ShareAvailability vs. Calendly, When2Meet & Other Scheduling Tools
Not every scheduling situation calls for the same tool. Sometimes you need a full booking platform. Sometimes you just need to tell someone when you're free.
ShareAvailability exists for the second scenario. It reads your Google Calendar and gives you a clean, plain-text list of your available times — ready to copy, paste, and send in any email, Slack message, or text.
No booking links. No accounts for the other person. No "pick a time from my calendar" awkwardness.
But it's not the right fit for every situation. Here's how ShareAvailability compares to the most popular scheduling tools — and when you should use each one.
How ShareAvailability Compares
| Feature | ShareAvailability | Calendly | Cal.com | When2Meet | Doodle | Sundial | Gmail "Suggest Times" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Sharing availability as text | Booking pages & sales teams | Developers & self-hosters | Group polls for students | Group polls for professionals | Executive assistants | Quick 1:1 scheduling |
| Output format | Plain text you copy & paste | Booking link recipients click | Booking link recipients click | Visual polling grid | Polling link recipients vote on | Text you copy & paste | Clickable time chips in email |
| Recipient needs account? | No | No | No | No (name only) | Free account for advanced features | No | Google account to auto-book |
| Reads your Google Calendar? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | With paid plan | Yes (Chrome extension) | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes — completely free | Yes — 1 event type | Yes — unlimited for 1 user | Yes — completely free | Yes — limited, with ads | Yes — 75 credits/month (~10 meetings) | Requires Google Workspace or Gemini add-on |
| Paid plans start at | Free | $12/user/month | $15/user/month | Free (no paid plan) | ~$7/month | $7/month | Included in Workspace plans |
| Works in any channel | Yes — email, Slack, text, DMs | Link works anywhere, but feels formal | Link works anywhere, but feels formal | Link only | Link only | Yes — copies to clipboard | Gmail only |
| Group scheduling | No — designed for 1:1 | Yes | Yes | Yes — its core feature | Yes — its core feature | No | No — 1:1 only |
| Time zone handling | Auto-detects, lets you set manually | Auto-converts for recipient | Auto-converts for recipient | Basic — relies on browser | Auto-detects for participants | Converts text to any timezone | Shows in recipient's timezone |
ShareAvailability vs. Calendly
What Calendly does: Calendly is the most well-known scheduling tool on the market. You set your availability rules, get a booking link, and share it with anyone. Recipients click the link, pick a time, and a calendar event is automatically created for both of you. Paid plans start at $12/user/month, with a free tier limited to one event type.
When Calendly is the better choice: If you schedule a high volume of external meetings — sales calls, client consultations, recruiting interviews — Calendly is purpose-built for that. The automation (reminders, follow-ups, round-robin routing) saves real time when you're booking 10+ meetings a week with people outside your company. If scheduling is a core part of your revenue workflow, Calendly earns its price.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: If you're not running a sales pipeline and just need to find a time to meet someone, sending a Calendly link can feel heavy-handed. It puts the other person in a transactional flow — they're "booking" you, not scheduling a conversation between equals. ShareAvailability gives you the same information (your real free times from Google Calendar) but lets you share it as human-readable text in whatever message you're already writing. No link, no landing page, no power dynamic. You paste your times, they reply with what works, done.
The short version: Calendly is a scheduling platform. ShareAvailability is a utility. If you need workflows, integrations, and automation, use Calendly. If you just need to tell someone when you're free, use ShareAvailability.
ShareAvailability vs. When2Meet
What When2Meet does: When2Meet is a free group scheduling tool popular with students and informal teams. You create an event, set a date range, and share a link. Everyone who gets the link fills in a visual grid showing when they're available. The grid uses color to show overlap — darker green means more people are free at that time. No account required.
When When2Meet is the better choice: When you need to coordinate a group of 4+ people and find a time that works for everyone. Study groups, club meetings, social hangouts with friends — When2Meet's visual overlap grid is genuinely hard to beat for that. It's completely free, no login needed, and everyone can see the full picture at once.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: When2Meet solves a group coordination problem. ShareAvailability solves a 1:1 communication problem. If someone emails you asking "When are you free next week?" you don't need a polling tool — you need a fast way to check your calendar and share your open slots. ShareAvailability does that in seconds. It also reads your actual Google Calendar, so you don't have to manually remember and click through a grid. When2Meet doesn't connect to any calendar — you're filling in times from memory.
The short version: When2Meet is for groups deciding together. ShareAvailability is for one person sharing their availability with another.
ShareAvailability vs. Doodle
What Doodle does: Doodle is a polling-based scheduling tool for groups. You propose several possible times, share a link, and participants vote on which times work for them. It integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook, auto-detects time zones, and sends reminders. There's a free plan (with ads and limitations), and paid plans start around $7/month.
When Doodle is the better choice: When you're organizing a meeting with multiple people who don't share a calendar — especially across organizations. Doodle's polling format ("Can you make Tuesday at 2pm? What about Wednesday at 10am?") is effective when you need democratic input from a group. It's more polished than When2Meet and better suited for professional contexts.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: Doodle requires you to propose specific times upfront, then wait for people to vote. That's overkill when you're just coordinating with one person. It also means the other person has to click a link, load a page, and interact with a poll — friction that doesn't exist when you just paste your available times into a message. ShareAvailability also pulls directly from your Google Calendar in real time, so you don't have to manually guess which times to propose.
The short version: Doodle is for polling a group. ShareAvailability is for sharing your availability instantly with one person.
ShareAvailability vs. Cal.com
What Cal.com does: Cal.com is an open-source alternative to Calendly. It offers booking links, scheduling pages, round-robin routing, and deep customization — including the ability to self-host for full data control. It's free for individuals with unlimited bookings, and paid team plans start at $15/user/month. It's especially popular with developers and privacy-conscious organizations.
When Cal.com is the better choice: If you want the power of Calendly but prefer open-source software, want to self-host, or need deep API-level customization, Cal.com is the strongest option on the market. It's also a better value than Calendly for teams — more features at comparable prices, and the free tier is significantly more generous.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: Cal.com is still a booking link tool. It's an excellent one, but the fundamental interaction is the same as Calendly: you send a link, the other person clicks it and picks a slot. If you don't want to send a link at all — if you want to share your availability as normal text inside a normal conversation — that's what ShareAvailability does. Different tool, different job.
The short version: Cal.com is the best open-source booking platform. ShareAvailability isn't a booking platform at all — it's a faster way to say "here's when I'm free."
ShareAvailability vs. Sundial
What Sundial does: Sundial is a Chrome extension that adds scheduling tools directly inside Google Calendar. Its main feature: you drag time blocks on your calendar, and Sundial converts them into copyable text formatted with dates and times. It also handles multiple time zones, creates and deletes calendar holds, and overlays meeting requests from Gmail onto your calendar. Free plan offers about 10 meetings/month, with paid plans starting at $7/month.
When Sundial is the better choice: If you're an executive assistant or someone who schedules across many time zones every day, Sundial's timezone conversion and hold management features are genuinely useful. The ability to visually select time blocks and auto-generate text in any timezone is powerful for high-volume schedulers. It also works inside Google Calendar itself, so you never leave your existing workflow.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: Sundial requires you to manually drag and select time blocks on your calendar — you're still doing the work of identifying your free times visually. ShareAvailability reads your calendar automatically and generates the available times for you. You don't pick slots; it shows you every open window based on what's already on your calendar. It's also a standalone web app, not a Chrome extension, so it works on any browser and any device. And there's no credit system — it's free without limits.
The short version: Sundial helps you manually select and format availability from Google Calendar. ShareAvailability automatically reads your calendar and generates the list for you.
ShareAvailability vs. Gmail "Suggest Times"
What Gmail's feature does: If you use Google Workspace (with Gemini), Gmail has a built-in "Help me schedule" feature. While composing an email, you can open a sidebar that shows your Google Calendar, select available times, and insert them as clickable time chips into the email. The recipient can click a time to automatically book it. Google's newer Gemini-powered version can even auto-suggest slots based on the context of your email.
When Gmail's feature is the better choice: If both you and the recipient use Google Workspace, and you're scheduling a 1:1 meeting over email, this is genuinely convenient. The recipient can book a time with a single click, and it auto-creates the calendar event. It's built right into Gmail — no extra tool to open.
When ShareAvailability is the better choice: Gmail's scheduling feature only works in Gmail. If you're coordinating over Slack, Teams, text, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or any other channel, it doesn't help. It also requires a Google Workspace plan with Gemini — it's not available on free Gmail accounts. The clickable time chips, while convenient, are also a lightweight booking link — the recipient is still "booking" you rather than having a normal conversation about timing. ShareAvailability gives you plain text that works everywhere, in any channel, with anyone, regardless of what email or calendar they use.
The short version: Gmail's feature is convenient if you live entirely in Google Workspace and only schedule via email. ShareAvailability works everywhere.
ShareAvailability vs. Typing It Yourself
What this means: Opening Google Calendar in another tab, scanning through your week, mentally identifying the gaps, and typing something like "I'm free Tuesday 2-4pm, Wednesday morning, or Thursday after 1pm" into your email.
Why people do this: It's the most natural thing in the world. No tools, no links, no setup. Just look at your calendar and type.
Why ShareAvailability is better: Because it takes 60 seconds to do what ShareAvailability does in 5. You're going to forget about that dentist appointment on Wednesday. You're going to overlook the 30-minute block between meetings that technically counts as "free" but isn't enough for a real conversation. You're going to second-guess whether you offered enough options or too many. ShareAvailability reads your actual calendar — every event, every conflict — and generates a complete, accurate list of your available times. Same output you'd type manually, but faster and without mistakes.
The short version: ShareAvailability automates the thing you already do. Same result, less effort, fewer errors.
Which Tool Should You Use?
Use ShareAvailability when:
- Someone asks "when are you free?" and you want to reply in 5 seconds
- You're coordinating over email, Slack, text, or any messaging platform
- You don't want to send a booking link — you just want to share your times
- You want your real Google Calendar availability, not a guess from memory
Use Calendly or Cal.com when:
- You book a high volume of external meetings (sales, consulting, recruiting)
- You need automated reminders, follow-ups, and CRM integrations
- The professional, transactional booking flow fits your use case
Use When2Meet or Doodle when:
- You're coordinating a group of 3+ people who need to find a mutual time
- You need everyone to vote or indicate availability across multiple days
Use Sundial when:
- You're an executive assistant scheduling across many time zones daily
- You need hold management and timezone conversion inside Google Calendar
Use Gmail "Suggest Times" when:
- You and the recipient both use Google Workspace
- You're scheduling a quick 1:1 and want one-click booking inside the email thread
Learn more: 5 ways to share your Google Calendar availability and ShareAvailability vs. Calendly.
Just need to share when you're free?
ShareAvailability connects to your Google Calendar and gives you a clean, copy-paste list of your available times — in seconds. No booking links. No account for the other person. Free.
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