Top 7 Survey Tools: Create Awesome Online Surveys!

Megan Marrs November 17, 2014

Online surveys are a great way to engage your audience and get feedback from them. You can use online surveys in any number of ways, including using them to:

Find out what topics your readers want to learn more about
Get product feedback
Conduct market research
Get customer service feedback
Gauge employee satisfaction
Plus plenty of other uses!

Making an online survey is easy – there are many great online survey creators out there to help you craft that survey. Let’s take a look at your options!

When it comes to online survey tools, you can choose between the free or paid route. If you’re just looking to do some light audience research, you should get on just fine with the free tools available.

Usually the paid versions offer added capabilities like:

Survey logic. Survey logic uses information from previous answers to dictate the following questions. For example: Do you have a dog? If the user answers yes, the next question might ask what breed? If the user answers no, the breed question would be skipped.
Export data. Many tools won’t let you export your data unless you use the paid version.
Custom logo. Paid versions let you get rid of the tool’s logo and instead add your own.
More question types. Most free survey creators offer plenty of question options, like multiple choice radio buttons, drop downs, rating scales, etc. Usually paid versions offer even more options, like the ability to select multiple options in a dropdown, star rankings, grids, etc.

Got it? Let’s take a look at our option for survey creators.

1. Survey Monkey

Probably the most well known name in the realm of online survey tools, Survey Monkey is an obvious contender.

In the free version, you’ll get:

10 questions
100 respondents
15 question types
Light theme customization and templates

The system is well designed, pretty easy to use, and you can embed surveys.

The stinker: no exporting your data. Paid versions start at $ 26/month, with more questions, more respondents, and other features.

2. Typeform

Typeform wins the championship belt for creative survey creation.

Typeform’s interface is elegant and its style is attractive, reflecting the company’s motto, “Asking questions should be easy, human, and beautiful.”

The free version, nicknamed the CORE plan, has a ton to offer, including:

Unlimited questions
Unlimited answers
Data export
Custom design themes or choose from templates
Basic reporting

These are some pretty great features to find in a free version, especially the unlimited questions and answers. While logic jumps aren’t available for CORE users, you can pipe respondent answers into the text of your survey (for example, if a user gives their name, you can call them by name in the following questions).

The Pro version, for $ 25/month, includes payment fields, a calculator feature for scoring and pricing, options to send respondents follow-up emails, etc.

With a beautiful design and hefty capabilities even in the free version, Typeform is definitely worth checking out.

3. Google Forms

Google Forms is another feather in the cap of the wonder that is Google.

Some awesome features of Google Forms:

Unlimited surveys
Unlimited respondents
Survey answers and data are automatically collected in Google Spreadsheets
Lots of theme options
Add your own custom logo
Add images or videos
Skip logic and page branching
Imbed survey into emails or website
Add collaborators
100% free!

Google Forms is the only free online survey tool that provides free skip logic, which is pretty awesome. This will probably be the first pick for most.

4. Client Heartbeat [Paid Only]

Client Heartbeat is a pricier survey option starting at $ 25/month. Honestly though, since the basic version only allows for 50 contacts, you’ll probably want the Gold version at $ 57/month.

That’s a pretty big price tag compared to the other survey creator tools we’ve been looking at. However, Client Heartbeat does offer some much more advanced reporting features.

You’ll get alerts to warn you of unhappy customers, see how your customer satisfaction compares against your industry benchmark, as well as a testimonial widget that can display endorsements on your website.

5. Zoho Survey

Zoho Survey is another decent free survey creator offering. The free version gives you:

Unlimited surveys
15 survey questions
150 responses

You’ll get much more with the paid versions, which start at $ 39/month.

6. Survey Gizmo

Survey Gizmo creates some snazzy looking surveys, and they’re a great choice, even with the free version, so long as you don’t plan on getting a ton of respondents.

Survey Gizmo has a limited free version hidden towards the bottom of their pricing page. The free version offers:

Unlimited surveys and questions
50 respondents
Several basic question types
Free templates
Basic reporting
Option to export to CSV

Paid versions start at $ 15/month and offer increasingly more features, like skip logic and piping, customized themes, multiple users, API, and data encryption.

The extra-pricey version offers integration with Salesforce, MailChimp, and other 3^rd party software tools.

Consider checking out the full comparison chart between the free version vs. various paid options on Survey Gizmo to determine what plan will work best for you.

7. Survey Planet

The free version of Survey Planet is pretty robust, offering:

Unlimited surveys
Unlimited questions
Unlimited respondents
Survey theme options
Survey embedding

The Pro version, at $ 15/month, offers plenty of extras. With pro you can remove Survey Planet branding, include printable survey results, and include in-question images. Biggest caveat – only Pro version can export to excel.