Seven tools private instructors and studios actually consider, grouped by the job you are hiring them for. There is no single winner here: the cheapest is not the most capable, and the most capable is not the simplest.
How to read this list
Availy publishes this page, so read it as a vendor's list. It is ordered by use case, not by preference — Availy is the pick in one of the seven categories and is not the answer in the other six. Every entry, Availy's own included, names a real limitation, and every claim here is one we already publish on the underlying side-by-side comparisons.
1. Best for a solo music teacher on a budget
My Music Staff
A single music teacher who wants the lowest monthly price from a tool music studios have relied on for years.
Published price: $16.95/mo + $4.95 per additional teacher
The lowest starting price in this roundup, tied with TutorBird.
Music-specific touches like repertoire and practice logging alongside lesson notes.
Email and SMS reminders both included, plus a student and parent portal, online payments and recurring billing.
The limitation
It is built for music studios, so it is a poor fit if you teach academic subjects, languages or test prep. The $4.95 per additional teacher adds up as you take on staff, and external calendars connect by pasting a public ICS URL rather than through a native integration.
Also consider: TutorBird — its sibling product, the same price, and not music-specific.
A single tutor of any subject who wants a mature, inexpensive all-in-one and doesn't mind a traditional interface.
Published price: $16.95/mo + $4.95 per additional tutor
Matches the lowest starting price here while being subject-agnostic rather than music-only.
A mature toolset refined over many years: student and parent portal, portal messaging and file storage, lesson notes, a website and booking page.
Email and SMS reminders both included, and online payments through Stripe and PayPal.
The limitation
The same $4.95 per additional tutor as its sibling product, and some reviewers note a dated mobile view. Booking happens through the student portal, and calendar support is per-tutor subscribable feeds rather than a two-way sync.
A studio whose main problem is chasing payments and late cancellations, and that wants the software to charge families for it.
Published price: $19.95/mo + $4.95 per additional teacher
Autopay-first billing: per-lesson auto-charge, package auto-repurchase and subscriptions.
Automatic late-cancellation enforcement — late cancels auto-charge or deduct a credit, with a forgive option.
Real-time booking with instant-confirm or approval modes, two-way Google Calendar sync, and an integrated music library.
The limitation
It is music-first, and it bills one paying primary contact per family — packages cannot be shared between siblings, and reminder texts go only to that primary contact. On top of standard Stripe card fees it charges 0.4% on recurring subscription volume.
An instructor or small studio, in any subject, that wants students taking their own slots from live availability against prepaid credits.
Published price: $29/mo for one instructor, $99/mo for up to 10 — flat, unlimited students, 14-day free trial with no credit card
Native real-time self-booking: signed-in students take a slot from your live availability and spend prepaid lesson credits, so there is no public link to manage and no back-and-forth.
Email and SMS reminders included on every plan and opt-in per channel, Stripe card payments in USD and CAD with no Availy markup, and separate logins for students and their parents.
Per-student learning plans with goals, homework and templates; group and small-class lessons with a per-student seat roster; 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120-minute lessons; a branded yourstudio.availy.app subdomain on the Studio plan.
The limitation
Availy costs more at base than My Music Staff, TutorBird and Fons, and unlike Calendly there is no permanently free tier. There is no automated importer from another tool, no waitlist and no CSV or bulk student import, so moving a large roster is manual work. Google Calendar is connected rather than fully two-way: lessons push into your Google calendar and your Google busy times block your availability, but an event you create directly in Google does not become an Availy booking, so scheduling changes happen in Availy.
5. Best for a multi-instructor tutoring centre
Teachworks
An established tutoring business with several branches that needs real back-office tooling behind the schedule.
Published price: A base fee plus a charge per student-lesson
Branch accounts built for multi-location businesses.
Deep back-office tooling, QuickBooks sync and an API to build on.
Prepaid packages with automated invoicing, built-in Stripe payments including ACH, and a two-way Google Calendar sync add-on.
The limitation
The per-student-lesson charge means your bill grows as you teach more, SMS is a paid add-on bought as credits, and self-booking arrives through add-ons that reviewers say can be fiddly to set up. Calendar feeds are staff-only — there are no student or family feeds — and reviewers cite a steep, sometimes paid, onboarding.
Also consider: If you have up to ten instructors in a single studio and want a bill you can predict, Availy's flat $99/mo Studio plan covers all of them with unlimited students and no per-lesson fees.
Anyone whose scheduling is mostly first meetings — intro calls, consultations, office hours — with people they may never see again.
Published price: Free plan available; SMS reminders on paid tiers
The only tool in this roundup with a permanently free plan, and hard to beat if a simple booking link is genuinely all you need.
Purpose-built for one-off meetings, with a deep library of integrations for teams.
True two-way sync with Google, Outlook and Exchange calendars, and a calendar invite on every confirmation.
The limitation
There is no student roster, no lesson credits or packages, no attendance or lesson notes, no learning plans and no parent accounts — everything a recurring-student teaching business runs on sits outside the tool. SMS reminders require a paid tier.
A business that books many kinds of appointment and service, of which teaching is only one.
Published price: SMS reminders from the Standard plan at $34/mo; removing Acuity branding requires Premium at $61/mo
Two decades of scheduling polish, with native mobile apps and true two-way sync across Google, iCloud and Outlook.
A large integration ecosystem — Zapier, a public API, video-call integrations — plus HIPAA compliance.
Payments through Stripe, Square or PayPal with no added fees, simple invoicing, and package codes that track remaining sessions on Standard and up.
The limitation
It is general appointment scheduling, so there are no parent or family accounts and no learning plans, and clients get a single notes field rather than a student record. SMS reminders and package codes start on the $34/mo Standard plan, and removing the 'Powered by Acuity' branding needs the $61/mo Premium plan.
Comparison based on each product's publicly published features and pricing as of July 2026. My Music Staff, TutorBird, Teachworks, Calendly, Fons (MakeMusic Studio), Acuity Scheduling are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with Availy. Details change — check their sites for the latest.
Common questions
What is the cheapest tutor scheduling software?
My Music Staff and TutorBird are the cheapest paid options in this roundup, both starting at $16.95 per month plus $4.95 per additional teacher. Calendly is the only tool here with a permanently free plan, though it has no student roster or lesson credits. Availy starts at $29 per month for a solo instructor, so it is not the cheapest place to begin.
Which tool is best for a studio with several instructors?
It depends on your size. Teachworks is built for multi-location businesses, with branch accounts, deep back-office tooling and QuickBooks sync, and is the stronger choice once you run several branches. For a single studio with up to ten instructors, Availy's flat $99 per month Studio plan covers all of them with unlimited students and no per-lesson fees, while My Music Staff, TutorBird and Fons each add $4.95 per month per additional teacher.
Can students book their own lessons in these tools?
Most of them allow it, but in different ways. In Availy, signed-in students book from your real-time availability and pay with prepaid credits. My Music Staff offers public self-booking and TutorBird offers booking through its student portal. Fons offers real-time booking with instant-confirm or approval modes. Teachworks provides self-booking through add-ons that reviewers say can be fiddly to set up, and Calendly and Acuity are built around public booking links for appointments rather than around a student roster.
Is this roundup biased towards Availy?
Availy publishes this page, so treat it as a vendor's list and check the facts against each product's own site. It is ordered by use case rather than by preference, Availy is the pick in one of the seven categories, and every entry — Availy's included — states a real limitation. The details come from each product's publicly published features and pricing as of July 2026.
Want the detail on any one of these?
Each tool has its own side-by-side page with the full feature table and an honest note on when it beats Availy. If self-booking against prepaid credits is the part you want, the trial is the fastest way to judge it.
