sesh alternative: YourBot vs sesh

sesh calls itself a calendar bot for Discord. You create an event with a single message: /create reads the time the way people write it, such as tomorrow at 5pm, and the web interface adds options such as RSVP choices, colours and repeats. Members RSVP with buttons under the event and get a confirmation DM, where they can set their own reminders, and notifications go to any channel before or when the event starts. Discord timestamps show every time in each viewer's own time zone. A calendar view on its dashboard can be made public, and a calendar feed brings the events into Google Calendar or other calendar apps. Events can be mirrored to Discord's own events, each event can get a thread and /poll runs standard polls and time polls. Event and attendee data can be exported. sesh has a free tier. Its Premium adds repeating events, custom RSVP options with limits and a waitlist, roles for attendees, closing RSVPs early and two-way Google Calendar sync. The sesh Pro plan adds API access, webhooks and your own bot name and avatar.

YourBot is one bot whose features are services. Ten are built in and run free on every server, and Beacon Events is the one that covers sesh's ground. The other nine include Sentinel moderation, Tickets and Analytics. Premium, billed per server, adds a bot under your own name, the open marketplace and the Plugin Builder.

The short version

• Pick sesh if you want events mirrored to Discord's own events, a thread for every event or reminders each member sets for themselves.
• Pick YourBot if you want caps, a waitlist, repeating events and a sign-up deadline without a paid plan, in the same bot as moderation, tickets and the other services.
• If you run both for a while, post each event in only one of them, so nobody RSVPs twice for the same event.

Creating an event and signing up

sesh's /create makes an event inside Discord, reading times such as tomorrow at 5pm, and its web interface adds RSVP options, colours and repeats. Members RSVP to the option of their choice with buttons, get a confirmation DM and can change or remove their RSVP until the event starts. Custom RSVP options with your own emoji, limits on them and a waitlist that DMs the first person in line and moves them up are on Premium, and so is closing RSVPs early.

In Beacon Events, /beacon create opens a short form in Discord, and the web wizard builds an event in five steps with a live preview, from one of ten templates or your own. The post carries Sign Up, Leave and Options buttons. Members pick a role, then a class or spec if the role has them, each with its own cap, and tentative, late, bench and absent are one click away. When a role or the event is full, new sign-ups wait. When someone leaves, the longest-waiting member is moved in and gets a DM. Sign-ups can close a set number of minutes before the start, and all of it is free on the shared bot.

Reminders, repeats and time zones

sesh's members set their own reminders from the RSVP confirmation DM, and notifications send reminders to any channel at any time before or when the event starts. With Premium, events repeat hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly and can stop after a number of runs or on a date. Members can stay signed up for every future run, their reminders included. Times show in each viewer's local time through Discord timestamps, and members can set a personal time zone.

Beacon Events sends a server default reminder before every event, and each event can add as many reminders as you like, up to a week before the start, to the channel or by DM. Reminders are set per event by the organizer, so members do not set their own. Events repeat daily, weekly, every two weeks or monthly with an optional end date. Shortly after a run starts, the next one posts with the same roles, caps and reminders. Times are entered in your server's time zone, or with a zone name, an abbreviation such as EST or a fixed offset.

Calendars, polls and Discord events

sesh's calendar view sits on its dashboard for any member of the server and can be made public. Its calendar feed works with Google Calendar or other calendar apps, and Premium adds inbound and two-way Google Calendar sync. Events can be mirrored to Discord's own events, with a change to one applied to the other, and a thread can open for every event and add attendees as they RSVP. /poll runs standard polls, and time polls that show each choice in the voter's own time zone. Voter names can be hidden, and a poll can let members add their own options. sesh also keeps logs of what happens to events, polls and settings. Its event and attendee data can be exported.

In Beacon Events, the dashboard has a month and week calendar where a click on a day starts an event. Beacon has no link to Discord's own Scheduled Events and opens no thread per event. Turn on auto voice and a voice channel opens before the start, limited to the people who signed up if you like. /poll create posts a button poll with up to 25 options and single or multiple choice. An anonymous poll hides the tally until it closes, by hand or on a timer. Six quick templates on the web include days of the week and time slots, and every vote exports to CSV. Each event's attendees export to CSV too, and attendance feeds a reputation score from 0 to 100 for every member.

Switching

Turn on Beacon Events and run its one-click setup, then pick the announcement channel, the default reminder and default roles on the settings card. Let the events already posted with sesh run their course and post the next ones with Beacon Events, so members sign up in one place. Set your regular events to repeat in the web editor and save each kind as a template, and post new polls with /poll create. Pricing has the current terms, and the event bots table sets Beacon Events beside Apollo, sesh and Raid-Helper.