Facultory vs Doodle, for faculty
Doodle is the group-poll veteran — polished, familiar, free to start. The free tier’s catch is the ads shown around your polls, and the ad-free version is priced per user. Here is the honest comparison for academic work.
| Dimension | Doodle | Facultory |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes — with ads shown around your polls and sign-up sheets | No free tier — the desk is $6/month flat, and nobody ever sees an ad |
| Paid pricing | Pro about $6.95/month billed annually, about $14.95 month-to-month; Team about $8.95/user/month (doodle.com, July 2026) | $6/month or $60/year — one flat price, everything included |
| Group polls | Mature — deadlines and reminders on paid plans | When2meet-style paint grids; voting needs no account; finalizing sends the group one calendar invite |
| Booking pages | One on the free tier; unlimited on Pro | Included — on your university’s page or a /meet/you short link, with unlimited meeting types |
| Locations | Zoom, Teams, Webex integrations on paid plans | Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Google Meet — plus your office, a phone call, or any custom spot |
| Academic context | — | Advising bookings can log into your advisee tracker; senior-design presentation booking; prospective-student intake; department poll boards |
| Who pays | Per user on team plans | One professor, one flat fee — students never pay and never make accounts |
Where Doodle wins
Brand familiarity (“send me a Doodle” is a verb), enterprise admin and SSO, and a mobile app. If your whole organization standardizes on it, it’s a fine choice — and Doodle Pro billed annually lands in the same neighborhood as The Datebook ($60/year).
Why faculty pick the desk anyway
The difference is what the poll is attached to. In Doodle, a finalized poll is a calendar event. In Facultory, the poll lives beside your booking page, your advisees, your senior-design teams, and your public university page — the fee buys a desk, not a poll widget. And your students never scroll past an ad to tell you when they’re free.
Keep comparing
Competitor pricing and feature notes reflect the vendors’ public pages as of July 2026 and can change at any time — verify current details on their own sites. Calendly is a trademark of Calendly LLC; Doodle of Doodle AG; When2meet of its operator. Facultory is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, and the comparisons here are our good-faith reading, offered so you can make your own call. Facultory pricing shown is the live plan catalog at render time.