Constantly emailing back and forth and toggling between different apps and screens just to get appointments and meetings scheduled is a huge drain on productivity.
Luckily, there are tons of scheduling automation apps and booking plugins you can use to streamline these processes and take back control of your time, Doodle being one of them.
In this article, we’ll give you a brief overview of Doodle, as well as provide reviews of five of the top Doodle alternatives you might prefer, depending on what your unique needs and goals are.
What Is Doodle?
Doodle is a scheduling app that offers free and paid versions to help you eliminate the manual work when it comes to booking appointments and meetings.
The main feature of Doodle (and apps like Doodle) is a custom booking page that allows you to set your availability for one-on-one and group meetings and appointments.
You can then share this booking page, allowing customers, clients, and/or co-workers to select an open time on your calendar and automatically book you for that time.
Doodle also allows you to suggest your preferred meeting times for one-on-one meetings and send group meeting polls to make finding the best time for group meetings less complicated.
Doodle can be used both for internal scheduling, within various types of enterprise teams, as well as for external scheduling with prospects or clients.
A few examples of use cases for Doodle include:
- Recruiting
- Sales
- Freelancing and consulting
- Company meetings
- Classes
Doodle offers a free version with limited features and integrations, and pricing for the Pro version starts at $6.95/user/month.
5 Best Doodle Competitors
We reviewed these top alternatives to Doodle:
- Webba Booking – most flexible booking plugin for WordPress site users.
- Calendly – best meeting scheduling app for enterprise business users.
- Acuity Scheduling – best service scheduling add-on for Squarespace sites.
- Engageware – hybrid appointment scheduling software optimized for enterprises.
- YouCanBook.me – simple scheduling tool for different types of professional teams.
Webba Booking
Webba Booking is made by service providers (SaaS) for service providers — specifically those who use WordPress to host their business sites.
If you run any type of service-based business, we highly recommend using Webba Booking to quickly and easily schedule service appointments with your clients right on your WordPress site.
Webba Booking is ideal for:
- Consulting, counseling, and coaching businesses
- Dental and medical clinics
- Rental businesses
- Restaurant reservations
- Spas, salons, and other beauty and wellness businesses
- Yoga, personal training, and other fitness businesses
Being made specifically for WordPress, it’s incredibly easy to integrate the Webba Booking plugin into any existing WordPress business site.
And, with 80+ appearance customization options (including pre-made templates), it’s easy to make your Webba Booking plugin fit with the theme of your site.
If you require customers to make partial or full payments when they book appointments with you, don’t worry — Webba Booking allows you to accept various methods of payment via integrations with PayPal, Stripe, and WooCommerce.
Additionally, in case you offer online services, such as home-based classes, consulting, counseling, or other virtual services, Webba Booking also integrates seamlessly with Zoom.
There is a free, lite version of Webba Booking available, and pricing for the Premium version starts at $15/month, $89/year, or $259 for a lifetime subscription.
Webba Booking Pros:
- Built for service-based WordPress business sites
- Highly customizable and flexible
- Integrations with top payment platforms
- Zoom integration for virtual services
- Automated notifications and reminders
Webba Booking Cons:
- Only works for WordPress sites
- Mainly designed for professional service bookings (rather than internal scheduling)
Who It’s For:
Service-based business owners who host their business sites on WordPress and may want to accept payments at the time of booking.
Calendly
Calendly is one of the oldest scheduling automation apps and one of the most popular alternatives to Doodle.
Like Doodle, Calendly is particularly geared towards corporate users, and can be very helpful for automating internal meeting scheduling. Part of the reason for this is that Calendly also has group meeting polls, making it one of the only Doodle poll alternatives out there.
Some examples of Calendly use cases are:
- Sales and marketing
- Customer success and support
- Recruiting
- Revenue operations
- Information technology
Calendly has a range of features that can help enterprise teams implement it as part of their various workflows and operations. For example, the platform offers routing forms that make it easy to build Calendly into your sales funnels.
Pricing for Calendly starts at $8/user/month, and there is an always-free version available as well.
Calendly Pros:
- Tons of integrations
- Free doodle poll alternative
- Custom workflows and routing forms
Calendly Cons:
- Can quickly get expensive for large teams
- Not optimized for service providers
Who It’s For:
Enterprise teams looking for a paid or free meeting scheduler like Doodle that offers useful features for different corporate use cases.
Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is an all-in-one appointment management plugin for sites built on Squarespace.
Since it’s built by Squarespace for service providers who have Squarespace business sites, Acuity Scheduling fits right in with the sleek, minimalistic design of Squarespace sites. There are lots of pre-made templates to choose from to make the add-on fit right in on your site.
Examples of business services that Acuity Scheduling can work as Doodle alternative for are:
- Workshops
- Private lessons or sessions
- Subscription-based businesses
Acuity Scheduling lets you offer different types of appointments as well as accept payments for bookings. Besides payment integrations, there are also integrations with a few other third-party platforms, including Zapier and Google analytics.
Pricing for Acuity Scheduling starts at $16/month. There’s no free version, but there is a seven-day free trial available.
Acuity Scheduling Pros:
- Integrates seamlessly with Squarespace sites
- Clean, minimal design
- Integrations with payment platforms and other tools
Acuity Scheduling Cons:
- Only works for Squarespace sites
- Only intended for service providers
Who It’s For:
Squarespace users who run different types of service-based businesses.
Engageware
Like Calendly, Engageware is another scheduling app that’s primarily built for corporate businesses, with a focus on banks, credit unions, and other finance-related businesses.
One of the most unique features of Engageware that sets it apart from other Doodle alternatives is its queue management system. This feature helps enterprise businesses with brick-and-mortar locations manage on-site appointment traffic.
Engageware can work for:
- Financial service businesses, including banks and credit unions
- Retail businesses that offer personalized service
- Software and tech companies
- Health and wellness businesses
- Education providers
Engageware’s appointment scheduling technology also offers reporting and analytics tools and integrates with Salesforce CRM, making it a good tool for optimizing sales operations and improving the customer experience for certain types of businesses.
Engageware’s website does not provide pricing info for their appointment scheduling software — it seems like you have to book a sales reach-out to find out.
Engageware Pros:
- Has features built for businesses with brick-and-mortar locations
- Integrates with Salesforce
- Designed to improve the customer experience for virtual and in-person appointments
Engageware Cons:
- Not really intended for small businesses
- Not designed for individual service providers
Who It’s For:
Corporate businesses, especially financial service companies, that offer both virtual and in-person appointments, especially across multiple brick-and-mortar locations.
YouCanBook.me
Like other alternatives to Doodle we reviewed, YouCanBook.me (YCBM) is targeted at professional teams looking to automate their internal meeting scheduling.
YCBM allows you to pool your whole team’s availability into a single booking page, as well as create personal booking pages for each individual team member.
Types of teams that can benefit from using YCBM include:
- Customer success and onboarding
- Sales
- User experience
- Recruitment
YouCanBook.me can also be used for scheduling external appointments, such as sales calls with prospects or interviews with job candidates.
YCBM has integrations with a number of third-party tools, such as Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams, as well as Stripe and Zapier.
Pricing for YouCanBook.me starts at $10/calendar/month, and there’s also an always-free version that provides the basic scheduling features and functionality.
YouCanBook.me Pros:
- Offers individual and group booking pages
- Very simple solution for automating internal team meeting scheduling
- Can work for prospecting and interviewing
YouCanBook.me Cons:
- Not designed for service-based businesses
- Limited integrations and features
Who It’s For:
Professional teams looking for a solution to all the back-and-forth it normally takes to schedule meetings.
Wrapping Up
No matter what type of business you’re in, appointments and meetings are an important part of doing business.
But appointments and meetings take up enough time on their own, without factoring in all the time you waste scheduling and rescheduling them.
That’s why it’s important to find the right appointment booking automation app for you and your professional needs.
Whether you run a service-based business or manage a corporate team, Doodle or one of the Doodle alternatives we reviewed might be just what you’re looking for to take back control of your time.
Naturally, we’re still partial to Webba Booking, and we highly recommend trying Webba Booking to any service providers who want the most powerful, flexible booking plugin for their business sites built on WordPress.
