Kahoot
Kahoot is maybe one of the pioneers of the edtech field. When I first started using Kahoot nearly 10 years ago it was a revelation. To still be at the forefront is also quite the achievement. I believe that Kahoot is a lot more than some people realise, yes it can be super fun and help a class 'let their hair down', but it can also be a consistent low-stakes quiz platform to consistently assess and enhance learning.
Socrative
Socrative has been my 'go-to' for a few years. There are many platforms that enable you to ask questions but none with the same visual feedback for teachers. You get live (literally as a question is answered) colour coded feedback and beneath the colour you can see the student's actual answer. It is a perfect system. I only wish a few more quizzes were available free and that you could add feedback to each individual multiple choice response.
Google Forms
Google Forms is brilliant for several reasons. Firstly the amount you can do for free, secondly the individual feedback you can give to each multiple choice response and thirdly the ability to connect to a spreadsheet. If they could make that 'live' so you saw the response to Q1 as it was clicked, not at the end when someone clicks submit it would be perfection in my eyes.
Microsoft Forms
Similar to Google Forms in most respects with only one or two key differences in my mind. In Microsoft forms you can download a spreadsheet, but you cannot link to one. However the auto-results breakdown that you see in the form are usually very helpful.
Quizizz
I am very tempted to use Quizizz a lot more this year. In the basic account I can get 100 students per quiz which is pretty good and I can make quizzes with a variety of question types and add student accounts. Along with all of that it is visually engaging, possibly not quite as good as Kahoot but certainly in that bracket.
Quizlet
Quizlet is a little different, with quizlet you lay out what you want your students to learn, and then you pick the format. You could go for a classic multiple choice quiz on the board (Classic Live as shown in the video), or students could learn them as a series of flashcards or a quiz where you need to write out the answers. The variety that quizlet offers is superb.
Quizalize
Quizalize is quite similar to Quizziz but is possibly a little more limited in what you can do for free. Something in particular that I like about Quizalize though is your choices of what to offer students once they have finished a quiz. Here you can personalise where to send them or what resources to show them depending on their result. I think this is something that others would do well to copy.
InsertLearning
Insert Learning is a really neat tool that gives a lot of additional flexibility. You can find any website or article online and make it more interactive, more engaging, by adding questions and other elements. What is also good is how well InsertLearning works with other products, in this video you can see how it works with EDpuzzle. The problem, free trial = 2 lessons which is not a lot!
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere has been around for a while now, I remember in my training year seeing it for the first time and being rather impressed. This was a little while ago now.... The intention is to increase engagement as made clear in the video here. In the free version you can have 25 students at a time and 40 responses per activity. I suspect this may be a limiting factor for many.
Mentimeter
Mentimeter is another tool for gaining insights, feedback, engagement etc. quite similar to Poll Everywhere. The product looks nice and well developed. For the free version you get unlimited audience and presentations, however they are limited to 2 question slides and 5 quiz slides. For most this probably therefore limits the product to starters and plenaries.
Gimkit
Gimkit is a good product trying to do something a different in a pretty crowded area of the edtech market. Gimkit is one of the only products I have seen where students gain 'energy' a sort of points system that they can then use to upgrade and purchase 'in-game' type products. For some students, particularly of a certain age this could really help with engagement.
Blooket
Blooket really interests me, unfortunately it's unlikely to fit with the age group of students I teach. Blooket is fundamentally another quiz creator, however, the way the quiz is delivered to students is very different to the other platforms here. Instead of just question + answer (maybe with some rewards) the students genuinely play a game around the questions. Very unique, very different, potentially very engaging.
Wordwall
Wordwall could do with updating their YouTube videos but please look past that and try the product they have created. It is like many other quiz websites above, however Wordwall is unique because once you have made a quiz, with a click of a button you can change what 'type' of quiz it should be, maybe a match-up, maybe multiple choice, maybe a crossword. It's very fun!