Articles

Group scheduling, compared honestly

Meetly publishes 25 articles on group scheduling: head-to-head comparisons of When2Meet, Doodle, LettuceMeet, Schej, Google Calendar and Calendly, ranked lists of alternatives, and guides to running a poll people actually fill out. Every competitor fact is checked against that vendor’s own site and carries the date it was checked, and every comparison names the cases where the other tool wins.

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Comparison13

Head to head, feature by feature, with the cases where the other tool wins.

Meetly vs When2MeetMeetly imports everyone's calendar; When2Meet makes all eleven people retype their week and shows them ads. Full comparison of both.6 min Meetly vs DoodleMeetly is free and uncapped with no ads. Doodle's free tier is one group poll with ads shown to your invitees. Full comparison.7 min Meetly vs LettuceMeetLettuceMeet reads Google and nothing else. Meetly imports Google, Outlook, Apple and any .ics feed, then sends the invite. Compared.5 min Meetly vs Schej (now Timeful)Schej is now Timeful and reads Google only. Meetly imports four calendar sources, ranks the best slots and sends the invite. Compared.5 min Meetly vs Google Calendar for group schedulingGoogle Calendar's Find a Time goes blind outside your own Workspace domain. Meetly covers every other case. Where each one wins.6 min Meetly vs CalendlyCalendly's meeting polls are paid-only. Meetly does group scheduling free, with calendar import for every participant. Compared.5 min Meetly vs RalllyRallly asks you to name candidate times and reads Google only. Meetly gives the full grid and imports four sources. Compared.5 min Meetly vs Cal.comCal.com is a booking platform, not a group poll. For finding one time that works for a group, Meetly does it free. Compared.4 min Meetly vs Outlook Scheduling Poll (formerly FindTime)Outlook Scheduling Poll stops reading availability at your tenant boundary. Meetly covers cross-company meetings free. Compared.5 min Meetly vs XoyondoXoyondo has no calendar sync and shows ads to your invitees. Meetly imports four calendar sources and shows nobody an ad. Compared.4 min When2Meet vs DoodleWhen2Meet is a free availability grid with ads and no calendar sync. Doodle is a paid suite with a one-poll free tier. A neutral comparison, plus what to use instead.5 min When2Meet vs LettuceMeetLettuceMeet is When2Meet with a modern interface, no ads and optional Google Calendar overlay. When2Meet is faster to create and stores less. A neutral comparison.4 min Doodle vs CalendlyDoodle leads with group polls, Calendly with booking links, and both now do the other job on paid tiers. A pricing and use-case comparison for 2026.5 min

Alternatives3

What to use instead, ranked, with the tradeoff each one makes.

9 best When2Meet alternatives in 2026When2Meet has no calendar sync and shows ads to participants. Nine alternatives ranked, including free and open-source picks.9 min 8 best Doodle alternatives in 2026 (free and paid)Doodle's free tier is now one group poll with ads shown to your invitees. Eight alternatives ranked, free, open-source and paid.8 min 7 best LettuceMeet alternatives in 2026LettuceMeet is free and ad-free but reads Google Calendar only. Seven alternatives ranked, including tools that import Outlook, Apple and .ics feeds.6 min

Roundup4

Ranked lists of the tools worth your time, by use case.

The 12 best group scheduling tools in 2026Every group scheduling tool worth knowing in 2026, ranked: free availability polls, open-source options, native calendar features and paid booking suites.11 min 6 free scheduling polls that need no accountScheduling tools that let you create a poll and let others respond without any account. Six free options ranked, with what each one stores and whether ads appear.6 min 7 best scheduling tools for students and clubsFree scheduling tools built for the way students actually meet: no budget, big groups, phones only, and half the club forgetting to respond. Seven ranked.7 min 6 best scheduling tools for teams across time zonesSix scheduling tools ranked on time zone handling, daylight saving, cross-organization support and calendar coverage.7 min

Guide5

How to actually get a group scheduled without the twelve-message thread.

What is Meetly?Meetly is a free group scheduling poll that imports everyone's calendar instead of making them retype their week. How it works and who it is for.7 min How to schedule a meeting across time zonesPick specific dates, watch the daylight saving boundaries, define a fair overlap window, and ask for preference not availability.8 min How to run an availability poll people actually fill outMost scheduling polls stall because of how they were set up, not which tool was used. Window length, slot size, framing and chasing, with the numbers that matter.8 min Why finding a time for a group is so hardGroup scheduling gets exponentially harder per person added, and the reason is arithmetic. The numbers, and what to do about them.6 min How to schedule a club meeting when nobody repliesScheduling for a club is different from scheduling for work: no obligation, big groups, phone-only responses. A practical method for getting responses and attendance.7 min

Common questions

What is Meetly?: Meetly is a free group scheduling poll. You pick a date range, share one link, and each person either connects a calendar or drags a grid. Meetly imports their busy time, ranks the slots that work best for the whole group, and emails everyone an invite once you pick one.
Is Meetly free?: Yes, completely. No paid tier, no seat count, no cap on polls or participants, and no ads shown to anyone you invite. An optional account exists only to sync your poll list across devices; it unlocks nothing, and participants are never asked to create one.
Do people need an account to respond?: No. They open the link, add their availability and leave. An email address is optional and used only to send them the calendar invite once a time is chosen. Nothing stands between the link and the answer you need from them.
Which calendars does Meetly work with?: Google, Outlook and Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, and any calendar that publishes an .ics link or exports an .ics file. Crucially that works for every participant, not just the organizer, so a group split across three providers all import real busy time instead of retyping their week.
What if my company blocks third-party calendar apps?: Meetly still works. Many Microsoft 365 tenants block third-party consent at the admin level, so Meetly falls back to a published calendar link or an uploaded .ics file. Those are ordinary calendar exports rather than app permissions, so no tenant policy can block them.
What happens once everyone has voted?: Meetly ranks the slots by how many people can attend and how many marked them as preferred, so you are picking from named options rather than reading a heatmap. Finalizing emails everyone a proper calendar invite, with a Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams link attached if you want one.

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