Comparison
An open-source alternative to Slido
Live polls, word clouds and quiz rounds for meetings and events, and the follow-up survey afterwards — free, without participant caps, and able to run on your own infrastructure.
Put the code on a slide or a poster; answers start arriving within seconds.
Can Jackpoll run live polls and word clouds like Slido?
Yes. Jackpoll runs live polls, word clouds and quiz rounds, and a QR code on a slide is all the onboarding a room needs: people scan it, the question opens on their phone, and answers start arriving on the shared screen within seconds — no app, no account.
A word cloud is the natural opener: ask for one word and watch the room's answer assemble itself. Live results suit a poll where the shape of the answer is the point, and for a closing slot a presenter-led quiz round brings phone buzzers, a speed bonus, a leaderboard and a podium.
jackpoll.org/s/…12 words inProfanity filter on
Live word cloud
Words arrive from phones and grow on the projector.
Live results
Bar, donut and line views updating as answers land.
Quiz rounds
Buzzers, speed bonus, leaderboard and podium.
Can Jackpoll send a survey after the session?
Yes. In Jackpoll a survey does not live inside an event, so the questions you asked live can go out afterwards as a normal form — to the people who missed the session, or as feedback a week later — and the answers land in the same results.
That brings the full survey toolkit with it: fifteen question types, conditional logic, file uploads, exports to CSV, Excel and PDF, signed webhooks, and retention rules you set yourself on each survey, so responses are deleted or anonymised on schedule.
- Customer satisfaction Q3Product330 responsesLive
- Networking basics — week 4 quizCourses112 responsesLive
- Conference closing word cloudEvents418 responsesClosed
- Onboarding feedbackProduct47 responsesDraft
- Workshop check-inEvents96 responsesClosed
Unlimited surveys and responses — no plan decides how many you keep.
Jackpoll compared with Slido
| Feature | Jackpoll | Slido |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Open source — the full source is public | Proprietary |
| Self-hosting | Yes, Docker and Docker Swarm ready | Not offered |
| Cost model | Free, no paid tiers | Free basic plan plus paid plans |
| Participants per event | No limit, no per-participant pricing | Depends on the plan |
| Live word cloud | Built-in question type with presenter view | Yes |
| Live quiz | Buzzers, speed bonus, leaderboard, podium | Quiz mode with a leaderboard |
| Audience Q&A and slide-tool integrations | Polls, word clouds and quizzes in its own presenter view | Core focus; integrates with PowerPoint, Google Slides, Teams, Zoom and Webex |
| Surveys outside live sessions | Full survey platform: logic, exports, webhooks | Surveys within an event, shareable by link |
| Where responses are processed | Hosted in Germany, or your own server | Vendor-hosted; EU data centre by default |
About this comparison
This table compares structural properties — licence, hosting model, pricing model — because those rarely change. It deliberately avoids specific prices and plan limits, which vendors change without notice. Last reviewed October 2026; check the vendor's current pricing page before deciding.
When is Slido the better choice?
Slido is the better choice when moderated audience Q&A inside PowerPoint, Google Slides, Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Webex is the heart of your sessions. It is built around meetings, with audience Q&A at its core and integrations for all of those tools.
Jackpoll's live formats are polls, word clouds and quiz rounds, shown in its own presenter view in the browser. Where it pulls ahead is cost and control: there is no participant cap and no paid tier, the hosted version runs exclusively on servers in Germany, and the whole application is open source and can run on your own servers with Docker.
Last updated
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a free Slido alternative without a participant limit?
- Yes. Jackpoll has no participant cap and no paid tiers, so a session with four hundred people costs what a session with four does. For very large events you can self-host.
- Do participants need an app or an account?
- No. They open a link or scan a QR code. For a live quiz, they join with the PIN shown on the presenter screen.
- Can I send a survey after the event?
- Yes. Every live question belongs to a normal survey, so the same form can go out by link or QR code afterwards and the answers land in the same results.
Keep reading
Related pages on the same topic.
Start building your survey today
Free, open source, and privacy-first. No credit card, no lock-in — create your first survey or quiz in minutes.
New versions land in TestFlight first, ahead of the stores.