Calendly and Doodle are two apps that you can use to streamline your scheduling of meetings and other appointments. But, when it comes down to Doodle vs Calendly, how do you know which one is better for your needs?
While they are very similar in many senses, there are some key differences that may make one or the other the best choice for the type of scheduling you need a solution for.
We reviewed Doodle and Calendly in the following categories to compare them and help make your decision easier: features, ease of use, integrations, customer service, and pricing.
Doodle vs Calendly: What Are They For?
Doodle and Calendly serve essentially the same purpose: they make it fast and easy to schedule appointments by sharing your availability with others and automatically updating your calendar when someone selects a time to meet with you.
In a broad sense, both these apps are designed to help eliminate back and forth when trying to find a meeting time that works for everyone, whether it’s for one-on-one or group meetings.
Doodle vs Calendly: Overview
Overview of Doodle
Doodle is a scheduling app that allows you to share your calendar with anyone using a link to your Doodle booking page. The receiver can then select an available meeting time that works for them, and Doodle updates your calendar with the meeting.
Notable features of Doodle include the ability to suggest preferred times from those available for one-on-one meetings, and the group polls tool that allows multiple people to vote on the best time for a group meeting.
Pros of Doodle:
- Can sync with multiple existing calendars
- Good for one-on-one or group scheduling
- Automated meeting reminders
- Ability to update guests from Doodle dashboard
Cons of Doodle:
- Cannot embed your Doodle booking page in a website
- A bit too simple for some business needs
- Free tool is only for group polling
Overview of Calendly
Calendly is a scheduling app built for businesses. Like Doodle, Calendly syncs with your existing calendars and gives you a unique link to share with people that lets them book an available time to meet.
In addition to sharing your calendar via a link, you can embed a Calendly booking calendar on your website to allow visitors to schedule appointments right from your page.
Pros of Calendly:
- Can embed Calendly on your website
- Works for scheduling group or individual meetings
- Syncs with multiple calendars
- Automated reminders
Cons of Calendly:
- Group scheduling can be a bit difficult to understand
- Free version does not allow group events
Features
Doodle features
The main features of Doodle are your custom booking page, a link for one-on-one scheduling, and group polls for scheduling meetings.
You can set different preferences and rules to edit your booking page and you can sync it with multiple calendars to provide the most accurate availability possible.
The group polls feature of Doodle is what really stands out about the app, as it provides a very visual depiction of the best meeting time that changes depending on responses to the poll.
Calendly features
Calendly’s primary features also include a custom booking calendar that you can sync to multiple calendars, a unique link that you can share with anyone you want to book a meeting with, and polls/group events for group scheduling.
You can also embed your booking calendar on a website, which means you can use Calendly as a booking plugin for WordPress.
Doodle vs Calendly winner in features: Calendly
Since Calendly and Doodle both offer the same core features and can both be used for booking either individual or group meetings, Calendly wins in this category because of the fact that it can be embedded on a website. With Doodle, you’re limited to sharing a link to schedule meetings.
Ease of use
Doodle ease of use
Doodle is very easy to start using, and you don’t even need to sign up to create a group poll. The Doodle website offers a standalone tool for creating one-off group polls.
Calendly ease of use
Calendly is also easy to set up, use, and manage. Essentially, once you sign up and sync your calendars, it’s ready to go. You just have to keep your calendars and meeting preferences updated to ensure you’re sharing the correct availability.
Doodle vs Calendly winner in ease of use: Tie
We can’t call a winner in this category as each tool is very straightforward and easy to use.
Integrations
Doodle integrations
Doodle currently has 8 integrations highlighted on their website, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and Google Meet, to name a few.
Calendly integrations
Calendly has 99 integrations listed on their website at the time of writing this article. Popular integrations include team communication apps like Zoom and Slack, as well as other business-centric tools, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier.
Doodle vs Calendly winner in integrations: Calendly
Calendly is the clear winner in this category because of its sheer number of native integrations. While Doodle shares a few of the same integrations as Calendly, Calendly just has so many more useful ones, especially when it comes to business applications.
Customer Service
Doodle customer service
The Doodle website’s contact page has a searchable help and learning center, as well as an option to submit a customer support request.
Based on other reviews of Doodle, people have had generally positive experiences with the customer service.
Calendly customer service
For customer service, Calendly provides an online help center, video tutorials, and email support.
While we haven’t personally dealt with Calendly’s customer service, it’s worth noting that others online have reported it can be a bit difficult to deal with.
Doodle vs Calendly winner in customer service: Doodle
Doodle and Calendly are both so easy to use that we haven’t had to deal with either company’s customer service personally. However, since we have to choose a winner between Calendly vs Doodle, we’re going to give this one to Doodle.
The reasoning behind this is that it’s much easier to submit a customer support request via Doodle’s website, while the customer support email for Calendly is tucked away on the terms of use page.
Pricing
Doodle pricing
The free version of Doodle is really only a free group polls tool on the website. However, there is a free 14-day trial available for the premium versions of Doodle.
Doodle’s pricing for the pro plan starts at $6/month for a single user. The team plan for up to five users costs $8.95/user/month. There are also enterprise plans available for larger teams.
Calendly pricing
The basic version of Calendly is always free, but only allows you to schedule one-on-one meetings (you can still create group polls, just not group events).
For the essentials plan with access to more features, Calendly costs $8/user/month. The professional and team plans cost $12/user/month and $16/user/month, respectively, and there are enterprise packages available, too.
Doodle vs Calendly winner in pricing: Calendly
Calendly wins in the pricing category because it has a free version that offers more than just group polls and because it has many more pricing tiers than Doodle.
These different pricing tiers are geared towards teams of different sizes with different business and scheduling needs, making Calendly a more scalable business-oriented solution.
Doodle vs Calendly: Which One Should You Choose?
When should I choose Doodle?
We think Doodle is best for casual group scheduling because of its group polls feature that makes finding mutual availability easy.
You may also consider it as an alternative to Calendly for one-on-one scheduling if you don’t need a scheduling app for heavy business use.
When should I choose Calendly?
For one-on-one scheduling, you really can’t go wrong with Calendly. Also, if you plan on using your scheduling app for business, Calendly is definitely more geared towards enterprises.
Additionally, if you want a calendar plugin for WordPress, you should definitely choose Calendly over Doodle, as you can embed your booking calendar right on your site.
Lastly, the vast number of integrations that Calendly has are another reason to choose it for professional use, as it’s compatible with many other tools that you may already use (or start using down the road).
Final Thoughts
Choosing the winner of Doodle vs Calendly is hard because they are such similar tools with many of the same core features and functions.
That being said, we think that Calendly is the better option overall, especially for businesses.
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