OpenSlot vs Doodle
Doodle group polls versus OpenSlot's computed availability lists: an honest comparison for scheduling across organizations.
The short answer
Choose Doodle
Choose Doodle when participants span organizations and calendar systems you can't read, or for big social-group coordination.
Choose OpenSlot
Choose OpenSlot when the people are in Microsoft 365 (yours or readable via shared free/busy) and you want the answer without a voting round.
On this page
Doodle is the veteran of group scheduling polls: propose slots, share a link, collect votes. OpenSlot removes the poll — it reads Outlook calendars and tells you when people are free, as a list you paste anywhere. The tools overlap least where it matters most: whether your participants' calendars are readable, and whether you can afford a voting round.
A comparison page is not worth reading if it cannot say what the other tool is genuinely better at, so both sides get stated plainly.
Where Doodle shines
- Works with participants on ANY calendar system — or none. Voting needs no calendar access at all.
- Large-group coordination (20+ people picking an evening for the club) where computing overlap is impossible anyway.
- Familiar: most people have answered a Doodle poll before.
- Surfaces preference, not just availability — a poll asks whether someone wants 4 PM on Friday, which a free/busy lookup can never tell you.
Where OpenSlot takes a different approach
- Zero rounds: when everyone's on Microsoft 365, the overlap is computable — polling people about information their calendars already contain wastes days.
- No participant effort: nobody clicks a link or votes; the sender offers times that already work.
- Inside Outlook: list built and inserted in the compose window, not on a separate site.
- Private by default: no public poll page listing names and votes.
Side by side
| Dimension | Doodle | OpenSlot |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanism | Poll with votes | Computed free/busy overlap |
| Participant effort | Everyone votes | None |
| Calendar requirement | None | Microsoft 365 free/busy |
| Best group size | Large, cross-org groups | 1–15 colleagues and clients |
| Where it lives | Web + apps | Web + Outlook compose pane |
| Privacy | Shared poll page | List only in your email |
Common questions
What if some participants aren't on Microsoft 365?
OpenSlot can only read free/busy for people whose calendars Microsoft 365 shares with you, which normally means people in your own organization. Anyone else is flagged rather than silently skipped. For mixed groups, send the times when your side is free and let the others reply, or use a poll that needs no calendar access.
How many people can OpenSlot compare at once?
The Pro plan merges availability for up to 40 people in one lookup, looking up to 60 days ahead. The Free plan covers you plus one other person over a 7-day window.
Is there a public page with everyone's names and answers?
No. OpenSlot produces a list of times for you to send; it does not publish a page, and the list does not name anyone or show their meetings.
When is a Doodle poll still the better choice?
When most participants are outside your organization, use other calendar systems, or have no calendar at all, such as a club, a volunteer group or a large community event. In those cases there is nothing to compute, so collecting votes is the right tool.
How many round-trips does a poll actually cost?
Five steps, of which at least two wait on other people: build the poll, send it, wait for votes, chase whoever has not voted, then book the winner. Sending a computed list is three steps and waits on one reply, which is why it tends to finish the same day rather than the same week.
Can I still choose which times to offer?
Yes, and you should. A computed list shows every slot that works; sending all of them makes the reader do the comparing. Offer three to six spread across at least two days, sized to the meeting, and hold the rest back so a second round is another offer rather than an apology.
OpenSlot
Try the list approach
Every new OpenSlot account starts with 14 days of Pro — no card, and nothing for the person you are scheduling with to install, visit or sign up for.
Try OpenSlot freeSign in with Microsoft, pick people, paste the times.