Live polling tools compared in 2026: find the best Mentimeter alternative
Eight vendors, read off their own pages: Mentimeter, Slido, AhaSlides, Wooclap, Poll Everywhere, Vevox, Kahoot and Particify. Functionally they sit close together — the differences are in the free-tier limits, the pricing model, and who runs the server. This overview sets them side by side and says where omul does not win, too. A detailed head-to-head with sources and dates follows for each tool below.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)
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Every tool at a glance
The overview table
Eight widely used polling tools across the dimensions that turn up in a real procurement. Seven of them are neither self-hostable nor open source — that is the row in which omul stands differently against them. Against Particify the row is level, so that comparison runs on other criteria.
| omul | Mentimeter | Slido | AhaSlides | Wooclap | Poll Everywhere | Vevox | Kahoot | Particify | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data residency | EU or your servers | EU (vendor's statement) | AWS EU, US parent | AWS Frankfurt + US | AWS Paris (EU) | AWS, US only | AWS Ireland or US | Oslo, global transfers | Servers in Germany |
| Self-hosting | |||||||||
| Open source | AGPLv3 | Yes (client MIT) | |||||||
| Free cap | Unlimited | 50 participants/month | 100 participants, 3 polls | 50 participants, 5+3 questions | 5 questions/month | 40 audience members | 100 people, no word cloud | Non-commercial only | 200 per room |
| Billing | Self-hosting is free · billing being built | Annual only | Annual only | Monthly/annual | Annual | Monthly/annual, USD | Monthly/annual | Annual | From €12/account, annual |
| SSO / OIDC | On the roadmap | Enterprise only | Enterprise (€1,800/yr) | Enterprise only | From Corporate | Enterprise only | Enterprise only | Enterprise | From Campus (on request) |
What the comparison found
Eight vendors, seven findings
We read every one of the eight vendors' own pricing, security and terms pages, and the source of the open-source ones. These are the findings — including the three that do not favour omul.
Seven of the eight vendors are neither self-hostable nor open source. The exception is Particify — and the exception matters more than the rule, because it shows that "open source and from the EU" is not a unique selling point but a position omul shares with another German tool.
The charge that the competition is uniformly "US cloud" is not true. Mentimeter is Swedish and says it hosts in the EU, Slido sits on AWS in Ireland and Germany, Wooclap in Paris with ISO 27001, Kahoot is based in Oslo. The only one storing unambiguously outside the EU is Poll Everywhere, in its own words "exclusively in the United States".
Kahoot's terms permit the free plan for non-commercial purposes only. A company running its onboarding on it is outside the licence.
Five of the eight bill per account or per presenting person. At twelve presenters, Mentimeter Basic comes to €2,016 a year and Wooclap Pro to €3,600 — numbers invisible in a tier comparison, which shows only the monthly price of one licence. Particify's Pro plan requires at least five accounts, so its invoice starts at €720 a year, even for a single teacher.
AhaSlides, at €87 a year, is markedly cheaper than omul's planned hosted edition and than everything else here. If price is your main criterion, omul does not win this comparison.
Wooclap has a stronger data-protection position than omul would have without your own server: an EU company, a Paris data centre, ISO 27001:2022. At that point the difference stops being a privacy argument and becomes a control argument.
Particify is open source, based in Gießen and says it stores data in Germany — the same position as omul, and we think that is a good thing. So omul does not argue privacy against Particify, and it does not argue self-host versus SaaS: the head-to-head puts the hosted services next to each other. omul ships five question formats Particify does not advertise and sets no participant cap; Particify has university SSO, an LMS connector, moderated Q&A and a free tier with 200 participants per room that you can buy today — omul Pro sits on a waitlist.
Decision guide
The six questions the vendors actually differ on
Functionally all eight look alike: polls, word clouds, quizzes, Q&A, scales, joining by code. What separates them is not in the feature matrix but in the tier limits, the pricing model and the terms of service — and, among the open-source ones, how many services self-hosting demands. These six questions decide it in practice.
What does the free tier actually cap?
Not the same thing everywhere — and that is the point. Poll Everywhere caps at 40 audience members, Mentimeter at 50 a month across all presentations, AhaSlides and Vevox at 50 and 100 per event. Wooclap caps no participants at all but caps questions: five a month. Vevox leaves the word cloud out entirely. Kahoot caps none of that but caps the purpose — business use is not permitted on the free plan under its licence. Particify's free tier is the one most likely to carry a whole teaching session: 200 participants per room, unlimited rooms, moderation included. Check the limit that belongs to your format, not the one in the advertisement.
Does the price grow with your audience or with your team?
Both happen, and it makes a large difference. Mentimeter (€168–€336) and Wooclap Pro (€300) bill per presenting person per year; twelve presenters run into four figures there. Particify also bills per account — €12 a month for education, €18 for business — but requires at least five accounts, so €720 a year even if only one person presents. Kahoot instead ties the price to audience size, in steps from 50 to 5,000. Slido and Poll Everywhere combine both: a base price by audience size plus €15 to €40 a month for each additional member.
Annual only — or cancellable monthly?
Slido accepts no monthly payment at all for Basic and Pro, and neither does Mentimeter; both offer one-off event plans instead. Anyone looking for a tool for two events a year otherwise pays for twelve months to use two.
Which tier hides the feature you need?
This is usually where the disappointment lands. The word cloud arrives only at €143.40 a year on Vevox, and one step above the entry tier on Kahoot. Removing the vendor's logo costs $999 a year on Poll Everywhere. Data export is missing from the free tier on Slido, Mentimeter, AhaSlides, Wooclap and Vevox. Moderated Q&A sits in the middle or at the top everywhere — and on omul the approval step does not exist at all, while every format is in every tier.
Every omul format in detailWhere does the data sit — and who runs the server?
The blanket "US cloud" charge does not hold up: Mentimeter is Swedish and says it hosts in the EU, Slido sits on AWS in Ireland and Germany, Wooclap in Paris with ISO 27001, Kahoot is based in Oslo. The only one unambiguously outside the EU is Poll Everywhere ("exclusively in the United States"); AhaSlides names Frankfurt and Virginia, Vevox Ireland or the US. The dividing line that holds is therefore not the country but whether a processor is involved at all.
GDPR & self-hosting in detailWhat do the terms of service say?
The question nobody asks until legal does. Kahoot's licence permits the free plan for non-commercial purposes only and requires a paid plan for professional use; advertising and sales use needs express permission. The other six carry no purpose restriction — but they do carry a vendor contract you do not get to change.
Head-to-head comparisons
omul in detail against each tool
Each comparison lays out features, privacy, limits and pricing — including the points where the competitor comes out ahead.
Mentimeter alternative
The market leader, European and mature — but closed, not self-hostable, and billed per presenting person.
CompareSlido alternative
Mature Q&A, deep in Webex and Teams — but closed, annual-only, and capped hard on the free tier.
CompareAhaSlides alternative
The cheapest vendor in the field — but a Singaporean operator, AWS regions in the EU and the US, and no self-hosting.
CompareWooclap alternative
The 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.
ComparePoll Everywhere alternative
A 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.
CompareVevox alternative
ISO 27001 certified and strong in Microsoft Teams — but a UK operator, data in Ireland or the US, and word clouds only on paid plans.
CompareKahoot alternative
The reference for quizzes and showmanship — but its free plan is licensed for private use only, and audience size is a purchasing decision.
CompareParticify alternative
The open-source German peer — the same position; compared as hosted services, not as self-host versus SaaS.
Compare
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No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)