The software Buzztime alternative for bars and taprooms
Buzztime puts a subscription, a set of tablets and a six-month commitment behind your trivia night. Quizado puts the same night on the TVs you already own and the phones your guests already carry.
Quizado is the Buzztime alternative for venues that want live trivia without renting hardware: you host from a laptop, tablet or phone, players join by QR code, and scores update on your existing TV, starting on a free plan instead of a monthly subscription.
Quizado vs. Buzztime
Pourquoi passer de Buzztime ?
A subscription before the first question
Buzztime lists Bronze at $199, Silver at $249 and Gold at $299 a month, with a six-month commitment (business.buzztime.com, checked August 2026).
Quizado has a free plan that runs a real bar trivia night, so the first few weeks cost nothing while you find out whether the room turns up.
Tablets you have to look after
The Silver plan bundles five Arcade tablets and Gold bundles ten. Someone on staff charges them, counts them back in and chases the ones that walk.
Quizado players use the phone in their pocket. Nothing to charge, nothing to hand out at the door, nothing to replace.
The night is not yours
Network trivia runs to a national schedule and carries the network brand on the screens in your room.
You choose the rounds, the theme and the time. Business puts your own logo on the display and the player screens, with custom fonts, colors and custom sounds.
Writing a themed round takes a week
If you want a round about your own town, your own beer list or the local team, network content will not have it.
AI question generation writes a themed Bar Trivia round from a prompt in seconds, and you can edit every question before it goes on screen. Every paid plan includes monthly AI questions.
A commitment you cannot test first
A six-month term is a long time to discover that Tuesday is the wrong night for your venue.
Quizado is monthly. Run four nights, look at the till, then decide whether the trivia night stays in the calendar.
One format, every week
A room that has played the same trivia format for a year starts to thin out.
Swap in a Catch That Tune round, a Family Face-Off night or a QuizoParty board on any plan, or move up to Pro for Music Bingo. Nothing else to buy.
Ce qui rend Quizado différent
Conçu de A à Z pour le bar trivia moderne et les événements en direct.
Runs on the screens you own
Plug a laptop into the TV behind the bar, or cast from an iPad. The display shows the question, the timer and the live leaderboard with no extra box on the wall.
QR-code join
Guests point a camera at the code on the screen and they are in. No app store, no account, no tablet to sign out.
Phone buzzers
In a Buzzer Race round the host console locks the first buzz it receives and puts that team on the big screen, so the room can see who is answering.
AI question generation
Type a topic and get a full Bar Trivia round back. Useful for a brewery release night, a sports final or anything a national content schedule will never cover. Every paid plan includes monthly AI questions.
Five game formats
Bar trivia, Family Face-Off, QuizoParty, Music Bingo and Catch That Tune all sit in one app, so a slow month can be fixed by changing the format instead of the price of a pint. Family Face-Off and QuizoParty are on every plan, and Music Bingo starts on Pro.
Leagues and seasons
Run a season table across weeks so regulars come back to defend a position, not just for one good Tuesday. Leagues and seasons are on Business.
What Buzztime costs in 2026
Buzztime publishes three venue plans. Checked in August 2026 on business.buzztime.com, Bronze is $199 a month, Silver is $249 a month and Gold is $299 a month. All three are described with a six-month commitment and the option to cancel after that. On Bronze players use their own phones or tablets, Silver includes five tablets and Gold includes ten. Pricing pages move, so check their site for current pricing before you budget.
Put that next to what a venue actually spends to run trivia in-house. Quizado starts at zero: the free plan hosts a full bar trivia night with the free question packs, live phone buzzers, the big-screen display and up to four players, and it runs Family Face-Off and QuizoParty too. When the room outgrows four phones you move to a paid plan, and the player cap lifts. Every paid plan adds monthly AI questions. Pro plays the question sets you write (writing them is free on every plan) and adds media rounds and Music Bingo. Business adds leagues, a custom logo, custom fonts and colors and custom sounds, and paid plans add extra venues as an add-on.
The honest comparison is not only the monthly number. Buzztime is a managed entertainment network: content arrives, the games run, and nobody on your staff writes a question. Quizado hands you the console and expects a human to press the buttons. If your bar manager already runs the Tuesday quiz off a clipboard, that trade is a bargain. If nobody on the rota wants to hold a microphone, a managed network or a hosted trivia company may be worth the monthly fee.
Buzztime at home and the home trivia system
A lot of the search traffic for "Buzztime home trivia system" comes from people who played on the tablets in a bar and want the same thing on the sofa. Buzztime runs a consumer game room in the browser for that audience, separate from the venue plans above.
Quizado covers the home case from the other direction. The same app venues use is free for personal play: pick a free question pack, put the laptop on the living-room TV, and everyone in the house buzzes in from their phone. Family game night, a birthday, a holiday quiz for relatives on a video call - it is the same host console, only with a smaller room. Nothing about the free plan is a demo build; the buzzers and scoring are the ones a paying venue uses.
NTN Buzztime, the name people still search
If you have been in hospitality a while you probably know the brand as NTN. The name and the ownership have changed more than once since then. The venue product carries on under the Buzztime name and is still selling plans in August 2026, where the site describes 41 years in business (business.buzztime.com, checked August 2026).
That history matters for one practical reason: a lot of the reviews, forum threads and pricing numbers you find under "NTN Buzztime" describe an older version of the product. If you are comparing on price or on what is bundled, read the current plans on their site rather than an old thread, and do the same with anything you read here.
Who should stay, who should switch
Stay with Buzztime if...
There are real venues where a managed network beats software you drive yourself.
- +You want entertainment running all week with nobody on staff hosting it
- +Poker, bingo and arcade titles matter as much as trivia
- +Guests already ask for the tablets by name and would notice them going
- +You would rather pay a fixed monthly fee than train a host
Switch to Quizado if...
Most bars that move do it for one of these four reasons.
- +The monthly subscription is hard to justify against the covers it brings in
- +You want one loud, hosted night a week rather than always-on background play
- +You want your own branding, your own themes and your own local questions
- +Nobody wants to charge, count and replace a drawer of venue tablets
How to switch in 3 steps
Run one night in parallel
Create a free Quizado account and host a single round from a free question pack on a quiet night, while your current setup carries on. Nothing needs cancelling to try it.
Move the regulars over
Put the QR code on the table tents and the TV. Teams keep their names, and the first week is usually the only one where anyone asks where the tablets went.
Cancel at the end of the term
Check the notice period on your agreement, return the equipment as instructed, and start a Quizado season table so regulars have a reason to come back next week.
What Buzztime does that we do not
Buzztime is an always-on entertainment network, and it covers formats we do not touch at all, including poker, bingo and arcade titles that run without a host. Quizado is trivia and game-show software for a hosted night. If your goal is unattended play from open to close, they solve that and we do not.
Read this next
New to running a night in-house? Start with the bar trivia software overview, then look at the trivia host app if you would rather run everything from a phone or laptop behind the bar.
Questions fréquemment posées
Run your first night this week
Start free with the built-in packs, put the QR code on the TV and see how the room reacts. Writing your own question sets is free on every plan; playing them starts on Pro.
Other comparisons
Shopping around? Here is how Quizado lines up against the rest of the market.
Commencez à animer du Bar Trivia ce soir
Téléchargez Quizado gratuitement et animez votre première soirée trivia ce soir !
Les joueurs participent sur leur téléphone