Our Methodology for Identifying the Best Survey Tools
Questionnaire Customization
The first step towards launching a survey is to create one. Yes, in theory you can set up a virtual phone number and conduct your survey the old-fashion way, but there are more elegant and efficient solutions. Survey creation progressed both in terms of features and user experience – the platforms now offer a more streamlined building process, more templates, more everything. But this is not the only factor that affects whether a piece of software features on our list.
The most important criterion is the process of creating a survey itself: Is picking a template easy? Are there importing options? Do you need coding skills for nonlinear surveys? We try to answer each of these questions in our survey software comparison. The perfect tool should have a drag and drop capability, a clean UI, clearly marked building blocks, and logic jumps. Nowadays, respondents expect surveys to adapt to their answers: For example, if a user chooses a negative answer on whether they own a certain product, further questions about the usage of that product should be skipped entirely. Also, coding skills shouldn’t be a requirement for making a survey, but it’s a big plus if the platform supports custom code and design.
Reporting
The next important section in our survey software reviews is reporting. All that collected big data means nothing if you can’t process it. You’ll want to see how many people responded to your poll, what the most common and uncommon answers were, how the median score shifted across different demographics, etc. In short, detailed reporting needs to be implemented, preferably with visualization tools like charts and graphs. For bigger surveys, filtering results is of the utmost importance. Thousands of responses make it nigh impossible for a person to manually go through them all in their event-survey software. Filtering tools and averages help you quickly get a grasp on what general responses and narrow down the results to those needed for, say, your upcoming marketing campaign.
Once the results look presentable, it’s time to share them with the rest of your team. Exporting results in Excel form is obligatory, if not in CSV and PDF. Some survey platforms even allow for Microsoft PowerPoint exporting, allowing for easy embedding into your board presentation. Collaboration options are also welcome: e.g., data cross-referencing and shared datasheets. Such high-level survey tools aren’t always a part of these platforms, but they create a well-rounded package where the data can be easily processed to provide usable results.
Price
Money is an inevitable talking point with any product. Not every service offers the same value, so we try to find the most cost-effective ones. Most of these apps have different pricing tiers, limiting or expanding features depending on your subscription level. There might be a free trial or even a full-fledged free version.
We’ll try to get a full picture of each of the best survey sites, and then compare them to each other to clarify how good of a deal you might be getting. Free plans are particularly interesting, as they can range from a vastly simplified version of the app meant purely for small-scale testing, to tools that can help you do extensive research as long as you don’t need thousands of responses. It’s no deal-breaker, but if a service has a formidable free tool, you’ll know.
Customer Service
Even the most user-friendly app can be confusing, so customer support is a vital part of our comparison of survey software. We’re not just looking at the number of contact avenues or how quickly the support team answers our questions, but also how rich the platform’s education section is. If a site has a comprehensive knowledge section, tutorials, or interactive demos, it’s already better than a rival offering merely an FAQ section. This is a very competitive industry, so any attempt a service makes to stand out from the crowd, even with a simple how-to video, might put it on our radar.
The Top Survey Software
- Qualtrics
- SurveyMonkey
- Typeform
- Alchemer
- JotForm
FAQ
What is the best survey software?
The best software for creating and analyzing surveys is Qualtrics XM, a comprehensive platform for making dynamic forms, collecting results, and deep analysis. Over the years, it became the industry standard and no other platform has yet managed to beat it. It’s a complicated tool, however, so it’s not for everyone.
What are the 3 types of surveys?
In terms of purpose, surveys can be exploratory, descriptive, and causal. Exploratory questionnaires are used in marketing for discovering untapped markets and canvassing for ideas. Companies use survey software to review current trends, develop strategies, and find areas to grow their brands, usually via open-ended questions.
Descriptive research is the opposite of exploratory research. It has a specified structure and serves to collect data that will later turn into statistical information.
Finally, there’s causal research, designed to find the cause and effect of a specific event. Causal research is usually experimental at least in some way, and it’s used in market research, often in the form of AB testing.
What is the best free survey tool?
Pretty much every platform for making surveys lets you at least take a trial version for a spin. Most of them also have full-fledged free plans that are sometimes capable enough for conducting professional research. Since no provider offers the same deal for its free tools, it’s best to shop around and find the tool best-suited to your needs. You can read more about individual tools in this article.
What software do surveyors use?
In-person survey software doesn’t differ much from the survey software used online. Live survey apps present the surveys in a similar fashion, but may employ GPS data and run completely offline, depending on where the survey team is deployed. There’s no specific app for this type of research – most surveyors will use one of the apps mentioned in the article above.
What is better than SurveyMonkey?
There aren’t that many apps that do a better surveying job than SurveyMonkey. Some alternatives include Typeform, JotForm, and Qualtrics, each with a different set of pros and cons. If we have to choose just one piece of survey software, it would have to be Qualtrics. This is the industry-leading app for all kinds of forms, with unprecedented levels of customization. Best of all, it doesn’t require any coding skills to create highly interactive forms.