Meetly vs LettuceMeet
Meetly wins unless your entire group lives in Google Calendar. LettuceMeet is a good free tool with one hard ceiling: Google is the only calendar it reads, so every Outlook and Apple user in your group is back to filling the grid from memory. Meetly imports all four sources plus any .ics feed, re-syncs in the background, ranks the best slots, and sends the invite when you decide.
LettuceMeet is the tool people recommend when someone complains about When2Meet, and the recommendation is fair. It kept the grid, dropped the ads, and added a Google sign-in that paints your events behind the cells. Then it stopped there. Google is the only calendar it reads, and for most groups that is the ceiling.
Where do the two tools actually diverge?
LettuceMeet is a free group availability poll with a When2Meet-style grid, a cleaner interface, and optional Google sign-in that overlays your calendar while you fill it in. Meetly is the same shape of tool with a wider calendar surface. The divergence is not the grid, the price or the ads, because both are free and neither shows ads. It is which calendars each one can read, and what happens to your availability after you close the tab.
| Meetly | LettuceMeet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Ads | None | None |
| Account to create | Optional | Optional |
| Account to respond | Never required | Never required |
| Google Calendar | Yes, imports busy blocks | Yes, overlays events behind the grid |
| Outlook and Microsoft 365 | Yes, OAuth plus .ics fallback | No |
| Apple iCloud | Yes, CalDAV or share link | No |
| Any .ics feed | Yes, link or file upload | No |
| Refreshes after you respond | Yes, connected calendars re-sync in the background | Snapshot at fill-in time |
| Ranked slot suggestions | Yes, weighted | Read the heatmap |
| Preferred vs merely free | Yes, two positive states | Available or not |
| Whole-day polls | Yes | Time grid |
| Finalize and email invite | Yes, with .ics attachment | Push to Google Calendar |
| Meeting link on finalize | Google Meet, Zoom, Teams | No |
| Track who has not responded | Yes, invitee list plus reminders | No |
What do they cost?
Neither charges anything. LettuceMeet has no paid plan and no advertising, and Meetly has no paid tier, no per month fee, no seat count and no participant cap. That makes price a non-factor here, which is worth saying plainly because it is the first thing most people check. Compare that with Doodle, where the free tier is one group poll and Pro runs 11 dollars per month billed annually.
The most common criticism of LettuceMeet is the Google-only limit covered below. The most common criticism of Meetly is that it is newer, so a link nobody recognises can get a slightly lower response rate than a When2Meet link sent to the same group.
Does it matter that LettuceMeet is Google only?
It depends entirely on your group. A university club where everyone has a school Google account will never notice the limit. A cross-company project team, a nonprofit board, or a family will notice it immediately, because roughly half the room is on Outlook or Apple and gets sent back to filling the grid by hand.
What does background refresh change?
A snapshot is accurate at the moment it is taken. If someone fills in a poll on Monday and a meeting lands on their Thursday afternoon on Tuesday, the poll still shows them as free on Thursday. Meetly re-pulls connected calendars when anyone loads the poll, so the grid ages with the calendar rather than freezing at fill-in time.
For a poll that closes in an hour, this is irrelevant. For one that runs across a week while people chase stragglers, it is the difference between scheduling around a real conflict and scheduling into one.
Use Meetly when
- Anyone in your group is not on Google, which is most groups
- Someone is on a corporate Microsoft 365 tenant that blocks calendar apps
- The poll stays open more than a day and availability will move
- You want the best slots ranked rather than shaded
- You want preferred times weighted above merely free ones
- You need the invite and meeting link sent once it is settled
Use LettuceMeet when
- Every single person is on Google and always will be
- You only need the overlap and will handle the invite yourself
Which calendars can Meetly import that LettuceMeet cannot?
Outlook and Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, and any calendar publishing an .ics link or exporting an .ics file. LettuceMeet reads Google and nothing else, so anyone in your group on a work Outlook account or an iPhone calendar fills the grid by hand.
Does Meetly keep availability current after someone responds?
Yes. Connected calendars re-sync in the background whenever the poll is loaded, so a poll left open across a week reflects the calendar as it is now. LettuceMeet takes a snapshot when you fill it in, so a meeting booked on Tuesday never shows up.
Can Meetly tell me which times are actually best?
Yes. It scores each slot by how many people can attend and how many marked it preferred, then names the winners. Preferred is a separate state from merely free, so a slot three people actively want beats one nine people merely tolerate. LettuceMeet gives you a heatmap to read yourself.
Does Meetly handle the invite once we decide?
Yes. Finalizing emails every participant with an email on file, attaches a calendar file so it lands in their calendar app, and optionally creates a Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams link. It also tracks non-responders and reminds them.
Try it on your next group meeting
Create a poll, share one link, and let everyone import their calendar instead of retyping their week.
Create a free poll