How to give everyone a buzzer

Updated 19 August 2026

Every trivia game eventually comes down to who was first, and the method you pick decides how many of those calls you have to make yourself. There are four options, they cost between nothing and a few hundred pounds, and only two of them produce an order you can defend when someone disputes it.

The four options

Method	Cost	Setup	Who decides ties
Shouting it out	Free	None	The loudest player
Hands up	Free	None	You, on every close call
Hardware buzzer set	Roughly $50–$300	Batteries, pairing, a table	The hardware
Phones as buzzers	Free	One code per player	The server

Shouting and hands are fine for a small friendly game and they are what most people use. What they cost is your neutrality: every ambiguous call is one you have to make in front of the room, and by the third one somebody is annoyed.

Hardware buzzers

A wired or wireless buzzer set with a lockout is the traditional answer and it works — the first press locks the others out, which is exactly the behaviour you want. Worth knowing before buying: sets are typically four to eight buzzers, so a class of thirty plays in teams whether you planned to or not; wireless sets need batteries checked before the event; and the whole thing has to be within cable or pairing range of one table, which rules out a room where people are spread out.

Phones as buzzers

Everyone already has the hardware, which is the entire argument. Each player opens a link, joins with a game code, and gets a full-screen button. There is no per-player limit worth worrying about and no range problem, since nobody has to reach a table.

The thing to check before you rely on one is how the order is decided. If the buzz carries a timestamp from the player's phone, the order is only as honest as the least accurate clock in the room, and it is trivially manipulable. What you want is the order being settled where the presses arrive.

Make My Jeopardy settles it in the database: the first press to commit wins a uniqueness constraint on the round, and every later press is discarded. No client clock is ever consulted, and the whole room sees the same name.

Running it

Whichever you use, three habits stop most disputes. Open the buzzers only after you finish reading the clue, so early buzzing is not rewarded. Say the name of whoever was first out loud, so the room hears the same thing the screen shows. And decide in advance whether a wrong answer reopens the clue to everyone else — it should, or one hasty buzz kills a clue nobody got to try.

Make My Jeopardy does the first two as part of the presenter view, and it is free: a full board with buzzers, live scoring and Final Jeopardy needs no account, and players need no app.

Common questions

Is there a free online buzzer for a classroom?

Yes. Make My Jeopardy's buzzers are on the free plan — players join a game with a five-letter code from any phone or laptop browser, with no account and nothing to install. You do need a board for them to buzz on, but a blank board takes a minute and the library has ready-made ones.

How many people can buzz in at once?

With phones, as many as are in the room; the practical limit is how many people fit. Hardware sets are limited to the number of buzzers you bought, usually four to eight.

How do you make sure the buzz order is fair?

The order has to be decided in one place that every press reaches, rather than by comparing timestamps that different devices generated. Ask any buzzer app how it resolves simultaneous presses — if the answer involves the player's device clock, the order can be gamed and will drift on a bad connection.

Do players need to install anything?

Not for a browser-based buzzer. Players open a link and type a code. Anything that asks a room of thirty to install an app will lose about five minutes and two players.

Make one now

A 6 × 5 board with phone buzzers, live scoring and Final Jeopardy — free, no account. Or copy a ready-made board.