As part of our consultation (Who can approach us for help?) we help identify criteria to arrive at a couple of online survey software products suitable to your needs. This page lists resources, criteria, articles and selected software products, both commercial and free software. As an alternative to the software products on this page you may consider hiring a full service provider which is able to take care of sampling, questionnaire programming, data analysis, etc. as well.
Recommended reading: Kaczmirek, L. (2008), Internet Survey Software Tools, in N. Fielding, R. Lee, & G. Blank (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods, London: Sage, pp. 236-254, provides a thorough discussion of valuable software features organized into the phases of conducting an online survey, including set-up, data collection, and reporting. An extra section explains how ethical standards and data protection laws need to be considered in the software architecture. Because of its recommendations for different types of users, the chapter is suitable for both beginners and professionals.
Content
1 Available Software Overviews
2 Criteria for Selecting Products and Reviews
3 Technical Aspects for Programmers
4 Commercial and Non-profit Products
5 Free Software (Open Source)
1 Available Software Overviews for Online Surveys and Web-based Research
- Overview maintained by ourselves:
a) Commercial and Non-profit Products
b) Free Software (Open Source)
As part of our consultation we focus on cost aspects and special features. - WebSM: Web Survey Methodology Portal
A comprehensive portal for online survey software and resources related to methodological issues. Filters allow to drill down the number of eligible surveys to for example language and country. - Exploring Online Research Methods in a Virtual Training Environment
Examples of software products sorted by 'software plus hosting', 'commercial software', 'open-source software'. The portal is also a very good learning platform for the area of online surveys. - ASC Software Register: Software for Statistical and Social Survey Analysis
A list of software products with a classification in different features, e.g. supported mode of data collection, design, programming language, analysis. ASC (Association for Survey Computing) is a non-profit organization.
2 Criteria for Selecting Products and Reviews
Along with software reviews you will also find sources which describe and elaborate on feasible criteria for the selection of products. Conferences which had discussions about survey software are for example: International Field Director's & Technologies Conference (IFD&TC), General Online Research (GOR), Mensch und Computer (MC), Applied Statistics (AS).
- Kaczmirek, L. (2008). Internet Survey Software Tools. In N. Fielding, R. Lee, & G. Blank (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage Publications, pp. 236-254.
- Kaczmirek, L. (2004). Choosing Survey Software: How to Decide and What to Consider [online]. A Guide from the Web Survey Methodology Site.
The paper describes and discusses various criteria. - Exploring Online Research Methods in a Virtual Training Environment
This trainging module offers a click-together check list to ease your own comaparisons among products. - Crawford, S. (2002) 'Evaluation of Web Survey Data Collection Systems', Field Methods, 14 (3): 307-321.
Based on the distinction in basic, intermediate and professional solutions, Scott Crawford evaluates three products: "The three products selected for this review represent the three main types of Web survey packages available today: a basic off-the-shelf package, an intermediate application service provider package, and an advanced survey system." (S. 1f.) - Evans, J.R. and Mathur, A. (2005) 'The Value of Online Surveys', Internet Research, 15 (2): 195-219.
- Macer, T. (2007). Independent software reviews from meaning. [Webseite].
- NEON, Arbeitsgruppe im BVM Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher e.V. (2003). Anforderungen an Online-Umfrage-Software. [Demands for Online Survey Software, German document]
A list with criteria divided into must-have, should-have and could-have features and central main topics such as design, control, security, data protection.
3 Technical Aspects for Programmers
- Göritz, A. S., & Birnbaum, M. H. (2005). Generic HTML form Processor: a Versatile PHP Script to Save Web-Collected Data into a MySQL Database. Behavior Research Methods, 37: 703-710.
- Hellbusch, J. E., & Bühler, C. (Hrsg.). (2005). Barrierefreies Webdesign. Praxishandbuch für Webgestaltung und grafische Programmoberflächen. dpunkt.verlag.
"Accessible Webdesign" contains the necessary examples and information to design accessible web forms. - Fraley, C. (2004). How to Conduct Behavioral Research on the Internet. Guilford Publications.
Contains exercises in the programming language perl.
4 Commercial and Non-profit Products
The market offers products which are likely to satisfy every need. Many vendors are capable and flexible enough to tailorize or adjust their product to the special requirements of their customers. The products listed here support at least: set-up of the questionnaire, data collection and to some extent data anaysis.
Products which provide entry offers up to 200 euros for a complete survey are marked with an [E]. As pricing is likely to change this should only be seen as a hint. Often, the price is a bad clue for the overall functionality of a product. Especially vendors which are capable to carry out big projects offer many features also in the low price segment. Commonly, the online survey is hosted by the vendor and administered and programmed through a web-interface.
WebSM and ASC offer additional overviews with different approaches to categorization.
Table 1: Software to Conduct Online Surveys
How to use this table: The list is supposed to help identify eligible products. It is neither complete nor can we guarantee its validity. Products should always be compared with the specific demands of a survey project.
Abbreviations: [E]ntry offer available; Low cost licenses for [U]niversities and students available; Questionnaire set-up via[W]eb-interface or [L]ocal software installation; [A]dvanced features available. Also suitable for complex projects (e.g. scripting language, major individual tailorizing is possible).
| Firm/Institute | Product | E/U | W/L | Advanced | Remarks |
| Amundis | 2Ask | E/U | W | A | reporting, price calculation online |
| Askallo | E/U | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| ClassApps | SelectSurveyASP | E | W | .NET source code in C#, code available, data bases: MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL, needs own server | |
| Globalpark | Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) | E/U | W | A | a non-commercial version is available under the name 'unipark'. |
| InstantSurvey | E | W | reporting | ||
| MarketTools | Zoomerang | U | W | free version available with restrictions | |
| NetQuestionnaires | E | W | A | free student edition in Switzerland | |
| Objectplanet | Opinio(tm) | U | W | ||
| onlineumfragen.com | E/U | W | |||
| Paul Marx - Marketing Consulting | eQuestionnaire | E/U | W | lower charges for students and doctoral students | |
| Polliscope | E/U | W | |||
| PreyerInformation Technology | Echopoll | E/U | W | ||
| QuestionPro | E/U | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| StellarSurvey | E | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| SurveyMonkey | E | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| Qualtrics | E | W | |||
| Voycer | E | W | free, the host mentions restrictions in layout, available question types, and other aspects | ||
| oFb Team | oFb - der onlineFragebogen | U | W | A | free use under special license conditions |
| CfMC | Websurvent | W | A | Multimodal, e.g. Web-based CATI. Reporting | |
| IQS-Quant | Houselab | W | A | card sorting, reaction time experiments, spacial orientation, spacial memory | |
| Ingress | keyingress | W | A | Multi-mode, create surveys with plain2form-procedure | |
| Webropol | W | A | Yearly license with unlimited survey volume. Answers provided by break-offs are not saved. | ||
| Bebosoft | Mediata Survey | E | L | program in PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL, needs own server | |
| ApianSoftware | SurveyPro5 | L | |||
| Inquisite | InquisiteSurvey | L | A | ||
| ISI-GmbH | Equip Questionnaire Generator | L | also CAPI | ||
| Exavo SurveyStudio | L | ||||
| Interrogare | IRQuest | L | A | coding of open answers, CATI, CAPI | |
| Gravic Inc. | Remark Web Survey | L | OCR extratool to import answers on paper questionnaires with a scanner | ||
| QuestionMark | Perception | L | |||
| Rogator | Rogator G3plus | L | A | ||
| VOXCO | Voxco Command Center | L | A | especially CATI | |
| Snap Surveys | Snap Professional | A | framework for multi-mode-surveys (CAPI, CATI, PDA, mobile, online) | ||
| ConfirmIt | ConfirmIt Platform | W | A | ||
| Senecio Software Inc. | Askanywhere | W | java | ||
| SPSS | PASW Data Collection Interviewer Web | A | |||
| Statistic Netherlands | Blaise Internet Service (BlaiseIS) | A | extra module for their CAI-product, special expertise in blaise-specific script language necessary |
5 Free Software (Open Source)
With free software no costs are associated with licensing. Own derivations and further development of the code is allowed. Free access to the program code (open source) is a precondition for this.
Costs emerge mainly from hosting or renting a server on which the software can run and from manual installation and maintenance. Solid knowledge concerning the operating system and the web-server-platform is the basis for using such software. Expertise in the programming language, database administration, patching, HTML and JavaScript are advantageous. Considering the 'total cost of ownership' a (commercial) product in table 1 may be cheaper. It is possible that third-party vendors use free software for their services.
Table 2: Free Software to Conduct Online Surveys
How to use this table: The following list was compiled with care and can guide in identifiying eligible products. However, we cannot guarantee its completeness or validity. Please leave us a note, if you know of other free software products for this list.
Licences: GPL, LGPL, MPL.
Sorting: Active projects with a developing community are listed on the top (green). They are available as stable systems and suitable for beginners. Frozen projects (yellow) have had their last update some time ago or the main developers noted that only few spare time is available for the project. Such projects might be revived or finally discontinued in the future. Discontinued projects (red) often have only one source version online. In addition they might be outdated in terms of technical implementation or are generally not recommendable as a productive survey system.
| Firm/Institute | Product | E/U | W/L | Advanced | Remarks |
| Amundis | 2Ask | E/U | W | A | reporting, price calculation online |
| Askallo | E/U | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| ClassApps | SelectSurveyASP | E | W | .NET source code in C#, code available, data bases: MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL, needs own server | |
| Globalpark | Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) | E/U | W | A | a non-commercial version is available under the name 'unipark'. |
| InstantSurvey | E | W | reporting | ||
| MarketTools | Zoomerang | U | W | free version available with restrictions | |
| NetQuestionnaires | E | W | A | free student edition in Switzerland | |
| Objectplanet | Opinio(tm) | U | W | ||
| onlineumfragen.com | E/U | W | |||
| Paul Marx - Marketing Consulting | eQuestionnaire | E/U | W | lower charges for students and doctoral students | |
| Polliscope | E/U | W | |||
| PreyerInformation Technology | Echopoll | E/U | W | ||
| QuestionPro | E/U | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| StellarSurvey | E | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| SurveyMonkey | E | W | free entry offer, reporting | ||
| Qualtrics | E | W | |||
| Voycer | E | W | free, the host mentions restrictions in layout, available question types, and other aspects | ||
| oFb Team | oFb - der onlineFragebogen | U | W | A | free use under special license conditions |
| CfMC | Websurvent | W | A | Multimodal, e.g. Web-based CATI. Reporting | |
| IQS-Quant | Houselab | W | A | card sorting, reaction time experiments, spacial orientation, spacial memory | |
| Ingress | keyingress | W | A | Multi-mode, create surveys with plain2form-procedure | |
| Webropol | W | A | Yearly license with unlimited survey volume. Answers provided by break-offs are not saved. | ||
| Bebosoft | Mediata Survey | E | L | program in PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL, needs own server | |
| ApianSoftware | SurveyPro5 | L | |||
| Inquisite | InquisiteSurvey | L | A | ||
| ISI-GmbH | Equip Questionnaire Generator | L | also CAPI | ||
| Exavo SurveyStudio | L | ||||
| Interrogare | IRQuest | L | A | coding of open answers, CATI, CAPI | |
| Gravic Inc. | Remark Web Survey | L | OCR extratool to import answers on paper questionnaires with a scanner | ||
| QuestionMark | Perception | L | |||
| Rogator | Rogator G3plus | L | A | ||
| VOXCO | Voxco Command Center | L | A | especially CATI | |
| Snap Surveys | Snap Professional | A | framework for multi-mode-surveys (CAPI, CATI, PDA, mobile, online) | ||
| ConfirmIt | ConfirmIt Platform | W | A | ||
| Senecio Software Inc. | Askanywhere | W | java | ||
| SPSS | PASW Data Collection Interviewer Web | A | |||
| Statistic Netherlands | Blaise Internet Service (BlaiseIS) | A | extra module for their CAI-product, special expertise in blaise-specific script language necessary |
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