AhaSlides alternative: omul, compared in the open
On price you do not beat AhaSlides: €87 a year for the Essential plan is the cheapest entry in this category. The difference is elsewhere — AhaSlides is owned by a Singaporean company and its own privacy policy names AWS regions in Frankfurt *and* North Virginia without saying what lands where. omul runs wherever you put it, and its source is readable under AGPLv3.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)
- Operated from
- Singapore (Pte. Ltd.)
- Data centres
- Frankfurt and Virginia
- Free cap
- 50 participants, 5+3 questions
- Price
- from €87/licence/year
The short answer
Is it worth switching from AhaSlides?
AhaSlides is closed SaaS from AhaSlides Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean company (registration 202009760N); its own privacy policy names AWS regions in North Virginia (USA) and Frankfurt without naming a transfer mechanism for the US region. It is also the cheapest tool in this comparison: €87 a year for Essential (100 participants), €183 for Pro (2,500 participants); the free tier allows 50 participants plus five quiz questions and three other questions per presentation. omul is the open counterposition — AGPLv3, on your own infrastructure, uncapped — but without AhaSlides' AI features, its Teams and Zoom integrations, or moderated Q&A. If price is your main criterion, AhaSlides is hard to beat; if data control is, it is not an option.
Running in production at HyHyve events
As part of the HyHyve ecosystem, omul runs live at real events — used by teams from companies like these.
Which one to pick
AhaSlides or omul — which fits you?
Both tools put the same audience on screen. The choice comes down to four things: where the data is allowed to live, how many people present, how big the rooms are, and which software you are already standing in.
Choose AhaSlides when …
- price decides. €87 a year for 100 participants undercuts every other tool here, and you get a finished product for it.
- you want AI help: AhaSlides builds a quiz from an uploaded PDF or PPT and groups open answers automatically.
- the session should run inside Microsoft Teams, Zoom or RingCentral — omul integrates with none of them.
- nobody asks where the vendor is incorporated. In German organisations that is often exactly where it fails.
Choose omul when …
- somebody has to prove where your participants' answers sit. With omul that is your own server, not one of two regions at somebody else's vendor.
- five quiz questions and three others per presentation is too little to even evaluate the tool.
- you want to audit the source — AGPLv3 rather than a privacy policy you have to take on trust.
- several people present: AhaSlides bills per licence, omul does not.
Side by side
omul and AhaSlides, criterion by criterion
Each row is a criterion that turns up in a real procurement — AhaSlides's answer first, omul's second. Every AhaSlides figure comes from the pages listed with their dates under "Sources" below.
| Criterion | AhaSlides | omul |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on your own infrastructure | SaaS only | Docker image, your server |
| Source code readable | Closed source | AGPLv3 |
| Where the data sits | AWS Frankfurt and North Virginia; operator in Singapore | Your servers — or EU hosting |
| Free tier | 50 participants, 5 quiz and 3 other questions per presentation | Self-hosting, uncapped |
| Participant ceiling | 100 / 2,500 / 100,000 by plan | No limit in the code |
| Price per licence | €87 (Essential) or €183 (Pro) a year — the cheapest here | Self-hosting: no licence fee |
| AI question generation | Quiz from PDF/PPT, answer grouping; 5 free queries a month | Not switched on — the product's drafting feature is deliberately disabled |
| Teams, Zoom, PowerPoint, Google Slides | All four, on every plan | None — joining is by code, link or QR in the browser |
| Approve questions before they show | From Pro (€183/year) | Not built — logged as an open product requirement |
| Your own logo and colours | From Pro | Included |
| SSO / OIDC and SCIM | Enterprise only, price on request | On the roadmap; email and password today |
| Live formats | All slide types even on the free tier, plus a spinner wheel and self-paced mode | Plus 2×2 grid, 100-point split, number guesses and pin-on-image |
| Join without a participant account | Yes, by code or link | Yes, six-digit code, link or QR |
| Data export | From Essential (€87/year) | Spreadsheet and PDF, in every edition |
In detail
The differences, argued out
Is AhaSlides GDPR-compliant?
AhaSlides
That cannot be settled from outside, and that is already the answer. AhaSlides is run by a Singaporean company — its own privacy policy calls it a "Singaporean Exempt Private Company Limited by Shares" with registration number 202009760N. The same policy names two AWS regions: "US East" in North Virginia and "EU Central 1" in Frankfurt. Which data sits in which region, and on what basis anything is transferred to the US — standard contractual clauses, an adequacy decision — is not stated. For a data protection impact assessment, that gap is the whole problem.
omul
With a self-hosted omul the question disappears, because there is no transfer: the database is on your machine, in your jurisdiction, and there is no processor whose regions you would have to check. If you would rather not run it yourself, the EU-hosted edition comes with a DPA.
ahaslides.com/privacy, checked 06.09.2026
What does AhaSlides cost — and is omul cheaper?
AhaSlides
AhaSlides is the cheapest vendor in this comparison, by a distance: Essential is €7.25 a month billed yearly — €87 a year for up to 100 participants — and Pro is €15.25 a month for up to 2,500. For scale: Slido's smallest paid plan is €180 and Mentimeter's is €168 per person. AhaSlides advertises up to 20% off for teams.
omul
A self-hosted omul carries no licence fee but does cost a server and the time to run it — and at three licences AhaSlides Pro comes to €549 a year, which for many organisations is below the running cost of their own instance. If price is your main criterion, AhaSlides is the sensible choice. The reason to switch anyway is data control, not savings.
ahaslides.com/pricing, checked 05.09.2026
What can you do on the AhaSlides free plan?
AhaSlides
Five quiz questions and three other questions per presentation, with 50 participants — but unlimited presentations a month and every slide type. AhaSlides states exactly that on its own page. Enough to get to know the tool; not enough for an actual workshop.
omul
omul counts nothing: not questions, not participants, not presentations, and no feature sits behind a counter. What a self-hosted instance can carry is decided by your server — the live tally is not yet optimised for very large rooms, and that is logged as an open requirement in the product.
ahaslides.com/pricing, checked 05.09.2026
AhaSlides generates questions with AI — omul doesn't?
AhaSlides
Correct, and it is a genuine strength. AhaSlides turns an uploaded PDF or PowerPoint into a quiz, generates whole slide sets, and groups open answers automatically. The free tier includes five queries a month, Essential twenty, Pro and above unlimited.
omul
omul has a drafting feature in the code, but it is not switched on — the key for the AI service is deliberately unset. The reason is in the privacy policy: switching it on would introduce a third-country transfer, and the absence of one is what the whole positioning rests on. That is a decision rather than a gap — but it is one feature fewer.
Does omul run inside Microsoft Teams or Zoom?
AhaSlides
AhaSlides does: apps for Microsoft Teams, Zoom and RingCentral, add-ins for PowerPoint and Google Slides, and import of PowerPoint and PDF files — on every plan, including the free one.
omul
omul has none of that, and no import either. It runs in the browser, and the audience arrives through a six-digit code, a link or a QR code. If your sessions happen in Teams and the interaction should stay in the meeting window, that is a reason not to switch.
Which question formats do both have?
AhaSlides
AhaSlides unlocks every slide type on the free tier — polls, word clouds, quizzes, open text, scales, ranking, plus a spinner wheel and a self-paced mode for surveys with no presenter.
omul
The same canon, plus four formats AhaSlides does not have: a 2×2 grid with freely labelled axes, a split of 100 points across options, number guesses with a reference value and a tolerance, and dropping a pin on an image. Add segmentation — breaking a tally down by an earlier question.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)
What it costs
A worked example: omul against AhaSlides
With AhaSlides the price comparison is the part omul does not win. It is here anyway, costed with list prices read on 05.09.2026, because a comparison that leaves out the uncomfortable row is not one.
ScenarioThree people present regularly to 300 — training sessions, retrospectives, a quarterly update.
| Scenario | AhaSlides | omul |
|---|---|---|
| Plan needed for 300 participants | Pro (up to 2,500) | Self-hosted |
| Price per licence | €183/year | €0 |
| Three licences | €549/year | €0 |
| Server | included | your bill |
| Operational effort | none | yours |
| Per year | €549 | €0 + server |
AhaSlides prices per ahaslides.com/pricing on 05.09.2026: €15.25 a month billed yearly, with up to 20% off for teams — the page itself quotes €549 for three Pro licences. The last two rows are the actual point: a self-hosted omul saves the licence but costs a server and somebody to run it. Below €549 a year that is not a saving, it is a trade — operational effort against data control. That is exactly how this decision should be made.
Switching
How much work is moving off AhaSlides?
The switch itself is undramatic — your audience will not notice it. The work sits in two places: the questions, which get rebuilt, and the integrations, which go away.
Rebuild the questions
omul reads neither AhaSlides exports nor PowerPoint files. A twenty-question deck is about an hour's work. An importer is logged as a requirement but not built.
Export your results first
AhaSlides exports to Excel and PDF from Essential upwards. Pull the analyses you want to keep before you cancel.
Leaving the meeting window
If you used AhaSlides as a Teams or Zoom app, you will now share a second browser window instead. Nothing changes for in-person events; a lot changes for pure video calls.
Plan without AI
If your quiz questions used to come out of an uploaded PDF, they will now be written by hand. That is the price of no content going to an AI service outside the EU.
Staying fair
Where AhaSlides is (still) ahead
Four things AhaSlides does today that omul does not — and price is only one of them:
The price
€87 a year to start undercuts every other tool in this comparison. If you simply want a cheap, finished polling tool, this is one.
AI that writes the questions
A quiz out of a PDF or PowerPoint, whole slide sets on request, automatic grouping of open answers. omul keeps its drafting feature switched off precisely to avoid introducing a third-country transfer.
Teams, Zoom, PowerPoint, Google Slides
AhaSlides sits inside all four, on every plan, and imports PowerPoint and PDF files. omul runs in the browser and imports nothing.
Moderated Q&A and a spinner wheel
Approving questions before display is available on AhaSlides from Pro; omul cannot do it. The spinner wheel for picking a name is a trifle — but a surprisingly frequently requested one in workshops.
Frequently asked questions about the comparison
What does AhaSlides cost per year?
AhaSlides costs €7.25 (Essential, up to 100 participants) or €15.25 (Pro, up to 2,500) per month billed yearly — €87 or €183 a year per licence. Enterprise, with SSO and up to 100,000 participants, has no list price. AhaSlides advertises up to 20% off for teams. As of 05.09.2026, per ahaslides.com/pricing.
Is AhaSlides cheaper than omul?
For the hosted option, usually yes — AhaSlides is the cheapest vendor in this comparison. A self-hosted omul carries no licence fee but does cost a server and operational effort. If price is your main criterion, AhaSlides is hard to beat; the case for omul is data control and open source.
Where does AhaSlides store data?
Its own privacy policy names two AWS regions: "US East" in North Virginia and "EU Central 1" in Frankfurt. Which data sits in which region, and on what basis anything is transferred to the US, is not stated. The operator is a Singaporean company with registration number 202009760N.
How many questions does AhaSlides allow for free?
Five quiz questions and three other questions per presentation, with up to 50 participants but unlimited presentations a month. omul caps neither the number of questions nor the number of participants.
Can you self-host AhaSlides?
No. AhaSlides is SaaS only and its source is not public. omul is open source under AGPLv3 and built to run on your own infrastructure.
Does omul have AI features like AhaSlides?
No. The product contains an AI drafting feature, but it is deliberately switched off: enabling it would introduce a third-country transfer, and the absence of one is what the privacy positioning rests on. AhaSlides, by contrast, generates quiz questions from PDF and PowerPoint files.
Does AhaSlides offer SSO?
Yes, but on the Enterprise plan only — together with SCIM and participant verification; there is no list price for it. omul does not have SSO today; it is on the roadmap.
Evidence
Sources
Every number on this page comes from a publicly available vendor page. Here is which one — and when we last opened it. Vendors change their prices; if something here is out of date, tell us.
- AhaSlides — plans, limits and feature matrixchecked 05.09.2026
- AhaSlides — privacy policy (company, AWS regions)checked 06.09.2026
More alternatives
See all comparisons- Wooclap alternativeThe strongest vendor here on data protection — Belgian, Paris, ISO 27001. But five questions a month for free and the highest Pro price in the field.
- Poll Everywhere alternativeA mature US vendor with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 — but data exclusively in the US, 40 people free, and your own logo only from $999.
- Vevox alternativeISO 27001 certified and strong in Microsoft Teams — but a UK operator, data in Ireland or the US, and word clouds only on paid plans.
See for yourself
Try the open-source AhaSlides alternative
Create your first live poll in under a minute — no setup, no credit card.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)