4 Best Simple Poll Alternatives in 2022 (for Slack & MS Teams)

4 Best Simple Poll Alternatives

(for Slack & MS Teams)

In this article, we’ll start by showing you how to use Geekbot (our free tool) to run polls in Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Then, we’ll share three other Simple Poll alternatives, so you can make an informed choice. 

Best Simple Poll Alternatives

  1. Geekbot
  2. Polly
  3. Quick Poll
  4. Advanced Poll

1. Geekbot

Geekbot

Geekbot makes it easy to run polls in Slack and MS Teams, and it’s free for up to 10 participants.

For larger companies with over 10 monthly participants, pricing plans are $2.50 per participant per month when billed annually, and $3 per participant per month when billed monthly. 

Additionally, Geekbot can be used to run asynchronous standups, retrospectives, and more. We’ll go over some of these capabilities at the end of this section, but if you want to learn more, check out this article on how we use Geekbot to manage a distributed team from Slack.

For now, let’s see how easy it is to create and send out a Slack poll with Geekbot.

Click here to create a free account, so you can follow along and create your first Slack poll with Geekbot.

Step #1: Create a New Poll

Start by opening our template screen and click on “Build your own” (on the far right side).

From here, you can name your poll and select the channel it will appear in. For example, a poll about your yearly get-together is a good fit for the #general channel, while one about testing your new release on specific Android and iOS devices is likely relevant only to the #dev or #qa channels.

Also, here you can select whether the poll is anonymous or not. Anonymous polls won’t show participants’ names on their reports, so they can answer freely, without fearing repercussions.

Step #2: Write Your Questions

Next, it’s time to write down the question(s) that will be sent to your team. There’s no limit to the number of poll questions you can ask.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you can also include intro and outro messages for your polls. For example, you can prompt team members to complete the poll by a certain date with the intro and thank them for doing so with the outro. 

Additionally, next to each question you can choose a response type.

You can select between four options:

  1. Plain text: Participants can write their answers freely.
  2. Numeric: Participants can respond using numbers only (e.g., “On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your work-life balance?”)
  3. Pre-defined: Participants can select from a list of possible answers you’ve provided. (e.g., “When would you like to do our yearly get-together?” with pre-defined answer options like “During Q3” or “Immediately after our conference”).
  4. Random: Participants receive questions at random from a list.

Step #3: Select Participants and Schedule Your Poll

When it comes to selecting participants, you can either choose each participant manually or sync the poll to a specific channel.

As with the number of questions, there’s also no limit to the number of participants.

As far as scheduling goes, you can select from a list of options, including but not limited to:

  • One time only
  • Weekly
  • 2 Week Period
  • 3 Week Period
  • 4 Week Period
  • First week of each month
  • Last week of each month
  • And so on

You can also select a day(s) and time to send out the poll:

Choose one timezone for everyone or to use each user's local timezone.

As you can see in the image above, Geekbot can factor in each participant’s local timezone.

For example, if you want a poll to be filled out first thing in the morning, you can schedule it so teammates in Tokyo and New York receive it at 10 AM at their respective timezone.

Step #4: Send Out Your Poll and View Responses

Once you’ve filled out all the fields, you can send the poll to participants. Each participant will receive a DM in Slack (or MS Teams), asking them to complete the poll.

It's time for our weekly poll!

You can view everyone’s responses directly in Slack:

See everyone's response.

You’ll also get an overview of the poll results in your Geekbot dashboard:

Geekbot dashboard.

As you can see in the image above, the overview contains valuable information like the percentage of team members who participated in the poll, individual report streaks, and more. 

Lastly, with Geekbot, each team member has the option to set up personal reminders for completing the poll:

Personal reminders.

If you’re mid-task or in a meeting, it’s easy to leave the poll for later and completely forget it. By setting up reminders, Geekbot will ping you again after a set amount of time (Manual reminders) or at a time when you’re more likely to respond, depending on your patterns (Smart Reminders).

Bonus: Use Geekbot to Run Asynchronous Standups, Retrospectives, and More

As we said earlier, Geekbot is more than a polling tool. It’s an asynchronous meeting software for Slack and MS Teams that lets you run:

If you want to give Geekbot a try, click here and create a free account.

2. Polly

Polly
  • Free Plan: Yes, capped at 25 monthly responses.
  • Paid Plans: For Slack, paid plans start at $49/month for a three-month subscription or $19/month for a six- or 12-month subscription. For MS Teams, paid plans start at $79/month when billed monthly and $24/month when billed annually.

Polly is a SaaS tool for capturing feedback in Slack, MS Teams, and Zoom. It offers different ways to customize polls and how they’re sent, including smart targeting (sending a poll to a channel or individual), different question types, real-time feedback, visualization, and API access. Besides polls, Polly can also be used for async collaboration, automating workflows, and more.

3. Quick Poll

Quick Poll
  • Free Plan: Yes, capped at 100 votes/month.
  • Paid Plans: Quick Poll Business is $40/month, with no monthly votes restriction.

Quick Poll lets you make polls natively in Slack. This means you can create, customize, and send out polls through Slack commands. Quick Poll has various features for customizing polls, including making them anonymous, setting voting limits, or making polls hidden, which prevents participants from seeing the results after they vote.

4. Advanced Poll

Advanced poll for Slack.
  • Free Plan: Yes, capped at 5 users/month.
  • Paid Plans: One paid plan that’s €20/month, with no restrictions for users.

Similar to the previous entry, Advanced Poll is another polling app that lets you control the entire process of creating, customizing, and sending out a poll to a Slack channel via commands. Advanced Poll also offers several options for customizing polls, such as anonymous voting for respondents, emoji support, recurring polls, and limiting poll votes.

Geekbot Makes It Easy to Run Polls and Surveys in Slack

If you feel that Geekbot is the right fit for your business, visit our site and create a free account. 

Frequently asked questions

Can You Use Slack for Polls?

Yes. Geekbot (our free tool) lets you run polls in Slack. It’s extremely customizable and easy to set up.

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