SignUpGenius is the default for school volunteers, potlucks and team snacks, and its free plan is real: unlimited sign-ups, time slots with limits, automatic reminders, and nobody needs an account to sign up. The two things people look past it for are the ads, which participants see on free sign-ups, and the custom questions, which need a paid plan. SignUpGenius facts below come from its pricing page and help center, read on 2 November 2026.
What does SignUpGenius free include, and what does it leave out?
- Free: unlimited sign-ups with no time limit and no card; time slots with a number wanted per slot; automatic confirmations and reminders on sign-ups with dates; participants sign up with a name and email, no account.
- Ads: SignUpGenius' FAQ says ads can show to people signing up on a free account's sign-ups; removing them takes an Ad-Free license, which comes with paid plans.
- Paid only: custom questions (2 on Silver, 5 on Gold, 10 on Platinum), custom reminders, attachments and more than one admin.
- Paid plans: Silver $11.99 a month or $8.99 a month billed yearly, with ads removed on one sign-up; Gold and Platinum remove them on 10 and on all.
- Privacy: by default participants see others' names and public comments, not emails, phones or answers to custom questions.
SignUpGenius alternatives, ranked
Hostus is first because it is the option we recommend when you want the sheet to look like yours, ask your own questions and show no ads. The rest follow with the case where each is the right pick.
1. Hostus. A host for pages your AI made, where the sign-up is a plain form and the page shows the list back. Describe the sheet to Claude or ChatGPT (or use Create with AI in Hostus), upload the HTML, switch it to Public and share the link. People sign up with no account and no app, on any phone. Mark the fields that should show on the page, such as a name and a slot, and the page reads them back with hostus.data to show who took what and how many spots are left; everything else, like phone numbers and emails, stays with you. Every sign-up lands in an inbox in your Hostus dashboard and in your email, with CSV export. No ads, for you or for them. Free: 20 pages, 100 sign-ups a month across your pages (over the limit they are held, not lost). Paid: $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
Two live examples: a potluck sign-up and a volunteer shift sheet with limits per shift.
2. Stay on SignUpGenius free. Pick it if you need automatic reminders before the day and the ads do not bother your group.
3. Google Sheets or Forms. Pick it for a quick internal list where everyone already has Google and design does not matter.
4. Doodle sign-up sheets. Pick it if your group already schedules with Doodle; check its free plan, which shows ads too.
How do the options compare?
| Option | Ads for participants | Your own questions | Spots per slot | Reminders to participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | No | Yes, any field, free | Yes, the page counts and closes full slots | No, you send them |
| SignUpGenius free | Yes | Paid plans | Yes | Yes, automatic |
| Google Forms | No | Yes | No, not built in | No |
| Doodle free | Yes | Yes | Paid plan, for polls | Paid plan |
How do you make the sheet with one prompt?
Make a sign-up sheet as one self-contained HTML file, mobile first. Event: [what, when, where]. Slots: [name and number of people for each]. A form with name (shown on the page), slot (shown on the page), phone and a note (both private). Use a plain <form name="signup" method="post"> with no action, and mark name and slot with data-publico. Show the list under each slot by reading hostus.data form:signup, with how many spots are left, and disable a full slot in the dropdown. Draw names with textContent only.
Upload it, switch it to Public, set the data mode so readers can only read, and send the link. Sign up once yourself from a private window to see it work; your own sign-ups while logged in count as tests.
Good to know before you switch
Hostus does not send emails or texts to the people who sign up: no confirmations from Hostus to them, no reminders before the day. You get each sign-up by email and send reminders yourself. The free plan's 100 responses a month count across all your pages, so a big event can outgrow it. Spots per slot are counted by the page, so two people signing up in the same second can both get the last spot. A page takes up to 100 responses an hour. There is no custom domain (pages live at a hostus.page subdomain), every page carries a small Hostus badge, a short "Form by Hostus" line appears under the success message, and pages are noindex. The list on the page shows up to 200 sign-ups.