Rallly — Open Source Meeting Scheduling & Polling Tool

What it is

Rallly is an open-source alternative to Doodle for scheduling group meetings. It lets you create availability polls, share them with participants, and find the best meeting time. Participants do not need to create accounts to vote.

Rallly targets teams, communities, and event organizers who need simple group scheduling without the bloat and ads of commercial tools. It can be self-hosted for full data ownership or used via the hosted version.

The project is actively maintained and suitable for both individual developers and teams looking to integrate it into their existing toolchain. Documentation and community support are available for onboarding.

How it saves time or tokens

Rallly eliminates the back-and-forth email chains for finding meeting times. Create a poll with proposed dates, share the link, and participants mark their availability. The visual grid shows which times work for the most people. No account creation, no app installation, no friction.

For teams evaluating multiple tools in the same category, the clear documentation and active community reduce the time spent on research and troubleshooting. Getting started takes minutes rather than hours of configuration.

How to use

1. Go to rallly.co or deploy your own instance using Docker.
2. Create a new poll with a title, description, and proposed dates/times.
3. Share the poll link with participants via email, Slack, or any messaging tool.
4. Participants mark their availability (yes, if-need-be, no). The best time is highlighted automatically.

Example

# Self-host Rallly with Docker Compose
git clone https://github.com/lukevella/rallly.git
cd rallly

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env: set DATABASE_URL, SECRET_PASSWORD, NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL

# Start the application
docker compose up -d

# Access at http://localhost:3000
# Create your first poll and share the link

Related on TokRepo

• AI Tools for Task Management — Scheduling and productivity tools for teams.
• AI Tools for Self-Hosted — Self-hosted alternatives to commercial SaaS tools.

Common pitfalls

• Creating polls with too many date options. More than 10-15 options overwhelm participants and reduce response rates. Narrow down to the most likely candidates first.
• Not setting a deadline for responses. Without a deadline, polls stay open indefinitely and decisions stall. Set a clear response date in the poll description.
• Forgetting to configure email notifications in self-hosted setups. Without SMTP configuration, participants do not receive poll invitations or update notifications.
• Not reading the changelog before upgrading. Breaking changes between versions can cause unexpected failures in production. Pin your version and review release notes.