Questionmark vs TAO
Questionmark
questionmark.com
TAO
taotesting.comSide by side
| Figure | Questionmark | TAO |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $149/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 7 |
| Spec score · Lockdown Browser Software | 8.4 (#5) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Spec score · Online Exam Software | 8.4 (#8) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Spec score · Quiz Maker Software | 8.4 (#8) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Spec score · Automated Grading Software | 8.3 (#10) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Spec score · Assessment Software | 8.4 (#12) | 8.8 (#7) |
| Assessment lifecycle | The platform covers item-bank management, exam scheduling, access control, delivery, reporting and impact analysis. | The platform combines authoring, content management, secure delivery, scoring, grading and reporting in one environment. |
| Authoring | Authoring supports multiple question types and performance-based testing. | TAO provides a WYSIWYG editor, drag-and-drop multimedia authoring and more than 20 built-in question types. |
| Company founding | Questionmark founder John Kleeman created the first Questionmark system in 1988. | The company was created in 2013 when TAO spun off into Open Assessment Technologies S.A. |
| Founded | 1988 | 2013 |
| Integrations | Supported interoperability standards include SCORM, LTI, xAPI and AICC. | Listed integrations include Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, GeoGebra, Proctorio, MathType, Wiris and Texthelp. |
| Licence | Questionmark Secure is proprietary software under a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence; the agreement separately references included third-party and open-source components. | TAO Community Edition core components are released under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3). |
| Proctoring | Proctoring options include live online, recorded-and-reviewed and onsite delivery. | The platform offers lockdown-browser controls, local proctoring, remote-proctoring integrations and session monitoring. |
| Rating on Capterra | 3.8 out of 5 from 5 reviews | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 3.8 out of 5 from 5 reviews | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Self-hosting | Questionmark sells an OnPremise deployment that runs on customer-authorized physical or virtual servers, with an approved supported installation required for vendor support. | Organizations can deploy TAO themselves, use TAO Cloud, or choose private-cloud hosting. |
| Support | Questionmark advertises 24/7 support and support through account-management and technical-support teams by email and telephone for proctoring services. | Community Edition support is through the TAO Community Forum and User Guide; paid plans offer additional support options. |
| System requirements | Its record-and-review proctoring specification requires Chrome plus a third-party extension on Windows 7+ or macOS 10.11+, with 2 GB RAM and 250 MB free disk space. | The installation guide lists Apache 2.4, PHP 7.2 and MySQL 5.7, MariaDB 10.1 or PostgreSQL 9.5, with recent Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge clients. |
| What it does | Questionmark provides enterprise software for creating, delivering, securing and analyzing online assessments, exams and certification programs. | TAO is an open-source digital assessment platform for creating, delivering, scoring, grading and reporting tests. |
Plans
TAO
- TAO Community EditionFree
- TAO StarterFree
- TAO StarterFree
- TAO Author$149 a month
- TAO Ignite$990 a month
- TAO ElevatePriced on request
- TAO EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Questionmark
Questionmark has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
TAO
TAO is an online platform for creating, delivering and managing digital assessments. Authors can build tests manually, convert existing exam files, use AI-assisted drafting or import QTI packages. Question formats include Choice, Extended Text, File Upload, Hotspot and Text Entry. Scoring supports automatic and manual methods, partial credit, weighted responses and cut scores, with branching logic also available. Results can be reviewed through session and test-taker reports, custom reports, CSV results, Data Explorer and TAO Insights. TAO supports QTI 2.2 and QTI 3.0, and promotes interoperability through QTI and LTI. Delivery options include online, LMS via LTI, test centers, local proctoring, and cloud-hosted or self-hosted configurations. TAO Cloud offers shared or private hosting using providers including AWS, Google Cloud and Linode. Starter is free for one author and 50 learner attempts monthly; Community Edition is a free, self-hosted open-source option. Paid plans include TAO Author at $149 a month and TAO Ignite at $990 a month; custom plans are also listed.