Pub & online trivia
Trivia nights without the answer sheets
Whether it's a regular pub quiz or a trivia night over video call, Buzrr does the marking and the leaderboard so the quizmaster can concentrate on the banter.
What is Buzrr?
Buzrr is an open-source quiz platform that runs in the browser. A host builds a multiple-choice quiz — by hand or with AI — and opens a live room; players join from their own phones or laptops with a 6-character code, a link or a QR code, without creating an account. Signed-in users can also play ranked 1v1 quiz battles. Buzrr is licensed under AGPL-3.0, so anyone can read the code or run their own instance.
The unglamorous part of running trivia
Every quizmaster knows the gap between rounds: collecting answer sheets, marking them, adding up totals and arguing about handwriting. It kills the momentum of the night.
Online trivia has its own version of the problem — people shouting answers over each other on a call, or typing them into chat where everyone can see.
How Buzrr runs a trivia night
Instant marking
Answers are scored the moment the question closes. The leaderboard is ready before you have finished reading the answer out.
Picture rounds built in
Attach an image to a question for flags, logos, famous faces or a zoomed-in mystery object.
Phones in, answer sheets out
Teams scan a QR code at their table and answer on one phone. Nobody needs an account or an app.
Running a four-round pub quiz
- 1
Build each round as its own quiz — general knowledge, picture round, music intros read aloud, local trivia.
- 2
Print the room QR code on the table cards, or show it on the pub screen.
- 3
Teams join with their team name as the nickname.
- 4
Host each round in turn and show the leaderboard between rounds.
- 5
Past quiz nights stay in your history, so you can see who keeps winning.
Features that matter here
Live hosted quiz rooms
The host runs the room from one screen and moves it along question by question. Players join with a 6-character room code, a join link or a QR code.
Image questions
Attach an image to a question — a diagram, a map, a logo, a photo round.
Speed-based scoring
A correct answer earns up to 1,000 points, sliding to 100 at the time limit; wrong answers score 0. Answer time is measured on the server, not on the player's device.
Answer charts and leaderboards
When a question closes, the host screen shows how the room answered alongside the running leaderboard. Final results — rank, score and correct answers per player — are saved to the host's history.
Room controls
Remove a player from the lobby or the live leaderboard, or ban them so they can't rejoin that room.
No accounts for players
Players pick a name and an avatar and they are in. Only the host signs in (with Google).
Tips from running it
- Speed scoring adds tension, but for a relaxed pub crowd give each question a longer timer.
- Each round is a separate room, so scores don't carry across rounds automatically — keep a running tally if you want an overall winner.
- Use the ban button if someone joins under a name the pub wouldn't approve of.
Know the limits
- No audio or video questions — play music clips from your own speaker and ask the question in Buzrr.
- Answers are multiple choice; there is no type-your-answer round.
- Scores don't accumulate across separate quizzes.
What it looks like
Coming from another tool?
- QuizUp alternativeRanked 1v1 battles of seven timed questions, in the browser — QuizUp shut down in 2021.
- Kahoot! alternativeLive rooms with a code, speed scoring and leaderboards — open source, self-hostable, plus ranked 1v1 battles.
- Mentimeter alternativeA standalone quiz game instead of quiz slides inside a presentation.
Related use cases
- Quick quizzes for team buildingA Friday quiz, an all-hands icebreaker, an offsite warm-up. Drop the join link in chat and the whole team is playing inside a minute, remote or in the room.
- Quiz rounds for college fests and club eventsFest quiz rounds, society inductions, freshers' nights, hackathon breaks — Buzrr gets a hall full of people answering on their own phones with one QR code on the screen.
- Quiz your audience, liveClose a talk with a five-question quiz, run a trivia segment on a livestream, or warm up a meetup crowd. The audience joins from their phones; the leaderboard does the rest.
- Buzrr as an open-source quiz platformWhat's in the AGPL-3.0 codebase, how it's built, and how to contribute.
- Run a self-hosted quiz serverWhat you need to run your own Buzrr instance, and what changes when you do.
Try it with your group
Buzrr is free to start. Build a quiz, open a room and have people join from their phones.