6 Best Suzy Competitors & Alternatives in 2025 (Key Factors)

6 Best Suzy Competitors & Alternatives in 2025 (Key Factors)

Suzy is a popular market research platform, earning positive reviews on sites like G2. However, some users have reported challenges in certain areas:

🚫 The audience isn’t always diverse enough, making it hard to reach specific groups.

Several reviewers have mentioned that the sample can skew more heavily towards females and millennials, falling short when it comes to Gen Z, males, various ethnic groups, and other key demographics.

🚫 Some users have expressed difficulty trusting the survey data.

Without a clear understanding of where respondents come from and how they are vetted, some users have doubts about the accuracy and reliability of their survey answers.

🚫 Pricing can be restrictive for many companies.

Suzy uses a subscription-based pricing structure where costs are determined by the volume of questions asked. For many companies, a pay-per-response pricing model could be more economical and better suited to their needs compared to Suzy's approach.

🚫 Some users feel Suzy’s built-in data analysis features are limiting.

In some cases, users find themselves having to export the data to external tools like Google Sheets in order to parse it by the specific metrics they require.

Based on the above feedback and drawing from our first-hand experience helping companies transition from Suzy to our survey platform, we've put together this comprehensive overview. First, we'll present our solution, Pollfish, and then delve into other Suzy alternatives.

Best Suzy Competitors & Alternatives

1. Pollfish
2. Qualtrics
3. Attest
4. SurveyMonkey
5. Alchemer
6. Forsta

1. Pollfish

Pollfish, our survey-focused DIY platform for market research, is a popular alternative to Suzy for several reasons:

✅ Diverse respondent pool for reaching broad and niche audiences.

Through our parent company, Prodege (a renowned market research giant and the largest single panel owner in the world), you'll gain access to over 100 million respondents. This vast pool allows you to target any demographic you need, whether it's specific age groups, gender, ethnicities, or other criteria. Additionally, you can target based on behavioral filters (such as products purchased, stores visited, etc.), as we'll cover in more detail.

✅ Rigorous audience quality control for reliable data.

We employ several strict processes to ensure the integrity of your survey responses. These include a thorough 30-day evaluation period for new panelists, assigning trust scores to each respondent based on the quality of their answers, among other measures. We'll provide a detailed breakdown of how these processes work. By being transparent about our audience quality control measures, we aim to give you complete confidence in the insights you gather through our platform.

✅ Transparent pay-per-response pricing model.

At Pollfish, we charge a flat fee per response, starting at $0.95 each, with discounts available for high-volume users. Our pricing is completely transparent — you can see the total cost update in real-time as you build your survey. There are no additional costs, such as subscription fees, base charges, or hidden fees, making the per-response price the only expense you'll incur. This transparency allows you to plan your research budget effectively and confidently.

✅ Advanced built-in data analysis functionality.

Effortlessly segment your data using multiple variables and create custom-branded charts and graphs, all without ever leaving Pollfish. You'll save a significant amount of time and effort by eliminating the need to export data to spreadsheets or other external tools for analysis.

Up next, we’ll explore each of these areas in more depth.

Diverse Respondent Pool for Reaching Broad and Niche Audiences

As we've mentioned, Pollfish, powered by our parent company Prodege (the world's largest single-panel owner), offers access to an exceptionally vast pool of over 100 million respondents across 125+ countries. This extensive reach ensures you can effectively target even traditionally hard-to-reach groups, such as Gen Z, males, particular ethnic groups, and others, without limitations.

What sets Pollfish apart is not just the sheer size of our respondent pool, but also the wide range of targeting options available:

❇️ Choose from 50+ targeting filters in 6 key categories: Demographics, Geographic Criteria, Consumer Lifestyle, Employment & Occupation, Behavioral Data, and Media.

For example, an outdoor equipment company might leverage Pollfish to survey males and females aged 29–44 (Millennials) and 45–60 (Gen X), who live in Seattle, have a household income exceeding $200,000, and have recently made an in-store purchase of a high-end hiking or camping product (e.g., tent, backpack, sleeping bag).

❇️ Reach your precise target audience based on specific products purchased or stores visited.

Whether you need to survey recent buyers of Ben & Jerry's or Häagen-Dazs, or frequent shoppers at Walmart or Target, and more, we can identify and target these individuals with high precision.

• What sets Pollfish apart is that we gather this information using self-uploaded receipts from our panelists, who are rewarded for their participation. By relying on actual receipt data instead of potentially misrepresented self-reported information, Pollfish ensures significantly higher data accuracy than other platforms.

• Conduct global research with ease. Reach respondents in over 160 countries and create multilingual surveys in more than 50 natively supported languages.

These are just a few examples of the extensive targeting capabilities Pollfish offers. If you have any questions about your specific audience needs, we invite you to reach out.

Rigorous Audience Quality Control for Reliable Data

At Pollfish, data quality is our top priority. We understand that even a perfectly designed survey can yield flawed results if the respondents are bots or real people providing rushed, low-quality responses. That's why we have invested significant time and effort into developing robust data quality measures that are at the core of our company's DNA.

Our commitment to data quality is what sets us apart in the industry. Here are some key aspects of our approach:

❇️ Diverse earning activities encourage optional survey participation, improving response quality.

When members join our panel communities (such as Swagbucks), they access a dashboard offering several activities to earn rewards. These options include playing games, watching content, uploading purchase receipts, and more. While surveys are another way to earn rewards, they are presented as just one more choice that members can optionally select via the dashboard.

The word "optionally" is crucial because, unlike many other providers, we don't inundate our members with constant text messages and emails urging them to complete surveys. Such an approach can lead to survey fatigue and lower-quality responses. Instead, our members can participate in surveys at their own pace and on their own terms (without feeling pressured). This fosters more thoughtful, engaged, and higher-quality answers.

❇️ Members undergo a 30-day evaluation period before they can fill out client surveys.

Before new members can participate in client surveys, they must complete a mandatory 30-day evaluation period. During this time, they fill out internal profiling surveys, and we meticulously track their response quality.

Only those who consistently provide high-quality responses are allowed to participate in client surveys. This rigorous screening process sets us apart from providers who may be short on respondents and accept most sign-ups without thorough testing.

❇️ Each member of our community has a trust score, which increases response quality.

Each community member has a trust score that directly impacts their earning opportunities. Surveys are a significant component of this score, and members are aware that we track the quality of their responses through manual and automated means. This significantly incentivizes members to provide thoughtful, high-quality answers.

❇️ We employ a range of anti-fraud measures for each survey response, including:

• Human review of text-based responses
• Unique identifiers to eliminate duplicate responses
• Technical consistency checks to ensure the respondents' carrier and targeting information align
• Carefully designed trap questions
• Minimum time limits for each question to prevent speeding
• Detection and removal of straight-lining (consistently selecting the same answer)
• Anti-VPN measures

This is just the tip of the iceberg. With Pollfish, you can confidently reach your target audience, no matter how specific or hard-to-reach they may be, while ensuring the highest level of data accuracy and quality.

Transparent Pay-per-Response Pricing Model

At Pollfish, our pay-per-response pricing model is designed to be cost-effective and give you complete control over your research costs:

❇️ No long-term commitments or minimum spend requirements.

With Pollfish, you have the flexibility to run surveys as often or as rarely as your research needs dictate. You only pay for the responses you receive, and you're not locked into long-term contracts.

❇️ Unlimited team members at no extra cost.

Your entire team can access Pollfish to create surveys, view results, and generate reports, all under a single account at no additional cost per user. There's no need to worry about individual license fees or seat restrictions. Plus, if your organization has multiple teams using Pollfish, each with their dedicated dashboard, you can effortlessly switch between them in just a few clicks.

❇️ Transparent pricing displayed as you build your survey.

As shown in the above photo, let's say you start with the base cost of $0.95 per response, and add two additional audience filters, such as:

• US household income between $75,000–$99,999.
• Type of home is a rented apartment.

Each of those filters would add $0.55 to the per-response cost. The total cost per response would now be $2.05 ($0.95 base + $0.55 + $0.55).

If you set your desired number of responses to 700, the total cost for your survey would be clearly displayed as $1,435 before you confirm your purchase.

You’ll see the full price upfront with no hidden fees or additional charges. With Pollfish, the price you see is what you pay.

Advanced Built-In Data Analysis Functionality

With Pollfish, you can effortlessly segment your survey data, hone in on specific subgroups, and create visually appealing charts in your brand's colors — all within a single, intuitive platform. There's no need to rely on external tools like Excel or Google Sheets.

❇️ Automatic Chart Generation

Pollfish intelligently generates the most appropriate chart types for each survey answer, such as bar graphs, pie charts, tables, and more. This saves you time and ensures your data is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand format.

❇️ Targeted Insights through Filtering

Use Pollfish's filtering capabilities to hone in on subsets of your data based on specific survey responses and audience attributes. For instance:

• Filter by survey responses: Isolate and examine data from respondents who provided particular answers, such as those who indicated they are "highly dissatisfied" with pricing, to understand their perspectives better.

• Filter by audience segments: Focus on specific demographic segments, like Gen Z, while excluding other age groups, to identify unique trends and preferences within that cohort.

Please note: The header in the illustration above includes the logo for Proedge, Pollfish's parent company. Proedge offers done-for-you market research services and can help with survey programming, fielding and sample, data processing, and reporting.

❇️ Multi-Variable Analysis and Visualization

With Pollfish's advanced Insights Builder, you can create compelling visualizations that incorporate several variables simultaneously, without needing external tools.

Say you want to gauge consumer attitudes toward a new streaming service. You could create one comprehensive chart showing likelihood to subscribe (variable 1), broken down by:

• Age group (variable 2)
• Household income (variable 3)
• Marital status (variable 4)

With just a few clicks, Pollfish will generate this multi-dimensional visualization, optionally with statistical significance testing to highlight key differences between groups. You can even customize the chart with your own brand colors.

❇️ Statistical Significance Testing

In testing product name concepts for a new home appliance, Pollfish might shade the "EcoSmart" name in dark green with an "A" label, while "GreenTech" appears in a lighter shade with a "B" label, showing that the EcoSmart name generates significantly higher memorability and brand affinity scores among target consumers.

❇️ Build a Presentation Deck within Pollfish

Create presentation slides directly within Pollfish, just as you would with PowerPoint, even while your survey is still actively collecting responses. This feature lets you have a nearly finalized report ready by the time your survey concludes, giving you a valuable head start. Once you've created your presentation within Pollfish, you can easily export it as a fully editable PowerPoint file (.pptx), allowing you to make any additional adjustments.

❇️ Flexible Export Options

Export your survey results and visualizations in various formats, including PDF, Excel, Crosstabs, and SPSS. (Click here for more info.).

The data analysis capabilities we've discussed are merely a fraction of what Pollfish has to offer. No matter how complex your data analysis needs may be, Pollfish is well-equipped to handle them. If you have any questions about your specific requirements, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Interested in Trying Out Pollfish?

We invite you to:

• Sign up for a free account, which you can begin using immediately to launch DIY surveys.

• Book a demo call, where our team can answer your questions and provide guidance on making the most of Pollfish.

• Inquire about our full-service market research services, where we'll collaborate to understand your unique requirements and manage the complete survey process from beginning to end. This option is ideal if you're short on time or looking for additional expertise.

2. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a Suzy alternative that’s best known for its survey functionality. Its pricing structure is best suited for enterprise companies, and we cover what differentiates Pollfish in our post on the best Qualtrics alternatives.

Qualtrics categorizes its features into three categories:

1. Customer Experience

• Voice of Customer
• Omnichannel Experience Management
• Digital Experience Analytics
• Website & App Feedback
• Location Experience Hub
• Online Reputation Management
• Contact Center Analytics
• Quality Management & Compliance
• Agent Coaching
• Edge Instant Insights

2. Employee Experience

• Employee Engagement
• Employee Pulse
• Employee Research
• Candidate Experience Management
• Employee Onboarding & Exit
• 360 Development Feedback
• Employee Retention Analytics
• Continuous Employee Listening

3. Strategy & Research

• Strategic Market Research
• Product Research
• Brand and Communication Research
• User Experience Research
• Edge Audiences

3. Attest

Attest is another Suzy competitor that is best geared for enterprise companies. It’s a solid research solution used by marketing, insights, brand, and product teams to run end-to-end surveys.

Some of Attest’s key use cases include:

• Brand tracking
• Consumer profiling
• Market analysis
• New product development
• Multi-market research
• Creative testing
• Concept testing
• Campaign tracking
• Competitor analysis
• Quant & qual insights
• Seasonal research

4. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is an alternative to Suzy that is best suited for simpler survey needs. Some of its key survey-related features include:

• SurveyMonkey Genius for AI-powered survey creation
• Customizable survey templates
• Survey branching and skip logic
• Response quotas
• A/B testing for better decision making
• Survey branding and theme customization options
• Custom URL survey links
• Multiple survey distribution channels (email, web link, social media)
• Real-time results tracking
• Real-time insights
• Text analysis tools for open-ended responses
• Integrations with 100+ platforms

5. Alchemer

Alchemer is a Suzy competitor and a great market research tool that offers various features, including:

• Market research surveys
• Real-time, in-app customer feedback
• Brand health tracking and consumer insights
• Text sentiment analysis

It can help you make better data-driven decisions and offers solutions by industry, including Government, Education, Non-Profit, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Retail, and Software.

6. Forsta

Forsta offers quantitative and qualitative research features for understanding consumer behavior, including:

• Market research surveys
• Panel management
• Online focus groups
• Digital diaries & communities
• Social listening
• Research automation
• Text analytics
• Voice sentiment analysis

Interested in Trying Out Pollfish?

We invite you to:

• Sign up for a free account
• Book a demo call
• Inquire about our full-service market research services

by Written by Troy Harrington

6 Brand Research Platforms: Types & When to Use Each

6 Brand Research Platforms: Types & When to Use Each

In general, brand research platforms can be categorized into three main types:

• Survey tools, which are ideal for collecting quantitative data from large sample sizes to gain insights into overall brand perceptions, purchase behaviors, brand awareness levels, and more.

• Social listening tools, which let you monitor and analyze brand mentions, sentiment, and organic conversations happening on social media platforms.

• Direct customer feedback tools (interviews, focus groups, in-home product testing, etc.), which provide rich qualitative insights by engaging with customers 1-on-1.

In this post, we cover 6 brand research platforms — each with its own unique strengths and focus areas:

1. Pollfish: Our survey-focused DIY tool offering quick turnaround times, transparent pay-per-response pricing, and access to diverse, high-quality respondent pools.
2. Qualtrics: A survey-focused tool with pricing and features more suited for larger enterprise companies.
3. Kantar: Pricing geared towards enterprise companies. Best known for their full-service brand research consulting offerings, which combine surveys with additional research approaches.
4. Brandwatch: Specializes in social listening and tracking brand mentions on social media platforms.
5. Suzy: While they offer surveys, a standout feature is Suzy Live, which lets you conduct 1-on-1 interviews, focus groups, and in-home product testing all within one platform.
6. GWI: While they offer surveys, you can also get synthetic data via GWI Spark, an AI assistant that answers questions about your audience using GWI's global survey data. This provides more accurate insights compared to searching the web.

1. Pollfish

Pollfish is our user-friendly, DIY survey solution that companies of all sizes use to conduct brand research.

In the sections below, we'll cover:

• How to run brand research surveys using Pollfish in three steps: Design your questionnaire, select your survey audience, and analyze your data.

• The advantages of Pollfish's first-party respondent communities: Access higher quality audiences and survey responses compared to competitors who purchase respondents from external third-party panels.

• Pollfish's transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing model: Our pricing model offers greater affordability than competitors who charge subscription fees.

• The quick turnaround times you can expect from Pollfish: Turnaround times range from just a few hours for mainstream audiences to a few days for more niche audiences.

3 Simple Steps for Running Brand Research Surveys with Pollfish

Running brand research surveys with Pollfish involves three key steps:

• Step 1: Design your questionnaire — Start with brand research survey templates or create a survey from scratch. Choose from 14 question types and take advantage of advanced features like screening questions, conditional branching based on previous responses, answer shuffling, and much more.

• Step 2: Select your survey audience — No matter how broad or niche you want your audience to be, Pollfish can accommodate your needs with 50+ audience filters to choose from.

• Step 3: Analyze your data — Easily visualize and manipulate your survey data within our platform to gain the insights you need, rather than having to export to Excel.

Pollfish excels in these areas, allowing you to conduct brand research without compromising your objectives or methodology due to platform limitations.

Now, let's take a closer look at each of these steps.

Step #1: Design Your Questionnaire

Although not a complete list, the following are some of our most frequently utilized questionnaire design features:

❇️ Brand Research Templates

While you can create surveys from scratch, many choose to utilize brand research survey templates with pre-written questions that can be customized as needed.

These templates offer 3 benefits:

• Save time by providing a starting point for your survey.

• Employ methodological best practices to ensure high-quality data collection.

• Ensure consistency across surveys, allowing you to benchmark changes over time and easily compare data from past surveys.

Popular templates include:

• Brand Awareness Template: Assess whether consumers are familiar with your brand or have heard of it at a minimum.

• Brand Perception Template: Understand how your brand is perceived compared to competitor brands.

• Brand Diagnostic Template: Evaluate your brand's overall health at a specific point in time.

• CPG Brand Awareness + Perceptions Template: Measure consumer familiarity and perceptions of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands

❇️ 16 Question Types

No matter which type of questions you want to use for your brand research questionnaire, Pollfish has you covered with 16 question types, including: Single selection, Multiple selection, Open ended, Numeric open ended, Description, Rating stars, Slider, Ranking, Matrix single selection, Matrix multiple selection, Net Promoter Score (NPS), A/B test, Conjoint analysis, Max Diff, and Van Westendorp.

• Screening Logic: Filter out participants who don't meet specific criteria.
  • Example: If a respondent answers "No" to the question, "Are you aware of [Brand X]?", you can route them to the survey's conclusion page. If they select "Yes," you can display follow-up questions about [Brand X]'s perceived quality.

• Conditional Branching: Create personalized survey paths based on respondents' answers, presenting them with tailored follow-up questions.
  • Example: In a smartphone preference survey, ask participants what they prioritize most when selecting a device (battery life, camera quality, or brand reputation). Using conditional branching, direct them to different question sets based on their selected priority.

• Answer Shuffling: Randomize the order of answer choices presented to each respondent to minimize order bias.
  • Example: When asking respondents to rank their favorite soda brands, one respondent might see "Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite," while another sees "Sprite, Fanta, Coca-Cola." This minimizes bias from respondents consistently favoring options at the top or bottom of the list.

❇️ "Other" and "None of the Above"

When creating brand research surveys, you'll often need to include "Other" or "None of the above" as answer choices. Instead of wasting time manually adding these options to each question (a notoriously frustrating task for market researchers), you can automatically add these answer options to each question with just a few clicks.

❇️ Click here to see the full list of advanced questionnaire design features.

Step #2: Select Your Survey Audience

Regardless of how broad or niche your desired audience may be, Pollfish can help:

❇️ Choose from 50+ audience filters in 6 categories, including: Demographics, Geographic Criteria, Consumer Lifestyle, Employment & Occupation, Behavioral Data, and Media.

For example, you could target millennial female grocery shoppers in Los Angeles between 29–44 years old with household incomes exceeding $50,000 who have recently purchased cold cereal.

❇️ Target shoppers who have bought specific brands or visited certain stores: Rather than broadly targeting "cold cereal" buyers, you can refine your audience to include those who have purchased specific brands like Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Reese's Puffs, etc.

Similarly, you can target shoppers of particular stores such as Whole Foods, Zara, Costco, etc. This data is sourced from self-uploaded receipts by panel members, ensuring greater accuracy compared to potentially exaggerated self-reported information.

❇️ Set audience quotas: Avoid skewing results with an imbalanced sample by setting audience quotas. For instance, you can require 50% of respondents to be Millennials (ages 29–44) and 50% to be Gen X (ages 45–60).

These are just a few of the audience targeting capabilities available within Pollfish.

Step #3: Analyze Your Survey Results

Pollfish simplifies the process of visualizing survey results, manipulating and filtering data, and obtaining insights, all within a single platform, eliminating the need for external data analysis tools like Excel.

❇️ Visualize Survey Results in Various Formats

For each survey question, easily visualize the data using color-coded charts, graphs, tables, and more.

❇️ Filter by Specific Audience Segments or Responses

If you want to display survey results from a specific age group (e.g., millennials aged 29–44) or zero in on particular responses (e.g., only those who are "highly likely" to recommend your brand), you can do so with just a few clicks. All charts and visualizations will automatically update to reflect the filtered data.

❇️ Filter and analyze data by multiple variables simultaneously

Suppose you wanted to compare purchasing intent across 4 different demographics, such as age, gender, household income, and geography, you could easily filter, splice, and dice the data to get the exact answers you need. Pollfish also automatically generates graphs based on your selected variables, eliminating the need to export the data to third-party tools.

❇️ Customize Charts to Match Your Branding

You can customize each graph to fit your brand's color scheme. For example, if your brand colors are yellow (#FFFF00) and red (#FF0000), you can easily apply these colors to the graphs.

❇️ Statistical Testing

Suppose you ran a survey to compare brand awareness between two age groups: 29–44 and 45–60. The results reveal that 75% of respondents aged 29–44 know your brand, while only 60% of those aged 45–60 do. You have the option to turn on stat testing to check if this difference is statistically significant.

Pollfish will automatically highlight the results in a graph, which you can export using standard statistical notation, with capital and lowercase letters indicating the significance level.

❇️ Create Presentations within the Platform

Build presentation slides within Pollfish while your survey is still in the field, allowing you to have a nearly complete report by the time the survey is finished. Export the presentation into an editable PowerPoint file for further customization.

❇️ Export Data in Multiple Formats

Easily export your survey data to PDF, Excel, crosstabs, and SPSS, depending on your needs.

These are just a few of the data analysis capabilities available within Pollfish.

Advantages of Pollfish's First-Party Respondent Communities

Pollfish's proprietary first-party respondent panels (owned and operated through parent company Prodege) ensure high-quality survey responses. This sets us apart from competitors who purchase survey respondents from external third-party providers. Here’s how:

❇️ Genuine Human Participants, Not Bots

Our panelists participate in a range of activities within the Prodege ecosystem, from online shopping and receipt uploads to gaming, web browsing, and more. These are all activities bots simply cannot perform, ensuring that your survey audience consists of genuine, verified human participants.

In contrast, many 3rd party providers limit respondents' activities to surveys alone, which often leads to bots and fraudulent responses.

❇️ Panelists Aren't Bombarded with Constant Survey Invites

Our panelists choose when to take surveys at their discretion. This approach attracts more engaged, higher-quality respondents. It stands in stark contrast to 3rd-party providers who blast respondents with emails and text messages to participate, leading to survey fatigue, disengagement, and lower quality responses.

❇️ 30-Day Evaluation for New Panelists

New respondents must complete a 30-day evaluation period, answering internal profiling surveys. Those who fail to meet our stringent quality standards are filtered out, ensuring only the most reliable participants make it to your surveys.

❇️ Rigorous Anti-Fraud Measures

Pollfish includes unique user IDs (prevents duplicate survey takers), trap questions, speeding prevention, anti-VPN measures, gibberish detection, straight-lining detection (detects if folks repeatedly select the same answer), and human review.

❇️ Trust Scores Encourage High-Quality Responses

Pollfish assigns each respondent a "trust score" based on the quality of their survey responses over time. Panelists with higher trust scores gain access to more survey opportunities and other lucrative activities within the Prodege ecosystem.

These are just a few ways Pollfish ensures the highest-quality respondents for your brand research needs. This is crucial because even the most meticulously crafted survey will yield compromised results if your respondent pool contains bots or participants who rush through responses without careful consideration.

Transparent, Pay-per-Response Pricing Model

Companies of all sizes benefit from our transparent, pay-per-response pricing model:

❇️ Usage-Based Pricing

Unlike some competitors who charge hefty monthly or annual subscription fees (which may result in paying for unused capacity), Pollfish charges based on the number of responses you'd like to receive. This ensures that you only pay for what you use.

❇️ Unlimited Team Members

With Pollfish, you can add unlimited team members to your account without incurring any extra costs. In contrast, subscription-based tools often charge for additional licenses, which can quickly add up.

❇️ Transparent Pricing with No Hidden Fees

At Pollfish, the price displayed is exactly what you pay, with no unexpected charges.

For example, suppose you want to run a brand perception survey for your dog food company. You start with a base cost of $0.95 per response. Then, you can choose to add audience targeting filters.

For instance:

• Targeting households with an income over $200,000 would add $0.55 per response
• Targeting dog owners would add another $0.55 per response

In this scenario, the cost per response would be $2.05. If you need 600 responses for your survey, the total cost would be $1,230.

That's precisely what you would pay — no surprises, no hidden fees.

Fast Turnaround Time: From Several Hours to a Few Days

We take pride in delivering exceptionally fast turnaround times, made possible by our proprietary first-party respondent communities.

❇️ General Population Surveys (Mainstream Topics)

For surveys targeting mainstream audiences (such as streaming service subscribers, frequent takeout orderers, pet owners, etc.), we can often gather 500+ responses within just a few hours.

❇️ Niche or Highly Targeted Audience Surveys

When surveying niche audiences (such as aerospace engineers, board-certified dermatologists, etc.), the inherently smaller populations and fewer qualifying respondents typically result in a turnaround time of a few days. However, the exact timeline varies based on the specificity of your criteria.

Have questions about the turnaround time for your specific audience? We'd be happy to help — please reach out to discuss your specific needs.

Get Started with Pollfish

To begin using Pollfish, you have three options:

• Create a free account to explore the platform and start creating your own surveys right away.

• Schedule a demo walkthrough to learn how Pollfish can support your specific brand research objectives.

• Inquire about our full-service brand research option, where our experienced team will manage your entire project from start to finish. This includes crafting the survey, identifying and targeting your ideal audience, analyzing data, and delivering a customized report tailored to your unique needs and objectives.

2. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a platform geared towards larger enterprises, with pricing to match. In contrast, Pollfish offers a more accessible and cost-effective solution that's well-suited for businesses of all sizes.

To help you understand the key differences between Pollfish and Qualtrics, we've conducted an in-depth analysis that covers crucial aspects such as data quality, pricing, customer support, and more.

3. Kantar

Kantar is primarily geared towards serving enterprise clients. While they offer DIY options, their core focus is on providing strategic consulting and full-service research solutions.

Kantar has a strong specialization in brand research and strategy. Some of their key brand-focused offerings include:

• BrandDynamics (brand tracking)
• BrandEvaluator (brand equity measurement)
• BrandSnapshot powered by BrandZ (brand equity snapshot)
• BrandCampaign (creative mix optimization)

4. Brandwatch

Brandwatch can help you gain valuable consumer insights beyond traditional methods like surveys and focus groups. Here are some of its key features and benefits:

• Monitor when people mention your brand name across various online channels, including social media platforms, news outlets, popular broadcast sources, and more.
• Identify which keywords and hashtags are trending in relation to your brand. For example, discover that there were 350 mentions using the hashtag #ecofriendly for your brand in a specific time period. This information can help you make more informed decisions.
• Perform a historical trend analysis to see how topics related to your brand have evolved and gain actionable insights.
• Compare your brand's online presence and social media engagement with your competitors through social consumer research.

5. Suzy

While Suzy offers survey capabilities, what truly sets it apart is its qualitative research functionality. A particular standout feature, Suzy Live, provides an all-in-one market research platform where you can facilitate:

• One-on-one interviews
• Focus groups for collaborative discussions
• In-home product testing with real-time feedback

6. GWI

GWI provides survey capabilities, but one of its most distinctive features is GWI Spark, an AI-powered assistant. GWI Spark utilizes the company's extensive global survey data to precisely answer questions about your target audience, delivering more accurate insights than those obtained through web searches.

Furthermore, GWI offers a wide range of data sets covering various demographics and consumer behavior patterns in areas like sports, gaming, travel, automotive, consumer technology, luxury goods, and several others.

Get Started with Pollfish

To begin using Pollfish:

• Create a free account
• Schedule a demo walkthrough
• Inquire about our full-service brand research

by Written by Troy Harrington

5 Best DIY Market Research Tools (+ How to Pick the Right One)

5 Best DIY Market Research Tools (+ How to Pick the Right One)

For companies with complex research needs or limited bandwidth, full-service market research can be a lifesaver — but it’s expensive. That’s why many businesses are switching to DIY market research tools.

These platforms cut costs and deliver fast results, often within hours or days, rather than the weeks it takes with full-service firms.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• Common pitfalls to watch for when selecting a DIY market research tool

• The 5 best DIY market research tools, starting with Pollfish (our own platform)

Note: This post focuses solely on DIY survey tools. For other types of DIY research software, check out this article.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Picking the Best DIY Market Research Tool

Conducting your own market research surveys is easier than ever with today’s DIY platforms. The research process typically involves three steps:

1. Define your target audience using demographic filters

2. Build your survey questionnaire with intuitive tools

3. Analyze results through built-in reporting features

Top platforms not only offer user-friendly interfaces but also include complimentary access to expert support — market researchers who can help guide your survey design and ensure high-quality data.

However, there are a few common pitfalls with most DIY tools:

🚫 Reliance on Third-Party Respondents

Instead of nurturing their own respondent communities, many DIY survey tools (such as SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, and others) purchase survey respondents from external third-party panel providers. These providers frequently use a payment model that exclusively rewards respondents with cash for completing surveys.

This incentive structure leads to the emergence of "professional survey takers" who quickly rush through dozens of surveys each day without carefully reading the questions in order to maximize their earnings. As a result, the quality of the data collected and the overall effectiveness of the research can be compromised.

🚫 Overpromising on Turnaround Time

Despite claiming a quick turnaround time, the process can sometimes take longer than the time-sensitive nature of your research project, potentially causing missed opportunities or delaying the launch of new products and campaigns.

🚫 Subscription-Based Pricing & Hidden Fees

Many DIY platforms utilize a subscription-based pricing model, which can lead to unused capacity and wasted budget if the tool is not consistently used.

Additionally, the true cost of using these platforms is often not transparent upfront, with potential hidden fees for access to premium features such as advanced targeting options, enhanced data visualization, and so on. These hidden fees can accumulate quickly, resulting in a significantly higher total cost than initially anticipated.

🚫 Lacking Essential Survey Design Features

Many DIY market research tools have feature limitations that can compromise the quality and relevance of your research in three areas:

• Settling for broad audiences: Some platforms force you to use a broad, generic audience instead of the highly targeted, niche segments needed for your specific research objectives.
  

• Limited questionnaire design capabilities: If you require an advanced survey flow (e.g., complex branching logic), you may have to make compromises due to limited questionnaire features.
  

• Inadequate built-in data analysis: Many platforms lack robust data analysis tools, often requiring you to export data to Excel for manual analysis. This process is time-consuming and inefficient compared to having built-in analysis functionality.

Up next, we’ll explore how Pollfish (our DIY survey tool) addresses these limitations and lets you gather high-quality, reliable market research data without the high costs associated with agencies. Additionally, we’ll provide a brief overview of several other DIY market research tools to help you make a well-informed decision.

5 Best DIY Market Research Tools

1. Pollfish

2. Qualtrics

3. SurveyMonkey

4. Suzy

5. Google Forms

1. Pollfish

Below, we'll cover how Pollfish (our own DIY survey platform) excels in several key areas:

• Build your research on reliable responses from our first-party panel communities we directly own and nurture (rather than purchase from external third-party sources), enabling comprehensive quality controls.
  

• Receive results within hours for broad audience segments, and typically within a few days for more niche or specialized groups. Our speed outpaces not just traditional research providers and agencies, but also most other DIY market research software.
  

• Pay only for what you use with transparent, usage-based pricing that shows your exact cost in real-time as you build your survey, eliminating subscription fees and unused capacity, and the surprise costs that plague several other platforms.
  

• Create surveys exactly to your specifications with robust audience targeting capabilities, advanced questionnaire design, and built-in analytics tools that never force you to compromise on your research goals due to platform limitations.

Build Your Research on Reliable Responses From Our First-Party Panel Communities

At Pollfish, we own and operate our own respondent communities through our parent company Prodege. This first-party approach gives us complete control over data quality and lets us set control measures that other DIY tools relying on third-party panels cannot match:

❇️Natural Environment Engagement

Unlike traditional third-party survey panels where participants take dozens of surveys consecutively, our respondents encounter surveys organically while using apps for gaming, shopping, utility, etc. They receive meaningful in-app rewards (like extra lives in games, premium features, or discounts) that enhance their existing app experience.

This contextual approach means respondents are more engaged when answering questions, rather than rushing through surveys as their primary task. The result is more thoughtful, authentic responses that better reflect consumers' genuine opinions.

❇️ 30-Day Respondent Evaluation Period

All participants undergo a mandatory 30-day evaluation period before accessing client surveys. During this time, they may only complete internal profiling surveys, allowing us to establish baseline response patterns and verify the demographic consistency.

❇️ Receipt-Verified Targeting Accuracy

We verify purchase behavior through digital receipt uploads to ensure unmatched targeting accuracy. For instance, if a consumer uploads a receipt for Frosted Flakes cereal from the past month, you can specifically target verified Frosted Flakes buyers in your survey.

This method is far more reliable than self-reported preferences, as it's based on purchase actions rather than respondent claims.

❇️ Verified Digital Behavior Targeting

In addition to product receipts, we track respondents' verified digital activities, allowing you to target based on websites visited or services used. This enhances the relevance of your survey audience by relying on real behaviors, not self-reported preferences.

❇️ Multilayered Fraud Prevention Measures

We implement comprehensive anti-fraud measures throughout the survey process, including unique user ID tracking that prevents duplicate responses, sophisticated trap questions that challenge automated systems, advanced IP validation technology to block VPN and proxy users, and response timing analysis to identify suspicious answering patterns.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Ensuring the highest data quality isn’t just a priority, but a core part of who we are as a company. Through our parent company, Prodege, we continually invest in cutting-edge technologies, rigorous methodologies, and top-tier talent to maintain our position as an industry leader in data quality.

Get Fast Survey Results for Both Mainstream & Niche Audiences

We pride ourselves on delivering high-quality survey results faster than many competitors:

❇️ Within hours for broad mainstream audiences

When targeting broad demographics (e.g., U.S. adults about their dining habits), you can typically collect 500+ responses within hours. This impressive speed is driven by our large, highly engaged proprietary respondent communities.

❇️ Within days for specialized niche audiences

For more specialized audiences (e.g., HR decision-makers at companies with 500+ employees), the process naturally takes more time — typically several days. However, even for niche groups, our turnaround times consistently outpace self-service market research platforms, and far exceed traditional research firms, which can take weeks or months.

Please note: Our team can provide precise turnaround estimates based on your exact targeting parameters. Reach out here for more information.

Transparent, Usage-Based Pricing: Only Pay for What You Use

We've designed our pricing structure to be straightforward, flexible, and free from the hidden costs that plague many other market research platforms:

❇️ Only pay for what you use

With our pay-as-you-go model, you're only charged for the survey responses you collect, starting at just $0.95 per response. There are no expensive monthly or annual subscriptions, and you’re never locked into paying for capacity you might not use. As your research needs fluctuate, our pricing adapts accordingly — with no minimum commitments or rollover fees.

❇️ Include your entire team at no extra cost

We offer unlimited user access across your organization, without charging per-seat license fees. Whether you have 5 team members or 50, everyone can create surveys, analyze results, and export reports with no additional charges. This stands in stark contrast to competitors who charge substantial fees for each additional user.

❇️ See your total cost for each survey before you commit

Our platform displays your complete project cost in real-time as you build your survey, showing both per-response rates and total cost.

For example, if you're creating a consumer preferences survey targeting women aged 25–45 who shop at specialty grocery stores, you'll see the base cost ($0.95), plus additional costs for each targeting parameter (perhaps +$0.55 for the gender filter and +$0.55 for the shopping behavior filter), giving you a total of $2.05 per response.

If you need 600 responses, you'll immediately see your total project cost of $1,230 before launching — no surprises, no hidden fees, and no unexpected charges appearing after your survey is complete.

Precise Audience Targeting Capabilities

Some tools force you to settle for broad, generic audiences, limiting your ability to target the niche segments crucial for your research. With Pollfish, you never have to compromise:

❇️ Comprehensive Targeting Parameters

Select from over 50 distinct targeting criteria across six intuitive categories (Demographics, Geographic, Consumer Lifestyle, Employment, Behavioral Data, and Media).

For example, you can select broad parameters like "College-educated professionals" or hyper-specific segments such as "Female corporate executives ages 35–44 in the Pacific Northwest who own German luxury vehicles, have purchased organic coffee in the last month, and use financial planning apps."

❇️ Audience Quota Management

Set precise demographic distribution requirements to ensure perfectly balanced representation across key segments. This prevents skewed results from overrepresentation while maintaining statistical validity.

Flexible Questionnaire Design Tools

Many tools force you to compromise on survey design for advanced questionnaire functionality (e.g., complex question types, intricate branching logic).

In comparison, with Pollfish, you get:

❇️ Diverse Question Type Library

Choose from 14 question formats, from basic (single/multiple selection, open-ended questions) to advanced (matrix questions, slider scales, ranking), plus specialized research methods (conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, Van Westendorp pricing), and more.

❇️ Sophisticated Skip Logic and Branching

Create personalized survey paths based on prior answers, allowing different respondent segments to view tailored question sets that maximize relevance and enhance the survey experience.

❇️ Bias-Reducing Randomization Features

Automatically shuffle question and answer choice positions to eliminate primacy and recency bias, improving data quality and preventing skewed results.

❇️ Multimedia Integration Capabilities

Easily incorporate images, videos, and audio into your survey questions, enhancing testing scenarios for concepts, advertisements, packaging designs, and more.

❇️ AI-Powered Survey Creation

Use artificial intelligence to generate professionally designed surveys from simple prompts, reducing development time and ensuring consistent application of best practices throughout your questionnaire.

❇️ Pre-Built Survey Templates

Access a library of expert-designed survey templates for common research objectives (brand tracking, customer satisfaction, concept testing, etc.), offering solid starting points that can be tailored to your needs.

Powerful Data Analysis Capabilities

Many DIY survey tools bury insights under weak reporting features, forcing you to export to Excel and spend hours hunting for key data.

In contrast, Pollfish includes a suite of powerful reporting tools to uncover valuable insights, including:

❇️ Real-Time Results Dashboard

Track responses as they roll in with dynamic visualizations. Spot trends early and adjust your strategy on the fly — no need to wait for full completion — enabling faster, smarter business decisions.

❇️ Multi-Dimensional Response Filtering

Instantly analyze results by specific demographic segments or response patterns (e.g., "show me responses only from dissatisfied customers in urban areas"), dramatically reducing the time between data collection and insight discovery.

❇️ Automated Statistical Significance Testing

See at a glance which differences between segments are statistically significant, eliminating guesswork and helping you avoid acting on random noise.

❇️ Customizable Data Visualization Options

Build the exact visualizations your report needs, from chart types to color schemes — professionally presented, aligned with your brand guidelines, and designed to make insights easy to grasp.

❇️Flexible Export Capabilities

Export research results and visualizations to multiple formats (PDF reports, Excel spreadsheets, SPSS files, PowerPoint presentations, etc.) — making it easy to share findings with stakeholders or dive deeper in specialized tools.

Get Started with a Free Pollfish Account

Sign up for a free account or schedule a one-on-one demo to explore how Pollfish can meet your specific needs and use cases.

2. Qualtrics

While Qualtrics offers DIY survey functionality, its subscription pricing model with per-user license fees may be less accessible for smaller teams or occasional research.

Beyond surveys, Qualtrics positions itself as an end-to-end solution for organizations looking to manage the full spectrum of customer, employee, and market insights:

1. Customer Experience: Key features include Online Reputation Management, Contact Center Analytics, Agent Coaching, and Omnichannel Experience Management.

2. Employee Experience: Key features include Employee Retention Analytics, Continuous Employee Listening, and 360 Development Feedback.

3. Strategy & Research: Key features include Brand and Communication Research, User Experience Research, and Edge Audiences.

For companies focused on agile DIY market research, Pollfish’s emphasis on data quality, speed, and usage-based pricing may better align with their needs than Qualtrics’ broader offering.

3. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey’s widespread brand recognition and simplicity make it a popular entry-level tool for basic DIY survey needs. However, companies looking for more robust audience targeting capabilities and stronger data quality controls may find SurveyMonkey's feature set and panel approach lacking compared to Pollfish's offering.

4. Suzy

Suzy offers do-it-yourself survey functionality, great for quantitative research.

Beyond this, they have a unique qualitative research offering called “Suzy Live,” which integrates 1-on-1 interviews, focus groups, and in-home product testing into one platform for comprehensive consumer insights. You can read more about it here.

For exact pricing, Suzy requires direct consultation, as plans are tailored to specific research volumes and use cases. Pricing may become costly for larger teams and higher volumes.

5. Google Forms

Google Forms is a simple, no-cost option for those who need a quick way to collect data from known contacts, such as their own customers, employees, or mailing lists. Its seamless integration with Google Workspace makes it convenient for collaboration and data analysis within that ecosystem.

While Google Forms doesn't provide audience targeting functionality (you'll need to find respondents yourself), this limitation may be irrelevant depending on your specific needs and existing contact base.

Get Started with Pollfish Today

Sign up for a free account or schedule a one-on-one demo to discover how Pollfish can meet your specific needs and use cases.

by Written by Troy Harrington

11 Best Qualtrics Competitors & Alternatives in 2025

11 Best Qualtrics Competitors & Alternatives in 2025

What factors should you look for when considering a Qualtrics alternative? Based on our experience helping companies of all sizes run market research surveys, we’ve identified several key elements:

• Specialized vs. broader focus: Specialized tools that focus solely on surveys tend to be more cost-effective, easier to manage, and simpler to use because they’re designed for a specific purpose. However, if you need various business functions beyond market research, you should choose a platform that provides features beyond surveys. For example, besides surveys, Qualtrics also offers Contact Center Analytics and Quality Management & Compliance tools.

• Data quality safeguards: Most survey platforms buy data from third-party panel providers, often leading to the problem of getting answers from "professional survey takers" — users who prioritize completing as many surveys as possible over providing quality responses. Instead, you should choose a software that leverages first-party data and engages respondents within the apps they already use, resulting in more authentic responses and reliable survey data.

• Turnaround time: Many survey tools have slow turnaround times, taking days to deliver results even for general audiences. The software you choose should have large, engaged respondent communities that can deliver hundreds of mainstream audience responses within hours. You should also receive accurate turnaround estimates for more niche audiences, helping you meet deadlines and get insights faster.

• Survey design flexibility: Many survey platforms have limited functionality, forcing you to compromise on your research goals. For instance, they may lack the targeting criteria needed for your specific audience, or offer only basic question types and logic that don't fully address your unique requirements. Instead, the survey software you choose should provide the flexibility and features needed to execute your research exactly as intended, ensuring you never have to settle for "close enough."

• Pricing structure & transparency: Subscription-based pricing models common among survey platforms often result in paying for unused capacity and unexpected costs for essential features or adding users. Instead, choose a software that offers a pay-as-you-go approach, allowing you to pay only for the responses you need, get unlimited user access, and show your total cost upfront as you build your survey, ensuring budget predictability.

• Market research support team: While most survey platforms offer basic technical support, their reps often lack advanced research methodology knowledge to provide guidance on more complex needs (e.g., questionnaire design, data analysis). The software you choose should have a support team staffed with seasoned market researchers available to offer expertise on these topics and more, ensuring you adhere to industry best practices.

Keep these factors in mind while we compare Qualtrics competitors, starting with an in-depth look at our survey-focused market research software, Pollfish.

11 Best Qualtrics Competitors

1. Pollfish
2. SurveyMonkey
3. Alchemer
4. Suzy
5. Medallia
6. Forsta
7. InMoment
8. Google Forms
9. QuestionPro
10. Microsoft Forms
11. AskNicely

1. Pollfish

In a nutshell, Pollfish lets you create market research surveys that reach a highly targeted audience using precise targeting filters.

You can choose from various question formats, add screening questions, and apply advanced logic pathways to customize your survey. Survey responses are automatically organized into clear, structured reports for effortless data analysis.

(You can skip to our detailed platform overview here.)

Why choose Pollfish over Qualtrics and other survey platforms?

We'll highlight six key benefits that differentiate Pollfish as a compelling alternative for your market research needs:

• Ensure high data quality for every survey response by leveraging first-party data from our proprietary panel, along with comprehensive fraud prevention measures that include continuous respondent monitoring, a 30-day quarantine for new members, and sophisticated data cleaning techniques.

• Receive faster survey results by leveraging Pollfish's large, highly engaged respondent communities, enabling you to gather responses within hours for general audience surveys.

• Pay only for the responses you need with our flexible pay-as-you-go model, eliminating the need for subscriptions, annual fees, and commitments that may result in unused capacity.

• See complete pricing upfront with our transparent cost structure that shows your total survey cost in real-time as you build your audience, preventing surprise fees and allowing for better budget planning.

• Work with a support team that’s staffed with knowledgeable market researchers, who can help with questions ranging from advanced questionnaire design, logic and routing in surveys, data analysis and interpretation, and anything related to market research best practices.

• Build surveys tailored to your exact specifications using our robust platform capabilities for audience targeting, questionnaire design, and data analysis, ensuring you never have to compromise on your research goals.

Ensure High Data Quality for Every Survey Response

The Problem with Relying on 3rd Party Panel Suppliers

Many survey platforms, including Qualtrics, rely on third-party panel providers to supply respondents rather than owning and managing their survey panels directly. This leads to several issues that can negatively impact data quality:

🚫 "Professional Survey Takers" Problem

Third-party panels typically operate on a direct payment model where individuals specifically sign up to take surveys in exchange for cash rewards. This incentivizes people to sign up for multiple platforms to maximize earnings as "professional survey takers." As a result, they may:

• Provide rushed responses as they prioritize completing surveys quickly instead of giving thoughtful answers.

• Use strategic answering techniques to qualify for more survey opportunities rather than responding honestly.

• Generally contribute lower-quality data that fails to capture genuine consumer opinions accurately.

🚫 Lack of Transparency Regarding Data Sources

Third-party panels rarely disclose their verification methods or respondent sources. This lack of transparency creates uncertainty about data quality, a significant concern given the rise of survey fraud in recent years.

🚫 Multiple Middlemen Add Costs

Each intermediary between you and your respondents adds their markup. You pay more without improving data quality.

The Advantages of Pollfish's First-Party Data Approach

Following Pollfish's acquisition by Prodege (a market research and consumer insights giant renowned for being the largest single panel owner in the world), we leverage first-party data through a fundamentally different approach:

✅ Natural Environment Engagement

We embed surveys within apps people already use for other purposes, such as gaming or utilities. This allows us to reach respondents in their natural environment rather than relying on people who self-select into survey panels. The result is more authentic responses from real consumers, not just "professional survey takers."

✅ Comprehensive Fraud Prevention

Owning our panel gives us full control to implement comprehensive quality safeguards:

• Continuous monitoring of respondent behavior to confirm they are genuine.

• 30-day "quarantine" for new members to complete internal profiling surveys before participating in client surveys.

• Sophisticated data cleaning techniques to identify and remove low-quality responses (e.g., trap questions, speeding prevention, anti-VPN measures, etc.).

✅ Precise Behavioral Targeting

Direct panel ownership lets us gather valuable behavioral data, like purchase receipts, enabling laser-focused targeting based on verified consumer actions rather than self-reported preferences or demographic assumptions.

For example, if a consumer recently purchased premium coffee beans from specialty retailers, you can precisely target them for your high-end coffee machine campaign using verified purchase receipts rather than assumed preferences or demographic generalizations.

✅ Lower Costs with Better Quality

Building and managing our own respondent network in-house eliminates extra fees and markups from third-party panel providers. This direct approach simultaneously reduces costs while significantly increasing data quality for our clients.

Receive Faster Survey Results with Pollfish's Large, Engaged Respondent Communities

A common issue raised by users of other survey platforms is the lengthy wait time for responses. You often have to wait multiple days to get results back, even for general audience surveys.

For a general US audience survey on a broad topic with high incidence (like opinions on streaming service preferences), Pollfish can often gather 500+ responses within hours. This is extremely fast compared to other platforms, made possible due to the large, engaged respondent communities we've cultivated.

More niche, targeted audiences (e.g., pediatric oncologists with over 10 years of clinical experience) will have a longer turnaround time than broad, general population surveys. But Pollfish is still typically faster than competitors even for these niche surveys, and you can reach out to us for exact time estimates.

Pay Only for the Responses You Need Without Subscriptions or Commitments

The Problem with Qualtrics' Subscription Pricing Model

Qualtrics offers a subscription-based pricing structure that may present challenges for some businesses:

🚫 Paying for Unused Capacity

With Qualtrics, you commit to an annual subscription fee regardless of your actual platform usage. For companies with fluctuating research needs, this could result in paying for unused capacity during slower periods.

🚫 Costly Per-User Licenses

Qualtrics charges additional license fees for each team member needing platform access. This gets expensive fast, especially if you have a large team or want to provide organization-wide access.

Pollfish's Usage-Based Pricing Model

Pollfish offers a different pricing approach that’s more flexible to your fluctuating research needs:

✅ Pay Only for What You Use

With Pollfish, you only pay for the survey responses you collect. No annual fees, no subscriptions, no sunk costs. Just a simple pay-as-you-go model for the research you actually conduct.

✅ Unlimited User Access

Pollfish doesn't charge per-user license fees. You can loop in your whole team, or even allow organization-wide access, without worrying about added costs.

See Complete Pricing Upfront with No Surprise Fees

🚫The Problem: Hidden Pricing and Surprise Fees

Many market research platforms use pricing models that can be confusing and lead to unexpected expenses. Here's a common scenario:

• You sign up at what appears to be a fair monthly or yearly price.

• As you begin using the platform, you discover that certain essential features require additional payment.

• You encounter unexpected charges for things like targeting specific demographic segments, adding more users to your account, etc.

• What started as a reasonable budget item ends up being a much larger and unplanned cost.

✅ The Pollfish Advantage: Complete Pricing Transparency

With Pollfish, you always see your total cost updating in real-time as you build your target audience:

For example, let's say you're setting up a survey on consumer preferences:

1. You start by choosing a base audience (starting at $0.95 per response)
2. You add targeting criteria like "Female respondents only" (+$0.55)
3. Include "Married" in the marital status criteria (+$0.55)

You'll immediately see the cost per completed response is $2.05. If you need 600 responses, your total is clearly displayed as $1,230. That's the final price - no unexpected fees later.

This transparent model allows you to plan more reliably and adhere to your research budget without the frustration of surprise costs popping up.

Work with Support Specialists Who Understand Advanced Research Methodology, Not Just Basic Platform Features

The Customer Service Shortcomings of Most Survey Platforms

Customer service is not a priority for most survey platforms in the market. Once customers sign their contracts, they often feel abandoned, with several specific issues that stand out:

🚫 Lack of Advanced Research Expertise

Support reps at most survey companies can only handle basic technical inquiries. They lack deep knowledge about research methodology to help with more advanced needs.

🚫 Slow Response Times

Many survey platforms have frustratingly slow response times. Customers may wait days to hear back about urgent issues, causing critical delays in research projects and missed deadlines.

🚫 Limited Support Hours

Most competitors don't offer support outside standard business hours. If you're working on a survey late at night or on a weekend, you'll likely be unable to receive assistance until regular business hours resume.

How Pollfish Solves These Problems

At Pollfish, we’ve made customer service a central part of our value proposition instead of treating it like an afterthought, unlike most survey platforms. Here’s how:

✅ Support from Knowledgeable Market Researchers

Our support team is staffed with knowledgeable market researchers, not just tech support. We can help you with questions ranging from advanced questionnaire design, logic and routing in surveys, data analysis and interpretation, and anything related to market research best practices.

✅ Rapid Response Time

Connect with our team via live chat in minutes, not days, which can help you maintain research momentum and meet tight deadlines.

✅ 24/7 Availability

Pollfish offers genuine 24/7 customer support, unlike most competitors. This round-the-clock availability ensures you can get help whenever you need it, regardless of time zone or day of the week.

Build Research Projects Exactly to Your Specifications Without Compromise

With surveys, oftentimes there will be very specific, unique requirements for your particular use case. It's crucial to ensure that your chosen software has robust functionality to fully address your precise research needs. You shouldn’t have to compromise on your research goals due to limitations of the survey platform.

Let’s consider the following examples of common limitations:

• You need to target a particular audience segment, but the platform doesn’t offer the necessary targeting criteria. You’re forced to settle for a broader audience that doesn't fully match your ideal respondent profile.

• You want to include certain question types and logic in your survey design, but the platform's options are too basic.

• You have to export the raw data and utilize external tools to truly make sense of the results because the platform only provides rudimentary reporting and analytics.

To illustrate how Pollfish provides the flexibility and functionality to avoid these types of limitations, we'll briefly cover its capabilities in 3 key areas:

1. Setting your survey audience
2. Designing your questionnaire
3. Analyzing results via user-friendly reports

For a more comprehensive look at these areas and an overview of the entire Pollfish platform, refer to this in-depth article on getting started with Pollfish surveys. It walks through each step of the process, from survey creation to data analysis, and more.

Note: While most customers use Pollfish as a DIY (do-it-yourself) tool to build their own surveys, we also offer a full-service option where market research professionals manage your entire project from start to finish.

Set Your Survey Audience

Choose from over 50 targeting criteria across six categories:

• Demographics
• Geographic Criteria
• Consumer Lifestyle
• Employment & Occupation
• Behavioral Data
• Media.

You can keep your targeting broad by focusing on just a few key criteria, such as age and gender. However, our platform also allows you to be incredibly specific in your targeting. For example, you could target women who meet all of the following criteria:

• Aged 25–34
• Living in the Pacific Northwest
• With a bachelor's degree or higher
• Owns dogs
• Enjoys hiking and camping
• Subscribes to Netflix and Disney+
• Have visited travel websites in the past month
• Earns between $75,000 and $100,000 per year
• Works in healthcare
• Frequently shops at Target and Amazon

Most users won’t need to be this precise in their targeting criteria. Our goal is simply to illustrate the depth of customization available to you if your survey requires it.

This is just a brief overview. For more information on setting your survey audience, view this video.

Design Your Questionnaire

Design surveys using Pollfish's 14 diverse question types, from simple multiple selection to complex matrix formats and more. Then, enhance your survey quality through advanced features like skip logic for personalized respondent pathways, screening questions, answer randomization, multimedia integration, AI survey creation, and pre-built survey templates for common market research use cases.

This is just a brief overview. See this page for more information on designing your questionnaire.

Analyze Results via User-Friendly Reports

Pollfish lets you visualize each survey answer with appropriate chart formats (simple tables, color-coded column charts, or intuitive pie charts) in an easy-to-navigate dashboard.

The platform also enables powerful data filtering by specific demographics or responses, such as only viewing results from female millennials in urban areas, or isolating feedback from respondents who indicated they "strongly disagree" with your product pricing.

The Insights Builder tool (available on the Elite plan) takes analysis further by enabling sophisticated data manipulation without Excel. You can create complex graphs comparing multiple variables at once, apply statistical testing to identify significant findings (like which features truly drive customer satisfaction), and customize visualizations with your brand's specific color palette.

When you're ready to share results, export options include PDF, Excel, Crosstabs, and SPSS formats, with the ability to seamlessly transfer graphs to PowerPoint presentations using your company's templates and branding elements.

This is just a brief overview. Click here for an interactive demo of our Survey Results Dashboard.

Learn More About Pollfish

For more information on Pollfish, we invite you to:

• Create a free account (no payment information required).
• Book a personalized demo to see how Pollfish works for your specific needs.

2. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a market research platform that can help you:

• Create surveys (e.g., drag and drop survey builder, customizable templates, advanced survey design features)
• Create and customize online forms for events, applications, payments, etc.
• Analyze results via custom dashboards, charts, word clouds, and other analysis tools
• Export your data to 200+ popular apps like Mailchimp, Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams, and more

3. Alchemer

Alchemer is a survey and data collection platform that boasts several features and capabilities, which include:

• A plethora of different survey question types and advanced survey design features like logic and branching
• Real-time feedback and actionable insights from customers as they use your app or website
• Customer text sentiment analysis
• Integrations with platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Asana, Zapier, Microsoft Teams, etc.

4. Suzy

Suzy is a Qualtrics alternative and consumer insights platform that can help you:

• Conduct surveys with real-time feedback from targeted audiences
• Utilize templates, AI, and more for survey creation
• Connect with audiences through email, CRM, and social media integration
• Analyze consumer feedback with dynamic AI-powered analytics and customizable reporting

5. Medallia

Medallia is an all-around experience management software that can help you:

• Conduct agile research via surveys, online focus groups, and panel studies
• Increase contact center efficiency via conversation intelligence, agent coaching, quality management, and assurance optimization
• Improve employee experience via employee listening and activation solutions
• Implement comprehensive customer experience management programs across multiple touchpoints

6. Forsta

Forsta is another one of the best Qualtrics alternatives that can help:

• Conduct research via online surveys and focus groups
• Analyze what people say about your brand on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and more
• Receive input from customers via activity-based diary entries
• Measure and improve user experience through comprehensive journey mapping
• Centralize and analyze data from multiple sources in a single hub that connects feedback with behavioral and observed data

7. InMoment

InMoment is another Qualtrics competitor that lets you:

• Capture customer feedback across multiple channels
• Monitor, analyze, and respond to online reviews across popular platforms
• Automate the analysis of contact center conversations, chat logs, and emails to uncover customer sentiment
• Place microsurveys and interaction tracking to help you optimize customer journeys
• Analyze structured and unstructured data to detect customer intentions automatically, predict behavior, etc.

8. Google Forms

Google Forms is a free tool that can help you:

• Easily create forms via drag and drop functionality with a minimal learning curve
• Share forms via email and social media, or embed them on your site
• Customize forms using templates, flows, and quizzes, with colors that align with your company's branding
• Easily visualize responses and optionally export to Google Sheets

9. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a Qualtrics alternative that can help you:

• Easily create surveys via drag and drop functionality, with various question types and templates
• Utilize sophisticated methodologies like conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, A/B testing, etc.
• Map the entire customer journey and collect feedback at various touchpoints
• Gather feedback throughout the employee lifecycle

10. Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms offers a free plan and lets you:

• Easily create simple surveys, quizzes, and polls on customizable forms without extensive technical knowledge
• Visualize response data via automatically generated reports
• Export to Excel for more customized, in-depth analysis
• Integrate with other Microsoft 365 apps

11. AskNicely

AskNicely is a customer experience software that lets you:

• Gather customer feedback through email, SMS, and embedded surveys at key touchpoints
• Run NPS and CSAT measurement programs with intuitive dashboards
• Turn happy customers into brand advocates by streamlining the review request process to generate more 5-star ratings and referrals
• Connect seamlessly with platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Zendesk, etc. to embed feedback collection into existing workflows

Get Started with Pollfish Today

Create a free account (no payment info required) or book a personalized demo to discover how Pollfish can meet your needs.

by Written by Troy Harrington

11 Best Survey Software for Market Research in 2025

11 Best Survey Software for Market Research in 2025

When selecting the best survey software for your market research needs, these essential factors deserve careful consideration:

• Data quality: Beware of survey tools that buy respondents from third-party vendors, because this introduces significant quality control issues that compromise your research data integrity (more on this later). Instead, choose platforms that own and manage their respondent communities directly for fundamentally more accurate research results.

• Flexible survey design capabilities: Your research needs are specific and unique — never settle for "close enough" when designing your surveys, as even minor compromises can significantly distort your findings. Without precise audience targeting, you risk collecting data from irrelevant respondents who don't represent your population of interest, while platforms with limited questionnaire design tools force compromises in question structure and logic flows that yield unreliable responses, and inadequate data analysis capabilities leave critical insights buried in your survey data.

• Pricing structure & transparency: Consider the advantages of flexible pay-per-response models against expensive monthly or yearly subscriptions that might include capacity you won't use. Pay attention to the importance of upfront pricing transparency and avoid platforms with hidden fees that appear only after you've committed.

We’ll start by discussing how Pollfish (our own product) performs in these areas, and categorize the tools in this list into two groups: premium tools with advanced functionality and entry-level options.

Best Survey Software for Market Research

Premium Tools with Advanced Functionality

1. Pollfish

Here's a brief overview of what we'll discuss in this section:

How Pollfish leverages proprietary respondent communities instead of external third-party panels

• Competitor limitations: Rather than maintaining their own respondent communities, most survey platforms acquire survey participants from external 3rd-party panel providers. This creates serious data quality concerns through "professional survey takers," response manipulation, and a growing survey fraud epidemic.

• Pollfish’s approach: Pollfish takes a fundamentally different approach by owning and nurturing our respondent communities directly, implementing rigorous verification and anti-fraud processes, providing precise behavioral targeting based on verified actions (not just self-reported preferences), and more.

3 key feature categories that influence research quality

1. Audience targeting: You may require reaching a highly specific audience segment, but find yourself constrained by limited targeting options, ultimately settling for a broader respondent group that only partially matches your target demographic.
2. Questionnaire design: When crafting your survey, you might envision dynamic question formats or sophisticated branching logic, only to find the platform's survey building capabilities don't support these advanced requirements.
3. Data analysis: It's disappointing when a platform provides only basic analytical tools, forcing you to export raw data and rely on external applications (like Excel) to perform the in-depth analysis essential for actionable insights.

Transparent pay-per-response pricing model (rather than being locked into a subscription)

• Competitor limitations: Many survey software charge expensive monthly or annual subscription fees that lock you into paying for capacity you may not fully utilize. Others have confusing pricing with hidden costs that only become apparent after you've committed.

• Pollfish’s approach: We offer transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing that allows you to pay only for the responses you need, with no surprise fees.

Let's explore each of these areas in more detail.

While Competitors Rely on External Third Party Panels, Pollfish Leverages Proprietary Respondent Communities

Most survey platforms don't maintain their own respondent communities. Instead, they acquire survey participants from external 3rd-party panel providers, which often employ a cash-for-completion model where participants specifically enroll to earn money through surveys.

This leads to what we call “professional survey takers”, who participate in dozens of surveys weekly across multiple platforms primarily as an income source. These respondents are motivated by speed and quantity (not thoughtful participation), and they provide answers that will qualify them for surveys, regardless of truth.

In addition, many 3rd-party panel providers operate as "black boxes," concealing their methods for combating survey fraud. This lack of transparency is concerning because survey fraud isn't just a minor data quality issue — it's a pervasive threat that can completely undermine the validity of your market research. There are now organized networks using AI-powered tools, device farms, and identity spoofing to generate convincingly human-like responses. (The survey fraud ecosystem has grown increasingly sophisticated).

When your survey results come from “professional survey takers” or fraudulent respondents, you're building business strategies on fundamentally misleading information. Imagine investing six months and significant resources developing a new product line because survey results showed strong demand, only to launch it and discover actual customers have little interest. This disconnect between research findings and market reality doesn't just waste resources — it affects your credibility with stakeholders and deflates team morale.

At Pollfish, We Have a Fundamentally Different Approach

Unlike competitors who rely on third-party panels, Pollfish (through parent company Prodege) owns and operates an extensive network of consumer communities.

This end-to-end ownership of the respondent ecosystem enables Pollfish to implement multi-layered quality controls, sophisticated targeting, and seamless in-app engagement, delivering higher quality survey responses that competitors using 3rd-party panels cannot match.

The key data quality advantages of Pollfish's owned respondent ecosystem include:

✅ Incentives through natural environmental engagement

Surveys are seamlessly integrated into apps that people already use and enjoy in their daily lives for purposes like gaming, shopping, or entertainment. Respondents can earn in-app rewards or incentives for completing surveys, such as bonus lives in a game or discounts on purchases.

By engaging users during their regular in-app activities instead of in dedicated survey environments (where respondents might be mindlessly clicking through their 20th consecutive questionnaire), Pollfish captures more genuine, thoughtful responses that better reflect people's true opinions and preferences.

✅ Authenticated purchase history via digital receipt uploads

Pollfish's ecosystem rewards respondents not just for taking surveys but also for uploading actual shopping receipts to earn cashback. This verification process serves two vital purposes:

• First, it confirms that respondents are genuine humans, not bots or fraudulent accounts.

• Second, when building your survey audience in Pollfish, you can precisely target respondents based on their documented purchase history — for example, specifically reaching people who have bought Cheerios in the last month, purchased Nike products, or shopped at Walmart. This behavioral targeting is based on proven actions verified through receipt uploads, not just what respondents claim about themselves, significantly increasing the reliability of your audience selection.

✅ Sophisticated respondent verification system

Every participant in Pollfish's ecosystem undergoes a comprehensive validation process that starts before they ever see a client survey:

• Mandatory 30-day evaluation period: New members are exempt from participating in client surveys during their first month. During this period, they can only complete internal profiling surveys that help Pollfish establish their baseline response patterns and verify the consistency of their demographic information. This allows Pollfish to identify potentially problematic respondents before they ever reach client surveys.

• Cross-platform behavior analysis: Because members engage with Pollfish's communities across various activities, Pollfish can verify consistency in behavior patterns. For example, if someone reports being a pet owner in surveys but their shopping history (as verified by receipt uploads) reveals no pet food, toy, or supply purchases that would typically be associated with pet ownership, Pollfish can flag this discrepancy for review.

✅ Comprehensive fraud prevention at every step

While traditional 3rd-party panels typically apply basic quality checks after surveys are completed, Pollfish employs more sophisticated fraud prevention methods:

• Unique User ID: Each participant receives a unique identifier that tracks their activity across our platform, preventing individuals from taking the same survey multiple times or creating duplicate accounts.

• Device-Carrier Validation: Our system cross-references the respondent's mobile carrier information with their device data to verify consistency and flag suspicious patterns that might indicate location or identity spoofing.

• Sophisticated Trap Questions: We strategically place specialized validation questions that appear simple to humans but confound automated systems. These include not just image recognition tasks, but attention verification questions that adapt based on previous responses to appear natural within the survey flow.

• Response Timing Analysis: We can detect and flag not just speeders who rush through the entire survey, but also identify suspicious patterns like inconsistent timing (fast on complex questions, slow on simple ones).

• Geolocation Authentication: We employ advanced IP validation technology that blocks responses submitted through VPNs, proxies, and other location-masking services to ensure geographic targeting accuracy.

• Progressive Trust Evaluation: Respondents receive continuously updated quality scores based on their historical response patterns.

3 Key Feature Categories That Influence Research Quality

Now that we've established the critical importance of data quality — since even the most sophisticated survey tools offer little value if they're built on flawed data — let's look at what our market research survey software can actually do.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, there are 3 essential feature categories that truly effective survey platforms must deliver to meet your precise research requirements:

1. Audience targeting: You might need to reach a precisely defined audience segment, yet find yourself limited by insufficient targeting parameters, ultimately forcing you to compromise with a broader respondent pool that only partially aligns with your intended demographic.
2. Questionnaire design: When developing your questionnaire, you may envision specific interactive question formats or complex conditional logic paths, only to discover the platform's survey construction tools lack these advanced features.
3. Data analysis: It's frustrating when the platform's analytics capabilities offer only surface-level insights, compelling you to download your raw response data and use third-party software (e.g., Excel) just to conduct the deeper analysis necessary for meaningful decision-making.

Up next, we'll examine how Pollfish addresses each of these critical feature areas.

Define your respondent pool using granular demographic and behavioral filters

Pollfish offers an extensive range of targeting criteria to precisely define your survey's audience:

• Targeting criteria options: Choose among 50+ targeting parameters spread across 6 key categories: Demographics, Geographic Criteria, Consumer Lifestyle, Employment & Occupation, Behavioral Data, and Media.

• Example in action: Most companies won't set all of the parameters below simultaneously, but here's an example of how detailed your targeting could be:

• • Demographics: Men, ages 35-49, $200,000+ income, single, never married

• • Geography: Metropolitan areas across the Midwest

• • Consumer Lifestyle: Regular energy drink consumers, enthusiasts of extreme sports, fishing, and camping

• • Employment: Employed full-time, work in the construction industry

• • Purchase Behavior: Recently bought Gatorade and 5-hour energy products

• Set audience quotas: Optionally, you can set audience quotas to ensure a balanced sample and avoid skewed results (e.g., For example, you might set survey audience quotas to ensure 30% of respondents are males aged 18-24, 40% are females aged 25-34 with children, and 30% are adults aged 55+ with household incomes above $75,000 to achieve a representative sample across key demographic segments).

Note: To learn more about Pollfish’s audience targeting capabilities, view this video.

Build questionnaires with diverse question types and advanced survey design features

Craft engaging surveys using a wide variety of question formats and advanced survey design capabilities:

• Choose from 14 question types, including single/multiple selection, open-ended, matrix, rating stars, sliders, and more. (See complete list and explanation for each question type.)

• Specialized question formats like A/B Test, Conjoint Analysis, Max Diff, and ProVan Westendorp for specific research needs.

• Screening questions: Use screening questions to ensure only relevant participants complete your survey. (e.g., Include a screening question like "Do you currently have a pet in your household?" to qualify participants for a pet food market research study).

• Skip logic: Implement skip logic and advanced branching to create personalized paths based on response. (e.g., In a healthcare survey, if a participant selects they take prescription medication, they follow a branching path with questions about medication frequency, whereas those without prescriptions are routed to questions about preventative care).

• Answer shuffling: Randomize answer order to reduce bias and improve data quality (e.g., implement answer shuffling for the question "Which factor most influences your purchasing decision?" to prevent primacy bias from skewing results toward options listed first).

• “Other” and “None of the above”: Automatically include "Other" and "None of the above" for all answer choices with a simple toggle, rather than doing it manually for each question (a common frustration for researchers who regularly create surveys).

• Multimedia elements: Incorporate multimedia elements like videos into survey questions, and optionally require video viewing completion before advancing to ensure attentiveness.

• And the list goes on, including popular survey templates for market research, an AI survey builder, and more.

Click here to learn more about designing a questionnaire with Pollfish, and the customization options at your disposal.

Leverage built-in reporting capabilities for easy data visualization and analysis

Pollfish's user-friendly reporting tools allow you to easily uncover meaningful insights from your survey data, all within our platform, without having to use Excel.

• Intuitive data visualization: Visualize every single survey answer using tables, color-coded charts, and graphs that automatically update based on filters.

• Customizable Styling: Customize graph colors and styling to align with your brand guidelines. For instance, if your company uses a specific blue (#0057B8) and orange (#FF6B00) color scheme in all marketing materials, you can easily apply these exact brand colors to your survey result visualizations.

• Flexible Data Exporting: Export results in various formats (PDF, Excel, Crosstabs, SPSS) for further analysis and presentation.

• Drill down by key audience segments:Apply audience targeting filters to analyze survey results by specific audience segments such as age, gender, location, and more.

• • Example use case: Using the demographic filters on the left side of the dashboard, you could select just "Millennials (25-40)" to see their specific feedback. The results would instantly update to show only responses from this age group, revealing that millennials were twice as likely to say your proposed pricing was "very reasonable" compared to the overall sample. You could then further refine this by adding gender filters to compare male vs. female millennials' price sensitivity, discovering that female millennials were particularly enthusiastic about your pricing proposition.

• Drill down by specific responses: Utilize response-based filtering to drill down into data by individual question answers.

• • Example use case: When reviewing your customer satisfaction survey results in Pollfish, you could use response-based filtering to focus on only the respondents who selected "Very Dissatisfied" to your overall satisfaction question. This would allow you to examine what these dissatisfied customers specifically disliked by seeing their responses to other questions, such as product quality, customer service interactions, or pricing concerns. You could discover that 78% of dissatisfied customers cited "slow response times" as their primary frustration, giving you a clear priority for improvement efforts.

• Advanced analysis without Excel: Our Advanced Insights Builder (available on Elite plan) enables complex data manipulation using multiple variables without needing Excel.

• • Example use case: You could instantly analyze 4 variables simultaneously by creating a visualization showing how purchase intent (variable 1) for your product varies across different age groups (variable 2), income levels (variable 3), and geographic regions (variable 4). This might reveal that high-income millennials in urban areas show 87% purchase intent compared to just 43% among similar demographics in rural regions — a complex, multi-dimensional insight that would typically require extensive Excel manipulation but is available with just a few clicks on our platform.

• Built-in stat testing: Stat testing results can be clearly visualized using color-coding and traditional notation (capital and lowercase letters).

• • Example use case: If you compared customer satisfaction scores across different age groups, our platform would automatically highlight statistically significant differences - showing that Gen Z customers (highlighted in dark green with capital "A" notation) rate your mobile app experience significantly higher than Baby Boomers (marked with lowercase "b").

Note: This is just a glimpse of what's possible. If you have particular reporting requirements and want to confirm that Pollfish can meet them, please contact us here.

Transparent Pay-per-Response Pricing Model (Rather Than Being Locked Into a Subscription)

Up next, we’ll examine how our usage-based pricing structure delivers exceptional value compared to alternatives.

The Downsides of Subscription-Based Pricing

• Many competitors offer inflexible subscription models that require you to commit to monthly or annual fees, regardless of your actual usage. This means that during slower periods or months when no research is conducted, you still pay the full subscription rate — essentially wasting money on unused capacity.

• Additionally, tiered pricing structures can be misleading. While some tools may advertise an attractive base rate, essential features often remain locked until you upgrade, leading to unexpected costs for targeting specific demographics, accessing comprehensive reporting tools, and more.

• Furthermore, as your team grows, paying for each additional user can significantly increase your total costs. This also creates budget unpredictability, especially when scaling teams for short-term projects or seasonal demands.

Pollfish’s Approach: Transparent, Usage-Based Pricing

• You only pay for the survey responses you collect, starting at $0.95 per response. Our straightforward cost structure scales with your actual usage, and we can apply significant volume discounts for larger research initiatives.

• You see your total cost calculated in real-time through our dynamic pricing display. As you build your survey specifications, the platform immediately shows both the per-response rate and your total complete project cost before you commit, eliminating budget surprises.

• You can add unlimited team members at no additional cost. If you're on the market research team, you can include everyone from your immediate department, plus collaborate seamlessly with stakeholders from marketing, product development, customer experience, and executive leadership without worrying about per-user fees.

Register for a Free Pollfish Account

Ready to experience Pollfish firsthand? We invite you to register for a free account (no credit card needed, no obligations) and book a demo walkthrough.

2. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a survey software for market research that can help you:

• Create customizable surveys with advanced question types and logic.

• Combine quantitative and qualitative research methods including video feedback and interviews.

• Optionally distribute surveys through multiple channels including email, SMS, QR codes, website embeds, and more.

• Store and search all research insights using AI-powered search capabilities.

• Visualize insights through real-time analytics dashboards.

For more information on what differentiates Pollfish from Qualtrics and other competitors, visit this article.

3. Suzy

Suzy is a survey tool for market research that with several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Custom surveys with both basic and advanced question types.

• Logic branching for personalized respondent experiences.

• Video-based qualitative research capabilities through Suzy Live.

• Retargeting of certain respondent groups for follow-up studies.

• AI-moderated conversations for conversational surveys at scale.

4. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a survey platform for market research with several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• AI-powered SurveyMonkey Genius to guide survey creation and analysis.

• Extensive library of expert-built templates and pre-written questions.

• Sentiment analysis to categorize open-ended responses automatically.

• Offline response collection through the SurveyMonkey Anywhere app.

• Integration with a plethora of apps including Marketo, HubSpot, Tableau, PowerBI, etc.

5. Alchemer

Alchemer can be used as a market research survey software. It offers several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Custom survey experiences with branded URLs and domains

• A plethora of question types and advanced logic capabilities

• Built-in automation actions including email triggers based on respondent behavior

• Report creation tailored to different stakeholders

6. SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow can be used as a market research survey platform. It offers several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Conversational surveys that feel engaging to respondents

• Various question types including opinion scales, rank order, matrix, and more

• Complete survey customization with themes and styling of buttons, text, fonts, and colors

• Filtering and data comparison tools for analysis

• Multi-channel distribution through email, SMS, QR codes, web links, and social media

• Offline survey app for data collection without internet connectivity

7. Forsta

Forsta can be used as a market research survey tool. It has several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Supports video open-ends to capture qualitative insights alongside quantitative data

• Offers easy translation capabilities for multilingual surveys

• Allows for customizable branding and design of surveys

• Enables multimedia embedding within surveys for enhanced engagement

• Includes robust reporting and data export options

Budget-Friendly Entry-Level Options

8. Google Forms

Google Forms is a free tool that can be used as an online survey software for market research. It has several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Various question types including multiple choice, checkboxes, short answer, and more

• Supports image and video embedding within surveys

• Enables conditional logic for creating branching and skip patterns

• Enables easy distribution via email, links, embedding, etc.

• Allows for real-time response monitoring as data comes in<

• Provides basic data visualization with automatic charts and graphs

• Features full integration with Google Workspace (Google Sheets, Dogs, Slides)

9. Typeform

Typeform can be used as a software to run market research. It has several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Various question types including multiple choice, opinion scales, matrix questions, etc.

• Conditional logic to show questions based on previous answers

• Video embedding for more engaging survey experiences

• Optional URL redirects based on responses

• Customization of fonts, colors, and branding elements

• Optional hidden fields to track where respondents are coming from

• Data export options for further analysis

• Multi-language capabilities for global research

10. SurveyPlanet

SurveyPlanet is a market research tool that can help you run surveys. It offers several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Various question types and branching or skip logic based on previous answers

• Pre-written survey templates and questions for quick start

• Insights on which survey sections cause participants to abandon

• Survey length estimator to help reduce abandonment rates

• Optional email and text notifications for new survey responses

11. Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms can help you run surveys for market research. It offers several features and capabilities, some of which include:

• Various question types including multiple choice, text, rating, and ranking

• Ability to import questions from Excel files

• Branching logic to direct respondents to specific questions based on previous answers

• Automatic insights for data analysis including word clouds for text responses

by Written by Troy Harrington

Get Survey Responses (3 Free Options & Paid Solution)

Get Survey Responses (3 Free Options & Paid Solution)

Finding people in your target audience and getting them to complete your survey is a challenge, and there are two main approaches to solving this problem:

• Free survey recruitment platforms: These work on a reciprocal model where you earn responses for your own survey by participating in surveys created by other users. Free platforms primarily focus on finding respondents for your survey — they’re not end-to-end survey solutions.

• Paid end-to-end survey tools: These are all-in-one platforms that handle every aspect of the survey process and deliver higher quality data. You can design your questionnaire, select an audience that precisely matches your criteria, and analyze the results — all within a single platform.

In this post, we'll examine how 3 leading free survey recruitment platforms work, highlight their key limitations, and show how Pollfish, our end-to-end survey solution, helps teams get more high-quality responses while staying within their budget.

3 Popular Free Survey Tools & How They Work

The most popular options on the market to get free survey responses are:

• SurveyCircle — Operates on a rankings based incentive system called SmartRank® (rather than a direct one-for-one swap), where participating in surveys earns points that increase your own survey's ranking and visibility.

• PollPool — Operates on a reward system where you earn PollCoins by completing other users' surveys. As your PollCoin balance grows, your status increases, which directly speeds up how quickly you receive results for your own surveys. If you prefer not to take others' surveys, you can simply purchase PollCoins directly.

• SurveySwap — Operates on a simple credit-based system. One minute of survey time equals one point. For example, after completing a 5-minute survey, you earn 5 points — enough to have one person complete your own 5-minute survey. If you prefer not to take surveys yourself, you can simply buy points instead.

It's important to remember that these free platforms are primarily for participant recruitment — they’re not end-to-end survey tools.

The typical workflow looks like this:

1. Create your survey using an external tool (e.g., Google Forms or a paid platform like Pollfish).
2. Link your finished survey to the free survey recruitment platform of your choice.
3. If the free platform allows, select your target audience from their available criteria, which tend to be extremely broad (e.g., location, language, etc.).
4. To view responses, log into your original survey tool where the data is collected and use that tool's reporting features for analysis. The free recruitment platforms usually only show you the number of responses received and your current credit balance.

Limitations of Free Tools for Survey Responses

Free survey exchange platforms can be appealing for academic research projects, early-stage startups, non-profits, or any time budgets are quite small. However, they have some notable downsides:

• Inability to precisely target your desired audience: If you need to survey a specific audience segment, like dog owners aged 30–40 in NYC with a household income over $100k, free platforms won't provide the granular filters needed to target that exact group. You'll end up having to settle for a generic audience that doesn't fully match your ideal participant profile (e.g., people with a NYC address).

• Lower response quality: On free platforms, respondents are incentivized to complete as many surveys as possible, as quickly as possible, so they can earn more credits to redeem for responses to their own surveys. This model encourages people to rush through surveys without carefully reading questions or thoughtfully considering their answers. As a result, the data quality is significantly lower compared to paid platforms that use trusted consumer research panels and have advanced quality checks in place.

• Inefficient use of time filling out surveys: With free survey platforms, you may spend hours filling out other people's surveys just to unlock responses to your own. This might not be an effective use of your skills and bandwidth, and it’s valuable time that could be used on other important research activities.

• Clunky multi-platform workflow: Using different tools to create surveys and find survey participants adds extra steps and slows things down. With an all-in-one solution, you can manage everything — from designing your questionnaire to targeting the right audience to analyzing the results — in one place. This improves data quality and makes the process faster, simpler, and more efficient.

Pollfish’s Flexible Pricing Model & How to Get Survey Responses in 4 Simple Steps

Pollfish overcomes the limitations of free survey platforms by offering an all-in-one solution for creating and analyzing surveys, ensuring high-quality responses from your targeted audience. When you launch your survey, it reaches our global audience of 250M+ consumers, with built-in quality checks and fraud prevention measures.

We stand out from many other survey tools with our flexible, transparent pricing model:

• Pay-per-response model: With Pollfish, you only pay for the results you need, on-demand. There are no subscriptions, annual contracts, or use-it-or-lose-it response allotments — ensuring you never waste money on unused capacity.

• Real-time cost calculator: As you build your audience, you'll see the cost-per-response and total cost update instantly. For example, if your cost-per-response is $0.95 and you need 500 responses, the total cost will clearly display as $475 — no setup fees, hidden charges, or surprises.

Now, let's explore how you can get survey responses with Pollfish in 4 simple steps. You'll see how to fine-tune every aspect of your survey and capture the exact data you need from the right respondents.

Step 1: Set your audience

The first step is to set your target audience (although you can start with the questionnaire first if you prefer).

Pollfish offers over 50 targeting criteria to choose from, organized into 6 categories:

• Demographics
• Geographic Criteria
• Consumer Lifestyle
• Employment & Occupation
• Behavioral Data
• Media

You can keep your audience broad by selecting just a few key demographic filters like age and gender. But you also have the flexibility to get extremely precise.

For example, while it's unlikely anyone would ever target such a specific audience, to illustrate the level of granularity possible with Pollfish, you could choose to survey only:

• Men ages 45–54
• Living in Phoenix
• With a master’s degree
• Who own pets
• Enjoy cycling and hiking
• Subscribed to Peacock
• Have visited pet websites in the past month
• Earn between $100,000–$150,000 per year
• Work in the technology industry
• Frequently shop at Trader Joe's

In addition, to ensure high audience quality, Pollfish maintains carefully curated proprietary respondent communities:

• New members undergo a 30-day evaluation period before participating in client surveys.

• Continuous validation methods are employed, such as cross-referencing respondent-provided demographic information with behavioral data, like shopping receipt uploads (e.g., a respondent claiming to buy organic products weekly can be verified against actual purchase history, eliminating misrepresentation).

• We also utilize sophisticated anti-fraud measures, including unique user IDs, device-carrier validation, advanced proxy detection, etc.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Data integrity stands at the core of our company's mission, with additional verification layers and continuous quality improvement measures to ensure you receive the most reliable survey results.

Step 2: Design your questionnaire

With audience targeting complete, the next step is to design your questionnaire. This involves two key components:

• Select from 14 question types, including Single selection, Multiple selection, Open ended, Numeric open ended, Description, Rating stars, Slider, Ranking, Matrix single selection, Matrix multiple selection, Net Promoter Score (NPS), A/B test, Conjoint analysis, Max Diff, and Van Westendorp. (Learn more about each question format.)

• Implement advanced survey design elements. Beyond the question types themselves, Pollfish provides a range of additional customization options to increase response quality, such as:

• Screening questions: Further qualify survey respondents by their answers (e.g. ask "Do you own a dog?" to screen out non-dog owners).

• Skip logic branching: Create custom question paths based on previous answers (e.g. show different follow-ups to those who select "puppy" vs. "adult dog").

• Randomize answers: Shuffle the order of answer options to prevent bias (e.g., when asking "What matters most when buying dog food?", randomly vary whether "price," "ingredients," or "brand" appears first for each respondent to avoid skewing results toward the first option).

• Multimedia: Include images and videos in questions for added context and engagement (e.g. show photos of different packaging designs and optionally require respondents to watch videos in their entirety before answering).

• Carry forward answers: Insert a respondent's previous answer into a follow-up question for specificity and personalization.

• One-click "Other" and "None" options: Add these common answer choices to all relevant questions with just one toggle switch, eliminating the tedious task of manually typing them for each individual question in your survey.

No matter how precise or complex your online survey needs to be, Pollfish almost certainly has the capability to execute on your vision. (See more survey design possibilities.)

Step 3: Launch your survey and receive fast turnaround time

Once approved, your survey goes live and Pollfish's respondent targeting engine begins identifying qualified participants.

Since Pollfish engages respondents through its own consumer communities, rather than relying on third-party panel providers, we can deliver faster turnaround times than most competitors — without any extra charge.

• For general population surveys (e.g., coffee consumption preferences among American adults 18–49), it's common to receive hundreds of responses within just a few hours.

• For more niche audiences, it may take a few days depending on the criteria. For example, a survey targeting board-certified pediatric oncologists practicing in rural hospitals might require more time. However, even with niche audiences, we're typically faster than competitors.

Step 4: Analyze your results

Once your survey is complete, Pollfish's reporting dashboard allows you to easily explore your results. You can browse an interactive example of the reporting interface here.

Some of our key analysis features include:

• Automatic chart creation: Pollfish will automatically visualize each survey question with an appropriate chart type (bar, pie, line, etc.) so you can quickly interpret results at a glance.

• Custom styling: Have a specific color palette, font, or other branding element you want to carry into your reports? Pollfish lets you customize the look and feel of your charts.

• Demographic filtering: Want to compare results between men and women, or see how different age groups responded? Demographic filters let you drill down and examine any segment with ease.

• Response-based filtering: Zoom in on people who provided a certain response to understand the rest of their answers (e.g. among those who said your product price "exceeds their budget", how did they rate its features?).

• Flexible export options: Export your charts and findings via PDF, Excel, SPSS, Crosstabs, or various image formats to easily include them in presentations and decision-making discussions.

• Advanced analytics, eliminating the need for Excel: Pollfish’s Advanced Insights Builder (available on the Elite plan) empowers you to perform complex analysis that would normally require exporting to Excel, like comparing survey results across multiple variables. For instance, breaking down sentiment by age, gender, income, and region simultaneously. It also allows for stat testing to identify meaningful differences between groups, the ability to create advanced custom charts, and much more — all without leaving the platform.

Create a Free Pollfish Account

Create your free Pollfish account and start designing your first market research survey. You can also request a demo for personalized help.

by Written by Troy Harrington