Acadly

Acadly is a classroom platform that pairs attendance automation with live participation tools, aimed chiefly at higher-education instructors. It is strongest when a course needs both; campus-level controls and integrations sit behind an institutional contract.

Overview

Acadly brings attendance, polls, quizzes, word clouds, discussions, Q&A and a class backchannel into one teaching workflow. Instructors and teaching assistants can monitor the backchannel. Acadly Here is a separate attendance option for groups such as teams, bands, K-12 programs and congregations.

The distinction between course and institutional use is important: individual plans cover classroom activity, while fraud alerts, LMS and SSO integration, and bulk course setup are institutional features. Instructors choosing a course plan should not assume it includes campus administration tools.

Key features

Instructors can configure a roster, schedule and attendance rules once, then have sessions run automatically. Acadly says its mesh-network technology verifies physical presence without GPS or QR codes and flags suspicious patterns for instructor review; it says it does not track geolocation. That combination may suit classes seeking automated attendance without location tracking, but the associated fraud alerts are limited to institutional deployments.

For participation, Acadly supports live polls, quizzes, word clouds, discussions, Q&A and monitored backchannels, as well as anonymous responses and slide integration. The native PowerPoint add-in launches attendance and polls from slides and works on Mac and PC. Zoom integration is included in Pro and supported for institutional deployments.

Institutional deployments add LTI compatibility with Moodle, Brightspace, Blackboard and Canvas, along with Zoom and PowerPoint integrations. Acadly says HECVAT and VPAT documentation are available and describes FERPA and GDPR compliance under an enterprise agreement. Institutional data can be exported in standard formats at any time and, according to the maker, is not retained beyond that agreement. Institutions can request demos and structured pilots with onboarding support.

Pricing

Acadly has free and paid course options, plus custom pricing for institutional and group deployments. The pricing labels use both per-month and per-course terms, so buyers should distinguish the recurring course plans from the one-time course purchases.

PlanPrice and billingWhat it includesFirst Course Freefree; first course, up to five monthsPowerPoint integration, scheduled attendance, web and app access; fraud alerts excludedBasic$3 a month (billed); teacher-pays model shown as $3 per course, student-pays as $5 per courseIn-person attendance automation, polls and word clouds, multiple-choice and true/false quizzes, backchannels, basic data exports and Q&APro$5 a month (billed); teacher-pays model shown as $5 per course, student-pays as $10 per courseEverything in Basic, plus scheduled automatic attendance, anonymous Q&A, sorting-type quizzes, Zoom integration and online attendance automationAcadly Basic Course$3, paid once; students pay $3 or instructor pays $1.5/studentApp-only instructor-initiated attendance and CSV names only; no PowerPoint polling or Zoom integration, and LMS and SSO unavailableAcadly Pro Course$5, paid once; students pay $5 or instructor pays $2/studentScheduled attendance, PowerPoint, web and app attendance, PowerPoint polling, Zoom integration and CSV with student emails; fraud alerts and LMS/SSO excludedEnterpriseCustom pricingLMS plugins for instructors and administrators, automatic course provisioning, roster syncing, contact tracing and premium supportInstitutionalCustom pricing; annual or multi-year contractQuote based on active student users, integrations, services and custom requirements; no hardware cost, no limit on courses or instructors, fraud alerts, LMS and SSO integration, and done-for-you course setupAcadly HereCustom pricing; in-app subscriptions between $15 and $75 per monthTailored options by group size and duration, standalone attendance, app-initiated attendance and CSV exportsBasic fits instructors who need in-person attendance and core classroom activities; Pro is the more suitable course plan for scheduled or online attendance, anonymous Q&A or Zoom. The one-time course options clarify who pays, but the Basic Course gives up web access, slide polling and Zoom, while Pro Course still leaves fraud alerts and LMS/SSO to institutional plans. The free course is a useful short-term route for one class, but ends after up to five months and excludes fraud alerts.

Institutions needing roster syncing, course provisioning or campus integrations should seek a custom quote rather than build around an individual plan. Acadly Here’s monthly subscriptions target groups outside higher education, with pricing tailored to group size and duration.

Platforms

Acadly is available on Android, iOS, macOS and the web. The PowerPoint add-in works on Mac and PC, while the Acadly Here attendance workflow is app-initiated.

Who it's for

Acadly is a good fit for higher-education instructors who want attendance automation alongside live class participation, particularly when PowerPoint-based activities matter. Institutions that need centralized setup, LMS or SSO integration, or fraud alerts should consider the institutional route. It is less suitable for an instructor who only needs polling or who requires fraud alerts on an individual course plan.

Pros and cons

Pro: Attendance rules can be configured once and run automatically, reducing repeated setup for scheduled classes.

Pro: Polls, quizzes, Q&A, discussions and a monitored backchannel cover several participation formats in one platform.

Pro: The maker says attendance verification avoids GPS and QR codes and does not track geolocation.

Con: Fraud alerts and LMS/SSO integration require institutional deployment, limiting the individual plans for campuses with those requirements.

Con: Basic Course is app-only for instructor-initiated attendance and excludes PowerPoint polling and Zoom, which narrows its use for slide-led or online classes.

Con: Institutional and Acadly Here pricing is custom, so the per-course options are easier to evaluate than campus-wide or group costs.

Alternatives

Student Response Systems and Audience Response Systems are useful starting points for comparing tools in those categories.

Choose Poll Everywhere instead if a free entry point with a stated 40-person audience cap is the priority. Wayground (formerly Quizizz) may fit better when a free Starter plan with up to 100 participants per session matters more than Acadly’s attendance workflow. iClicker is another option to compare for attendance tracking, auto-run class sessions and late-arrival tracking.

Xorro-Q is an alternative response-system option. Particify may suit a reader whose priority is a free room plan with up to 200 participants. Plickers offers a free plan capped at five questions per set and 63 students per class, while Kahoot! has a free plan for up to 40 participants with quiz and true/false questions. Open Response is a free-to-use open-source classroom polling option.

Verdict

Acadly is the right choice for higher-education instructors who want automatic attendance and several live participation formats in a single course workflow. Its chief advantage is the pairing of attendance automation with classroom engagement and PowerPoint support; its main drawback is that institutional safeguards and integrations require a separate deployment. Choose it for the course-level combination, but look elsewhere if your need is polling alone or if the individual plans must include fraud alerts and campus integrations.