12 Best Survey Software for Small Business in 2024

Cost-effective survey solutions are especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when market climates and customer demands are volatile. Luckily, there’s a wide range of survey software tools you can use to run your online research, and many of these are not just downright affordable; they also come at no cost at all. The best survey software for small businesses and organizations can help you design questionnaires easily with templates or wizards and distribute them through email, social media, QR codes, and other various online streams.

The point is, running surveys is well within reach of small businesses, and such tools aren’t the typically limited versions they were some years ago. They now feature enterprise tools, as you’ll see here on our list of 12 best survey software for small business.

With many choices around, which of the current survey software tools actually match your exact needs? It isn’t enough that you get it for free if you want to optimize results. Some solutions are best for customer behavior, some for getting your Net Promoter Score (NPS), some for product development and still, others for all. You also need to consider where to distribute your surveys, with the top communication channels being social media, emails, and websites. Most importantly, it should help you accurately capture consumer sentiment and behavior which has drastically changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, a McKinsey survey revealed that 76% of consumers say they have changed where and how they shop due to the pandemic.

Then there’s the question of scalability. You may be a small business today, but how about tomorrow? If you’re a fast-growing startup, it’s best to get a survey tool—or any solution for that matter—that can grow with you and help you become agile in these uncertain times. As we’ve mentioned in our comprehensive survey software guide, the last thing you want is to shift to another platform midway into your growth years.

But before you get ahead of yourself, keep in mind survey software tools are what they are: tools. You need to frame your survey properly, and to do that, you must have a clear goal and follow best practices for formulating questionnaires.

Using such platforms also helps you stay clear of these common survey mistakes, such as leading questions, assumptions, and starting with demographics. While using such platforms, it also pays to be mindful of survey research ethics for your data to be credible.

12 Best Survey Software for Small Business

1. SoGoSurvey

SoGoSurvey is a robust survey solution that prides itself as a one-click survey creation tool. Surveys created by the software can be shared and downloaded with the system making survey results much easier to understand. All these can be accomplished even by new users, as learning to use the product requires no steep learning curve. You can immediately come up with your very own surveys using the pre-built templates that come with the system, which can be copied directly into surveys.

SoGoSurvey is a feature-laden software, bringing with it around 600 functionalities that are guaranteed to help you come up with accurate survey results every time. You can formulate and revise your questionnaires based on what you need and want, add and delete questions as you wish and even change the language, depending on your target respondents. But what’s amazing about this tool is that it can keep questions hidden until such time that they are needed. Finished surveys can be previewed on mobile devices, tablets, or desktops.

Why SoGoSurvey is good for small business:

1. It is being offered in flexible pricing plans.
2. It has a free version.
3. It is easy to set up, not requiring additional software.
4. Highly-intuitive, eliminating the need to hire survey experts.

2. Birdeye

Birdeye is a highly-scalable comprehensive reputation management solution complete with robust survey tools. It provides automatic review pooling features with the ability to send custom conversation surveys across different channels. With this, the platform has become a go-to solution for many local businesses that want to boost and enhance their online reputation. In fact, it has 90,000 local businesses and brands as clients today. Given these, Birdeye is not just a generalist survey tool; it is a survey tool with a purpose. It is a specialized platform that structures intelligence gathering to build and maintain a positive online reputation. So, for small businesses that want to do exactly that,  Birdeye is a really good candidate as Birdeye is truly a great customer experience management option.

Birdeye

Try out Birdeye with their free trial

Birdeye’s review pooling and social listening features allow you to automatically gain insights into customer sentiments and issues. You don’t have to create, send, and tally surveys manually to arrive at valuable actionable information.  And, speaking of actionable, its unified mailbox allows users to engage customers across different channels, including text, review sites, and emails. Plus, it provides advanced capabilities such as payment processing right within these channels. Furthermore, you can extend the capabilities of the platform by integrating it with other solutions. Birdeye has more than 3,000 built-in integrations. These include those for FreshBooks and Google Services. Lastly, the platform is rolled out according to your needs. Hence, it is only available via personalized quote-based plans.

Why Birdeye is good for small business:

1. It is offered in flexible custom plans.
2. The product is designed for local businesses that want to grow their online reputation using real-time customer data.
3. Birdeye simplifies customer interactions by centralizing all engagement opportunities within its easy-to-use unified inbox.
4. The platform is a complete online presence management tool. You won’t need other apps to cover other bases.

3. SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is an omnichannel experience management solution that transforms the way feedback is obtained and utilized. Developed based on the basis that surveys are not that engaging, SurveySparrow aims to make the traditional survey experience more intuitive and conversational.

SurveySparrow lets organizations design and facilitate surveys that are natural and appealing, generating honest and authentic responses. This strategy is important in knowing the true sentiments of both employees and customers. This tool also improves experiences and drives decisions that result in tangible outcomes.

SurveySparrow

Try out SurveySparrow with their free trial

The software serves small and big businesses, equipping them with the resources that boost interactions and establish a brand that people can most relate to. Essentially, SurveySparrow attests to the value of feedback when collected in an insightful and engaging manner, making surveys an essential asset of  business in today’s changing landscape.

Why SurveySparrow is best for small business:

1. It offers a free trial period.
2. The platform can help SMBs establish a unique brand by gathering feedback.
3. It increases response rates for up to 40%, higher than any standard surveys.
4. The platform serves as an all-inclusive software for handling all aspects of employee and customer experiences.
5. It turns feedback into actionable insights, helping businesses improve their offerings, make informed decisions, and generate growth.

4. Qualtrics Research Core

Qualtrics Research Core is simple to use yet can scale for robust qualitative research. Unlike most small business survey tools that are limited to soliciting and analyzing feedback, this one can adapt to a variety of market research, including brand tracking, and concept and ad testing.

It may appear as an enterprise-exclusive platform at first, given its modularized and rich features, but you actually get a free plan to kick start your survey. It includes one survey, 100 responses, unlimited distribution, and a drag-and-drop survey editor. For more advanced features, you can go for its paid plans that allow for an unlimited survey and distribution options via web, social, email, QR code, and mail merge, and skip logic questionnaire.

The software even supports over 70 languages and offers advanced security such as data isolation, data sovereignty, and web app firewalls in its premium plan. If you’re a growing company or plan to scale growth in the next few months or years, getting a fully featured software that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg reinforces that strategy.

Why Qualtrics Research Core is best for small business:

1. It has a free plan to jumpstart your survey.
2. Highly flexible, whether you need a simple survey tool or an advanced research platform.
3. It easily scales to advanced features if your small business engages in complex services like market research, product development, and industry consultations.
4. Highly secure if you deal with sensitive data.
5. An affordable enterprise solution for the small player.

5. Qualaroo

Qualaroo is a research platform built for UX designers. It helps you capture insights into how people are using your SaaS products. It allows you to create customized questions or select from a variety of question templates. Afterward, it gathers all feedback data and provides you with detailed and comprehensive reports on user sentiments.

One unique feature of Qualaroo is the sentiment analysis tool, which is powered by IBM Watson and can mine user feedback through various data sets. It allows you to respond accurately to your customers in real-time by leveraging an emotional scoring system. It helps your team to create appropriate calls-to-action for each customer feedback. By importing response data into applications like Tableau, Chartio, or Google Data Studio, you can easily identify how users feel about your products.

Qualaroo also offers customizable nudges, a primary tool for collecting user insights. Complete with logic branching and advanced targeting, Qualaroo nudges help you gather feedback from users or website visitors. These come in several types with different functions: mobile native nudge for iOS and Android apps, on-site nudges for webpages, mobile nudges for mobile and tablet web browsers, and link nudges accessible via email, chat, and the like.

Why Qualaroo is good for small business:

1. It can be set up easily without the need for advanced coding skills.
2. It offers advanced targeting that lets you ask appropriate questions for the right users at the right time.
3. It lets you create tailor-made questions that match your brand.
4. You get to define how email notifications reach you–for every response, after every 10 responses, daily digest, weekly digest, or after 1st response.

6. Zoho Survey

Budget is always a factor for the small business, in which case, Zoho Survey should belong to your top options. It comes free for unlimited surveys, ten questions, and 100 responses. It also features over 200 templates and supports social sharing, real-time responses, and web embed. Security also does justice to your business with HTTP encryption and password protection.

However, it is likely these features aren’t enough if you have a huge audience base. You can always go for paid plans starting at $20 per month, still a shoo-in for budget-conscious companies. These include unlimited surveys, questions and responses, collaboration tools, and exports to a variety of file formats such as PDF, XLS, CSV, and SPSS. You can also expect more sophisticated tools in its enterprise plan, such as piping logic, white-label, CRM integration, and user management.

The survey software is one of the best free tools around, but at the enterprise level, it lacks the more sophisticated tools of Qualtrics. Bear in mind that insight is needed if your business is growing fast.

Why Zoho Survey is good for small business:

1. It is free, one of the more robust tools around.
2. Has one of the lowest price entries for paid subscriptions at $20 per month.
3. It integrates with the Zoho suite of productivity and business tools like CRM, help desk, and collaboration tools.
4. Scales to mid-range features like piping logic, CRM integration, and user management.

7. ProProfs Survey Maker

ProProfs Survey Maker has one of the lowest price entries for paid plans at $7 per month, and one of the most robust at its price range. It gives you unlimited surveys, responses, admin control, branching, and skip logic. It also features survey scoring, NPS, in-app survey, popup survey, and advanced reporting tools. Then there are more features: white-label, unlimited private user accounts, unlimited group and classroom, integrations, and centrally managed enterprise.

If those features aren’t enough, you can bump up the plan for multilingual surveys, certificates, and ad-free runs. All plans support embedding videos, images and graphics, social share on Facebook and Twitter and iPad, and other mobile device access. ProProfs does give other freemiums good competition, but it may lack in-depth research tools, which you may not need anyway.

Why ProProfs  Survey Maker is good for small business:

1. Has possibly the lowest price entry for paid plans at $7 per month.
2. The basic plan has one of the most robust feature sets, giving freemiums tough competition
3. Flexible for businesses, schools, and events

8. Examinare Survey Tool

If reliability is a top factor for your consideration, Examinare Survey Tool is worth the attention. It has ten years of experience in managing feedback, questionnaires, and business data. Of course, it still boils down to pricing and features. Its entry plan isn’t cheap but affordable for a small business at $45 per user per month (student version starts at $34 per user per month). You get a test run for seven days, three surveys, and templates. Plus, you get support via email, chat, and phone.

You also get a variety of question types from multiple choice to free text to gradient scale and Osgood-scale. You can add instructions, images, and sound files and publish questionnaires as forms. You’ll like the flexibility of its survey forms, arguably one of the best in the field by function, design, and distribution (email, SMS, Facebook, mobile, QR code, and web).

Why Examinare Survey Tool is good for small business:

1. Trusted reliability with over ten years in the survey trade.
2. Highly flexible survey form by design, function, and distribution.
3. Good support by email, chat, and phone.

9. SurveyMonkey

If you’re thinking of a free survey software, SurveyMonkey is probably one of your first choices.  It is widely used, and its free online survey tool is popular for its 1-2-3 ease of use: design, distribute, and data analysis. While the devil is in the details, the process is still more simple than most survey tools.  You can conduct surveys via the web, email, and social, plus, customize branding and perform filter and comparison, and data exports and custom reports.

You might just be surprised that the paid plans aren’t cheap, starting at $1,299 per month. We’re not sure why it seems priced out of range (leveraging brand recognition?), considering that its advanced feature set is comparable to less pricey counterparts like Qualtrics Research Core.

Why SurveyMonkey is good for small business:

1. Popular, tested free survey tool.
2. Its freemium has a rich feature set, including 24/7 support, unlimited surveys, and survey analytics

10. QuestionPro

Yet another free survey tool with paid plans, QuestionPro is a good option to our top survey software recommendations should they don’t meet your specific needs. It is both easy to run, and it doesn’t cost you. Starting a survey is as simple as creating one from a question type template or importing a Word document. But it doesn’t mean the features are limiting. You get unlimited surveys, ten questions each, and 100 responses. Plus, the survey is mobile responsive, and you get reliable support.

The software also scales to a professional plan at $15 per month to give you advanced tools like skip logic, Q&A piping, theme custom, data export, and global password protection. Should your small business grow big, you can scale to a corporate plan without a hitch.

Why QuestionPro is good for small business:

It is free, good enough for standard, templated surveys.

1. Paid plans are affordable for more professional surveys.
2. Scales to enterprise tools for fast-growing startups.

11. Confirmit

Confirmit is a survey software targeting product and employee experience, so if your requirements are around these elements, you should give this a try. Otherwise, you may be better off with a general survey feature set.

It is designed for the Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Employee research model, as well as for market research programs. While it sounds complex for most small business needs, it is a must-have platform for agencies and consulting firms that work around these areas, so, yes, this applies to small businesses. You can expect niche tools here, such as multi-channel distributions via CAPI, phone, web, mobile, and even paper. You can customize images, and multimedia and test run your surveys. Likewise, it has advanced analytics that can optimize unstructured feedback data. All these features point to a complex survey platform, something to think about if your needs are out of the usual general surveys.

Why Confirmit is good for small business:

1. Provides small businesses access to specialized survey tools like deep analytics and multi-channel distribution without breaking the bank
2. Very flexible survey design and distribution

12. Alchemer

Alchemer is perhaps closest to Qualtrics Research Core for being an enterprise survey software yet scalable to small business needs. For one, it also has a freemium, where you get up to five pages per survey, 25 questions per page, and up to 3 active surveys at a time. You also get eight question types, plus 100 responses and a standard summary report. The deal is good enough to run professional and accessible surveys.

Alchemer

Try out Alchemer with their free trial

The software easily scales to more advanced tools like rules by quota, structure, research methodology, and question type. Premium plans also feature data cleaning and researcher custom rules.

Why Alchemer is good for small business:

1. Aside from the freemium, it has affordable three-tiered price plans enabling you to match your growing needs more precisely
2. Can scale to enterprise requirements
3. Active online community for support and knowledge base

The Perfect Survey Tool for Small Businesses

Each of these dozen survey tools has its respective value propositions to small businesses. If the budget is really tight, you can go for their free plans (but it surely won’t be enough for your growing needs). We should also note that even if you’re a small business, don’t think like one. Look at growing your business fast. In that context, make sure your tools can grow with your needs and that can help you weather the challenges of the new normal.

No matter the software, in general, your survey platform should have the core features of a survey platform: a variety of question types, dynamic logic, templates, and data analysis. In that case, we highly recommend SoGoSurvey. It has a free plan, which makes it a good option for small businesses but it also offers a system flexible enough for large enterprises.

In case you want to further explore your options, this comparison of survey platforms might come in handy for you. Through this, you can see how each software stacks against the competition.

By Christopher Robinson

Christopher Robinson is a senior productivity research analyst who specializes in optimizing online collaboration and project management using Scrum and agile approaches. In his work, he always emphasizes the need for distributed work training and the formation of efficient work habits. His work was mentioned in various business publications, including Entrepreneur and InfoQ. He’s a strong proponent of the GTD model. He has been cooperating with the FinancesOnline team for 5 years now, and his publications always focus on practical aspects of productivity tools that can have an actual, transformative impact on a company.