Is Cardel an alternative to Acuity Scheduling or WordPress?

Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Acuity Scheduling or WordPress when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Acuity Scheduling and WordPress are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Acuity Scheduling or WordPress?

Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Acuity Scheduling or WordPress for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.

How much does Cardel cost compared with Acuity Scheduling and WordPress?

You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Acuity Scheduling and WordPress set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.

How do I switch from Acuity Scheduling or WordPress to Cardel?

Start with Build Your Site, set up your home, and bring your work over at your own pace. You do not have to move everything on day one.

Compare

Acuity SchedulingvsWordPress

Acuity Scheduling runs appointment businesses with intake forms, reminders, and payments. WordPress.com hosts the world's most used publishing software with themes, plugins, and commerce plans.

Compare Pricing Compare Features

How Acuity Scheduling and WordPress compare

Acuity Scheduling is built for businesses that live by the appointment. Client self-booking, calendar sync, intake forms, automated reminders, packages and memberships, gift certificates, payments at booking, and multiple staff calendars keep a salon, clinic, or coach running. It is part of Squarespace and works with or without a Squarespace site.

WordPress powers a huge share of the web for good reason. This page compares WordPress.com hosted plans. You get the block editor, thousands of themes, comments and likes, Jetpack newsletters, and on higher plans the full plugin ecosystem and WooCommerce. Nothing else offers this much freedom to extend, and your content is exportable and yours.

Where they are different

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity is the appointment system.
Acuity keeps a client list with notes.
Acuity sends confirmations.

WordPress

WordPress extends by plugin: a form plugin, a booking plugin, an email plugin, each with its own settings.
WordPress email is Jetpack newsletters or a plugin.
WordPress accessibility and SEO depend on your theme and plugins.

Choose Acuity Scheduling when appointments are the business and you need reminders, intake, packages, and staff calendars.

Choose WordPress when you want maximum control, plugins for anything, and the option to self-host.

Compare features

What's on Acuity Scheduling and WordPress

A check means that capability is available. Acuity Scheduling and WordPress are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.

Site and brand

Workspace site
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
WordPress: Included
Custom domain
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included
Theme and fonts
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included

Public content

Blog
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
WordPress: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included
Marketing emails
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
WordPress: Included

Commerce

Shop payments
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Not included

Team

Admin users
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included
Per-admin permissions
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included
AI Assistant
Acuity Scheduling: Included
WordPress: Included

Feature comparison for Acuity Scheduling and WordPress
Feature	Acuity Scheduling	WordPress
Site and brand
Workspace site	Not included	Included
Custom domain	Included	Included
Theme and fonts	Included	Included
Public content
Blog	Not included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Not included	Included
Commerce
Shop payments	Included	Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.	Included	Not included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included
AI Assistant	Included	Included

* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Acuity Scheduling or WordPress, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Acuity Scheduling or WordPress may add or remove features that are not shown here.