8 Best Concept Testing Platforms (by Category)

When businesses search for concept testing platforms, they’re typically looking for one of two main categories of tools:

Category #1: Concept Testing Survey Platforms

Survey-based concept testing platforms excel at delivering large-scale, statistically significant data. These platforms offer rapid results, often within hours to a few days, and let you maintain strict control over potential bias through careful questionnaire design. Top concept testing survey platforms include:

• Pollfish: Best for market researchers seeking high-quality survey data with transparent pay-per-response pricing. No subscription fees, annual commitments, or hidden costs. Well suited for companies of any size.

• Qualtrics: Best suited for large enterprise companies, and their pricing is often cost-prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses.

• SurveyMonkey: Best for simpler survey requirements. While they offer pay-per-response pricing, essential features like skip logic require a subscription plan, increasing your total costs.

Category #2: Concept Testing Platforms Beyond Traditional Surveys

These platforms offer unique methodologies that can complement your survey data and reveal insights you might otherwise miss:

• MESH01: Specializes in concept testing for physical products where hands-on interaction is crucial. They handle recruiting qualified testers and collect comprehensive feedback through activity logs, surveys, image and video uploads, performance zone heatmaps, and real-time product usage data.

• System1: Offers innovative testing methodologies including a predictive trading game where participants buy or sell “shares” in concepts (providing market-like validation), FaceTrace technology that measures genuine emotional responses to visual concepts, and more.

• Highlight: Excels at in-home product testing across diverse use cases, from food and beverage tastings to packaging design validation. For example, they can ship package designs directly to consumers’ homes and collect valuable real-world insights that complement your online survey data.

• Hotjar: Enables concept testing through two key features: concept testing questions while users browse your site (for example, after they’ve spent more than 45 seconds on a specific product page), and end-to-end remote user interviews, including recruiting participants, scheduling sessions, hosting calls, and generating reports.

• Kantar: While they offer a vast range of use cases, their ConceptEvaluate AI platform stands out for rapid concept screening. It can simultaneously test concepts with up to 100 participants, making it valuable for efficiently filtering through multiple concepts in early development stages.

Up next, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of Pollfish, our survey platform that excels at concept testing, followed by an overview of the other concept testing tools on this list.

Category #1: Concept Testing Survey Platforms

1. Pollfish

Pollfish is our DIY survey platform that excels at running monadic tests, sequential monadic tests, and other concept testing methodologies. Our highly intuitive, easy-to-use interface, offers a robust questionnaire design, audience targeting, and data analysis capabilities that seasoned market researchers rely on.

We offer pre-built survey templates designed with market research best practices for product concept testing, pricing testing, logo testing, ad testing, A/B testing, and more. This provides a strategic head start by allowing you to edit proven, ready-made frameworks rather than building everything completely from scratch.

There are 4 key reasons you should choose Pollfish for concept testing:

• Reason #1: High-quality audience panels with rigorous data quality standards.

• Reason #2: Pay-per-response pricing model with complete transparency and no hidden fees.

• Reason #3: Fast turnaround times — from a few hours for broad audiences to a few days for more niche groups.

• Reason #4: Robust functionality across three key areas: audience targeting, questionnaire design, and data analysis.

Let’s dive in.

Reason #1: High-Quality Audience Panels with Rigorous Data Quality Standards

Why is this important? Data quality should be your top priority when choosing a concept testing survey platform. Even a perfectly designed survey will produce unreliable results if respondents are fraudulent or provide low-quality answers, leading to flawed decisions about which concepts to choose or invest in.

Our Approach: At Pollfish, through our parent company Prodege (the world’s largest single panel owner), we maintain our own first-party respondent communities rather than purchasing data from external third-party providers.

This direct ownership approach enables us to maintain rigorous quality controls that ensure high-quality concept testing survey results:

❇️ Diverse activities beyond surveys help us verify respondents are real people, not bots: Through communities like Swagbucks, panelists earn rewards not just from surveys but also from activities like playing games, watching videos, or uploading shopping receipts.

These activities serve as authenticity checks — for example, uploading an actual shopping receipt is something only a real person can do, giving us certainty that our respondents are genuine humans rather than bots.

❇️ Shopping receipt uploads enable more accurate targeting than self-reported preferences: When participants upload shopping receipts (e.g., showing they’ve recently purchased an energy drink), you can precisely target them based on verified purchase behavior.

This is far more reliable than self-reported preferences, where participants might falsely claim they buy energy drinks just to qualify for more surveys.

❇️ 30-day evaluation period: New members undergo a mandatory 30-day evaluation period where they complete internal profiling surveys. We closely monitor their responses, and only participants who consistently provide high-quality responses are approved to take client surveys.

❇️ Manual-review of open-ended responses: Every open-ended survey response is manually reviewed by a human team member to ensure quality and filter out nonsensical or low-effort answers.

❇️ Sophisticated fraud prevention measures, including unique user IDs (to prevent duplicate entries), speeding detection, straight lining detection (repeatedly choosing the same answer), trap questions, anti VPN measures, etc.

The bottom line: By choosing Pollfish for your concept testing survey needs, you can trust that your data is reliable and the decisions you make based on that data are well-founded.

Reason #2: Pay-per-Response Pricing Model with Complete Transparency and No Hidden Fees

❇️ We use a straightforward pay-per-response pricing model, starting at $0.95 per response, with no subscription fees or annual contracts required.

Pollfish scales with your concept testing needs (or other survey needs), so you only pay for the responses you actually collect — never for unused capacity.

❇️ As you build your survey, pricing is always visible in the upper-right corner and updates in real-time as you add targeting filters.

What you see is exactly what you’ll pay, with no surprise fees or hidden charges:

❇️ Here’s how our transparent pricing calculator works based on the example above:

• Base cost: $0.95 per response
• Three targeting filters are added:
  • Marital status → Married (+$0.55 per response)
  • Children in household → 2 (+$0.55 per response)
  • Pets in household → Dog (+$0.55 per response)
• Total cost per response: $2.60 with these additional filters
• For 500 responses: $1,300 total cost clearly displayed upfront

That’s your final cost — no subscription fees, no hidden charges, no surprises.

As one of our customers shared on Trustpilot:

“The dollar amount they quote you in their cost calculator tool, and the number they show when you’re developing the survey, is the number you pay. I was burned multiple times by SurveyMonkey charging me unexpected amounts and making it difficult to quit an expensive subscription. I’m so happy to have found Pollfish as an alternative. Their support team also responds VERY quickly to chat messages and has been tremendously helpful the few times I had questions.”
– Read the full review here

Reason #3: Fast Turnaround Times (From a Few Hours for Broad Audiences to a Few Days for More Niche Groups)

Since Pollfish uses first-party audience data from Prodege rather than purchasing from external third-party sources through middlemen, we can deliver exceptionally fast turnaround times.

❇️ For concept testing surveys targeting broad, general population segments, you can receive results in as little as a few hours for several hundred responses.

As multiple reviewers have noted on Trustpilot:

“The thing that amazes me most is how quickly you can get your data results back. So fast! Usually in a couple of hours.”
– Read the full review here

“I needed a 25 question survey answered, and was able to get 500 completed surveys in 8 hours with Pollfish. The presentation of the results is very impressive and the demographics information Pollfish provided is invaluable.”
– Read the full review here

“I honestly thought the results would take days, and I was starting to get worried because I was using Pollfish for a quarterly goal and I was trying to make it before the deadline. However, I received the results in literally just a few hours!”
– Read the full review here

“Much more affordable than all the alternatives I found, and I had all my results ready within just a couple of hours.”
– Read the full review here

❇️ For more specific targeting requirements, completion typically takes several days (e.g., household income over $250,000, live in New York, and own a dog).

This is still exceptionally fast compared to other platforms for similar audiences. As several reviewers have noted:

“I’m amazed at how quickly the platform was able to deliver rich, segmentable data from over 500 respondents. I had feature-ready insights in only 3 days.”
– Read the full review here

“I’ve used Pollfish before so when I needed to test concepts for a new business pitch in 5 countries over the holiday, I turned to Pollfish. The surveys were easy to set up, allowed me to select my very specific target and launched right away. Within a couple of days I had my results in an easy to interpret, actionable format well within my budget.”
– Read the full review here

“I found the platform super-easy to use and we received feedback on our new name and logo from our target audience within a few days.”
– Read the full review here

For specific turnaround time estimates based on your unique audience requirements, please contact us here, or submit your question via live chat. We’re available to help 24/7.

Reason #4: Robust Functionality Across 3 Key Areas (Audience Targeting, Questionnaire Design & Data Analysis)

Robust functionality across audience targeting, questionnaire design, and data analysis is critical:

• If you can’t precisely target your ideal audience, you’ll test concepts with the wrong people, and act on flawed insights.

• If your questionnaire design capabilities are limited, you won’t be able to create sophisticated concept testing surveys with proper A/B testing structures, branching logic, and the diverse question types necessary to capture high quality data.

• If your data analysis tools are lacking, you won’t be able to identify the nuanced patterns and demographic differences that reveal which concepts truly resonate with your target market.

Up next, we’ll discuss Pollfish’s key features and capabilities across these three areas.

❇️ Audience Targeting

With Pollfish, you can choose from 50+ targeting filters across 6 categories: Demographics, Geographic Criteria, Consumer Lifestyle, Employment & Occupation, Behavioral Data, and Media.

While most customers use only a subset of the below options, here’s the complete range of targeting filters available to ensure you reach exactly the right audience for your concept testing surveys:

❇️ Demographics

Age, Gender, Hispanic Origin, Marital Status, Languages Spoken, Education Level, US Voter Registration, Household Income (US), Age & Gender of Child(ren) in Household, Type of Home, Pets in Household, Political Party Support, Hispanic Level of Acculturation, Parental Status / Pregnancy Status, Race, Device Type, Device Operating System (OS), Ethnicity, Number of Children in Household

❇️ Geographic Criteria

US State, US Division, US DMA, US Region, US Statistical Area (CBSA), US County, US Zip Code

❇️ Consumer Lifestyle

Beverage Consumption, Hobbies & Interests, Sports Participation, Gambling Participation, Music Streaming Services Use, Movie Theater Frequency, Home Movie Viewing Frequency, Video Game Participation, Video Game Consoles, Video Game Genres, Travel by Air for Business/Leisure, Vehicle Make/Brand Own or Lease, Vehicle Type Own or Lease, Health Ailment Diagnosis

❇️ Employment & Occupation

Employment Status, Industry Work In, B2B Department, Number of Employees, Job Title

❇️ Behavioral Data

Brands Purchased (In-Store), Online Shopping: Retailer, In-Store Shopper, Category Buyers, Retail Channels Shopped (In-Store), Websites Visited, Retail Channels Shopped (Online)

❇️ Media

Video Streaming Services Used

❇️ Custom Quotas

You can set custom quotas with ease to prevent bias in your survey results, whether across age groups, gender, income levels, or any other criteria you choose.

❇️ Questionnaire Design

No matter how robust or sophisticated your concept testing questionnaire needs to be, Pollfish provides the tools you need:

❇️ 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.

❇️ AI survey creation: Quickly create concept testing surveys by simply describing your research goals.

For example, you can prompt the AI with “I want to test 3 packaging designs for a new food product” and it will automatically generate appropriate questions, logic flows, answer options, and more.

❇️ Multimedia questions: Insert video or image-based concept visuals (e.g., product mockups, packaging designs, logos, ad ideas, etc.) directly into your survey questions, with the option to require full video viewing before respondents can proceed.

❇️ Answer shuffling: Automatically randomize answer choices to eliminate bias.

For example, when testing three logo concepts, Pollfish ensures each logo appears in different randomized positions (preventing the first option from being unfairly selected more often due to primacy bias).

❇️ Screening questions: Add screening questions to automatically filter out participants based on their responses.

For example, when testing a new energy drink concept, you can ask “How many energy drinks do you consume per week?” and automatically filter out anyone who responds with less than 2, allowing only qualified prospects who consume 2+ energy drinks weekly to proceed with your survey.

❇️ Conditional branching: Create dynamic survey paths based on previous responses, allowing you to show different concepts or follow-up questions depending on participant answers.

For example, if someone identifies as a “frequent online shopper,” they see e-commerce app concepts, while “in-store shoppers” are shown retail experience concepts instead.

❇️ Explore the full range of Pollfish’s survey design capabilities.

❇️ Data Analysis

Pollfish makes it easy to collect and filter the data to get the insights you need, eliminating the need for external tools like Excel. We offer:

❇️ Demographic filtering: Analyze how different concepts perform across specific audience segments.

For example, see how millennials vs. baby boomers respond to your packaging designs, or compare male vs. female reactions to your ad concepts.

❇️ Response-based filtering: Drill down into specific feedback patterns by filtering responses.

For example, focus only on participants who rated a concept as “very appealing” to understand what drove their positive reaction.

❇️ Advanced insights builder: Create complex multi-variable analyses and charts without Excel.

For example, if you ran a concept test and wanted to analyze feedback from “males who live in the Northeast and Midwest, who are married, and who rated concepts as extremely believable,” you can simply drag and drop these variables and generate instant charts with just a few clicks.

❇️ Statistical significance testing: Automatically identify which concept performance differences are statistically significant.

❇️ Charts in your brand colors: Customize each chart with your company’s brand colors automatically, eliminating the time you’d otherwise spend manually formatting charts in external design tools.

❇️ Built-in PowerPoint creation: Create complete PowerPoint slide decks directly within Pollfish while analyzing your data to streamline your workflow.

❇️ Flexible export options: Export your survey results and charts in multiple formats, including PDF, Excel, crosstabs, SPSS, and more.

Sign Up for a Free Pollfish Account

Create your free Pollfish account today — no credit card required, no commitments — and start building your first concept testing survey in minutes with our easy-to-use, intuitive interface.

2. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is best suited for large enterprise companies, and their pricing is often cost-prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses.

Our article on Qualtrics alternatives elaborates on how Pollfish stands apart, including higher quality survey data, flexible pay-per-response pricing structure (rather than being locked into a long-term commitment), stellar customer service, and more.

Qualtrics’ features can be divided into 3 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. SurveyMonkey

As mentioned, SurveyMonkey suits simpler survey needs. Our article on SurveyMonkey alternatives elaborates on how Pollfish stands apart, offering advantages like more affordable pay-per-response pricing for all question types, superior survey data quality, and the inclusion of most premium features without requiring a subscription upgrade.

Some of SurveyMonkey’s key features and capabilities include:

• Customizable survey design features, although crucial ones like skip logic are only available with a subscription.

• Ability to target SurveyMonkey’s vetted, pre-recruited respondents.

• Built-in analysis capabilities, including tools like Word Cloud, which automatically identify common themes and phrases from open ended questions.

• Diverse concept testing methodologies, including logo design testing, name testing, package testing, or message & claims testing.

Category #2: Concept Testing Platforms Beyond Traditional Surveys

4. MESH01

MESH01 specializes in concept testing for physical products where hands-on interaction is crucial. They handle recruiting qualified testers (70,000+ person testing community) and collect comprehensive feedback through:

• Activity logs
• Surveys
• Image and video uploads
• Performance zone heatmaps
• Real-time product usage data

They offer unique industry insights and reports, such as The State of Product Testing and Product Testing Program Trends.

5. System1

System1 offers innovative concept testing methodologies, and some of their key solutions and capabilities include:

• Predictive trading game where participants buy or sell “shares” in concepts (providing market-like validation).

• 1–5 Star Rating system with validated predictive power — 5-Star concepts typically achieve triple the sales of 1-Star concepts.

• FaceTrace technology that measures genuine emotional responses to visual concepts and new products.

• Database of 54,000+ concepts to benchmark your performance against.

• Comprehensive ad testing tools.

Overall, it’s a great platform to help optimize product development and concept testing.

6. Highlight

Some of Highlight’s key solutions and capabilities include:

• At in-home product testing across diverse use cases, from food and beverage tastings to packaging design validation, and many other product ideas.

• Quick-touch pulse surveys, with access to a large community of product testers and live data dashboards, as well as the ability to choose a specific target audience, design your questionnaire, field results, and gain actionable insights in a matter of hours.

• MaxDiff testing, TURF testing, and other methodologies.

The key industries Highlight serves include Food, Beverage & Supplements, Personal Care & Beauty, Alcohol (RTD, Beer, Liquor, Mocktail), Kids Products, Pet Care & Accessories, Household Cleaning & Goods, and Apparel Footwear.

7. Hotjar

As it pertains to concept testing, some of Hotjar’s key offerings and capabilities include:

• Hotjar Surveys: Trigger concept testing surveys while users browse your site (e.g., after users spend 30 seconds on the pricing page). You have multiple survey deployment options, including pop-ups, buttons, bubbles, embedded widgets, full-screen overlays, and more. Hotjar also offers pre-built templates and AI survey creation to speed up the process.

• Hotjar Engage: Handles end-to-end remote user interviews, including recruiting participants, scheduling sessions, hosting calls, generating reports, and more. They offer a diverse pool of 200,000+ participants from 130+ countries and 25 industries, though you can also interview your own customers.

8. Kantar

While Kantar offers a vast range of uses, their ConceptEvaluate AI platform stands out for rapid concept screening:

• You can simultaneously test concepts with up to 100 participants, making it valuable for efficiently filtering through multiple concepts in the early development process.

• Their survey-based AI model has been trained on over 39,000 concepts, so you have more confidence you’re making informed decisions.

• You can receive feedback and results in as little as 24 hours.

• Some of the key metrics they track include Predictive Trial, Predictive Uniqueness, and Predictive Relevance, which help increase your decision-making confidence.

• You can choose from two options, both of which increase in cost as you test more concepts:
  • Self-Serve: Pricing starts at $360.
  • Serviced by Kantar: Pricing starts at $5,500.

Overall, Kantar is a great platform to streamline concept development, and offers various unique research methods.

Sign Up for a Free Pollfish Account

Create your free Pollfish account today (no credit card required, no commitments) and start building your first concept testing survey in minutes with our easy-to-use, intuitive interface.