Polls: the complete guide
You ask one or more questions, everyone answers via a link or a QR code, and you see the results as bars. This page explains every question type and every setting – and which combination works best for what.
All question types, the QR code and the presentation are free, up to 5 questions per poll. With Pro: up to 15 questions, invitations, reminders and the secret ballot. More about Pro
When to use a poll
Whenever it’s about an opinion or a decision rather than a date: Where should the outing go? How satisfied were you with the event? Do we accept the motion? For a date, use the scheduling poll; for sign-ups, the event sign-up.
Voting works without an account, on a phone or a computer. With several questions, Wannja shows one question per screen with a progress bar.
Step by step
Title and first question
Open Create a poll. Enter a title and, if you like, a description. Then the first question: choose “Type of question”, type in the question and enter the answers. Every question type shows an example as a placeholder.
The screenshots show the German interface.
More questions
“Add question” adds the next question – free up to 5, with Pro up to 15. With “Required question”, the question must be answered; otherwise people can skip it.
Choose the settings
In the “Settings” step you decide three things: who can see who voted for what, who can vote, and who sees the results and when. You can also set a response deadline. The tables below explain every option.
The questions, the choice of named/anonymous/secret and “Who can vote?” are fixed once the poll is created. You can change the title, description, deadline and “Who sees the results, and when?” later.
The screenshots show the German interface.
Create
Click “Create poll”. If you’re not logged in, you’ll now create a free account with your email address; after that you get the links. With Pro, the “Invite” step comes first (see below).
Share or show
Share the link via WhatsApp, email or chat. In the room, “QR code / presentation” puts a large QR code on the projector – everyone scans it and votes on their phone.
The screenshots show the German interface.
View the results and close the poll
The admin page shows the results as bars, with an average, ranking or NPS depending on the question type. “Close voting” stops the poll from accepting votes.
The question types
All question types are included in the free plan.
| Question type | How participants answer | Good for | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Choice | 2 to 20 answers. Pick one or, with “Allow several answers”, several – optionally “at most” n. “Allow ‘Other answer’” adds a field for people’s own words (up to 200 characters). Shown as a dropdown list from 8 answers, or whenever you prefer. | Outing destination, favourite date for the barbecue, choice of topic. | Bars with count and percentage; other answers can be expanded. |
| Either – or | Exactly two answers, exactly one can be chosen. | “Lucerne or Appenzell?”, “New jersey: red or blue?”. | Two bars. |
| Yes / No / Abstain | Yes, No and Abstain. “Offer abstention” can be switched off. | Motions, decisions, “Shall we hold the summer party again?”. | “Accepted: 12 yes to 5 no”, or “Rejected” or “Tie”; abstentions don’t count. |
| Rating (scale) | “Range” 1 to 5, 1 to 10 or 0 to 10, as numbers or (from 1) as stars, with labels on the left and right. | Satisfaction, difficulty, “How good was the food?”. | Average and distribution. |
| Recommendation (NPS) | A value from 0 to 10: “How likely are you to recommend us?”. | Course, service, club – comparable over the years. | Net Promoter Score from −100 to +100: share of 9–10 minus share of 0–6, plus the three groups. |
| Ranking | Drag 2 to 10 items into order, or sort them with arrows. | Prioritising project ideas, a wish list for the annual programme. | Average position and points (1st place gets the most). |
| Image choice | 2 to 8 images with a short caption; one or several can be chosen. Photos up to 20 MB straight from your phone; Wannja only stores a reduced version without location data, never the original. | Jersey, logo, poster, table decoration. | Bars with thumbnails. |
| Free text | In their own words, up to 1000 characters. | “What should we do better next year?”. | List of answers. |
The settings
| Setting | What does it do? | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees who voted for what? → With names | The name is stored and shown with the answer. With an email address, the person gets a link to change it; without an address, Wannja recognises on the same device that they have already voted and shows them how to change it. | When names matter: who takes on what, who votes for what. |
| Who sees who voted for what? → Anonymous | No name. Only the answer is stored, without the time it was cast. The answer can’t be changed once it has been submitted. | Feedback, satisfaction, QR code voting in the room. |
| Who sees who voted for what? → Secret ballot (with list of participants) (Pro) | Invited people with an email address only, exactly one vote each; you see who has voted, but never how. In detail: Secret ballot. | Motions and elections in a club, sensitive team questions. |
| Who can vote? → Anyone with the link | Anyone with the link or QR code can vote. Duplicate votes are curbed (a notice on the same device; there is deliberately no limit per network, so that a whole hall on the same Wi-Fi can vote), but not reliably prevented: with “Another person is voting on this device”, a second person can deliberately vote on the same device. | Open polls, votes in the room, WhatsApp groups. |
| Who can vote? → Invited people only (Pro) | Only invited people can vote – with their personal link, exactly once. You see who is still missing and can remind them. | When each vote should belong to exactly one person. |
| Who sees the results, and when? | “Everyone, right away”: everyone sees the results at any time. “Only after voting”: only after casting their own vote. “Only after closing”: only once the poll has been closed. “Only me”: only you. All four are free. As the organiser, you always see the results – except with the secret ballot. | “Only after closing”, if you don’t want anyone to be swayed by the others. |
| Response deadline | Voting is possible up to and including this day. Free. Without a deadline, the poll runs until you close it and is archived after 6 months; with a deadline, 14 days after the deadline. | When you need a result before a meeting. |
| Name required | With “With names” and “Anyone with the link”: no name, no vote. Default: on. | Switch it off if votes without a name are welcome too. |
| Automatically remind invited people 5 days before the deadline (Pro) | Reminds invited people who haven’t voted yet. Needs a response deadline. | Almost always, for invitations with a deadline. |
| Invite (Pro) | Lists, groups, individual people and guests (“Name; email”, one per line). Everyone gets a personal link by email; for people without an address, you get the links to pass on. You can invite more people later. | Committee, members, class, team. |
Which combination for what?
| Situation | Settings |
|---|---|
| Vote in the room by QR code | Anonymous · Anyone with the link · results “Only me” or “Only after closing”, shown via the presentation. Example |
| Feedback after an event | Anonymous · Anyone with the link · “Only after voting”. Example |
| Club outing: choose the destination | With names · Anyone with the link · “Everyone, right away” – everyone can see how things stand. |
| Motion or election at the general meeting | Secret ballot (with list of participants) · Invited people only (Pro). Example |
| Class parent survey | Anonymous · Anyone with the link · “Only after closing” and a response deadline. Example |
| Employee survey | Anonymous · Anyone with the link, or Secret ballot (with list of participants) with a list of participants if each person should count exactly once (Pro). Example |
Not possible: “Anonymous” together with “Invited people only” – the invitation would make it possible to link the vote to a person. Choose “With names” or “Secret ballot (with list of participants)” instead.
QR code and presentation
With “Anyone with the link” (not with the secret ballot), you’ll find “QR code / presentation” on the admin page. This view shows the audience only the title, question, answer options and a large QR code with a short address such as wannja.ch/m/abc2def – no numbers and no results. People who vote by QR code don’t see any results afterwards; you decide whether to show them.
- Keys: ← → next or previous question, R show the results of the current question (updates every few seconds), F full screen, D light/dark, M menu. In the menu you close the vote or reopen it.
- Results slide: only the results, large and live, without a QR code; with several questions, page through with ← →. Put the link on the next slide of your presentation (PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides) or open it in a second window.
- QR PNG / QR SVG: download the QR code for slides, posters or table cards.
The presentation and the results slide have their own display-only link. Anyone who has it can neither change nor close the poll, and only sees results if your visibility setting shows them to everyone. If you’re logged in while presenting, you see everything and can close the poll.
Reading the results
- Choice, either – or, image choice: count and percentage per answer. With “Allow several answers”, the percentages refer to everyone who answered this question – together they can add up to more than 100%.
- Yes / No / Abstain: a motion is accepted if it has more yes than no votes; abstentions are shown but don’t decide.
- Rating: average and distribution. NPS: the score and the groups promoters (9–10), passives (7–8), detractors (0–6).
- Ranking: sorted by average position; the bars show points (with 5 items, 1st place gets five points, the last one point).
- With names: the individual answers with names as well. With “Anonymous” and the secret ballot there are no names.
- Print, Excel and CSV: when logged in, on every plan. With the secret ballot, Excel and CSV only contain the totals.
Managing
- Close voting: after that, nobody can vote any more. With “Only after closing”, you can notify everyone who voted with an email address about the results at the same time. “Reopen” opens the poll again (not with the secret ballot).
- Edit: title, description, deadline, “Who sees the results, and when?”, reminder and portal. The questions are fixed – for a new version, use “Duplicate” (Pro) or create a new poll.
- Remove answer: delete individual answers, such as a test. Not with the secret ballot.
- Remind (Pro): individual invited people or everyone who hasn’t voted yet.
- Archive: the poll moves to the archive and no longer accepts votes; reactivating it gives it 3 more months. Archived polls stay stored until you delete them.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Better |
|---|---|
| Wanting to change a question after launch | Questions are fixed once the poll is created. Click through it yourself first with “View poll”; you can remove a test entry afterwards. |
| Results on the projector give away the mood too early | The presentation only shows results when you press R or on the results slide – not automatically. |
| “Anonymous” for an election with eligible voters | With an open link, someone can vote more than once. For “one person, one vote”, use “Invited people only” or the secret ballot. |
| Too many questions | Most people answer three to five questions all the way to the end. Only make questions required where you really need the answer. |
| Free text in very small groups | Even without names, the content and writing style sometimes give away who wrote something. |
Frequently asked questions
How many questions can a poll have?
Up to 5 for free, up to 15 with Pro. All question types are included in both plans.
Can someone vote more than once?
With “Anyone with the link”, Wannja curbs duplicate votes but doesn’t reliably prevent them. Exactly one vote per person is only possible with “Invited people only” (Pro): each person votes exactly once with their personal link.
With “Anonymous”, can I see who answered what?
No. Only the answer is stored, without a name and without the time it was cast.
Can I show the results live in a meeting?
Yes. In the presentation, the R key shows the results of the current question, and the “Results slide” shows only the results, large and live – with several questions you page through with ← →. Both update every few seconds.
Do images work with phone photos too?
Yes, up to 20 MB per image, as JPG, PNG or WebP; depending on the server, also HEIC from an iPhone. Wannja reduces every image to at most 1600 pixels and removes location data. The original is not stored.