Why I built bezoekje.app

Someone close to me became ill. Within a week, daily visits needed coordinating across family and friends. Everyone wanted to come. Nobody knew when.

The group chat

We did what everyone does: we made a group chat. It filled up fast. Messages about who could come when, corrections, changed plans, questions that scrolled out of view before anyone answered them. Two visitors on the same afternoon, then a full day with nobody. And every message landed on people who were already worried and tired.

That's the real problem. Coordinating visits isn't hard. It's hard at the worst possible moment, for people with no energy left for it.

What I looked for

A shared calendar was the obvious answer. It fails on the first step: everyone needs an account. In a group that includes elderly relatives, neighbors, and colleagues, that means you become tech support for a dozen people during a family crisis. Tools like Datumprikker or Doodle solve the reverse problem: finding one moment that works for everyone. We needed many visits, spread out, one or two people at a time.

I didn't find anything that fit. So I built it.

Bezoekje.app

You create a schedule and get a link. You share that link with whoever should be able to visit. Anyone with the link can plan a visit and edit their own visit later. That's the whole app.

No accounts. Nothing to install. If someone can open a link, they can use it. The person who is ill, or whoever cares for them, sees one clear overview instead of a message stream.

What I left out

Every feature I considered had to pass one test: does this work for someone who is exhausted and not technical? Most features failed.

No logins, because passwords are friction and this data doesn't need them. The app remembers you through your browser, so editing your visit works in the same browser you planned it in. No notifications, because the people involved are already overwhelmed. No comments or chat, because that's how the group chat problem starts again. Editing your own visit made the cut, because plans change constantly when someone is ill, and changing a plan should take ten seconds.

Free and open source

I built this because a specific bad week needed it. And honestly: when I feel like shit, I'd rather be building. Other people have that week too. Charging money at that moment felt wrong, so the app is free and the code is open source. If you'd rather run it yourself, you can.

Try it

It's live at bezoekje.app. Create a schedule, share the link, done.

I hope you never need it. If you do, it's there.