Tungle.Me allows you to provide a page which displays a calendar of your available to clients, friends, etc. They can schedule an appointment with you any time of the day without getting in touch with you directly. Tungle.Me REALLY simplifies my life.
If you haven’t heard, Tungle.Me is closing down come December. =-( Here are some alternatives. (Please add your input as there are many options out there)
WordPress Plug-In?
There are several WordPress plug-ins out there that allow visitors to schedule a time, however, none of them will sync with your external calendar so you have to constantly update your availability.
The plug-ins that do have syncing are actually WordPress integrations with external services such as Appointy and Appointment Plus (starts at $39/mo).
Appointment Plus
Appointment Plus is for multiple-person companies and will take payments. It has a lot more features than Tungle.Me, but competes in a different market as it starts at $39/mo for up to 20 users.
It comes with quite a few integration features such as Facebook, WordPress and some email marketing providers.
Appointy
I am sorry, but I don’t have much information about Appointy. The don’t have detailed information about their features publicly listed. =-(
From what I can tell, there is a free version and you can sync with Google calendars using their mobile app. It does not look like it has a MeetMe page similar to Tungle.Me.
Doodle.Me
This service is better for sending out meeting requests (polls) where you provide multiple times and they respond with the times that work best for them.
They do have a MeetMe page feature which shows your availability to page visitors. This is similar to the Tungle.Me page. From the reading I have done in forums and on other blogs, the feedback on Doodle as a Tungle.Me alternative is so-so.
Google Calendar’s Appointment Slots
1/24/2013 – Google’s Appointment Slots have been cancelled per this article.
Google Calendar has a rudimentary system in place that may work for you.
You can create an appointment slot and then provide a link on your website to it. A person can click on a slot and make an appointment.
This service will not block out times when you have other event schedules so you can’t just have a repeating appointment block for the month of 9-5 and later put in an appointment for the dentist. It will not block the time out in your appointment block automatically.
Google Calendar – Sharing
An alternative Google method, is to provide a link or embed your calendar on your site. Within the calendar settings you can set your general availability and make your calendar available to the public only displaying free/busy indicators.
This allows people to compare your schedule with theirs and make an appointment. Great for multiple-person organizations or those who only provide services for a select number of clients.
ScheduleOnce
I was looking at this one for a client and it comes up often on forums and blogs as an alternative. It looks interesting as well with a Tungle-like MeetMe page and really closely integrates with Google Calendar (for those like me using GoogleApps =-)
The free version is kind of limited as it will not sync with your calendar nor send out email notifications nor allow you to add your logo. The $5/month ($60/year) version allows you to do these.
See this post to find out why Robert L Weiner picked this one.
TimeTrade
One alternative is TimeTrade. I have a client who absolutely loves TimeTrade as the professional version allows her multiple branding for different sites and everything syncs nicely to Google Calendar. She has been using it for years.
- Calendar syncing with Outlook, Google, etc.
- Free personal version allows for 5 appointments per month (for those with low volume).
- Custom email confirmations.
- Create multiple booking calendars with different look and feel.
- Automatic approval.
Click here for TimeTrade’s product comparison.
Converting from Tungle.Me, see this post for a 1-year free trial for those converting.
The links above are not affiliate links. =-)
Resources
Here are some blog posts I found.
I would love to hear from you. What are you using?
This article was updated and Google Appointment Slots has been removed. Google removed the ability to create Appointment Slots per the announcement earlier this month.
Thank you Bridget From YouCanBookMe.com for bringing this to my attention. She has provided a link for more information below.
http://youcanbook.me/blog.jsp
Hi Ricki,
Just wanted to let you know about YouCanBook.Me – It has realtime synch with your Google Calendar, and is free for Solo use – try us out – with a special offer for former Tunglers – http://youcanbook.me/tungle/
best wishes
Bridget Harris
YouCanBook.Me
I just tried out YouCanBook.Me and the free version works pretty well. It even has several custom features such as adding additional fields to the booking form and sending a confirmation email to the meeting requestor. You must pay for premium services to create followup emails.
The link in the comment above allows you a free upgrade to Premium for 6 months if you have a current tungle.me account.
Hello,
A great alternative for former tungle.me users can be vCita.
Just like Tungle.me, vCita can help businesses with scheduling appointments from any website, email signature, or a standalone contact-page.
In addition, vCita offers a variety of services to manage client interactions efficiently, with phone conferencing, video meetings, email campaigns, automated follow-ups, and credit-card payment collection. vCita also turns more leads into clients with unique contact options.
We have just launched a special plan for Tungle.me graduates. For more details visit http://www.vcita.com or contact us at support@vcita.com
Dotan
vCita Team
I’m using the free version of ScheduleOnce. It does sync with my Google calendar (which I sync with Outlook using Google’s sync tool). I think it also sends out email notifications, but I may be wrong there. Only the premium version will let you add your own logo.
Thanks for the feedback. Your blog post was very helpful as well.