Doodle vs. Zoho Bookings: Which is Right for Your Business?

In online scheduling, Doodle and Zoho Bookings emerge as leading contenders, each offering unique solutions to streamline meeting coordination.

What is Doodle?

Founded in 2007 in Zürich, Switzerland, Doodle is a premier global scheduling platform that simplifies finding the best times for meetings of any size and purpose across various time zones. Renowned for its Group Polls feature, Doodle allows users to vote on their preferred meeting times, significantly reducing the hassle of coordinating schedules between many. 

Catering to 30 million users worldwide, Doodle serves a diverse clientele, ranging from individual professionals and freelancers to large teams. Despite its widespread growth, Doodle has remained committed to simplicity, offering customization options for branding and integration in its paid plans, ensuring users can tailor the tool to their needs.

What is Zoho Bookings?

Zoho Bookings is part of the extensive Zoho ecosystem, designed for businesses seeking an all-in-one scheduling solution. It offers flexibility in booking appointments, managing online meetings, and integrating with other Zoho applications, aiming to provide a comprehensive scheduling tool for businesses of all sizes. 

Zoho Bookings focuses on automating appointment scheduling processes, reducing administrative work, and ensuring a smooth experience for the service provider and the customer.

Key comparison factors

Doodle and Zoho Bookings cater to the scheduling needs of today’s businesses, but key differences highlight their unique strengths:

User experience

Doodle prioritizes a straightforward and intuitive user interface, making it easy for anyone to start scheduling and automating meetings without a steep learning curve. 

Zoho Bookings offers a more feature-rich environment that may require some initial familiarization, especially for users seeking to exploit its full integration capabilities with the Zoho suite.

Advanced scheduling features

Doodle’s standout features include automatic reminders to keep all participants informed, privacy options such as hiding participant lists for group polls, and the ability to manage unlimited bookings. These features and its robust integrations with leading video conferencing tools provide a comprehensive and efficient scheduling solution.

Zoho Bookings features include automated appointment reminders, real-time calendar syncing across multiple platforms, and customizable booking pages that enable efficient and streamlined scheduling experiences. 

Integrations

The seamless integration of Doodle with popular calendars and video conferencing tools enhances its utility in facilitating virtual meetings, offering a streamlined scheduling-to-meeting process that is invaluable in today's hybrid work culture. Some of Doodle's integrated partners include Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx, and Microsoft 365.

Zoho Bookings also integrates with popular calendars and allows custom workflow execution functions. They also offer an API to integrate one’s scheduling directly into your product. Zoho Bookings also includes a CRM integration with their other app, Zoho CRM.

Pricing

Doodle offers a transparent and competitive pricing structure, starting with a free version for basic scheduling needs and scaling to premium plans that unlock advanced features. 

Doodle’s approach to pricing is designed to provide value at every level, from its free tier suitable for basic scheduling to its affordably priced premium plans that offer enhanced features like custom branding, advanced integrations, and now, critical scheduling functionalities such as automatic reminders, participant privacy, and unlimited bookings. Doodle premium plans start at $14.95 per month or $6.95 per month billed annually.

Zoho Bookings also offers flexible pricing options, increasing its value proposition for businesses that can leverage its integration within the Zoho ecosystem.

Although Zoho Bookings does not offer a free version, it follows a similar model with pricing tiers designed to cater to different business sizes and needs, including deeper integration for Zoho suite users. Zoho Basic starts at $8.00 per month or $6.00 per month billed annually.

Which tool is right for you?

Choosing the right scheduling tool between Doodle and Zoho Bookings depends on your specific needs, the complexity of your scheduling tasks, and your existing software ecosystem. 

For businesses already embedded in the Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Bookings offers deep integration capabilities that may provide added value. Ultimately, both tools aim to streamline the scheduling process. 

However, Doodle's focus on simplicity, efficiency, and seamless integration with key digital tools positions it as a top contender for professionals and businesses looking to optimize their time management practices.

Doodle’s ease of use, powerful features like automatic reminders, privacy controls, unlimited bookings, and extensive video conferencing integrations, make it a compelling choice for those seeking a straightforward yet comprehensive scheduling solution.