How a yes no poll works in Doodle, PollUnit and Mentimeter
A yes no poll asks one clear question and offers two choices, yes or no, which is how Typeform describes it. PollUnit, a maker of online polls, surveys and contests, lists yes/no as a voting type with an abstain option, and its Free plan allows 40 participants per PollUnit.
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Doodle poll yes or no: click for yes, empty box for no
Doodle's Help Center spells out both replies on its page about taking part in a group poll. To vote Yes, click once on the box for a time slot. To vote No, leave that box empty. Nothing gets pressed for a No, so the empty box is the reply.
Anyone who wants a yes no poll Doodle can build is really asking for a group poll, where each time slot takes one of those two replies. Doodle's Help Center adds that a Doodle account is not required to participate in a group poll, and that anyone who does have an account should log in before responding.
Then there is the reply nobody chose. The if-need-be option, described on a second Doodle help page, is automatically enabled and cannot be disabled, so a group poll carries a third position beside Yes and No. Organisers who want only Yes or No responses are told to write that into the Description field of the group poll, together with any other instructions.
The Description field holds a written request to participants, worded by the organiser in plain text.
Online or near me: sites, lists and upcoming polls to find
A poll has no street address. A yes no poll lives on a maker's site and reaches people through the link its creator shares, so near me matches nothing, and this page keeps no list of upcoming polls.
What does exist is a set of maker sites and help pages, and that is where to find each tool's controls. Each page documents its own tool only, so a setting described for one does not carry over to another.
Setting up an online poll yes or no means choosing among three things those pages document: a voting type, a group poll grid or a results view.
- PollUnit: a poll maker for online votings, surveys and contests, with yes/no among its voting types.
- Doodle Help Center: the page on taking part in a group poll, which covers the click for Yes and the empty box for No.
- Typeform: a page on yes or no polls, describing one clear question and two choices, and a separate page on creating a poll.
- Mentimeter help center: the page on hiding or showing results, including the After responding setting.
- SurveyMonkey: a page on online polls and a help page on Instant Results.
Questions for fun: what makers say about light yes or no polls
WPForms says yes/no poll questions can be whatever the author wants, from fun to informative to a way of getting to know an audience. Yes or no funny poll questions sit at the fun end of that range, and a poll maker counts them like any other two-choice question.
Wooclap gives yes or no fun poll questions a category of their own on its page of fun poll questions, with a question about roller-coasters as the example.
A yes no poll meme is a joke format built on two replies, and it becomes a poll only when a tool records the choices. Funny yes no poll options need nothing from the tool beyond what Typeform's definition asks for, which is one clear question and two choices. The joke is built around the wording.
More than two answers: abstain, if-need-be and a middle option
Typeform's page on yes or no polls describes one clear question with two choices, yes or no, and stops there. PollUnit and Doodle both add a third position of their own.
Whether a third position belongs depends on what the question is for. Polly's page on good poll questions says yes or no poll questions suit a wish for a straight answer, and a straight answer argues for two choices. A group deciding between time slots is a different case, and Doodle builds if-need-be into it.
A literal maybe button is another matter. None of the pages covered here names one. They name abstain and if-need-be, and each gives a participant a third position instead of a flat Yes or No.
- Typeform, yes or no poll: two choices, yes or no.
- PollUnit, Yes / No voting: Yes, No and abstain, with negative votes subtracted from positive votes.
- Doodle, group poll: a click for Yes, an empty box for No, and if-need-be, which is automatically enabled and cannot be disabled.
Show user selected answer, show back results: who controls the view
Once a user has selected an answer, a tool can show the results back or keep them hidden, and Mentimeter's own products split on who decides: the creator in Menti Form, the tool in Menti Pulse and the participant in Menti Live.
In Menti Form the control sits in Settings. Mentimeter's help center says to click the Settings icon in the top-left corner of the editor, next to the Menti title, and pick Never show to keep results hidden or After responding to reveal the responses received so far once a respondent submits.
Menti Pulse removes the choice: Mentimeter says its results stay visible to participants after they submit. Menti Live hands the choice to the participant. When people have finished participating, a click on View the results opens them in a new tab, and Mentimeter adds that no PDF file of the Menti is sent.
SurveyMonkey's help center describes the same idea for surveys under the name Instant Results, which lets the creator show respondents a real-time summary of results when they complete the survey.
Two of these four modes give the creator a switch, one gives the participant a link and one offers no switch at all. A yes/no tally is two or three figures, so showing it back takes a respondent a glance. Whether that happens is the maker's design and the creator's setting.
Wording the question: agree, plan to or want
Typeform's page on creating a poll files yes/no questions under the ones that ask whether respondents agree, plan to, or want something. Each of those openers has a natural yes or a natural no, which is why they fit a two-choice poll.
SurveyMonkey's page on online polls advises opening with one clear question or a few short ones. A yes/no poll takes the first branch of that advice by definition, since Typeform describes it as one clear question with two choices.
A question that opens with which or how many cannot take a yes or a no for a reply, so it belongs in a multiple-choice poll. Polly's page on good poll questions names the case that suits the two-choice form: wanting a straight answer, or finding out what team members think.
Free plan limits: what a free yes no poll includes on PollUnit
For a yes no poll free of any monthly charge, PollUnit's accounts page is the one to read. It lists a Free plan with no monthly payment, 40 participants per PollUnit, 20 files per PollUnit, 1 GB of storage and no cap on the number of PollUnits.
The 40-participant ceiling is the figure that decides whether the Free plan fits a yes/no question, because it caps how many people can reply to one PollUnit. Past it, the poll needs another plan. The missing cap on PollUnits pulls the other way: it limits how many people answer each poll and leaves the number of polls open.
The file and storage allowances sit beside PollUnit's photo-contest feature, which pairs a gallery and voting with a photo uploader for participants. A plain yes/no question uploads nothing, so those two figures go unused.
PollUnit describes itself as a poll maker for online votings, surveys and contests, and lists yes/no beside star rating and dot voting among its voting types.
Platform rules and disqualification: who decides what counts
A tool's help pages describe settings, and settings are not verdicts. PollUnit describes how negative votes are subtracted from positive votes, Doodle describes whether a participant needs an account, and Mentimeter describes who sees the results and when. None of the passages covered here says how a reply is detected as fake, so no tool gets credit here for a detector.
Platform rules and disqualification belong to the organiser's published terms for that poll or contest. What an organiser sees is the counter: positive votes less negative ones in PollUnit's Yes / No voting, the responses received so far in Mentimeter. What happens when a count looks wrong is the organiser's ruling.
Paid votes in a poll whose rules forbid them are a rules problem first, and the ruling belongs to the organiser. A paid vote in any poll changes none of the settings above: the account rule, the participant ceiling and the results switch stay with the maker and the creator. No page, including this one, can predict how a given organiser will rule.
| Tool and mode | What the respondent sees | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Mentimeter Form | The responses received so far, once the respondent submits, with After responding chosen | The creator, in Settings: Never show or After responding |
| Menti Pulse | Results, visible to participants after they submit | No setting: Mentimeter says they stay visible |
| Menti Live | A View the results link opens the results in a new tab; no PDF of the Menti is sent | The participant, by clicking the link |
| SurveyMonkey Instant Results | A real-time summary of results when the respondent completes the survey | The creator, who chooses to show respondents the summary |
How to do it
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Ask one clear question
Ask one clear question, or a few short ones, as SurveyMonkey's page on online polls advises. Typeform's page on creating a poll describes yes/no questions as the ones that ask whether respondents agree, plan to, or want something.
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Pick the yes and no controls
In PollUnit, choose the Yes / No voting type from its list of voting types. In a Doodle group poll the two replies are built in: click once on the box for a slot to say Yes, and leave it empty to say No.
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Decide on a third position
PollUnit's Yes / No voting lets participants abstain, and Doodle's if-need-be option is automatically enabled and cannot be disabled, while Typeform's description of a yes/no poll stops at two choices. Decide which of those three patterns the question needs before anyone replies.
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Write the yes or no request in the Description
When only Yes or No responses will do, Doodle's Help Center recommends saying so in the Description field of the group poll, along with any other instructions. The if-need-be option stays enabled, so the written request does the work.
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Choose what respondents see afterwards
In Mentimeter Form, open the Settings icon in the top-left corner of the editor and choose Never show or After responding. SurveyMonkey's Instant Results offers respondents a real-time summary when they complete a survey.
Common questions
For polls centered around yes or no questions, should there always be a third middle option like maybe?
None of the tool pages covered here requires a middle option, and Typeform describes a yes/no poll as one clear question with two choices. PollUnit's Yes / No voting lets participants abstain, and Doodle keeps if-need-be on in a group poll. A straight answer, which Polly names as the reason to use yes or no poll questions, argues for leaving the middle out.
Should a yes/no poll have more than two answers?
By Typeform's definition a yes/no poll has exactly two choices, so a question that needs more than two answers is a different kind of poll. Makers still add a third position: abstain in PollUnit's Yes / No voting, if-need-be in a Doodle group poll. Add one only when the honest reply to the question is neither yes nor no.
So you want to show a poll, and after user selected an answer, show them back the poll results?
Mentimeter Form does that when the creator picks After responding in its Settings, and SurveyMonkey's Instant Results shows respondents a real-time summary when they complete a survey. Menti Pulse shows results to participants after they submit, and Menti Live offers a View the results link that opens them in a new tab.
Is there a workaround for Doodle's if-need-be option?
Doodle's Help Center says the if-need-be option is automatically enabled and cannot be disabled, so no switch removes it. Its recommendation is to write a yes-or-no-only instruction in the Description field of the group poll, along with any other instructions. That written request is the route Doodle's Help Center recommends.
How many people can reply on PollUnit's Free plan?
PollUnit's accounts page lists 40 participants per PollUnit on the Free plan, alongside 20 files per PollUnit, 1 GB of storage and no cap on the number of PollUnits. A yes/no question uploads no files, so the participant ceiling is the figure that limits it.
Am I overlooking something before I share a yes/no poll?
Three settings are easy to miss: whether a third position exists, who sees the results and when, and how many people can reply at all. PollUnit adds abstain to Yes / No voting, and Doodle builds in if-need-be. Mentimeter Form offers Never show and After responding, and PollUnit's Free plan caps one PollUnit at 40 participants.
Can a fake answer be detected in a yes/no poll?
Whether a fake answer is detected as fake depends on the tool and on the organiser's review, and none of the passages covered here describes such a check. Disqualification is the organiser's ruling under that poll's published rules. No claim is made here about any tool's detection.
Where these facts come from
- pollunit.com. pollunit.com/en/tutorials/cast_your_vote.
- pollunit.com. pollunit.com/en/tutorials/cast_your_vote.
- pollunit.com. pollunit.com/en/accounts.
- help.doodle.com. help.doodle.com/en/articles/9457343-how-does-the-if-need-be-group-poll-response-work.
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/422266-hide-or-show-results.
This page cannot decide what counts in any poll: the organiser's written rules and each tool's own settings do that, and no help passage covered here describes how a fake answer is detected. Paid votes in a contest or poll that forbids them are the organiser's to rule on. Nothing on the page predicts a result or an organiser's decision.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.