Powerful, yet simple!

Quickly deciding meeting times with groups of people - highly satisfied!

Pros

It can be extremely difficult to arrange/schedule meetings, appointments, and events when multiple people are involved. But the brilliant thing about Doodle is that it does the hard work for you! Here's what I love the best:
- In a matter of a few moments, you can create a poll of options or available meeting times. I can quickly send a link to teammates, who can quickly and easily access the poll and begin to select times that work. What's more is that they can also see other times that have been selected, so I feel like they are more willing to cooperate (if that makes sense).
- This removes text or email chains that go on, and on, and on without end... until we finally come to the conclusion that there's never a good time for everyone to meet up. (After wasting a day.)
- It's absolutely free. I can't believe it. I would think they could be making money with user fees off of this fantastic idea/platform, but no - it's free!
- It's quite simple and intuitive. There aren't a lot of bells and whistles, but that's great. There doesn't need to be advanced features.
- It's easy to use for the first time. It's not overly complex.
- You are notified when responses come in, and you ultimately get to control the meeting time.
- This is somewhat random, but you can be very specific with meeting points. Want to meet at 12:02? Perfect. Want a meeting to end at 9:07... Doodle will do that, too.
- Can link or access your Gmail contacts - fabulous feature!

Cons

There's really nothing to complain about in my opinion. It's a simple designed platform that accomplishes it's goal. Some potential updates to consider would be adding "most commonly used emails," though, that would be helpful. Another idea is build in some sort of Skype, Hangouts, or FaceTime feature if an individual is unable to attend at the appointed time. I realize that gets complicated, though, and is not Doodle's problem to solve!

Essential for choosing the best dates & times to meet as a group

I love Doodle. Choosing the best dates and times to meet has never been easier. Next time you need to schedule a meeting or a group dinner, Doodle it.

Pros

We've all been in a group text or email chain trying to figure out what date and times work best for everyone. It's impossible to keep track of who can meet when! That's where doodle comes in as your group's best option. Doodle allows you to create a poll with dates and/or times of your choosing. You then send that Doodle link via email or text message to your group of friends. They simply click the link, type in their name, and click on all the dates/times they can meet. Once everyone has voted, it is easy to see what dates/times work for the most amount of people.
The best thing about Doodle is that it is free for everyone. There's nothing to download. You simply click a link. After doing so, the instructions are crystal clear. There is basically no learning curve. And no one has to keep track of who said what date and what time because Doodle will present that information for you in a very simple way.
Also, you can choose whether everyone can see what dates others chose or not. You can even choose to limit the # of votes each person has if you wish to.

Cons

One of the cons is that if you want to put a deadline on your poll, you're going to have to pay for it by being a premium doodle user. This is not such a big deal because you can just tell your friends to vote by a certain date... but we all have those slackers in our groups who decide not to vote until it is already too late.
Another con is that Doodle's homepage has become increasingly cluttered as it attempts to add features to its premium users (for organizers and for businesses over 1,000 people). It's simple enough to filter through to create your poll though.

So much better than confusing and never ending e-mail chains

My Ph.D. dissertation meetings are required every 6-12 months and it is really hard to get my entire dissertation committee together on a whim. Since professors are extremely busy people and don't really have time for a bunch of e-mails, Doodle software makes my and their lives so much easier.

Pros

Have you ever tried to get a bunch of science professors to meet in the same room at the same time for a few hours? It's like herding cats, but luckily there is Doodle. The best part about Doodle is that I don't have to e-mail people back and forth to try to coordinate an event from multiple perspectives. Doodle eliminates ambiguity and allows everyone to see everyone else's exact availability for multiple weeks at a time which saves time and effort. It is so interesting to me that meetings can be scheduled really without any words from any of the participants, and I think that is beautiful. Bonus points for not having to try to sound really smart in multiple e-mails to people who are way smarter than you.

Cons

The calendar syncing function seems like it could be a really good idea, but I have had some trouble syncing up all of my calendars in the past and I usually can't see any of my events on there. I'm not quite sure what the function is supposed to do but there is no explanation and I felt like it was not super intuitive.

Scheduling Made Easier!

Doodle is one of those companies whose product has become a commonly used noun or verb (Google, Tupperware, Saran Wrap, etc.), because it's just that useful! Any attempt to schedule a group meeting or event always wraps up quickly with a plan that "We'll just send out a Doodle!"

Pros

Doodle is FANTASTIC for group scheduling. I have used the free version extensively for groups of various sizes and scheduling options of various numbers, and it beats any other form of group scheduling that I've tried (although I haven't used any other scheduling softwares, only emails/texts/unfortunately lengthy conversations). When creating a Doodle, there are many customizable options for date and time combinations, and it's easy to send a quick link to participants or send it directly from Doodle's site. There are options for polls to be visible to other participants or private; the visible option is great when we're trying to fill various volunteer shifts and want people to be able to see where we need the most support! When filling out a Doodle as a participant, it helps to be able to toggle back and forth between calendar and list views for schedules (although long lists still get a bit tedious to fill out if you are using a phone instead of a browser on your computer). It's also easy to go back to the link and edit your entry if your plans change.

Cons

If you have LOTS of scheduling options to consider, it can be difficult to add all of the entries when first creating the poll. There is a helpful "duplicate" option, but it doesn't work as well if you don't have the same times available each day.

Easy and Organized

Overall it is a simple tool that serves one purpose, to make it easier for everyone involved to find a convenient date for parties, meetings, appointments, trips etc. Instead of going back and forth in an endless email thread we simply need to simply fill the time that works for best for us. It saves time, it is less hassle and improves communication. Also great to sync schedules with people you do not see very often but need to work with.

Pros

I enjoy how easy it is to use the tool to collaborate with others in order to find their availability for example. We are a lot of young people in the company I work at and Doodle is always the first step when it comes to organizing events and out of the office parties. Considering we are all busy with friends, exams and nights out Doodle makes it super easy and fast to find out a time and day that best works for all of us. The tool is very user friends and simple, there is almost no way to get confused about what you need to do even if you are not tech savvy.

Cons

My main dislike is that there is no option to change the dates with text, it would be great if I can select if we want to vote for date or venue or activity. Also, it would be better if dates on the checklist were shown at once. Of course there is the expand button, but I think it should be expanded by default when there are lot of options to choose from. Would be nice if the calendar view is improved as well, similar UI to the monthly/weekly Google Calendar type of view would be a great improvement and will also make it easier to use, and it will make the tool look less messy and unorganized.

Happy When Colleagues use Doodle

Pros

Doodle is a great tool to easily evaluate availability and schedule meetings for large, busy groups. The ability to customize times and the intuition built into Doodle-if I schedule a request for three hours then three hours translates to every subsequent date I select, makes this a great tool. Each invitee can see the response of others which can lend to being more flexible in your choices, and enhances getting a group to consensus on a date and time to meet. You can be proficient at using Doodle in a matter or minutes, both as a user and as an administrator. I love this product so much that I use it in business and also in setting up family events. There are three plans available, and if you are a casual user the free version should serve you well.

Cons

Plans are priced well, and the ability to remove ads and enhance communication with the premier version is very nice. A con of the free version is the weird ads you see running in the back ground as you are using the tool. However, not bothersome enough to change my favorable opinion of this great scheduling tool.

Basic meeting scheduler for free

I would recommend Doodle to small business offices or student organizations. Especially if you are in a statewide organization.

Pros

Doodle is easy and quick to use. I have used many times in a statewide leadership organization where many of the members were spread across the state. I have also used it on a local level for the college student leadership organization I was with. I was able to choose the date and time slots after which I could send the information in a link to the people I invited to the meeting. From there the invitee was able to choose the time and date in which they could meet with me. Others who are sent the link can see the options and see the time and date that are in the majority. After the selections are made the schedule can be added to your calendar as a way a reminder of the event or meeting.

Cons

There isn't really anything that I like least about the software and have never came across any issues while using the software. The set up is easy to do and to share with those who need to respond. However I have always used Doodle for small groups, generally under 35 users. I am not sure how well it works with more people,

Doodle is the best way to arrange meetings!

Pros

Doodle recently received a new feature that allows users to not just select the hourly times that work in their schedule to meet, but they can also double click a time, which says that they could make it work in their schedule if they had to. I think this is great because before this feature, I would have a really hard time finding a time to hold meetings because my co-workers had very conflicting schedules and we would just create a group message trying to figure it out, which defeated the purpose of filling out a Doodle. I love that feature! I also love Doodle 1:1 where you can link your Google Calendar to a Doodle so you don't double book yourself.

Cons

The website isn't always the most user friendly, and I often find myself clicking around aimlessly just to open up a new Doodle invite. I also wish Doodle would offer features to college students for free or really really discounted because I was the president of many student organizations and used Doodle all the time and would have appreciated being able to send reminders from Doodle.

The software that makes life & scheduling easy!

Doodle is a game-changer. In our busy lives and days, Doodle allows for us to schedule accurately and fairly. It eliminates the guesswork and time it would otherwise take to determine times that work best for all. Best of all, it's accessible via the palm of our hands and takes seconds to create. I can't imagine my day-to-day without Doodle and where I'd be if it wasn't for this amazing solution-solving software.

Pros

The absolute best thing about using Doodle is that our entire organization and stakeholders love participating in it! We all use Doodle and most importantly, it makes our lives easy and guarantees buy-in and participation in order to pick the optimal meeting and scheduling times.

Cons

There is nothing to dislike about Doodle. It is easy, efficient, and well-like by all!

Oodles of Doodle

Pros

It's such a simple concept and interface, but the most useful and common sense product out there. At a time when everyone is busy with multiple projects in their lives, it's hard to keep track of everyone's conflicts and carve out a time where the majority of the people are available to meet. Back over 10 years ago I would have to email everyone to send me in their availability and I would have to Tetris everything. Now everything is so simplified with Doodle. You send a link with the available dates and times available and everyone can enter in all the times they are available. The program highlights the days/times that the most people can attend. It's so easy to see on one page without much effort.

Cons

I don't think there's anything I dislike about this except there was one incident when all the dates and times were wrong. We don't even know what happened but it somehow got changed to a different time zone so you do have to make sure that's set properly. Other than that I've never had any issues with this program.

Strongly recommend- it's free and more users, more functionality to come!

Pros

It's free!!! I probably use Doodle once a week. It's the easiest program I've found to quickly make and distribute scheduling polls to multiple people. The developers have done a great job at making the program very easy to use and with just the right functionality for what you're looking for. We've actually started using Doodle for shift schedules so that our part time staff can easily sign up for shifts. It has worked wonderfully so far, we are very pleased. They put out new functionality fairly frequently, which is nice.

Cons

Biggest issue I have with this program is that you can edit an entry once you submit it. This makes things challenging when schedules or thoughts change. Other than that, the features aren't the most robust, but for a free program, you can't complain.

Doodle

Pros

I have mainly used this for scheduling 1:1 sessions with students. Doodle has made that easy to do. I can provide multiple available times and send the link to my students and they can get in where they fit in. This takes the stress off of reaching and trying to schedule individual sessions with 15-17 students.
There is also a mobile app and that have provided some convenience.

I've also used the service when others are trying to plan meetings. I like ease of use of trying to find mutual available times for meetings. And it gives the option of allowing people to remain anonymous.

Cons

The functionality of this product can take some time to get comfortable with. I find that it takes me more time to put together my doodle than I anticipate, however, it's not something that has kept me from using it.

I can't do my job without Doodle

We have a very large campus with a so many different admins that handle calendars for their executives. Not everyone is on our campusAD yet and even with those that are, some choose not to share their calendars so people can see Free/Busy. This makes it easy for me to pull together dates/time and have one location where I can track responses for what works and what doesn't.

Pros

This software enables me to make it easy for admins and meeting attendees to mark out their availability for meetings or events without having to play that horrible email game. I use the free version so there is some functionality I can't speak to, but the free version is great.

Cons

Nothing - it's great. The new interface is a little wonky at times - you tab to get to a time, but then have to space again to enter the time if you're using just your keyboard.

Does one thing soooooo well

Pros

I have used Doodle for years and to their credit, they have kept to their mission, which is to do one thing, and keep it simple. They add features, make it prettier, enhance the user interface but with great care and attention to the core value of simplicity. I never worry that some impatient manager or tech-averse person will balk.

If you need schedule a meeting, this is THE way to do it, period. Also good if you need to quickly poll the team about a simple issue.

Cons

I suppose that for enterprise, might be a security worry, since people are reaching outside the firewall but even for that, you don't have to log in to use it. So, nope, cannot think of any reason to think about any other tool.