Grasshopper Signup alternative

A signup app for teams and ongoing projects

Zelos keeps the roster, the chat and the history between events, so you're not building a new form every time.

Grasshopper Signup logo

AI-built signup forms, time slots, and email reminders

Fits a one-off event and a link you share around.

Zelos logo

Open shifts, task dispatch, notice board, and team chat

Built for a team that comes back.

Start a free Zelos project

No credit card · Unlimited members on every plan · Set up in under 5 minutes

How signup works in each app


Grasshopper Signup

A form you share by link

Describe your event to the AI assistant, get a form with time slots, and send the link. People sign up with a name and an email.

Zelos

Open shifts as the whole product

Admins post shifts and tasks; team members browse and claim what fits their skills and schedule.

What Grasshopper Signup is better at

If your workflow depends on the things below, Grasshopper is the right pick.

Building a form in seconds

Describe what you need and the AI assistant lays out the slots for you. There's no project to configure and nothing to learn, and Zelos has no equivalent. It asks more of you upfront because it's holding more afterwards.

Nothing to join

Participants sign up with a name and an email, with no account and no app to download. For a one-off event that's about as frictionless as it gets, and it's the one thing Zelos deliberately trades away.

Payments, kiosk mode, and QR codes

Collect money through Stripe, PayPal, Venmo or Cash App, run a walk-up kiosk that resets after each entry, print forms, and generate QR codes. Zelos does none of this.

Syncing to Google and beyond

Real-time sync to Google Sheets and Google Calendar, plus webhooks to push responses anywhere. Zelos offers CSV export on every plan and an API only on Enterprise.

If these bullet points are non-negotiable, you're a Grasshopper user.

What Zelos is sharper at

If you coordinate the same people repeatedly, Zelos is a better fit.

Built for a team, not a form

Grasshopper starts blank every time; Zelos keeps the team. Members have profiles, skills, and task history, so the next shift goes to the right people without rebuilding the list from scratch.

Apps and push notifications

Zelos has native iOS and Android apps, and push notifications for new tasks, updates, and messages. Grasshopper runs in a mobile browser and reaches people by email, or by SMS on the Boost plan in the US only.

Chat that goes both ways

A form gives you no way to answer "can I swap Saturday?" without starting an email thread. Zelos gives each task its own chat channel, plus group chats and direct messages, so it happens in context.

See everyone on the free plan

Grasshopper's free plan collects unlimited responses but only lets you view thirty per form. Beyond that you need Premium to see who signed up. The Zelos free plan has no member limit and no viewing cap.

If you're drawn to this kind of simplicity, you should spin up a free project in Zelos right away.

30 → unlimited

visible signups, free plan

Grasshopper's free plan shows thirty responses per form. Zelos's free plan has no member limit.

What each one actually gives your team

Both start free, so the question is what each one gives you.

What you're checking Zelos Zelos Pro Grasshopper free* Grasshopper paid*
Price Free $99/mo Free $5–8/mo
Member accounts Unlimited Unlimited None, link only None, link only
Number of signups Unlimited Unlimited 30 per form Unlimited
Mobile apps iOS and Android iOS and Android Browser only Browser only
Communication Push and email Push and email Email Email and SMS
Team chat Yes Yes No No

* Grasshopper Signup pricing from grasshoppersignup.com/premium, August 2026. Premium is $5/month or $50/year and lifts the thirty-response viewing limit; Boost is $8/month or $80/year and adds contacts, SMS reminders, waitlist notifications and white-labelling. Organisation licensing is quoted separately.

If you're running one event, simple and frictionless wins. If you're running the same team every week, the account is the point. Nonprofits and education teams get additional discounts on Zelos Pro and Enterprise.

How Zelos works

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No credit card · Five-minute setup

Teams that pick Zelos over Grasshopper Signup

Volunteer-led nonprofits with ongoing programmes

A form works for the annual gala. It's heavier going when you post work every week and want to know who turned up last month. Zelos keeps volunteer profiles, skills, and task history between events, so you're not starting from a blank form each time.

Learn more →

Churches running weekly rotas

Sunday service, coffee, kids' ministry, and the food bank all repeat. A coordinator posts the week's slots once and the congregation claims what suits them, from their phones. Unlimited admins means every ministry lead gets access without an upgrade.

Learn more →

Youth sports clubs and leagues

Match-day volunteers, kit runs, and canteen shifts across a whole season. Parents get push notifications rather than another email, and points and leaderboards keep older juniors involved.

Learn more →

Event staffing and on-demand crews

Paid crews and contractors need targeted dispatch and a chat channel per shift, not a public form anyone with the link can open and read.

Learn more →

Contractor pools and gig dispatch

Contractors set their own availability and aren't volunteers at all. Post the job, let the right people claim it, coordinate in the task chat.

Learn more →

Disaster response and mutual aid

When a response scales to thousands in days, a single form stops working. Zelos handles smart targeting by skill and location, with chat attached to each task.

Learn more →

From teams who picked Zelos

What teams who picked Zelos say

Capterra

"It helped us a lot reducing the planning overhead. It is way more motivating for staff to pick their task than just getting assigned!"

Manuel W.

Coordinator, Events Services

Full review →
Capterra

"We were looking for a system to handle our concert staff. Zelos is really easy to access both for the administrator and the users!"

Niels Peter H.

Board member, Music

Full review →
Capterra

"The overall experience has been great, the customer service is amazing and I can't wait for all the new changes coming up in the app!"

Celia D.

Coordinator, Motion Pictures and Film

Full review →

Free for teams of any size

No credit card, no trial expiration.

Pro starts at $99/month, never per person.

Nonprofit and education discounts on Pro and Enterprise.

Frequently asked questions

Isn't Grasshopper Signup much cheaper than Zelos?
Yes, and it's worth saying plainly. Grasshopper Premium is $5/month and Boost is $8/month, against $99/month for Zelos Pro. They're not really competing on the same thing: Grasshopper prices a form builder, Zelos prices a coordination platform with member accounts, chat, and apps. If a form is what you need, Grasshopper is better value and you should use it.
Is Zelos free like Grasshopper?
Yes, and permanently: the Zelos free plan isn't a trial. It includes unlimited members, unlimited admins, self-signup, built-in messaging, push notifications, gamification, and CSV export, with no credit card. The caps are 25 concurrent active tasks, a 100-task archive, and 10,000 chat messages.
What is Grasshopper's thirty-response limit?
On the free plan, forms keep collecting responses indefinitely but you can only view thirty per form on the site. Premium at $5/month unlocks viewing and exporting all of them. Nothing is lost either way: it's a viewing limit, not a collection limit. Zelos has no equivalent cap on members or signups.
Do people need an account to use Zelos?
Yes, and it's the main trade-off. Grasshopper participants just open a link and type a name and email. Zelos members join your workspace by invite and use the app or browser. The account is what makes profiles, skills targeting, chat, push notifications, and history possible across repeated events.
Does Zelos have a mobile app?
Yes, native apps on iOS and Android, free for everyone, plus a browser app for admins. Grasshopper is mobile-friendly web with no app to download, which is a deliberate design choice on their side rather than a gap.
Can my volunteers chat in Zelos?
Yes. Built-in two-way messaging is on every plan including free: task channels, group chats, direct messages, and push notifications, all with admin oversight by design. Grasshopper communicates outward with confirmations, reminders by email, and SMS on Boost in the US only.
Can Zelos collect payments?
No. Grasshopper takes payments through Stripe, PayPal, Venmo and Cash App directly on a form, which Zelos has no equivalent for. If your signups need to take money at the same time, use Grasshopper or a dedicated payment tool alongside Zelos.
Does Zelos sync to Google Sheets or Google Calendar?
No. Grasshopper syncs responses to Google Sheets and Google Calendar in real time and offers webhooks. Zelos exports tasks and member data to CSV on every plan, with a REST API and webhooks on Enterprise only.
Can Zelos target tasks to specific people?
Yes: by skill, location, or group, so people only see work they're eligible for. On a shared form everyone sees everything, which is fine for a potluck and awkward for anything requiring a qualification or a background check.
Is Grasshopper Signup better than Zelos?
For a single event with a link, often yes. It builds a form in seconds, costs almost nothing, and nobody has to sign up for anything. Zelos is the better fit when the same people come back, when you want coordination on phones with push, or when you need chat, targeting, and a record of who did what.
Can I use both Zelos and Grasshopper Signup?
Yes. Some coordinators keep Grasshopper for public one-off forms, potlucks, and anything that needs to take payment, and run their regular volunteer team in Zelos. The two barely overlap once you see it that way.

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