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spark pollPoll Everywhere alternative
Free Poll Everywhere Alternative for Classrooms
Live polls, word clouds, and rankings without per-question or audience limits. Spark Poll keeps the classroom essentials free for every teacher — funded by a nonprofit, not your subscription.
Free tool from Close the Gap Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Try Spark Poll free
Try Spark Poll free
One email gets you a free teacher account. Run your first live poll in minutes.
No credit card. One email, no password — we send a one-time magic link. Free for teachers, forever.
- Free forever — no audience caps
- No student accounts
- Six question types, all free
- Built by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Why teachers switch
Why look for a Poll Everywhere alternative?
Most teachers who search for one hit the same walls: audience limits on the free plan, pricing built for organizations rather than a single classroom, and a feature set that increasingly serves corporate town halls. Spark Poll's answer is simple — keep the classroom essentials free, with no per-question or audience caps, because a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funds the work instead of your subscription.
That difference in funding shapes the product. Poll Everywhere grew into an audience-engagement platform that serves companies and conferences as much as classrooms; Spark Poll is a classroom tool built by an education nonprofit, so every decision optimizes for a teacher with thirty students and five minutes — not a webinar with three thousand attendees.
None of that makes Poll Everywhere a bad product — it is a capable, mature platform, and the comparison below is honest about where it still wins. But if what you actually need is a live question in front of a class, with every student able to answer and no cap to plan around, you should not need a budget conversation to get it.
60 seconds to live
How it works
- 1
Build a poll
Add questions in minutes — multiple choice, word cloud, open response, ranking, scales, or pin-on-map.
- 2
Students join with a code
They enter a 6-digit code or scan a QR link on any device with a browser. No accounts needed.
- 3
Watch results land live
Answers appear on the big screen in real time, so you can react while the class is still with you.
Honest comparison
Spark Poll vs Poll Everywhere, side by side
A fair, plainly-stated comparison — including where Poll Everywhere may still be the better fit for you.
| Feature | Spark Poll | Poll Everywhere |
|---|---|---|
| Price for classroom use | Free, forever — no per-question or audience caps | Free tier with limits; paid plans to unlock more |
| Student accounts required | No | No |
| How students join | 6-digit code or QR link, any browser | Join link or code in a browser |
| Question types | 6, incl. word cloud, ranking, scales & pin-on-map | Broad set; some features gated by plan |
| Live results on the big screen | Yes | Yes |
| Slide embedding (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote) | No — run it in a browser tab beside your slides | Yes |
| Participant cap on free plan | Unlimited | Capped on the free plan |
| Who builds and funds it | Nonprofit · 501(c)(3), built for classrooms | For-profit company; corporate + education |
Price for classroom use
- Spark Poll
- Free, forever — no per-question or audience caps
- Poll Everywhere
- Free tier with limits; paid plans to unlock more
Student accounts required
- Spark Poll
- No
- Poll Everywhere
- No
How students join
- Spark Poll
- 6-digit code or QR link, any browser
- Poll Everywhere
- Join link or code in a browser
Question types
- Spark Poll
- 6, incl. word cloud, ranking, scales & pin-on-map
- Poll Everywhere
- Broad set; some features gated by plan
Live results on the big screen
- Spark Poll
- Yes
- Poll Everywhere
- Yes
Slide embedding (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote)
- Spark Poll
- No — run it in a browser tab beside your slides
- Poll Everywhere
- Yes
Participant cap on free plan
- Spark Poll
- Unlimited
- Poll Everywhere
- Capped on the free plan
Who builds and funds it
- Spark Poll
- Nonprofit · 501(c)(3), built for classrooms
- Poll Everywhere
- For-profit company; corporate + education
Where Poll Everywhere may still be the better pick
- Native slide embedding — Poll Everywhere runs activities inside PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote. Spark Poll does not integrate with slide decks.
- Enterprise and corporate features: SSO, response moderation at scale, and team management for large organizations.
- A much longer track record, with years of deployments across companies and universities.
Comparison reflects publicly available information about Poll Everywhere as of July 2026; plans change, so confirm current details on polleverywhere.com. 'Poll Everywhere' is a trademark of its respective owner. Spark Poll is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Poll Everywhere.
Six ways to ask
Word clouds, rankings, scales — all free
The formats audiences respond to most are all included at no cost: word clouds that grow as the room types, rankings that surface consensus, scales for sentiment, and pin-on-map for geography. Mix them freely in one session.
Single select
Multiple-choice with a live results bar chart.
Word cloud
Open words cluster and grow as the room answers.
Open ended
Long-form responses land in a live feed.
Ranking
Students rank options; you see the consensus order.
Scales
Sentiment and agreement on a sliding scale.
Pin on map
Drop pins on a map for geography and origins.
In the classroom
What teachers use it for
Live lecture checks
Pause a lecture with one question and see instantly whether the concept landed.
Word-cloud warm-ups
Open class by surfacing what the whole room is thinking in one live view.
Anonymous opinion polls
Take the temperature of the room on a scale — honestly, because no one is logged in.
Rankings & consensus
Have students rank options and watch the consensus order emerge live.
Exit tickets
Close class with one question that tells you what stuck.
Moving over
Switching from Poll Everywhere
There is no automatic import, so plan to rebuild your activities — most teachers recreate a set in a few minutes. We would rather be honest about that than overpromise.
Day to day, the flow stays familiar. You put a question on the projector; students join with a 6-digit code or QR link on whatever device is in front of them; answers land live on the screen. Word clouds, rankings, scales, open response, and pin-on-map are all here, so the activity types you actually run in class carry over.
What changes is what you stop planning around: there are no audience caps or per-question limits on a free session, and nothing is gated behind an upgrade prompt mid-lesson. What you give up is in-slide embedding — you run Spark Poll in a browser tab beside your deck instead of inside it. Most teachers find the tab switch a small price, but if your entire lesson lives inside PowerPoint, weigh that trade honestly.
Frequently asked
Poll Everywhere alternative FAQ
Is Spark Poll free compared to Poll Everywhere?
Yes. Spark Poll keeps its core classroom features free for every teacher, with no per-question or audience caps, because it is funded by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rather than subscriptions.
Does Spark Poll embed in PowerPoint or Google Slides?
No, and we would rather be upfront about that: slide integration is a genuine strength of Poll Everywhere. Most teachers simply run Spark Poll in a browser tab next to their slides and switch between the two on the projector. If in-slide embedding is essential to your workflow, Poll Everywhere may be the better fit.
Do students need accounts or an app?
No. Students join with a 6-digit code or QR link on any device with a browser — no account, no app to install, and no personal data required to answer.
What question types does Spark Poll have?
Six, all free: multiple choice, word cloud, open ended, ranking, scales, and pin-on-map. You can mix formats in a single session.
Is there an audience or question limit?
No. Spark Poll does not cap the number of students who can join a free session or the number of questions you can ask in one.
Can I import my existing Poll Everywhere activities?
Not directly — there is no one-click import. You rebuild each activity in Spark Poll, which usually takes a few minutes per set. We would rather be honest about that than overpromise.
What devices does it work on?
Anything with a web browser — phones, Chromebooks, laptops, and tablets. The presenter view is built for the projector or front-of-room screen, and there is nothing to install on either side.
Who makes Spark Poll?
Close the Gap Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has reached more than a million students since 2019. Spark Poll is its free classroom polling tool.
Try the free classroom polling tool
Create your free teacher account and run a live word cloud or poll with your class today.