Trivia is one of the broadest game libraries on the Slack marketplace. Instant quizzes, Pictionary, GIF charades, emoji rebus, polls, virtual coffee pairings and birthday celebrations, all in one install, on Slack and Microsoft Teams. It was built by Springworks and is now published by Heron HR at trytrivia.co.
It is also one of the few trivia apps that still has a free plan, which makes it the most interesting product on this site to compare against.
Most people weighing up a Trivia app alternative are looking at that free plan and wondering where it stops. It stops at three players.
The three-player cap
Trivia's free Basic plan advertises unlimited instant games, and that part is true. The limit is on who can join them: three participants per game. It also allows three VirtualCoffee pairings per cycle, covering six people.
For a team of three, that is a complete product. For a channel of twelve, it is a demo. The fourth person to click into a game is where the plan runs out, and the fix is Standard at $1 per user per month with a $29 monthly minimum. Letting a 30-person channel answer a question costs about $30 a month.
TriviaStack's free plan has no participant cap. Everyone in the workspace can play every game, and there is no tier above it to upgrade into. Both claims are on both pricing pages, so neither needs taking on trust.
One more gate is worth knowing about. Building your own quiz sits on Trivia's Pro tier, which starts at a $49 monthly minimum. On TriviaStack the custom game builder is the free product: ten categories, 3 to 20 questions, easy through hard.
Trivia vs TriviaStack at a glance
| TriviaStack | Trivia (Heron HR) | |
|---|---|---|
| Players per game, free plan | Unlimited | 3 |
| Cost for a 30-person channel | Free | $30/month on Standard |
| Custom quiz builder | Free | Pro only, $49/month minimum |
| How you play | Async, answer when you like | Real time, everyone at once |
| Questions from the news | Ten every morning | Library of instant quizzes |
| Game variety | Trivia only | Pictionary, charades, polls and more |
| Microsoft Teams | No. Slack only. | Yes |
| Virtual coffee pairings | No | Yes |
Real-time games versus async play
The deeper difference is philosophical. Trivia is built around synchronous play. The team gathers, a round runs live, and the energy of everyone answering at once is the whole point. It is good when it lands.
It also has to be organised. Somebody picks a time, people show up, and anyone in the wrong timezone or a meeting misses it. For a distributed team that is most of the team, most of the time. Live games tend to start strong and then quietly stop being scheduled.
TriviaStack is async by design. The Daily Stack posts ten fresh questions each morning, drawn from real headlines overnight and curated before they publish. People answer between meetings, scores tally automatically, and the leaderboard is waiting when they look. Nobody has to be free at the same moment and nobody has to organise anything, which is what lets it become a ritual instead of an occasion.
Where Trivia wins
Trivia covers ground TriviaStack does not, and sometimes that decides it.
- Microsoft Teams. Trivia supports Teams as well as Slack, with a generous 90-day Pro trial there. TriviaStack is Slack only with no Teams version planned.
- Game variety. Pictionary, charades, image quizzes, riddles and hangman are a different offer from trivia alone. A channel that wants a rotation will get more from Trivia.
- Adjacent rituals. VirtualCoffee pairings, water cooler prompts and birthday celebrations live in the same app.
- Live team moments. If your team is mostly in one timezone and you want everyone playing together at 4pm on a Friday, real time is the right format and async is the worse fit.
- Analytics and admin controls. Advanced analytics, notification controls and admin permissions exist on Trivia's paid tiers. TriviaStack has none of them.
TriviaStack also does not support Slack Enterprise Grid, which rules it out for some larger organisations regardless of anything above.
Which one to pick
Want a varied games library, live rounds, or Microsoft Teams support? Trivia is the stronger product, and its free plan is a reasonable way to see whether the format suits your team, as long as you know the three-player cap is coming.
Want trivia the whole channel can play, every day, with no bill and no cap? That is what TriviaStack was built for. Installing takes about a minute, nobody needs an account, and the fastest way to decide is to put both in the same channel for a week and see which one people answer.
You can also compare TriviaStack against Water Cooler Trivia and Ricotta, or read our guide to the best Slack games for remote teams.
Common questions
Does the Trivia Slack app have a free plan?+
Yes, but it is capped. Trivia's free Basic plan allows unlimited instant games with a maximum of three participants per game. A fourth player requires the Standard plan, which starts at $29 a month. TriviaStack's free plan has no participant cap, so the whole workspace can play.
How much does the Trivia app cost?+
On Slack, Trivia's Basic plan is free, Standard is $1 per user per month with a $29 monthly minimum covering 1 to 29 users, and Pro is $2 per user per month with a $49 monthly minimum covering 1 to 25 users. Enterprise pricing is on request, and Slack plans include a 7-day Pro trial.
Is Trivia still made by Springworks?+
No. Trivia was originally built by Springworks and is now published by Heron HR, with the product at trytrivia.co. Older articles and directory listings still credit Springworks, which is worth knowing when you compare pricing pages found through search.
What is the difference between real-time and async trivia?+
Trivia's games are real time: the team gathers and plays a round together, which is lively but needs everyone free at the same moment. TriviaStack is async, so questions post to the channel and teammates answer whenever they get to them. Timezones and meetings stop excluding people.
Can I build my own quiz for free?+
On TriviaStack, yes. Pick from ten categories, choose a difficulty and set 3 to 20 questions, all on the free plan. Trivia places customizable quizzes on its Pro tier, which starts at a $49 monthly minimum.