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Approval

Everyone checks every option they'd be happy with. The option with the broadest approval wins, no strategy required.

  • Free
  • No account
  • Share link

Add at least two. Paste a list to fill several at once.

Everyone with the link builds the list together, then you start voting when it's ready.

Settings

Voters see a live countdown. When it hits zero, voting closes on its own.

Shows who voted. Choices stay private.

Anyone with the link can add an option to the list.

How it works

  1. Add your options and share one link with the group.

  2. Each voter checks every option they'd genuinely accept, not just their single favorite.

  3. The option checked by the most voters wins, with the full approval count shown once you reveal results.

What is approval voting?

Approval voting asks a simple question for every option: would you accept this, yes or no. There's no ranking and no single pick, just a checkbox per option. A voter can approve one option or all of them, whichever matches how they actually feel.

Because there's nothing to strategize, approval voting avoids the vote-splitting problem that can trip up a plain pick-one poll, where two similar options can divide their supporters and let a less popular choice win. If a voter likes three of the five options roughly equally, they approve all three, and their opinion still counts toward whichever of those three ends up winning.

The result is the option with the broadest support across the whole group, not necessarily anyone's single favorite. That makes approval voting a good fit for consensus decisions, where the goal is an option almost nobody objects to rather than the option a slim majority loves most.

Related ways to decide

Ranked choiceRank the options, watch the runoffScore itRate 0 to 5 starsThis or thatRapid-fire either-or

Best for

Consensus picks

Find the option the fewest people object to, which matters more than finding anyone's single favorite.

Book club and group reading picks

Let everyone approve every title they'd actually read, so the winner is a book most of the group is genuinely fine with.

Long option lists

Skip the strategy problem that comes with a big list of similar options and a single pick-one vote.

When to use something else

Approval voting is the simplest way to find a consensus pick because there's no ranking to think through. When voters have a real order of preference and you want that order to matter, ranked choice fits better. For rating options with more nuance than a checkbox, score uses STAR voting to add a scale from 0 to 5. For a fast, game-like pick between just two options at a time, this or that is a lighter alternative.

Questions people ask

What is an approval voting example?
An approval voting example: a group picks a restaurant by checking off every option they'd be happy eating at, not just one favorite. Votably tallies every checkbox, and whichever restaurant was approved by the most people wins, without anyone needing to strategize their vote.
What are the pros and cons of approval voting?
Approval voting's main advantage is simplicity: voters just check every option they'd accept, with no ranking and no risk of splitting votes between similar choices. Its main limitation is that it can't capture how strongly someone prefers one approved option over another, unlike a ranked or star rating.
How many people can vote?
Approval voting on Votably works well for groups of three to thirty people, making it a good fit for consensus decisions like book club picks, team choices, or any vote where broad agreement matters more than a single favorite.

Decisions are kept for 30 days, then deleted. One vote per phone. The creator decides when results are revealed.