Rallly alternative

The short version. Rallly is the closest tool to VennMeet in this comparison: open source, no account needed to create or vote, automatic time zone conversion, and the same three-way answer of yes, if need be, or no. The difference is where the free tier stops. On Rallly, finalising the date is a Pro feature and free polls are kept for 30 days. VennMeet includes confirming the time and keeps meetings for 60 days after the last proposed window, at no cost. If you want self-hosting or calendar integrations, Rallly is the better tool.

Why people look for a Rallly alternative

Rallly is well built, so the reasons are mostly about the line between free and Pro.

Finalising is paid. Collecting votes is free. Turning the winning option into a decided meeting inside the tool is listed under Pro, at $4.67 per seat per month billed yearly. For a personal or one-off meeting, paying a per-seat subscription to press the last button is a hard sell, so most free users end up announcing the result somewhere else anyway.

Free polls expire after 30 days. Retention on the free tier is 30 days, with indefinite retention on Pro. If you're scheduling something two months out, or you want to look back at what was agreed, the poll may not be there.

It is a poll, not a picture of the group. Rallly shows options down one axis and people across it, with a tick, a question mark or a cross in each cell. That's clear for a handful of options, and it's a table of votes rather than a view of the day, so it's harder to see that Tuesday 9am is late evening for one person and early morning for another.

Self-hosting is real work. Rallly is open source and self-hostable, which is a genuine strength, but running it means a database, a mail server for notifications, and keeping it patched. That's fine for a homelab and a poor fit for one meeting.

Where each one fits

Answering. This is the closest match of any tool here. Rallly offers yes, if need be, and no on each proposed option, and VennMeet offers works and if needed inside proposed windows, ranking clean yeses above anything needing an if-needed. Both understand that availability isn't binary, which is the main thing most tools in this category get wrong. VennMeet's difference is granularity: you answer across a window in half hours rather than voting on discrete pre-set options, so one answer covers a range instead of needing an option per candidate time.

Time zones. Both convert automatically, and each participant sees times in their own zone without doing arithmetic. VennMeet additionally labels each person's row with their city and clock, so the organiser sees everyone's local time at once rather than only their own view. Rallly's is per-viewer.

Deciding. Rallly picks the winner visually and, on Pro, lets you finalise it and notify participants. VennMeet ranks the candidates, flags the worst local hour in each so you can see who is absorbing the cost, and lets you confirm one for free, which produces an .ics file and a Google Calendar link.

Accounts. Neither requires one. Rallly lets you create and vote without signing up, and offers an optional free account to manage polls across devices and get notifications. VennMeet has no accounts at all, which means no notifications either: you check back or send the link again. Rallly's optional account is a genuine advantage if you want to be told when someone responds.

Integrations and self-hosting. Rallly wins both. It is open source on GitHub, self-hostable, and Pro adds team collaboration, custom branding and advanced poll settings. VennMeet has no integrations, no team features and no self-hosting.

Side by side

Pricing

Rallly's free tier is real and useful: unlimited polls, unlimited participants, no account needed. The two limits worth knowing before you start are that finalising the date sits in Pro, and free polls are kept 30 days.

Pro is $4.67 per seat per month billed yearly, which is reasonable for a team that schedules constantly and wants branding, indefinite retention and collaboration. It is poor value for someone organising one meeting, since the per-seat model prices a tool you use occasionally like one you use daily.

VennMeet is free with no tier above it. Confirming the time is included because a scheduling tool that can't end in a decision has not finished the job.

Who should choose Rallly

Choose Rallly if you want to self-host. It is the only tool in this comparison besides Crab Fit that you can run yourself, and if the data has to stay on your infrastructure that settles it.

Choose it if you want notifications. Being told when someone responds, rather than checking back, is genuinely useful for a poll running over several days, and VennMeet has nothing equivalent.

Choose Pro if you're a team scheduling regularly. Custom branding, indefinite retention, team collaboration and advanced settings are worth paying for at that volume, and none of them are on VennMeet's roadmap.

Who should choose VennMeet

Choose VennMeet if you want the decision included. Ranking, confirming and a calendar file are free here, and finalising is the part Rallly charges for.

Choose it when the group is spread across many zones and someone will end up with a bad hour. Both tools collect an if-needed answer, and VennMeet is the one that shows you the local time cost per person and ranks accordingly, which is the information you need to spread the pain fairly.

Choose it for a one-off with people outside your organisation. No accounts for anyone, one link, and the meeting deletes itself 60 days after the last window.

Switching from Rallly

If you've been using Rallly without an account, there's nothing to move: create a VennMeet link and send it instead.

If you have a Rallly account with saved polls, note that they aren't exportable into VennMeet and there's no import path. Copy across any dates you still need before a free poll ages past its 30 days.

The model shift is small but worth flagging to your group. Rallly asks people to vote on discrete options you defined; VennMeet asks them to mark what suits inside windows you painted. People used to ticking five rows will see a window and a half-hour grid instead, which is quicker once they have done it once. If you were paying for Pro purely to finalise dates, that's the subscription this replaces.

FAQ

Is Rallly free?

There's a real free tier with unlimited polls and participants and no account required. Finalising a date and keeping polls beyond 30 days are Pro features, at $4.67 per seat per month billed yearly.

Does Rallly support "if need be" answers?

Yes. Rallly offers yes, if need be, and no on each option, the same three-way model VennMeet uses. It is one of the few tools that does.

What does VennMeet do that Rallly doesn't?

Confirming the meeting is free rather than a Pro feature, times are ranked with the worst local hour flagged per person, and meetings are kept 60 days rather than 30 on the free tier.

What does Rallly do that VennMeet doesn't?

Self-hosting, optional accounts with response notifications, and paid team features like custom branding and collaboration. Rallly is open source; VennMeet isn't.

Can I self-host VennMeet?

No. If self-hosting is what you're after, Rallly and Crab Fit are both open source and designed for it.