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Alchemer vs. Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio vs. SurveyMonkey

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Alchemer

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AAlchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) is an online survey tool that helps companies design surveys and collect and analyze data. Features include branding, logic & branching, mobile surveys, question types, and reporting.

    $55

    per month per user

    Lighthouse Studio

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASawtooth Software headquartered in Provo offers the Lighthouse Studio survey research tool as an advanced platform for Conjoint Analysis and MaxDiff. With it, users can create balanced experimental designs hand-in-hand with traditional survey questions.N/A

    SurveyMonkey

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ASurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, and a suite of paid, back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. SurveyMonkey also offers large-scale, enterprise options for companies interested in data analysis, brand management, and consumer focused marketing.

    $99

    per month

    Pricing
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Editions & Modules
    Collaborator
    $55
    per month per user
    Professional
    $165
    per month per use (maximum 3 users)
    Full Access
    $275
    per month per user (maximum 3 users)
    Enterprise and Business
    Contact for quote
    No answers on this topic
    Team Advantage
    $25
    per month (billed annually) per user (starting at 3 users)
    Team Premier
    $75
    per month (billed annually) per user (starting at 3 users)
    Standard Monthly
    $99
    per month
    Individual Plan - Advantage Annual
    $468
    per year
    Individual Plan - Premier Annual
    $1,428
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsDiscount available for annual billing on small team plans.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Considered Multiple Products
    Alchemer
    Chose Alchemer
    Much easier to use and less expensive than SurveyMonkey
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    SurveyMonkey, Formsite. Ultimately, Alchemer remains our go-to solution as it's combination of ability and flexibility bested the other options.
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Used to use SurveyMonkey at a previous company, and the functionality is quite similar. I recall SurveyMonkey having a few more bells and whistles, but that was years ago!
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Alchemer has been very resourceful and compared to most competitors, it is superior in all aspects. It is affordable and no compromises on capabilities. It is also easy to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Our business team takes pride in immersing ourselves with the wide variety of survey-based platforms available. Much of our goal is recommending the proper people, processes, and technologies to our customers and many of those recommendations come from our own experience with …
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    While there are other survey platforms out there, SurveyGizmo stands out from the rest. It provides a much wider variety of question and filtering options and easily exports data and creates reports with the touch of a button. These features among others allow for greater …
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Best alternative and value for the cost EASILY. AND it performs similar or more functions than that of Qualtrics. Survey Monkey is just terrible.
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Survey Gizmo has similar survey complexity as Qualtrics (breadth of tools) and similar piping and logic. Survey Gizmo is better suited for slightly smaller enterprises since it has similar tools yet is not as expensive.
    Compared to Survey Monkey, Survey Gizmo takes a bit more …
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    For the functionality, especially with the additional features such as NPS and Max Diff, SurveyGizmo was all around the best option for the price. It allowed us to do everything we could with a previous tool and didn't have too many extra functions we were paying for but didn't …
    Incentivized
    Chose Alchemer
    Controls and ease of use...
    Incentivized
    Sawtooth Software
    No answer on this topic
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    Chose SurveyMonkey
    It's probably above Google Surveys and below the other two. I didn't select SurveyMonkey, the company already had it and I made the decision to get an additional license for my work.
    Incentivized
    Chose SurveyMonkey
    SurveyMonkey allows you to use standard templates or create customized surveys compared to its competitors like SurveyGizmo and Survicate. My only drawback with the software is that their logo is pasted everywhere. One advantage is that you can add more people to take the …
    Incentivized
    Chose SurveyMonkey
    First of all, the design of SurveyMonkey can beat all of them. It is designed perfectly, I am excited every single time I am creating surveys. And I like their Customer Service. I did not see any negative effect from the beginning to now. I was using others, but I was not …
    Incentivized
    Chose SurveyMonkey
    I haven't used other survey platforms recently.
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    79%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    81%
    Delivers good value for the price
    30 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    84%
    Happy with the feature set
    36 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    Features
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Survey Format & Appearance
    Comparison of Survey Format & Appearance features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    8.0
    14 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    6.5
    1 Ratings
    21% below category average
    SurveyMonkey
    7.2
    76 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Survey templates8.013 Ratings00 Ratings8.075 Ratings
    Themes7.014 Ratings6.01 Ratings7.367 Ratings
    Custom logo/branding9.013 Ratings7.01 Ratings6.367 Ratings
    Survey Content
    Comparison of Survey Content features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    9.3
    15 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    9.0
    1 Ratings
    5% above category average
    SurveyMonkey
    7.6
    78 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Changes to live survey8.015 Ratings8.01 Ratings7.062 Ratings
    Question design help10.014 Ratings9.01 Ratings6.872 Ratings
    Multiple question types10.015 Ratings10.01 Ratings9.078 Ratings
    Survey Logic
    Comparison of Survey Logic features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    9.0
    15 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    SurveyMonkey
    7.3
    72 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Survey logic flexibility9.015 Ratings10.01 Ratings7.372 Ratings
    Survey Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Survey Reporting & Analytics features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    6.6
    15 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    6.0
    1 Ratings
    30% below category average
    SurveyMonkey
    7.1
    78 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Response tracking7.015 Ratings6.01 Ratings7.577 Ratings
    Data export6.015 Ratings4.01 Ratings6.374 Ratings
    Standard reports7.015 Ratings5.01 Ratings8.077 Ratings
    Custom reports8.014 Ratings00 Ratings6.864 Ratings
    Analytics5.013 Ratings9.01 Ratings7.065 Ratings
    Survey Administration & Security
    Comparison of Survey Administration & Security features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    10.0
    13 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    15% above category average
    SurveyMonkey
    8.3
    67 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Access controls10.012 Ratings10.01 Ratings8.067 Ratings
    Compliance10.012 Ratings10.01 Ratings8.558 Ratings
    Survey Distribution
    Comparison of Survey Distribution features of Alchemer and Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio and SurveyMonkey
    Feature
    Alchemer
    10.0
    14 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    21% above category average
    SurveyMonkey
    7.5
    48 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Vendor-offered crowdsourcing10.07 Ratings00 Ratings7.332 Ratings
    Respondent restrictions10.014 Ratings10.01 Ratings7.846 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Small Businesses
    Jotform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Jotform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Jotform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qualaroo
    Score7 out of 10
    Qualaroo
    Score7 out of 10
    Qualaroo
    Score7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    QuestionPro
    Score9.2 out of 10
    QuestionPro
    Score9.2 out of 10
    QuestionPro
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (15 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (111 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (26 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (41 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.7
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.4
    (35 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AlchemerLighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Alchemer
    SurveyGizmo works extremely well as a platform for receiving survey responses. As a survey/business analytics tool, the platform offers extensive options for customization and deployment of professional questionnaires. Our team has found SurveyGizmo to be extremely well suited for the modern administrative employee. Surveys are relatively easy to create, deploy, and manage responses in real time. Furthermore, monitoring / managing the results enables businesses to provide any necessary follow-up based on key results. Our team spends quite a bit of time testing out survey tools and have found SurveyGizmo to be a solid option for the needs of our team. Furthermore, we have recommended the platform to other departments within our organization that have uniquely different skillsets from our own. Overall, we see SurveyGizmo as a tool that can be used across most organizational teams if implemented with the specific user-experience in mind.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    Anyone wanting to design and analyze advanced studies, particularly those that incorporate discrete choice modeling (such as MaxDiff and / or Conjoint) should be using Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio. The capabilities and flexibility offered by this platform for these choices is far beyond any other platform I am aware of. It is less appropriate where you need the survey tool to 'play well with others.' Two examples: 1) pulling in live data streams so they can be cleaned and visualized. 2) Integrating into any service where an API call is appropriate such as adding / removing people from a mailing list, incentive management tool, or qualitative community tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    SurveyMonkey is well suited for external, professional, client-facing forms and complex question types. I've tried generating forms on HubSpot, and it's not nearly as intuitive or clean-looking, and not all question types are supported (e.g. Likert scales). For quick, internal forms that don't need to be as pretty or professional, I find that Google Forms is the quickest and easiest to pull together, especially since it has a single, universal respondent link. If I wanted to embed a link in a mass email, SurveyMonkey doesn't allow multiple respondents to use the same link on my plan.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Alchemer
    • Attaching images! Survey Gizmo makes attaching images from surveys a breeze. I've tried other popular survey tools and it can be difficult for users to submit images as part of their survey (e.g. some only allow 1 picture per question, whereas Survey Gizmo allows a range for you to select from)
    • Easy and intuitive survey building.
    • Pretty good out-of-the-box survey analysis.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    • Powerful programming capabilities
    • Advanced analysis
    • Fantastic customer and technical support
    • Good documentation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    • Keeps identifiable information anonymous.
    • Being able to close the survey at a set time without having to remember to do so.
    • Takes the guess work out of response collecting.
    • Makes it easy to categorize responses within the same survey. Being able to add tags to open-ended questions makes it easy for us to identify patterns in responses.
    • An array of survey options and questions.
    • An all around great product that meets multiple needs.
    • Can have multiple collectors for the same survey to included manual input.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Alchemer
    • Duplicate protection needs improvement. Anyone who would like to start a survey and finish at a later time is unable to which limits total survey responses.
    • Password protection option can be a challenge when uploading spreadsheets with pre-populated data.
    • Logic and piping options for questions can be difficult when designing more complicated and in-depth surveys, which requires a lot of testing.
    • Follow-up surveys do not provide an option for survey takers to review their previous survey responses, which may provide less accurate data when comparing individuals across multiple surveys.
    • Would like the option to link surveys together in order to more easily track data from individuals across multiple surveys and save previous survey data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    • They could focus on integrating API type functionality
    • I would love if the data came out labeled
    • I am not a fan of the 'limited' time a study can stay up. This causes issues with longitudinal studies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    • I would like to have more customizable options for branding it to our hospital colors. Some survey options allow you to enter html color codes. SurveyMonkey allows you to change colors and you have to pick from selected options.
    • Embedding the surveys into a webpage, like WordPress is not as seamless as other services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Alchemer
    No answers on this topic
    Sawtooth Software
    No answers on this topic
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    Compared to other competitors in the market (including a few I've used internally), if you're looking for a survey application, this one does the job and it's quite inexpensive too. Considering the fact that it comes with a handy mobile application too (on iOS and Android), you also get flexibility thrown in the deal too.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Alchemer
    The feature sets, agility, and flexibility remain approachable and incredibly powerful. Support is also very responsive and top notch. Overall, with a bit of basic foundational skills, there are seemingly an unlimited number of use cases for which Alchemer can be leveraged.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    It is incredibly powerful, very rhobust and has fantastic support. The only reasons I'm not giving it a higher rating are 1) There is a very steep learning curve when it comes to designing more complex studies. 2) It is difficult to get Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio to 'talk' to other systems as the Perl upon which it is built is not really designed to work with API calls, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    It does everything a survey software should do, and it does it very well. I can't speak for how well it would work for a business that was surveying tens of thousands of people - but for a small business of 50 employees with a couple of thousand clients, it does everything it needs to do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Alchemer
    No answers on this topic
    Sawtooth Software
    No answers on this topic
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    still to many limitations for more complex surveys --skips, filtered questions, etc.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Alchemer
    Every once in awhile, it is necessary to solicit support. On those occasions, support is extremely responsive and supportive. It has been my experience that [if] they can't walk you through the desired endpoint, they will take a look at your build and remedy for you.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    I cannot explain how great the support team is. They are prompt and very thorough in their responses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    I've never had to contact the SurveyMonkey customer care team directly, but they have a pretty good library of help articles on their website. Everything from designing and executing your survey to account and billing questions. I never had a need for further support from Survey Monkey.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Alchemer
    No answers on this topic
    Sawtooth Software
    No answers on this topic
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    Implementation not required.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Alchemer
    I liked the interface for SurveyGizmo much more than Qualtrics. You knew a question was adjusted in SurveyGizmo and wouldn't change, but with Qualtric's interface, you had to refresh the account several times sometimes to ensure the question would work appropriately. Also, with SG, there were a lot of easier capabilities, such as changing missing values in bulk, required questions in bulk, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    While QuestioPro has the capability to build surveys and even do some advanced analysis, it is less powerful (and less intuitive) than Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio. It cannot handle studies with the complexity we are used to designing. The CMNTY Platform was initially sold to us as a combined Quant / Qual platform, but we found very quickly that the quant side of it is extremely limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    SurveyMonkey is easier to customize and provides much more in depth analytics. SurveyMonkey also provides better templates providing us with a better presentation to our employees. SurveyMonkey also comes with a more trustworthy platform that ensures confidentiality, which is incredibly important to our employees and means we're getting more reliable results from the surveys.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Alchemer
    • It has always delivered on all our business objectives. I think that the reason why it's a bit [more] expensive than other providers.
    • It has helped us to optimize resources especially man hours involved in survey design.
    • It has been a valuable partner in almost all [of] our uses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sawtooth Software
    • Our business is survey data so we rely heavily on sawtooth
    • The advanced design and analytics are incredibly useful
    • Negative - I wish it would work natively with API calls
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SurveyMonkey, Inc
    • The speed at which we can develop, program, execute and generate actual usable results provides significant value, particularly when we need fresh numbers to illustrate a point.
    • The fact that we can execute a research project so quickly means that new research is always a primary option when we're developing campaigns. That's a huge value proposition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots