Doodle has been the go-to scheduling tool for years. But some things appear to have changed recently and many people are wondering what’s up.
It used to be that you could use Doodle pretty extensively for free. There were some upgraded features that you could pay extra for, but it was still pretty usable without paying for a subscription.
A few years ago, they added more advertisements to the page and it got considerably harder to use. This seemed to coincide with a rebrand around 2022 (which Doodle’s own history page describes as introducing a “more mature tone”) and a shift to pushing their pro features harder.
More recently, there was another rebrand on March 20, 2026. Just prior to that, the number of time slots you could have on a free-tier event went from 20 down to 10. Shortly after, the yearly price went from $83.40 per year to $132.00 per year (with the monthly price right around $15.00 per month). And somewhere along the line, the number of free group polls you can create became limited to just one.
Their rebranded website describes Doodle as the “New Operating System of Time.” It appears they are moving further away from supporting individuals and pushing more for enterprise adoption. Their own history page says as much: it describes how Doodle “built on its professional focus” and strengthened its “position as the professional scheduling platform of choice.”
Add it all up, and Doodle now has:
- Fewer time slots per poll (10, down from 20)
- Fewer free group polls (just one)
- A more expensive subscription ($132 per year, up from $83.40)
- A more business-focused direction
- Ads hanging over the free tier (“no ads” is the top perk they sell you)
To their credit, they appear to be experimenting recently with dialing back the ad clutter. But you still hit the paywall early and hard. Here’s what you see when you try to add an 11th time slot to a free poll:
I don’t fault Doodle for this. They’re trying to run a profitable business. The free-to-use, ad-supported product probably worked well for them for years. Over the years, they appear to have grown and shifted into a business model of targeting enterprise customers.
The problem is that regular people are left without many good options for coordinating events.
The options break down into a few different categories.
“Free” tools crippled by ads. This is how Doodle operated for many years. It helps pay to keep the app running, but it makes the experience painful for you and your guests.
Subscription-based tools. There are a few options out there for this (ClearDate even offers a subscription option for power users who want unlimited events). The problem is that, for most people, a group scheduling tool is not something they’re going to use often enough to justify an expensive monthly or yearly subscription.
Free tools. There are many of these out there, and some of them look genuinely slick. The catch with “completely free” is that running and improving a real service costs real money, and sooner or later that bill comes due. It tends to end one of three ways: the tool freezes where it stands (When2meet still works, but it’s rough and has gone essentially unchanged for years), the tool quietly disappears when its creator moves on to other things, or the tool gets popular enough that the costs push it into ads and paywalls - which is the road Doodle itself went down.
ClearDate took another approach and offers an easy, affordable, pay-as-you-go option where, after 3 (full-featured) free events, you can simply buy credits to schedule more events. Think of it like putting a postage stamp on your invitations or buying songs on a jukebox. This helps pay for the expense of running and improving the app while still being affordable and keeping the experience ad-free.
For better or worse, Doodle is no longer really an option for someone who doesn’t want to pay $15 a month or $132 a year just to find a good time to get a group of people together.
If that’s what brought you here, you can get started for free - your first three events are included, no subscription and no ads. Or see how ClearDate compares to Doodle in more detail first.
The Doodle figures above come from Doodle’s own pricing page and help center, checked August 2, 2026, with archived snapshots linked where they exist.