Better When2Meet alternative
When2Meet is a free availability poll — and that's the entire product. It never sees a calendar, never sends an email, and the winning time never becomes a meeting. 42min's meeting polls run the same vote on your real availability, then put the winner on everyone's calendar.
No credit card · Free plan · Meeting polls included · Voters never need an account
The same poll, step by step
Both tools ask a group “which of these times works?”. Watch where the work moves from the tool to you.
Paint candidate slots over your real availability — 42min already knows when you're free.
Paint a blank grid by hand — it doesn't know your calendar.
Share one link, or let 42min email each person a personal voting link.
DIYCopy the link and send it yourself.
Tap to mark times Yes or Maybe, in each voter's own time zone.
Drag to toggle times available or unavailable, in each voter's own time zone.
Automatic reminders halfway to the deadline and ~24 hours before it.
DIYYou nudge people yourself; it can't email anyone.
The front-runner is highlighted — or auto-book locks it in once a quorum has voted.
DIYMouse over the heatmap and pick the winner.
One click books the meeting: calendar invitations, Meet/Teams link, reminders.
This is where When2Meet ends. Announcing the time, creating the event, adding the video link — all yours.
The poll, feature by feature
Both free, so there's no pricing column — just what each tool does before, during, and after the vote.
| CAPABILITY |
42min roundtables
free plan
|
When2Meet
free
|
|---|---|---|
| BEFORE THE VOTE | ||
| Where candidate times come from | Your real availability — connected calendars, minus conflicts, buffers, notice | A blank grid you fill in by hand |
| Proposed slots held on your calendar | Tentative holds until it's decided | No calendar to hold them on |
| Meeting attached to the poll | Duration, location, video link — from the event type | A name and a grid |
| Voting deadline | Optional, with a countdown for voters | Not available |
| DURING THE VOTE | ||
| Vote from a link, no account | Yes | Yes |
| Times shown in the voter's own time zone | Automatic | Auto-detected, with a dropdown |
| Maybe votes | Optional per poll | Available or not — nothing in between |
| Personal invite links, emailed for you | Specific-people mode | You distribute the link yourself |
| Automatic reminders to non-voters | Halfway to the deadline and ~24h before | It has nobody's email address |
| Blind voting — tally visible only to you | Optional per poll | The grid is open to everyone with the link |
| Required participants | Booking waits until they've voted | Not available |
| Ads on the voting page | None | Google ads |
| AFTER THE VOTE | ||
| Book the winning time | One click — or automatic at quorum | Nothing books — you announce the time yourself |
| Calendar invitations to everyone | Sent automatically | Not available |
| Google Meet / Teams link on the meeting | From the event type | Not available |
| Reminders & workflows for the booked meeting | The event type's, as usual | Not available |
When2Meet behavior verified August 2026 against when2meet.com — its live create form and event pages. Both tools show times in each voter's own time zone, and neither makes voters create an account.
A poll is only as good as the times in it
On When2Meet, the grid starts blank. You mark yourself free from memory — and so does everyone else — so the poll can elect a time you were never actually free for, and nothing warns you when a proposed slot gets taken by another meeting in the meantime. A roundtable starts from the other end: candidate times are painted over your real availability — connected calendars, minus conflicts, buffers, and minimum notice — and every proposed slot gets a tentative hold on your calendar until the group decides, so the winner is still free by the time you book it.
The votes are in. Now the real work starts.
A When2Meet heatmap ends with knowledge, not a meeting. Because the tool holds no email addresses and touches no calendars, everything after the vote is a hand-off to you — three of them, for every single poll.
Stops here. Every step after the votes is yours, by hand.
Carries on to the end — all of it from one click on the winning time.
The announcement
When2Meet never collects an email address, so it can't tell the group what won. You write the “we're meeting Tuesday at 3” message yourself, to a list you kept somewhere else.
The calendar event
The poll's result never becomes a meeting — no event, no invitation, no acceptance tracking. You create it by hand and re-type the invitees. A roundtable books the winner onto everyone's calendar in one click.
The room
A meeting needs a where: a Google Meet or Teams link, a phone number, an address. A roundtable inherits it from the event type, so the booked meeting arrives with the location attached. After a When2Meet poll, that's another thing you add.
A roundtable does all three in the same click — and with auto-book on, it doesn't even wait for the click: once your quorum has voted, the leading time is booked, the invitations go out, and the poll is finished before you've looked at it.
Questions, answered
Yes — When2Meet is free, supported by donations and by Google ads on its event pages. 42min's meeting polls are also free, with no ads: roundtables are on the free plan, with no credit card and no per-seat billing.
Meeting polls are one of several ways 42min schedules groups — see also group scheduling for many people booking one session, and round robin for sharing one link across a team.
Run the same poll. Skip the follow-up.
Real availability in, booked meeting out — invitations, video link and reminders included, on the free plan. Your voters still just click a link.
No credit card · Free plan · Meeting polls included · Voters never need an account