10 Best Academic Survey Software (Free+Paid) for 2024

The field of education is an ever-evolving one, and surveys are crucial to examine theoretical findings with real-world data, which is prone to changing rather capriciously.

Generally speaking, academic surveys need far more precision and in-depth analytics to achieve the desired accuracy.

Owing to that, it’s absolutely necessary that you select an online survey software that is fully capable of conducting in-depth surveys, is user-friendly, has robust, detailed analytics, and seamlessly integrates with external apps such as Excel, Google Sheets, Tableau, etc., for processing the information obtained from surveys better.

Truth be told, the market is inundated with hundreds of such tools, all claiming to be the best. How do you know what really is the best, or even more importantly, suits your requirements?

I’ve done the legwork for you and compiled a list of the 12 top academic survey software options for 2023. I have meticulously evaluated these tools based on my experience of using them, trusted reviews, and peer recommendations.

A sneak peek into the tools I’ll be covering:

List of the Top 10 Academic Survey Software for 2024

The tools in this list have been chosen based on their feature-richness, user-friendliness, data analysis capabilities, and versatility. I’ve also included their descriptions, features, cons, and pricing to give you as complete an idea of their functionalities as possible.

1. ProProfs Survey Maker – Best for comprehensive survey experience

Watch: How to Create a Survey Using ProProfs Survey Maker

Having used ProProfs Survey Maker extensively, I can confidently say that the tool has features that can greatly enhance your survey research in an academic setting.

Let’s take its vast library of 100+ ready-to-use survey questions. This is particularly useful for academic surveys as it saves valuable time and effort in creating and formulating survey questions from scratch. 

You can also choose from a wide range of question types, including multiple-choice, ratings, and open-ended questions, allowing you to gather diverse and detailed responses for your research.

ProProfs Survey supports skip logic and branching. This enables researchers to tailor the survey experience based on respondents’ answers, making the surveys more targeted and focused on data collection.

Adding to it, ProProfs Survey has quite advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. It allows you to analyze and interpret your survey data effectively and generate results in a presentation-ready format, making it easier to communicate your findings to academic peers or supervisors.

The amalgamation of these features is what makes Survey Maker an invaluable tool for researchers, students, and academic institutions alike.

What you’ll like:

• A vast library of 100+ professionally designed templates for a quick start
• Ready-to-use questions for different survey types to save time in finding the right questions to ask
• Customization options to implement consistent branding guidelines with logo, colors, themes, and graphics
• Advanced reports and analytics to see who took your survey and when, how they answered, and more
• Integration with CRM and marketing automation software to follow up with your respondents easily
• Smart triggers to allow a survey to pop up after a certain time limit, percentage of page scrolled, or right before the exit
• Option to embed sidebar feedback forms at strategic points to capture unsolicited feedback

What you may not like:

• The templates could have been more refined to make them industry-specific
• The basic plan is limited to just one administrator

Pricing:

Forever free plan for up to 50 responses. Paid plan starts at $19.99/100 responses/month.

2. Qualaroo – Best for contextual feedback

Qualaroo is noted for its ability to capture user sentiment right as they navigate a website. 

This tool has an innovative technology, “Nudge,” that enables users to ask relevant questions at the right moment, without coming across as intrusive.

The feature makes it an excellent candidate for being one of the top academic survey tools, as you can subtly gather contextual data at an opportune moment rather than conducting the survey later.

One of the key advantages of this platform is its ability to display targeted surveys to the appropriate audience at the right time and in the relevant context.

The feedback analytics software not only provides businesses with valuable insights into their customers, but it also offers a user-friendly interface and robust features that are essential for any organization looking to enhance customer experience and increase conversions.

What you’ll like:

• Advanced targeting options, so you can zero in on the right audience
• Offers several question types like the Likert scale, dichotomous, rating scale, and more
• The ability to collect customer insights without disrupting their experience
• Exit intent surveys to gather feedback from leaving customers
• Powerful integrations with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, and MailChimp.

What you may not like:

• The reporting can be made more flexible in terms of sorting, filtering, and segmenting feedback
• There is no option for light and dark modes in the application

Pricing:

Free plan available. Paid plan starts at $19.99/100 responses/month

Watch: How to Create a Customer Satisfaction Survey

3. Zoho Survey – Best for bringing versatility in surveys

Zoho Survey is a versatile survey tool that can be extremely efficient if used in an academic setting.

You can use Zoho Survey not only to gather feedback from students, but also to keep track of attendance, administer quizzes, and conduct research surveys.

With its customizable templates, you can easily create surveys for a variety of purposes, such as teacher feedback, parent surveys, student satisfaction surveys, campus facilities feedback surveys, and bullying surveys.

One added perk of this tool is, students can use Zoho Survey’s Plus plan for free or any higher plan at a 50% discount, while educators can upgrade to any plan at a 50% discount. This makes it a more affordable solution for universities and individuals operating with limited budgets.

What you’ll like:

• Ability to create surveys easily with drag and drop, logic, and preview features
• 200+ templates for various types of surveys that you can edit or create your own
• Integrates with Zoho CRM to help you manage and analyze the data you collect from your surveys.
• Strong spam protection with CAPTCHA and IP blocking features to save your surveys from spam and bots
• Option to translate the surveys into multiple languages, allowing for a wider reach

What you may not like:

• Survey themes and layouts lack advanced features
• The reporting feature is a bit complicated to use

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $7.23/month

4. SurveyKing – Best for creating customized, anonymous surveys

SurveyKing is a powerful survey tool that can be effectively utilized in an academic setting for gathering feedback and conducting research surveys.

With SurveyKing’s highly customizable survey features, you can effortlessly create surveys tailored to your specific needs, such as classroom feedback, student satisfaction surveys, and campus facilities feedback surveys, among others.

One notable feature of SurveyKing is its ability to provide truly anonymous surveys. Utilizing a seal with an info link, SurveyKing encourages respondents to provide honest feedback without fear of identification.

This is particularly valuable in educational scenarios where sensitive topics, like bullying, require a safe and confidential environment for students to share their experiences.

SurveyKing also offers transactional surveys that capture feedback from students after specific academic activities, such as exams or workshops, or after completing a course.

In addition to these functionalities, SurveyKing offers advanced question types like MaxDiff, which can be utilized in labor relation surveys, letting instituitions gather valuable insights for proper negotiations while maintaining complete anonymity.

Considering all these factors, I’d say it is an excellent choice if you wish to conduct in-depth surveys in this field with the accuracy and precision required.

What you’ll like:

• Highly customizable surveys with advanced question types for gathering specific feedback.
• Truly anonymous surveys with a seal and info link to encourage honest feedback.
• Transactional surveys to capture feedback after academic activities like exams or workshops.
• Advanced question types like MaxDiff (also known as best-worst scaling where the choice is between two extremes) for valuable insights in labor relation surveys.
• Easy capture of positive reviews and testimonials from students and alumni.
• User-friendly interface, customizable options, and robust reporting tools for enhancing the learning experience.

What you may not like:

• While SurveyKing has advanced question types, some advanced features may not be available, like custom script questions or advanced skip logic.
• SurveyKing only offers basic integration features with other tools like Mailchimp or Google Analytics.

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $19/month.

5. SurveySparrow – Best for conversational surveys

SurveySparrow is an omnichannel experience management platform that can also be used as an academic software in educational institutions.

With its ability to automate actions, track trends, and build visual dashboards, SurveySparrow is a powerful aid that you can utilize to gather valuable insights, enhance student engagement, and improve overall academic performance.

The tool has features like customizable surveys, ticket management, and business intelligence that are also employable in academics and make the same impact as they do in a business setting.

One perk of SurveySparrow is its ability to create conversational surveys for any purpose and in any language – a feature incredibly useful in bypassing survey fatigue or abandonment. 

Topping it off, SurveySparrow also facilitates offline data collection, and offers advanced integrations to streamline workflows, making it a comprehensive solution that wants little else to serve its purpose.

What you’ll like:

• Conversational surveys that engage respondents naturally and minimize survey fatigue
• Advanced survey logic and branching to personalize surveys based on previous answers given
• Seamless Integrations with popular applications like Salesforce and HubSpot for streamlined workflows
• Access to valuable insights through intuitive dashboards and trend analysis through real-time reporting and analytics
• Offline survey capability that allows users to collect feedback anywhere, even without an internet connection

What you may not like:

• The drag and drop question box functionality can be somewhat buggy and might not align correctly
• lacks advanced email marketing features, making it difficult to send reminders or segment audiences easily

Pricing:

Custom pricing available on request.

6. Qualtrics Survey – Best for in-depth data analysis

Qualtrics Survey is a widely-used software in the field of market surveys, but the tool has a range of features and capabilities that make it highly suitable for academic research and assessment purposes as well.

One key aspect of Qualtrics Survey is its flexibility in creating and customizing surveys to suit specific research needs. You can choose from a wide range of question types, interactive features, and media options to enhance response rates and gather the necessary data.

Additionally, Qualtrics Survey offers real-time data analysis and reporting capabilities, including graphs and charts to allow you to interpret and present your findings effectively.

Another notable feature of Qualtrics Survey is its usability and accessibility. Users can access pre-made surveys or create their own, and the platform supports multiple languages, making it accessible for researchers from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, Qualtrics Survey ensures data security and confidentiality, which are critical considerations in academic research.

In my opinion, Qualtrics Survey can serve as a valuable academic software that offers educational institutions all the necessary functionalities to design, distribute, and analyze surveys for research and assessment purposes.

What you’ll like:

• Easy-to-use interface with drag-and-drop functionality and pre-configured surveys
• 360-degree solution for customer professionals that covers feedback collection, analysis, action planning, and reporting
• Text analysis tools that use artificial intelligence and natural language processing to extract insights from open-ended responses
• Contact management system to automatically segment, target, and follow up with your respondents
• Seamless integrations with popular platforms such as Salesforce, Marketo, Slack, Tableau, and more

What you may not like:

• The UI could be more simplified for a better user experience
• The software may be difficult to navigate if you are new to it

Pricing:

Starts from $1500/year

7. SurveyMonkey – Best for AI-powered academic surveys

SurveyMonkey is a versatile academic software that allows researchers in academia to conduct surveys for various purposes, including testing hypotheses and gathering data on attitudes and behaviors in domains such as business, politics, and health.

The tool has a separate sub-section for academic surveys with both close-ended and open-ended questions to collect rich qualitative data and gain insights into various research topics as well as AI-friendly surveys that conveniently create questions in just minutes.

It also has a library of various question types like multiple choice, rating scale, matrix, and open-ended that you can effortlessly design surveys tailored to your needs. Not to mention, the tool offers a rich library of pre-made templates for diverse topics, making survey creation even more convenient.

SurveyMonkey features a robust analytics section, enabling you to access real-time results on the dashboard or export them as PDF, Excel, or CSV files.

This comprehensive suite of features empowers you to capture valuable insights from your target audience and propel your business forward.

What you’ll like:

• The ability to share surveys via custom links, QR code, email, social media, or website embedding
• You can include complex question branching logic in surveys
• Easily personalize surveys by adding your own logos and images
• Randomizing questions can help reduce the question order bias
• Users can get started quickly by using pre-built survey templates

What you may not like:

• Some users have reported problems with the SurveyMonkey mobile app, such as crashes and difficulty logging in.
• Although SurveyMonkey offers a variety of question types, some advanced or specialized question formats may not be available.

Pricing:

Starts at $25/ user/month. 50,000 responses per year.

8. QuestionPro – Best for large-scale surveys

QuestionPro provides an easy-to-use survey software platform that allows you to design, send, and analyze online surveys quickly and efficiently.

The tool has a variety of professionally designed survey templates specifically tailored for academic research that I found to have increased the efficiency of my surveys by quite a lot.

It also includes advanced logic and workflow options, such as survey branching, skip logic, and randomization, and these enabled me to create surveys with complex question paths for gathering specific data and insights.

As a plus point, QuestionPro supports multilingual surveys, letting users conduct survey research in various languages to capture more diverse responses.

To ensure data security and compliance, QuestionPro is built with data privacy protection, anonymity, and compliance features, including certifications like GDPR, ISO 27001, CCPA, and PCI-DSS.

In the academic context, you can benefit the most from the Predictive Pricing feature, which would allow you to choose reliable and cost-effective plans for academic research.

What you’ll like:

• User-friendly interface and a large library of questions and templates to create surveys in minutes
• Customized URL, branding & themes to modify the look and feel of your surveys with your domain themes
• Option to collaborate with your team members and share surveys, reports, data, etc., and assign roles and permissions to your team members
• Real-time data analysis on a dashboard account as charts, graphs, summaries, cross-tabs, filters, and data trends

What you may not like:

• Additional cost for advanced features even with a paid plan
• Limited customization and formatting options

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $99 per user per month

9. SurveyLegend – Best for mobile surveys

I have used SurveyLegend, and the tool definitely deserves a mention on this list.

Aside from being user-friendly and visually appealing, SurveyLegend’s appeal as an academic survey software mostly comes from how easy it is to access on mobile devices.

When dealing with an audience primarily dependent on phones, this mobile responsiveness allows you to reach a broader audience and ensures a much higher completion rate than its counterpart.

Speaking of features, SurveyLegend provides advanced question types, including Likert scales and multiple-choice grids, enabling researchers to gather in-depth feedback from survey participants. 

SurveyLegend also offers collaboration and data-sharing capabilities, making it an effective tool for group research projects. Its data analytics and reporting features analyze survey responses effectively, generating visual reports and exporting data in various formats for further analysis or presentation purposes.

Data privacy and confidentiality are prioritized, as SurveyLegend provides SSL encryption and compliance with data protection regulations. The tool’s secure handling of survey responses and protection of participants’ privacy make it suitable for academic research that involves sensitive data.

What you’ll like:

• User-friendly interface with a drag-and-drop editor for easy survey creation
• Advanced analytics and reporting tools for real-time data analysis and insight generation
• Collaboration features allow teams to work together on survey creation and track changes
• Versatile distribution options via email, social media, embedded links, and offline data collection
• Data security and privacy measures, including SSL encryption and GDPR compliance, ensure data protection

What you may not like:

• Limited options when it comes to customizing the design and branding of surveys
• Users may find the UI a bit cluttered

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $15/month.

10. Google Forms – Best for free surveys

If you are familiar with Google, chances are, you have used or at least heard of Google Forms. It is offered as a part of the Google Suite whenever you set up a Google account. 

The tool is simple, versatile, highly adaptive to multiple device types, and allows users to create surveys, quizzes, and forms for data collection purposes.

You can design custom surveys with different question types, including multiple-choice, short-answer, and Likert scale questions.

Secondly, Google Forms allows collaboration and sharing among users so that multiple members can collaborate on creating and editing forms, making it ideal for group projects or research studies involving teamwork.

Another advantage of using Google Forms is the real-time data analysis feature. As responses are collected, the tool automatically generates summary statistics and graphs to visualize the data. This can be especially helpful for quick data analysis or in-class discussions.

Furthermore, Google Forms is integrated with other Google Workspace tools, such as Google Sheets, allowing easy data export and analysis.

Lastly, Google Forms is a cost-effective solution for academic institutions as it is free to use!

What you’ll like:

• Templates that offer a variety of prebuilt form designs for different purposes, such as feedback, registration, quiz, order, and more
• Question formats that allow you to choose from different types of questions, such as multiple choice, short answer, checkboxes, linear scale, date, time, and more
• Conditional logic that enables you to show or hide questions based on the responses of the respondents
• Theme customizations that let you change the appearance of your forms by adding images, videos, logos, colors, and fonts
• Reporting and analytics that automatically save and display the responses in Google Sheets, where you can view charts, graphs, and summaries of the data

What you may not like:

• You will not be able to use the forms offline
• Limited design options

Pricing:

Free for anyone with a Google account

Final Verdict: Which Is the Best Online Survey Tool for Academic Research?

I understand that selecting the right tool from this list can be a difficult decision as they all seem to offer unique advantages and features. However, it is important to consider your survey needs, the audience you are surveying, and other relevant factors before making a final choice. 

Based on that, here are my top three recommendations from the list:

Choice 1 – ProProfs Survey Maker: This is an online survey tool that can be used for various audiences and goals. ProProfs Survey Maker is highly versatile, flexible, and reasonably priced, making it an ideal choice for academic surveys where you need a large amount of data collected and processed quickly. It permits you to personalize your surveys by selecting from multiple question types, themes, and templates. Additionally, you can tailor your surveys to match your brand, add branching logic to personalize them, and access real-time analytics.

Choice 2 – Qualaroo: This survey widget helps you gather feedback from your website visitors, measure your Net Promoter Score (NPS), understand user behavior, and enhance user experience. Qualaroo surveys are short and show up in context, which means you can get more responses and valuable insights without being intrusive. You can even target specific groups of users and trigger surveys based on their actions.

Choice 3 – Zoho Survey: You can use this tool to create conversational surveys using different questions and templates. The platform offers options to match the survey to your institution’s branding and personalize the survey experience. It is also affordable and can adapt to changing academic needs.

If you ask me, I’d recommend using ProProfs Survey Maker. It is a user-friendly tool with a wide range of features, including survey filtering, multimedia capabilities, polls & sidebars, and survey scheduling, and has consistently delivered excellent results for me, regardless of the purpose of the survey.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the use of online surveys?

Online surveys have various uses and benefits. They allow researchers, businesses, and organizations to gather data and insights from a large and diverse group of respondents. These surveys can be used for market research, customer feedback, academic research, employee satisfaction surveys, event feedback, and much more, with multiple advantages, including faster data collection, real-time analytics, cost-effectiveness, and convenience for both respondents and survey creators.

How to select the best online survey creator?

When choosing an online survey creator, consider the following factors – ease of use, features such as question types, customizability, survey logic, and data analysis capabilities, templates and themes, integration options, and pricing.

Watch: How to Choose the Best Survey Software

How to choose a survey tool for academic projects?

When selecting a survey tool for academic projects, consider these key aspects:

1. Research requirements: Determine the specific needs of your academic project, such as the nature of the research, target audience, and required survey features.
2. Data privacy and security: Ensure the survey tool provides adequate data protection measures, especially when dealing with sensitive academic data.
3. Collaboration features: If your academic project involves multiple researchers or survey creators, consider a tool that allows collaboration and sharing of survey designs and data.
4. Academic-friendly features: Look for features that are particularly useful for academic research, such as randomization, skip logic, survey branching, and options for academic citation