Overview

Jackpoll handles both collected responses and live audience activities. Respondents can answer without accounts, reducing a hurdle for classes, events and feedback campaigns. Survey creators do need an account on the hosted service, or a self-hosted instance, so the lighter sign-in requirement is for participants rather than administrators.

The builder offers 15 question types, multi-page drag-and-drop forms and conditional logic. Real-time collaborative editing, with editor and viewer roles, helps teams share drafting and review. That breadth is useful for varied questionnaires, though organisations with a narrow feedback workflow may not need a general-purpose survey and quiz platform.

Key features

Question options include short answers, multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdowns, grids, file uploads, sliders, ratings, dates and times, rankings, signatures and word clouds. Auto-graded quizzes and live word clouds extend the tool beyond ordinary forms. Responses update in real time and can be exported to CSV, Excel or individual PDF files, a practical mix for teams that need both a live view and portable records.

Presenter-led quiz games add a more performative mode: players join with a PIN or QR code, use phones as buzzers, and compete for speed bonuses on a live leaderboard and podium. This suits classrooms and events better than a form-only tool, but readers who only need to collect feedback may not benefit from the game layer.

For integrations, Jackpoll can POST each response to any endpoint using HMAC-signed webhooks. It can also email new-response notifications in real time or as a daily digest. Privacy controls include consent banners, privacy notices, lawful-basis controls, configurable retention, data export and erasure. The maker describes the service as GDPR-compliant and EU-hosted; self-hosted deployments include ClamAV upload scanning and Traefik TLS and routing.

The frontend, API and deployment stacks are public under the MIT licence, and the maker says hosted and self-hosted versions use the same build. This is a meaningful option for technically capable organisations wanting deployment control, but running a self-hosted instance means taking responsibility for that deployment.

Pricing

The Free plan costs 0.00 EUR per free, billed forever. It includes unlimited surveys, unlimited responses, all 15 question types and all features, an unusually generous basis for ongoing use when compared with capped response allowances. There is no free trial because the product already has a free plan.

Self-host costs 0.00 EUR per free, billed once, and offers unlimited everything under the MIT licence with no licence key. The price removes a software licence charge, not the practical work of operating a self-hosted deployment. No paid tier is needed for the stated hosted or self-hosted plan features.

Platforms

Jackpoll supports web, Android, iOS, API access and self-hosting. The maker says the mobile builds use Capacitor and links to an iOS TestFlight beta. Respondents do not need accounts, while survey management requires an account or self-hosting.

Who it's for

Teachers and event organisers can use the quiz-game format for live participation, while researchers and businesses can build multi-page surveys and export results. Teams benefit from co-editing and distinct editor and viewer roles. Privacy-conscious organisations have both data controls and the self-host option, though that route is best suited to groups able to manage their own deployment.

Pros and cons

Pro: Unlimited surveys and responses on the free hosted plan make it viable for sustained use rather than only a short trial.
Pro: Fifteen question types, conditional logic and multiple export formats support varied forms and downstream analysis.
Pro: PIN or QR entry, phone buzzers and live scoring give presenters tools beyond ordinary survey collection.
Pro: MIT-licensed self-hosting and privacy controls offer organisations deployment choice and data-management features.
Con: Hosted survey creation and management require an account, even though respondents can participate without one.
Con: Self-hosting avoids a licence fee but entails operating a deployment, so it is not the low-effort choice for every organisation.

Alternatives

For employee feedback, Questback Employee Experience is the more specialised alternative; its paid EX Starter and EX Business plans each include one user and different amounts of InsightLab time, while it has a free trial but no free plan. FeedbackPulse is another employee-focused option: its free plan is limited to 10 employees and five active or scheduled surveys, with an employee directory, kudos recognition and basic dashboards.

For individual survey use, Qualtrics offers a free plan capped at one user, three active surveys, 30 questions per survey and 500 total responses. SoGoSurvey may suit users who can work within annual project and response quotas: its free plan allows 15 projects per year, 100 responses per project, 200 responses per year and 200 emails per year; its Pro plan is 99.00 USD per month.

QuestionPro is an alternative for a single user who can work within 200 responses per survey on its free Essentials plan, which includes 30 question types; its Advanced plan is 99.00 USD per month, billed annually, for one user and 25K responses per year. Sogolytics has a similar free ceiling of 15 projects a year, 100 responses per project, 200 responses a year and 200 emails a year, with no credit card required; its Pro plan is 99.00 USD per month.

EchoSpan offers survey and report options in more than 100 languages for 17.00 USD per review, making it a possible pick when multilingual review material is the priority. Gallup Access is another alternative.

Readers comparing categories can also browse Employee Feedback Software, Employee Survey Software, Audience Response Systems and Survey Software.

Verdict

Jackpoll is a strong choice for educators, event organisers and teams that want flexible surveys, live quiz participation and unlimited use without a subscription fee. Its MIT-licensed self-hosting and privacy controls strengthen the case for organisations that want deployment choice. Look elsewhere if the priority is a dedicated employee-experience product or if your team does not want to manage a self-hosted deployment.

	Jackpoll	Top Hat
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	$35/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, self-hosted, Web	Web, iOS, Android
Free plan	Yes	—
Live polling	Yes	—
Live Q&A	Yes	Yes
Quiz mode	Yes	—
Anonymous responses	Yes	—
Paid from	—	$35/mo

Jackpoll vs Top Hat

Jackpoll

Top Hat