Free alternatives to Doodle

One active event type and unlimited bookings; meeting polls survive, workflows and teams do not.

Versus paying: Calendly's free poll can find a time, but its account- and event-type-oriented workflow is less frictionless for ad-hoc group voting than Doodle's dedicated poll flow.

Setup: Hosted signup and one calendar connection

Watch for: Setup is clean, but the permanent free account is limited to one one-to-one event type and one connected calendar.

Excellent Doodle replacement hiding inside a whole Nextcloud server; the poll is easy, the platform is not.

Versus paying: Nextcloud Polls is a strong poll engine, but installing an entire Nextcloud server and manually handling final calendar follow-through is far more work than sending a Doodle link.

Setup: Install or enable the Polls app inside an existing Nextcloud server

Watch for: The poll app is easy only after Nextcloud exists; the first obstacle is installing and maintaining an entire Nextcloud server for one small polling job.

284 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)

Doodle’s useful half, date polls, votes, comments and finalization, without the account ambush.

Versus paying: Rallly closely matches date voting, but the hosted free service deletes expired inactive polls and the free self-hosted edition permits only one registered account.

Setup: Use the hosted service with no install, or run the official single-server Docker Compose stack

Watch for: Hosted free polls are deleted after every option is past and 30 inactive days; self-hosting is free for one registered user only, with multi-user administration requiring a perpetual license.

5,200 GitHub stars (checked Aug 6, 2026)

Unlimited one-person booking types and paid bookings on one calendar; group meetings and fancy emails cost extra.

Versus paying: TidyCal Free is mainly a one-person booking-link product and does not provide Doodle's core anonymous group-availability poll workflow on the free plan.

Setup: Hosted signup and one calendar connection

Watch for: There is no technical install hurdle, but free accounts get only one calendar connection and omit automatic video links, group meetings, custom emails, exports, analytics and API access.

One booking page, but it keeps forms, payments, confirmations, polls and the calendar-overlay trick.

Versus paying: YouCanBookMe's single free booking page is more configurable but less immediate than Doodle for a one-off group poll, and additional pages or calendars require payment.

Setup: Hosted signup and one calendar connection

Watch for: The setup itself is clean; the first hard limit is one booking page and one connected calendar.

Polls, calendar overlay, voting deadlines and finalization are free; the ads are also absent.

Versus paying: zcal Free is a capable poll replacement, but Doodle still has the more established participant workflow, calendar integrations, organization controls, and large-group familiarity.

Setup: Hosted signup and calendar OAuth connection

Watch for: Calendar OAuth is straightforward; team routing, deeper branding and some business controls require a paid plan.