Polly vs Simple Poll (2026): which Slack poll app should you pick?

Polly and Simple Poll are the two apps nearly every Slack workspace ends up choosing between when someone asks for "a poll button". They look similar from the message box: a slash command, options, a live tally. They are different products underneath. Simple Poll is a poll tool that stays a poll tool. Polly is an engagement platform whose front door happens to be a poll. The short answer: pick Simple Poll if you want polls, pick Polly if you want a survey and Q&A program, and check the billing model before either, because they charge in opposite ways.

Full disclosure: we make asyncmate, a standup bot that includes free polls, so we compete with both at the edges. Prices and limits below are from each vendor's own pricing page, checked September 20, 2026.

Polly vs Simple Poll at a glance

The free plans

This is where most teams decide, and it is not close.

Simple Poll gives 100 responses a month with anonymous polls and multi-vote included. The limits are five options per poll and no surveys, recurrence or scheduling. A team of ten that runs a poll a week uses about 40 responses; it can stay free indefinitely.

Polly gives 25 responses a month and hides results older than 45 days. Twenty-five is one poll in a 25-person channel. Anonymity, surveys, Q&A and standups are all paid. By Polly's help centre, people can still answer a polly that has gone out after the cap, but you cannot create another until the next calendar month.

If the question is "which free Slack poll app", the answer is Simple Poll, by a factor of four on volume and with anonymity thrown in.

Pricing: opposite models

The two apps bill in ways that punish opposite team shapes, so the cheaper one depends on who you are.

Simple Poll bills the workspace. Premium is $49 a month, billed annually at $588, for a workspace of up to 24 members, and the price rises with workspace size; Enterprise is custom for large organizations and Enterprise Grid. One price unlocks everything for everyone: unlimited responses, 45 options per poll, surveys up to 20 questions, recurring and scheduled polls, hidden results, DM surveys, export and API. The catch is that the price follows the size of the Slack workspace, not the number of people polling. A 300-person company where one team of eight runs polls pays for 300.

Polly bills creators and caps responses. Basic is $19 a month per licence billed $228 a year, with 500 responses a month. Pro is $29 a month billed $348 a year, with 1,000 responses and anonymous responses. Team is $249 a month for five licences, billed annually, with unlimited responses. Respondents never need a licence. The catch is two meters at once: every person who wants to create premium pollys is another licence, and a busy workspace can outgrow the response cap on either lower tier.

Worked through for three team shapes:

One organiser and a big audience favours Polly. Many organisers in a small workspace favours Simple Poll. Both bill annually.

Anonymous polls

Simple Poll includes anonymous polls on the free plan. Polly puts anonymous responses on Pro, at $29 a month per licence, and anonymity is switched on per polly rather than by default.

For a lunch vote none of this matters. For anything about workload, morale or a manager, it is the whole question, and two cautions apply to both apps. First, "anonymous" in a poll app means names are hidden in the results; ask either vendor what an admin export shows before you rely on it. Second, a public tally can de-anonymize a small team on its own: if four of five people voted "fine" and one voted "burned out", everyone can guess. Sensitive questions belong in a survey with a minimum response threshold, not a poll. We cover that in the Slack survey app comparison.

Surveys, Q&A and everything past the poll

This is Polly's side of the table. Nine question types, templates for pulse, eNPS, onboarding and retros, recurring schedules, delivery by DM or channel, live Q&A with upvoting for all-hands, trivia, a suggestion box, workflows, and an async standup template. It runs in Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet as well as Slack, and the Enterprise plan adds an API and webhooks. Our Polly review goes through each of these and where reviewers push back, mostly on reporting depth and the editing interface.

Simple Poll's surveys are a Premium feature capped at 20 questions, with ranked, scale, short-text and Q&A question types and CSV export. They are enough for a retro or a quick feedback round and not a feedback program. What Simple Poll leads with is ranked-choice voting, which is the right tool for picking one option out of several contested ones.

If surveys and Q&A are the reason you are shopping, Polly. If you noticed them on the feature list and shrugged, Simple Poll.

Ease of use

Both are fast. Simple Poll's /poll "Question" "Option 1" "Option 2" has been the muscle memory of Slack polling since 2015, and the company says 945,000 teams have used it. Polly's creation flow runs through a modal with more choices, which is slower for a lunch vote and better for anything with settings. Capterra reviewers give Polly 4.6 out of 5 across 91 reviews, with ease of use at 4.6, and the recurring complaint is that editing a polly after it is live is clunky. Simple Poll lets you edit polls after posting on Premium.

Which one should you pick

You want polls, occasionally, for free: Simple Poll. 100 responses, anonymity included.

You want polls, often, and the workspace is small: Simple Poll Premium at $49, or see the third option below.

You want a survey, pulse and Q&A program with a few people running it: Polly, on Pro if anonymity matters.

You are on Microsoft Teams, or want polls inside Zoom or Meet: Polly. Simple Poll is Slack only.

You need ranked-choice voting front and centre: Simple Poll.

Your workspace is large and only one team polls: Polly, because Simple Poll prices the whole workspace.

A third option if the caps are the problem

Both apps meter responses on their free plans, and both bill annually once you outgrow them. If what you want is a poll button with no meter, that exists too. asyncmate is a standup bot, and polls are free on every plan: no response cap, no creator licence, voters never billed, at any workspace size. Anonymous polls are on Pro and store no voter identity. We do not have ranked choice, Q&A or trivia, so it is not a Polly replacement for a feedback program, and if all you ever want is polls, Simple Poll under its free cap costs the same as we do. The longer comparison, including Geekbot's per-respondent poll pricing, is in the best Slack poll apps, and the line-by-line against Polly is on the Polly alternative page.

Figures from simplepoll.rocks/pricing and polly.ai/slack-pricing, September 20, 2026. Polly and Simple Poll are trademarks of their owners; asyncmate is not affiliated with either.

FAQ

Is Polly or Simple Poll better for Slack? For polls, Simple Poll: a bigger free plan, anonymity included, ranked-choice voting, and one flat price. For surveys, pulse checks, eNPS and all-hands Q&A, Polly, which is an engagement platform rather than a poll tool. The right one depends on which of those two jobs you are hiring it for.

Which has the better free plan? Simple Poll. It allows 100 responses a month with anonymous polls included. Polly's free plan allows 25 responses a month, hides results after 45 days, and has no anonymity.

How much does Simple Poll cost? Free for 100 responses a month. Premium is $49 a month, billed annually at $588, for a workspace of up to 24 members, and rises with workspace size. Enterprise is custom.

How much does Polly cost? Free for 25 responses a month. Basic is $19 a month per creator licence billed $228 a year with 500 responses a month; Pro is $29 billed $348 with 1,000 responses and anonymous responses; Team is $249 a month for five licences with unlimited responses; Enterprise is on quote.

Are anonymous polls free in Slack? On Simple Poll, yes. On Polly they need the Pro plan. Emoji reactions and Workflow Builder forms are never anonymous.

Does Simple Poll work with Microsoft Teams? No, Simple Poll is a Slack app. Polly runs on Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, with Teams priced on its own page.

Is there a Slack poll app with no response limit? asyncmate's polls have no response cap on any plan, including the free one, and voters are never billed. Simple Poll and Polly both remove the cap on paid plans, Polly only on its Team tier.