TidyCal for life coaches
Get paid before the call, not three invoices after it
Here is how a life coach might set up TidyCal: a 20-minute discovery call, a paid session, a 6-session pack and a monthly plan. One link in your Instagram bio does the rest.
Free plan with no time limit. No card needed.
TidyCal is the best scheduling app for life coaches who charge for their time. Clients pay when they book, with packages and subscriptions on the Free plan, and Individual Lifetime is $29 once. Pick Acuity Scheduling if you sell gift certificates or run a waitlist, and Calendly if you run inbound sales on Salesforce or HubSpot.
The setup: three booking types
You do not need nine offers. Most coaches do fine with three. Here is what Jordan, our made-up example coach, runs:
| Booking type | Length | Price | Type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery call | 20 min | Free | Free | See if you are a fit. No coaching on this call. |
| Coaching session | 60 min | $150 | Paid | Single sessions for people who are not ready to commit yet. |
| 6-session coaching pack | 60 min | $125 per session | Package | 6 × $125 = $750, paid up front. Your main offer. |
Example prices. Charge what you charge.
The 4 best scheduling apps for life coaches
I make TidyCal, so it's listed first. Each tool below says what it does better than us.
| # | Tool | Best for | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TidyCal Best value | Solo pros who charge for their time | $29 once |
| 2 | Acuity Scheduling | Appointment businesses with intake forms | $20/mo |
| 3 | Calendly | Sales teams on Salesforce or HubSpot | $10/seat/mo |
| 4 | Cal.com | Developers who want open source | Free, Teams $12/user/mo |
01
Best value
Best for: solo pros who charge for their time
- Price
- Free plan. Individual Lifetime is $29 once. Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year.
Free plan with paid bookings, packages and subscriptions. $29 once if you want more.
02
Best for: appointment businesses with intake forms
- Price
- No free plan, a 7-day trial. Starter is $20 a month ($16 billed yearly).
Strong intake forms, gift certificates and a waitlist. No free plan, from $20 a month.
03
Best for: sales teams on Salesforce or HubSpot
- Price
- $10 per seat a month on Standard, billed yearly ($12 monthly). The free plan is one event type.
Familiar to clients. The free plan is one event type and payments need Standard at $10 per seat a month.
04
Best for: developers who want open source
- Price
- Free for one user. Teams is $12 per user a month, billed yearly.
Open source with a generous free plan. Team features are $12 per user a month, billed yearly.
Keep the discovery call at 20 minutes and say "no coaching on this call" in the description. The 60-minute free call is how coaches end up giving away their best session to people who never buy.
How a coach actually uses it
Jordan puts one link, tidycal.com/her-name, in the Instagram bio, the email signature and the end of every podcast interview. Nobody DMs to ask about availability anymore.
Someone books the discovery call. Before it starts, Jordan already knows the one thing they want to change and that they found her through a podcast, because both are required questions on the booking form.
On the call, if it is a fit, she sends the link to the 6-session pack. The client picks six dates, pays $750 through Stripe, and all six sessions land on her Google Calendar with a Zoom link. No invoice. No "just following up on payment" email in week three.
The single session exists for people who want to try one first. At $150 it is priced so the pack looks like the obvious deal, which it is.
Questions to ask before the first call
Two questions. Anything longer and people bail on the form.
- What is the one thing you want to be different six months from now? On: Discovery call
- How did you hear about me? (Instagram / Podcast / A friend / Google / Other) On: Discovery call
- What do you want to walk away with from this session? On: Coaching session
Answers show up with the booking in your dashboard, so you can read them two minutes before you hop on.
Settings worth changing
| Setting | What to set | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer | 10 min after discovery calls, 15 after sessions | Write your notes while they are fresh. |
| Minimum notice | 12 hours | Stops "can we talk in 20 minutes?" bookings at 11pm. |
| Booking window | 30 days | Coaching works better with momentum. A booking 8 weeks out usually cancels. |
| Reminders | 24 hours and 1 hour before (default) | Already on for every plan. You do not need to touch it. |
| Cancellation fee | Full price inside 24 hours (Lifetime and Pro) | Your time was held. Charge for it. |
Also useful for coaches
Subscriptions
Prefer monthly? A subscription bills through Stripe every month and gives the client, say, 2 sessions to book each month.
Free planDiscount codes
Went on a podcast? Give listeners a code for their first session and see who used it.
Free planRatings and reviews
Clients can rate a session after it ends. Show the good ones on your booking page.
Free planAutomatic Zoom, Google Meet and Teams links
Every booking gets its own Zoom or Google Meet link, so you are not reusing one room link forever.
Lifetime and Pro plansWhat TidyCal costs
Free, $0
Most of the setup above. Group classes, approvals, cancellation fees, booking limits and automatic video links need a paid plan. Not a trial.
Individual Lifetime, $29 once
Pay one time through AppSumo. Adds group bookings, custom reminders, automatic Zoom and Google Meet links, and 10 calendars.
Pro, $12/mo or $99/yr
All of it, with no TidyCal branding, unlimited calendars and team scheduling with no seat fees.
Stripe and PayPal charge their usual processing fees on paid bookings. On the Free plan, Stripe bookings also carry a 1% TidyCal platform fee. See payment fee details. Compare every plan.
How we checked
Every competitor price comes from that company's own pricing page, read on September 30, 2026, at the billing period shown next to it. Tools with no published price we could verify carry no dollar figure. The ranking is for life coaches who take bookings and charge for some of them. Nobody paid to be on this list. TidyCal's prices come straight from the plans we sell, so they match what you will pay, and the 1% platform fee on Stripe bookings is the live rate.
Questions life coaches ask us
Can I offer a free discovery call and paid sessions on the same page?
Yes. Each one is its own booking type. Leave the discovery call free and put a price on the coaching session. Both live on one booking page, and the Free plan includes unlimited booking types.
How do coaching packages work?
Create a package booking type with the number of sessions and the price per session. The client picks all the dates when they book and pays the total once. Packages are on every plan, including Free.
Can I charge monthly instead?
Yes. A subscription bills the client every month through Stripe and gives them a set number of sessions to book each period. Subscriptions are on every plan.
Can clients book in their own time zone?
Yes. Your booking page shows times in the visitor's own time zone, so a client in London and a coach in Denver see the same slot correctly.
Keep reading
Copy this setup in about 10 minutes
Make the booking types above, paste your questions in, share the link. Free to start.
Create your free booking pageNo credit card. Upgrade only if you need to.