An online survey can be a useful way to connect with your customers while learning more about their likes and interests.
They go way beyond SurveyMonkey, with plenty of platforms offering creative, fun and interesting poll building services. Use them to assist in product development, measure customer satisfaction, establish market trends or test a campaign.
Key survey features which can help your business
If you’re new to survey tools, you may not know which features to look out for – but some of these might swing your decision.
Common features include:
- Question types
- Options to skip
- Data export
- Customisation
- Reporting and analytics
- Automatic data collection
- Embedding
- Surveys in different languages
- App integration – Salesforce, Google Sheets, Google Docs, HubSpot, MailChimp
- Email marketing
- Branching/skip logic – the ability to move respondents to a different question or page based on their response to a certain question
- Customisable company branding
What to be aware of
The only real limitations to be aware of are the features that you can’t get in the free version. On some platforms there’s little difference between the free and premium versions whereas others are stingy in their free offering.
We’ve included some of the features in the paid-for versions to give you an idea of how generous the free versions are and in which areas.
Online Survey Platforms reviewed
SurveyMonkey®
This is the first name many associate with online surveys.
However, they only give users the option to send surveys with up to ten questions and view up to 25 responses per survey. That’s not so generous compared to some other platforms, suggesting that they might be resting on their popularity rather than offering a competitive product.
There’s no opportunity to trial one of the paid versions either, so you’ll have to dive straight into payment if you want to have a go. Beware: they auto-renew on their premium plans so it’s easy for the annual payments to sneak past you.
On the positive side, it’s easy to use for beginners or somebody looking to do small-scale research, you’ve got plenty of online tutorials if you get stuck, and there is 24/7 email support.
Examples of extras in paid versions: Shared asset library, unlimited surveys, unlimited questions and unlimited responses, multilingual surveys, accept payments, data visualisations, premium themes.
Price for paid versions
- Standard Monthly: £75 pcm – Unlimited surveys, unlimited questions per survey, 1,000 responses per month
- Advantage Annual: £33 pcm (£396 billed annually) – Unlimited surveys, unlimited questions per survey, 15,000 responses per year, £20 per extra user
- Premier Annual: £99 pcm (£1,188 billed annually) – Unlimited surveys, unlimited questions per survey, 40,000 responses per year
- Team Packages: £20 per extra user for Advantage and £59 per user for Premier
- Enterprise: Bespoke
Google Forms
Google Forms is another one you may be familiar with. It’s very simple to use and you can follow up your research by analysing data in Google Sheets.
The personal version is free but the business versions come with a monthly cost, so again, it’s better for small-scale research.
It’s impressive for a free service though, with the ability to insert images and YouTube videos combined with the collaboration capabilities you see in Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Examples of extras in paid (business) versions: 2TB of cloud storage, business email through Gmail, shared calendars, data loss prevention, quizzes, Gemini AI assistant.
Price for paid versions
- Small Business: £14 pcm
- Enterprise: Bespoke
ProProfs Survey Maker
ProProfs Survey Maker say that they believe their software can help you work better, get smarter employees and create happier customers.
The free version includes 50 responses per month, unlimited surveys, poll maker, 100+templates, sidebar forms, integrations, These are easy to create with no coding experience necessary.
A 15-day free trial is available on all of the packages.
ProProfs’ free version is ideal for those who just want to create a large number of surveys. If you want more in terms of company branding on your surveys, customer support and advanced reporting, go with one of the paid options.
Examples of extras in paid versions: Unlimited responses and forms, AI help for form creation, custom scoring, NPS surveys, and advanced analytics.
Price for paid versions
- Essentials: $19.99 pcm – 1,000 email sends per month
- Premium: $49.99 pcm – 5,000 email sends per month
- Enterprise: $149.99 – 5,000 Custom pageviews and email sends
- White Label Package – $300.00 per year
Crowdsignal
Crowdsignal offers unlimited polls and surveys that lets you add quizzes, polls and images. You can integrate the platform with WordPress for an easy-to-navigate dashboard.
When comparing the price plans, one drawback that we could see is that the free version has Crowdsignal branding which may conflict with your own branding, especially if you’re more established. It has limits on data exporting, and poll voting and report filtering are limited too, which could hinder your goals.
Examples of extras in paid version: Multiple user accounts, advanced reporting, use your own domain name, 24/7 email support, multilingual packages, advanced API access.
Price for paid versions
- Premium: $15 a month
- Business: $45 a month
- Team: $29 per extra user
SurveyPlanet
On first glance, SurveyPlanet is a more visual platform which is more suited to a creative company or brand. It has a responsive layout for those expecting a lot of answers via mobile. What’s more, surveys can be presented in over 20 languages including English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.
The free version offers quite a decent package: Unlimited surveys, questions and responses, plus the ability to delete unwanted participants, embed surveys and put them on social media. 30 languages are supported. Basic reporting. Basic themes. Archiving. Plus other useful elements.
Examples of extras in paid version: Add images, export results, custom themes, question branching, survey length estimate, white labeling, AI support for creation and analysis of surveys.
Price for paid versions
- Pro: $20 per month (or $180 a year)
- Enterprise: $350 per year
Typeform
Typeform is known as the conversational survey creator, where you can insert GIFs, images and video as well as creating a customisable welcome screen. It also has Google Sheets and MailChimp built in.
TrustPilot reviews are overwhelmingly positive, with many commenting on the beauty of the surveys. Note that it’s very expensive for both paid versions so if you want to go a step up, make sure you’re using Typeform regularly.
Examples of extras in paid versions: File uploads, respondent notifications, logic jump, premium themes and fonts, custom subdomains, recall information, more app integrations.
Price for paid versions
- Basic: £21.00 a month – 100 responses pcm
- Plus: £41.00 a month – 1,000 responses pcm
- Business: £66.00 a month – 10,000 responses pcm
- Enterprise: Bespoke
Jotform
A drag-and-drop form builder with many integrations.
The free version gets you: 5 forms per month, 100 monthly submissions, 100MB space. Conditional logic and built-in AI agents even in the free version.
Price for paid versions
- Bronze: $34 per month – 25 forms, 1,000 submissions
- Silver: $39 per month – 50 forms, 2,500 submissions
- Gold: $99 per month – 100 forms, 10,000 submissions
- Enterprise: Bespoke
Zoho Survey
You may have seen Zoho before – they also offer CRM systems. On its survey side, you can embed your unlimited questionnaires (with up to ten questions and 100 responses per survey) and integrate the platform with Slack for easy communication amongst your team. It’s got an interface that’s clean without being plain and boring and you can add a quick-fire sample question by email for a snappy return.
You’ve also got the ability to share on social and export to PDF.
Example of extras in paid versions: Real-time responses, multilingual surveys, Shopify integration, Zendesk integration, sentiment analysis, advanced customisation and white labels, NPS
Price for paid versions
- Basic: £5.94 pcm – 12,000 responses per year
- Plus: £25.00 pcm – Unlimited responses
- Pro: £35.00 pcm – Unlimited responses
- Enterprise: £74.00 pcm – Unlimited responses
SmartSurvey
UK-based and GDPR compliant, so your data will be stored and processed here in the UK “for your peace of mind”.
Priding itself as an alternative to SurveyMonkey, the free version of SmartSurvey lets you create unlimited surveys (with limited questions and responses) and two tracking links as well as delivering your survey results in real time.
Extras in paid versions: Multiple user accounts, unlimited questions and responses, custom themes and branding.
Price for paid versions
- Pro: £30.00 per month (ex.VAT)
- Business: £50.00 per month (ex.VAT) – £30.00 per extra user pcm
- Enterprise: Bespoke
SurveyLegend
SurveyLegend lets you create three surveys with unlimited questions and 1,000 responses on its free offering. Layouts are colourful and visual which is perfect for developing a product or getting to know customers in a more fun and light-hearted way. Live analytics let you see what’s coming in and identify early trends but unfortunately you can’t filter the results for deeper insights.
Again, they’re ideal if you’re expecting a large number of mobile responses as you can use mobile-friendly themes. Plus, you can pep them up with emojis if that’s in line with your branding.
You can’t export data unless you go for a paid package though, which will be a significant sticking point for some businesses.
Examples of extras in paid versions: Unlimited surveys, pictures and responses, advanced branching, data filtering, no adverts.
Price for paid versions
- Pro: $15 per month – 20 surveys
- Business: $25 per month – unlimited surveys
- Legendary: $65 per month – unlimited surveys
Microsoft Forms
Not exactly free – unless you already have a Microsoft 365 plan, in which case it’s part of the suite of tools. Particular advantages of using this package would be its integration with the 365 tools suite (including Excel).
Pricing
The personal plan for a Microsoft 365 account is £8.49 a month. Business plans range from: Basic (£4.60 pcm per user), Apps for business (£8.10 pcm per user), Business Standard (£9.60 pcm per user), Premium (£16.90 pcm per user).
So, which of these free online survey platforms is the best?
This will vary depending on what kind of business you are and what needs you have. It’s clear already that there are some stronger than others, but let’s break it down by type of business.
All-rounder
SurveyPlanet are a major contender as they provide so much on their free version, covering a great deal of your business researching needs.
For simplicity
Google Forms is one of the quickest to set-up and results can be integrated with tools like Google Sheets with 1 click. Microsoft Forms is also relatively easy to use and has a clean, intuitive interface.
For customising
Typeform gives you the ability to add GIFs, images and videos and make a custom welcome screen.
For international audiences
SurveyPlanet works for small businesses reaching a global market. It’s one of the few free versions to offer proper multilingual survey ability.
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