Chili Piper vs Calendly: Which Scheduling Tool Is Right For You?

If you’re in the market for scheduling software, you may be considering Calendly vs Chili Piper. In which case you've come to the right place.

For the TL;DR version… we asked our good friend, ChatGPT what the difference is between Chili Piper and Calendly.

Thanks, ChatGPT! 

I actually thought this answer was pretty solid. A very good, basic overview of the difference between Chili Piper and Calendly. 

But if you want to get a little more granular… keep reading.

What is Chili Piper?

Chili Piper is a robust scheduling and lead-routing solution that helps revenue teams book meetings faster (and save time).

It’s for large revenue teams that manage lots of inbound leads, have a sales development team booking meetings on behalf of AEs, and/or need automated lead routing and qualification.

With Chili Piper, you can:

• Book meetings with one-click and automatically update your CRM (Instant Booker)
• Qualify and route leads from your web form (Form Concierge)
• Let reps book meetings on behalf of AEs (Handoff) 
• Route leads to the right rep (Distro)

Chili Piper offers a robust feature suite that works together to help you easily schedule more meetings — and double inbound conversion rates.

What is Calendly?

Calendly is a simple, free-to-use scheduling tool for individuals or small businesses. It’s for individuals who need a simple booking link. Or for businesses that need a solution for scheduling appointments (e.g. a doctor’s office).

It’s a budget-friendly alternative to Chili Piper (with free plans) that’s perfect for a small team. 

Who should use Calendly vs Chili Piper

If you… 

• Have a revenue team with 5+ reps
• Have a customer success team with 5+ people
• Need a full integration with Salesforce or Hubspot CRM (AKA bi-directional sync)
• Want to book 3x more meetings
• Want to double inbound conversions

… Chili Piper is 100% going to be your best option. 

But if you’re just looking for a simple scheduling solution and don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, Calendly is right for you. 

Here’s a table that breaks the differences down more granularly:

*The custom fields/properties need to have a relationship with standard objects (e.g. Lead, Contact, Account, Opportunity, Case, Deal, Ticket, etc.)

Basically, if you have a big revenue team, a sales development team, and need to route inbound leads to your reps — Chili Piper is going to be your best option. You'll be super frustrated by Calendly's lack of features. But if you're an individual or a small business, Calendly is your best bet — otherwise you'd be paying too much for features you won't use.

Here's how people are talking about the difference of Calendly vs Chili Piper in the wild:

Chili Piper vs Calendly: Features and pricing

Chili Piper’s pricing is based on product, while Calendly has tier-based pricing. 

It’s impossible to compare Chili Piper and Calendly head-to-head. For example, "Form Concierge" offers but here are some basic guidelines:

• Chili Piper’s “Instant Booker” roughly compares to Calendly’s “Essentials” package.
• Chili Piper’s “Form Concierge” roughly compares to Calendly Enterprise (very, very rough comparison)
• Chili Piper’s “Handoff” doesn’t have a Calendly counterpart.
• Chili Piper’s “Distro” doesn’t have a Calendly counterpart.

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Chili Piper

Calendly

CRM Platform Integrations

Salesforce + Hubspot

Higher tiers

Bi-directional CRM sync

One-click (formless) booking

Booking on behalf of others

One-click suggested times in emails (no form fill required)

Lead Routing

Can route based on:

-Account Owner

- Geography, industry, company size

- Any custom routing rules your business requires

Simple round robin routing

Lead Distribution

Can distribute warm leads to appropriate rep based on trigger events (e.g. reaching lead score threshold, field update in Salesforce, etc.)

Lead Qualification

Meeting outcome management (via CRM or calendar platform)

Sales Engagement Platform Compatibility

Outreach, Salesloft, High Velocitiy Sales

Customizable SMS & Email reminders

Higher tiers

Integration with Slack and more than 5,000 apps via Zapier

Higher tiers

Custom API Integration

Higher tiers

Increase your meeting show rate to 92%

Book a Demo

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What customers are saying

At the time of writing, Calendly and Chili Piper both have a 4.7/5 star rating on G2.

(But Chili Piper is the only company that achieved a 100% Customer Satisfaction Score in 2022 😉)

Chili Piper’s 5-star reviews are from revenue teams looking for a more robust scheduling and lead routing solution. Meanwhile, many of Calendly’s 5-star reviews come from non-revenue teams that use Calendly for scheduling meetings or appointments. 

Here’s an example of 5-star G2 reviews from Chili Piper and Calendly:  

Chili Piper:

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Calendly: 

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How Apollo increased revenue by 300% after switching from Calendly to Chili Piper

With Calendly, only 40% of Apollo’s inbound demo requests were converting to a booked meeting. 

Immediately after implementing Chili Piper, they saw a 50% increase in inbound meetings booked on their site — and increased their revenue by 300%, even with a sales team half the size.

Read the full story here.

One success story not enough? We have an entire library full of stories from people who saw success switching from Calendly to Chili Piper: 

• How Shopify Uses Chili Piper to Improve their User Experience
• Wonderlic Ditched the Full Cycle AE: Now They’re Closing More Deals Than Ever
• How Directive’s New and Improved Process Increased Conversions
• How Withum Books More Qualified Meetings with Chili Piper

The hype is real 🌶️

If you’re looking for a scheduling and lead routing solution that is going to help you book more meetings, faster… we’ve got you. 

Not convinced? See for yourself. Schedule a demo.