COMPARISON
ATOMIC BOOKING vs
DOODLE.
Doodle is the original group meeting poll tool, and it's still the best at that one job. They've since added 1:1 booking features, but the product is built around polling consensus rather than direct booking. We're a direct-booking tool first, with no polling. Different jobs.
Their entry price
£6.95/mo
Pro tier
Our entry price
£5/mo
Photon · €6/mo
Difference
28%
cheaper
EVERYTHING SIDE BY SIDE
WHAT WE HAVE. WHAT THEY HAVE.
| ATOMIC BOOKING Photon · £5/mo | DOODLE Pro tier | |
|---|---|---|
| CORE | ||
| Monthly entry price (paid tier) | £5 / €6 | £6.95/mo |
| Free tier | Yes — Particle, 1 event type | Yes — limited |
| Lifetime payment option | £129 — Quantum (£99 first 500) | – |
| Unlimited event types on paid tier | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited bookings | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom branding on booking page | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom domain (your-brand.com/book) | Add-on £2/mo | – |
| EU/UK SOVEREIGNTY | ||
| Hosting region | Hetzner — Frankfurt + Helsinki | AWS — Switzerland + US |
| Customer data never leaves the EU/UK | ✓ | Switzerland (not EU) |
| Operating company jurisdiction | United Kingdom | Switzerland |
| GDPR-native (not retrofit) | ✓ | Swiss FADP, GDPR compliant |
| Subject to US CLOUD Act / FISA 702 | – | – |
| PAYMENTS | ||
| Subscription billing | GoCardless — SEPA + Bacs DD | Stripe |
| Customer paid bookings | Mollie — EU rails | Limited |
| iDEAL / Bancontact / SEPA support | ✓ | – |
| Wero (EPI European wallet) support | ✓ | – |
| Transaction fee (paid tiers) | 0% (Photon and above) | N/A — focused on polling |
| Pricing currency | GBP and EUR | EUR + USD + GBP |
| SCHEDULING | ||
| Round-robin team scheduling | Electron tier | ✓ |
| Collective availability | Electron tier | ✓ |
| Workflows & automated reminders | Photon and above | ✓ |
| API + webhooks | Photon and above | Team tier |
| Group meeting polls | – | Best-in-class |
| Calendar overlay UX | Coming Q1 2027 | – |
| INTEGRATIONS | ||
| Google Calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zoom / Google Meet / Teams | ✓ | ✓ |
| Salesforce | Coming Q4 2026 | – |
| WhatsApp Business booking flow | Add-on £3/mo | – |
| AI Receptionist (voice bookings) | Add-on £9/mo | – |
| TRANSPARENCY | ||
| Open source code | AGPL — public on GitHub | – |
| No-show insurance | Add-on £1/booking | – |
| Calendly migration tool | Free first 60 days | – |
| Charity / non-profit discount | 50% off Photon and Electron | – |
| Student / educator discount | Photon free with .ac.uk / .edu | – |
THE STRUCTURAL ARGUMENT
WHY THE PRICE DIFFERENCE EXISTS.
Doodle's £6.95 pricing is competitive but their direct-booking experience is bolted onto a polling product. Hosting in Switzerland is genuinely a privacy plus — they're not subject to the US CLOUD Act either. The trade-off is a less mature direct-booking flow and limited paid-booking support.
| Payment method | Fee on £100 | Net to merchant |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe (most US schedulers) | £3.10 | £96.90 |
| Mollie iDEAL / Bancontact | £0.29 | £99.71 |
| Wero (via Mollie) | £0.25–0.40 | £99.65+ |
| SEPA Direct Debit (GoCardless) | 1% capped at £4 | £99.00 |
That ~3% gap on every paid booking is the structural saving we pass on. Software margin doesn't depend on cutting features — it depends on cutting card-processor rent.
HONEST TAKE
When Doodle is the better choice.
We're not the right answer for everyone. Doodle is the better choice if:
- →Group polling is your primary use case — they own that category
- →You coordinate large meetings with 5+ external attendees
- →You don't need paid bookings or transaction processing
- →You need polling and direct booking in one tool
For everyone else — solo professionals, EU/UK teams, agencies, and anyone who's quietly uncomfortable with American SaaS — keep reading.
COMING Q3 2026
Get early access.
Drop your email — we'll let you know the day Photon goes live, and you'll get founder pricing on Quantum (£99 vs £129 lifetime).
We'll email you when Photon goes live. We don't spam, sell your address, or use trackers. Your email is stored on a Hetzner server in Frankfurt and you can ask us to delete it any time.
OTHER COMPARISONS