Cal.com vs Rallly
| Tagline | Scheduling infrastructure for everyone, the open-source Calendly alternative | Self-hosted scheduling polls to find the best time for a group to meet |
| Category | Scheduling & Booking | Scheduling & Booking |
| Replaces | Calendly, Acuity Scheduling | Calendly |
| GitHub stars | 47k | 5.2k |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Manual | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 7 days ago | 5 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Cal.com
- Some enterprise features (e.g. SAML SSO, advanced admin/insights, certain platform features) are gated behind a commercial/EE license even when self-hosting.
- Self-hosting requires PostgreSQL plus configuring numerous environment variables and OAuth credentials for calendar integrations.
- The core code is AGPL-3.0, which imposes copyleft obligations on modified network deployments.
- Upgrades between major versions occasionally require manual database migration work.
Rallly
- Focused on group availability polling rather than one-on-one booking pages, so it does not replace Calendly's personal booking links.
- No direct calendar-availability checking or two-way calendar sync to auto-block busy times.
- No built-in payment collection or paid-appointment support.
- Requires PostgreSQL and SMTP configuration to self-host; not a single-binary deploy.
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Cal.com for the larger community and ecosystem. Rallly has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Cal.com
Scheduling infrastructure for everyone, the open-source Calendly alternative