Comparing Survey Applications: Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, FluidSurveys, and MySurveyLab
Any organization, and some individuals, need feedback to determine what their next course of action should be and for those who need it, no method is as informative as the survey. Web survey applications have made the survey process faster and more efficient than before with real time results and 24 hour access, so it’s only natural that Listio covers some of the best web 2.0 applications in surveys.
This week we judged the applications Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, fluidSurveys, and MySurveyLab on how they constructed a survey, how easy they were to use, and what features they offered. We’ll talk more after the chart, but if you’d like to see the application in greater detail, there are full reviews of each available through the product names in the chart. For an introduction to this category please see: Online Surveys: Feedback Through Web 2.0.
| Zoomerang | MySurveyLab | FluidSurveys | SurveyMonkey | |
| Unlimited surveys | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Templates | yes | no | no | yes |
| Branching or skipping | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Language Support | yes | no | no | yes |
| Closing page | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Duplicate survey | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Customization | yes | no | no | yes |
| Upload email contacts | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Publish by url | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Publish by email | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Export to csv | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Free plan | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Starting plan (monthly) | $19 | currently free | $14.95 | $19.95 |
All of the applications this week are able to bring the convenience of the web to a survey; allowing customization, on the spot editing (unless you’ve emailed the survey, this is great for last minute corrections), and integration into websites. All allow users to craft several kinds of questions for their surveys, and Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey offer templates (surveys preformatted with questions) to save you time.
Navigation is easiest with Zoomerang, which has a clean and active graphic style that makes it easy to understand what’s happening. None of the applications had a bad graphic style, but SurveyMonkey, fluidSurveys, and MySurveyLab each had broken flow between their pages, leaving users confused. The success of Zoomerang’s interface has a lot to do with its use of a dashboard, centralizing functions and giving a ready overview of how the survey is doing.
The list of features was most impressive with SurveyMonkey, though the interface was easier to understand and use with the runner up in the feature category, Zoomerang. Custom themes, filtered responses, and the ability to share reports were some of what made SurveyMonkey feature-rich. Zoomerang has a hard bounce reporting feature (if emails come back to you, you can see a report of them) and quota management (caps for surveys). FluidSurveys and MySurveyLab were also cleanly designed, but neither could customize or give language support like the other two. Skip logic, covered in our introduction of the series, is possible in each of the applications.
Where fluidSurveys is limited to the web for publication, the other applications are also capable of publishing the survey by email - a useful tool for reaching an existing contact list. In fact, fluidSurveys has no address book as the others do - its strong suit is the drag and drop interface for survey creation, which can be used to create surveys of multiple pages. Each of the applications handle reporting through a tab, though Zoomerang’s dashboard is the easiest to understand and visualize.
Customization, use, and features were weakest in MySurveyLab, but unlike the other applications, MySurveyLab is currently free. SurveyMonkey is the most expensive of the four, beginning with a starting account of $19.95 a month, rivaling Zoomerang’s $19 monthly. FluidSurveys’ starting accounts begin at $14.95 and have a limitation of 500 responses. Limits on responses carry on to all accounts in fluidSurveys, as they do with MySurveyLab.
In the end users are likely to feel that they get what they pay for; enterprise users will want the full range of features and will pay for SurveyMonkey, while budget users will use the free accounts of Zoomerang. Users wanting simplicity will see MySurveyLab and fluidSurveys easy ways to get basic functionality, with users wanting to email survey takers using MySurveyLab.
To find this and other survey applications there is the Listio search: create+surveys.
Previously in this series: Zoomerang: Online Survey Application That Puts It Together
Application: mySurveyLabListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/mySurveyLab/
Website: http://www.mysurveylab.com
Application: fluidSurveysListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/fluidSurveys/
Website: http://www.fluidsurveys.com
Application: SurveyMonkeyListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/SurveyMonkey/
Website: http://www.surveymonkey.com
Application: ZoomerangListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/Zoomerang/
Website: http://www.zoomerang.com
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Tags: business, create, personal, polls, Surveys
Posted in: Product Comparisons, Surveys | Respond
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February 12th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I suggest taking a few minutes to check out Zoomerang before you make a final decision. Zoomerang pioneered the online survey space and continues to be the best tool money can buy. They have a free version, one you can access for only $19 per month, and a premium version with lots of advanced features. It is very easy to use - but if you have questions, they offer free telephone support and a wide range of online webinars and tutorials. Since they are part of MarketTools, one of the largest market research companies in the world, they have access to a wide range of survey expertise which enables them to build a product that reflects real world needs. They offer a wide range of templates enabling you to quickly design a great survey - powerful list management tools, including easy access to a 2 million member panel of potential survey takers - the ability to send surveys via email, mobile phones, or web sites - and a range of useful reporting and analysis tools including export to Powerpoint and open ended text analysis.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I would recommend checking out FeedbackFarm.com. It is completely free regardless of the number of responses or questions. It is super easy to use and there is free support as well. It has been voted one of the best online tools from Businessweek.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:42 am
[…] is a review of some survey tools available, and another review here. Here is a sort of search engine. The home site is also worth looking at if you’re in the mood […]
July 7th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Why would anyone buy survey’s on a subscription basis? This is a 1-off product, not a subscription product. Pricing should be fixed ($x per survey) + variable ($y per completed survey response). If a competitor enters the market with a good product and that pricing model, they will be position to take market share from the incumbents, who are living in a fantasy world that they have a subscription-based product. Nice try, guys.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:38 am
[…] Click here to read a posting on Listio that compares these online survey applications: Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, FluidSurveys and MySurveyLab. And while its not included in this review, dont forget to consider using Twitter polls to create and distribute polls on social networking sites. […]
September 8th, 2009 at 10:13 am
@chriso - FluidSurveys now has a one time fee plan… check it out here: http://fluidsurveys.com/blog/2009/09/07/one-time-surveys-pay-one-time-fee-no-subscription-pay-as-you-go/