Short answer. If you present from PowerPoint and only need polls and Q&A, Slido or Mentimeter are simpler and cheaper than any event app. If the audience already has your event app, built-in polls remove a second login, put results on the same screen as the agenda, and keep the points in one leaderboard. Sociana adds a no-login web page opened by QR for people who have not installed the app.
Disclosure. Sociana publishes this guide and is listed once, at position 4 of 8, labelled as our product. We compiled it on 19 Oct 2026 from public vendor pages linked below, without hands-on testing, and nobody paid for a place. Where another product is stronger we say so.
How we chose
- Login friction for the audience: link, code, QR or account.
- Presenter workflow: PowerPoint, Google Slides or the event stage.
- Results on the venue screen and exportable afterwards.
- Price per audience size.
- Whether answers connect to anything else: points, groups, reports.
We placed Sociana at position 4. It is the pick for situations such as “audience already has the event app”; for the other situations in the table further down, products ranked differently are the better choice. Prices are what vendors publish on 19 Oct 2026, not quotes, and aggregator figures are marked unverified.
The ranked list
| Rank | Product | Best for | Pricing as published (19 Oct 2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slido | Polls and Q&A inside presentations | Prices not in page HTML; Capterra lists a free tier, $210 and $900 a year (unverified) | pricing |
| 2 | Mentimeter | Presenter-led interactive slides | Free for 50 participants a month; $14 and $28 per presenter per month billed yearly | pricing |
| 3 | Poll Everywhere | Presenters with an audience of hundreds | Free for 40 audience members; Present $120 a year for 700 | pricing |
| 4 | Sociana (our product) | Events where the audience already uses the event app | Packages priced by scope, per occasion or per year; see the pricing page | pricing |
| 5 | Kahoot! 360 | Gamified quizzes for training and trivia | Annual only, from $19 a month for 50 participants up to $79 for 5,000 | pricing |
| 6 | AhaSlides | Teachers and trainers on a budget | Free for 50 participants; paid plans yearly | pricing |
| 7 | Crowdpurr | Large rooms with a branded poll page | Free for 20; Conference plan $249.99 a month for 1,000 | pricing |
| 8 | Vevox | Universities and businesses wanting Q&A and word clouds | Education, business and one-time-event plans; 30-day refund | pricing |
Product notes
Slido, position 1
Stronger at: Established Q&A and polling with presenter-tool integrations; owned by Cisco Webex.
Weaker for this job: Prices are not in the page HTML; answers do not feed an event leaderboard.
Mentimeter, position 2
Stronger at: Free for 50 participants a month, 23-plus slide types and PowerPoint or Google Slides embeds listed.
Weaker for this job: Pricing is per presenter, and it has no event identity or directory.
Poll Everywhere, position 3
Stronger at: Free for 40; Present at $120 a year for 700.
Weaker for this job: Standalone; no venue app.
Sociana (our product), position 4
Stronger at: Polls triggered from the stage, results live on the venue screen, a no-login web page opened by QR, group-scoped questions and leaderboard points. Used with quizzes at a sales conference with questions prepared hidden and released from the stage.
Weaker for this job: No PowerPoint or Teams add-in; priced as part of a full occasion, not per poll.
Kahoot! 360, position 5
Stronger at: Published ladder from $19 a month for 50 up to $79 for 5,000 participants.
Weaker for this job: Annual billing only; quiz-first rather than an open poll.
AhaSlides, position 6
Stronger at: Free for 50 participants; yearly plans.
Weaker for this job: Free tier limits questions; no event layer.
Crowdpurr, position 7
Stronger at: Conference plan at $249.99 a month for 1,000 participants.
Weaker for this job: Monthly price jumps with audience size.
Vevox, position 8
Stronger at: Education, business and one-time-event plans with a 30-day refund.
Weaker for this job: UK vendor; no India pricing found.
Which to pick, by situation
| If your situation is | Consider |
|---|---|
| Presenter uses PowerPoint and needs Q&A | Slido or Mentimeter |
| Audience already has the event app | Sociana |
| Training quiz for 50 to 5,000 people | Kahoot! |
| A tight budget | AhaSlides or Mentimeter free tier |
| Results must appear on an LED wall with the event branding | Sociana |
Where Sociana is not the right pick
Sociana’s polls are not a replacement for a presenter tool inside PowerPoint: if your speakers want to launch polls from their slides, use Slido or Mentimeter. For a one-hour webinar, an event app is overkill.
FAQ
Do attendees need to log in to answer a poll?
With most tools they join with a code or link. Sociana also offers a no-login web page opened by QR, so unregistered visitors can vote. See our note on why the QR matters.
Can polls be restricted to certain people?
Yes in Sociana, polls can be scoped by group, so partners and employees see different questions. Presenter tools usually scope by room code.
How should we release questions?
Prepare them hidden, then switch visibility on from the stage. The sales conference reference build wrote its quiz questions in advance and released them live.
Is a standalone polling tool or an event app cheaper?
For one session, a standalone tool is cheaper. If you already need an app, polls are a feature you have paid for. We compare the two in polling tool versus event app.
Keep comparing
- Approach comparison: Polling tool vs event app: Slido or Mentimeter, or polls inside the app?
- Case study: A focused conference companion with room numbers, quizzes and memories
- How Sociana is priced: pricing
Sources and disclosure
- Slido: slido.com
- Mentimeter: mentimeter.com
- Poll Everywhere: polleverywhere.com
- Sociana (our product): Sociana pricing
- Kahoot! 360: kahoot360.com
- AhaSlides: ahaslides.com
- Crowdpurr: crowdpurr.com
- Vevox: vevox.com
Vendor and product names are trademarks of their owners. Sociana is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any product named here, and names are used only to identify them. Found a mistake? Report a correction or email hello@sociana.in and we will correct the page within five working days. Pricing and feature statements were checked on 19 Oct 2026 and should be re-checked before you buy.