FluidSurveys was a survey and form building option. SurveyMonkey discontinued the product, it reached end of life (EOL) December 2017.
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Google Surveys
Score 7.6 out of 10
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Google Surveys is an app for custom surveys, and is part of Google Apps for Work. The insights from audience targeted surveys can be expressed in instant, easy-to-digest graphs and charts help you make sense of the survey data. Surveys natively integrates with other solutions, allowing you to use data from one product while working in another. Survey responses from real people can be sourced by Google's Opinion Rewards app, where respondents answer questions in exchange for incentives.
For surveys, and for centralized info-gathering, FluidSurveys provides an excellent solution. There are other programs out there which provide a wider range of solutions (i.e., they can be used for surveying AND comprehensive online engagement, rather than just a data-gathering type of consultation); however, for programming and implementing surveys, FluidSurveys has an effective variety of strengths and options that make it optimal for users who are focused specifically on surveys.
Google Surveys is perfect when trying to collaborate with co-workers and find a date & time that works best for them to get together, whether it's for a regular meeting, team photo session, celebratory dinner, or Christmas celebration. It's also great for getting feedback on proposed changes that would affect the team.
User-friendly. For the majority of the general and basic tools you can use with FluidSurveys to build surveys are simple to use and intuitive. When certain issues come up, the service is quick (chat room) and effective.
Anonymity: the software has the reputation of being safer in terms of safeguarding private information the respondents share by answering surveys (this is mainly due to the fact that the servers are in Canada). Thus, indirectly, they increase response rates.
Extensive possibilities: FluidSurveys offers a plethora of possibilities and options that really renders the experience interesting in terms of micro-managing each details of the surveys you are sending out there. When the invitation leaves by email, it is exactly how you want it.
While it is very intuitive, there are many ways you can fine-tune your survey (such as word limits, counts, etc) and these are not always obvious where those settings are.
I would like to see some ways of changing the formatting (and maybe I just haven't explored that yet), ie: colors, set up on the screen.
Note: I am responding to this question as a user of the system and not a representative of my organization.
On a personal level/as a user only, I would definitely continue to use FluidSurveys.On a personal level/as a user only, I would definitely continue to use FluidSurveys.
I think the average person can very quickly pick up on the basics of the system: they would have no problems programming and launching a basic survey. Organizations may benefit from having people of different backgrounds getting their hands dirty in the system: at a minimum, both web programmers and opinion research advisors should be solicited for input or help.
Relatively simple so that those who are less than familiar with computers can figure it out. User friendly and already embedded with other Google products. Receives an 8 because many features available with Google Surveys are also available with similar, free products on the internet today. Good, but not stellar.
This is by far the only area where I think that there is room for improvement because Google does not respond as fast as I would like them to. We live in a fast-paced world and this is probably the only area where Google can improve on and as a teacher, I find it challenging to wait for a day or two for a response when everything that I am doing in the Google Classroom is running instantly and with no breaks in between.
Although I do not have much experience with Survey Monkey, the only two reasons why I choose FluidSurveys is that clients demand it (privacy and anonymity) and because managing multiple surveys at a time is easier. As for ODK Collect, I think it is a valuable alternative to FluidSurveys if you have time to learn the coding (not very complicated). ODK is a little less user friendly and you cannot address small details as you can with FluidSurveys (e.g.: formatting).
I selected Google Surveys to create them because it was free and helped to improve our overall information and data. It was easy to build it into our systems and get the data. Other survey providers have offered a larger variety of options, which have helped even more - but the higher costs were not worth the extra money.
