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Productivity · head to head

Kahoot vs Microsoft OneNote

Kahoot logo

Kahoot

Productivity

Make learning awesome with game-based quizzes

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Microsoft OneNote logo

Microsoft OneNote

Productivity

Microsoft's free-form notebook, free with a Microsoft account and synced through OneDrive

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Kahoot no free tier available; all plans are paid subscriptions starting at $19/month; Microsoft OneNote notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.
  • They diverge on capability: Kahoot covers Quiz games, Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kahoot and Microsoft OneNote actually diverge.

Attributes where Kahoot and Microsoft OneNote differ
AttributeKahootMicrosoft OneNote
Pricing modelsubscriptionfreemium
PlatformsCloud-based SaaS, Mobile apps (iOS, Android)Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows
Founded20121975

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Productivity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Kahoot

  • Quiz games
  • Surveys
  • Puzzles
  • Word clouds
  • Live games
  • Self-paced challenges
  • Reports
  • Question bank

Only in Microsoft OneNote

  • Free-form page canvas
  • Notebook hierarchy
  • Indexed handwriting
  • Audio recording
  • Web clipper and Outlook capture
  • Shared notebooks
  • Cross-platform clients
  • Tags and cross-notebook search

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Kahoot

  • Interactive quizzes and learning assessments for educationnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Employee training and development programsnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Conference and event audience engagementnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Team building and company-wide meetingsnot Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote

  • Handwritten notes on a pen tablet that you still need to find months later by searching for a word you wrote.not Kahoot
  • Lecture or meeting notes where a recording needs to line up with what you were typing at the time.not Kahoot
  • A team already inside Microsoft 365 that needs a shared notebook without buying anything or seeking approval.not Kahoot
  • Collecting mixed material such as screenshots, clippings and sketches on one page, where a document editor would force a linear structure.not Kahoot

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Kahoot

  • No free tier available; all plans are paid subscriptions starting at $19/month
  • Participant limit increases significantly with plan tier, from 50 to 5,000 maximum

Microsoft OneNote

  • Notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.
  • Personal notebooks consume OneDrive quota, which is 5 GB on a free Microsoft account, so a notebook full of scans, images and recordings quietly exhausts the whole account including the space Outlook needs for mail.
  • Sync happens at section level and conflicts are resolved by placing both versions on the page, so simultaneous edits to a large or media-heavy section produce duplicated content that somebody has to merge by hand.
  • Search behaves differently across clients, so what the Windows desktop app finds inside handwriting, images and attachments is not necessarily what the browser or mobile version finds, and the same query gives different answers on different devices.
  • There is no relational structure, no database and no properties, so anything that needs a table of records with fields has to be maintained by hand or moved elsewhere, and OneNote's own tables cannot be queried or filtered.

Pricing, plan by plan

Kahoot

Free
  • Kahoot! 360 Pro Start$19/month
    • Up to 50 participants per session
    • Interactive quizzes and polls
    • Basic hosting
  • Kahoot! 360 Pro Standard$25/month
    • Up to 200 participants per session
    • Brainstorms and word clouds
    • Slide syncing and Q&A
  • Kahoot! 360 Pro Plus$49/month
    • Up to 1,000 participants per session
    • Courses with certificates
    • NPS surveys
  • Kahoot! 360 Pro Max$69/month
    • Up to 2,000 participants per session
    • Custom theming
    • Immersive branding

Microsoft OneNote

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Microsoft OneNote review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Kahoot if

  • You need quiz games.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud-based SaaS, Mobile apps (iOS, Android).
  • You also want surveys.
Kahoot review

Choose Microsoft OneNote if

  • You need free-form page canvas.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
  • You also want notebook hierarchy.
Microsoft OneNote review

Questions people ask

Is Kahoot or Microsoft OneNote better?
Neither clearly leads. Kahoot starts at Free and Microsoft OneNote at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kahoot or Microsoft OneNote?
Kahoot starts at Free and Microsoft OneNote at Free.
Does Kahoot or Microsoft OneNote run on more platforms?
Kahoot runs on Cloud-based SaaS, Mobile apps (iOS, Android). Microsoft OneNote runs on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
Can I use Kahoot for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Kahoot best used for?
Kahoot is most often used for interactive quizzes and learning assessments for education, employee training and development programs, conference and event audience engagement, team building and company-wide meetings. Of those, interactive quizzes and learning assessments for education and employee training and development programs are not what Microsoft OneNote is typically brought in for.
What can Kahoot do that Microsoft OneNote cannot?
Kahoot covers Quiz games, Surveys, Puzzles, Word clouds. Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas, Notebook hierarchy, Indexed handwriting, Audio recording.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kahoot: What is the cheapest Kahoot plan and what audience size does it support?

Kahoot! 360 Pro Start is $19 per month (or $228 annually) and supports up to 50 participants per session. It includes interactive quizzes, polls, basic hosting, and AI kahoot creation.

Source
Microsoft OneNote: Is OneNote really free?

Yes. The application is free with a Microsoft account, with no time limit and no feature gate. What you may end up paying for is the OneDrive storage the notebooks consume.

Kahoot: Which Kahoot plan supports the largest audience, and what is its participant limit?

Kahoot! 360 Pro Ultra is the top tier at $79 per month (or $948 annually) and supports up to 5,000 participants per session. It includes full AI assistant access, event consultation, commercial licensing, and large document processing up to 500 pages.

Source
Microsoft OneNote: Can I keep notebooks off Microsoft's cloud?

The Windows desktop app can keep local notebooks, but they will not sync to other devices and any shared access requires OneDrive or SharePoint.

Kahoot: How much does a Kahoot plan cost annually if I pay upfront?

Annual pricing is available for all plans and includes a discount: Pro Start is $228/year ($19/month), Pro Standard is $300/year ($25/month), Pro Plus is $588/year ($49/month), Pro Max is $828/year ($69/month), and Pro Ultra is $948/year ($79/month).

Source
Microsoft OneNote: How do I get my notes out?

Section by section as a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document. A OneNote package preserves a whole notebook but only for another copy of OneNote. Third-party converters exist and the page layout usually does not survive them.

Microsoft OneNote: Which version should I install?

Microsoft consolidated onto a single OneNote application on Windows after retiring the Store version, so install the one distributed with Microsoft 365 rather than looking for an alternative.

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