Looking for a Polly alternative that offers straightforward pricing without per-seat complexity? OpenCulture delivers powerful anonymous feedback capabilities at a fraction of the cost—with polls, Q&A, and AMAs built for growing teams on Slack.
Pricing Comparison at a Glance
Polly uses per-seat licensing, which means costs scale with every user who needs to create polls. OpenCulture uses team-size tiers, so your entire team gets full access at one predictable price.
| Scenario | OpenCulture (pricing) | Polly Pro (pricing) |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30, 1 creator | $10/mo | $24/mo |
| 100 users, 5 creators | $30/mo ✅ | $120/mo |
| 300 users, 10 creators | $100/mo ✅ | $240/mo |
Note: Polly's anonymous responses feature requires the Pro plan ($24/seat/month). Their Basic plan ($12/seat/month) does not include anonymity options.
The Polly Pricing Problem
Polly's per-seat model sounds reasonable until you realize what it actually means: every manager, team lead, or HR person who needs to create polls requires their own license. For a company of 100 people with 5 managers running regular team check-ins, that's $120/month on Polly Pro versus $30/month on OpenCulture.
The math gets worse as you scale: A 300-person company with 10 poll creators pays $240/month with Polly versus $100/month with OpenCulture. That's $1,680/year in savings—and OpenCulture gives everyone on the team full poll creation access, not just licensed seats.
Worse still: Polly's anonymous response feature is locked behind the Pro tier. Their Basic plan at $12/seat/month doesn't include anonymity options. If honest, anonymous feedback is your goal, you're forced into the higher tier from day one.
What You Get with OpenCulture
Polling Features That Cover What Teams Actually Need
OpenCulture includes the polling features modern teams rely on—refined for simplicity, transparency, and honest input.
Anonymous Voting ensures voter identities remain fully hidden, even from poll creators, giving employees the freedom to respond honestly on sensitive topics like compensation or leadership feedback.
Results Visibility Control lets you decide whether votes are shown live or only after the poll closes, preventing the bandwagon effect and encouraging independent thinking on strategic or controversial questions.
Multiple Choice Polls allow participants to select more than one option—ideal for scheduling, prioritization, or event planning—giving you richer, more realistic input than single-choice polls.
Participant-Added Options turn polls into two-way conversations by allowing team members to add new choices as ideas emerge, keeping discussions adaptive and inclusive.
Auto-Close Deadlines ensure decisions happen on time by automatically ending polls at a set moment, eliminating the need for manual reminders or follow-ups.
Anonymous Q&A — Beyond Just Polls
OpenCulture doesn't stop at polling. It also brings anonymous Q&A directly into Slack, helping teams foster openness, trust, and real dialogue.
Leaders can use the /openculture qna command to enable anonymous questions in any channel—for example, a dedicated space like #ask-leadership or #team-feedback. Once enabled, team members can submit questions anonymously with the /openculture ask command.
To maintain quality and protect against misuse, leaders can assign trusted team members as moderators who review submissions before they go live. Moderators can approve, reject, or privately respond to anonymous questions—ensuring discussions stay respectful, relevant, and productive without compromising anonymity.
Polly offers Q&A features, but with important limitations: Q&A moderation requires the Pro plan ($24/seat), and their Basic plan's Q&A lacks the advanced privacy controls that make anonymous feedback truly useful.
Use anonymous Q&A for:
- Town hall question collection
- Leadership AMA sessions where psychological safety matters
- Always-on anonymous suggestion boxes
- Department-specific feedback channels
- Sensitive topic discussions
Kudos — Peer Recognition Built In
OpenCulture also includes Kudos, a peer recognition feature that lets team members publicly celebrate each other's contributions directly in Slack.
With a simple /openculture kudos command, anyone can give a shoutout to a colleague—whether it's for helping on a project, going above and beyond, or just being a great teammate. Kudos are posted publicly in the channel, creating a culture of appreciation and visibility.
Why it matters: Recognition shouldn't be top-down only. Peer-to-peer appreciation builds stronger teams, boosts morale, and helps surface contributions that managers might miss. It's a simple feature that makes a real difference in how teams feel about their work.
Polly offers some recognition features through their Enterprise plan's employee engagement suite, but it's not included in their standard plans. With OpenCulture, peer recognition comes built-in at every tier.
When Polly Might Still Make Sense
We believe in transparency, so let's be fair: Polly offers a broader suite of engagement tools. If you need trivia games, live quizzes for presentations, standup automation, or pulse surveys with demographic filtering, Polly's feature set is more expansive.
| Feature | OpenCulture | Polly |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Choice | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Anonymous Voting | ✅ All plans | ⚠️ Pro only |
| User-Added Options | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Anon Comments | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Anon Q&A | ✅ All plans | ⚠️ Pro only |
| Kudos | ✅ All plans | ⚠️ Enterprise |
| Trivia/Quizzes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Standups | ❌ No | ✅ Basic+ |
| Pulse Surveys | ❌ No | ✅ Basic+ |
| Recurring Polls | ❌ No | ✅ Basic+ |
| Slides Integration | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Free Tier | ❌ Trial | ✅ Limited |
| Pricing | ✅ Team tiers | Per-seat |
Our take: If you're running live presentations, need trivia for team events, or want automated standups, Polly's broader toolkit might be worth the premium. But if your priority is creating a safe space for honest employee feedback—polls with true anonymity and Q&A that encourages candid questions—OpenCulture delivers more value at a better price.
The Bottom Line
OpenCulture isn't trying to be an all-in-one engagement platform. We're laser-focused on one mission: helping leaders build cultures where every voice matters—without the per-seat pricing complexity.
For teams who need:
- ✅ True anonymous feedback (included in all plans, not paywalled)
- ✅ Anonymous Q&A with moderation
- ✅ Kudos and peer recognition (included in all plans)
- ✅ Simple, predictable team-based pricing
- ✅ Everyone on the team able to create polls (not just licensed seats)
- ✅ A focused tool that does feedback well, not everything adequately
OpenCulture is the clear choice.
Start your 14-day free trial today and see why teams choose OpenCulture for feedback that's honest, safe, and affordable.
