Audience response software lets a room answer live from their phones through polls, quizzes, word clouds and moderated questions.
This ranking puts small independent vendors with readable price lists first, then weighs how participant caps and presenter seats change the bill, what a free tier allows, and whether the tool suits a classroom, meeting or conference.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What audience response software does
Audience response software collects live answers, votes and questions from attendees on their own devices and displays the results on screen, so presenters can poll, quiz and moderate a room.
We ranked the 12 audience response tools on setup effort first, then total cost, then data export, then exit, then fit for the buyer. On top of them sits one rule. The top three places are for challengers, which means vendors outside the big names, where the category has any, and the household brands come in from fourth place. Our how we work page explains the choice of these five and why we give no mark out of ten.
Pricing page renders client-side so amounts were not read; the home page offers a start button and a demo
—
Educators who want live lessons and surveys in one Dutch-language platform
Anyone comparing audience-response prices or limits side by side
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the entry says so.
Paris-registered facilitation platform with a capped free tier and per-licence plans
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Beekast runs sessions made of activities, and the free tier gives 9 activity types with 5 activities per session and 3 sessions a month. Plus lifts monthly participants to unlimited while capping a session at 50.
Pro adds master and clone sessions, detailed analytics, XLS reports, team play and custom layout. Enterprise adds SSO, a custom SLA and onboarding. Monthly billing costs noticeably more per licence than annual, and the third Pro licence is discounted.
What stands out
Per-licence tiers
Session participant caps
Master and clone sessions
Where it costs you
Participant ceiling per session is 100 even on Pro, so conference rooms need Enterprise
Plus allows two licences at most, which stalls a growing training team
Right for
Facilitators running workshops who want licence-based pricing they can calculate before a demo
Wrong for
Event organisers filling halls with several hundred phones at once
FranceFour tiers named Free, Plus, Pro and Enterprise, with licence rates published in euros and cheaper annual billing
Question-and-answer event tool with plans stepped by audience size
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Pigeonhole Live splits its offer by event format. Presenter handles a single Q&A with slide import, moderated Q&A and polls, custom themes and logos, and PDF or Excel export.
Standard moves to multi-Q&A events, multi-track agendas, attendee access controls, website embedding and sponsor logo branding. Enterprise adds SSO, API access, compliance support and more than 25 users. An AI Translation add-on is priced per user per year, so multilingual rooms pay twice.
What stands out
Moderated Q&A
Audience-size tiers
Multi-track events
Where it costs you
The step from the 250-participant Presenter plan to the 2,000-participant Standard plan is large in price
Footer names PigeonLab Pte Ltd but gives no registered address or country
Right for
Conference teams who want moderated questions and a price tied to attendee numbers
Wrong for
Trainers wanting quizzes and games rather than moderated questions
Not stated by the vendorParticipant-capped ladder: Starter at zero, then Presenter and Standard with published monthly or yearly rates, plus a custom Enterprise tier
Game-style audience engagement sold in tiers from classroom to stadium
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
The Classroom plan covers 100 participants, 100 questions and 10 simultaneous experiences for two team members, with a custom logo upload. Seminar moves to 500 participants and five team members.
Conference reaches 1,000 participants, unlimited live streaming, custom backgrounds, colours and a custom domain URL. Convention and Stadium reach 5,000 and 15,000 participants. The price gap between a classroom and a stadium licence is wide, so the participant cap is the figure to check first.
What stands out
Stadium-scale tiers
Live streaming minutes
Custom domain URL
Where it costs you
Basic shows Crowdpurr logos and sponsor ads, which rules it out for client-facing events
Live streaming is limited to minutes per month on every tier below Conference
Right for
Event hosts who need a published price for crowds from 100 to 15,000
Wrong for
Buyers who want to compare owner and country before signing up
Not stated by the vendorSix named tiers from Basic to Stadium, each with a monthly rate and a cheaper yearly rate in USD; Basic is free and ad-supported
Belgian lecture and training quizzes with annual per-presenter plans
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Wooclap's Basic plan unlocks unlimited questions, export of results to PDF and Excel, self-paced sessions and question import. Pro, marked as recommended, adds AI-powered sessions, team collaboration, custom branding and moderator mode, and the plan admin counts as a presenter.
Corporate adds LMS integrations, SSO with SAML and CAS, an analytics dashboard and onboarding. Annual billing is the only mode shown, and prices exclude VAT.
What stands out
Question cap on Starter
LMS integrations
Moderator mode
Where it costs you
Basic and Pro plan cards show no amount, so a budget needs a sales conversation
The Starter participant limit reads as unlimited on the card and 1,000 per event in the FAQ
Right for
Lecturers who want quiz sessions with exports and self-paced mode
Wrong for
Anyone who needs a published monthly price for Basic or Pro
BelgiumStarter is free with five questions a month; Basic and Pro bill yearly excluding VAT; Corporate quoted from six presenters
UK-run polling and Q&A tool for classes, meetings and training
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Vevox describes itself as an AI-assisted polling, quizzing and Q&A platform and names word cloud, AI Quiz, surveys, anonymity, analytics and attendance tracking. It connects with Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, Zoom, Webex, Brightspace, Blackboard, Canvas and Moodle.
Pricing is split into Education, Business and one-time event plans. The refund window is 30 days, and invoices by bank transfer are available. Attendance tracking is the feature that most separates it from quick poll tools.
What stands out
Anonymity
Attendance tracking
LMS integrations
Where it costs you
Plan amounts are not visible on the pricing page, so comparison needs a quote
Only individual plans can be paid online; the rest go through an account manager
Right for
Universities and training teams working inside Teams, Moodle or Canvas
Wrong for
Solo presenters wanting to see a price and check out instantly
United KingdomEducation, Business and one-time event pages with amounts not shown; a free plan to upgrade from; 30-day refund
Slide-based live polls with a free tier of fifty participants
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The Free plan is limited to 50 participants per live session, but presentations are unlimited each month. Paid options are Essential Yearly and Pro Yearly, and a toggle switches between monthly and yearly billing.
One team example shows 516.78 a year against 574.20, a 10 percent saving, though the plan and licence count are unclear. The refund condition is narrow: 14 days, and void once the tool has run a live event.
What stands out
Unlimited presentations
Yearly plan toggle
Refund guarantee
Where it costs you
Per-plan prices and limits were not readable in the captured pricing page
Terms and privacy links redirect elsewhere and the terms page returned 404
Right for
Teachers and trainers running small rooms who want to test before paying
Wrong for
Anyone who needs the legal entity and country stated up front
Not stated by the vendorFree tier for 50 live participants; Essential and Pro billed monthly or yearly; team discounts; 14-day refund if unused live
Swiss single-question polling that runs without an account
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Direct Poll creates a poll with separate vote, result and cockpit links, and offers token restriction to limit who votes. Correct answers can be marked and results hidden while voting runs.
Paid products are extending a running poll, renewing an expired one, and a Supporter status with a personalised badge. Purchases are handled by Polar Software, Inc. as merchant of record, so the invoice does not come from the Zurich company.
What stands out
No account needed
500 voters per poll
Vote and cockpit links
Where it costs you
Only choice questions are named, with no word cloud, open-text or Q&A features
Extension and renewal prices appear only at checkout, not on the site pages
Right for
Anyone needing a quick yes-or-no vote in a room without sign-up
Wrong for
Presenters wanting quizzes, slide integration or follow-up reports
SwitzerlandCore polling is free and anonymous; optional extensions and a supporter badge are bought through a merchant of record
PowerPoint-linked classroom activities priced by students per class
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
On Basic, ClassPoint offers 25 students per class, 3 classes, 5 activity types and 5 activities per presentation, plus stars, levels, badges and a leaderboard. Pro raises this to 200 students, unlimited classes and all 8 activity types.
Premium adds grouping, live Q&A, webhook access, custom branding and a custom DPA. Because only Premium lists a security report, a school district wanting audit evidence must go through an enquiry.
What stands out
Student caps per class
Auto-graded quizzes
Gamification
Where it costs you
Basic limits activities to five per presentation and classes to three
Live Q&A sits in the enquiry-priced Premium plan, not in Pro
Right for
Schoolteachers who want quizzes, stars and leaderboards inside their own slides
Wrong for
Conference organisers who need to poll several hundred attendees
Not stated by the vendorBasic stays free at 25 students per class; Pro billed monthly or yearly; Premium priced on enquiry with SOC 2 report
Swedish presentation polls where each presenter needs a paid seat
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Menti Live covers polls, quizzes, word clouds and Q&A, and participants need no login. Menti Form and Menti Pulse extend it to forms and recurring check-ins, with an AI Menti Creator on top.
Free offers 23 slide types but no import, private presentations or exports. Basic adds import and PDF, image and Excel export, and Pro adds custom themes, team collaboration and Quick Forms. Prices exclude tax and the currency is shown only as a dollar sign.
What stands out
Per-presenter seats
Menti Pulse check-ins
Quick Forms
Where it costs you
The free plan's participant cap is stated inconsistently on one page
Every presenter needs a paid seat, so rotating hosts multiply the bill
Right for
Solo trainers and speakers who run polls from a single account
Wrong for
Departments with many occasional hosts and a small budget
SwedenPer-presenter tiers billed yearly, with Basic the only plan on monthly billing; a free plan; custom Enterprise
Game-format quizzes for business audiences, licensed per presenter by crowd size
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Pro Start allows 50 participants, Standard 200, Plus 1,000, Max 2,000 and Ultra 5,000, with Ultra needing onboarding. Rates are in USD excluding VAT, with annual billing only. Spirit is for teams with a minimum of 25 licences and Enterprise is unpriced.
Participants never pay, so the licence count follows hosts, not audience. A host planning one large event should compare Max and Ultra, which share the same listed price but differ in cap.
What stands out
Presenter licences
Participant-cap tiers
Seven-day Pro trial
Where it costs you
Express sessions stop at 15 minutes and 15 participants, a thin evaluation
Team (Spirit) needs at least 25 licences and is not priced on the page
Right for
Company trainers wanting a game-show format for groups of any size
Wrong for
Teams wanting simple anonymous polls with no game element
Not stated by the vendorBusiness tiers stepped by participant cap, billed yearly in USD; a free evaluation plan and a seven-day trial of Pro
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Slido offers one-time plans for single events, annual plans for regular users, education plans and an enterprise tier sold through sales. The home page shows euro prices including 15 EUR a month, but the plan names behind them were not readable.
Features named are polls, audience Q&A, word cloud, ideas, quizzes, surveys, Slido AI and analytics. Participants join without logins or downloads. The contracting entity is not named in what we read, so confirm it.
What stands out
Webex ownership
Teams and Zoom add-ins
One-time plans
Where it costs you
No plan amounts or trial terms showed up in the page text we read
Ownership by Cisco puts it outside the independent-vendor tier of this ranking
Right for
Meeting hosts who already run sessions in Webex, Teams or Zoom
Wrong for
Buyers who must see plan prices before talking to anyone
Not stated by the vendorPlan families named one-time, annual, education and enterprise; amounts were not read from the client-rendered pricing page
Dutch-language learning platform with live lessons and a survey product
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Audience Response Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The Dutch home page pairs a start button with a demo link, and shows interactive lessons, surveys and a Corporate section for learning and co-creation. A DICOM Viewer lets a lesson show medical images.
A research survey product adds experiments, quotas and conjoint analysis. Because pricing and country were not readable, this entry says less than the others, and a buyer should confirm limits, hosting and contract terms directly before relying on it.
What stands out
Learning Loop
Research surveys
DICOM viewer
Where it costs you
Plan prices could not be read because the pricing page renders client-side
Live-polling features are not itemised, as the page leads with learning and surveys
Right for
Educators who want live lessons and surveys in one Dutch-language platform
Wrong for
Anyone comparing audience-response prices or limits side by side
Not stated by the vendorPricing page renders client-side so amounts were not read; the home page offers a start button and a demo
Audience response software collects live answers, votes and questions from attendees on their own devices and displays the results on screen, so presenters can poll, quiz and moderate a room. These are the questions that actually differ between vendors, in the order we would ask them.
01
Check who publishes a price
Only 10 of the 12 print a price; 2 quote per organisation. Comparable without a sales call: Beekast, Pigeonhole Live, Crowdpurr, Wooclap, Vevox, AhaSlides, Direct Poll, ClassPoint, Mentimeter, Kahoot.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
These 12 vendors are established in 6 countries across 2 regions (Elsewhere 7, Europe 5). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
Audience response software: polls for halls, classrooms or meetings
Audience response software covers three jobs that share a name but not a buyer. Pigeonhole Live and Crowdpurr price by crowd size and suit conferences. ClassPoint caps students per class and lives inside PowerPoint for teachers. Vevox and Wooclap lean on lecture halls and learning platforms, while Slido sits in the meeting stack of Webex.
Direct Poll does one thing, a choice question, and does it without an account. A vendor that is excellent for a 40-person seminar may break at a 2,000-seat plenary, or waste money in a staff meeting. Write down the audience size, the room type, whether answers must be anonymous and whether you also need quizzes or only questions, and only then open price pages or book demos.
Name the room: classroom, meeting or conference
Write the largest audience you will ever poll
Note whether anonymity or attendance tracking is required
Participant caps and presenter seats in audience response software
Two meters decide the invoice here, and they pull in opposite directions. Kahoot and Mentimeter bill per presenter, so a company with ten occasional hosts buys ten seats while audiences stay free. Pigeonhole Live, Crowdpurr and Beekast cap participants per plan or session, so one large event forces the upgrade.
AhaSlides lets 50 people join on its free tier and simply blocks the rest. Wooclap counts the plan admin as a presenter, which surprises small teams. Count hosts per month and your peak room, then price both meters. A tool that looks cheapest for a single trainer often becomes the dearest once a whole department adopts it, and the reverse holds for one-off events.
Count presenters and the peak audience separately
Ask whether the plan admin takes a presenter seat
Test what happens when attendees exceed the cap
Free tiers in audience response software: what they really cover
Free offers in this market differ sharply in what they allow. Beekast gives 30 monthly participants and three sessions. Mentimeter lists 50 participants a month, yet the same page promises unlimited use once a month. Wooclap Starter stops at five questions. Crowdpurr Basic shows its own logos and sponsor ads, and Kahoot Express ends after 15 minutes.
Direct Poll is free for 500 voters but only for choice questions. Do not judge them by the headline. Run a real rehearsal on the free tier with your normal audience and check what disappears: exports, import of slides, branding or session length. Treat any inconsistency on a pricing page as a question for the vendor, and ask for the answer in writing before you build a workshop around it.
Rehearse with a realistic audience on the free tier
Check exports and slide import before the event
Get any unclear cap confirmed in writing
Exit and ownership checks for Slido, Vevox and other platforms
Ownership and entity details vary more than the feature lists suggest. Slido says it is now part of Webex, while Vevox names Auga Technologies Limited and Wooclap names Wooclap SA in Brussels. Pigeonhole Live shows PigeonLab Pte Ltd without an address, and AhaSlides, Crowdpurr and Kahoot state no country on the pages read.
Direct Poll sells paid extras through a merchant of record, so the invoice comes from another company. Before standardising on a platform, and certainly before a department-wide rollout, ask for the contracting entity, the invoicing party, the export formats for results and the refund window, which is 14 days on AhaSlides and 30 on Vevox. Those details decide how painful a later switch will be.
Ask which legal entity signs the contract
Confirm who issues the invoice
Check export formats and the refund window
What goes wrong most often when buying audience response software
Buying a stadium-sized Crowdpurr or Standard-level plan for an audience that rarely exceeds a hundred, when a smaller cap would do.
Assuming a free tier will survive a client event, when Crowdpurr Basic adds sponsor ads and Kahoot Express stops at 15 participants.
Counting only the audience and forgetting presenter seats, which is how a Mentimeter or Wooclap bill grows once several hosts join.
Treating Sendsteps as a plain polling tool, when its pages describe learning loops, research surveys and a medical image viewer instead.
07
Frequently asked questions
6 answers
What is the best audience response software in 2026?
First of 12 on this page is Beekast. Beekast is a French SAS registered in Paris that names no parent company. Its published ladder opens with a free tier of 30 monthly participants, moves to Plus with two licences at most, and reaches 100 participants per session only on Pro, which also brings integrations and clone sessions.
It leads on plain licence arithmetic. Large halls are the weak spot, since beyond 100 per session only Enterprise remains.
Which audience response tools publish their pricing?
10 out of 12 state a price model on their own site:
Beekast: Four tiers named Free, Plus, Pro and Enterprise, with licence rates published in euros and cheaper annual billing.
Pigeonhole Live: Participant-capped ladder: Starter at zero, then Presenter and Standard with published monthly or yearly rates, plus a custom Enterprise tier.
Crowdpurr: Six named tiers from Basic to Stadium, each with a monthly rate and a cheaper yearly rate in USD; Basic is free and ad-supported.
Wooclap: Starter is free with five questions a month; Basic and Pro bill yearly excluding VAT; Corporate quoted from six presenters.
Vevox: Education, Business and one-time event pages with amounts not shown; a free plan to upgrade from; 30-day refund.
AhaSlides: Free tier for 50 live participants; Essential and Pro billed monthly or yearly; team discounts; 14-day refund if unused live.
Direct Poll: Core polling is free and anonymous; optional extensions and a supporter badge are bought through a merchant of record.
ClassPoint: Basic stays free at 25 students per class; Pro billed monthly or yearly; Premium priced on enquiry with SOC 2 report.
Mentimeter: Per-presenter tiers billed yearly, with Basic the only plan on monthly billing; a free plan; custom Enterprise.
Kahoot: Business tiers stepped by participant cap, billed yearly in USD; a free evaluation plan and a seven-day trial of Pro.
The remaining 2 sell by quote.
Is there a free audience response tool?
Beekast, Wooclap, Vevox, AhaSlides, Mentimeter offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these audience response software vendors established?
In 6 countries across 2 regions: Elsewhere 7, Europe 5.
Beekast: France.
Pigeonhole Live: Not stated by the vendor.
Crowdpurr: Not stated by the vendor.
Wooclap: Belgium.
Vevox: United Kingdom.
AhaSlides: Not stated by the vendor.
Direct Poll: Switzerland.
ClassPoint: Not stated by the vendor.
Mentimeter: Sweden.
Kahoot: Not stated by the vendor.
Slido: Not stated by the vendor.
Sendsteps: Not stated by the vendor.
What should you use instead of Beekast?
Second is Pigeonhole Live, which suits Conference teams who want moderated questions and a price tied to attendee numbers. Third is Crowdpurr, which suits Event hosts who need a published price for crowds from 100 to 15,000.
Who should not buy Beekast?
Event organisers filling halls with several hundred phones at once. Participant ceiling per session is 100 even on Pro, so conference rooms need Enterprise.
If your audience response software product belongs among these 12, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
