shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Top Hat?

Transform your course with Top Hat. Engage students with in-class polls, quizzes, and discussions, AI-powered assistance, and personalized content. - tophat.com

Depends. Buy if you run large interactive lecture courses with institutional budget and campus IT/pedagogy support. Skip it if you teach small classes or students would pay per-term fees out of pocket — simpler, cheaper polling tools exist.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~20 relevant public sources. Many 'Top Hat' search results were unrelated (1935 film, hat retailers, other companies) and excluded.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support-quality evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

$35 USD

Single Term

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed

Best for

  • Large lecture courses
  • Interactive e-textbook adopters
  • Universities standardizing engagement tools
  • Attendance plus polling at scale

Not for

  • Small classes or solo tutors — overkill
  • Budget-sensitive students buying their own license
  • Anyone wanting plain free polling
  • Schools without onboarding support resources

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Costs fall on students each term, purchased directly through Top Hat

medium

Prices vary by school — $70 at Liberty University vs $35 list

medium

Refunds and subscription management run through support; expect friction when cancelling

medium

Check campus support first — some schools dropped it for other tools

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Polls, quizzes, discussions, AI help, and interactive texts in one platform
  • Catalog offers thousands of e-textbooks and course materials
  • Adopted by 30,000+ instructors; offered at major universities
  • Publishes public security program and trust center
  • Established vendor with $226M raised

Cons

  • Professor forums warn: 'Do not use Top Hat'
  • Students pay $35 per 4-month term
  • Modest 3.8/5 rating (41 reviews) on Software Advice
  • Some universities, like Ohio U, have retired it

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/21/2026 - 12 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x5review x3security x2news x2

Key stats

  • Value for money: 2/5

    Rating

  • $35 USD

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 2/5. Students pay per term; critics call it overpriced
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Mixed reviews; some schools retired it
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Polls, quizzes, AI help, e-text catalog
  • Support quality. No support-quality evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. Publishes trust center; no public issues found
  • 3.8/5 Software Advice rating 41 reviews
  • $35 USD Student price per 4-month term
  • $226M Total funding raised to date
  • 30,000+ Scale instructors, 1,500+ institutions

Pricing

Single Term

$35 USD

  • 4 months of access
  • Core engagement features

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Reviews split sharply: universities praise the engagement feature set while professors on Reddit warn against adopting it and students resent per-term fees.

“Do not use Top Hat.”
Reddit, r/Professors
“The Top Hat app costs $70 at Liberty”
Liberty University

Alternatives

Compare Top Hat with each alternative.

  • Google Forms

    Guess: free quizzes and polls for tight budgets

Companies that use it

  • Boston University⁸
  • University of Michigan⁷
  • Indiana University
  • Texas A&M International University
  • Liberty University
Full analysis

Based on ~20 relevant public sources. Many 'Top Hat' search results were unrelated (1935 film, hat retailers, other companies) and excluded.

Enterprise classroom engagement platform; solid for big courses, but students pay $35/term and some professors say skip.

Methodology

Based on ~20 relevant public sources. Many 'Top Hat' search results were unrelated (1935 film, hat retailers, other companies) and excluded.

Sources

  1. Top Hat homepagetophat.com
    official
  2. Top Hat pricingtophat.com
    official
  3. Is Top Hat worth it? — r/Professorsreddit.com
    review
  4. Top Hat reviews — Software Advicesoftwareadvice.com
    review
  5. Top Hat reviews — Capterracapterra.com
    review
  6. Top Hat Retirement — Ohio Universityhelp.ohio.edu
    official
  7. Top Hat at U-M LSAlsa.umich.edu
    official
  8. Top Hat at Boston Universitybu.edu
    official
  9. Top Hat funding — Multiples.vcmultiples.vc
    news
  10. Poll Everywhere: Top Hat alternativesblog.polleverywhere.com
    news
  11. Top Hat security pagetophat.com
    security
  12. Top Hat Trust Centertrust.tophat.com
    security

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.