People keep asking us "so it's like Doodle?" The honest answer is: both products collect availability, but they are optimised for different jobs. This comparison is written by Frae's founder, who obviously has a horse in the race, so every changeable competitor claim links to that product's own documentation.
Last verified against official product pages on 8 August 2026. Pricing and features change; follow the source links before making a purchase decision.
What friend groups actually need
Scheduling tools were mostly built for meetings. Friend plans have different constraints:
- Guests won't sign up for anything. Your colleagues will create an account to attend your workshop. Your university friends will not create an account to come to dinner.
- Day-level is enough. Meetings need 2:30pm vs 3:00pm. Dinners need "Saturday or Sunday?". Time-slot grids are overkill and make responding slower.
- The organiser is a volunteer. Nobody is paid to chase responses. The tool has to make chasing unnecessary or automatic.
- It happens on phones. Most responses come from a link tapped in WhatsApp on a phone screen, not from a laptop.
With that lens, here's how the options stack up.
Doodle
Doodle's official participant guide says guests can vote on proposed dates and times without an account, provide a name and email, and receive the final choice automatically. Its current plan comparison says calendar connections are available on the free plan, while no-ads, automatic reminders and more than ten Group Poll time slots require Professional.
Use it when: you need precise times, calendar or conferencing integrations, or a mature work-meeting workflow. For a social poll, check whether its free-plan limits and advertising matter to your group.
When2meet
When2meet's current interface starts with a grid of dates, days and times. That direct grid is useful when the real question is not only which day but which hour. It leaves more interpretation to the organiser than Frae's ranked day list.
Use it when: the group wants a dense time grid and is comfortable reading the overlap together. Open the current site on the devices your guests will use before committing to it.
Rallly
Rallly's official documentation describes date-and-time scheduling polls for personal or team use. Its participant flow uses yes, if-need-be and no responses, followed by a name and optional email for a magic edit link. The current pricing page says most features are free, with paid features and longer poll retention in Pro.
Use it when: you want a conventional web scheduling poll with nuanced responses and date/time options. Compare its retention and paid features with how often your group will return to old polls.
Group chat + Google Calendar
Worth naming because it's what most people actually do. The group chat collects opinions, someone makes a calendar invite, half the group never interacts with it. We wrote a whole post on why this takes 73 messages. The short version: conversation threads are the wrong data structure for "who's free when".
Frae
Here's our pitch, with the caveats attached. Frae only does day-level social scheduling. A host creates an event with a date range, shares one link, friends tap the days they can make - no account, no install, about ten seconds on a phone - and the app ranks dates by confirmed availability. The host taps the winner and everyone gets told. Hosts get real iPhone/Android apps with push notifications; guests never need anything but the link.
What Frae deliberately does not do: time-slot booking, meeting rooms, video-call links or agendas. Its optional mobile calendar check only highlights busy days on the device; it does not turn Frae into a work-calendar booking system. If your use case needs those features, Doodle or Rallly is likely the better fit.
Use it when: a friend group needs one date that works for everyone, and you want the asking, counting and announcing handled for you.
The comparison in one table
| Tool | Input shape | Guest account | Result style | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doodle | Dates and times | Not required to vote | Organiser books an option | Meetings and integrations |
| When2meet | Date/time grid | Check current flow | Shared overlap grid | Dense hourly availability |
| Rallly | Dates and times | Participant submits details | Host selects an option | Flexible web polls |
| Frae | Day-level date range | Not required to respond | Ranked dates; host chooses | Social plans on phones |
The honest summary: choose Doodle for meeting infrastructure, When2meet for a direct time grid, Rallly for a flexible web poll, and Frae when a friend group needs to pick a day with minimal guest friction. The best alternative is the one your participants will actually complete.