Picture 40 people in front of you: at a team away day, at the AGM of your residents' association or in a lecture theatre on a Monday morning. A show of hands is quick, but nobody votes freely when their manager is watching, and the loudest voices set the mood. A live polling tool lets everyone vote from their phone and puts the result on the big screen straight away.
The best tool for live polls in 2026 depends on three questions: how many people can join for free, whether you can pay month by month or only per year or per event, and where the answers are stored. empirio.ai, a tool from Germany for surveys, forms, quizzes and live polls, can be cancelled monthly and keeps data in the EU, while Mentimeter and Slido sell annual or event packages only.
We looked at three live polling tools side by side: empirio.ai, Mentimeter and Slido. By the end you will know which one fits your session and where the free plan runs out.
📌 The key points at a glance
- empirio.ai lets people vote via QR code, without app or account.
- empirio.ai shows open answers live as a word cloud.
- Mentimeter offers no processor contract, by its own account.
- Slido allows 100 free participants, but only three questions.
- Mentimeter and Slido offer no monthly cancellable plan.
Create a survey for free
With empirio.ai you can create a modern online survey in minutes — with hosting in the EU.
- AI-built survey
- Adjust by drag & drop
- Real-time analysis
What really matters in a live polling tool
A live polling tool is software that lets your audience vote on their phones during a session while the results appear on screen in real time. Unlike a poll sent out as a link that stays open for days, every second counts here: if joining takes longer than ten seconds, you lose the room.
Six points decide whether a polling tool works in front of real people. You only notice the two most important ones once the audience is sitting there.
- Joining without app or account: scan a QR code or type in a code, and that is it. Every extra step costs you participants.
- Participants on the free plan: how many can take part, and does the provider count per session or per month?
- Question types: multiple choice, scales, rankings and open answers that turn into a word cloud.
- Anonymity: does the screen show only the overall result, or can someone trace who picked what?
- Billing: cancellable monthly, an annual subscription or a package per event?
- Data protection: where are the answers stored, and do you get a processor contract?
A good live poll rarely has more than five questions, by the way. Put 15 questions into a 45-minute talk and your audience stops listening and starts filling in forms.
The 3 best live polling tools 2026 in detail
Three tools cover live polling in UK meetings, workshops and lectures well: empirio.ai, Mentimeter and Slido. The order is not a ranking, it follows the use case.
One note in our own interest: empirio.ai belongs to us. That is why our own tool comes first, so nobody finds out in the last paragraph that we have a stake in this. What empirio.ai cannot do is listed just as clearly as what it can.
empirio.ai: live polls, quizzes and surveys in one tool
empirio.ai, a tool from Germany for surveys, forms, quizzes and live polls, has offered a live mode since November 2026. Your audience votes in the phone browser, with a room code on empirio.ai/live or a QR code, without app or account, in the room or in an online meeting. Its strengths in one line: modern design, easy to use, a large free offering, many AI tools, EU hosting.
Results appear instantly as a bar, column or pie chart. Open answers show up as a word cloud or as a list the audience can vote up and down, and you can hide anything inappropriate. You start, pause, end and reopen sessions, optionally with a time limit. The presentation shows only the overall result, never names. After the session all answers sit in the results area by session, ready to compare and export. The AI suggests questions from the occasion, audience and goal.
Up to 50 people a month take part for free, with unlimited polls, quizzes and surveys. The prices are: Free, Lite £19, Plus £39, Pro £69 a month (cancellable monthly). Answers are stored on EU servers, the AI runs there too, and the processor contract comes with the free plan (as of November 2026).
Perfect for: team meetings, workshops, society meetings and lectures.
Strengths
- Live polls, quizzes and surveys in one tool at no extra cost.
- People vote with a room code or QR code, without app or account.
- Word cloud and an up-and-down voting list for open answers.
- Servers in the EU and a processor contract on the free plan.
- Every plan stays cancellable monthly.
Limitations
- Free for up to 50 participants a month.
- Export to Excel, CSV and SPSS only from Lite.
- AI analysis only from Plus.
Mentimeter: the classic for interactive presentations
Mentimeter is the best-known tool for interactive presentations and combines slides with live polls, word clouds, scales and quizzes. Menti AI builds presentations and suggests questions. According to the provider, data is stored in the EU by default, in Ireland. Mentimeter does not sign a processor contract, though, by its own account, because it regards itself as an independent controller for account data.
The Free plan allows 50 participants a month, plus one presentation a month with unlimited participants. The paid plans Basic and Pro are charged per presenter and sold as annual subscriptions only. Basic adds unlimited participants, PowerPoint import and export to Excel and PDF, and Pro adds your own branding, team collaboration and moderated Q&A. The annual billing for Basic and Pro is stated on Mentimeter's plans page, and that is also where you check the current price in your currency before you commit (as of November 2026).
Perfect for: presentations, training sessions and lectures built on your own slides.
Strengths
- Word clouds, polls and quizzes on the Free plan already.
- Data stored in the EU, in Ireland, according to the provider.
- Menti AI helps you put the presentation together.
Limitations
- Only 50 free participants a month.
- Paid plans on annual subscriptions only.
- Export only from Basic.
- No processor contract, according to the provider.
Slido: polls and Q&A for events
Slido belongs to Cisco and is strongest at audience Q&A: people submit questions and upvote the ones they want answered, alongside live polls and quizzes. Slido plugs into PowerPoint, Google Slides and Teams. Its servers are in the EU, in Ireland and Germany, and a processor contract is included.
The free Basic plan allows up to 100 participants per Slido, with a simple Q&A, three questions and one quiz. There is no monthly subscription. You either buy a one-off package for a single event that runs for up to seven days, or you take out an annual plan. The Engage package covers up to 200 participants with unlimited questions, quizzes and data export. Schools and universities get discounted education plans. Check the packages and the price in your currency on Slido's pricing page (as of November 2026).
Perfect for: conferences, events and lectures with a Q&A session.
Strengths
- Live polls, quizzes and Q&A with upvotes.
- Free for up to 100 participants per Slido.
- Works inside PowerPoint, Google Slides and Teams.
- EU hosting and a processor contract.
Limitations
- Free gives you only three questions and one quiz per Slido.
- No monthly plan, only event packages or an annual plan.
- Data export only with the Engage package.
Live polling tools in direct comparison
Two questions are enough for a shortlist: how many people can join for free, and how are you billed after that? Both answers are in the table, and your session decides the rest.
The figures come from the providers' pricing pages. Limits and packages change without notice, so it is always worth a look at the pricing page before the day itself.
| Tool | Free up to | The main catch |
|---|---|---|
| empirio.ai | 50 participants per month | export only from Lite |
| Mentimeter | 50 participants per month | no processor contract |
| Slido | 100 participants per Slido | only three questions on the free plan |
As of November 2026, subject to change.
Which live polling tool suits you?
Which live polling tool suits you comes down to three things: how often you run polls, how big your audience is and whether your slides live in another program. The table sorts the most common cases.
Pick the row closest to your situation. If you poll every week, billing matters more than anything else.
| Your case | What matters then | What that means for the tool |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly team stand-up | quick, cancellable monthly | empirio.ai is cancellable monthly on every plan |
| Workshop temperature check | word cloud and scales | empirio.ai and Mentimeter offer both for free |
| Vote at a residents' association AGM | anonymous, no app | empirio.ai shows only the overall result, no names |
| Guest lecture with your own PowerPoint slides | slides and questions together | Mentimeter imports slides from Basic |
| Conference with a Q&A panel | audience questions with upvotes | Slido is built around Q&A sessions |
| One-off charity gala with 150 guests | one date, many participants | Slido sells packages per event |
Ready-made agendas for kick-offs, retrospectives and feedback rounds are in the meeting and workshop templates from empirio.ai, all free. To get your audience in within seconds, see our guide to voting by QR code.
Create a survey for free
With empirio.ai you can create a modern online survey in minutes — with hosting in the EU.
- AI-built survey
- Adjust by drag & drop
- Real-time analysis
Live poll or survey link: what is the difference?
A live poll runs during a session and shows the result to everyone in the room at once, while a survey sent as a link stays open for days and is analysed afterwards. Both use similar question types but serve different goals: the live poll gets the room talking, the survey collects data you can rely on.
The goal tells you which format to choose. If your workshop group has to decide which topic to tackle after lunch, a live poll is right, because the result feeds straight into the next hour. If you want to know how the team feels about the new hybrid working policy, you need a survey that everyone fills in at their own pace, including the people who missed the meeting. At empirio.ai you choose the mode when you create it and can change it in the editor at any time.
When a WhatsApp poll is enough
For a quick question among friends or in the class parents' group, you often need no separate tool at all. A poll straight in WhatsApp takes seconds to set up, but everyone in the group can see who picked what. As soon as the vote has to stay anonymous or appear on a big screen in front of an audience, WhatsApp reaches its limit.
Voting anonymously
Anonymity is the real advantage a live poll has over a show of hands. At empirio.ai the presentation shows only the overall result, no names, and nobody needs an account to vote. In a small group, though, answers can often still be guessed, for instance with three people and one unusual free-text reply. How to avoid that is covered in our guide to the anonymous survey.
Common mistakes with live polls
Most live polls fail not because of the tool but in the first 30 seconds in the room. Three mistakes come up again and again.
All three mistakes only show once the audience is already waiting. A test run the day before with two colleagues on their phones saves you exactly those moments.
Mistake 1: making the way in too small
A QR code in the bottom right corner of a slide cannot be scanned from row ten. Put the code and the QR code on a slide of their own, large and for at least 30 seconds, and read the room code out once. Only start the first question when the participant counter stops climbing. That way the people who had to dig their phone out of a bag still get to vote.
Mistake 2: finding the free limit on the day
The free plan easily covers a team meeting with 12 people, but not an AGM with 80 members. empirio.ai and Mentimeter allow 50 participants a month, Slido 100 per Slido but only three questions. Check beforehand how many people are coming and count every session in the month. Otherwise you hit a limit halfway through the meeting.
Mistake 3: putting open questions on screen unmoderated
A word cloud is the liveliest format in a live poll and also the riskiest. A single inappropriate word appears in large letters in front of everyone. Use the tool's moderation (at empirio.ai you can hide unsuitable answers) and only show the word cloud once enough answers have come in. With five answers it looks empty, with 30 it tells a story.
Tip
Open every live poll with a question that decides nothing, such as “How did you get here this morning: train, bus, car or on foot?”. Everyone tries the way in once without pressure, and by the question that matters, the whole room is already connected.
Conclusion
The best live polling tool is the one your audience joins in ten seconds and that does not lock you into a year of payments for a handful of sessions. If you poll regularly in meetings and workshops and want EU data storage, empirio.ai covers you for free or monthly. Presenting from your own slides points to Mentimeter, a conference with Q&A to Slido.
One point decides things in practice more often than it comes up in comparisons. As soon as a live poll is not purely private but runs for a company, a charity, a school, a university or a practice, the tool provider processes personal data on behalf of that organisation. Under UK GDPR that requires a written contract with the provider of the tool (Article 28), the same duty applies in the EU under the GDPR, and in Switzerland Article 9 of the revised FADP asks for a comparable contract. The Information Commissioner's Office explains when such a contract is needed (accessed 20 October 2026).
Purely private polls among family and friends are exempt. Whether your case is covered is decided by your organisation's data protection officer, or at university by your supervisor. This article is not legal advice.
Among these three tools, this contract draws a clear line. empirio.ai includes it on the free plan already, and Slido provides one as well. Mentimeter does not sign one, by its own account, because it sees itself as an independent controller for account data. At work or in a charity, settle this with your data protection officer beforehand. All three store data in the EU, and at empirio.ai so does the AI processing. For UK organisations EU storage is a short route: the UK treats the EEA as adequate, so no extra transfer agreement is needed.
What to read next
- Want to test knowledge rather than opinions? The best quiz tools compared
- Need sign-ups for the workshop? The best form tools compared
- Want to follow up in more depth after the session? The best survey tools compared
- Want to analyse open answers properly? Open-ended questions in surveys
Want the room to vote live at your next meeting?
Set up a poll in empirio.ai, show the QR code and watch the results arrive as a chart or word cloud. For up to 50 participants a month, it costs nothing.