Doodle vs Timeful

Doodle

• Finding a meeting time across people who do not share a calendar system
• Event organizers who need sign-up sheets with capped sessions
• Occasional schedulers who can work within one free poll and booking page

Timeful

• Groups choosing a meeting time without anyone creating an account
• Respondents who want to fill in availability from their own calendar
• Organizations that want to self-host an open-source scheduling poll

Doodle

• The Free plan is limited to one Group Poll, one Booking Page and one 1:1, and shows ads to organizers and participants.
• Doodle no longer offers a standalone mobile app; the iOS and Android apps were withdrawn from the app stores and it now runs in desktop and mobile browsers.
• Custom branding, Stripe payments and the admin console start on Team, which requires at least 2 seats.
• Single sign-on is limited to Enterprise, which starts at $15k billed annually.

Timeful

• It runs in a web browser only; the site links to no desktop or mobile apps.
• Email notifications, reminders and showing responses only to the event creator all require signing in.
• Connecting Apple Calendar means generating an app-specific password for your Apple ID and entering it in Timeful.
• Availability groups, which track members' weekly availability, read it from Google Calendar only.

Doodle

Group Polls

Propose several times and let invitees vote. People inside or outside your organization can take part without shared calendar access, and each sees the options in their own time zone.

Booking Pages

Set the hours for each page, limit bookings per day, add buffer times and share the link. People who book receive reminders. Free allows one page; paid plans allow unlimited.

1:1 invitations

Offer one person a list of times to pick from, without them needing a Doodle account. A slot is withdrawn automatically if your connected calendar fills up first.

Sign-up Sheets

Registration pages for workshops, webinars and other events, with a cap on attendees per session and automatic reminders. Participants do not need a Doodle account.

Calendar and video conferencing links

A connected calendar prevents double bookings and sends calendar invites to participants. Pro adds Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex links to meetings.

Team administration and payments

The Team plan adds an admin console with roles and permissions, co-hosted events, booking on behalf of colleagues, activity reports, custom branding and Stripe payments.

Timeful

Availability polls

Create an event with a range of dates and times, share the link, and see where everyone's availability overlaps. The home page says no login is required, and the FAQ puts no limit on respondents.

Calendar autofill

Respondents can fill in their availability from Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar or an ICS feed URL. Other people see only the availability entered, not the calendar events.

Available and if-needed times

A respondent can mark a slot as available or as possible only if needed, and the results can show when a chosen subset of the group is free.

Time zone conversion

Times are converted to each viewer's local time zone, and a selector at the bottom of every poll lets a viewer switch zones by hand.

Email notifications and reminders

A signed-in organizer can be emailed on each response or after a set number of responses, and can send reminders on the day an event is created, one day later and three days later.

Open source and self-hosting

The code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license, with a deployment guide for Docker Compose and NixOS and a plugin API for reading and setting availability from a browser plugin.

Doodle

• Free$0

  One Group Poll, one Booking Page, one 1:1 and basic Sign-up Sheets, with ads shown.

• Pro$11

  per seat / month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)

  Unlimited Group Polls, Booking Pages, 1:1s and Sign-up Sheets, deadlines and reminders, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex links, and no ads.

• Team$16

  per seat / month, billed annually ($21 billed monthly)

  For 2 or more seats: admin console, roles and permissions, co-hosted events, booking on behalf, custom branding and Stripe payments.

• EnterpriseFrom $15k

  custom pricing, billed annually

  For organizations with 50+ employees: SSO (SAML/OIDC), MFA, org-wide time protection, focus policies, branded emails and URLs, and a 99.9% SLA.

Timeful

• Free$0

  Unlimited events and every feature, with no ads. The former Timeful Premium subscription has been withdrawn.

Doodle

• Annual discount

  Save 24% to 26% with yearly billing

  Doodle's pricing page lists a yearly discount of 26% on Pro ($132 a year instead of $15 a month) and 24% on Team ($16 instead of $21 per seat / month).

• Other savings

  Lower Team rates for larger teams

  Doodle's help center lists per-user Team rates that fall with size: $14 on yearly billing or $19 monthly for 6 to 20 seats, and $13 or $17 for 21 or more seats.

Timeful

No public discounts listed.