What Socrative does

Socrative is a real-time classroom assessment platform developed and operated by Showbie Inc., a private Alberta-incorporated company headquartered in Edmonton, Canada. The platform enables teachers to launch quizzes, polls, exit tickets, and gamified team activities (Space Races) that students join via room codes on web browsers or native iOS/Android apps, with responses graded automatically and visualized live as submissions arrive. The product architecture sits on AWS infrastructure, uses PubNub for real-time event transmission, integrates Stripe for billing, and embeds Google SSO plus MasteryConnect SSO for authentication.

The company operates a freemium B2B model targeted primarily at K-12 teachers with secondary expansion into Higher Education, Corporate Training, and Vocational Education. Students use the platform free of charge across all plans, while teachers upgrade through three paid tiers: Essentials at $10/month, Pro at $16.67/seat/month with a 2-seat minimum, and Organization at $14.40/seat/month with a 12-seat minimum, all billed annually. The Organization tier is sold through direct sales contact forms and includes a dedicated account manager, while individual and team tiers are self-serve product-led growth. As of the most recent disclosure, Socrative reports 3M+ active teacher users, 4M+ activities launched annually, and 60M+ student participations per year, with named institutional customers including UK multi-academy trusts and Scottish Borders Council.

In 2025–2026 Socrative added a suite of AI capabilities branded as Socrative AI, including AI Question Generation, AI-Assisted Question Importing, and AI Insights (Results Insights), all powered by OpenAI models operating on anonymized response data with mandatory teacher review. The company maintains an extensive compliance posture covering GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, Australian Privacy Act, SOC 2, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, EU AI Act (Chapters I and II), and HECVAT, which functions as a procurement gatekeeper for K-12 and higher-ed institutional sales. The only disclosed funding is a $750,000 seed round in 2013 from Imagine K12, NewSchools Venture Fund, and True Ventures, suggesting the business has been operated largely on cash flow since inception.

Name

Socrative

Legal name

Showbie Inc.

Website

https://socrative.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Socrative is a real-time classroom assessment platform by Showbie Inc. that enables K-12, higher-ed, corporate, and vocational teachers to launch quizzes, polls, and gamified activities with automated grading and AI-powered insights, serving over 3 million teachers globally via a freemium subscription model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Technology / Formative Assessment Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Survey, Formative Assessment & Classroom Response (Quizzes/Polls) Tools (EDAFADAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Assessment, Testing & Analytics Platforms (Formative/Summative) (EDAJAMAC), Automated Scoring, Grading & Feedback (AI/ML) Systems (EDAFADAE)

Keywords

• Formative assessment
• Classroom engagement
• AI quiz generation
• Learning analytics
• Education technology

Headquarters

HQ city

Edmonton

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Teacher Subscription Plans: Socrative generates revenue through tiered subscription plans billed annually. The platform offers four tiers: Free (no cost, limited features), Essentials ($10/month), Pro ($16.67/seat/month with minimum 2 seats), and Organization ($14.40/seat/month for 12+ seats). All paid plans are billed annually with discounts compared to monthly rates. The student experience is free on all plans.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Socrative is a cloud-based real-time student assessment platform that enables teachers to create, deliver, and grade interactive activities including quizzes, polls, exit tickets, and team-based Space Races via web browsers and native iOS/Android apps. The platform features AI-powered question generation and results insights (built on OpenAI GPT-4o and GPT-5 mini), automated grading, instant feedback, and live visualization of student progress. It serves K-12 schools, higher education institutions, corporate training programs, and vocational education through tiered annual subscription plans (Free, Essentials, Pro, Organization).

Product overview

Socrative is a unified real-time assessment platform by Showbie Inc. designed for K-12, Higher Ed, Corporate, and Vocational Education. The platform consists of a core Socrative assessment engine with free Teacher and Student apps, supported by three paid subscription tiers (Essentials, Pro, Organization) that unlock advanced features like AI Question Generation, Results Insights, shared libraries, and enterprise management tools. The platform's architecture centers on Rooms (virtual classrooms) where teachers launch quizzes, polls, exit tickets, and Space Races, with automated grading and instant feedback delivered to students in real-time. Socrative AI features are integrated across all plans as optional enhancements that support but never replace teacher judgment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Socrative Cloud-based real-time assessment platform delivered via web browsers and native iOS/Android apps. Enables teachers to create, launch, and grade quizzes, polls, exit tickets, and team-based Space Races. Includes AI-powered question generation and AI Insights for results analysis (powered by OpenAI), automated grading with instant feedback, live visualization of student progress, customizable reports with export options, and flexible delivery modes (live-paced, self-paced, exit tickets). Available through Free, Essentials, Pro, and Organization subscription tiers.
• Socrative Student App

Quantifiable outcome

• Teachers save 60% prep time using Socrative AI for quiz creation
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability4 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS provides database hosting for all Socrative data and content. AWS CloudFront is used as a content delivery network for application performance improvement. All data is stored in AWS data centers in the US with backup servers in South America, Asia, and Australia. Data transfers are protected under EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
• OpenAIcoreTechnology or IntegrationOpenAI provides large language model capabilities for Socrative's AI Question Generator and AI Insights features. Processes room info and provided feedback for AI analysis. OpenAI is GDPR compliant and certified with ISO27001, SOC 2, and SOC 3 standards. Data is not used for AI model training.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe processes payments for Socrative subscriptions and provides fraud prevention services. Functional cookie used for payment processing and security.
• Level AccessminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerLevel Access is a third-party accessibility firm engaged to provide Socrative with an official accessibility audit of their system and assist with prioritization of high-impact accessibility issues to fix.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Kahoot: Kahoot is a direct competitor offering game-based formative assessment and quizzes to teachers and corporate trainers. Both platforms enable real-time student response activities, support classroom-based engagement, and sell freemium subscription tiers to educators and organizations.
• Quizizz: Quizizz is a direct competitor providing interactive quizzes, formative assessments, and AI-assisted question generation for K-12 and higher education. Both target the same teacher-led classroom use cases with freemium models and have overlapping feature sets around real-time engagement and auto-grading.
• Nearpod: Nearpod is a direct competitor delivering interactive lessons with embedded formative assessments, polls, and quizzes to K-12 teachers. Both platforms emphasize real-time student feedback, integration with school LMS systems, and tiered subscription pricing for individuals and districts.
• Pear Deck: Pear Deck is a direct competitor offering interactive formative assessment and student engagement tools that integrate with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint. Both platforms target K-12 teachers with real-time response collection, teacher dashboards, and tiered organizational pricing.
• Formative: Formative is a direct competitor focused on real-time formative assessment with auto-grading and standards-aligned item banks for K-12 teachers. Both compete in the formative assessment category, offering live student responses, free teacher tiers, and paid school/district plans.

Emerging players

• Gimkit: Gimkit is an emerging player in classroom quiz-based learning with strong student-engagement features similar to Socrative's Space Race. It targets the same K-12 teacher audience with game-based assessment mechanics and freemium pricing, though its footprint and AI feature set are smaller.
• Blooket: Blooket is an emerging player offering gamified formative assessments and review activities for K-12 classrooms. It overlaps with Socrative's Space Race-style engagement features and teacher-led quiz mechanics, primarily competing for the same individual teacher segment with freemium pricing.
• Edpuzzle: Edpuzzle is an emerging player offering interactive video-based formative assessment with embedded questions, targeting the same K-12 teacher audience. It is comparable to Socrative in delivering formative checks-for-understanding, though its delivery medium (video) is narrower than Socrative's quiz/activity breadth.

Others

• Showbie: Showbie is Socrative's parent company and adjacent EdTech platform focused on assignment workflow, grading, and classroom collaboration for K-12. It is comparable because it operates under the same corporate entity, targets the same K-12 teacher buyer, and shares distribution and product development resources.

Broad incumbents

• ClassDojo: ClassDojo is a broader K-12 classroom management and engagement platform with formative assessment-adjacent features. While its primary focus is classroom culture and communication, it overlaps with Socrative in the teacher-led engagement segment and has a comparable global teacher user base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/socrative
• Facebookfacebook.com/Socrative
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/socrative

Compliance12 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Socrative