Have you ever been trapped in a conversation by somebody talking at you, rather than with you? It’s not a great feeling. When it’s clear the other party is more interested in sounding off than exchanging ideas, many people will tune out behind a mask of polite smiles and nods—or look for the first available exit.
The same phenomenon applies to meetings and presentations—a dull, one-sided speech is one of the quickest ways to lose your audience. On the other hand, interacting with your audience engages people and increases retention, as research shows active learning environments are significantly more effective than traditional lectures. By making meetings an interactive experience and asking your audience to weigh in, you can hold their attention and help them connect more strongly with the material.
Online survey tools are one of the best ways to encourage audience participation. Whether you’re polling people before, during, or after a meeting, it drives more relevant and candid conversations.
To help you make your next meeting more interactive, we’ve pulled together a list of the seven best survey tools for engaging your audience.
7 best survey tools for interactive meetings
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Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a versatile and powerful tool for making any size meeting more interactive and engaging. With a huge offering of built-in Activities like Word Clouds, Multiple Choice polls, Q&As, and more, Poll Everywhere collects audience responses in real time via app or browser. Gathering input from the audience keeps attendees engaged and allows presenters to drive more relevant conversations.
Besides its ability to elevate a presentation, Poll Everywhere also has many other uses throughout your organization. It’s excellent for conducting employee engagement surveys, hosting group brainstorms, or gathering agenda items in advance of meetings.
Top features:
- Easy integration: Poll Everywhere seamlessly integrates with popular presentation and communication apps like PowerPoint, Keynote, Teams, Slack, Webex, and more.
- Moderation features: Users can have a moderator approve anonymous open-ended responses before they’re shared on-screen.
- Customized branding: Customizable templates help you create consistent, professional-looking Activities that align with your brand standards.
Pros:
- Poll Everywhere makes all types of meetings more organized and engaging.
- Anonymous responses empower people to share what they’re really thinking.
- Audience members can respond via app or the unique pollev.com URL, so people can participate from several types of devices.
- An intuitive interface makes it simple to create interactive experiences and integrate them into your meeting or presentation.
Cons:
- A paid plan is required to poll audiences larger than 25 people.
- Poll Everywhere lacks some advanced survey features like branching, so it’s ideal for quick surveys or interactive exercises.
Pricing:
Poll Everywhere offers a free plan for polling up to 25 people, and paid annual plans starting at just $120. Higher-tier plans unlock additional customization and support, while Enterprise plans also include a dedicated success manager and ISO-compliant security features.
Create a Poll Everywhere account today and start hosting more interactive meetings.
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SurveyMonkey
One of the most popular online survey tools, SurveyMonkey helps anyone create surveys and forms for all types of applications. SurveyMonkey simplifies the process of gathering and analyzing feedback thanks to an intuitive user interface and robust reporting features.
Top features:
- Large template library: SurveyMonkey includes access to over 250 professionally crafted and customizable survey templates.
- AI-powered guidance: With SurveyMonkey Genius, users can receive step-by-step guidance on creating an effective survey.
- Team collaboration: Gather feedback and suggestions from colleagues all in one place so you can make adjustments before distributing your survey.
Pros:
- Powerful reporting and data analysis tools help users create simple dashboards or detailed reports.
- Users can easily collect feedback through email, web links, or embedded forms.
- All plans include a wide range of data export options.
Cons:
- You can view responses in real time, but integrating them into a meeting will require some workarounds or window-toggling.
- Most plan tiers have response limits, and exceeding them can lead to hefty upcharges.
Pricing:
Team plans start at $25 per user per month for up to three users, and individual plans start at $39 per month. Higher-tier plans include more responses and additional collaboration features.
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Slides With Friends
A live-polling app designed to make meetings more interactive, Slides With Friends does an admirable job of gathering real-time input from small to mid-sized groups. Users can build their interactive presentation in a familiar-feeling slide deck format, and meeting attendees can participate via QR code or URL.
Top features:
- User-friendly design: Anyone with experience building slide decks should feel right at home creating interactive surveys with this platform.
- Variety of templates: You’ll find plenty of helpful starting points for quizzes, group brainstorms, and other interactive activities.
- Customizable designs: While adding your own branding requires a Pro subscription, all tiers allow custom fonts and other design elements.
Pros:
- Real-time responses show up on-screen and encourage all attendees to participate.
- While they can’t respond by text, meeting attendees can still weigh in without having to download an app.
Cons:
- Maximum audience sizes are much lower than other live polling apps.
- You’ll have to import your other presentation content into the Slides With Friends platform.
- A Pro plan is required to remove the Slides With Friends logo and add your own.
Pricing:
There is a free version of Slides With Friends, but it limits responses to just 10 people. The $8-per-month Starter plan includes unlimited events and slides and hosts up to 50 attendees, while the Pro plan accommodates groups of up to 250 for $25 per month.
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Zoho Survey
Zoho makes it simple to create and distribute all types of surveys and analyze the results. It works well for surveying employees before or after meetings and could even work during a meeting via a custom domain or QR code. However, its best use is for gathering consumer research. You can even purchase responses if you’ve got a target market in mind but you’re not quite sure how to reach them.
Top features:
- Easy customization: All paid plans enable adding your own logo, and the Pro plan includes full white-labeling to host surveys on your own domain.
- Multilingual surveys: Automatically translate your surveys into 70+ different languages.
- Reporting & analysis: You can see and filter responses as soon as they’re submitted, get insights on trends, and explore commonalities between certain responses.
Pros:
- All versions (including the free one) offer unlimited surveys and access to hundreds of templates.
- Responses can include identifying data or keep people anonymous.
- The Pro plan enables piping logic for asking targeted follow-up questions.
Cons:
- While it pairs with some customer relationship management (CRM) and campaign management platforms, Zoho lacks integrations with presentation software.
- The translation feature isn’t perfect and its suggestions should be double-checked by a native speaker when possible.
Pricing:
The free version of Zoho Survey is an excellent tool for limited audience sizes. Plus and Pro plans go for $25 and $35 per month, respectively, and unlock more advanced survey logic and additional customization features.
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Connecteam
Connecteam is an all-in-one employee management app with a mobile-first platform. It includes useful survey tools for gathering employee feedback, with responses that update your organization’s internal social feed in real time. Connecteam also offers features for onboarding, training, performance management, and employee recognition.
Top features:
- All-in-one platform: Connecteam helps business leaders train, manage, and communicate with their employees all in the same app.
- Mobile-first experience: An intuitive, self-contained app streamlines the employee experience, no matter where people are located.
- Knowledge base: Keep all your training and onboarding documents in one accessible place.
Pros:
- Connecteam is great for staying in touch with a distributed workforce, especially people who don’t work desk jobs.
- Adding other platforms enables features like timesheets, location tracking, scheduling, and customizable training courses.
Cons:
- Connecteam’s Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills platforms each require separate subscriptions.
- Polling and survey features are somewhat limited compared to dedicated survey tools.
- All the other features are a bit overkill if you’re mostly looking for a survey tool to make meetings more interactive.
Pricing:
Connecteam’s survey features are included in their Communications platform, which start at $29 per user per month for up to 30 users. Live polling requires upgrading to the Advanced plan, which goes for $49 per user per month.
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Polltab
Polltab is a free online polling platform that creates basic multiple-choice polls and displays responses in real time. If you’re looking for a bare-bones free option, it’s one of the best survey tools for testing out real-time polling within the flow of your meetings.
Top features:
- Simple online platform: With Polltab, anyone can create simple survey questions in just a few clicks and keystrokes.
- Customizable security: Responses can be open to anyone with the link, restricted to one response per IP address, or require a login via Facebook, Google, Twitch, or Reddit.
- Settable start and end times: Users can select precise start and end dates and times, down to five-minute increments. There’s also the option to start a poll immediately.
Pros:
- Polls can be distributed by URL, QR code, embed link, or directly through Facebook and Twitter.
- Users can choose whether responses are displayed in real-time or after the poll ends to avoid influencing people’s choices.
- Besides text descriptions, poll choices can automatically embed photos or videos from image URLs or YouTube links.
Cons:
- Having to sign in to a separate platform to participate can put a damper on engagement.
- There’s no option to add your own branding, logos, fonts, or styles.
- Polltab isn’t equipped to handle open-ended responses or nuanced feedback beyond multiple-choice selections.
Pricing:
Polltab is totally free to use without any logins or signups (unless you require your audience to use third-party logins for security reasons).
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Google Forms
Another free online survey tool, Google Forms offers a cloud-based interface that feels very familiar to anyone who’s used Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. It’s useful for creating quick surveys and generating high-level summaries that automatically update as responses roll in.
Top features:
- Multiple question types: Google Forms includes most standard survey question types like multiple choice, linear scale, and open-ended text responses.
- Collaborative workflow: Just like Google Docs makes it easy to collaborate with coworkers on the same document, Google Forms offers a similarly streamlined experience.
- Drag-and-drop design: As the interface guides you through creating a survey, your questions, responses, or attached media can be repositioned without a hassle.
Pros:
- Users can easily embed images and videos within survey questions or responses.
- It’s possible to customize your survey’s theme with different fonts, images, or color palettes. Several dozen stock images are available, or you can upload your own.
- As responses come in, survey creators can view real-time charts summarizing the results, or import them into Google Sheets for deeper analysis.
Cons:
- While responses do show up in real time, survey distribution can be a bit clunky in the context of a meeting.
- Integration capabilities are limited outside of Google Workspace.
- Survey functions are somewhat stripped-down compared to more advanced survey tools.
Pricing:
Google Forms is part of the Google Workspace suite and is free for individual users. Organizations with greater cloud storage needs can upgrade to the Business Standard plan for $12 per user per month, billed annually.
Make meetings more interactive with Poll Everywhere
Whether you’re leading a meeting in person, remotely, or in a hybrid format, getting your audience involved increases engagement and improves collaboration throughout your organization. Poll Everywhere simplifies the process of creating surveys and collecting input from your audience in real time without disrupting the flow of your meeting.
In addition to simple and accessible surveys, Poll Everywhere also engages your audience with word clouds, Q&As, icebreakers, and dozens of other interactive Activities. It’s a powerful tool for making your employees feel heard and for building connections between coworkers and teams. And by collecting responses anonymously, you’ll encourage candid input from people who may not feel comfortable speaking up in person.
If you’re looking for more inspiration on building a more connected workforce, download our free ebook on employee engagement. It’s full of helpful tips for scaling your culture and adapting to the modern working world without compromising what makes your company unique.
Better presentations and more engaged meetings are one click away – create a Poll Everywhere account and get started today.