Doodle is the name most people know for "which of these times works for everyone?". It still does that job. What pushes people to look for an alternative is the price list and the free plan: one poll at a time with ads, then Pro at $15 per seat a month billed monthly. Reviews add a second reason, a redesign that locked editing behind a paid plan and hid details that used to be visible.
This guide compares nine alternatives. Six are free availability grids and polls, one is the poll built into Outlook, and one is Calendly's meeting polls. One is for a different job: Booknetic, which lets customers book paid appointments on your own WordPress site. We created When2meet and WhenIsGood events ourselves in October 2026; the other tools come from their own sites, read on 25 October 2026, and from public reviews.
Short answer. Rallly is the closest free replacement for a Doodle poll: propose times, share a link, people vote yes, no or "if need be", and it is open source. Timeful is the best free availability grid, with no ads and calendar autofill. When2meet, WhenIsGood, LettuceMeet and Crab Fit are the other free grids. Microsoft Scheduling Poll is free if your organisation already runs Microsoft 365, and Calendly's meeting polls come with its Free plan. If your real need is customers booking paid appointments on a WordPress site, Booknetic does that for a flat yearly licence.
Why people leave Doodle
These are Doodle's plans as shown on doodle.com and its help centre on 25 October 2026. The review themes come from its one and two star Trustpilot reviews, where the overall score is 4.1 from 283 reviews.
One poll at a time with ads on Free. The Free plan covers one group poll, one booking page, one 1:1 link and three basic sign-up sheets, and shows ads to your invitees.Per-seat pricing. Pro costs $15 per seat a month billed monthly, with yearly billing shown as 26% less. Team costs $21 monthly or $16 yearly per seat with two seats minimum. The yearly Pro price did not render during our check.Editing behind the paywall. A 2025 review describes proposed dates counting as the organiser's own vote with no way to edit without paying.The redesign. Several reviews from 2024 and 2025 say the tool "used to be great" and that details such as the meeting location are no longer visible inside the poll.Vote tables, not grids. Voters answer per proposed slot, so a poll with many options is slower to fill than a painted availability grid.
The alternatives at a glance
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1. Rallly: the open-source Doodle poll
Rallly is the alternative that works the way Doodle does. You propose a few times, share a link, and people vote yes, no or "if need be" in a table. No account is needed to create a poll and voters never need one. Finalising a poll and sending the calendar invite became free in 2026. The free Hobby plan allows up to three open polls with 30-day retention. Pro at $6 per seat a month billed yearly adds unlimited open polls, indefinite retention, email invites, team collaboration, custom branding and an API. The code is open source under AGPL with more than 5,300 GitHub stars, so a company can host its own copy.
Hobby Free; basic polls, up to 3 open polls, 30-day poll retention, no ads
Pro $6 per seat a month billed yearly; unlimited open polls, indefinite retention, email invites, team collaboration, branding, API
Accounts None to create; voters never need one
Votes Yes, no or "if need be" per proposed time; finalising is free
Time zones Supported, per the home page FAQ
Code Open source under AGPL-3.0, 5,322 GitHub stars, updated October 2026
Pros and cons for Rallly, Timeful, LettuceMeet, Crab Fit and Microsoft Scheduling Poll come from their own sites and public reviews. We did not run them for this update; When2meet and WhenIsGood were tested.
The same propose-and-vote model as Doodle, with "if need be" votes and a finalise step, without ads.
Pro at $6 a seat billed yearly is less than half of Doodle Pro's monthly price.
Open source and self-hostable, with a maintained repository.
Free polls close after 30 days and only three can be open at once.
Reminders and email invites sit on Pro.
No booking page, so it does not replace Doodle's 1:1 links.
2. Timeful: a free availability grid with calendar autofill
Timeful takes the other approach: instead of voting on proposed slots, everyone paints the hours they are free and a heat map shows the overlap. It is free, and in October 2026 the site announced it had removed its banner ads and its premium tier. Availability can be filled from Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar or an ICS feed, and times convert to each viewer's time zone. With a sign-in you can get an email when someone joins and send reminder emails on the day of creation and one and three days later.
Price Free; the site says the banner ads and the premium tier were removed
Accounts None to create or respond; sign in for email notifications and reminders
Calendars Autofill from Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar or an ICS URL; calendar access optional
Time zones Converted to the viewer's zone, with a selector on every poll
Limits Unlimited responses; the FAQ cites events with more than 500
Code Open source, 1,788 GitHub stars shown on the home page
Reminders and calendar autofill, the two things Doodle charges for, free.
No login for creators or participants, and a mobile layout that Reddit reviews on the site praise.
A grid is faster than a vote table when the question is "any time next week".
A small company whose business model changed in 2026, so check the site before a long-term bet.
No deadlines or hidden answers; everyone sees everyone's availability.
No booking page.
3. When2meet: the free grid everyone has used
When2meet is the grid Doodle users switch to when they want zero friction. We created an event on 25 October 2026 and answered it as three participants. It is one form, one link and no account for anyone, with a heat map with names on hover and a time zone dropdown per viewer. The trade-offs are the same as Doodle Free and then some: Google ads on every page, no reminders, no calendar sync, no mobile layout and no way to edit or delete an event. Our When2meet vs Doodle vs Calendly comparison goes through the test.
Price Free, with Google ads and a donation button
Accounts None; a name per event, password optional
Time zones Dropdown per viewer
Reminders and sync None
Editing No edit or delete after creation
Phones No mobile layout; renders at 980 pixels wide
The fastest route to an answer for a large informal group, with no sign-up.
Unlimited events and participants, free.
Heat map with names on hover.
Ads and third-party trackers on every page, which was Doodle Free's problem too.
Nothing after the grid: no invite, reminder or finalise step.
Desktop-only layout.
4. WhenIsGood: the ad-free classic
WhenIsGood is When2meet without the ads. You paint the hours you could meet, send a link, invitees paint theirs, and the results page lists respondents from most to least flexible and marks near misses. We created a poll with six slots and answered it as four invitees for our WhenIsGood vs Doodle vs Calendly comparison. There is no sign-up form, the FAQ states there are no ads, and an optional account logs you in with an email code.
Price Free, no paid tier, no ads
Accounts Optional; login by a six-digit email code
Resolution 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or whole days
Time zones Optional toggle, detected per invitee
Export iCal file for the chosen slot and an Excel export of results
Extras Custom invitation URL, hidden dates, intro text
No ads and no participant limit that we could find.
Flexibility order and near misses on the results page, which Doodle's free poll lacks.
A six-slot poll took under a minute in our test.
No reminders, deadlines or calendar sync.
Lose the results code without an account and the event is gone for you.
Dated interface that rendered unevenly on a desktop browser in our test.
5. LettuceMeet: the grid with a Google Calendar overlay
LettuceMeet is the grid students know. You pick a date range, fill in your availability, share the link, and the site overlays everyone's answers. A Google Calendar connection shows your events under the grid while you paint, and an account is optional. Like Doodle Free and When2meet it is funded by ads: our browser loaded four ad frames from Google on the home page.
Price Free, with Google ads
Accounts Optional; sign up to keep your events
Calendars Google Calendar overlay while filling in availability
Reminders None stated on the site
Phones Responsive page
Volume About 4,400 US searches a month for the name
A clean grid with a Google Calendar overlay and no account.
Works on a phone without pinch-zooming.
Familiar to anyone who has scheduled a study group.
Ads on the page.
No reminders, deadlines or notifications stated.
Only Google Calendar.
6. Crab Fit: open source, no account, events expire after three months
Crab Fit is a one-person open-source project with the When2meet form and none of the ads. You name the event or let it generate one, click and drag specific dates or days of the week, set a time range and a time zone, and create. Results update live. Events are deleted after three months of inactivity, passwords are hashed, and a donation button keeps it running. The home page counts more than 230,000 events created.
Price Free, no ads, donations
Accounts None
Dates Specific dates or days of the week, with a time zone selector
Retention Events deleted after three months of inactivity
Apps Android app
Code Open source under GPL-3.0, 538 GitHub stars, last update April 2026
No ads, no trackers and no account.
Days-of-the-week mode for recurring sessions.
Open source, so a school or company can host its own copy.
A one-developer project with its last update in April 2026.
No reminders, notifications or calendar sync.
Three-month expiry is a problem for a recurring group.
7. Microsoft Scheduling Poll: the Doodle inside Outlook
If your organisation runs Microsoft 365, you may already have a Doodle alternative. Scheduling Poll replaced the FindTime add-in in December 2023 and is built into Outlook on the web, the new Outlook, Outlook for Windows and Mac and the mobile apps. You start a new event, add attendees, pick a first date and choose Scheduling poll from the toolbar. Outlook shows attendees' free and busy times from the company calendar, sends the poll by email with a secure web link, and people outside your organisation vote through that link without a Microsoft account. When the votes are in, the meeting invite goes out from the poll.
Price Included with Microsoft 365 work and school accounts; no separate plan
Accounts Organiser needs a Microsoft 365 account; voters outside the organisation use the web link
Calendars Reads colleagues' free and busy times and creates the Outlook meeting from the poll
Limits Not supported with shared mailboxes or group calendars; delegates cannot create polls
History Replaced the FindTime add-in as a native Outlook feature in December 2023
Source Microsoft support article "Find the best meeting time for everyone with Outlook Scheduling Poll"
No extra tool and no extra cost for a Microsoft 365 workplace.
Sees colleagues' calendars while proposing times, which no free poll tool can do.
The invite lands in Outlook calendars straight from the poll.
Only for organisers with a Microsoft 365 work or school account; a personal Outlook.com account cannot create one.
Shared mailboxes, group calendars and delegates are not supported.
Email-based rather than a public link, so it suits colleagues and clients more than a club or class.
8. Calendly: meeting polls inside a booking tool
Calendly is a booking link first, and its meeting polls are included in the Free plan without ads. For someone who is mostly booked one-to-one and only sometimes polls a group, it replaces Doodle's poll and Doodle's booking page at once, and the Free plan is more generous than Doodle's. Standard at $10 per seat a month billed yearly adds unlimited event types, reminders and payments.
Free One event type, one calendar connection, unlimited one-on-one meetings, meeting polls, no ads
Standard $10 per seat a month billed yearly, $12 monthly; unlimited event types, six calendars, reminders, Stripe and PayPal
Teams $16 per seat a month billed yearly, $20 monthly; round robin, routing, Salesforce
Enterprise From $15k a year, 50 seats minimum
Calendars Google, Outlook and iCloud; Zoom, Meet and Teams links
Ratings 4.1/5 on Trustpilot from 714 reviews
Polls and unlimited one-to-one bookings on the Free plan with no ads, where Doodle Free has one poll with ads.
Standard at $10 a month is cheaper than Doodle Pro at $15 billed monthly.
The widest integration list of the nine tools.
Polls are a side feature: no heat map, no "if need be" vote, and the host picks the final time by hand.
Reminders by SMS and payments need a paid seat per host.
Built for meetings, not services: no staff schedules, packages or intake forms.
9. Booknetic: when the "poll" is really customers booking appointments
Some people search for a Doodle alternative because they run a salon, clinic, tutoring service or studio and have been using Doodle's booking page or polls to let customers pick a time. That is a different job. Customers need to pick a service, a staff member and a time, pay a deposit and get reminders, on the business's own website, which calls for a booking plugin that takes a deposit . Booknetic is a WordPress plugin for that. The widget walks a customer through location, staff, service, extras, date and time, their details, a cart with the price and a coupon field, and a confirmation. The licence is a flat yearly or lifetime price per site, not a seat per host.
Reminders and follow-ups run through a workflow engine by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram. Google Calendar sync, Booknetic's Zoom integration , Google Meet and Microsoft Teams links, packages, waiting lists, gift cards, coupons, custom forms, invoices and multiple locations are in the plan list. Payments go through Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce and other gateways at the processor's rates.
Type WordPress plugin; customers book on your own domain
Free version Yes, from booknetic.com, with limits and a branding bar
Yearly plans Basic $45 ($89 regular), Standard $99 ($199), Premium $149 ($399), Elite $299 ($599)
Lifetime plans Basic $99 ($199 regular), Standard $239 ($399), Premium $599 ($799), Elite $699 ($1,599)
Staff and bookings Unlimited on every plan; licensed per site
Payments Local payment on Basic; Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce from Standard; all 10 gateways on Elite
Guarantee 14-day money-back guarantee
Booknetic was installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end for our tested roundup of booking plugins, so these points come from a real install.
One flat price per site: a studio with five staff pays $99 a year on Standard ($199 regular) instead of five Doodle seats at $16 a month each.
Service features the poll tools lack: staff schedules, deposits, packages, an appointment waitlist in WordPress , gift cards and intake forms.
Booknetic's SMS notifications , along with WhatsApp and Telegram reminders, are on every plan, and the data stays in your WordPress database.
It is not a group poll: there is no vote table or "paint when you are free" grid for colleagues.
You need a WordPress site and a host; there is no hosted sign-up.
Basic covers local payment and one domain; Stripe and PayPal start on Standard, and the mobile app starts on Standard too.
Best for: businesses whose customers book paid appointments with staff on a WordPress site. See the Booknetic pricing page for the full plan matrix and the free version.
Doodle alternatives on a WordPress site
None of the poll tools above ships a WordPress plugin. Rallly, Timeful, When2meet, WhenIsGood, LettuceMeet and Crab Fit all live on their own domain, and you share a link or embed a page. That is fine for a poll, which lasts a week. It is the wrong shape for a booking page that lives on your site for years. If the Doodle feature you used was the booking page rather than the poll, a WordPress plugin such as Booknetic keeps the booking flow, the customer records and the payments on your own domain. Our When2meet alternatives guide covers the free grids in more depth.
What a team of five pays per year
Yearly totals from the pricing pages read on 25 October 2026 for five people who schedule with the tool.
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For the poll itself, five of the tools cost nothing and three of those show no ads. Doodle Team at $960 a year is the most expensive line in the table, and Rallly Pro does the same poll job for $360.
Which Doodle alternative should you pick?
A Doodle-style vote table without ads or seat fees: Rallly, free for three open polls or $6 a seat on Pro."Any time next week" for a large group: Timeful, with calendar autofill and no ads.Zero friction for a class, club or game night: When2meet, or WhenIsGood if the ads bother you.A grid with a Google Calendar overlay: LettuceMeet.A poll you could host yourself: Crab Fit or Rallly, both open source.A company that already runs Microsoft 365: Scheduling Poll in Outlook, at no extra cost.Someone mostly booked one-to-one who polls a group now and then: Calendly Free.A salon, clinic, tutor or studio taking paid appointments on WordPress: Booknetic, with staff schedules, deposits and reminders on your own site.
How these tools were checked We created a When2meet event on 25 October 2026 and answered it as three participants. For our earlier comparison we created a WhenIsGood poll with six slots and answered it as four invitees. The When2meet and WhenIsGood findings come from those tests. Doodle's plans and prices come from doodle.com and its help centre on 25 October 2026. The yearly Pro price did not render, so we quote the monthly figure and the stated yearly discount. The review themes come from its one and two star Trustpilot reviews. Rallly, Timeful, LettuceMeet and Crab Fit were read on their own sites and GitHub repositories on the same day, and Microsoft Scheduling Poll from Microsoft's support article and university IT guides. We did not run those five for this update, so their pros and cons rely on vendor pages and public reviews. Calendly's plans come from calendly.com/pricing with both billing toggles. Booknetic was installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end for our tested roundup of appointment booking plugins; its prices are from booknetic.com/pricing on the same day. Prices change, so check the vendor before you buy.
FAQ
What is the best free Doodle alternative? Rallly, if you want the same vote-on-proposed-times model: free for three open polls, no ads, open source. Timeful, if a painted availability grid suits your group better: free, no ads, calendar autofill and reminders.
Is there a Doodle alternative without ads? Yes. Rallly, Timeful, WhenIsGood and Crab Fit show no ads on their free plans, and Calendly's Free plan has none either. When2meet and LettuceMeet are ad-supported, like Doodle Free.
Is there an open-source Doodle alternative? Rallly is open source under AGPL with more than 5,300 GitHub stars and can be self-hosted. Crab Fit is open source under GPL, and Timeful publishes its code too. All three are free to use on their own sites.
Does Outlook have a Doodle alternative built in? Yes. Scheduling Poll replaced the FindTime add-in in December 2023 and is built into Outlook for Microsoft 365 work and school accounts. Attendees outside your organisation vote through a secure web link without a Microsoft account, and the invite is sent from the poll.
Rallly or Doodle: which is better? Rallly for the poll itself: the same yes, no and "if need be" votes, no ads, no account to create, and Pro at $6 a seat billed yearly against Doodle Pro at $15 billed monthly. Doodle if you also want its booking page, sign-up sheets and mobile apps in one account.
Is Doodle free? Doodle has a Free plan with one group poll, one booking page, one 1:1 link and three sign-up sheets, and it shows ads. Pro costs $15 per seat a month billed monthly, and Team $16 per seat a month billed yearly with two seats minimum.
What is the best Doodle alternative for business appointments? None of the poll tools: they find a time for a group, they do not take bookings. A business on WordPress uses Booknetic, where customers pick staff, service and time, pay a deposit and get reminders on your own site. Calendly covers one-to-one meetings without WordPress.
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