Is Doodle free? What the free plan actually limits
Yes, Doodle has a free plan: one group poll, one booking page, one 1:1, and ads. What Pro and Team cost, and the free alternatives with fewer limits.
Yes, Doodle is free to use, with no card required. But the free plan gives you one group poll, one booking page and one 1:1, plus basic sign-up sheets, and it shows ads.
That covers the classic use: someone circulates a Doodle poll to pick a meeting time. It does not stretch to running Doodle as your everyday booking tool, and that is where Pro at $11 per seat a month on annual billing comes in. Several scheduling tools give away considerably more for $0, so it’s worth knowing exactly where the line sits before you pay.
All pricing below comes from each tool’s listed plans; verify current pricing on the vendor’s site before you commit.
What Doodle’s free plan includes
Doodle’s pricing page lists the free plan’s allowance as single items rather than a usage meter:
- 1 group poll: the “find a time that works for everyone” feature Doodle is known for
- 1 booking page: a link people use to book time with you
- 1 1:1: a one-to-one scheduling link
- Basic sign-up sheets
- Ads: Pro’s feature list includes “no ads for organizers or participants”, which tells you free shows them to both
So, is a Doodle poll free? Yes, one is. Need more than one of any of these and you’re into Pro, which makes all four unlimited.
Is there a Doodle free trial?
Not one the pricing page advertises. Our data lists no trial period for Doodle’s paid plans, and the page itself has no trial offer. In practice the free plan is the trial: you can run a real poll and a real booking page for as long as you like, and pay only when one of each stops being enough.
What Doodle costs when you outgrow free
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 group poll, 1 booking page, 1 1:1, basic sign-up sheets; ads |
| Pro | $11/seat/mo | ~$15/seat/mo | Unlimited polls, booking pages, 1:1s and sign-up sheets; no ads |
| Team | $16/seat/mo, 2-seat minimum | ~$21/seat/mo | Team features, including an admin console |
| Enterprise | From $15,000, billed annually | Not offered | For organizations with 50+ employees |
The monthly figures come from the saving Doodle states for annual billing: Pro’s annual billing “saves USD 48 yearly vs monthly billing”, and Team’s saves USD 120 a year across its two minimum seats. Working backwards:
- Pro: $11 × 12 = $132/yr on annual billing. Add the $48 saving and monthly billing comes to $180/yr, which is $15 a month.
- Team: 2 seats × $16 × 12 = $384/yr on annual billing. Add the $120 saving and monthly billing is $504/yr for two seats, or $21 per seat a month.
That monthly premium is one of the cons we list for Doodle: paying month to month for Pro costs about 36% more than committing for a year.
One honest caveat: Doodle appears to be running price experiments. The pricing page’s code contains several variant plan prices, so the number you see may differ from the one above. If your checkout shows something else, trust the checkout.
The Doodle Team plan, in practice
Team is the plan people search for when a group wants shared scheduling, and its main catch is the 2-seat minimum. The smallest Team bill is $32/mo, or $384/yr, on annual billing, and $42/mo if you pay monthly. If you are a team of one, Team isn’t an option; Pro is.
Per seat, Team costs $5 a month more than Pro on annual billing. For five people on annual billing, that’s $80/mo, or $960/yr.
Free alternatives with fewer limits
Doodle’s free plan is narrow by the standards of this category. If what you actually need is a booking link rather than a group poll, these give you more for $0:
| Tool | Free plan | First paid step (annual) |
|---|---|---|
| Doodle | 1 group poll, 1 booking page, 1 1:1; ads | Pro, $11/seat/mo ($132/yr) |
| Cal.com | 1 user, unlimited event types | Teams, $12/seat/mo |
| TidyCal | Unlimited bookings | Individual, $29 one time |
| Calendly | 1 event type | Standard, $10/seat/mo ($120/yr) |
| YouCanBook.me | 1 booking page | Individual, $8/seat/mo ($96/yr) |
Cal.com has the most generous free plan for one person: unlimited event types, free forever for individuals, and it’s open source if you’d rather self-host. Teams is $12/user/mo on annual billing ($15 monthly). That’s less per seat than Doodle Team’s $16. Five people would cost $60/mo, or $720/yr, against Doodle Team’s $960.
TidyCal is the cheapest way out of a subscription. Its free plan covers unlimited bookings, and the Individual tier is a $29 one-time payment rather than a monthly fee. A year of Doodle Pro on annual billing is $132, which is $103 more than TidyCal’s lifetime price. The trade-off is fewer integrations and thinner team features.
Calendly’s free plan is limited to one event type, so it’s not much roomier than Doodle’s for booking. Its paid Standard plan is cheaper than Doodle Pro, though: $10/seat/mo annual ($12 monthly), and Calendly offers a 14-day trial of its paid features. We go into whether it’s worth paying for in is Calendly worth it?.
YouCanBook.me also has a single-booking-page free plan, with Individual at about $8/mo annual ($9 monthly).
The catch with all of these: they are booking tools first. Doodle’s group poll, where many people mark which of several times suit them, is what it’s best at, and the free options above are built around a single booking link instead. Of the tools in our data, SavvyCal lists scheduling polls as a feature, but it has no free plan; Basic is $8.33/user/mo on annual billing ($10 monthly).
Who Doodle’s free plan is actually enough for
Enough: you occasionally need to find a time that suits a group (a committee, a club, a family event) and one poll covers it. One group poll and a booking page on the side is a complete tool for that, at $0. The ads are the price.
Not enough: you take client bookings, need several meeting types, or need more than one poll. At that point you’re choosing between Doodle Pro at $132/yr and a booking tool whose free plan already covers you. For most solo booking setups, Cal.com or TidyCal will get you further without paying.
Worth paying for: you schedule group meetings constantly and the poll is the workflow. That’s what Doodle is built around. Pro on annual billing is the sensible plan; monthly billing costs $48 a year more for the flexibility.
The one-line answer
Doodle is free for one group poll, one booking page and one 1:1, with ads, and there’s no separate trial. Pro is $11/seat/mo billed annually (about $15 monthly), and Team is $16/seat/mo with a 2-seat minimum.
If you’ve got beyond polls and need proper booking, the Doodle alternatives page ranks the field, and best scheduling software covers the whole category. For a group setup, the best scheduling tool for a small team compares seat costs. If you’d rather not weigh it all yourself, our advisor will match a tool to your team size, budget and booking pattern.