Doodle Alternatives (2026): Pick the Right Tool for Polls or Booking Links

Paying for "simple scheduling" is fine. Paying and still getting ads, tighter limits, and weird poll behavior is what makes people rage-switch.

Here's the move: pick the right category first. Poll-first (group voting) vs booking-link-first (someone picks from your availability) vs Microsoft 365-native vs self-hosted.

You can waste a weekend comparing features, or you can decide what problem you're solving and be done in 10 minutes.

Jump to: Our picks (TL;DR) · 2-minute chooser · [Pricing matrix](#pricing - feature-matrix-the-comparison-table-you-actually-need) · [Open-source/self-hosted](#open-source - self-hosted-options-privacy-retention-project-health)

Why people are ditching Doodle in 2026 (and what to replace)

Doodle's biggest problem in 2026 isn't that it's bad. It's that it's trying to be three products at once: polls, booking links, and sign-up sheets, while the free tier keeps getting squeezed.

The most concrete trigger: Doodle Free caps group polls at 10 time slots and sign-up sheets at 20 slots (per Doodle's help docs). That's enough for a quick internal sync, but it falls apart the moment you're coordinating across time zones, clients, or a bunch of stakeholders who won't respond on time.

Then there's sentiment. On Trustpilot, Doodle sits at 1.8/5 (198 reviews), and the same complaints show up again and again:

• "Too many ads... it's unusable on mobile."
• "The redesign made it harder, not easier."
• "Canceling was more difficult than it should be."

Here's the replacement logic that actually works:

• If your pain is ads + limits -> pick a poll-first tool that stays simple (Xoyondo, Rallly, Framadate).
• If your pain is back-and-forth -> you don't want a poll; you want a booking link (zcal, Calendly, YouCanBookMe).
• If your org lives in Outlook/Teams -> stop fighting it and use Microsoft Bookings.
• If your pain is privacy/retention/compliance -> go self-hosted/open-source (Rallly, Nextcloud Polls, Croodle, Dudle).

How to evaluate doodle alternatives (the criteria that actually matter)

Most people compare schedulers like they're choosing a note-taking app. Don't. Scheduling tools live or die on friction.

Use these buyer dimensions:

• Workflow fit (poll vs booking): If you need consensus, you want a grid poll. If you need conversion (clients, candidates, prospects), you want a booking link with rules, buffers, and confirmations.
• Friction + trust: Ads, forced logins, and confusing organizer behavior kill response rates. The best tools feel invisible to invitees.
• Admin + compliance: If you're in Microsoft 365 or you need retention controls, the "best UI" matters less than tenant controls, auditability, and where the data lives.

Hot take: If you're scheduling anything external and your deal size is modest, you don't need a heavyweight scheduling stack. You need a clean link that people'll actually use.

Our picks (TL;DR)

If you only test three tools, make it these. They cover most real-world "Doodle replacement" needs without bloat.

1. Use zcal if you want a modern scheduling experience that's genuinely free and ad-free. Skip zcal if you need a pure "classic poll grid" with zero booking-link features.

2. Use Xoyondo if you want the closest classic Doodle poll replacement and don't want to overthink it. Skip Xoyondo if you need heavy team admin, routing, or a full scheduling suite.

3. Use Prospeo if the meeting's only half the battle and you also need to reach the right people reliably. It's not a scheduler; it's the B2B data platform built for accuracy, with 300M+ professional profiles, 143M+ verified emails, 125M+ verified mobile numbers, 98% email accuracy, and a 7-day refresh cycle so invites and follow-ups don't disappear into bounce-land. (If you're comparing tools for verified contacts, see our roundup of email lookup tools.)

4. Use Rallly if you want simple polls and you like having a real open-source path (including self-hosting).

5. Microsoft 365 default: If you already pay for Microsoft 365 and everyone's in Outlook/Teams, Microsoft Bookings is the path of least resistance.

2-minute chooser: poll vs booking link vs Microsoft 365 vs self-hosted

Use this like a flowchart. Don't buy a "scheduling tool." Buy the outcome.

Start here: what's the meeting scenario?

• "I need 12 people to vote on times for a team meeting." Go poll-first: Xoyondo, Rallly, Framadate. You care about: fast voting, no logins, reminders/deadlines, and a clean results view.

• "I'm booking client calls and I don't want any voting." Go booking-link-first: zcal, Calendly, YouCanBookMe. You care about: availability rules, buffers, time zones, confirmations, and integrations.

• "I'm running a workshop with limited seats." You want sign-up sheets or appointment scheduling: Acuity Scheduling, Zoho Bookings, or a booking tool with capacity controls.

• "We're Microsoft 365-native and security is strict." Go Microsoft Bookings. You care about: Outlook calendars, Teams meetings, tenant controls, and fewer third-party apps.

• "We need self-hosting, encryption, or strict retention." Go open-source/self-hosted: Rallly, Nextcloud Polls, Croodle, Dudle. You care about: license, project health, backups, and whether your org can run containers.

Here's the thing: once a time's chosen, the next failure mode is painfully dumb - the invite goes to the wrong address, the follow-up bounces, or the "can you resend?" thread starts. Tools like Prospeo fix that part by giving you verified contact details before you hit send. (If bounces are already biting you, see 550 Recipient Rejected.)

Pricing + feature matrix (the comparison table you actually need)

| Tool | Pricing signal | Poll vs booking | Ads? | Self-host? | Best for |

Notes so you don't misread the table:

• "(yr)" means billed yearly at that monthly equivalent.
• "Hosting" ranges assume typical low-end VPS/managed hosting; your real cost depends on users, storage, and uptime expectations.

Doodle limits & gotchas that push teams to switch

These are the "wait, seriously?" moments that create churn.

• Free plan poll size is tiny. Free group polls cap at 10 time slots. Professional goes up to 1000 time slots.

• Organizer auto-votes "yes." The organizer automatically votes yes for all options. You can edit your votes later, but you can't fully remove your participation. I've watched this confuse exec assistants and make a poll look "solved" when it isn't.

• Past slots can't be removed. Once time passes, those slots can't be modified or removed. If your poll runs long, it starts to look messy.

• "Book it" closes the poll. Clicking Book it closes the poll (you can reopen it), but it's easy to accidentally lock things down mid-thread.

• Free also lacks the stuff teams assume is basic:

  • No deadlines or automated reminders
  • Can't hide participant details
  • No Zapier integration
  • Can't add/edit/delete participants
  • 1:1 scheduling limited to one
  • Only one booking page

Quick fixes if you're stuck on Doodle for now:

• Keep polls short: 5-8 options, max.
• Put the deadline in the invite message and repeat it in the first comment.
• If you need sign-up sheets with lots of sessions, stop fighting the 20-slot cap and use a booking tool with capacity.

Best tools like Doodle (polls and booking links)

Poll-first (classic Doodle-style voting)

Xoyondo (Tier 1) - closest classic Doodle poll replacement

Xoyondo is the "I just want Doodle polls back" answer. It's poll-first, fast, and doesn't try to upsell you into a whole scheduling suite.

Pros

• Closest match to classic Doodle poll UX (create poll -> share -> tally votes)
• Premium is cheap: €29/year removes ads and adds nicer management
• Business tier adds branding and user management if you need it

Cons

• Free tier includes ads
• Not a booking-link powerhouse; it's a poll tool

Pricing signal: Free; Premium €29/year; Business €49/user/year.

Rallly (Tier 1) - simple polls with a real open-source path

Use Rallly if:

• You want a clean, simple poll UX that feels like "Doodle before the bloat"
• You care about open-source and might self-host later (MIT license)
• Your team likes predictable tools that don't change every quarter

Skip Rallly if:

• You need a vendor-managed enterprise contract and don't want to think about hosting
• You want booking links, routing, payments, and all the appointment-scheduling extras

Rallly's differentiator is practical: it's container-first and deploys cleanly with modern infra (Docker/Podman/Kubernetes), which is what matters when IT gets involved and suddenly your "simple poll" needs SSO, backups, and someone on-call.

Pricing signal: Self-hosted is your infra cost. Hosted plans typically land around ~$5-$10/month for individuals/small teams.

Framadate (Pollaris) (Tier 2) - privacy-first polls with clear retention rules

Framadate is the ethical palate cleanser: free, minimal, and built around privacy. The standout detail is retention: polls default to 180 days, then you get a 2-month extension window before deletion, which is great for privacy and terrible if you treat polls like permanent records.

In 2026 there's also a transition: starting January 2026, creating polls on the old version ends (existing old polls remain available for a while). Plan around that if you're sharing links in long-running communities.

Pricing signal: Hosted is free/donation-supported; self-hosting cost is your infra.

Booking-link-first (client calls, sales, interviews)

zcal (Tier 1) - best free modern, no ads

Why it wins: zcal is the rare scheduling product where "free" still feels like a real product. It's free, ad-free, and covers both meeting polls and booking links without turning the UI into a maze.

It also nails the integrations that matter: Google/Outlook/Apple calendars, Zoom/Meet/Teams, plus Zapier. Reminders are built-in, which is exactly what people miss when they fall off Doodle's free tier.

Key tradeoff: It's more "modern scheduling" than "classic Doodle grid." If your users love the old-school poll table and nothing else, Xoyondo will feel more familiar.

Pricing signal: Free; Pro $7/user/mo; Business $12/user/mo.

Calendly (Tier 2) - best booking links; not a pure Doodle poll replacement

Calendly vs Doodle: what changes? Doodle's strongest when you need a group to vote. Calendly's strongest when you want someone to pick a slot from your availability and be done.

Calendly wins when: you're booking client calls, interviews, sales demos, or round-robin scheduling (on higher tiers). Doodle wins when: you need consensus voting and want the grid to be the main event.

Pricing signal: Free (limited to 1 event type / 1 calendar); Standard $10/seat/mo (yr); Teams $16/seat/mo (yr); Enterprise ~$15k/year.

YouCanBookMe (Tier 2) - lightweight booking pages with clear limits

YouCanBookMe is a solid "no drama" booking tool: straightforward pages, predictable packaging, and enough customization to look professional without becoming a project.

It's booking-first, so it won't scratch the classic Doodle poll itch. But if your real goal is to stop the back-and-forth and get a time on the calendar, it does the job cleanly.

Pricing signal: Free (1 calendar / 1 booking page); $9 (Individual), $13 (Professional), $18/member/mo (Teams).

Microsoft 365-native

Microsoft Bookings (Tier 1) - best if you already pay for Microsoft 365

I've seen teams waste weeks evaluating schedulers when the answer was already in their tenant. If your company runs on Outlook and Teams, Microsoft Bookings is the least risky move you can make.

It's not trying to win design awards. It's trying to fit your admin model: calendar permissions, Teams meeting links, and tenant controls work the way your IT team expects.

Pricing signal: Included with Microsoft 365 Business plans: $6 / $12.50 / $22 user/month (billed yearly). (If you're comparing similar tools, see Calendly vs YouCanBookMe.)

Premium UX

SavvyCal (Tier 2) - premium UX + unlimited meeting polls

SavvyCal is the "we care about experience" option. Both tiers include unlimited meeting polls, and the product feels polished in a way most schedulers don't, especially for external scheduling where perception matters.

The catch is simple: there's no free tier. If you're leaving Doodle because you're tired of paying, SavvyCal won't feel like relief. If you're leaving because you want a better experience, it's worth the money.

Pricing signal: $12/user/mo (Basic) or $20/user/mo (Premium).

Boomerang Meeting Poll (Tier 2) - email-native, inbox workflow

Boomerang's Meeting Poll is underrated because it lives where scheduling actually happens: your inbox. It's excellent for external coordination when you don't want to push people into yet another app.

It keeps polls sane by design (Boomerang recommends 3-8 slots, max 20) and shows recipients times in their own time zones, which cuts down the "wait, what time is that?" thread.

Pricing signal: Free; $4.98 / $14.98 / $49.98 per month (billed yearly).

Tier 3: quick mentions (still worth knowing)

These aren't my top picks, but they're common options in the wild, and in a few niches they're exactly right.

• Acuity Scheduling (Tier 3): Best when scheduling is tied to paid appointments, packages, or intake forms. It's overkill for simple polls, but for service businesses it's a workhorse. Pricing: $20-$49/month.

• Zoho Bookings (Tier 3): The right answer when you're already in Zoho CRM/Desk and want scheduling to live inside that ecosystem. Not the slickest UI, but it connects the dots. Pricing: Free tier; paid typically ~$8-$15/staff/month depending on Zoho plan.

• When2Meet (Tier 3): The barebones grid poll that refuses to die: fast, simple, and great for internal groups who don't care about aesthetics. Mobile experience is rough and there are basically no integrations, but it's free and immediate. Pricing: Free.

• Schej (Timeful-style) (Tier 3): A modern, creator-built group scheduling poll that's popular as an ad-free Doodle-style alternative. Good fit for clubs, classes, and teams that want a clean poll link without enterprise features. Pricing: Free.

• MeetVote (Tier 3): An in-development open-source Doodle-like project. Treat it as something to watch and tinker with, not the default for production scheduling. Pricing: Free OSS; hosting typically ~$5-$20/month.

• Croodle (Tier 3): Lightweight self-hosted polling with 256-bit AES encryption in the browser (per project docs). If you want "server can't read poll content," it's a strong candidate. Pricing: Free OSS; hosting typically ~$5-$20/month.

• Dudle (Tier 3): A classic self-hosted polling app that does the basics reliably. Choose it when you want familiar Doodle-style polling under your control. Pricing: Free OSS; hosting typically ~$5-$20/month.

Open-source & self-hosted options (privacy, retention, project health)

Self-hosting's worth it when one of these is true:

• You have strict requirements around data residency, retention, or auditability
• You can't accept ads/trackers and you don't want a vendor holding poll metadata
• You already have a container platform and backups (otherwise you're signing up for pain)

Real talk: if nobody on your team owns updates and backups, skip self-hosting. You'll end up with a "critical scheduling tool" running on a forgotten VM, and you'll only notice when it breaks five minutes before a board call.

Here's the short, opinionated map:

• Rallly (MIT): Best balance of usability + real-world deployability. Container-first and low-config. If you self-host one poll tool, start here.

• Nextcloud Polls (AGPLv3): Best if you already run Nextcloud. Features like expiration, export, and hide results are exactly what teams ask for after a few messy polls.

• Croodle (MIT): Encrypts poll content in the browser with 256-bit AES (per project docs). If you need "server can't read poll content," it belongs on your shortlist.

• Dudle (GPLv3): Classic self-hosted poll app. Not flashy, but familiar and dependable.

• Framadate/Pollaris: Hosted Framadate is privacy-first with retention rules (180 days + 2-month extension). In 2026, the old-version creation cutoff is a reminder to plan around change when you depend on a hosted community service.

Tier-3 open-source signal worth watching:

• MeetVote: Still in development; treat it as a project to watch, not a production default.

Prospeo (Tier 1): what to use after the time's picked

Scheduling tools solve "when." They don't solve "can we actually reach the right person, on the right channel, with details that won't bounce?"

That's where Prospeo fits. It's the B2B data platform built for accuracy, with 300M+ professional profiles, 143M+ verified emails, and 125M+ verified mobile numbers. Data stays fresh on a 7-day refresh cycle, and email verification runs at 98% accuracy, which is exactly what you want when you're sending calendar invites, rescheduling links, and last-minute "joining from my phone" updates. (If you're vetting verification vendors, start with email verifier websites and our step-by-step on how to verify an email address.)

A scenario we've seen more than once: a team runs a Doodle-style poll for a partner call, picks a time, then realizes half the attendees used personal addresses in the thread and the actual decision-maker never got the invite. If you care about show rate, that kind of mess is infuriating. Prospeo lets you find and verify the right work email (and a mobile number when you need it) before you send anything, so the meeting doesn't die because of bad contact data. (If you're dealing with list decay over time, read B2B contact data decay.)

One CTA (only) - after you've chosen a scheduler, make sure you can reach attendees

FAQ

What's the best free Doodle alternative in 2026?

zcal's the best free option in 2026 if you want an ad-free experience with both meeting polls and booking links, plus built-in reminders and calendar integrations. If you only want a classic poll grid, use Xoyondo - just expect ads unless you upgrade to EUR 29/year.

What's the closest replacement for a classic Doodle poll?

Xoyondo is the closest match to the classic "vote and tally" workflow because it stays poll-first, loads fast, and keeps the familiar grid experience. If ads are a deal-breaker, its Premium plan is EUR 29/year, which is one of the cheapest ways to get a clean poll experience.

Is Microsoft Bookings a good option if we use Outlook/Teams?

Microsoft Bookings is a strong choice for Outlook/Teams orgs because it uses your existing Microsoft 365 identity, calendars, and admin controls, so rollout's usually faster and safer. It's best for booking links and appointment-style scheduling; for group voting polls, pair it with a poll tool like Rallly.

Which tools are open-source or self-hosted?

Rallly (MIT), Nextcloud Polls (AGPLv3), Croodle (MIT, with 256-bit AES browser encryption per docs), and Dudle (GPLv3) are the main self-hosted options people choose. Plan on at least 1-2 hours/month for updates and backups if you want it to stay reliable.

After I pick a scheduling tool, how do I make sure invites and follow-ups reach the right people?

Use a verifier before you send. Prospeo gives you 98% email accuracy with a 7-day refresh cycle, plus 125M+ verified mobile numbers, so you're not guessing whether the invite went to a dead inbox.

Summary: the right doodle alternatives depend on the job

If you're choosing between doodle alternatives, don't start with feature checklists - start with the workflow.

Use Xoyondo/Rallly/Framadate for group voting, zcal/Calendly/YouCanBookMe for booking links, Microsoft Bookings if you're Microsoft 365-native, and self-hosted tools when privacy and retention are the whole point.