Top Hat
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you run large interactive lecture courses with institutional budget and campus IT/pedagogy support.
Comparison
Top Hat vs Poll Everywhere
Top Hat and Poll Everywhere both land on Depends.
Poll Everywhere
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you run live lectures, trainings, or events and want real-time audience response inside PowerPoint or Teams.
| Compare | Top Hat | Poll Everywhere |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Large lecture courses | Professors running large lectures |
| Who it's not for | Small classes or solo tutors . overkill | Async surveys and forms . use free tools |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.11 | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | No support-quality evidence found | No support-quality evidence found |
| Public sentiment | Reviews split sharply: universities praise the engagement feature set while professors on Reddit warn against adopting it and students resent per-term fees.³ | Individual presenters and professors praise it for live engagement, though some organizations report switching away. |
| Biggest gotcha | Costs fall on students each term, purchased directly through Top Hat | Annual billing is standard; third-party analysis flags pricing escalation concerns |
Pick Top Hat when
- Large lecture courses
- Interactive e-textbook adopters
- Universities standardizing engagement tools
- Attendance plus polling at scale
When Top Hat is not a fit
- Small classes or solo tutors . overkill
- Budget-sensitive students buying their own license
- Anyone wanting plain free polling
- Schools without onboarding support resources
Pick Poll Everywhere when
- Professors running large lectures
- Corporate trainers and facilitators
- Event presenters wanting live audience response
- Teams presenting from PowerPoint or Teams
When Poll Everywhere is not a fit
- Async surveys and forms . use free tools
- Occasional pollers unwilling to pay
- Buyers needing month-to-month billing only
- Classrooms already standardized on Top Hat
Sources
- Top Hat homepagetophat.comofficial
- Top Hat pricingtophat.comofficial
- Is Top Hat worth it? . r/Professorsreddit.comreview
- Top Hat reviews . Software Advicesoftwareadvice.comreview
- Top Hat reviews . Capterracapterra.comreview
- Top Hat Retirement . Ohio Universityhelp.ohio.eduofficial
- Top Hat at U-M LSAlsa.umich.eduofficial
official
- Top Hat funding . Multiples.vcmultiples.vcnews
- Poll Everywhere: Top Hat alternativesblog.polleverywhere.comnews
- Top Hat security pagetophat.comsecurity
- Top Hat Trust Centertrust.tophat.comsecurity
- Poll Everywhere homepagepolleverywhere.comofficial
- Business & non-profit planspolleverywhere.comofficial
- Events pricing planspolleverywhere.comofficial
- Education planspolleverywhere.comofficial