Guides

How to Use LettuceMeet: A Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

Ryan Sham · 2026-07-04

If someone's sent you a LettuceMeet link and you're not sure what to do with it — or you want to make your own — this is the whole thing, start to finish. Learning how to use LettuceMeet takes about two minutes: it's a free availability poll where everyone paints in when they're free, and the times that work for the most people show up darkest on a shared grid. No account needed, and it's genuinely one of the nicer-looking tools in the category.

We make a competing tool (more on that at the end, cards on the table), but this guide is a straight, honest walkthrough — LettuceMeet does a lot right, and if it fits your group, use it.

Already know how it works and want to see the whole category? 9 free When2Meet & LettuceMeet alternatives →

What is LettuceMeet, in one line

LettuceMeet is a free group-availability poll — the modern, better-looking heir to When2Meet. Everyone drags to mark when they're free, the overlaps stack into a heatmap, and the darkest cells are your best candidates. It's built for polling a group (finding one time everyone can do), not for letting people book a slot on your calendar — different job, different tools.

How to create a LettuceMeet event (step by step)

1. Go to lettucemeet.com. No sign-up needed — you can create an event straight away. (An account is optional; we'll cover what it adds below.)
2. Name your event. Something the group will recognise: 'Project Kickoff', 'Book Club March'.
3. Pick your dates. LettuceMeet gives you two modes: specific dates (click the days you'd consider) or days of the week (for a recurring 'which weekday works' poll). Pick whichever matches your meeting.
4. Set the time range. Choose the earliest and latest times worth considering — say 9 AM to 6 PM — so nobody's painting the middle of the night. Note that creating an event is a two-step flow (dates first, then times); slightly slower than When2Meet's single page, but clearer.
5. Check the time zone. Each event carries a time zone, defaulting to yours. If your group is spread out, LettuceMeet can handle it — one of its genuine strengths.
6. Create the event. You'll get a unique link. That link is your poll — copy it.

How to fill in your availability

When someone opens the link (or when you fill in your own):

1. Click 'Add availability' and drag across the grid to paint the times you're free. Tap-and-drag works on mobile too, and it's one of the smoother grids on a phone.
2. Hit Continue and enter your name. No account required — add your name (email is optional) and you're in as a guest.
3. Prefer the calendar overlay? Sign in with Google instead. It overlays your own calendar events under the grid while you fill in, so you're not tabbing over to check whether Thursday 3 PM is the dentist. Only you see your events — others just see your free/busy answer.
4. Submit. Your availability instantly stacks into the group view. Done.

How to read the results (the heatmap)

Back on the event page, the group's answers stack into a heatmap: the darker the cell, the more people are free. Hover or tap a cell to see exactly who's available and who isn't — useful when one key person matters more than a headcount. You can also flip between the week view and specific-date view if your event uses dates.

To pick your meeting time, hunt for the darkest block that's long enough for what you need. A 15-minute sliver of perfect overlap doesn't help a one-hour meeting — you're looking for depth and width. That part is manual: LettuceMeet shows you the picture, and you make the call.

Tips and gotchas

• One event, one link. Everyone must use the same link — don't let helpful teammates create their own duplicate polls.
• The calendar overlay is worth the sign-in — for you. As the organiser, connecting Google means fewer 'oh wait, I'm actually busy then' retractions. Don't require it of your invitees though; the beauty of the category is that guests need zero setup.
• Want notifications? That needs an account. Signed-in users get notified when someone responds to their meeting. Without an account, nothing tells you anything — you reopen the link and count heads.
• The finish line is on you. Once the group's picked a time, LettuceMeet's job is done — sending the calendar invite, telling everyone, and booking the room all happen outside the tool. Budget a few minutes for the follow-through.
• Recheck before you commit. People's weeks change. If the poll's been open a while, give stragglers a nudge before you lock in the darkest cell.

Where LettuceMeet stops

For a quick, good-looking availability poll, LettuceMeet is a solid pick — it fixed the two things everyone hated about When2Meet (the looks, and the phone experience). But run a few polls as the organiser and the same gaps show up:

• It never picks the time for you. The heatmap is the whole answer — you still scan it by eye, weigh which dark block is long enough, and decide. There's no ranked 'best time' anywhere in the product. On a big poll, that's genuine work.
• Watching the poll is your job — unless you sign up. Notifications exist, but they're an account feature. And even then, it tells you that someone replied, not what the answer now is. You're still the one doing the reading.
• The last mile is manual. Picking, announcing, and calendaring the final time all happen off-platform.

If you'd rather not do the reading yourself

That gap — the poll collects everything and still hands you the homework — is exactly what CrepeMeet was built to close. It keeps everything that makes LettuceMeet pleasant (free, no login for the people you invite, a proper mobile drag-to-paint grid, the stacked heatmap) and then finishes the job:

• It picks the best time automatically. The slot that's long enough and works for the most people rises to the top on its own. You don't count cells — you confirm an answer.
• It emails you the moment people reply — with the best time already ranked. Set the poll, put it down, get on with your week. (One free sign-in for you as the organiser switches the emails on — the people you invite never sign in.) That combination — rank and notify — is the real 'set and forget'.

Fair's fair, though: LettuceMeet's calendar overlay while filling in is genuinely useful, and it supports groups across time zones — CrepeMeet is built for same-time-zone groups for now. If your group is scattered across continents, LettuceMeet holds that card. For a team, class, or club in one place, CrepeMeet gets you from 'poll created' to 'meeting booked' with a lot less babysitting.

Want the side-by-side? CrepeMeet vs LettuceMeet, feature by feature →

Why is our thing called 'CrepeMeet'?

Since we're in the salad-and-pastry aisle of the internet anyway: a Mille Crêpe is dozens of paper-thin layers pressed into one perfect cake. Each person's free time is one layer — every reply stacks another on — and the best time rises out of the thickest part of the stack on its own. LettuceMeet stacks the layers too; the difference is we also tell you where the stack is thickest. Schedule, stacked.

LettuceMeet FAQ

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