Ace
Disclosure: we make Ace. Kahoot details below come from its own website (kahoot.com) as of October 26, 2026; features change, so check there too. Kahoot! is a trademark of its owner; Ace is not affiliated with it.
Short answer: Kahoot is built for classrooms and big groups: a host runs live games for a room. Ace is built for revising your own course: it turns your lecture slides, PDFs and YouTube lectures into questions, checks every answer against your file, shows the sentence it came from, and lets you play the set solo or as a live one-on-one duel with a friend.
Why do quiz games work for revision?
Because they make you retrieve. A quiz question forces you to pull the answer out of memory, and that effort is what makes it stick: Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found students who practised recalling material remembered far more a week later than students who reread it. A game adds the reason to keep going: a score, a clock, someone to beat.
Kahoot proved how well that works in classrooms. The question for revision is narrower: whose questions are you playing? A classroom game is written by a teacher for a class. Revision for your exam should come from your lecturer's material, nothing more and nothing less.
Where is Ace different from Kahoot?
| Ace | |
|---|---|
| Built for | Students revising their own course material |
| Where questions come from | Only the file you upload: PDF, PowerPoint, Word, ePub, text or a YouTube lecture link |
| Checking | Every answer checked against your file; questions that fail are dropped |
| Proof on every question | The sentence from your material that backs the answer, shown under it |
| Question types | Multiple choice, put the steps in order, type the answer, label a diagram from your own slides, formula simulations |
| Playing with a friend | Live one-on-one duels: no host needed, both players answer the same questions in turns |
| Scope | Pick the chapters you're being examined on |
| Habit | Streaks and a study calendar for planned sessions, solo or with a friend |
Why a duel instead of a room?
Big live games are brilliant for energy and terrible for depth. With thirty players, the round moves at the speed of the room and you rarely stop to look at why an answer was right. A one-on-one duel is different:
- You both see the answer after every turn, with the line from your lecture that backs it. Missing one becomes a mini-lesson, not a lost point.
- You argue about the ones you got wrong. Explaining to a friend why an answer is right is one of the best ways to understand it.
- It's easy to start. Pick a chapter, send a link or a code, play. No hosting, no screen to share.
Our guide on how to study with friends covers why studying in pairs works, and how Ace duels work shows the details.
How do you turn a lecture into a quiz game?
- Upload the lecture. Drop in the slides or PDF, or paste a YouTube lecture link.
- Pick the chapters your exam covers.
- Play solo first to find your gaps, reading the source line on every miss.
- Challenge a friend on the same set a day or two later. Coming back after a gap is spaced practice; see our spaced repetition schedule.
Try Ace with your own lecture: your first study set is free.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kahoot good for studying on your own?
Kahoot has study modes and can generate quizzes, but it was built around classroom games. If you want quizzes made only from your own lecture, with every answer checked against it, a revision tool like Ace fits that job.
Can I play Ace with more than one friend?
Ace duels are two-player: you and one friend on the same questions. You can duel different friends on the same set.
Does Ace need a teacher to host?
No. Any student can make a set from their own material and invite a friend with a link or code.
Does Ace work on my phone?
Yes, on the web at acenow.app and in the iPhone app. There's no Android app yet; Android users can use the web app.
Sources
- Kahoot! (2026). Kahoot! for study: features. kahoot.com
- Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. PDF
