The best potluck sign-up tools, compared by what each one does

We used five criteria and one rule. The criteria: whether a guest needs an account, whether the guest page shows ads, whether an item can have a quantity, whether the tool sends reminders, and whether it can collect payment.

Design and ease are partly taste, so we measure them by what can be checked: the number of steps a guest takes, the ads on the page and the account they need. We do not call any page beautiful.

The rule is that a cell says "not verified" when we could not read it on the vendor's own page. Review sites such as Capterra and GetApp are not sources, because their figures conflict. Vendors change plans and prices often, so each cell is true on the check date and nothing more.

There is no single winner. Here is the honest pick for each situation.

The table shows only what the vendor's own page states. Anything else says "not verified".

SignUpGenius is the most complete option here. It says its free plan is not a trial, has no expiry and no credit card, and allows unlimited sign ups with automated reminders, real-time slot tracking and design themes. Participants do not need an account.

The cost is on the guest side. SignUpGenius says ads "may be visible to people signing up through a free account sign up", and that upgrading removes them. Ad-free pages, payment collection and custom questions start at its Starter plan. Payments run through Stripe with a fee of 5% plus $0.50 per transaction.

We make Junto, so weigh this section accordingly. The potluck page is free, has no ads, and asks guests only for a name. The organizer enters an event name, items with a quantity, their name and their email, and gets a guest link and an admin link. They create no password or account.

Quantities are the main feature. Several people can share one item, each picks how many they take, the page shows who has what, and an item closes when it is full. The organizer can let guests add items, edit details, change quantities, and remove items or sign-ups. Items can carry an optional note or link, such as "Gluten free" or a recipe URL. It is free text, not a dietary form. After taking an item, a guest can email themselves one copy of what they took, but the page sends no automatic reminders.

SignMeUp, at mysignmeup.com, says its sign up sheets are ad free, that participants need no account and no app ("They open the link and tap a slot"), and that organizers can manage sheets from an iOS app. Its free plan allows up to 3 active sheets, 10 slots per sheet and a day-before email reminder. Waitlists auto-promote the next person when someone drops out.

The free plan has caps. Its pricing table says 25 sign-ups a month and its FAQ says 100, so check the current number if your potluck is large. Pro is $9 a month or $90 a year and adds more reminders, CSV and PDF export, custom branding and unlimited slots and sign-ups. SignMeUp beats Junto on reminders and waitlists.

Perfect Potluck is built for group meals. Its homepage says it is "Fast, Easy, and FREE", that it sends the invitations, and that it sends automated reminder emails. Coordinators find a sheet by last name and a password.

We could not verify from its page whether guests need an account, whether it shows ads, or how it handles quantities, so we make no claim about them.

Most of these tools are websites, not downloads, which is the point for guests. The best app for potluck organizing is the one your guests can open from a text without installing anything, so test the guest page on a phone first.

On what we could verify, SignMeUp has an iOS app for organizers while participants need none, and SignUpGenius and SignUp.com say participants need no account. Junto's potluck page is a web page with no app at all. If you want the best free option with reminders, that is SignMeUp or SignUpGenius. If you want the plainest free list with quantities that close, that is Junto.

A Google Sheet works for a small group of people who already use one. It is free, flexible and familiar.

It has no quantity lock. Two people can claim the same row, and anyone with edit access can change any cell. Our Google Sheets guide has the layout and the failure modes.

Both are general form builders, not sign-up lists. Google's help page says limiting a form to one response per person requires respondents to sign in to a Google Account. Jotform's free Starter plan allows 5 active forms and 100 monthly submissions and adds Jotform branding.

We did not verify a potluck-specific template or a quantity lock for either, so we do not recommend them for this job unless you already use them.

Open the guest page as a guest would, on a phone, before you send the link. That takes two minutes and tells you more than any table.

The Junto potluck page has no reminders, no payment collection, no printable sheet, no RSVP on the page, no date or time field and no recurring sign-ups. It has no structured dietary field; the optional note is free text.

If you need any of these, pick another tool from this page. Junto is not a replacement for SignUpGenius when reminders or payments matter.

We tried to read Grasshopper SignUp, a tool people ask about, but every one of its pages (including grasshoppersignup.com/potluck-signup and /signupgenius-alternatives) returned an error on the check date, so it is not verified and we make no claims about it. We could not read Common Ninja or SharedTask either. Partiful describes itself on its homepage as free online invitations with RSVP tracking that guests can open without an app. We found no potluck sign-up list described there, so we did not compare it.

We will add a tool when we can verify its facts on its own page. If a vendor spots a mistake here, the date at the top tells you when we last checked.