Announcing the Top Rated Survey and Form Building Tools for 2018

Today, we awarded the 2018 TrustRadius Top Rated badges for Survey and Form Building Tools. The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are unique in that they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user satisfaction scores.

Here are the winners in each segment, listed in order of research frequency on TrustRadius. We have also provided insights on how to pick the right survey tool based on your needs and current industry trends.

Overall Top Rated

• Qualtrics
• Google Forms
• Typeform
• Formstack
• GetFeedback
• FormAssembly
• AskNicely

Top Rated by Enterprises

• Qualtrics
• Google Forms
• Inquisium
• FormAssembly

Top Rated by Mid-Sized Companies

• Qualtrics
• Typeform
• Formstack
• QuestionPro
• AskNicely

Top Rated by Small Businesses

• Qualtrics
• Wufoo
• Typeform
• FormAssembly
• AskNicely

What are survey tools?

Survey and form building tools allow you to create and distribute online questionnaires and analyze responses and feedback. Typically, web forms are used to gather information which will be stored in a database for analysis. Using the form building features, you can create and format customized surveys to send via email or embed on your website.

More robust survey platforms include tools to distribute surveys, collect responses, and analyze results built in. There are also survey tools that simply allow for data to be exported into programs such as Excel for your own analysis. Some common uses of survey tools are for customer satisfaction and feedback, research studies, or employee engagement.

Trends in surveys and customer feedback

As customer experience management has gained momentum, companies large and small have been more proactive about asking for customer feedback, rather than waiting for it to come in via support channels. The format and placement of surveys is also changing, to make the experience of taking a survey smoother, easier, and faster than traditional feedback exercises. For example, micro-surveys that are short and appear at the peak of engagement (such as just following a purchase or while using an app) are being used more often.

Due to recent online privacy breaches and with GDPR regulations going into effect May 25, 2018, security is at the forefront of customer data collection and analysis. Survey systems currently offer data security features, but it will be interesting to see how much more sophisticated these protections become in the next iterations of survey software–in terms of how respondents are invited to participate, how their data is stored, and how that data can be used.

Choosing the right survey tool

As you’re evaluating your options, keep in mind that many survey software providers offer a free or freemium version of their solution, which gives small companies an opportunity to gather feedback without breaking the bank, and gives larger companies the flexibility to try out the software for a single/smaller project before investing in the paid version. Free survey software will always have limitations in scope and capabilities.

For example, there may be limitations on question logic or restrictions in layout designs and branding. You may also be limited in how many people can take the survey and how you can download the data. If you want more advanced reporting and analytics tools or need integration capabilities for your own database, a paid version will likely be required.

In selecting a survey tool, consider where you want to place forms and surveys, how long they’ll be, and how often they’ll be used, as well as the UX / UI for the survey taker. Reviews are a good way to learn from the experiences of others to inform your tool selection.

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2018 Survey and Form Building Tools list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap on April 27, 2018, to earn a Top Rated badge. To qualify for the Survey and Form Building Tools TrustMap, products must have 10 reviews and ratings on TrustRadius. Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the map based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.