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Atomic Booking WAITLIST

COMPARISON

ATOMIC BOOKING vs
ACUITY SCHEDULING.

Acuity is owned by Squarespace and pitched mainly at solo service businesses — coaches, therapists, beauty professionals. Their feature set for those use cases is mature. Where we differ: simpler pricing, UK/EU hosting, EU payment rails, no Squarespace ecosystem lock-in.

Their entry price

$14/mo

Emerging tier

Our entry price

£5/mo

Photon · €6/mo

Difference

55%

cheaper

EVERYTHING SIDE BY SIDE

WHAT WE HAVE. WHAT THEY HAVE.

ATOMIC BOOKING
Photon · £5/mo
ACUITY SCHEDULING
Emerging tier

CORE

Monthly entry price (paid tier) £5 / €6 $14/mo (≈ £11.02)
Free tier Yes — Particle, 1 event type Trial only
Lifetime payment option £129 — Quantum (£99 first 500)
Unlimited event types on paid tier
Unlimited bookings
Custom branding on booking page
Custom domain (your-brand.com/book) Add-on £2/mo

EU/UK SOVEREIGNTY

Hosting region Hetzner — Frankfurt + Helsinki Squarespace cloud — US
Customer data never leaves the EU/UK
Operating company jurisdiction United Kingdom United States
GDPR-native (not retrofit)
Subject to US CLOUD Act / FISA 702

PAYMENTS

Subscription billing GoCardless — SEPA + Bacs DD Squarespace billing
Customer paid bookings Mollie — EU rails Square + Stripe + PayPal
iDEAL / Bancontact / SEPA support
Wero (EPI European wallet) support
Transaction fee (paid tiers) 0% (Photon and above) Varies by processor
Pricing currency GBP and EUR USD only

SCHEDULING

Round-robin team scheduling Electron tier
Collective availability Electron tier
Workflows & automated reminders Photon and above
API + webhooks Photon and above Powerhouse tier
Group meeting polls
Calendar overlay UX Coming Q1 2027

INTEGRATIONS

Google Calendar
Microsoft 365 / Outlook
Zoom / Google Meet / Teams
Salesforce Coming Q4 2026
WhatsApp Business booking flow Add-on £3/mo
AI Receptionist (voice bookings) Add-on £9/mo

TRANSPARENCY

Open source code AGPL — public on GitHub
No-show insurance Add-on £1/booking
Calendly migration tool Free first 60 days
Charity / non-profit discount 50% off Photon and Electron
Student / educator discount Photon free with .ac.uk / .edu

THE STRUCTURAL ARGUMENT

WHY THE PRICE DIFFERENCE EXISTS.

Acuity's pricing reflects Squarespace's ownership — there are bundling discounts if you also use their CMS, but the standalone Acuity tiers are pricey for what you get. We don't have a CMS to bundle with, so the standalone price is the only price.

Payment method Fee on £100 Net to merchant
Stripe (most US schedulers) £3.10 £96.90
Mollie iDEAL / Bancontact £0.29 £99.71
Wero (via Mollie) £0.25–0.40 £99.65+
SEPA Direct Debit (GoCardless) 1% capped at £4 £99.00

That ~3% gap on every paid booking is the structural saving we pass on. Software margin doesn't depend on cutting features — it depends on cutting card-processor rent.

HONEST TAKE

When Acuity Scheduling is the better choice.

We're not the right answer for everyone. Acuity Scheduling is the better choice if:

  • You already run your business on Squarespace and want one bill
  • You need Acuity's mature client intake forms and packaged service workflows
  • You're in the US and your customers expect Acuity branding
  • You need scheduling for a class-based business (yoga studios, group fitness)

For everyone else — solo professionals, EU/UK teams, agencies, and anyone who's quietly uncomfortable with American SaaS — keep reading.

COMING Q3 2026

Get early access.

Drop your email — we'll let you know the day Photon goes live, and you'll get founder pricing on Quantum (£99 vs £129 lifetime).

We'll email you when Photon goes live. We don't spam, sell your address, or use trackers. Your email is stored on a Hetzner server in Frankfurt and you can ask us to delete it any time.