A Poll Everywhere alternative that turns trivia into a game show

Poll Everywhere is one of the longest-running live polling tools, founded in San Francisco in 2008 by Jeff Vyduna and Brad Gessler and still independent. Presenters run multiple-choice polls, word clouds, open-ended questions, Q&A, surveys and a scored trivia activity called Competitions; participants respond at PollEv.com or pe.app, by QR code or, for multiple-choice and open-ended questions, by text message. It is especially popular in higher education for attendance, grading and integrations with PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides. In August 2025 it launched Poll Everywhere 2.0, a rebuilt app at pe.app with AI poll creation and a Canvas LMS integration.

Best for: University instructors and corporate presenters who need polling, SMS voting, attendance and LMS grading inside their slides, with trivia now and then.

Official website: www.polleverywhere.com

• The free plan accepts only 40 responses per poll, and it counts responses rather than people: 20 participants answering twice hit the cap.
• Month-to-month plans start at $99 (Engage), roughly double the annual rate; Present and all education plans are annual only.
• There's no event pricing: the FAQ suggests contacting sales or buying a monthly plan and downgrading afterwards.
• Reviewers call the interface dated; the rebuilt Poll Everywhere 2.0 launched in August 2025, and 1.0 users are invited to migrate gradually.
• Reviews mention PowerPoint integration crashes and connectivity glitches, and lower tiers get email-only support.

• Pay $9 for a single month

  Quizzo is billed monthly with no contract, so a conference, course or quiz night costs $9. Poll Everywhere's cheapest monthly option is Engage at $99, and its $10 Present plan is annual only.

• Built as a game show

  Every question becomes a round: speed scoring, an answer chart and the top-5 leaderboard, then a podium with confetti and built-in music at the end.

• 500 players, counted per game

  Quizzo games take up to 500 players, however many questions they answer. On Poll Everywhere's free plan, each poll stops at 40 responses.

• Quick PIN join, modern host flow

  Players open playquizzo.com/join and enter a 6-digit PIN or scan a QR code; no app or account needed. Hosts work in a quiz-first editor, while reviewers often call Poll Everywhere's interface dated.

• Deeper polling and SMS voting

  Poll Everywhere offers word clouds, open-ended questions, upvoted Q&A, clickable images, ranking and surveys, plus text-message voting for people without mobile data. Quizzo offers multiple-choice quizzes only.

• Built for higher education

  Paid plans add attendance tracking, reports and archived results, and campus plans add Canvas LMS integration and grading. Quizzo has no reports or LMS integration.

• Inside PowerPoint, Keynote and Slides

  Poll Everywhere runs inside PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides and works with Teams, Zoom and Webex. Quizzo has no slide integrations; you show its game screen instead.

• Free trivia and larger classes

  Competitions, data export and every activity type are included even on the free plan, and the Lecture plan covers 700 responses per poll for $9/month billed annually. Educator+ goes up to 2,000.

As of October 2026, Poll Everywhere's business plans are Present at $10/month (annual only), Engage at $49/month billed annually or $99 month to month, and Teams at $84/month billed annually or $249 month to month, each for up to 700 responses per poll. Education plans are billed annually: Lecture at $9/month (700), Educator at $16 (700) and Educator+ at $27 (2,000). Quizzo is $9/month for up to 500 players, billed monthly. Over a full year, the Lecture plan ($108) costs the same as twelve months of Quizzo and Present ($120) only slightly more; for a single month or event, Quizzo's $9 compares with $99 for Poll Everywhere's cheapest monthly plan.

Stay with Poll Everywhere if you need polls, word clouds, Q&A, SMS voting, attendance or Canvas grading inside your slides — especially if the $108-a-year Lecture plan covers you, since it costs the same as twelve months of Quizzo. Switch to Quizzo if your sessions center on quizzes and you want a full game-show experience, or if you need a quiz tool for a month or one event without paying $99 for Poll Everywhere's cheapest monthly plan.

1. Create your Quizzo account and open the dashboard.
2. Click “New quiz”, paste in your questions and answers, and mark the correct one. Add images and timers where you need them.
3. Press “Start game” to open the lobby, then show the PIN or QR code on the big screen.
4. Players join at playquizzo.com/join on their phones — no app, no account — and you're live.

Quizzo doesn't import quizzes from other tools yet, so plan a few minutes to copy your questions over.

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