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Chili Piper Alternatives: 8 Competitors to Consider

Stan Rymkiewicz
August 23, 2024
3 min
Explore 8 Chili Piper alternatives! Compare features, pricing, and usability to enhance your scheduling and sales.

Automating inbound lead flows saves you time and money—so you shouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to set one up. Rather than go with an inbound GTM engine that nickels and dimes you with platform fees, consider switching to one of these Chili Piper alternatives.

Top Chili Piper alternatives, at a glance

  1. Default: Best overall Chili Piper alternative for B2B revenue teams
  2. Calendly: Best Chili Piper alternative for one-click scheduling
  3. Hubspot: Best Chili Piper alternative for full-suite marketing, sales & service features
  4. Acuity Scheduling: Best Chili Piper alternative for service-based businesses
  5. Apollo.io: Best Chili Piper alternative for enrichment data
  6. Undock: Best Chili Piper alternative for meetings
  7. Square Appointments: Best Chili Piper alternative for B2C
  8. Revenue Hero: Best Chili Piper alternative for small companies

1. Default: Best overall Chili Piper alternative for B2B revenue teams

Customers frustrated by complex setup and limited routing capabilities often switch from Chili Piper to Default. The main difference: Default is an all-in-one inbound platform that consolidates & simplifies your inbound sales automations across the whole customer journey by offering a range of features & capabilities. Chili Piper, on the other hand, is a point solution that requires numerous integrations in order to function. 

Key features

  • Drag-and-drop workflow builder, no-code lead forms, and embedded lead enrichment to increase the number of qualified meetings
  • Automatic scheduling links, meeting links, queued scheduling, and custom branding to schedule meetings faster
  • Far more extensive and seamless integrations than Chili Piper, including connections with Salesloft, Outreach, Harmonic, and more. 
  • Advanced features include customizable webhooks, APIs, and customizable Slack notifications

Benefits

  • Significantly lower platform fee (less than 50%) than Chili Piper while offering more comprehensive features
  • Full customization and control over forms, qualification, scheduling, and routing workflows
  • Out-of-the-box inbound sales automations, inbound flows, and customizations for email reminders, follow ups, and more—no developer support needed!
  • Tech stack orchestration that goes beyond static integrations and allows inter-platform functionality
  • User-friendly interface that doesn't require extensive tech knowledge to operate

Drawbacks

  • Not designed as a point solution—covers the entire inbound/outbound flow and sales cycle
  • Built for non-technical customers

Pricing plans

Default offers tiered platform fees, all of which offer unlimited meetings, forms, and routing. Early-stage companies (up to five seats) benefit from 250 enriched leads per month. High-growth companies (up to 10 seats) get 1,000 enriched leads per month. Enterprise businesses (20+ seats) get unlimited enriched leads per month. 

Read our full Default vs. Chili Piper comparison guide here. 

2. Calendly: Best Chili Piper alternative for one-click scheduling

Image source: Calendly

Like Chili Piper, Calendly is a point solution with limited abilities beyond its core functionality. However, Calendly does what it does well, scheduling meetings with a one-click calendaring solution that automatically books based on calendar sync (like Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, etc.). 

Key features

  • One-click, automated scheduling tool that generates customized booking links
  • Team-based scheduling that routes meetings to required attendees (while bypassing optional attendees’ unavailability)
  • Unlimited one-on-one meetings via the platform’s free plan
  • Limited automations and workflows, including email reminders, follow-ups, and integrations (including with your CRM of choice)

Benefits

  • Easy to set up and use—both for salespeople and prospects
  • Simplified functionality allows for a seamless user experience (UX)
  • Higher tiers enable robust integrations and security features to integrate into larger, more sophisticated tech stacks

Drawbacks

  • Point solution: limited features beyond core calendaring functionality
  • Limited built-in lead distribution functionality—the opposite of what dissatisfied Chili Piper users are looking for
  • Lower tiers require Calendly branding
  • Difficulty handling recurring meetings

Pricing plans

Calendly’s pricing structure breaks down into four tiers. The free plan includes basic scheduling features like unlimited one-to-one meetings and one event type (e.g. 30- vs. 60-min meeting). For the $10 per month standard plan, you get more robust features like unlimited event types and multiple calendar integrations. The $16 per user per month Team plan includes round robin meeting sharing and limited lead qualification and routing features. The $15K per year plan includes a host of enterprise features, including SSO and SAML, domain control, and full integration with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. 

Interested in a better solution than Calendly? See our Default vs. Calendly comparison guide here.

3. Hubspot: Best Chili Piper alternative for full-suite marketing, sales & service features

Image source: HubSpot

Chili Piper users who want to jump from one recognizable brand to another often go with HubSpot as a Chili Piper alternative. One of HubSpot’s most attractive attributes is its full range of features for marketing, sales, and service. On the other hand, HubSpot is costly, especially for those looking to build extensive automations and workflows.  

Features

  • HubSpot Meetings: Built-in forms and chat flows for lead capture and meeting scheduling
  • Both rules-based and round-robin lead routing
  • Limited built-in lead enrichment 
  • Real-time CRM integration and updates
  • Customized dashboards to provide valuable insights for optimizations

Benefits

  • Integrated core features can mitigate data loss and siloing
  • Scalable pricing that grows with your organization

Drawbacks

  • Automations—workflows and sequences—are only available at the higher tiers
  • Extensive functionality can lead to high technical debt, especially at the higher tiers
  • Rigid workflow configurations limits the platform’s potential applications and use cases
  • HubSpot Meetings don't necessarily provide the best user interface and experience

Pricing plans

HubSpot requires users to activate both the Marketing Hub and Sales Hub for full lead qualification and routing functionality. You can't just purchase HubSpot Meetings as its own separate product. Depending on your contact database size, this can range from $100 to $3,600 per month. 

If you’re considering HubSpot but want to avoid those drawbacks, consider going with Default as an alternative. Read our full Default vs. HubSpot comparison here. 

4. Acuity Scheduling: Best Chili Piper alternative for service-based businesses

Image source: SoftwareSuggest

Acuity Scheduling is a simple, easy-to-use sales scheduling solution for service-based businesses who don’t need the intricate automations and workflows that Chili Piper provides. Especially for businesses who aren’t focused on hyper-growth and scale, it’s an alternative worth considering. 

Features

  • Customized booking based on calendar availability
  • Automated appointment booking that takes into account time zones and multiple locations
  • Build customized intake forms and follow-up sequences to keep users engaged
  • Direct payment processing within the scheduling app, which is good for service-based businesses

Benefits

  • Very straightforward interface—great for a non-technical user base
  • In-app payments work enable service providers to get paid in real time
  • Prioritizes ease of use over complex functionality

Drawbacks

  • Scheduling point solution with limited functionality
  • Workflows and automations are limited 
  • Limited customizations for more nuanced use cases

Pricing plans

Acuity Scheduling offers multiple pricing tiers. You get most of the platform’s functionality with the Emerging ($16 per user per month) tier; the Growing ($27 per month) and Powerhouse ($49 per month) tiers mainly offer custom pricing and branding options. Most of the automation functionality is only available with the Enterprise (custom pricing) tier. 

5. Apollo.io: Best Chili Piper alternative for enrichment data

Image source: Coda

Few Chili Piper alternatives rival the extensive contact data offered by Apollo.io. With 200M+ contacts and 60M+ companies in their database—and more added every day—it’s the ideal lead enrichment solution. That’s why we’re proud to call them a Default data partner.

Features

  • Built-in lead enrichment from a comprehensive database of contacts and companies
  • Advanced search filters with hundreds of options, including buyer intent signals, to enable hyper-accurate qualification
  • Multi-channel marketing automation sequences with extensive customization options
  • Integrations with numerous platforms for full tech stack coverage
  • Analytics and reporting functionality

Benefits

  • Easy-to-use platform
  • Deep insight into prospects and customers—beyond just name and email
  • 10,000 free leads just for signing up
  • Data APIs enabling automated lead enrichment across your tech stack

Drawbacks

  • Some users report outreach and follow-up emails ending up in spam
  • Some users report inaccurate reporting figures
  • Customer support can be a bit slow to respond

Pricing plans

Apollo.io’s credit-based pricing system is structured into four tiers. The free tier is limited, but the Basic tier ($49 per user per month) provides the functionality marketers need to start qualifying and routing leads. The Professional tier ($79 per user per month) includes limited AI capabilities, and the Organization tier ($149 per user per month) provides access to the full range of Apollo.io’s capabilities.

See why customers choose Default over Apollo.io here.

6. Undock: Best Chili Piper alternative for meetings

Image source: Undock

Instead of sending prospects to a separate scheduling link, then back to their inbox to confirm a meeting, Undock integrates the two steps of the process. As a Chili Piper alternative, it’s the best for speeding up meetings and keeping your sales team’s calendars booked. 

Features

  • Scheduling window built directly into your email application—Gmail, Outlook, or Superhuman
  • AI-powered predictive scheduling that optimizes users’ workday calendars
  • Free Chrome extension
  • Built-in timeline for scheduling video, audio-only, or in-person meetings
  • Agenda-setting features to level-set before anyone joins the meeting

Benefits

  • Fast, efficient, and integrated scheduling

Drawbacks

  • Point solution: functionality is limited to scheduling via email
  • Limited outbound requests per month—not great for fast-scaling organizations

Pricing plans

Undock is one of the more affordable options on this list, with free, $10 per month, and $20 per month tiers. The best value comes with the $10 per month plan, which includes unlimited calendars, scheduling plans, and 100 outbound requests per month. 

7. Square Appointments: Best Chili Piper alternative for B2C

Image Source: Square

For B2C use cases—especially those with omnichannel customer touchpoints—Square Appointments is an easy-to-use, straightforward alternative to Chili Piper. With built-in scheduling and payment flows, it’s perfect for capturing one-time and recurring sales at the point of engagement. 

Features

  • Online booking pages and scheduling links
  • Automated text and email workflows for reminders & follow-ups
  • Automatically charge for no-shows
  • Integrate forms and schedules directly into your website
  • Team appointments and tip splitting
  • Integrations with Wix, QuickBooks, and more

Benefits

  • Straightforward, easy-to-use user interface
  • Scheduling, POS, and team management integrated into a single app
  • Affordable pricing for small businesses just getting started

Drawbacks

  • Built to handle appointment- and service-based businesses, not software or B2B
  • Very limited back-end lead and customer routing
  • Some users say the integrations are challenging to work

Pricing plans

Users can start using Square Appointments for free in a single location and get unlimited accounts, a custom booking website, automated reminders and contracts, and more. The $29 per location per month adds customer confirmations, cancellation policies and fees, waitlists, and reporting. The $69 per location per month includes more customization options. Square also charges a 2.6% + $0.10 service fee to every transaction. 

8. Revenue Hero: Best Chili Piper alternative for small companies

Image source: RevenueHero

As more companies switch away from Chili Piper due to expensive pricing and limited functionality, several new platforms are popping up and winning their business. One of these competitors is Revenue Hero. While it’s a great software for small companies and marketing teams, it struggles to keep up with the demands of rapidly scaling organizations. 

Features

  • Instant scheduling through customized booking links
  • Automated lead qualification and routing workflows on the back end—either round-robin or rules-based logic
  • Direct integration with your CRM of choice

Benefits

  • Easy to set up and use, a breath of fresh air compared with Chili Piper
  • Dynamic workflows that enable a variety of distribution and routing techniques
  • 20+ integrations and counting
  • 24/7 customer support via Slack

Drawbacks

  • Point solution—can’t handle capabilities beyond scheduling and routing
  • Routing logic seems to struggle with contacts within existing accounts or non-qualified outliers
  • According to some users, Revenue Hero has a hard time with scheduling within different time zones

Pricing plans

RevenueHero’s pricing breaks down into two main tiers: Inbound Essentials ($35 per user per month + $79 monthly platform fee) includes scheduling, round-robin routing, domain-based matching, in-app scheduling, and more. GTM Enterprise plan ($49 per user per month + $79 monthly platform fee) adds fuzzy matching, collective round robin, custom owner updates, dynamic meeting type assignment, fallback redistribution, webhooks, and more. 

See how Default overcomes many of the drawbacks of Revenue Hero. Read our Default vs. Revenue Hero comparison guide.

What should you look for in a Chili Piper alternative?

So how do you choose the best Chili Piper alternative from that list? If more than one seems like it could be a good fit, here are some considerations that may tilt the scales in one direction or another:

  • Pricing. Lower-priced platforms often have trouble scaling, while higher-priced platforms can load you with unnecessary technical debt. Make sure the platform you choose is priced according to your needs. 
  • Customizations & flexibility. In modern B2B, customer journeys are nonlinear and highly dynamic. Cut-and-paste inbound flows, while easy to set up, don’t give you the flexibility you need to map automations to real-world customer and prospect behaviors. 
  • Automation functionality. Make sure you have a platform that handles lead capture, lead qualification, routing, scheduling, follow-up, and more. 
  • Ease of use. Chili Piper often requires significant developer resources to set up and configure. It’s important to find an alternative that you can use out-of-the-box, without relying on IT to configure. 
  • Integrations. Make sure it’s easy to integrate your Chili Piper alternative with the rest of your tech stack. Better yet, choose a platform that can function as a common orchestration layer to ensure everyone’s rowing in the same direction. 

Why businesses often look for Chili Piper alternatives

While Chili Piper is a really great instant scheduling software, the price point is out of reach for many businesses. Plus, you need to buy more products for your RevOps tech stack before you can use Chili Piper’s form conversion and account-matching capabilities. 

Another reasons businesses look for Chili Piper alternatives include: 

  • Pricing. Chili Piper charges a reasonable amount per user per month, but they tack on additional fees for each additional feature. As such, it’s easy for your tech stack spend to get out of control. Which, if you want complex features like lead routing and qualification, you’ll have no choice but to buy. 
  • Load times. Many Chili Piper users complain about long load times, which can cause a high drop-off rate that negatively impacts user experience.
  • Complex implementation. To integrate and adapt Chili Piper to your other RevOps software and customize to your brand style, you’ll need significant implementation & developer services.
  • Poor customer service. For all the platform’s merits, the Chili Piper customer support team gets low marks from their users, as they have a reputation for being slow and unresponsive 
  • Time zone detection. Some Chili Piper users complain that the platform struggles with its time zone detection features when scheduling and automating emails.

Ditch Chili Piper. Go with Default instead.

Yes, Chili Piper has a ton of brand recognition. Yes, plenty of people use them. But few stick with them, instead opting for one of these Chili Piper alternatives. 

If you’ve read through the list and want a more unified, customizable, and affordable inbound automation solution, we would (naturally) recommend Default. By prioritizing both ease of use and a high degree of control, you can craft workflows that fit your customer behaviors and sales team structure. 

See how Default outperforms Chili Piper in every category that matters. Read our full Default vs. Chili Piper comparison guide here. 

Revenue Operations
Stan Rymkiewicz
August 23, 2024
3 min
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