Book the meeting inside the text or email you're already sending

No. They open the link in your email or text message, see the time you have proposed and choose an answer. There is nothing to install, nothing to sign up for and no password to forget. That is the whole point: the person you are chasing is the last person who will tolerate a sign-up form.

A calendar invite writes itself into somebody else's diary before they have agreed to anything, which is why so many arrive flagged or quarantined. Chalkedin proposes a time instead. Nothing lands in anyone's calendar until they have said yes, and they can decline or put up a different time in the same click.

A booking page asks your client to go to a website and choose from your open slots, which suits people who come looking for you. Chalkedin is for the other case, where you are the one asking for their time. You propose a specific time in an email or text message they were going to get anyway, and they answer in one tap, with nothing to browse and no account to create.

Calendly gives you a booking page: people come to it and book themselves into your open times, which suits someone who already wants the meeting. Chalkedin is for when you are the one asking. You propose one time in an email or text message from your own address or phone, and your client answers in one tap, with no page to browse and no account to make. There is a fuller comparison, with Acuity Scheduling and Doodle as well, in Chalkedin vs Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and Doodle.

Yes. Choose email, text message or both in Settings. Chalkedin writes a short message from your SMS template, with the link in it and a count that shows whether it fits in one SMS. You copy it, or open it in the Messages app on your phone, and it is sent from your own number. Chalkedin does not send the text itself, so your client's mobile number is never stored.

Yes. Settings asks what you schedule: meetings, appointments, inspections, or a word of your own such as site visit. The menus, the pages your client sees, the emails and the text messages all use it. You also say where it happens: at their place, at yours with a map link, or online.

Yes. Mark a request as online and your client is told so, along with the platform you name. If you use the same joining link every time, such as a personal meeting room, it is shown to them. Otherwise they are told the link will come with the calendar invitation you send once they have accepted. Chalkedin does not create the online meeting itself; you do that in your own calendar, as you do now.

Every time you have offered, and every time that has been accepted, counts as booked. When you pick a day, Chalkedin lists what is already on it and greys out the start times that would clash. If you try to book over one anyway, it stops and asks first. A time is released as soon as the client declines, the offer expires or you cancel it. This covers what you have arranged through Chalkedin. Add your own calendar as well, and the times it has you down as busy are shown and checked in the same way.

They tick the days and half days that would suit, and can add a note. The reply reaches you marked Reschedule, with a button that opens a new request already filled in with their details, on the next date and time that matches what they asked for. You check it and send it. Which days and half days are on offer is up to you.

You set how many business days an offer stays open. Your client is shown the date the time is being held until. Before then, a request that has waited as long as you allow is flagged to follow up, and a reminder is two clicks away. If the date passes with no answer the link expires by itself and the time is free to offer to somebody else. A client who opens an expired link can still ask you for a new time.

Yes. Press Remind on the request, under Active or on the calendar, and Chalkedin writes the reminder from your template, by email or text message. It carries the same link and code as the request, so whichever message your client answers, the reply lands in the same place. Copying it marks the request Reminded and starts the follow-up count again. There is a final reminder too, which says when the link closes. You send it yourself, as you sent the first, so it comes from your own address or number.

Yes. When you do not know who will read it, tick No name and the email, the text message and the page your client opens all greet them without one: "Hi," in place of "Hi Jane,", or a greeting word you choose. The page can ask whoever answers for their name, and you can note the address on the request so you can tell it apart from the rest.

Yes. Block out a time once, such as a weekly team meeting or a day off, and Chalkedin treats it as booked: it is drawn on the calendar and its start times are greyed out on New meeting. You also set your business hours and the days you work, and you can leave days and half days off the choices a client is given when they ask for another time.

Yes. Chalkedin runs in a web browser, so it works wherever you are. Settings has your time zone, whether dates are written day first or month first, and whether your week starts on Monday or Sunday, and your pages and messages follow them. The prices on this page can be shown in your own currency as a guide; billing is in Australian dollars.

No, and it is not trying to. Your calendar holds what is confirmed. Chalkedin holds what is still tentative — the times you have offered and are waiting on — so your week is not a wall of provisional entries you have to remember the status of. It has its own calendar of offered and accepted times. If you want the two side by side, you can share your Chalkedin calendar with Outlook, Google or Apple Calendar through a private link, and Chalkedin can show the times your calendar has you down as busy. Both are optional, and Chalkedin never signs in to Outlook or Google Calendar. When a client accepts, you send the invitation from your own calendar as usual.

Yes, if you want it to, in two separate ways that are both off until you turn them on. You can share your Chalkedin calendar with Outlook, Google or Apple Calendar through a private link, so the times you are holding for clients sit in the week you already look at. And you can add a calendar to Chalkedin, which then shows the times it has you down as busy and checks them before you offer a time. From a calendar you add, Chalkedin keeps when each busy time starts and ends, and nothing else: not what an event is called, who it is with or where. It never signs in to your account, and removing the calendar deletes everything it read.

Yes. Chalkedin builds the whole email — your wording, your sign-off, the link and a printed code — and copies it to the clipboard with its formatting intact. You paste it into Outlook or Gmail and send it as yourself, from your own address. Nothing is sent on your behalf.

Every invitation carries a short code printed beside the link. If a gateway rewrites or removes hyperlinks — and plenty do — the recipient can type the code in instead and land on exactly the same page.

The name and company you type when you create a request, and the answer that comes back. An email address is kept only if you switch that on, or if a client you reached by text message gives one for their calendar invitation. Either way it is encrypted where it is stored. The time a link is first opened and the time it is answered are logged, with the browser and network address, to confirm a reply is genuine. Records are cleared on a schedule you set.

Yes. One person can use it in a corporate environment without passing on the company's customer data, because Chalkedin is given so little. Nothing is installed on your computer. It never signs in to your work mailbox, calendar or CRM, so it cannot read your mail or your contacts, and no contact list is uploaded. The email is sent from your own Outlook or Gmail and the text message from your own phone, so your client's email address and mobile number stay where they already are. A first name and the time you are proposing are all it needs. Anything more, such as a company name or a surname, is a setting you control, and what is kept is cleared on a schedule you set. Adding a calendar is optional and off to begin with. If you do add your work calendar, publish it as busy times only: when each busy time starts and ends is then all that leaves your company, and it is all Chalkedin keeps in any case. If your employer has rules about outside tools, that is the list to show them.

Yes. It runs in the browser, with nothing to install, and every page is laid out for a phone as well as a desk: making a request, sending the text message, reading the replies and the calendar. On a phone, Home, Calendar, a round New button, Requests and More sit along the foot of the screen, and the calendar shows a day at a time. Your clients answer on whatever they opened the message with.

Yes. Add a passkey under Account and sign in with your fingerprint, face or PIN: Windows Hello on a PC, the screen lock on an Android phone or iPhone, or a password manager such as 1Password. You can add one for each device, and remove any of them. Only the public half of each passkey is kept, so there is nothing that could be used to sign in as you. Your password still works, and nobody has to use a passkey.

The whole of Chalkedin for one person, free for at least three months, counted from the day your account opens. Sign up from the Beta card under Pricing: we email you a link to choose your password, and you can be sending your first request a few minutes later. The beta may run longer than three months, depending on what testers find and how ready we are to launch. No card is needed, and nothing is charged when the beta ends unless you choose a plan. In return we ask for your honest feedback on what works and what does not.

Yes. From a user's point of view Chalkedin is fully working: making and sending requests by email or text message, your clients' answers, rescheduling, the calendar, templates and settings all work today, and beta testers use it with real clients. Calling it a beta means we are still tidying up: the presentation of some screens, and the work behind the scenes that gets us ready for launch. If you find something that is not right, Help and feedback goes straight to us.

Individual is A$25 a year or A$2.80 a month. Business, for teams of 3 to 10 users, is A$22 a year or A$2.45 a month for each user. Corporate, for teams of 11 or more users, is A$20 a year or A$2.25 a month for each user. White label is an optional extra for teams, added to Business for A$12 a year or A$1.35 a month, and to Corporate for A$16 a year or A$1.80 a month, for each user. Prices are per user, in Australian dollars, and include any GST that applies. Paying by the year gives you three months free. Every plan has every feature. The beta is free for at least three months, for one person, and the plans open after it.

Only how many people use it, and so the price for each. Every plan has the whole application with no limits on meeting requests or templates. Individual is for one person. Business is for teams of 3 to 10 and Corporate for teams of 11 or more, each at a lower price per user. Every plan shows the Chalkedin name on the pages your clients open, in the chalk colour you choose. Teams can add white label, which replaces it with your own logo and company colours, and on Corporate puts the links on your own web address as well. The beta is for one person, as Individual is, and the plans open after it.

You choose an address under your own domain, such as meet.yourcompany.com, and add one DNS record pointing it at us. We issue the security certificate and keep it renewed, and from then on every link you send carries your address rather than ours. Corporate opens after the beta, and we will walk you through the record then.