Head to head · Calendar read · October 2026 research run
Acuity Scheduling API vs Cronofy API
Cronofy API scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Acuity Scheduling API's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do calendar read.
Which one, for what
Good for A business that already takes bookings in Acuity and wants an agent to check slots, book, move and cancel appointments for clients, including classes, packages and intake forms.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
The pricing page lists custom API access on Premium only, $61 a month or $49 billed yearly
Good for Products that schedule across many people and rooms with strict data residency, especially in the UK and EU.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 44
- Security & auth, 60 against 27
- Maintenance & community, 56 against 15
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 54
Watch for
Production pricing starts at $819 a month billed yearly
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Acuity Scheduling API | Cronofy API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 58 | 85 | Cronofy API +27 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 56 | 58 | Cronofy API +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 44 | 76 | Cronofy API +32 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 27 | 60 | Cronofy API +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 15 | 56 | Cronofy API +41 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 54 | 72 | Cronofy API +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 42.4 · E | 64.2 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Acuity Scheduling API | Cronofy API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Squarespace | Cronofy |
| Hosted endpoint | https://acuityscheduling.com/api/v1 | https://api.cronofy.com |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Squarespace's Developer Terms. The Node.js and PHP SDKs are MIT | MIT (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-12-16 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 9.2k npm/wk | 51 stars, 11k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Acuity Scheduling API
The API covers the full booking cycle, with availability checks, named error codes and signed webhooks retried for 24 hours. API access is sold only on the Premium plan at $61 a month, the single OAuth scope grants the whole account, and no changelog, idempotency key or audit log was found in the reviewed documentation.
Cronofy API
OAuth scopes as narrow as free_busy, with delete_event separate from create_event. Production pricing starts at $819 a month billed yearly.
Before you call either
Acuity Scheduling API
- Call
/availability/datesthen/availability/timeswithappointmentTypeIDbeforePOST /appointments, which validates the slot as a client would - Avoid
admin=trueunless the owner asks for it, because it skips availability and form validation - Pass
noEmail=truewhen a booking or cancellation must not send the client an email or SMS - Check
GET /appointmentsfiltered byemailand date before retrying a booking, since no idempotency key is documented - Stay under 10 requests a second and 20 concurrent connections per IP, and back off on 429, which carries no documented
Retry-After
Cronofy API
- Call the data centre host the account was created in (api-uk, api-de and so on), since data never crosses regions
- Reuse the same
event_idwhen retrying an event write, since Cronofy upserts on it - Ask for
response_formatslots when you want bookable times rather than free periods - On 423, ask the user to relink, since Cronofy has already emailed them
- Keep under 50 requests a second and 500 a minute, and pause on 429
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Acuity Scheduling API or Cronofy API?
Cronofy API scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Acuity Scheduling API's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Do Acuity Scheduling API and Cronofy API need an API key?
Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Acuity Scheduling API and Cronofy API without installing anything?
Yes. Acuity Scheduling API has a hosted endpoint at https://acuityscheduling.com/api/v1 and Cronofy API at https://api.cronofy.com.
Other comparisons with Acuity Scheduling API or Cronofy API
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- Acuity Scheduling API vs Aurinko Calendar API
- Acuity Scheduling API vs Cal.com API v2 + MCP
- Acuity Scheduling API vs Calendly API + MCP
- Acuity Scheduling API vs Google Calendar API
- Acuity Scheduling API vs Microsoft Graph Calendar API
- Acuity Scheduling API vs Nylas Calendar and Scheduler API
- Apiroc Unified Calendar API vs Cronofy API
- Aurinko Calendar API vs Cronofy API
- Cal.com API v2 + MCP vs Cronofy API
- Calendly API + MCP vs Cronofy API
- Cronofy API vs Google Calendar API
- Cronofy API vs Microsoft Graph Calendar API
- Cronofy API vs Nylas Calendar and Scheduler API
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/acuity-scheduling-vs-cronofy.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/acuity-scheduling.json·/api/v1/tools/cronofy.json - From a terminal
anchor compare acuity-scheduling cronofy(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "acuity-scheduling", "b": "cronofy"}at/mcp, no key