Doodle Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Doodle alternatives: Rallly, Cal.com, Calendly, Zcal and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•3 min read•Email, Calendar & Scheduling
Verdict:Doodle has two jobs, polling a group for a time and letting people book you, and the alternatives split along that line. If you mainly need to find a time for six people, Rallly is the cleanest swap: polls are free with no account required, and the code is AGPL-3.0 so you can host it. Pro adds branding control at $4.67 per seat per month billed yearly. If you want booking links more than polls, Cal.com is free for one user, MIT licensed, and self-hostable, with Teams at $12 per user per month. Calendly's free plan is limited to one event type and one calendar, so it only suits simple one-on-one booking; Standard is $10 per seat per month. Zcal's free plan includes meeting polls, unlimited links and calendar accounts, which makes it the closest single free replacement for both of Doodle's jobs. Check Doodle's pricing page for its current free limits and prices before switching. The trade-off is polish: Doodle's polls look familiar to guests, while the open-source tools ask a little more setup. Pick Rallly for polls, Zcal for both, Cal.com when you want control.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rallly | Free (Free: create, share and vote on polls with no participant limit and no account needed; inactive polls are deleted automatically); paid from $4.67 per seat/month, billed yearly (Pro) | Web, Self-hosted | Free group meeting polls | Docs only |
| Cal.com | Free (Free plan for 1 user; the page says scheduling has no usage limits); paid from $12 per user/month (Teams, yearly billing; dollar sign only) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosted booking pages | Docs only |
| Calendly | Free (Free plan: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one meetings only); paid from $10 per seat/month (Standard; pricing toggle set to billed yearly, currency symbol only) | Web, iOS, Android | One-to-one booking links | Docs only |
| Zcal | Free (Free Forever for 1 user: unlimited links and unlimited calendar accounts); paid from $7 per user/month (Pro; billing term not stated, dollar sign only) | Web | A free all-round booking tool | Docs only |
| Google Calendar | Free (Free with a personal Google Account, which can create one appointment booking page; more booking pages need a paid plan) | Web, Android, iOS | Single booking page on a free account | Docs only |
| Acuity Scheduling | Paid from $16 per month, billed annually (Starter, 1 calendar; $20 billed monthly) | Web browser | Scheduling | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You only need to pick a time for a group (Rallly is the pick)
- You want one tool for polls and booking links, free (Zcal is the pick)
- You want to self-host your scheduler (Cal.com is the pick)
- You only book one-on-one calls (Calendly is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Doodle features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Doodle today: Free (Doodle pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Doodle alternatives
Doodle's free plan is capped at 1 group poll, 1 booking page, 1 one-on-one slot type and 3 sign-up sheets. Unlimited polls and booking pages, deadlines and reminders, Zoom, Teams and Webex integrations, and an ad-free experience require Pro. Admin roles, custom branding and Stripe payments need Team, listed at USD 16 per seat per month billed annually. A person who schedules a few meetings a month hits the free caps quickly.
Rallly
Compared with Doodle: AGPL-3.0 meeting poll tool; creating and voting is free, needs no account and has no participant limit. Doodle also does booking pages; Rallly sticks to polls, and Pro is $4.67 per seat a month billed yearly.
Price: Free (Free: create, share and vote on polls with no participant limit and no account needed; inactive polls are deleted automatically); paid from $4.67 per seat/month, billed yearly (Pro) (Rallly pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 5.3k GitHub stars · latest release v4.16.3 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Best for: Free group meeting polls.
Cal.com
Compared with Doodle: MIT-licensed scheduler, free for 1 user, that you can self-host. Doodle's strength is group polls; Cal.com is built for booking links, and Teams costs $12 per user a month.
Price: Free (Free plan for 1 user; the page says scheduling has no usage limits); paid from $12 per user/month (Teams, yearly billing; dollar sign only) (Cal.com pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT (repository LICENSE) (open source).
Project activity: 49.4k GitHub stars · latest release v6.2.0 (Mar 1, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted booking pages.
Calendly
Compared with Doodle: Free plan with one event type and one calendar connection, one-on-one only; Standard is $10 per seat a month. Better for booking links, weaker than Doodle at polling a group.
Price: Free (Free plan: one event type, one calendar connection, one-on-one meetings only); paid from $10 per seat/month (Standard; pricing toggle set to billed yearly, currency symbol only) (Calendly pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: One-to-one booking links.
Worth knowing: Standard is shown at $10 per seat per month with a 17% yearly saving label.
Zcal
Compared with Doodle: Free Forever plan for 1 user with unlimited links and calendar accounts, and meeting polls included per its pricing page. Pro is $7 a month, billing term not stated.
Price: Free (Free Forever for 1 user: unlimited links and unlimited calendar accounts); paid from $7 per user/month (Pro; billing term not stated, dollar sign only) (Zcal pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: A free all-round booking tool.
Google Calendar
Compared with Doodle: A personal Google Account can create one appointment booking page for free, which covers simple booking. It has no group time-polls like Doodle, and more booking pages need a paid Workspace plan.
Price: Free (Free with a personal Google Account, which can create one appointment booking page; more booking pages need a paid plan) (Google Calendar pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, Android, iOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Single booking page on a free account.
Other popular options (paid)
Acuity Scheduling
Compared with Doodle: Booking-page scheduler with no permanent free plan: Starter is $16 per month billed annually ($20 monthly) for one calendar, after a 7-day trial with no card needed. It books appointments rather than polling groups for a date.
Price: Paid from $16 per month, billed annually (Starter, 1 calendar; $20 billed monthly) (Acuity Scheduling pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You only need to pick a time for a group: Rallly
- You want one tool for polls and booking links, free: Zcal
- You want to self-host your scheduler: Cal.com
- You only book one-on-one calls: Calendly
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Rallly, Cal.com, Calendly, Zcal, Google Calendar: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Doodle. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-23 and 2026-10-25: Doodle, Rallly, Cal.com, Calendly, Zcal, Google Calendar, Acuity Scheduling. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.