12 Best Survey Software in 2025 (Paid & Free Options)

In this article, we cover the top survey software platforms (both paid and free) to help you choose the right tool for your research needs.

Understanding Free vs. Paid Survey Software

What “Free” Really Means

When we refer to “free survey software,” we’re talking about platforms that offer free plans for surveying your own audience. However, if you need to purchase survey respondents from the platform’s audience panel, that will always require payment.

Limitations of Free Plans

• Limited questionnaire design: You may not have access to advanced question types, sophisticated conditional logic, or other essential survey design features.

• Basic analytics only: While you may get simple charts and raw response data, you likely won’t have access to advanced filtering capabilities, statistical testing, or the ability to create multi-variable charts in your brand’s colors.

• Usage restrictions: Free plans may limit the number of surveys you can create or cap the total responses you can collect.

Key Capabilities to Evaluate in Paid Survey Platforms

When comparing paid survey tools for surveying your own audience, prioritize these essential capabilities:

Data Quality, Pricing & Turnaround

• High audience data quality: Poor respondent quality will compromise even the best-designed surveys.

• Transparent pay-per-response pricing: Avoid platforms with high monthly fees regardless of usage.

• Fast turnaround time: The platform should deliver results quickly, so you’re not waiting weeks to collect responses and can move forward with decisions in a timely manner.

Platform Capabilities

• Sophisticated questionnaire design tools: You should be able to build surveys with advanced question types (e.g., such matrix questions, conjoint analysis, or multimedia elements), implement complex skip logic and branching, and never compromise on survey design. Even minor design limitations can compromise data quality.

• Advanced audience targeting: The platform should offer granular demographic and behavioral filters that enable you to reach both general population audiences and hard-to-reach, specialized groups, ensuring you engage the right participants for any research objective.

• Robust analytics and reporting: Choose a platform that offers advanced data filtering capabilities and enables you to create multi-variable charts with custom branding and built-in statistical testing — all within a few clicks. This eliminates the need for time-consuming data exports and external analysis tools.

Top Survey Software Platforms: Paid & Free Plan Options

With these criteria in mind, here are the leading survey platforms, including several with free plan options:

1. Pollfish
2. Qualtrics
3. SurveyMonkey
4. Suzy
5. Alchemer
6. Typeform
7. SmartSurvey
8. Mentimeter
9. LimeSurvey
10. Google Forms
11. Microsoft Forms
12. QuestionPro

1. Pollfish

With Pollfish, our market research platform, you can run surveys using two methods:

• Free option: Create a survey link and send it to your own audience via email, social media, or other channels.

• Paid option: Buy survey responses from our panel of respondents. Learn about our rigorous data quality measures, which ensure reliable results.

Up next, we’ll discuss key reasons you should choose Pollfish over competing survey tools. Here’s a brief overview:

• High audience data quality: Every survey leverages first-party data from our proprietary panel, safeguarded with rigorous fraud prevention measures such as continuous respondent monitoring, a 14-day new member evaluation period, verifying self-reported preferences via purchase receipts, and more.

• Fast turnaround time: Tap into Pollfish’s vast, highly engaged respondent communities to collect results within only hours for general population studies and several days for niche, specialized audiences.

• Transparent, pay-per-response pricing: Pay only for the responses you need, no subscriptions or unused capacity. See your total cost update in real time as you build your audience, eliminating surprise fees.

• Advanced features & functionality: Design surveys exactly to your specifications with advanced questionnaire design features, precise audience targeting, and built-in data analysis tools, so you never have to compromise on your research goals.

Note: Sign up for a free Pollfish account, no payment information required. We also invite you to inquire about our full-service market research services through our parent company Prodege, which can help with the entire process, including survey design, audience targeting, data analysis, and reporting.

High-Quality Audience Data You Can Rely On

Even the best-designed survey can produce unreliable data when fraudsters or bots participate, or when respondents rush through surveys and provide careless answers without detection mechanisms in place.

At Pollfish, through parent company Prodege, we’ve put extensive time and resources into developing rigorous data quality standards. We have a 40-person Panel Support, Security, and Compliance Department dedicated to this, and our recent article, 3 Survey Data Quality Issues Sabotaging Your Research (& How We Fix Them), explores common data quality challenges and the specific solutions we use to address them.

Let’s take a look at some of our quality control measures:

❇️ 14-Day Evaluation Period

New panelists aren’t allowed to participate in client surveys immediately. Instead, they go through an initial two-week evaluation period, during which they complete a series of internal quality checks. Those who don’t meet our standards are removed, while those who pass continue under ongoing spot checks throughout their time on the panel.

❇️ Dynamic Trust Scores

Every panelist is assigned a dynamic “Trust Score” that updates over time using AI and machine learning. This score reflects their consistency, engagement, and response quality. Low scores may trigger additional verification steps or result in removal, while high scores open access to more surveys.

❇️ Behavioral Data Validation

Self-reported profile information often becomes outdated as people’s lives change, leading to poor targeting accuracy. Pollfish addresses this by combining profile data with real behavioral signals like shopping receipts and online activity patterns.

For instance, if a respondent lists their household as vegetarian but regularly submits receipts for meat products, we may flag this for review. This ongoing validation ensures audience attributes remain accurate and up to date.

❇️ Fraud Detection Technologies

We layer multiple defenses to stop fraudulent respondents before they ever enter your dataset. These include:

• CAPTCHA
• Device ID Reputation
• 100% Double Opt-In
• Carrier/targeting alignment check
• Single user IDs
• Sophisticated anti-VPN measures

And much more.

❇️ Manual Review of Open-Ended Responses

Our team manually reviews open-ended responses to identify not only nonsense or one-word replies, but also responses that appear legitimate on the surface yet lack genuine insight — like generic answers copied from elsewhere, responses that don’t actually address the question, or feedback that shows minimal thought despite seeming complete. These low-effort responses are removed, ensuring you receive authentic, thoughtful feedback.

As several of our customers shared on Trustpilot:

“The most important point to make is that I trust the responses of my survey. My target audience was very specific and I could tell that the responses were legitimately coming [from] subjects in my target audience.”

– Read the full review here

“Each time I use this service I am blown away by the speed with which the responses come in and with the detail which most of them include. You can tell that the respondents take this very seriously. They must really enjoy doing it.”

– Read the full review here

Fast Survey Results with Pollfish’s Large, Engaged Respondent Communities

Because we work with a proprietary first-party audience network, you can get responses from hundreds or even thousands of people much faster than competitors.

For a general US audience survey on a broad topic with high incidence (e.g., adults 18–64), Pollfish can often gather 500+ responses within hours.

More niche, targeted audiences (e.g., parents of newborns who own electric vehicles) will typically come back in just a few days.

As some of our customers shared on Trustpilot:

“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

“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’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

Transparent, Pay-per-Response Pricing with No Hidden Fees

Pollfish uses a pay-per-response model to help keep your costs low without subscriptions, hidden fees, or extra charges for more user seats.

❇️ No long-term contracts or minimum spend

With Pollfish, you only pay for the survey responses you use. You won’t be locked into a long-term contract or required to pay a minimum amount.

❇️ See your total cost update in real time as you build your survey

Your cost breakdown is always displayed in real-time as you build your survey, starting at a base cost of $0.95 per response.

As you add targeting filters, your price will update. Per the above example, adding two filters (household income and pets in household) adds a charge of $0.55 per filter, for a total of $2.05 per response. For 600 responses, the total cost is displayed upfront as $1,230.

❇️ Add unlimited seats for free

Pollfish offers unlimited user seats at no extra cost. Whether you’re a small team or a large organization, everyone who needs access can create surveys or review results without limitations.

As several of our customers have stated 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 [competitor] 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

“The pricing is clear and transparent from the beginning. The results come quickly and can be downloaded in different formats and with different filters. What we like most is the ability to filter the results and analyze them separately for each segment. We highly recommend this platform.”

– Read the full review here

“They charge based on the completed response. It is very fair and transparent. As a researcher, I have used many survey platforms, but they are the best so far.”

– Read the full review here

Advanced Survey Features & Functionality

It’s important to choose a survey software that has the necessary functionality to address your research needs. You should never have to compromise on your goals due to software limitations such as:

• A lack of advanced question types, branching logic, or other essential survey programming features.

• A lack of the necessary targeting criteria, requiring you to settle for a broader audience that doesn’t match your target respondent profile.

• No built-in analysis tools to filter results, create custom charts (using multiple variables), utilize custom branding, and more.

Let’s take a look at how Pollfish’s easy-to-use survey software avoids these limitations, focusing on capabilities in these three areas:

• Sophisticated questionnaire design
• Advanced audience targeting
• Robust analytics and reporting

Note: Many customers choose Pollfish’s DIY option to create and launch their own surveys, but if you prefer, our research experts can run the entire project for you with our full-service offering (fulfilled through parent company Prodege).

Sophisticated Questionnaire Design

Pollfish offers a wide range of flexible survey design tools, allowing you to program and customize questionnaires to meet your specific goals and requirements.

❇️ 16 Question Types

You can choose from 16 question types, ranging from simple ones to more advanced types like:

• Conjoint Analysis
• MaxDiff (Maximum Difference Scaling)
• Pricing Study (Van Westendorp)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Constant Sum
• Ranking and Matrix Table
• A/B Testing

Note: Explore the full list of question types here.

❇️ Advanced Questionnaire Design Features

Advanced survey design features Pollfish offers include:

• Skip Logic Branching
• Screening Questions
• Answer and question shuffling
• Mutual Exclusions
• Survey Preview & Advanced Controls

Note: Explore Pollfish’s additional survey design capabilities here.

Advanced Audience Targeting

Pollfish’s advanced targeting options allow you to reach the exact survey audience you need, whether broad (e.g., U.S. adults 18–64) or hyper-specific (e.g., avid outdoor enthusiasts who recently purchased camping gear).

❇️ 6 Main Targeting Options

We offer over 50 targeting filters from 6 categories:

• 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

❇️ Audience Quotas for Balanced Samples

Setting audience quotas ensures your findings remain representative across segments like age, region, income, and so on. For example, you might set quotas to capture equal input from millennials and Gen X, rather than letting one group dominate the results.

❇️ Targeting Through Purchase Receipts

Because Pollfish (through parent company Prodege) directly owns and manages its respondent communities, we can capture valuable behavioral data, such as uploaded purchase receipts. This allows for precise targeting based on verified consumer actions rather than relying solely on self-reported preferences or demographic assumptions.

For example, if you want to survey people who recently bought plant-based meat alternatives, Pollfish can identify and reach those respondents based on actual receipt data, ensuring your survey is completed by the exact consumers you’re interested in.

Robust Analytics and Reporting

Once responses begin to roll in, you can analyze them in real-time right within the Pollfish platform, in just a few clicks.

❇️ Automatic chart creation

Pollfish automatically selects the best chart type for each survey question, whether that’s a bar graph, pie chart, table, or another format.

❇️ Targeted insights through filtering

Pollfish makes it easy to dig deeper into your data and surface relevant insights:

• Filter by survey responses: Focus only on those who gave particular answers, such as filtering to show only respondents who report using your product daily.

• Filter by audience segments: Refine your results to a specific group, like parents with young children, while excluding others, to identify trends unique to that demographic.

❇️ Multi-variable analysis and visualization

Pollfish’s Insights Builder (available for large-scale research needs and full-service projects) lets you easily create sophisticated custom charts that combine multiple variables (e.g., income, location, age, and behavior) in just a few clicks. It’s incredibly intuitive and user-friendly, as shown in the illustration above, and eliminates the need for complicated external analysis tools.

❇️ Statistical significance testing

Statistical significance testing results are presented in a straightforward way, with differences highlighted through color coding and letter-based notation.

For example, in the chart above showing weekly social media use by gender, Pollfish highlights significant gaps: males report logging into X/Twitter at much higher rates (46%) compared to females (21%), while Pinterest shows the opposite pattern, with females (42%) using it far more than males (16%).

❇️ Built-in presentation builder

Pollfish lets you create and export presentation decks (similar to a PowerPoint presentation) right from the platform. This streamlines your workflow and makes it simple to drop charts directly into reports without switching between multiple tools.

❇️ Flexible export options

Pollfish provides a variety of export formats for your results, including PDF, Excel, Crosstabs, and SPSS, giving you flexibility in how you share and analyze your data.

Learn More About Pollfish

To get started with Pollfish’s survey software, we invite you to:

• Create a free account (no credit card required).
• Inquire about our full-service offering fulfilled through our parent company, Prodege.

2. Qualtrics

While Qualtrics is a paid survey platform, they also offer a free plan.

Qualtrics’ key features and capabilities break down into three 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

Note: To learn how Pollfish compares to Qualtrics, see this article.

3. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a paid survey software that offers a free basic plan.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• SurveyMonkey Genius for AI-powered survey creation
• Customizable survey templates
• Survey branching and skip logic
• Response quotas
• A/B testing for better decision making
• Survey branding and theme customization options
• Custom URL survey links
• Mobile device survey options
• Flexible data collection options (email, web link, social media)
• QR code survey features
• Real-time results tracking
• Real-time insights
• Text analysis tools for open-ended responses
• Integrations with 100+ platforms, including CRMs like Salesforce, tools such as Mailchimp, and more
• API options

Note: To learn how Pollfish compares to SurveyMonkey, see this article.

4. Suzy

Suzy is a survey platform with solutions for:

• Attitudes and Usage
• Tracking
• Feature Testing
• Package Testing
• Price Testing
• Positioning
• Message Testing
• Path to Purchase
• Retailer Sell-in
• Heatmapping

Note: To learn how Pollfish compares to Suzy, see this article.

5. Alchemer

Alchemer is a paid survey platform, and they also offer a free trial.

Some of Alchemer’s key features and capabilities include:

• Advanced customization
• Logic and branching
• Advanced question types
• Multichannel deployment
• Instant reporting
• Easy segmentation
• Automation workflows
• Data security and protection

Note: To learn how Pollfish compares to Alchemer, see this article.

6. Typeform

Typeform is a paid online form platform with a free plan.

Some of their features and capabilities include:

• Form builder
• Survey maker
• Quiz maker
• Test maker
• Poll builder
• Application form builder
• Landing page builder
• NPS form builder
• Registration form builder
• Short form builder
• Flexible embed options
• Analytics tools

Overall, it’s a solid tool for collecting customer feedback.

7. SmartSurvey

SmartSurvey is a paid tool with discounted plans for students and non-profits.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• Basic question types
• Advanced question types
• Question customization
• File uploads
• Rich media questions
• Survey logic
• Survey branding
• Survey design
• Survey distribution
• Invitation management

8. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a survey software with both free and paid plans.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• AI Menti builder
• Live polling
• Word cloud
• Quiz
• Survey
• Presentations
• Q&A

9. LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey is an online survey tool with paid and free plans.

They serve the following use cases:

• Academic Research
• Course Evaluation
• Customer Experience
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Experience
• Employee Motivation
• Event Planing
• Market Segmentation
• Market Research
• Patient Satisfaction
• Product Pricing

Overall, it’s a great survey platform.

10. Google Forms

Google Forms is a completely free survey platform.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• Flexible form sharing options via email, social media, and more
• Intuitive drag and drop functionality
• Templates, flows, and quizzes
• Branding
• Optional export to Google Sheets

11. Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms is a free tool that can be used to run online surveys.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• Customizable forms
• Automatically generated reports
• Excel exports
• Microsoft 365 integration

12. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a survey software with free and paid plans.

Some of their key features and capabilities include:

• Multilingual surveys
• Customizable thank you page
• Survey panel integration
• Email reminders
• Real-time dashboard
• Security and Compliance

Want to Learn More About Pollfish?

We invite you to:

• Create a free Pollfish account (no credit card required)
• Inquire about our full-service offering fulfilled through our parent company, Prodege.