The best tools for paid 1-1 chats with your followers + clients

If you’re a creator, coach, or solopreneur, you probably have people who want to talk to you for personalized advice. There are a few platforms that most creators and coaches use to chat 1-on-1 with their followers and clients.

Popcall, Instagram DMs, and Calendly + Zoom (and similar products like Acuity Scheduling) are some of the best tools to help creators talk directly with their followers and monetize. But which is the best for you as a creator, coach, or solopreneur?

I’ll help you decide by reviewing each platform’s strengths and weaknesses, and looking at their most important aspects, including ease of use, features, and pricing. First, a quick snapshot of each platform:

Quick Comparison: Popcall vs. Instagram DMs vs. Calendly + Zoom

Popcall: Best for any creator, coach, or solopreneur whose followers or clients want to talk to them for their expertise, advice, or time. Creators love it because it’s as easy to use as a normal messaging app, allows them to reply with messages or video calls whenever they want, and automatically facilitates payment from followers/clients to the creator. Easy to use on the go.

Instagram DMs: Best for smaller creators selling a product, like a course, program, e-book, or an affiliate product. Since the DMs aren’t monetized, the goal for creators using DMs is strictly to upsell followers to another product. Easy to use on the go. Sometimes gets cluttered with spam messages not worth responding to.

Calendly (paired with Zoom or Google Meet): Best for coaches and professionals who only prefer formal, scheduled, long form calls. Not as easy to use on the go. Similar products include Acuity Scheduling and Zoom Scheduler.

Overview: Popcall vs. Instagram DMs vs. Calendly

As we begin, it is worth understanding the differences between each platform.

Popcall is an iMessage-style app that allows creators to get paid for text, voice, and video messages, and video calls. Creators earn money for every message reply they send and get paid per minute when they hop on video calls. It’s similar to Instagram DMs to the extent that it feels casual and informal and easy to use. But unlike Instagram DMs, Popcall lets creators set their rates and get paid for every interaction. It’s free to use, and Popcall takes a cut of the earnings.

Instagram DMs are an in-platform social media messaging feature that allows you to engage with your followers directly. Great in concept because it allows anyone to reach out to you, but there are no direct monetization features built-in, which also means creators may receive a lot of spam messages that aren’t worth responding to. It can become especially difficult to respond to message demand if you have a large number of followers. Free to use.

Calendly (and Acuity Scheduling and Zoom Scheduler) are scheduling tools, which – when paired with Zoom or Google Meet – allows your followers or clients to book time with you for video conference on a future date. If monetized, users pay upfront and are locked in for a specific time slot. Useful for formal video calls, not paid messages. Creators pay a monthly fee for premium features, including collecting payments.

Pros and Cons: Popcall vs. Instagram DMs vs. Calendly

Popcall

Benefits:

• Get paid for every voice, video and text message responses.
• Get paid per minute for video calls.
• Reply whenever you want, on your own time.
• Frictionless for users to start a paid convo with creators.
• Feels casual and informal and easy to use.
• Automated client billing.
• Ability to customize communication settings.
• Ability to set custom pricing per user.
• Keeps personal information private and secure.
• Optional integration of click-to-accept disclaimers.

Other Considerations:

• Free-to-use platform but Popcall takes a 20% cut of earnings.
• Reduced focus on formal scheduling (Because of this, some creators use Popcall in addition to Calendly.)

Instagram DMs

Benefits:

• Reply whenever you want, on your own time.
• Feels like your daily messaging app (iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.)
• Casual and informal and easy to use.
• Keeps personal information private and secure.
• Easy to screen followers before responding.
• Easy-to-start convos help acquire new clients who might not book a formal session.
• Free to use.

Other considerations:

• No monetization. No way to automatically bill your followers or integrate a third-party billing system.
• Inability to customize communication settings.
• No ability to integrate click-to-accept disclaimers.

Calendly / Acuity Scheduling / Zoom Scheduler

Benefits:

• Easy to use link-in-bio tool.
• Best for scheduled video calls.
• Ability to integrate your personal calendar.

Other Considerations:

• No ability to get paid for text, voice, or video messages.
• Locked into scheduled time for a call. No ability to facilitate paid communication outside of that scheduled time.
• Limited ability to screen new callers before starting the call.
• No ability to monetize extra call time if calls go long.
• Monthly fee required to incorporate billing tools (such as Stripe).

Comparison: Popcall vs. Instagram DMs vs. Calendly

Conclusion: Popcall vs. Instagram DMs vs. Calendly

Between Popcall, Instagram DMs and Calendly, they each offer different benefits. For most creators, Popcall comes out on top overall. It's the easiest 1-on-1 communication platform for most creators to talk and get paid.

But the great thing is, you don’t have to choose only one. You can use your Instagram DMs to drive paid convos to Popcall, and offer Calendly as another option when you want to book formal sessions locked to a specific time slot in your calendar.

With Popcall, creators will benefit from the flexibility to reply whenever they want, automated billing features, ease of use, customizable communication types, and its ability to acquire new paid clients because of how frictionless it is for users to start a paid convo.

Ready to start earning with Popcall? Request a free account at popcall.com.