Doodle vs When2Meet vs WhenIsGood: Which Should You Use? (2026)
Three tools, one job: find a time that works for everyone. They’ve been doing it differently for over a decade, and the differences matter depending on your situation.
Here’s an honest comparison — no padding.
At a Glance
| Doodle | When2Meet | WhenIsGood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | Voting on proposed slots | Drag-select availability grid | Drag-select availability grid |
| Account required | Yes (to create) | No | No |
| Mobile | Web only (apps pulled 2025) | Mobile web only | Mobile web only |
| Ads | Yes (free tier) | Yes | No |
| Timezone handling | Yes | Yes (per viewer) | Limited |
| Calendar integration | Yes (paid) | No | No |
| Price | Free (1 poll, 10 slots) / $11+/user/mo | Free | Free |
When2Meet
The original. When2Meet has been around since the mid-2000s and the UI has barely changed. You create an event, share the link, and everyone drags across the times they’re available in 15-minute blocks. The grid auto-saves as you paint, and a heat map (darker green = more people free) shows where availability overlaps.
Why it works: Zero friction. No account required to create or respond, no feature limits, no upsell. It renders the grid in each viewer’s own timezone, so a cross-timezone group doesn’t have to do mental math. The interface is self-explanatory even to people who’ve never seen it.
Why it frustrates: The UI looks like 2008 and there’s no native app — on mobile, the drag-to-select gesture is regularly misread as a scroll. It doesn’t connect to your calendar, send reminders, or email confirmations, so you have to babysit the link yourself. You can’t edit an event after creating it (you rebuild from scratch), and unless each person sets an optional password, anyone with the link can overwrite anyone else’s availability.
Best for: Quick, no-stakes polls among people you know who’ll fill it out on a desktop.
Doodle
More polished, more complicated. Doodle’s model is different from When2Meet — instead of a grid, you propose specific time slots and participants vote yes, no, or if-need-be on each one.
Why it works: Better for situations where you already have a few candidate times and just need to confirm which one works. The voting model (yes/no/if-need-be) gives more nuance than a simple availability grid. It integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud so you can see your own schedule while voting.
Why it frustrates: The free tier is heavily boxed in — one active poll at a time, a 10-slot cap, a single connected calendar, and ads shown to you and your participants. Doodle also pulled its iOS and Android apps in mid-2025, so it’s web-only now. Calendar sync beyond one calendar, deadlines, reminders, and removing ads all require a paid plan that runs $11–$15/user/month.
Best for: Professional contexts where you have specific candidate times and want to confirm the best one, especially when some participants need to log in via calendar.
WhenIsGood
The no-tracking alternative. WhenIsGood works like When2Meet — drag-select grid, see where availability overlaps — but with a strict no-tracking policy. No cookies, no analytics, no ads.
Why it works: Fast, clean, private. The page loads instantly and collects nothing beyond the availability data you provide. Good for situations where participants are privacy-conscious or on restricted corporate networks.
Why it frustrates: Same mobile problem as When2Meet — the drag interface was built for desktop. The UI is dated. No timezone support. Less well-known, so some participants may be confused by the interface.
Best for: Privacy-conscious groups or corporate environments where data tracking is a concern.
Head-to-Head: The Real Differences
If you have specific times to propose
Use Doodle. Its voting model (not a grid) is built for this. Propose 5 slots, everyone votes, you pick the winner.
If you need quick availability across a wide range
Use When2Meet or WhenIsGood. The drag-select grid over a full week is much better for “let’s find any time that works” situations.
If your group spans multiple timezones
Use When2Meet. It’s the strongest of the three here — it renders the grid in each viewer’s local timezone automatically, so nobody does the “9am my time, 2pm yours” math. WhenIsGood is weaker on this, and Doodle only surfaces your own calendar timezone once you’ve connected a (paid) calendar. Carly’s group scheduling goes a step further by auto-filling busy times from connected calendars, so the grid reflects real availability rather than what people remember.
If some participants won’t click a link
That’s a real problem with all three tools — they require everyone to visit a URL and interact with an interface. Carly’s group scheduling lets participants respond over email instead — useful for the people who won’t bother with a link.
If privacy matters
Use WhenIsGood. It’s the only one with an explicit no-tracking policy.
What All Three Get Wrong
All three tools solve the “collect availability” problem, but none of them close the loop automatically. After you find the winning time, you still have to:
- Manually identify the best slot
- Send a separate calendar invite to everyone
- Hope they all accept
That’s 2–3 more steps after the poll closes. For a single meeting, fine. For teams that coordinate this way regularly, it adds up.
Carly’s group scheduling handles the full cycle: shared availability grid → ranked overlaps → calendar invite sent. No account required to participate, works on mobile, and lets participants auto-fill from their connected calendar rather than selecting from memory.
Verdict
| Situation | Best tool |
|---|---|
| Quick availability poll | When2Meet |
| Cross-timezone group | When2Meet |
| Specific candidate times | Doodle (free) |
| Privacy-conscious group | WhenIsGood |
| Calendar auto-fill + invite | Carly |
| Corporate/paid use case | Doodle Pro |
For most people most of the time, When2Meet is still the fastest zero-friction option, and it quietly handles timezones better than people expect. Doodle is better when you’re the one proposing a short list of times — just know the free tier is now one poll, ten slots, and ads. WhenIsGood is When2Meet for people who care about tracking. None of the three has a real mobile app.
More on group scheduling: 20 best group scheduling tools · Doodle alternatives · When2Meet alternatives
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