Cal.com (Scheduling)
Created by: Peer Richelsen and Bailey Pumfleet

Cal.com prices in three tracks: free hosted, paid teams, free self-host. The split serves three different buyer types from one page.

TL;DR: Cal.com runs a tri-track pricing model: generous free hosted tier for individuals, per-seat paid tiers for teams, and a free self-host option under AGPL for principled buyers. Each track captures a different buyer type without forcing a choice at first contact. The lesson: when your buyer types diverge sharply, multi-track pricing serves more buyers than a single tier ladder.

What they sell: Open-source scheduling platform with hosted SaaS, self-host option, and enterprise white-label.
Who it's for: Developers, agencies, teams who want Calendly's UX with extensibility, privacy, or principle.
Pricing model: Multi-track: hosted freemium + per-seat paid + free self-host
Payment frequency: Monthly or annual per-seat for paid tiers; self-host is free in perpetuity
Free trial behavior: Free hosted tier IS the trial for individuals. Teams can trial paid features through limited preview.
Number of tiers: 5

Anchor pattern: Organizations tier as anchor
Organizations at approximately $37-50/seat/mo anchors the page for serious teams. Teams at approximately $12-15/seat/mo reads as the affordable team tier by comparison. The anchor is doing standard work, but the unusual move is the self-host escape valve at $0 alongside paid tiers — which is a counter-anchor for the buyer who would otherwise reject SaaS on principle.

Upgrade trigger: Team collaboration plus advanced workflows
The trigger from free hosted to Teams fires when a user needs round-robin or collective scheduling, which is a structural team need. The trigger from Teams to Organizations fires when central admin (SSO, white-label) becomes a requirement, which maps to company stage. Both triggers are workflow-aligned rather than feature-gated artificially.

What's working:
Multi-track pricing serves three buyer types (individual hosted, paying teams, principled self-hosters) without forcing a choice.|Self-host at $0 captures the buyer who would otherwise build it themselves, betting most will return to hosted later.|Teams tier triggered by structural collaboration need (round-robin), not arbitrary feature gates.|Organizations tier captures procurement-driven buyers who need SSO and admin without exposing pricing to competitors directly.|Free hosted is generous enough that individual users default to it, seeding the visible-customer flywheel for paid team upgrades.

What to adapt:
If your buyer types diverge sharply (individual vs team vs principled), multi-track pricing serves more buyers than a single ladder.|Use a self-host or escape-hatch option to capture buyers who would otherwise build it themselves. The escape hatch is also a trust signal.|Trigger team-tier upgrades on structural collaboration needs (round-robin, collective availability) rather than feature gates.

What to avoid:
Do not offer self-host if you cannot maintain the open-source project long-term. Stale repos hurt trust more than no repo at all.|Do not adopt multi-track pricing if your buyer types are not actually distinct. Most SaaS have one or two buyer types and multi-track adds confusion.

Brunson lens:
Stack: Multi-track stack: parallel hosted-paid ladder plus principled self-host track that does not slot into the ladder.
Value ladder: Four-rung paid ladder (Free → Teams → Organizations → Enterprise) plus self-host as off-ladder option.
Decoy/anchor: Organizations tier as anchor; Teams as the visible team tier; Free hosted as entry; self-host as principled counter-anchor.
Payment mechanics: Per-seat monthly or annual for paid tiers; perpetual free for hosted free and self-host.

Pricing last verified: 2026-05-17