Jackpoll

Jackpoll is an open-source survey and quiz builder for teachers, event organizers, researchers, and teams that want both forms and live participation. It is a strong fit when flexible question formats and self-hosting matter; organizations seeking a dedicated employee-experience suite may be better served elsewhere.

Overview

Jackpoll covers both asynchronous surveys and presenter-led activities. Respondents can take part without accounts, which keeps the path into a poll or quiz short. Creators do need an account to build and manage surveys unless they run a self-hosted instance, so the no-account benefit applies to participants rather than the people organizing the work.

The project is made by Quavon UG in Rosenheim, Germany, and its frontend, API, and deployment stacks are public under the MIT licence. The maker says its hosted and self-hosted versions use the same build. That combination gives technically capable organizations the option to host their own instance without switching to a different edition.

Key features

The builder combines 15 question types with multi-page drag-and-drop forms and conditional logic. Short answers, grids, file uploads, rankings, signatures, and word clouds sit alongside standard multiple-choice questions, making Jackpoll suitable for more varied questionnaires than a basic form tool. Real-time co-editing and editor and viewer roles help teams divide creation and review without giving every collaborator the same permissions.

Live quizzes add a distinct event and classroom use case: players join by PIN or QR code, use phones as buzzers, and compete for speed bonuses on a live leaderboard and podium. Live polling, Q&A, word clouds, and real-time results extend that interaction beyond scored quizzes. These features are useful when a presenter needs an audience to respond together; they are less central for teams collecting feedback on their own schedules.

Responses can be exported to CSV, Excel, or per-response PDF. HMAC-signed webhooks can POST each response to any endpoint, while email notifications can arrive immediately or in a daily digest. This gives teams options for moving results into other systems, though the webhook route assumes an endpoint that can receive the data.

Privacy controls include consent banners, privacy notices, lawful-basis settings, 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. Those controls make Jackpoll more relevant to privacy-conscious organizations, while self-hosting also brings deployment responsibility.

Pricing

The hosted Free plan costs nothing, billed forever. It includes unlimited surveys, unlimited responses, all 15 question types, and all features. With no response cap or feature tiering in the stated plan, it is a practical option for individuals and teams that can work within the account requirement.

Self-host is free, billed once, with unlimited everything, an MIT licence, and no licence key. It suits organizations that want to operate the software themselves; the trade-off is taking on hosting rather than relying on the hosted service. There is no free trial, though the hosted plan is free.

Platforms

Jackpoll supports Android, iOS, web, API, and self-hosted use. Its mobile builds use Capacitor, and the iOS app is a TestFlight beta, so iPhone users should expect a beta rather than a settled release channel. The API and self-hosting options give technical teams additional ways to integrate or operate the product.

Who it's for

Teachers and event organizers can use the quiz-game format and live audience tools; researchers and businesses can draw on the broad question set, exports, and collaboration features. Teams that prioritize data control may value the MIT-licensed code and self-hosted option. For a narrowly defined employee-experience program, Jackpoll’s general-purpose survey and quiz focus may be less suitable than a specialist.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Unlimited surveys and responses on the hosted free plan remove common volume constraints for ongoing feedback or events.
• Pros: Live quizzes, polling, Q&A, and word clouds support interactive sessions as well as conventional questionnaires.
• Pros: MIT-licensed self-hosting and privacy controls offer meaningful deployment and data-handling options.
• Cons: Survey creators need an account or their own hosted instance, even though respondents do not.
• Cons: The iOS build is a TestFlight beta, which may not suit users looking for a standard app release.
• Cons: Self-hosting offers control but requires an organization to run the deployment itself.

Alternatives

For employee listening and feedback, Questback Employee Experience is the specialist alternative to consider; its paid EX Starter and EX Business plans each list one user and different amounts of InsightLab time, while Jackpoll is a broader free survey and quiz builder.

EchoSpan is worth considering when multi-language surveys and reports are the priority, with a listed one-time 17.00 USD option for that capability. FeedbackPulse is a closer fit for small employee-feedback programs: its free plan supports up to 10 employees and includes an employee directory, kudos recognition, and basic dashboards.

Qualtrics may suit an individual who can work within its free allowance of one user, three active surveys, and 500 total responses. SoGoSurvey offers a free plan capped at 15 projects per year, 100 responses per project, 200 responses per year, and 200 emails per year; that suits modest project-based survey volumes rather than Jackpoll’s unlimited response allowance.

QuestionPro is another option for users who want a free survey plan with 30 question types, but its Essentials plan is capped at 200 responses per survey. Sogolytics has the same stated free caps as SoGoSurvey: 15 projects per year, 100 responses per project, 200 responses per year, and 200 emails per year.

Perceptyx is an alternative for organizations seeking an enterprise offering with custom pricing.

For category browsing, see Employee Feedback Software, Employee Survey Software, Audience Response Systems, and Survey Software.

Verdict

Choose Jackpoll if you want one free, open-source product for surveys, live quizzes, and audience interaction, especially when unlimited responses or self-hosting are important. Look elsewhere if your priority is a dedicated employee-experience platform or a fully released iOS app.