4 ms·

Open Source Calendly Alternative

98 points by robertwt7 4y ago

efff 4y ago
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information). while opening the page.
- robertwt7 4y ago
  Which page gives you this error sorry? I think vercel was deploying ytd and it’s okay now for me
m4lvin 4y ago
What if I do not have a google account? Why is this better than framadate? https://framadate.org/ https://framadate.org/
- leipert 4y ago
  framadate looks more like doodle? This is seems to be for booking appointments, e.g. small business owners could use it so that customers book appointments. The cool thing, this could likely be extended with other calendar systems as it is OSS. I assume the author just scratched their own itch first.
- robertwt7 4y ago
  That’ll be in the next feature I guess. I think the main idea initially was to show people their own events before booking available times and before invitee accept the invite too. It’s a simple feature that I found missing from calendly However I see the point where people might not have google account (or other services)
pete_nic 4y ago
Why does this problem warrant an open source alternative? What are the downfalls with Calendly being “closed” that this aims to solve?
- leipert 4y ago
  Free accounts in calendly only allow for one event type. Maybe this allows to offer more event types (e.g. different lengths) for free. Furthermore you could self-host, if you don’t want to trust Calendly. calendars are somewhat problematic privacy wise. Especially considering if this gets extended with support for other calendar systems than Google.
- heliodor 4y ago
  Because people are free to do whatever they want with their lives. Your wording sounds like there should be only one tool for any given problem.
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  I don't want Calendly mining my event data which is extremely sensitive. From their privacy policy: > We may disclose information to current or future affiliates or subsidiaries for research, marketing, and other purposes consistent with this Privacy Notice. https://calendly.com/privacy https://calendly.com/privacy
- robertwt7 4y ago
  Hello, I am the dev here! When you have an open source project, you always know what we do with your data, which is very important nowadays. Also apart from that we have small feature that aim to improve user experience when creating or accepting invite. In this case we show their own events in calendar so they have an overview of what are they doing during the week. It’s a fun project, also I open sourced the infrastructure part so you can self host too. I think others has add more good points too
  - pete_nic 4y ago
    Thank you, very helpful answer. I was not trying to be antagonistic, I had never heard a critique of calendly and wanted to understand how an open source project would improve the situation. I agree, very important to understand how your data is used.
yewenjie 4y ago
There is already Cal.com (formerly Calendso) [0] which is a more matured product. I do personally feel though Calcom's codebase is unnecessarily complex and bug-prone. Nice to see new alternatives in this space. It would have been nicer to see a comparison with Calcom and some self-hosting guidelines. [0] https://github.com/calcom/cal.com https://github.com/calcom/cal.com
exdsq 4y ago
Imagine I want calendly but work in a security restricted environment when we can’t allow others to view our calendars. Host this on prem and yay :)
jszymborski 4y ago
The fact that you need to login to Google and share Google Calendars really underscores the need for an open Calendar standard. I know CalDAV exists, but it's always been a huge headache.
- robertwt7 4y ago
  Yeah.. the original idea is to show user (both inviter and invitee) their events as well when choosing the time. Which is not possible in calendly. But I guess that’s another drawback!
ergocoder 4y ago
I have always wondered if a business model like below would make money. For example, I could take this. Host it on heroku. And charge cheaper price than calendly. Not aiming to make millions a year. Maybe 1000 a month is good.
- number6 4y ago
  It has to be cheaper than hosting it myself. "A VPS costs you $5. My service is $2. True you can host it with your other applications on the VPS you already own. Set up a reverse proxy and update it every now and then - or sign up and stop worrying. Go for a walk. Have a beer. Cheers!"
  - ergocoder 4y ago
    > It has to be cheaper than hosting it myself. It often is because your time is much more valuable.
    - number6 4y ago
      Yes but that's a second thought. First it has to be more $-cheaper and then you have to cradle the thought that their time is valuable too. But that has to be their idea, if it's not, than you are only after their money
- bredren 4y ago
  Sentry changed its licensing because of this.
  - ergocoder 4y ago
    The difference is that this isn't built by calendly.
singhrac 4y ago
This is a drive-by comment, but for free/open source software, it is really helpful to have a screenshot or two. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of open source software has mediocre design, and for a Calendly alternative (where I'll share a link with prospective work contacts), a good UX is very important. At risk of being that rsync commenter, I do think paying $12/month (as Calendly and Cal charge) for multiple meeting types is a bit much. I'm mostly ok with the free tier, though.
- robertwt7 4y ago
  Hi there! You mean a screenshot at the homepage to show how it looks as the invitee? Or in the github page? Would love to update it straightaway
  - DreamFlasher 4y ago
    Both, and screenshots from all views.
  - singhrac 4y ago
    I think I would appreciate it in both places! One more piece of drive by advice: I would reduce the font-weight of the hero text on the front page ("Meetsy takes two calendars..."). Unnecessarily bold text is a common pet peeve of mine. Can I ask if you're trying to monetize this service anywhere? If not, would you mind making it a bit more clear how to run it on the Github page (e.g. with a compose.yml)?
    - robertwt7 4y ago
      > I would reduce the font-weight of the hero text on the front page ("Meetsy takes two calendars..."). Unnecessarily bold text is a common pet peeve of mine. No worries, i'll take this into account tonight as well. I will also update with a screenshot, do you think a screenshot of the invitee's page where they can accept the invite would be good enough? I actually have a video I made (not professionally, just a screen recording) to show google for the OAuth spec but I have to make it better. > Can I ask if you're trying to monetize this service anywhere? If not, would you mind making it a bit more clear how to run it on the Github page (e.g. with a compose.yml)? At the moment I'm not trying to monetize it as it is just for fun side project, but if it gain a lot of traction probably I will just to cover the server cost. Either way it will always be open source and you can self host. compose.yml exist in the api/ folder (this is how i deploy it), front end was deployed with vercel so don't need any of that.
Brajeshwar 4y ago
I have been a Calendly user for 2+ years and have renewed for another year. The thing with the likes of Calendar is that it cannot make mistakes on the features that are supposed to work. Calendly just works. I really wanted to like Cal.com (Calendso) and support the founders (awesome people). Unfortunately, after trying few times, I gave up. There are always some thing or the other that does not work as advertised. We might still get back to Cal.com and host an instance ourselves for the team and try it again. However, I'm staying with Calendly for quite a while. Any new calendar app, open source or otherwise, need to meet somewhere very stable enough to compete with the existing ones that has solved most known problems with scheduling.
encryptluks2 4y ago
This is cool, but god do I love Go-based apps that integrate things into a single binary.
joemazerino 4y ago
Calendly is useful but lacks support for calendars. I'd love to see a replacement support subscriptions to feeds so that I'm not restricted to Google/Apple calendar services.
renewiltord 4y ago
Onboarding is raw here. My advice for adoption: 1. Screenshots of product 2. Vidcast of set up experience 3. Vidcast of user experience to book a meeting on my meetsy 4. Demo instance (book a slot with Fakeman Bogus) Hooking up Google Account without all this is not going to happen because I then have to go and de-authorize you after if I don't like it. At that point, I'm not going to do it.
- robertwt7 4y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I will get it done by this week especially the screenshot.

98 points by robertwt7 4y ago

efff 4y ago

Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information). while opening the page.

robertwt7 4y ago
Which page gives you this error sorry? I think vercel was deploying ytd and it’s okay now for me

m4lvin 4y ago

What if I do not have a google account? Why is this better than framadate? https://framadate.org/ https://framadate.org/

leipert 4y ago
framadate looks more like doodle? This is seems to be for booking appointments, e.g. small business owners could use it so that customers book appointments. The cool thing, this could likely be extended with other calendar systems as it is OSS. I assume the author just scratched their own itch first.
robertwt7 4y ago
That’ll be in the next feature I guess. I think the main idea initially was to show people their own events before booking available times and before invitee accept the invite too. It’s a simple feature that I found missing from calendly However I see the point where people might not have google account (or other services)

pete_nic 4y ago

Why does this problem warrant an open source alternative? What are the downfalls with Calendly being “closed” that this aims to solve?

leipert 4y ago
Free accounts in calendly only allow for one event type. Maybe this allows to offer more event types (e.g. different lengths) for free. Furthermore you could self-host, if you don’t want to trust Calendly. calendars are somewhat problematic privacy wise. Especially considering if this gets extended with support for other calendar systems than Google.
heliodor 4y ago
Because people are free to do whatever they want with their lives. Your wording sounds like there should be only one tool for any given problem.
vorpalhex 4y ago
I don't want Calendly mining my event data which is extremely sensitive. From their privacy policy: > We may disclose information to current or future affiliates or subsidiaries for research, marketing, and other purposes consistent with this Privacy Notice. https://calendly.com/privacy https://calendly.com/privacy
robertwt7 4y ago
Hello, I am the dev here! When you have an open source project, you always know what we do with your data, which is very important nowadays. Also apart from that we have small feature that aim to improve user experience when creating or accepting invite. In this case we show their own events in calendar so they have an overview of what are they doing during the week. It’s a fun project, also I open sourced the infrastructure part so you can self host too. I think others has add more good points too
- pete_nic 4y ago
  Thank you, very helpful answer. I was not trying to be antagonistic, I had never heard a critique of calendly and wanted to understand how an open source project would improve the situation. I agree, very important to understand how your data is used.

yewenjie 4y ago

There is already Cal.com (formerly Calendso) [0] which is a more matured product. I do personally feel though Calcom's codebase is unnecessarily complex and bug-prone. Nice to see new alternatives in this space. It would have been nicer to see a comparison with Calcom and some self-hosting guidelines. [0] https://github.com/calcom/cal.com https://github.com/calcom/cal.com

exdsq 4y ago

Imagine I want calendly but work in a security restricted environment when we can’t allow others to view our calendars. Host this on prem and yay :)

jszymborski 4y ago

The fact that you need to login to Google and share Google Calendars really underscores the need for an open Calendar standard. I know CalDAV exists, but it's always been a huge headache.

robertwt7 4y ago
Yeah.. the original idea is to show user (both inviter and invitee) their events as well when choosing the time. Which is not possible in calendly. But I guess that’s another drawback!

ergocoder 4y ago

I have always wondered if a business model like below would make money. For example, I could take this. Host it on heroku. And charge cheaper price than calendly. Not aiming to make millions a year. Maybe 1000 a month is good.

number6 4y ago
It has to be cheaper than hosting it myself. "A VPS costs you $5. My service is $2. True you can host it with your other applications on the VPS you already own. Set up a reverse proxy and update it every now and then - or sign up and stop worrying. Go for a walk. Have a beer. Cheers!"
- ergocoder 4y ago
  > It has to be cheaper than hosting it myself. It often is because your time is much more valuable.
  - number6 4y ago
    Yes but that's a second thought. First it has to be more $-cheaper and then you have to cradle the thought that their time is valuable too. But that has to be their idea, if it's not, than you are only after their money
bredren 4y ago
Sentry changed its licensing because of this.
- ergocoder 4y ago
  The difference is that this isn't built by calendly.

singhrac 4y ago

This is a drive-by comment, but for free/open source software, it is really helpful to have a screenshot or two. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of open source software has mediocre design, and for a Calendly alternative (where I'll share a link with prospective work contacts), a good UX is very important. At risk of being that rsync commenter, I do think paying $12/month (as Calendly and Cal charge) for multiple meeting types is a bit much. I'm mostly ok with the free tier, though.

robertwt7 4y ago
Hi there! You mean a screenshot at the homepage to show how it looks as the invitee? Or in the github page? Would love to update it straightaway
- DreamFlasher 4y ago
  Both, and screenshots from all views.
- singhrac 4y ago
  I think I would appreciate it in both places! One more piece of drive by advice: I would reduce the font-weight of the hero text on the front page ("Meetsy takes two calendars..."). Unnecessarily bold text is a common pet peeve of mine. Can I ask if you're trying to monetize this service anywhere? If not, would you mind making it a bit more clear how to run it on the Github page (e.g. with a compose.yml)?
  - robertwt7 4y ago
    > I would reduce the font-weight of the hero text on the front page ("Meetsy takes two calendars..."). Unnecessarily bold text is a common pet peeve of mine. No worries, i'll take this into account tonight as well. I will also update with a screenshot, do you think a screenshot of the invitee's page where they can accept the invite would be good enough? I actually have a video I made (not professionally, just a screen recording) to show google for the OAuth spec but I have to make it better. > Can I ask if you're trying to monetize this service anywhere? If not, would you mind making it a bit more clear how to run it on the Github page (e.g. with a compose.yml)? At the moment I'm not trying to monetize it as it is just for fun side project, but if it gain a lot of traction probably I will just to cover the server cost. Either way it will always be open source and you can self host. compose.yml exist in the api/ folder (this is how i deploy it), front end was deployed with vercel so don't need any of that.

Brajeshwar 4y ago

I have been a Calendly user for 2+ years and have renewed for another year. The thing with the likes of Calendar is that it cannot make mistakes on the features that are supposed to work. Calendly just works. I really wanted to like Cal.com (Calendso) and support the founders (awesome people). Unfortunately, after trying few times, I gave up. There are always some thing or the other that does not work as advertised. We might still get back to Cal.com and host an instance ourselves for the team and try it again. However, I'm staying with Calendly for quite a while. Any new calendar app, open source or otherwise, need to meet somewhere very stable enough to compete with the existing ones that has solved most known problems with scheduling.

encryptluks2 4y ago

This is cool, but god do I love Go-based apps that integrate things into a single binary.

joemazerino 4y ago

Calendly is useful but lacks support for calendars. I'd love to see a replacement support subscriptions to feeds so that I'm not restricted to Google/Apple calendar services.

renewiltord 4y ago

Onboarding is raw here. My advice for adoption: 1. Screenshots of product 2. Vidcast of set up experience 3. Vidcast of user experience to book a meeting on my meetsy 4. Demo instance (book a slot with Fakeman Bogus) Hooking up Google Account without all this is not going to happen because I then have to go and de-authorize you after if I don't like it. At that point, I'm not going to do it.

robertwt7 4y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I will get it done by this week especially the screenshot.