Poll Makers That Don't Require a Signup (2026)

Which poll makers need an account?

Tool	Account to create	Account to vote	Poll types	Free limit	Ads	Best for
VoteGenerator	No	No	8 incl. instant-runoff ranked choice, scheduling, RSVP	100 responses/poll, 3 active	None	The widest range of poll types without an account
StrawPoll	No	No	Multiple choice and variants	No published vote cap	After ad-free quota	High-volume public polls
Polltab	No	No	Multiple choice, image polls	Not published	Not published	Image and picture polls
Ferendum	No	No	Multiple choice, date polls	Not published	Yes, on free	Quick WhatsApp and group polls
Poll Maker	No	No	Multiple choice	Unlimited, per their site	Not published	The simplest possible poll
Google Forms	Yes	No*	Forms and quizzes, no ranked choice	Unlimited responses	None	Long forms and unlimited data collection
When2Meet	No	No	Availability grid only	No limit	Reports vary	Finding a time when you have no candidate dates
Rallly	No	No	Date polls only	No published limit	None	Open-source, self-hostable scheduling
RankedVote	Yes	No	Ranked choice	Basic RCV free	None	Formal ranked-choice elections
CIVS	Yes*	Email required	Condorcet methods	Free	None	Academic and organisational elections

* Google Forms respondents need an account only if the form is restricted to an organisation or limits one response per person. CIVS allows anyone to create a poll, but the supervisor and all voters must have email addresses, since ballots are distributed by email. Where a figure is marked "not published", the vendor does not state it clearly on their site — check before relying on it. All details from vendor documentation as of August 2026.

What can each tool actually do?

Requirements are only half the question. This is what you get once you're in.

Tool	Multiple choice	Ranked choice	Rating scale	Scheduling	RSVP	Image poll	Multi-question survey	Slack app	Templates
VoteGenerator	Yes	Yes, instant-runoff	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, native app	120+
StrawPoll	Yes	Not published	Not published	Separate product	Not published	Yes	Not published	Not published	Not published
Polltab	Yes	Not published	Not published	No	Not published	Yes	No	Not published	Not published
Ferendum	Yes	Not published	Not published	Date polls	Not published	Not published	No	Not published	Not published
Poll Maker	Yes	Not published	Not published	No	No	Not published	No	Not published	Not published
Google Forms	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Third-party only	Yes
When2Meet	No	No	No	Grid only	No	No	No	No	No
Rallly	No	No	No	Date polls	No	No	No	No	No
RankedVote	No	Yes, instant-runoff	No	No	No	No	No	Not published	Not published
CIVS	No	Yes, Condorcet	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Slack: VoteGenerator has a native app with slash commands, in-message voting and timezone-aware recurring polls. Google Forms has no native app, though third-party connectors exist. We found no Slack app published by the others, but have marked those "not published" rather than absent. "Not published" means the vendor does not state it clearly on their site — we have not marked it as absent, only as unverified. StrawPoll offers scheduling through a separate product, StrawPoll Meetings, rather than as a poll type. Verified against vendor documentation, August 2026.

Can you run a ranked-choice poll without an account?

Put the two requirements together and the field thins out sharply.

The tools that need no signup mostly do single-choice voting only. StrawPoll, Polltab, Ferendum and Poll Maker are all built around one question with one answer.

The tools that do ranked choice mostly need an account. RankedVote requires the organiser to register. CIVS requires email addresses from every voter. OpaVote charges roughly $10 per 125 voters.

Whether that gap matters depends on how often single-choice voting actually picks the wrong winner. We simulated 660,000 group votes to find out: with five options on the ballot, the plurality winner holds no outright majority 84.3% of the time. The methodology and code are published if you want to check the working.

If you want a group to rank options and you don't want anyone creating an account, the field is close to empty. VoteGenerator sits in that overlap, which is the honest reason it appears in this list — not because it beats StrawPoll on volume or When2Meet on friction, because it doesn't.

Which poll maker should you use?

These aren't ranked best to worst. They optimise for different constraints.

When2Meet

You don't have candidate dates yet

Nobody needs an account, ever, and there is no paid tier at all
Paint your whole availability and let the overlap emerge
Best when you genuinely don't know when the meeting should be
The grid is awkward on a phone — it was built for desktop

StrawPoll

Your poll is going public

No published cap on votes per poll on the free plan
Built for Reddit, Discord and social audiences at scale
No account to create or to vote
Voters see ads once the ad-free quota is used

Rallly

You want open source and no ads

Fully open source and self-hostable on your own server
No ads, no account required, automatic time zone handling
Deliberately narrow — group date polls and nothing else
Good choice if data residency matters to you

VoteGenerator

You need more than a single-choice vote

Instant-runoff ranked choice on the free plan, with every round shown
Eight poll types including meeting scheduling, RSVP and surveys
No account to create or to vote, and no ads on any plan
120+ editable templates, QR sharing, website embed and CSV export on paid plans
Capped at 100 responses on free, which the others aren't

What should you check before sending the link?

Whether your respondents will see advertising. Ferendum's free tier is ad-supported and StrawPoll shows ads once the ad-free quota is used. For an internal team poll that rarely matters. For a poll going to clients, parents or customers it matters a great deal, because the advert reflects on you rather than on the tool.

What "anonymous" actually means. Most tools mean the voter's name isn't displayed. Some still record device type, approximate location and precise timestamps, which can allow responses to be re-identified by the order they arrived. If you're collecting employee or patient feedback, ask what is stored rather than what is shown.

For transparency about our own: VoteGenerator's Anonymous Mode is opt-in per poll and enforced on the server. When it's on, device, country, region and referrer are never collected at all rather than collected and hidden, and timestamps are stored as dates. We can't audit how the other tools implement it, which is precisely why it's worth asking each of them directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which poll makers require no account at all?

StrawPoll, Polltab, Ferendum, Poll Maker, When2Meet, Rallly and VoteGenerator all let you create a poll and let people respond without anyone registering. RankedVote and CIVS require the organiser to have an account, and CIVS additionally requires voters to have an email address, since ballots are emailed out.

Why isn't Google Forms in the no-signup group?

Because you need a Google account to build a form. Respondents usually don't — unless the form is restricted to an organisation or set to limit one response per person, in which case they must sign in too. Google Forms is genuinely excellent for long forms and unlimited free responses, and for many people it is the right answer. It just isn't a no-signup tool for the person creating, and it has no ranked-choice counting.

Can I make a ranked-choice poll without an account?

This is the narrowest gap in the category. Most no-signup tools — StrawPoll, Polltab, Ferendum, Poll Maker — offer single-choice voting only. Most ranked-choice tools — RankedVote, CIVS, OpaVote — require the organiser to register, and OpaVote charges per voter. VoteGenerator sits in the overlap: instant-runoff ranked choice, free, with no account needed from anyone. We publish this page so we have an obvious interest in that framing, but the gap is real and easy to verify yourself.

Which is best for a large public poll?

StrawPoll. Its free plan publishes no cap on votes per poll and it is built for Reddit, Discord and social sharing. VoteGenerator caps the free plan at 100 responses, so for anything going out to a large public audience StrawPoll is the better tool and we would not pretend otherwise.

Do any of these show ads to the people voting?

Ferendum's free version is ad-supported. StrawPoll shows ads once your ad-free quota is used. Rallly and VoteGenerator show no ads on any plan. Polltab and Poll Maker do not publish this clearly, so check before sending a link to clients or customers. It matters more than people expect — a poll sent to a customer with an advert on it reflects on you, not the tool.

What's the difference between no signup to vote and no signup to create?

Almost every poll tool lets people vote without an account, including Doodle, Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter and SurveyMonkey. Far fewer let you build the poll without registering first. That's the distinction worth checking: if a tool advertises 'no signup', confirm whether it means for your respondents or for you.

Which tool should I use to find a meeting time?

When2Meet if you don't yet have candidate times and want the group's free windows to emerge from a grid. Rallly or VoteGenerator if you already have three to six specific slots and just need people to vote on them. Using a grid when you already know the options wastes everyone's time, and using a poll when none of your options work wastes a round.

Are no-signup polls less secure?

They rely on browser cookies to prevent repeat voting rather than verified identity, so a determined person with several browsers can vote more than once. That is true of every tool in this comparison. If a vote genuinely matters — a board election, a union ballot — you want single-use access codes or a verified voter list, which means a tool like OpaVote, ElectionBuddy or CIVS, and usually an account and a fee.

Is instant-runoff the best ranked-choice method?

Not by every measure, and it's worth knowing why. CIVS, run by Cornell, uses Condorcet methods and states plainly that they are fairer than instant-runoff because they select the candidate who wins every head-to-head comparison. Instant-runoff can elect an option a majority would rank below another. Instant-runoff is more widely understood and easier to explain to a team, which is why most consumer tools use it, but if formal correctness matters more than comprehension, look at CIVS.

Can I use these tools for anonymous feedback?

Check what 'anonymous' means in each case, because it varies a lot. Most tools mean the voter's name isn't displayed. Some still record device data, location and precise timestamps, which can allow responses to be re-identified by the order they arrived. If you're collecting employee or patient feedback, ask specifically what is stored, not just what is shown.

Which of these are open source?

Rallly is the only fully open-source option here and can be self-hosted on your own hardware. That matters if you have data residency requirements or prefer to run your own infrastructure. The rest are hosted services.

Do free tools stay free?

Doodle is the cautionary example. It historically required no account and showed no ads; as of 2026 its free tier requires registration to create a poll, shows ads to everyone you invite, and allows one active group poll at a time. Free tiers narrow over time, so it's worth checking current terms rather than relying on what a tool was like a few years ago.

Is this comparison independent?

No. VoteGenerator publishes it and appears in it, so read it with that in mind. Every detail about the other tools comes from their own published documentation and pricing pages as of August 2026, and where a figure isn't published we've said so rather than estimating. We've named the cases where another tool is the better choice, because for many readers one of them will be.

Poll makers that don't require a signup