Booking page or group poll
Scheduling tools solve two different problems. Pick the kind first:
| Kind | How it works | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Booking page | You share a link, people pick a free slot from your calendar | Calendly, Cal.com, Google Calendar, YouCanBookMe, Koalendar, zcal |
| Group poll | You suggest times, everyone marks when they can, you pick the best one | Doodle, Rallly, Crab Fit, Framadate, zcal meeting polls |
| Appointment software | Booking for a service business with staff, services and reminders | Setmore, SimplyBook.me, Zoho Bookings, Easy!Appointments |
A booking page suits one-on-one calls with clients or students. A poll suits a team meeting or a dinner with friends, where the group has to agree on one time.
Free plan limits compared
The free plans differ mostly in how many event types, calendars and users you get. From the official pricing pages:
| Tool | Free limit |
|---|---|
| Calendly | One event type, one calendar connection |
| Cal.com | 1 user, unlimited event types and calendars |
| YouCanBookMe | 1 booking page, 1 calendar connection, "Powered for free" button required |
| Doodle | One Group Poll, one Booking Page, one 1:1, 3 basic Sign-up Sheets |
| Rallly | Up to 3 polls open at once, unlimited participants |
| SimplyBook.me | 1 provider, 50 bookings a month |
| Setmore | Up to 4 users, unlimited appointments |
| Google Calendar | A single booking page with a personal Google Account |
Branding is the other common catch. Calendly, YouCanBookMe, Setmore and Koalendar list removing their branding as a paid feature.
Time zones and meeting times
A meeting across continents needs a time that falls inside everyone's working day. Before you send a poll, check the overlap of working hours with the meeting planner, and convert a single time with the time zone converter.
Our guide UTC and time zones explained covers offsets and daylight saving time.
Open source schedulers you can host
Several schedulers publish their code, so you can run them on your own server:
- Cal.diy: a self-hosted scheduler under the MIT license, with no hosted version. Its README says it is strictly recommended for personal, non-production use.
- Easy!Appointments: appointment booking that needs a web server with PHP and MySQL, free even for commercial use.
- Rallly: group polls under the AGPLv3, deployable with Docker.
- Crab Fit: availability polls, open source under the GNU GPLv3.
- Framadate: date polls run by the nonprofit Framasoft on free software under the GNU AGPL v3.
Hosting costs nothing in license fees, but you keep the server, updates and backups running yourself.
Free tools for planning meetings
- Meeting planner: working hours in several cities side by side.
- Time zone converter: one time in other cities, daylight saving time included.
- Meeting cost calculator: what a meeting costs from the people in it.
- Business days calculator: count working days to a deadline.
- QR code generator: put your booking link on a flyer or business card.
For the call itself, see free video conferencing tools. We opened each tool's official page on the date in the table and wrote down only what it says.
Frequently asked questions
Is Calendly free?
Calendly has a free plan its pricing page calls always free. It includes one event type and one calendar connection. Custom branding, automated reminders and video conferencing integrations are not included.
Which free scheduler allows unlimited event types?
Cal.com's free plan lists unlimited event types and calendars for 1 user. Koalendar's free plan lists unlimited event types for one-to-one meetings, and zcal's free plan includes unlimited links.
Can I make a booking page with Google Calendar for free?
Google's help page says you can create a single booking page with a personal Google Account. Some appointment schedule features need an eligible Google Workspace or Google One subscription, and you set the schedule up on a computer.
How do I find a time that suits a whole group?
Use a group poll. You suggest a few times and everyone marks when they can. Doodle's free plan includes one Group Poll, Rallly allows up to 3 open polls at once, and Crab Fit and Framadate are free open source options.
Which scheduling tools are best for a small service business?
Setmore's free plan allows up to 4 users and unlimited appointments. SimplyBook.me includes 1 provider and 50 bookings a month, and Zoho Bookings has a free plan for 1 user with two-way calendar sync.
How long do poll tools keep my polls?
Crab Fit deletes events after 3 months of inactivity. Framadate polls last 180 days by default, with two months to extend them before deletion. Rallly's free plan deletes inactive polls.