Doodle's free plan caps polls at 20 time slots, shows ads, and keeps emailed invites on a paid plan. Here's what to use instead, depending on what you want to fix.
A quick note up front: we make Commonhour, so we're not neutral. We've tried to be fair anyway, and each tool below gets a section on where it does well. Details come from each product's own site and were checked in October 2026.
Doodle's free plan does include group meetings, a booking page and sign-up sheets, and it lists syncing meetings to your calendar. Those details are from Doodle's own help pages as of October 2026.
| Commonhour | WhenAvailable | Rallly | When2Meet | Koalendar poll | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Organizer $5/month (coming soon) | Free plan; OneTime $14 (one-time); Premium $49/year | Free plan (3 open polls); Pro billed per seat, yearly | Free | Free |
| Account to create | No | Email verification to create | No login required | No | No |
| Guests who can respond, free | 12 without an account, 20 with a free account | 20 per poll | Unlimited | No set limit | None stated |
| Calendar invite at the end | Google Calendar, Outlook or .ics, free | Not described | Not confirmed (see note) | Not available | No calendar connection |
| Time zones | Detected and converted for each person | Not described | Not confirmed (see note) | Chosen from a dropdown | Host sets one time zone |
Commonhour, WhenAvailable and Koalendar details are from each product's own site, read October 2026. Rallly's price, free-plan limits and open-source hosting are from its pricing page in October 2026; its pricing page no longer says which plan covers finalizing a date, so those cells are marked not confirmed. When2Meet details are from September 2026. "Not described" means the product's own site doesn't say. Plans change, so check each tool's own page before you rely on a detail.
Propose some dates and a time window, share one link, and people tap the times that work. The plan ranks every option, with the best time on top and a note of who's missing, and each person sees times in their own time zone. When you pick a time, the invite goes to Google Calendar, Outlook or an .ics file with everyone who's free added as a guest, free on every plan. Worth knowing: without an account a plan takes up to 12 responses, a free account takes up to 20, and people can only answer free or not free, with no Maybe. Commonhour vs. Doodle.
Guests answer Yes, No or Maybe for each option, polls can include text questions, and there are iOS and Android apps. Guests don't need an account and there are no ads on any plan. Worth knowing: the organizer verifies an email address to create a poll, the free plan allows 20 guests per poll, and unlimited guests, reminders and Google Calendar sync are on the paid OneTime ($14) and Premium ($49 a year) plans. Commonhour vs. WhenAvailable.
Rallly is open source and can be deployed on your own infrastructure with Docker. Its free plan is not a trial, with up to 3 open polls and unlimited participants. Worth knowing: polls are kept for 30 days on the free plan, and Pro is billed per seat, yearly. Our comparison page has the details on answers like "if need be" and the invite step as we last checked them in September. Commonhour vs. Rallly.
Free, with no account to create or respond. You paint the times you're free on a grid and read the best time off a shaded view yourself. Worth knowing: dragging across the grid is fiddly on a phone, and there's no calendar invite at the end, so you announce the time yourself. Commonhour vs. When2Meet.
Koalendar's free meeting poll needs no account to create or respond and shows no ads. Worth knowing: the host sets a single time zone, and the poll page says the poll has no calendar connection and no separate host dashboard. Commonhour vs. Koalendar.
Doodle is the best-known name in the category, and it can be the right answer. If your organization already pays for it and uses the booking pages, sign-up sheets and team features, switching one group poll to another tool may not be worth the trouble. The tools above are for the case where you mainly need to find a time for a group and get it onto calendars.
What's the best free alternative to Doodle?
It depends on what you want to fix. For no sign-up, no ads and a free calendar invite, Commonhour fits. For Maybe answers and phone apps, look at WhenAvailable. To host it yourself, Rallly is open source. For a quick grid on a laptop, When2Meet works.
Is there a Doodle alternative with no ads?
Yes. Commonhour, WhenAvailable and Koalendar's meeting poll each describe themselves as ad-free, as of October 2026.
How much does Doodle cost?
Doodle has a free plan. Doodle Professional is $15 a month for one person or $132 a year, and team licenses are $16 to $21 per user per month for two to five seats, according to Doodle's help pages in October 2026.
Can I move my Doodle poll to another tool?
Not directly. Commonhour doesn't import polls from other tools, so recreate the same candidate dates as a new plan and share the new link with your group.
Do my guests need an account?
No. Guests respond without an account on Commonhour and WhenAvailable, as they do on Doodle. The differences are on the organizer's side: sign-up, limits, ads and what happens once a time is picked.
More questions? See the full Commonhour FAQ.