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The Top 7 SurveyMonkey Alternatives That Fit Your Business Needs

August 2nd, 2018 16 min read

These days, small businesses and enterprises alike depend on software tools for everything from HR and management to customer engagement.

Survey and form building tools can be extremely helpful to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Tools like SurveyMonkey let companies easily create and distribute surveys. Some companies may need a survey for internal purposes – to establish employee preferences for overtime, for example. Others may want to use a form building tool to engage with their customers and target audience, either to collect contact information or to conduct market research.

The best survey and form building tools go beyond the creation and publication of surveys. They also let companies analyze survey responses and report on their findings. Some may even act as a comprehensive research platform for marketing, sales or HR departments. The most common use cases include customer satisfaction surveys, employee feedback surveys, and overarching research studies.

Whatever the use case, these business tools should let users directly edit format, appearance, content/questions, design, logic, and flow. Most of the Top Rated tools listed below include the capability for analytics and reporting, integration with CRM or marketing tools, automated publication, and flexible admin permissions.

SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular survey tools for business and personal uses – but it’s not the only option. In this post, we dive into how SurveyMonkey can fit your business and the Top Rated alternatives to consider if SurveyMonkey isn’t quite what you’re looking for. More than anything, we want to help you find the software solution that works for your business needs.

SurveyMonkey 101: What it Can Do For You

Before jumping into the alternatives, it’s only fair to give an overview of SurveyMonkey and how the popular SaaS tool can address your marketing, HR or research needs.

SurveyMonkey is one of the oldest cloud-based web survey companies. It was originally founded more than twenty years ago. The foundation of the service is its free and customizable survey technology – though the service offers a series of paid options for those looking for more power in their forms and research. The company also offers backend solutions for data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation.

The unique aspect of SurveyMonkey is that it can often fit the needs of both small businesses or nonprofits as well as the large-scale efforts of enterprises. With its many different offerings, SurveyMonkey is likely to work as a solution for a graduate student’s research project, as well as a frontend platform for an HR department to collect information from employees.

Surveymonkey homepageWhat do SurveyMonkey Users Say?

According to reviewers, the major benefits of SurveyMonkey include easy administration of surveys, a clean and user-friendly interface, and the flexibility of layout and flow.

Many reviews focus on how SurveyMonkey is easy to use and simple to share with participants:

“SurveyMonkey is the best survey app. It works so smoothly. And you can create your surveys quickly and you can share them in the way you like. The functions and tools are so useful.”

~ Stella Kovaleva | Manager | LPP

Of course, SurveyMonkey is not without its drawbacks. According to customer reviews, on particular limitation is the inability to include more than 10 questions in a survey with the free version of the software. Other limitations include the inability to personalize reports in the basic versions. Reviewers also mentioned aesthetic limitations, in terms of how much control they have over the visual stylings of their surveys.

SurveyMonkey offers a free basic plan, limited to 10 questions and 100 respondents. The paid version of SurveyMonkey starts at $35/mo. including unlimited surveys and questions, and up to 1000 responses per month. Enterprises can also opt-in for just under $100/mo. for unlimited surveys, responses, piping and multilingual options.

SurveyMonkey is a popular survey option, but it’s not for everyone. If SurveyMonkey doesn’t quite fit your needs, there are plenty of alternatives to consider. This list is based on the 7 Top Rated survey and form builder tools on TrustRadius, meaning that these products have at least 10 reviews and a rating of 8.0 or higher.

1. AskNicely

AskNicely offers a real-time solution to collecting customer feedback, complete with CRM integration and automated workflow. Key features include branded content, real-time insight for team members, quick surveys, question logic and more.

The main strength of AskNicely is that it works as a quick solution to boosting customer engagement. Based on reviewers’ experience, it works well for quick feedback, though not as well for detailed surveys.

AskNicely is well suited for surveying customers about how they are feeling about your product. This can be their overall feeling or after they have taken a certain action. It’s not designed for getting through customer feedback, rather gauging satisfaction. You will need to follow up with other survey methods for detailed feedback.”

~ Nikhil George | Product Manager | Spotlight Reporting

AskNicely pricing is focused on companies looking to send out thousands of mini-surveys each month. The basic subscription starts at $299 per month with 10 seats, 5,000 surveys, and standard integrations. Enterprise pricing for more complex use cases is available on request.

Typeform homepage

2. Typeform

Typeform, a non-US based company, is a dedicated form and survey software with a focus on design and UX. Users can turn to the tool for everything from surveys to website contact forms. Features include intuitive form design, customizable logic, and integration with other core business tools.

User reviews focus on Typeform’s ability to create personal-feeling forms for clients and other end users – as well as the ease of use for the creators.

We chose typeform for the visual appeal, but what really makes it a great tool is the ability to add logic jumps to your data (ie if someone does x, jump to a certain question etc) and the ability to integrate it to send data to another source using Zapier, which greatly reduces the time needed to move data or make multiple surveys.

~ Verified User | Project Manager

Users can choose the free version, which allows the creation of up to 10 forms with storage for 100 responses per month. These responses come from your own audience, and not a supplemental audience like SurveyMonkey provides. The Pro version starts at $30/mo. for unlimited responses, while the Pro+ jumps to $60/mo. for multiple users and custom branding.

Getfeedback homepage

3. GetFeedback

GetFeedback offers online survey software for brands focused on improving customer experience. The tool provides real-time customer feedback designed to improve personalized experiences. The core features include brand control, survey personalization, and advanced logic. The surveys can be embedded in websites or delivered via mobile apps. GetFeedback is also a Salesforce partner that offers tight integration with the CRM.

User reviews focus on the seamless integration with Salesforce, as well as the simple to use interface and design options.

“We started using GetFeedback because it was the only tool with a truly solid Salesforce integration. We ended up using it because it had the best UI and looked absolutely gorgeous.”

~ William Tyree | CMO | FaceFirst

GetFeedback pricing starts at $50/mo. for up to 1,000 responses a month and one user, with a $150/mo. option for multiple users and up to 1,500 responses. Enterprise-level pricing that includes the Salesforce integration is available on request.

FormAssembly Homepage

4. FormAssembly

FormAssembly is an enterprise-level data collection and analytics solution. It is used by many large organizations, from Amazon to Harvard University. Major features include a drag and drop form builder, stringent security certification and integration with everything from WordPress to Stripe.

User reviews highlight the strong integrations, as well as the ability to create complex forms without any development experience.

It does a great job of capturing client information and putting it where we want it in Salesforce. FormAssembly gives us a lot of flexibility and power to take complex forms and applications.”

~ Dale Gish | Salesforce Consultant | Dayspring Technologies, Inc.

FormAssembly has several subscription levels for professional accounts. These start at $89/mo. for one user and go up to $599/mo. for 3 users, single-tenant hosting and managed permissions.

Qualtrics homepage

5. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a survey platform designed to gather insights into customers, employees, and markets for businesses. Branded as an experience management platform, Qualtrics is subdivided into specific products geared towards different use cases ranging from research to brand experience.

Features include a flexible design, data analysis, introduction of surveys across multiple touchpoints. Uniquely, it takes a more conversational approach to providing feedback. The platform also offers a wealth of resources for companies new to experience management.

User reviews focus on how the feedback platform can be implemented across different projects and touchpoints, and the ease of the UI for conducting complex, multi-faceted research, such as in product development.

Qualtrics is well suited for individuals who need help with their product roadmaps. If you are looking to accumulate and manage customer feedback at each stage of the product life cycle, Qualtrics can help you immensely.”

~ Corinne Gibson | Product Marketing Specialist | The ROHO Group

Users can start out by creating a free account with Qualtrics – but this is limited to just one survey with 10 questions and 100 responses. It’s basically a free trial, to see how Qualtrics works on a relatively small project. Because the platform is primarily aimed at enterprises, pricing for a full account is available on request.

googleforms homepage

6. Google Forms

Part of Google’s suite of business tools (known as Google Apps for Work), Forms homes in on form and survey creation. The interface is similar to Google Docs or Sheets, allowing users to easily create forms, edit question types, introduce instructions and edit question flow with customized logic. Core features include collaboration with other Google users, customized styles and the ability to analyze responses directly on the platform.

User reviews highlight the ease of use for the form building platform, as it is modeled after other Google products with which they are familiar. Reviews note that Google Forms will work best for simple research and survey scenarios – with a range of templates and question types to choose from.

Google Forms has a variety of document types, such as a sign-up sheet, basic poll, or a quiz. Within each type, you have various options regarding the layout and item formatting.”

~ Becca Guler | Learning Specialist | University of Houston

Google Forms is completely free to use, for individuals and businesses alike.

7. Wufoo

Wufoo is a web-based form creation software, offering both frontend form creation and backend database solutions to manage responses. The tool was acquired by SurveyMonkey back in 2011, but still stands apart as its own service.

Core features include hundreds of form templates and themes, document uploading, instant notifications and integration with popular business tools.

User reviews highlight how Wufoo could be a good option for those looking for a quick and easy way to gather responses. The tool works well for form publishing and response collection, but may not be as suitable as SurveyMonkey (its parent) for analytics.

Forms requiring quick and easy answers, especially short forms – Wufoo is perfect. If you are mining for deeper trends from clients or customers, you’ll want to look for a form management software that has some higher end details on the reporting side.”

~ Justin Moore | Assistant Director of Admissions | Oklahoma Baptist University

Wufoo has a free option for up to 5 forms and 100 responses. Pricing starts at $14/mo. for up to 1,000 responses and ranges to $75 for up to 25,000 responses and 20 users.

The Bottom Line: Find the Right Software Fit For Your Business Needs

Survey and form building tools can help businesses home in on the perspectives of their employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Nearly every business will need some form of survey tool – the question is which solution you choose to go with.

Customer reviews for these survey tools will help you get to the bottom of which software solution will work best given your specific situation. If you’re a startup looking for feedback on your product, you may need a different level of service than an enterprise-level corporation looking to engage employees more deeply.

Small businesses collecting contact information or basic feedback probably don’t need advanced analytics to slice and dice survey results. For a large enterprise or a research organization, presentation-ready charts and graphs to visualize survey results might be a game-changer. Whatever your use case, user reviews can help you determine the pros and cons, price point, and benefits of each software solution.

SurveyMonkey and its alternatives are sure to offer value to companies of all sizes. Consider this overview as a starting point for the top SurveyMonkey alternatives for your business needs. Make sure you take the time to jump into the customer reviews to consider which tool will work best for your situation.

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