Poll Everywhere alternative: omul, compared in the open
Poll Everywhere answers the privacy question itself, and unambiguously: "All data is securely stored on Amazon AWS cloud servers exclusively in the United States." There is no EU region. Add 40 people on the free tier — the harshest cap in this comparison — and $999 a year to make the Poll Everywhere logo disappear from your poll. omul runs on your server, under AGPLv3, with nothing counted.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)
- Data
- Exclusively in the US
- Free cap
- 40 audience members
- Pricing
- $120 – $999/year
- Remove logo
- only from $999/year
The short answer
Is it worth switching from Poll Everywhere?
Poll Everywhere is closed SaaS from US-based Poll Everywhere, Inc.; its own security page says all data sits on AWS servers exclusively in the United States, and no EU region is offered. The free tier caps at 40 audience members (700 for the first 30 days), paid plans run $120 to $999 a year, removing the Poll Everywhere logo arrives only with the $999 Teams plan, and SSO only with Enterprise. omul covers the same live formats, is open source under AGPLv3, runs self-hosted or EU-hosted, and caps neither participants nor questions. Poll Everywhere, on the other hand, holds ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type 2 and is deeply embedded in US higher education; omul is neither.
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
Poll Everywhere 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 Poll Everywhere when …
- US data storage is not a problem for you — at a German public body, university or works council it usually is.
- procurement wants certificates: ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, SOC 2 Type 2 and PCI DSS are all in place.
- you work at a US university, where Poll Everywhere has been embedded in course delivery for years and brings attendance management with it.
- you want any number of colleagues creating their own polls on the free tier — Poll Everywhere does not count seats there.
Choose omul when …
- your participants' answers must not leave the EU. This is not a question of interpretation — the vendor states that they do.
- 40 people on the free tier is not enough to test the tool in a real room.
- your poll should carry your logo rather than the vendor's, without paying $999 a year for it.
- you want to audit the source — AGPLv3 rather than an assurance.
Side by side
omul and Poll Everywhere, criterion by criterion
Each row is a criterion that turns up in a real procurement — Poll Everywhere's answer first, omul's second. Every Poll Everywhere figure comes from the pages listed with their dates under "Sources" below.
| Criterion | Poll Everywhere | omul |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on your own infrastructure | SaaS only | Docker image, your server |
| Source code readable | Closed source | AGPLv3 |
| Where the data sits | AWS, exclusively in the US — the vendor's own words, no EU region | Your servers — or EU hosting |
| Vendor certifications | ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS | None — self-hosting means you certify your own operation |
| Free tier | 40 audience members (700 for 30 days), unlimited questions and seats | Self-hosting, uncapped |
| Participant ceiling | 700 on every paid plan; above that, Enterprise only | No limit in the code |
| Billing currency | US dollars — exchange rate and foreign-transaction fees on top | Euro |
| Additional presenters | $120 to $499 per person per year, by plan | Cost nothing extra |
| Remove the vendor's logo | Teams plan only — $999/year | Your own logo and colours are included |
| SSO / SAML | Enterprise only, price on request | On the roadmap; email and password today |
| Attendance management | From Engage ($588/year) | Not built |
| Live formats | Every question and poll type on every plan | Plus 2×2 grid, 100-point split, number guesses and pin-on-image |
| Join without a participant account | Yes, by link, code or SMS | Yes, six-digit code, link or QR |
| Data export | On every plan, including the free one | Spreadsheet and PDF, in every edition |
In detail
The differences, argued out
Where does Poll Everywhere store data?
Poll Everywhere
In the United States, and the vendor puts it plainly enough that no follow-up question is needed: "All data is securely stored on Amazon AWS cloud servers exclusively in the United States." No EU region is offered. Poll Everywhere, Inc. is therefore the one company in this comparison where the third-country transfer is documented rather than arguable — for a German public body, university or works council, the review ends right there.
omul
With omul there is no transfer because there is no recipient: you run the instance, the database is on your machine, and the source is auditable under AGPLv3. If you would rather not run it, the EU-hosted edition comes with a DPA. In fairness: what Poll Everywhere brings in certifications — ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 Type 2 — omul does not have.
polleverywhere.com/security, checked 05.09.2026
How many participants does Poll Everywhere allow for free?
Poll Everywhere
Forty. For the first thirty days it is 700, after which the Intro plan falls back to 40 audience members — the harshest standing cap in this comparison. Poll Everywhere is unusually generous elsewhere, though: questions are unlimited, export is included even for free, and the Intro plan does not count seats, so any number of colleagues can create their own polls.
omul
omul counts neither audience, nor questions, nor seats. 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.
polleverywhere.com/plans, checked 05.09.2026
What does Poll Everywhere cost?
Poll Everywhere
In US dollars, and with an unusual shape: Present is $120 a year (700 audience, one seat), Engage $588 (two seats, attendance management, archived results), Teams $999 (branding, custom URL, phone support). Each additional seat costs $120, $294 or $499 a year. Enterprise, with SSO and a custom audience size, has no list price. Notably, the audience ceiling stays at 700 across all three paid tiers — what grows between $120 and $999 is not the audience but the administration.
omul
Self-hosting omul carries no licence fee, only the server; the hosted edition is planned as a flat per-workspace price in euro regardless of how many people present, and its billing is still being built. The dollar point is not a detail: exchange rate and foreign-transaction fees land on top of Poll Everywhere's price, and a euro budget cannot be planned cleanly around it.
polleverywhere.com/plans, checked 05.09.2026
What does it cost to get rid of the vendor's logo?
Poll Everywhere
$999 a year. Removing the Poll Everywhere logo, custom themes and a custom URL arrive only with the Teams plan — on Present and Engage the vendor's name is on every slide your audience sees. For a customer event or an all-hands with the board, that is not a cosmetic issue but an argument.
omul
Your own logo and colours are part of the product in omul — organisation branding applies across the presenter, participant and join surfaces. And self-hosting puts your domain in front of it anyway.
polleverywhere.com/plans, checked 05.09.2026
Which question formats do both have?
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere unlocks every question and poll type on every plan, including the free one — multiple choice, word cloud, open text, scales, ranking, Q&A, competitions. Plus SMS responses, still genuinely useful in rooms without wi-fi, and a PowerPoint integration.
omul
The same canon, plus four formats Poll Everywhere 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. What is missing is SMS responses and the PowerPoint integration.
Can you self-host Poll Everywhere?
Poll Everywhere
No. Poll Everywhere runs only in its own AWS estate in the United States, and its source is not public.
omul
omul is open source under AGPLv3 and built to be self-hosted: one container, your database, your domain. Against a vendor that stores exclusively in the US, that is the difference between needing a data protection impact assessment and not.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)
What it costs
A worked example: omul against Poll Everywhere
With Poll Everywhere the price does not grow with the audience — 700 is the ceiling on every paid plan — it grows with the administration features. Here is the same case on both sides, using list prices read on 05.09.2026.
ScenarioA university administration with two people who facilitate events, for groups of 200 to 600. Their own logo should be on screen.
| Scenario | Poll Everywhere | omul |
|---|---|---|
| Plan needed (to remove branding) | Teams | Self-hosted |
| Base price | $999/year | €0 |
| Seats included | 2 | all of them |
| Data sits in | the United States | your data centre |
| Server | included | your bill |
| Per year | $999 | €0 + server |
Poll Everywhere prices per polleverywhere.com/plans on 05.09.2026, in US dollars, billed annually; Teams is the lowest plan on which the Poll Everywhere logo disappears, and it covers two seats. No exchange rate is converted here on purpose — it will be different on the day of the invoice, and the card's foreign-transaction fee lands on top. A self-hosted omul costs no licence but does cost a server and the time to run it, and it has neither the attendance management nor the certifications in this table.
Switching
How much work is moving off Poll Everywhere?
Two things go away when you switch, and both are worth knowing in advance: SMS responses and attendance management. The questions themselves have to be rebuilt.
Rebuild the questions
omul reads neither Poll Everywhere exports nor PowerPoint files. A twenty-question deck is about an hour's work. An importer is logged as a requirement but not built.
Take your results with you
Poll Everywhere exports on every plan, including the free one. Pull the analyses you want to keep — and remember that access to archived results only exists from Engage upwards.
SMS responses go away
omul knows only the browser: code, link or QR. If your audience has been answering by SMS because the room has no wi-fi, that is a real loss — check it first.
Attendance management goes away
Poll Everywhere can record attendance and import participants; omul cannot. For a lecture with compulsory attendance that is a disqualifier.
Staying fair
Where Poll Everywhere is (still) ahead
Poll Everywhere is a mature product, and it leads omul in four places:
Certifications
ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, SOC 2 Type 2 and PCI DSS. The storage location is the problem; the security work behind it is not — and omul brings none of these attestations.
Responses by SMS
In rooms without wi-fi, and with audiences who will not open an app or a browser, this is still the most reliable way to get participation. omul knows only the browser.
Attendance management
Recording attendance, importing and grouping participants, searching archived results — from the Engage plan. omul has none of it.
Unlimited seats on the free tier
Poll Everywhere does not count seats on the Intro plan: any number of colleagues can create their own polls. That is more generous than any other free tier here.
Frequently asked questions about the comparison
Where does Poll Everywhere store data?
Exclusively in the United States. Its own security page puts it this way: "All data is securely stored on Amazon AWS cloud servers exclusively in the United States." No EU region is offered. With omul the data sits on your own server, or in the EU-hosted edition.
What does Poll Everywhere cost?
Present is $120, Engage $588 and Teams $999 a year, all billed annually; each additional seat costs $120, $294 or $499 a year. Enterprise, with SSO, has no list price. The audience ceiling is 700 on all three paid plans. As of 05.09.2026, per polleverywhere.com/plans.
How many participants does Poll Everywhere allow for free?
Forty — 700 for the first thirty days, then 40. That is the harshest standing cap in this comparison. Questions and seats, by contrast, are unlimited on the free tier and export is included. omul caps none of it.
Is Poll Everywhere GDPR-compliant?
Using it compliantly requires a third-country transfer to the US, because the vendor states it stores exclusively there. Poll Everywhere holds ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type 2, but a certification does not replace the transfer assessment. Ruling it out means EU hosting or self-hosting.
Can you self-host Poll Everywhere?
No. Poll Everywhere is available only as US-hosted SaaS and its source is not public. omul is open source under AGPLv3 and built to run on your own infrastructure.
Can omul take responses by SMS?
No. omul knows only the browser: joining by six-digit code, link or QR. Poll Everywhere supports SMS, which is a real advantage in rooms without wi-fi.
What does it cost to remove the Poll Everywhere logo?
$999 a year — logo removal, custom themes and a custom URL arrive only with the Teams plan. With omul, your own logo and colours are part of the product.
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.
- Poll Everywhere — business and non-profit planschecked 05.09.2026
- Poll Everywhere — security, storage location and certificationschecked 05.09.2026
More alternatives
See all comparisons- 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.
- Kahoot alternativeThe reference for quizzes and showmanship — but its free plan is licensed for private use only, and audience size is a purchasing decision.
- Particify alternativeThe open-source German peer — the same position; compared as hosted services, not as self-host versus SaaS.
See for yourself
Try the open-source Poll Everywhere alternative
Create your first live poll in under a minute — no setup, no credit card.
No credit card · Free self-hosting · Open source (AGPLv3)