# Build brief — a focused alternative to meetergo

> **Verdict:** Partly, if you narrow it · **Buildability:** 43/100 · **Category:** Scheduling
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/meetergo
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from meetergo. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**meetergo** — EU-hosted scheduling with built-in video, CRM sync, workflows, client portals, and a wider product suite. It currently costs $11/mo.

The public booking loop is achievable solo. The honest replacement, however, stops being a scheduler almost immediately: meetergo combines maintained multi-calendar sync, time-zone and conflict handling, round-robin and conditional routing, resource and multi-location booking, automated reminders, payments, video, CRM, client portals, e-signatures, invoicing, and AI across one EU-hosted system. An agent can reproduce the solo front door; replacing the operating layer behind customer meetings is an ongoing product and compliance job.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of meetergo that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Publish a booking page, subtract calendar conflicts from configured availability, let a guest reserve a slot, create the calendar event, and send confirmation and rescheduling links.

- Model availability, accept bookings, handle time zones, and send confirmations.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Hosted app with HTTPS.
- Database and backups.
- Timezone test cases.

### Data and integrations

- Google Calendar OAuth credentials.
- SMTP credentials.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build me a personal appointment scheduler to replace meetergo's solo booking loop. Requirements:

- One Node 22 + TypeScript app using Fastify, Nunjucks, Luxon, and
  better-sqlite3; server-rendered pages with a little vanilla JS.
- A public /book/:slug page for 30- and 60-minute meeting types. Guests see
  the next 21 days locally, then submit name, email, and an optional note.
- An /admin page behind one ADMIN_TOKEN edits weekly availability, date
  overrides, minimum notice, daily limits, and buffers. Store timestamps in UTC.
- Google Calendar OAuth credentials stay in .env. Read busy intervals before
  showing slots, then recheck inside a BEGIN IMMEDIATE transaction and create
  the calendar event with the guest invited so two people cannot take one slot.
- Send confirmation, cancellation, rescheduling, and one reminder email through
  SMTP. Links use signed expiring tokens; node-cron reminders are idempotent.
- The admin agenda shows upcoming bookings, status, guest details, and manual
  cancellation, with a CSV export. Keep a nightly 14-day SQLite backup.
- No public accounts or telemetry. Run as one process behind HTTPS; all OAuth,
  SMTP, signing, and admin secrets live in .env.
- Out of scope: Microsoft and Apple sync, team routing, payments, built-in video,
  CRM, e-signatures, AI, and formal compliance claims. Do not stub fake versions.
- Add Vitest coverage for DST changes, buffers, concurrent booking, cancellation,
  and reminder retries. README the Google console setup and warn that OAuth is
  the fiddly part, plus deployment, backup, and restore commands.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Managed Google, Microsoft, and Apple calendar sync with conflict protection.
- Round robin, routing forms, collective events, resource booking, and multi-location scheduling.
- Built-in video, payments, coupons, reminders, and multi-step workflows.
- Shared CRM context, client portals, e-signatures, invoicing, meeting notes, and the built-in AI assistant.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**High consequence.** Use this as a prototype or personal aid. Keep a qualified human and an established provider in the loop for consequential decisions.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: high. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:

- [Cal.com](https://github.com/calcom/cal.com) — open-source scheduling platform that can be self-hosted

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Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/meetergo