The short answer
It depends on whether you teach one to one, run classes and courses, or do both.
- One-to-one tutors and music teachers: Acuity, Calendly, TutorBird, My Music Staff, Teachworks.
- Classes and courses: TeamUp, ClassForKids, Jackrabbit, Bsport, Arlo.
- Language schools: Arlo, Teachworks.
All of them embed on a website, and most handle recurring lessons and term enrolment rather than only one-off appointments. That last point is the one that decides it.
The question that actually sorts them
Ask this before comparing feature lists: after the trial, does the student book a repeating weekly slot with the same teacher, or join a class that already exists in a timetable?
If it is a repeating slot, you need a tool built around a teacher's diary, recurring appointments and term invoicing. If it is a class, you need a tool built around registers, capacity, waitlists and enrolment for a whole term or course. Tools designed for one do the other awkwardly.
One to one
Acuity and Calendly are general appointment tools. Both are excellent at getting a first lesson booked, both embed cleanly, both take payment, and both are quick to set up. Acuity is the stronger of the two for lesson providers because of packages, multiple staff calendars and appointment types. Neither is a teaching business system: they book time, they do not track a student's progress or run term invoicing the way a lesson-specific tool does.
TutorBird, My Music Staff and Teachworks are built for teaching businesses. They handle recurring lesson schedules, multiple teachers, make-up lessons, lesson notes, attendance, family accounts, term invoicing and, in most cases, a parent or student portal. If you are still scheduling and invoicing by hand across more than a handful of students, this is the category that removes the work, and their websites and support pages are the right place to confirm the exact features of the current plan.
The practical route for a solo teacher who wants to start today: Acuity for the trial, a teaching business tool once the student list justifies it.
Classes and courses
ClassForKids and Jackrabbit are aimed squarely at children's class providers, with term enrolment, registers, waitlists and parent accounts. TeamUp and Bsport run timetables, memberships, courses and passes and suit providers with a schedule of recurring sessions. Sawyer is used by children's activity providers in some markets.
For coding clubs, swimming schools and children's art or drama classes, the deciding features are usually the waitlist, the register on a tablet, and whether a parent can enrol a sibling in the same checkout.
Courses with fixed dates
Arlo and Bookeo are built for scheduled courses: dates, capacity, waitlists, discounts, invoices and certificates. Adult education, cookery schools, workshops and exam preparation courses fit this shape, because the product is a course starting on a date rather than a slot in a diary.
Language schools
Language schools have both shapes at once: levelled group courses starting on dates, and one-to-one lessons. The usual arrangement is Arlo or Teachworks for the courses and enrolment, with Acuity or Calendly for placement assessments and one-to-one bookings. Placement first, course second, is the flow the site should present.
What to check before you commit
- Does it take payment in your currency, and can it invoice a term rather than a single lesson.
- Does it handle a recurring weekly slot, or only individual appointments.
- Waitlists, if your classes fill.
- Sibling and family accounts, if you teach children.
- An embed that works on a phone, or at least a hosted page that looks like your brand.
- What the data export looks like if you leave.
Confirm the current behaviour with the vendor rather than trusting a comparison article, including ours. These products change plans and features regularly.
Whichever you choose
The website's job is the same: get the reader from a subject page or a teacher profile to a trial in one tap, with the subject and teacher already selected, and load nothing from the booking tool on pages where nobody is booking. That keeps the site fast and the booking flow short.
Where this sits
We wire whichever of these tools you already use into the site rather than moving you, and the choice sits alongside teacher profiles, subject pages and stated fees on every lessons website we build. The tool differs for music teachers, coding classes and language schools; the pattern of subject page, profile, trial, term does not.