Calendly

Arranging a call with a new client usually costs four emails and a couple of days. Calendly replaces that with one link. You publish your availability, the client picks a slot that suits them, and it lands in both calendars with a video link already attached.

How freelancers tend to use it

• A discovery call link on your website and in your email signature, so an interested prospect can book without asking you anything first
• Different event types for different jobs, a fifteen minute intro against a ninety minute workshop, each with its own rules and questions
• Booking questions that make the client tell you what the call is about before it happens, which saves the first ten minutes of every meeting
• Buffers either side and a minimum notice period, so nobody drops a call into the gap you were using to actually work
• Taking payment at the point of booking through Stripe or PayPal, which quietly solves the paid consultation problem

Worth knowing

It reads your real calendar, so double bookings stop happening, and it handles time zones for the person booking rather than making them work it out. That alone justifies it if you have overseas clients.

The free tier gives you one event type and unlimited bookings on it, which is genuinely enough if all you need is a discovery call. Multiple event types, reminders, payments and routing are paid.

The part nobody mentions is the etiquette. Sending a booking link to someone more senior than you, or to a warm prospect you have not spoken to yet, can read as though your time matters more than theirs. Offer times in the email and put the link underneath as the easy option.

Who it suits

Best if you take calls with people outside your own company often enough that the scheduling itself has become a job. If you speak to the same three clients every week and already share a calendar with them, it solves a problem you do not have.