Audience polling tool comparison for India (2026)
Mentimeter, Slido, AhaSlides, Quizotic — head-to-head on free plans, price, features and India fit.
TL;DR
- •Mentimeter: best brand recognition and polish; free plan 50 per month; Basic from $11.99 per presenter a month, billed yearly.
- •Slido: best for audience Q&A and Webex or Microsoft Teams organisations; free plan 100 per slido, with 3 polls each.
- •AhaSlides: lower paid prices, billed monthly or yearly, and a solid quiz mode; free plan 50 per presentation.
- •Quizotic: a quiz engine built in alongside the polls; free plan 50 per session, unlimited sessions; Pro planned at $4.99/month, not yet on sale.
- •For trainers paying out of pocket: compare the free plans first — a per-session cap outlasts a monthly one.
- •For slow school or corporate Wi-Fi: Quizotic's join page is 267 KB against Slido's 1,087 KB — four times lighter.
Audience polling tools have converged on features. The real differences are in how the free plan counts, how the paid plans are billed, how heavy the join page is on slow Wi-Fi, and whether quiz mechanics sit alongside the polls. For Indian trainers, educators and event organisers, three questions usually decide it: will the free plan last the month, what does paying involve, and does the page load on the training room's connection? Here is the full breakdown.
Quick reference
Checked on each vendor's pricing page on 25 September 2026. Free plan — Quizotic: 50 per session, unlimited sessions. Mentimeter: 50 per month (one pool shared by every presentation in the month, plus one session a month with no cap; once the pool is spent you cannot present again until it resets). AhaSlides: 50 per presentation (up to 5 quiz questions and 3 poll questions per presentation). Slido: 100 per slido (the free Basic plan allows 3 polls per slido). Cheapest paid plan — Quizotic: Pro planned at $4.99/month, not yet on sale. Mentimeter: Basic $11.99 per presenter a month on the US list (€14 in India), billed yearly. AhaSlides: paid plans billed monthly or yearly. Slido: Engage $12.50 a month, billed $150 a year. Quiz depth — Quizotic: a full quiz engine with leaderboard, speed bonus and teams. Mentimeter: quiz slides with a leaderboard. AhaSlides: a solid quiz mode. Slido: multiple-choice quizzes, unlimited from Engage. Participant page, measured 12 September 2026 — Quizotic 267 KB, Mentimeter 597 KB, Slido 1,087 KB; AhaSlides needs a join code first and could not be measured the same way.
The India-specific factors that change the ranking
On a global comparison Mentimeter often ranks first on brand and polish. For Indian buyers, three practical factors can change the order. (1) How the free plan counts: a trainer or teacher who runs sessions every week needs a cap that resets per session or per event. Mentimeter's 50-a-month pool is spent in the first week of a normal timetable; Quizotic resets every session, Slido every event and AhaSlides every presentation. (2) Paying: Mentimeter and Slido sell their paid plans by the year (Slido also sells one-time event plans), priced in US dollars or euros and paid by card. There is nothing to pay today: Quizotic is free, and the planned Pro plan is not on sale yet. When it launches it will bill in INR with UPI and a domestic GST invoice in India, and in USD by card elsewhere. (3) Wi-Fi in Indian institutions: CBSE and ICSE schools, coaching institutes and PSU training centres typically share 5–20 Mbps across 50–200 users. Every phone downloads the participant page before anyone can answer: Slido's is 1,087 KB and Mentimeter's 597 KB against Quizotic's 267 KB, measured 12 September 2026. Two to four times less to download, thirty times over, is felt in every session.
When each tool wins
Mentimeter: a budget for yearly plans, a global organisation standardised on it, polished template-heavy presentations. AhaSlides: paid plans that cost less than Mentimeter's or Slido's, billed monthly or yearly, with a solid quiz mode. Slido: Q&A-first events and organisations on Webex or Microsoft Teams; its free plan takes 100 per slido, the biggest free room here, but the free Basic plan allows 3 polls per slido. Quizotic: schools, coaching institutes, PSU training departments and trainers who run sessions every week and want quizzes and polls in one tool on a free plan — 50 per session, unlimited sessions.
Depth on quiz mechanics (the hidden differentiator)
Mentimeter's quiz is a slide type: timed questions that add up to one competition on a leaderboard. AhaSlides has a more developed quiz mode with a leaderboard and a team option. Slido runs multiple-choice quizzes with a leaderboard, unlimited from Engage. Quizotic is the only tool on this list built around a quiz engine: scored multiple choice, multi-select, true/false, fill in the blank, matching, image choice and pin-on-image questions; speed-bonus scoring; team mode; Bloom's Taxonomy tagging on generated questions; and a Confidence Grid in the report that shows who was sure and wrong. If your sessions combine interactive presentations with a gamified quiz — a common pattern in Indian L&D and classrooms — Quizotic handles both without switching tools, word clouds and polls included.
Frequently asked
Which audience polling tool has the best free tier for India?
It depends on how often you present. For sessions every week, Quizotic: 50 per session, unlimited sessions, with polls, Q&A and scored quizzes. For a single large event built around questions, Slido: 100 per slido, with 3 polls. AhaSlides allows 50 per presentation, with up to 5 quiz questions and 3 poll questions per presentation. Mentimeter's free plan caps participants at 50 per month in total, across all presentations.
Which integrates with Microsoft Teams?
Mentimeter and Slido have Microsoft Teams apps. Quizotic works through a shared link: the host pastes the join URL in the meeting chat, and attendees join in their browser. For most Teams calls this works fine; a native app saves one copy-paste.
Can I pay monthly for any of these?
Slido: no — annual plans or one-time event plans. Mentimeter: Pro and Enterprise can't be paid monthly, and the plans page shown in India says Basic can't either. AhaSlides: yes, monthly or yearly. Quizotic: nothing to pay today; Pro is planned at $4.99/month, not yet on sale.
What is the best polling tool for a 500-person Indian conference?
Check the room caps first. Quizotic's free plan seats 50 per session and Pro (500 per session) is planned and not yet on sale, so it does not fit a 500-person event today. Slido Professional covers 1,000 participants ($600 a year) and Mentimeter Basic has no participant cap ($11.99 per presenter a month on the US list, billed yearly). On crowded conference Wi-Fi, Mentimeter's 597 KB join page loads faster than Slido's 1,087 KB.
What's next
Free up to 50 participants per session, with unlimited sessions. No card required.
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