Should I Build It Should I Build It
20 Apr 2025
Meetings Calendar

Calendar sync with friends to check when everyone is available to make ...

...a booking

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Competitive Terrain

While there's clear interest in your idea, the market is saturated with similar offerings. To succeed, your product needs to stand out by offering something unique that competitors aren't providing. The challenge here isn’t whether there’s demand, but how you can capture attention and keep it.

Should You Build It?

Not before thinking deeply about differentiation.

Your are here

Your idea for calendar syncing with friends to check availability for bookings falls into a 'Competitive Terrain' where numerous similar products already exist. This means that while there's likely interest in such a tool, you'll need to differentiate yourself significantly to capture market share. The existence of 20 similar products indicates a well-trodden path, demanding careful consideration of how your offering can stand out. The average of 7 comments on these products indicates a medium level of engagement. While there is no positive or negative signal for 'buy' or 'use' signals, it's imperative to note that about 5% of products have very strong buy signals.

Recommendations

  1. Begin with thorough competitive analysis. Given the crowded market, deeply analyze existing solutions like Calendly, Doodle Poll, and When2meet to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Focus on identifying gaps they don't address or areas where the user experience could be improved. Tools like WAYF got criticised for an unappealing and unintuitive user interface, with issues like button placement and a confusing light/dark mode switch, or confusing abbreviations.
  2. Define your unique selling proposition (USP). What specific problem does your calendar sync solve better than existing solutions? For example, FestiPlannr is praised as a useful tool that simplifies festival planning, especially for couples and groups. Is it ease of use, a specific niche, advanced features, or a novel approach to booking? Clearly articulate this to attract users. Also consider issues raised for CatchUp where the landing page was unclear.
  3. Consider focusing on a specific niche. Instead of competing broadly, target a specific user group, such as families, sports teams, or hobby groups. Tailor your features and marketing to their unique scheduling needs to gain traction. A good example here is Shared Family Calendar and FestiPlannr.
  4. Prioritize a seamless user experience (UX). Many similar products face criticism for unintuitive interfaces or clunky workflows. Invest in user-centered design to create a smooth, enjoyable scheduling experience that sets you apart, remember the criticism of WAYF.
  5. Develop a strong go-to-market strategy. With high competition, effective marketing is essential. Utilize social media, content marketing, and partnerships to reach your target audience. Highlight your USP and demonstrate how your tool solves their scheduling challenges.
  6. Implement robust calendar integrations. Ensure seamless synchronization with popular calendar platforms like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Address the issue of integration limitations that products like Wellpin faced during their launch.
  7. Gather user feedback and iterate rapidly. Launch a minimum viable product (MVP) and actively solicit feedback from early users. Use their insights to refine your features, improve usability, and address any pain points. This is a great way to avoid problems that other products faced, such as login issues and unintuitive workflows.
  8. Explore innovative AI scheduling capabilities. Wellpin's positive reception to its AI scheduling and conflict detection features highlights the value of such advancements. Think about implementing AI features that help users find the best available times or manage time zone differences effortlessly.
  9. Offer a transparent pricing model. Users criticized excessive SaaS pricing, so consider competitive and flexible pricing options. Be transparent about costs to build trust and attract budget-conscious users.

Questions

  1. Given the strong buy signal observed in similar products, what specific features can you implement to convert initial interest into paying customers?
  2. Considering the existing competition, what is your plan to achieve significant user adoption within the first six months of launch? What is your distribution strategy to get in front of your target audience?
  3. How can you leverage user feedback to continuously innovate and differentiate your product from competitors in the long term? What specific mechanisms will you implement to gather and respond to user input?

Your are here

Your idea for calendar syncing with friends to check availability for bookings falls into a 'Competitive Terrain' where numerous similar products already exist. This means that while there's likely interest in such a tool, you'll need to differentiate yourself significantly to capture market share. The existence of 20 similar products indicates a well-trodden path, demanding careful consideration of how your offering can stand out. The average of 7 comments on these products indicates a medium level of engagement. While there is no positive or negative signal for 'buy' or 'use' signals, it's imperative to note that about 5% of products have very strong buy signals.

Recommendations

  1. Begin with thorough competitive analysis. Given the crowded market, deeply analyze existing solutions like Calendly, Doodle Poll, and When2meet to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Focus on identifying gaps they don't address or areas where the user experience could be improved. Tools like WAYF got criticised for an unappealing and unintuitive user interface, with issues like button placement and a confusing light/dark mode switch, or confusing abbreviations.
  2. Define your unique selling proposition (USP). What specific problem does your calendar sync solve better than existing solutions? For example, FestiPlannr is praised as a useful tool that simplifies festival planning, especially for couples and groups. Is it ease of use, a specific niche, advanced features, or a novel approach to booking? Clearly articulate this to attract users. Also consider issues raised for CatchUp where the landing page was unclear.
  3. Consider focusing on a specific niche. Instead of competing broadly, target a specific user group, such as families, sports teams, or hobby groups. Tailor your features and marketing to their unique scheduling needs to gain traction. A good example here is Shared Family Calendar and FestiPlannr.
  4. Prioritize a seamless user experience (UX). Many similar products face criticism for unintuitive interfaces or clunky workflows. Invest in user-centered design to create a smooth, enjoyable scheduling experience that sets you apart, remember the criticism of WAYF.
  5. Develop a strong go-to-market strategy. With high competition, effective marketing is essential. Utilize social media, content marketing, and partnerships to reach your target audience. Highlight your USP and demonstrate how your tool solves their scheduling challenges.
  6. Implement robust calendar integrations. Ensure seamless synchronization with popular calendar platforms like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Address the issue of integration limitations that products like Wellpin faced during their launch.
  7. Gather user feedback and iterate rapidly. Launch a minimum viable product (MVP) and actively solicit feedback from early users. Use their insights to refine your features, improve usability, and address any pain points. This is a great way to avoid problems that other products faced, such as login issues and unintuitive workflows.
  8. Explore innovative AI scheduling capabilities. Wellpin's positive reception to its AI scheduling and conflict detection features highlights the value of such advancements. Think about implementing AI features that help users find the best available times or manage time zone differences effortlessly.
  9. Offer a transparent pricing model. Users criticized excessive SaaS pricing, so consider competitive and flexible pricing options. Be transparent about costs to build trust and attract budget-conscious users.

Questions

  1. Given the strong buy signal observed in similar products, what specific features can you implement to convert initial interest into paying customers?
  2. Considering the existing competition, what is your plan to achieve significant user adoption within the first six months of launch? What is your distribution strategy to get in front of your target audience?
  3. How can you leverage user feedback to continuously innovate and differentiate your product from competitors in the long term? What specific mechanisms will you implement to gather and respond to user input?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 20
  • Engagement: Medium
    • Average number of comments: 7
  • Net use signal: 19.5%
    • Positive use signal: 21.6%
    • Negative use signal: 2.1%
  • Net buy signal: 0.5%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.5%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

CatchUp - Schedule hang outs without hassle

11 Feb 2023 Calendar Events Productivity

- Create an event - Pick your preferred date and time - Invite your friends - They pick their preferred date and time - The most preferred date and time among gets fixed - All participants gets notified - Integrate with your Google Calendar

The Product Hunt launch of CatchUp garnered positive feedback, with users praising its simplicity, clean UI, and ability to solve a common problem of staying connected with loved ones and organizing events. Users expressed excitement and congratulated the team. Some users inquired about a mobile app and social media integration. One user reported an issue with a blank homepage. Some were unsure of its differentiation compared to tools like Calendly, whereas some found it to be an innovative idea.

Users criticized the Product Hunt launch for an unclear landing page, making it difficult to understand the product's purpose. Additionally, some users reported that the homepage was inaccessible or blank. A notable request was the integration of social media features, which the tool currently lacks.

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99
12
16.7%
12
99
16.7%
Relevance

WAYF – A Simple Scheduling App

28 Jan 2024 Calendar

A dead-simple web app to find the best time for your next meetup with friends. No logins, no bloat. Schedule with a link.---When trying to schedule events with my friends, we often have a long text thread of sporadic dates and the group has to mentally combine all the messages to produce a date that works for all.There are plenty of apps out there to coordinate scheduling, but I found many of them were bloated with features that didn't matter to us, required user sign ups and app downloads. This friction is enough for us to prefer rudimentary long text threads. I wanted something that I could post in the thread once, my friends can add their availability on their own time (and can edit), and we can continue on our conversation.WAYF (When are you free?) is a fun side project that solves this issue. Bare-bones scheduling for what days you are free. No user accounts, no downloads, just paste a link and anyone can schedule. It's completely free.I hope you like it and find it useful, I would love feedback.

Users find the product handy for scheduling, with a promising start and great UI, but suggest improvements like shorter URLs, better mobile support, timezone and time support, and a simplified light/dark mode switch. Some prefer existing alternatives like Lettucemeet, When2meet, Doodle Poll, and Rally for their features and no account requirement. The term WAYF was confusing for some, and users are looking for a roadmap, source code, and a more efficient LLM-assisted version. Minor issues like error handling and disabling past dates were also mentioned.

Users criticized the product for missing time-related features, such as time specification, timezone support, and the ability to choose times. The UI was described as unappealing and unintuitive, with issues like button placement and a confusing light/dark mode switch. The product was also noted for its barebones functionality, lack of significant differences, and unclear feature impact. Users suggested adding explanations for abbreviations, improving the calendar, and making the product more user-friendly. The presence of UUIDs in URLs and the absence of source code were also mentioned.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=AVincentInSpace

Looks great! Will be super handy scheduling my next DnD game. The one thing it's missing though is allowing people to specify times as well as dates

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Tistron

I've looked around for something like this also, and I found https://lettucemeet.com which I often use for this.It doesn't require signing in, and it allows adding what times you are available.It's a bit unintuitive in where the buttons are placed so some people sometimes struggle to figure out how to add their availability, but generally I like it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=vlz

Cool, have been searching for something like this.Small suggestion: would put on the page what the name abbreviates. Or is "When are you free" so universal? (I didn't get it before seeing your post, but am not a native speaker). Also do you pronounce it like "wife" or like "waive"?

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ponyous

All of that is part of doodle poll - the tool I use regularly for this kind of stuff.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=eiiot

I’ve used https://www.when2meet.com for an hourly version of this for years, and never had any issues with it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=noufalibrahim

Excellent app. Very useful and I personally have faced the same situation oyu just did. I would very much like support for times as well as dates taking into account timezones. As it stands, it doesn't solve my problem but is concrete step in the right direction.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=niedzielski

This is great! I would love to see time support. I always use Google Calendar or https://www.worldtimebuddy.com but each is lacking.

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122
33
18.2%
33
122
21.2%
Relevance

Plan your next event by asking when not

16 Apr 2024 Calendar

Hello fellow hackers!I love creating products that solve people's needs.One day, my wife asked me if I knew of any tools that could help plan a week-long company getaway. The requirements were fairly straightforward:- 14 people - A 7-day trip - Sometime in the next 6 monthsThey weren’t concerned about choosing the exact time yet; they just needed to know which dates would work for everyone—or put another way, when does it NOT work?I searched but couldn’t find anything that met this specific need, so I decided to build it myself.The concept is simple: think of it as an inverse Doodle. You select a date range for the potential event and then ask your friends, family, or coworkers to mark the dates they are unavailable. This way, you can easily identify the best possible time slot.This approach allows flexibility in planning. For instance, if there’s only a 5-day stretch available, that could work too.

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5
5
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Coordinating Trips Between Friends and Family

19 Feb 2024 Travel

I've been working on this project to simplify the organization done by one or two people to get a group of people to agree on a place to go that works with everyone's schedule.I've found in the past that email/text makes it tricky to get everyone to get a sense of the details of a trip, and also puts one person in the position to be persistent and spend a lot of time ensuring everyone's needs are met. This simple app attempts to ease that process and keep everyone in sync.It's similar to Troupe but aiming to focus on the basics of the upfront coordination rather than the activities/itinerary (at this point)Would love feedback and thoughts on the current state and where the best places to take it next are. It's a bit barebones at this point but more coming soon!Behind the scenes it uses flutter/firebase

Users reported issues with logging in, particularly with Google login on Chromium, though it works on Safari. Additionally, the app was described as clunky and unintuitive.

Users reported issues with Google login, including failures and the workflow not starting. Additionally, the app has an unintuitive workflow and forces account creation for invitations.

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1
3
-66.7%
3
1
Relevance

Wellpin: Group Scheduling - Match schedules of all friends and colleagues seamlessly

24 Oct 2024 Meetings Calendar SaaS

Now Wellpin checks the schedules of added guests and detects any time conflicts. If all is clear, the meeting is scheduled automatically in a suitable slot. Otherwise, the system suggests the best available time for everyone.

Users are enthusiastic about the AI scheduling capabilities, particularly the conflict detection feature, which enhances productivity. The tool is praised for simplifying meeting management and identifying common available times, making it ideal for remote teams. There's also interest in how the tool handles timezones, indicating a need for robust timezone support.

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112
4
4
112
Relevance

Wellpin - Free scheduling assistant for everyone

29 May 2024 Meetings Calendar SaaS

Appointment Scheduling Software: Forget about the question "when to meet". Just send a link and get more done with Wellpin. Try it now for free!

Wellpin's launch on Product Hunt has garnered positive feedback, particularly praising its UI, smooth onboarding, seamless calendar sync, and accurate time zone detection, which simplifies meeting scheduling, especially for distributed teams. Users appreciate the schedule control and how it keeps their workday smooth and calendar tidy, with some adopting it as their main scheduling tool. However, some users reported issues such as the lack of available slots after setup, inability to access the website, and problems connecting to Zoom, raising questions about calendar integrations and combined availability.

Users reported issues with the product launch including the failure to display free slots after calendar connection, problems accessing the website, and errors connecting to Zoom due to the need for a developer account. There was a request for clarification on how the product differentiates itself from existing solutions like Calendly.

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131
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Beautiful countdown and shared calendar app

07 Aug 2024 Calendar Productivity

Hi everyone!Outside is a beautiful yet powerful countdown and shared calendar app. People use it for personal productivity to always have something to look forward to. But events can also be shared with friends, family or a partner to have one place to organize important events together.You can sync events from your calendar which helps to make the most important ones more visual, fun and a widget on your home screen. We started Outside to help people get outside and with people in person. Right now we've been mostly focussed on first helping people feel excited about what's going on in their live and gradually add use cases which could work well with close friends, family etc.Curious to hear feedback if you try it out. Currently on iOS only. Will add web/android in the future.

Outside is a countdown and shared calendar app.

Currently on iOS only.

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