IstbanChoosing an online quiz maker: an honest comparison
Last updated 6 min read
There is no best quiz maker, only the right one for how often you run quizzes. Once a term, the free tools are the correct answer. Every week, the question becomes who writes the questions — and that is where the tools genuinely differ.
Five questions that decide it
- How often will you do this? A one-off quiz and a weekly one are different products.
- Who writes the questions — you, or the tool from your material? This is the biggest difference in time spent.
- Do you need a timer and one attempt, or is it practice?
- Does anyone need a certificate at the end?
- Where do the results go: a screen, a spreadsheet, or your own system?
Where each one fits
- Google Forms: free, familiar, grades automatically. No timer, no certificates, and you type every question. Right for the occasional quiz.
- Microsoft Forms: the same answer if your school or company already lives in Microsoft 365, with results landing in Excel.
- Kahoot: built for a live room and competition, not for an assessment someone takes alone at home.
- Quizizz: strong for classroom practice and homework, with a large bank of existing quizzes.
- Typeform: the best-looking one-question-at-a-time experience, aimed at surveys and lead capture rather than grading.
- Istban: builds the questions and the answer key from your own file, grades them, times them, and issues verifiable certificates — aimed at whoever runs quizzes often enough that writing them is the real cost.
What actually costs you
Compare on your evenings, not only on the subscription. A teacher writing fifteen questions a week spends a working day a month on typing alone; a tool that removes that pays for itself at almost any price, while a free tool that keeps it is not free.
The second hidden cost is marking. If any question cannot be graded automatically, someone is marking by hand — and that someone is you, on a weekend.
Before you switch
- Rebuild one real quiz — not a sample — in the tool you are considering, and time it honestly.
- Take it on a phone, because most learners will.
- Export the results and open the file. Broken characters and one column holding every answer are discovered best before a cohort of sixty, not after.
- Check what happens to old results if you stop paying.
FAQ
What is the best free online quiz maker?
For an occasional quiz, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms — both grade automatically and cost nothing. They stop at timers, certificates and writing the questions for you.
Which quiz maker writes the questions for me?
AI-first tools do, from a file or from text you paste. The quality depends on the source material: a real chapter produces far better questions than a one-line prompt.
Do I need a paid plan for certificates?
Not in Istban — certificates come with quiz mode on the free plan. Most other tools treat certificates as a paid add-on, so check before you commit.
Can I move my existing quizzes?
There is no automatic import between quiz tools. In practice you rebuild the quiz once — or upload the source material and have the questions rebuilt from it.