A free SignUpGenius alternative for potlucks, and who should stay

Stay if your sign-up needs something Junto does not have. SignUpGenius says organizers can lock slots, set participant limits and add start and stop times, that automatic waitlists fill open slots when someone cancels, that confirmation and reminder emails go out automatically, and that you can collect money for specific items.

Junto's potluck page has none of that. It has no time slots, no waitlist, no automatic reminders and no payments. If your sign-up is a volunteer schedule with shifts, a class with spots, or a fundraiser, SignUpGenius is the better tool and this page is not for you.

We could not find recurring sign-ups mentioned on any SignUpGenius page we read, so we make no claim about them. Junto does not have recurring sign-ups either.

Yes, to start. SignUpGenius says it is free to start with no credit card required, and that the free plan is not a trial and has no expiry. The free plan includes automated reminders, real-time slot tracking and design themes, with no limit on how many sign ups you create.

The cost is on the guest side and in the paid features. SignUpGenius says ads may be visible to people signing up through a free account, and that paid plans remove them. Payment collection and custom questions start on the Starter plan, and payments carry a processing fee of 5% plus $0.50 per transaction.

We could not read the paid plans' dollar prices on SignUpGenius' pages, so none are listed here.

There are three reasons that follow from the facts above, and only you know if they apply. The first is ads: if you want a guest page with none, SignUpGenius says that is a paid upgrade. The second is size: a potluck is one evening, and a tool built for slots, shifts and payments has more on the screen than a list of dishes needs.

The third is quantities. A potluck item is often a count, such as 5 wine bottles shared by several people. Junto is built around that: each person picks how many they take, the page shows who has what, and a full item closes. SignUpGenius describes participant limits and slots, and we did not verify a quantity count in the same sense.

The table lists only what each site's own page states. A cell that says "not stated" means the page does not say, not that the product lacks it.

Reminders are the main loss. On SignUpGenius they go out on their own. With Junto you message the group yourself a day or two before, which is fine for a dozen friends and a chore for a hundred coworkers.

You also lose payment collection, time slots and waitlists. A guest on Junto can email themselves a one-time list of what they took, but that is not a reminder the organizer sends.

There is also no import. Moving a potluck means creating the page again, which takes a few minutes for a normal list.

Guests still need no account, on both sites. What changes is the page they see: Junto's potluck page is free, shows no ads, and asks only for a name. The organizer enters a name and email to receive a guest link and an admin link, and creates no password.

You also get quantities that share across people, an optional note or link on an item (free text, for things like "Gluten free"), and the option to let guests add their own items.

Junto's potluck page at tryjunto.app/potluck is a free sign-up list where guests tap an item and type a name.

Two others we could read. SignMeUp, at mysignmeup.com, says its sign up sheets are ad free, that participants need no account, and that its free plan gives up to 3 active sheets, 10 slots per sheet and a day-before email reminder. Its Pro plan is $9 a month or $90 a year. Its pricing page lists 25 sign-ups a month on Free in one place and 100 in another, so check the current number. For a 40-person potluck that cap matters.

SignUp.com, a separate site from SignUpGenius, says participants need no passwords. Its free Basic plan has 1 group page and 1 custom participant question, and it lists payment collection on all plans. Text reminders are on paid plans, from $8.34 a month billed as 99.99 annually.

Both beat Junto on reminders. Grasshopper SignUp is another option people mention. We could not read its pages when we checked, so we make no claims about it.

Copy your item names into a new list, add a number to each one, put the date in the event name, and share the new guest link. Then tell the group the old link is closed.

If guests have already claimed items on SignUpGenius, list those items again with their names in the note, or finish that sheet and use Junto for the next event. Do not run both at once, because two live lists is the failure a single list exists to prevent.

No. They are separate sites at signup.com and signupgenius.com, with their own plans and prices. People type "signup vs signupgenius" because the names are close.

The table above shows both. If you were told to "use SignUp", check which one before you send a link.

Match the tool to the one feature you cannot do without.

Junto's potluck page has no automatic reminders, no payments, no time-slot grid, no waitlist, no printable sheet or PDF or Excel download, no QR code, no RSVP, no recurring sign-ups and no structured dietary field. Guests cannot edit their own sign-up afterwards.

The organizer can edit details, change quantities, and remove items or sign-ups from the admin link.