiring process. Make sure to treat automation as simply the 1.0 implementation of this solution.
Return on Investment (ROI)
There are two major ways that these solutions drive tangible value that your CFO can appreciate. First and foremost, you’re going to save your team time. Scheduling becomes such a nightmare that many recruiting orgs have full time HR coordinators that are more or less focused on scheduling.
Here’s the math: Let’s say you spend 1.5 hrs of time scheduling for each person who comes on site. Let’s say your HR coordinator makes $50k/yr, or $25/hr. Let’s say you hire 100 people per year, and interview 3 people for each person you hire. Ok, so that’s 300 onsite interviews per year, and 300 * 1.5 = 450 hours spend scheduling. At $25/hr, that’s $11k annually. Add in the time it takes for phone screens/follow ups and you’re looking at a significant amount of money even for smaller companies, let alone large enterprise organizations.
The second way that interview scheduling software can drive meaningful value is through decreasing time to fill. This happens in two main ways - one is that you are cutting down on the time it takes to go back and forth with scheduling and re-scheduling interviews. The second is that you aren’t losing candidates due to frustration which of course means more hires faster.
The ROI can be calculated by thinking through how much an employee is worth to your business, and then figuring out how that value adds up when you are able to get people hired and ramped faster. The value from an employee can come from new sales (sales/marketing colleagues), increased efficiency (engineering/ops), more customer retention (customer success), etc.
The easiest way to think about the value a person adds to the company is through a multiple of their salary. If a person doesn’t bring value that is equal to their salary, then that person probably won’t have a job for very long. And, if each person on average isn’t bringing value that is at least 2-3x their salary, there is almost no way that a company can be profitable!
Here’s the math: Let’s say again that we hire 100 people, and our average time to fill is 45 days. Let’s say we can decrease that by 2 days with interview scheduling software. That means in total we get those 100 people for an extra 2 days each, or 200 days in total. What are those 200 days worth to us? If each person makes $50k/yr, they make around $50k/365 = $137/day (yes I’m using 365 vs days working as let’s face it we are all working a lot more after hours than we used to). Per our previous discussion, let’s say each person is worth 2x their salary to the organization. So, that’s $137 * 2 = $274/day in value. $274/day times the 200 days that we got our new employees for, is $55k!
You can see how very quickly there is a hard ROI we can capture through implementing automated interview scheduling software. Of course, the non-economic benefits are huge as well. Scheduling can be a pain! Taking this off your recruiter’s plates will be a welcome respite.
Interview Scheduling Software Pricing
These solutions are typically priced on some metric that gets down to usage. Some are priced based on the number of employees in your organization, number of hires, number of interviews, etc. The guidelines in the chart below are meant to help you understand at a high level what you may be looking to pay at each size of company.
Also note that as your company gets larger the needs for more customization, higher tiers of support, and integrations with other software (via API or otherwise) can also increase pricing.
One last note, especially for the most basic use cases, some of these vendors have free personal plans that you can play around with as a minimum viable product to understand how this tool could fit into your broader talent acquisition team.
Key Features
Before you decide which interview scheduling software to purchase, you’ll want to consider a few of the key potential features. Many of these shorten the length of the overall hiring process by reducing the time spent emailing back and forth, coordinating schedules, and time spent waiting for a response. Automation generally removes the costly errors that can result from small oversights like typos or time zone differences. These are the key features we’ve identified:
- Automatic reminders. Reminders reduce no-shows. Depending on which software you choose, you’ll be able to customize these reminders based on the intervals, frequency, or messaging. When customizing reminders, make sure to build in links to articles/posts/PDFs that showcase your employer brand.
- Interviewer availability. Access to up-to-date calendars means more accurate interview scheduling the first time around and less time spent emailing to do it. With each platform you demo, you’ll also want to consider the types of interviews that you can schedule (one-on-one, group, round robin, etc.) and to choose the one that aligns with your organization’s talent acquisition process.
- Device syncing. Calendar syncing across all devices should be standard, as well as a way to integrate with your current ATS.
- Live support. No matter how intuitive the interview scheduling software may seem, a responsive customer support team should be available to help you troubleshoot problems as they arise. One pro tip is that job seekers should also be able to get access to support if they need it (although it should be so dead simple from their perspective that this is fairly moot).
Demo Questions
As we mentioned earlier in this post, most interview scheduling software platforms offer free demos (with the exception being purely self serve tools best fitted for the smallest of recruiting teams). To make the most of a demo, it’s important that you go into it with a game plan. We recommend preparing a list of questions, which might include the following:
- Does this integrate with my ATS? If not, do I have to manually input new applicants that I want to interview?
- Can you walk me through the candidate experience?
- Are recruiters sent follow ups if the interview is never scheduled?
- What percentage of interviews get scheduled?
- How do I train my recruiters on how to use this?
- How much human involvement is there in the scheduling process?
- What kinds of smart workflows are there around scheduling the “right” person/people on my team for a given candidate?
- What interview training is built into the system for people on my team?
- What is the average decrease in time to fill you see across your customer base?
- How much time does this save the typical recruiter per month?
- Are there any automated screening tools built in?
- How can I showcase my employer brand through this tool?
Implementation Best Practices
Once you’ve completed your demos and selected which platform best suits your organization’s needs, the next step is implementation. Here are a few best practices we’ve picked up on from talking to various HR practitioners.
- Trigger Point: The software you’ve chosen should integrate seamlessly with your current ATS. Moving a candidate to the interview stage should automatically send them the appropriate communication and scheduling. If there is no ATS integration, you’ll have to find another scalable way to get candidates into your system. For the smallest teams, it may make sense to simply have a dedicated calendar link for each recruiter that you can send on a one-off basis to interviewees.
- Recruiter/interviewer training: Schedule trainings with your team members to show them the features available to them with this new, time-saving solution. This ensures that everyone is on the same page when your new HR tool is rolled out. One pro tip here is to explain the why behind the tool to get people onboard. Namely, you’re going to save people time and headaches through this solution!
Interview Scheduling Software FAQs
What is interview scheduling software?
Interview scheduling software are tools designed to automate the interview scheduling process.
What features does interview scheduling software offer?
Interview scheduling software offers the following features:
- Device syncing
- Interviewer availability and calendar
- Automatic reminders
- Live support
- Training modules
- Automated scheduling
- Interviewer matching
What are key uses cases for interview scheduling software?
Key use cases for interview scheduling software are:
- Training better interviewers
- Matching candidates with the right interviewer
- Efficiently scheduling interviews
What ROI do you receive from interview scheduling software?
You’ll save time and money by using interview scheduling software. You can either measure this by time-to-fill, employee retention, increased efficiency, and employee value.
What pitfalls can occur when using interview scheduling software?
When using interview scheduling software, it’s important to note the following pitfalls:
- Tech doesn’t replace human interaction.
- These tools are not just for interview scheduling, take advantage of all their functionality.
- Set the right expectation for candidates. Just because everything is automated does not mean you can let the tech do all the work with following up.
Last advice
At this point, you know everything you need to understand whether it’s a good idea to pursue video interview software to help automate your hiring process. If you’ve come to the conclusion that this is something worth exploring, we recommend getting 2-3 demos from some of the top providers to start getting a deeper feel for how this fits into your strategy. Remember to stay organized, and good luck!
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