Who can when?
one question, asked once

Date poll - find a day everyone can make

Stop asking eleven people the same question eleven times.

Free, and nobody needs an account.
  • Free, no paid tier
  • No account, either side
  • Answer from the email

Dad's 70th

  • Sat 14 Mar 612
  • Sat 21 Mar leading 810
  • Sun 22 Mar 432

9 of 9 answered

In short

A date poll is a short list of candidate dates that everyone marks yes, maybe or no against, so the organiser can see which date the most people can make rather than piecing it together from replies.

Who can when? makes one in about a minute. It is free, nobody needs an account to create a date poll or to answer one, and a calendar invitation goes out to everyone automatically once you pick the winner.

How to create a date poll

Four steps, and the longest of them is deciding which dates to offer.

  1. Name the thing, not the poll. "Dad's 70th" gets answered. "Availability" gets ignored.
  2. Pick the dates. Tap them on a calendar, up to 20 of them. Add times if the day is not the whole question.
  3. Share the link, or type in email addresses and let us send it. Group chat works just as well.
  4. Pick the winner when the grid has filled in, and everyone gets a calendar invitation.

Yes, maybe and no

Most date polls only let people say yes. That collapses two different answers into one and leaves you guessing which is which: the person who is free, and the person who could rearrange something if it turned out to matter.

Three options keep them apart. Each date carries its own count of yes, maybe and no, and the leader is marked, so a date with nine yeses beats one with nine maybes without you having to work it out. Maybe can be switched off in one tap when you need a firm headcount instead.

What makes a date poll actually get answered

  • No sign-up wall. The people you invited never hit one, which is where most replies go missing.
  • Answering from the email. The buttons are in the invitation, so a reply costs one tap and no browser tab.
  • Three to six dates, spread over at least two weeks. Twenty is the ceiling, not the target - a long list reads as work.
  • A deadline you say out loud. Two or three days is right for most groups.
  • Comments, for the inevitable "the 12th works but only after seven".

When a date poll is the wrong tool

When the date is already decided, send a calendar invitation instead - a poll that has one plausible answer just delays it. When the group is two people, ask them. And when the meeting recurs every week, use a poll to find the slot once and then leave it fixed.

A date poll earns its place at about four people and up, when the replies stop fitting in your head.

Common questions

How do I create a date poll?

Give it a name, tap the dates you are offering, and share the link you get back. It takes about a minute, and there is no account to make first.

Is it free?

Yes, completely. There is no paid tier, no trial that expires and no feature held back for one.

Do the people I invite need an account?

No. They open the link and mark each date, or answer straight from the invitation email without opening the site at all.

How many dates and people can one poll hold?

Up to 20 dates and 50 people. Offering three to six dates gets you more answers than offering twenty.

Can I add a date after I have sent the link?

Yes. New dates appear for everyone, and the people who have already answered get one message telling them there is something new to mark.

What happens to the poll afterwards?

It is deleted 90 days after the last activity on it, and it was never indexed by a search engine or shown to anyone without the link.

Ready when you are

Stop asking eleven people the same question eleven times.

Free, and nobody needs an account.

The basics

What a date poll is, and how to run one that people actually answer.

Related

  • A free Doodle alternative A free alternative for scheduling a group. Propose dates, share one link, everyone marks yes, maybe or no. No account for you, none for them, and no paid tier.
  • Birthday party date poll The actual birthday is a Tuesday. Propose the two or three weekends around it, share one link, and see which one most people can make.
  • Scheduling a team dinner Organising the team dinner? Propose a few evenings, send one link, and see who can make which. Free, no account, and the calendar invitation sends itself.

Read next

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We would like to use Google Analytics to see which pages people use. It is switched off until you say yes, and whocanwhen works exactly the same either way. We never send your date poll links, names or email addresses. More in the privacy notice.