FluidSurveys (Discontinued) vs. Voting 4 Schools

I think FluidSurveys is appropriate for almost all scenarios. For now, the only time I used another product was when the survey I was managing was being done using tablets (such as Ipads or Samsung tablets) and I used ODK Collect. I think FluidSurveys now has the option of uploading the survey to a tablet and collect the data through it. However, I have not tried it. ODK Collect is an open source and free software compared to FluidSurveys. Thus, if the user wishes to use tablets, I might recommend using ODK Collect even if there is some learning to do in terms of coding your question in an Excel sheet for it to be "uploadable" to the ODK Collect "hub" (the server).

• 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.

• There should be more flexibility and customizability with regard to survey design (e.g. background, fonts...)

We are very happy with FluidSurveys. It is a simple and intuitive tool, has a good variety of sample survey templates, allows real-time response analysis and easy report-generation feature. We have been able to access support very quickly from their team when we had a question / concern. We will most likely upgrade to the Ultra version, though, as the branching options in Pro package are somewhat limited

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.

From a Government perspective, FluidSurveys offers some qualities that make it stand out:

• It is located in Canada;


• It's servers are located in Canada;


• They are willing to host user-group meetings, so that Government departments can explain how they have implemented a wide variety of tasks with it (and people can get very creative with FluidSurveys! If they can use an in-house option they've already purchased to conduct non-survey-related tasks, it introduced major cost savings to taxpayers. So it's also very important to share this type of creativity with other departments).

• The cost savings in using FluidSurveys to conduct research, rather than outsource it, has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the few years that we have been using it. Contracting out research is costly, so if you have the right people/skills and technology to do the work in-house, you're able to conduct a lot more research than you would otherwise be able to.