6 Best Anonymous Survey Tools (Free+Paid) for Data Collection

Privacy is one of the biggest concerns of survey takers, which is why a lot of them hesitate to participate in surveys.

Anonymous surveys mitigate these concerns, and your participants are much more likely to be honest when they know their identities can never be linked or discovered through their answers.

While there are a lot of best survey tools available currently, not all of them offer the option to conduct anonymous surveys. In this blog, I’ve decided to create a list of the best anonymous survey tools for data collection.

This compilation is based on my experience with the tools, peer recommendations, and reviews from trusted websites.

List of the Top 6 Anonymous Survey Tools

Let’s explore the best anonymous survey tools of this year and learn how they can help us get accurate feedback!

1. ProProfs Survey Maker – Best for versatile anonymous surveys

ProProfs Survey Maker has proved to be a game-changer in my data collection journey – and while it initially stood out to me because of its user-friendly interface and focus on respondent anonymity, I found in it a plethora of features that made it suitable as an all-purpose, comprehensive free online survey tools.

With over 100+ professionally designed, customizable templates and a drag-and-drop editor, you can create surveys that cater to any research objective.

Whether it’s multiple-choice, open-ended, or rating scale questions, this tool offers a wide array of options to ensure you capture the most relevant insights. The ability to customize themes, colors, and logos allows you to maintain consistency with your brand while ensuring respondent anonymity.

On top of that, ProProfs Survey Maker allows you to share surveys through links, making it convenient for participants to access and respond without divulging any personal information.

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.

Watch: How to Create a Survey Using ProProfs Survey Maker

2. BlockSurvey – Best for secure, private survey forms

Image source: BlockSurvey

When it comes to anonymous surveys, BlockSurvey is certainly a great option to consider, owing to its innovative approach to privacy and data security.

The software utilizes blockchain technology, to encrypt survey data, ensuring respondents’ anonymity and confidentiality are maintained at all times.

BlockSurvey also boasts an intuitive and visually appealing interface. The drag-and-drop survey builder makes creating customized surveys with various question types and themes effortless.

Unlike conventional survey tools, BlockSurvey puts individuals and organizations in full control of their data. This helps safeguard against data misuse and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access.

What you’ll like:

• Blockchain technology to secure survey data and ensure respondent anonymity and confidentiality
• Customizable survey design with a wide range of question types and themes for visually appealing surveys
• Real-time collaboration features that allow teams to work together on surveys, providing seamless feedback and version tracking
• Complete data ownership to empower users with complete control over their survey data & safeguard against unauthorized access
• Distribution options via secure methods such as email invites, embedded surveys, and shareable links

What you may not like:

• Steep learning curve for new users
• Limited integrations with other tools and platforms

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $15/month.

3. Qualtrics – Best for anonymous customer feedback

Image source: Qualtrics

Qualtrics offers a seamless and secure environment for respondents to provide honest and uninhibited feedback without the fear of their identities being revealed.

This makes Qualtrics the ideal choice for organizations looking to gather candid insights and improve their customer experience.

In addition to its anonymous survey capabilities, Qualtrics offers customizable survey templates and question types that provide flexibility in designing surveys tailored to specific research goals.

Adding to it, Qualtrics provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing users to extract meaningful insights from their anonymous survey data effortlessly.

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:

• Reports can take a while to load if you’re trying to analyze large data sets.
• Pricing is only suitable for large enterprises.

Pricing:

Starts from $1500/year

4. Zoho Survey – Best for free online surveys

Image source: Zoho

I highly recommend Zoho Survey as an anonymous survey tool for its exceptional features and user-friendly interface. It provides all the necessary capabilities required to design and administer effective anonymous surveys, making it an ideal choice for businesses and organizations.

Zoho Survey’s best feature is its ability to offer free online surveys. This means that anyone can easily access and use the platform with up to 10 questions per survey and 100 responses per survey without paying anything.

In addition to free surveys, Zoho Survey also provides other relevant features such as survey templates, survey logic, question branching, and customized themes that cater to different survey needs.

If you don’t need to create a large number of surveys, Zoho Survey would suit you perfectly as it offers all other features even in the free plan.

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 $25/month. Free plan available with limited features. 

5. Limesurvey – Best for multilingual surveys

Image source: Clickydip

LimeSurvey also allows for anonymous participation by enabling respondents to access surveys through unique links, ensuring their identity remains secure throughout the data collection process.

The tool has the ability to conduct multilingual surveys. This feature has been invaluable in my research projects, as it enables me to reach a diverse range of participants from different linguistic backgrounds.

The platform supports over 80 languages, allowing me to gather data from respondents worldwide without any language barriers.

LimeSurvey, with its emphasis on anonymity and user-friendly features, has undoubtedly earned its spot as one of the best tools for conducting anonymous surveys.

Its multilingual capabilities, customizable designs, and anonymous participation options make it an ideal choice for researchers seeking reliable and confidential data collection.

What you’ll like:

• Creates surveys in over 80 languages, which is incredibly useful for conducting surveys in multiple countries or regions
• Ability to add conditional logic to the surveys to avoid unnecessary questions
• Option to import and export data in various formats such as CSV, Excel, and SPSS
• Can be customized to match a website’s design and branding; this includes adding custom logos, colors, and fonts
• In-app viewing of real-time results and data analysis using charts and graphs

What you may not like:

• Has a steep learning curve and can be difficult to set up initially
• Minor bugs in the software can be inconvenient when using it regularly

Pricing:

Starts at $29/month billed annually

6. Formstack – Best for automated surveys

Image source: Dashthis

I’ve personally found Formstack to be a reliable and user-friendly platform that prioritizes privacy and anonymity. It provides robust data security measures, ensuring that responses are kept confidential and protected from unauthorized access.

One of the standout features of Formstack is its ability to automate surveys. This means that you can set up surveys to be sent out automatically, saving you time and effort in the data collection process. Whether you need to gather customer feedback or conduct internal employee surveys, Formstack’s automated survey capabilities streamline the entire process.

Moreover, Formstack offers customizable survey templates, allowing you to create surveys that align with your brand and design preferences.

With its comprehensive set of features, Formstack is undoubtedly a top choice for anyone looking to collect valuable data anonymously.

What you’ll like:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop form builder for easy customization and creation of surveys and forms
• Vast selection of question types and support for conditional logic for personalized survey experiences
• Seamless integration with popular tools and platforms, automating workflows and syncing data
• Advanced survey workflows with features like respondent notifications, deadlines, and progress tracking
• Robust analytics and reporting capabilities, providing actionable insights and real-time data visualization

What you may not like:

• Limited customization options for form design templates
• Higher pricing plans may not be affordable for small businesses

Pricing:

Starts at $50/month.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:

1. User Reviews / Ratings- Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
2. Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
3. Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
4. Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
5. Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth. 
6. Personal Experience/Expert’s Opinion or Favorites: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.

Which Is the Best Anonymous Survey Tool for Data Collection?

Choosing the right tool from this list may seem challenging since they all appear to be good options. However, it’s important to select a solution that aligns with your specific survey requirements, target audience, and other factors of importance.

Here are my top three recommendations:

Option 1 – ProProfs Survey Maker:

ProProfs Survey Maker, the best free online survey tool is a user-friendly and comprehensive tool for creating surveys. It offers a wide range of survey templates and customization options to let users personalize the surveys with brand themes, branching logic, and obtain real-time analytics. With features that facilitate anonymous survey creation and distribution, ProProfs Survey Maker simplifies the process of collecting and analyzing survey data considerably.

Option 2 – BlockSurvey:

A privacy-focused survey tool that allows users to create and distribute anonymous surveys. With end-to-end encryption and data ownership, Blocksurvey ensures the confidentiality and security of respondents’ information.

Option 2 – Formstack:

Formstack is a versatile online form builder and survey tool that offers automated surveys as one of its standout features. With robust data security measures and customizable survey templates, Formstack ensures a seamless and secure data collection process.

If you ask me, however, I would recommend ProProfs Survey Maker. It provides a user-friendly experience with a wide range of distinctive features, including survey filtering, multimedia capabilities, polls & sidebars, and survey scheduling, among others. This software prioritizes the user and has consistently delivered excellent results in collecting responses for any purpose.

Learn More About Anonymous Survey Tools

1. What are anonymous survey tools?

Anonymous survey tools are online platforms that allow users to create and distribute surveys without collecting personally identifiable information (PII) from respondents.

2. Why should I use anonymous survey tools?

Using anonymous survey tools ensures the confidentiality and privacy of respondent information, encouraging honest and unbiased feedback.

3. When to choose anonymous Surveys

Anonymous surveys are beneficial when sensitive or personal topics are being discussed, or when you want to eliminate bias or social desirability in responses.

4. How to create an anonymous survey?

To create an anonymous survey, choose a suitable tool, design the survey questions, ensure no PII is collected, and provide a way for respondents to submit their feedback anonymously.

5. How do anonymous survey tools protect respondent privacy?

Anonymous survey tools protect respondent privacy through measures like data encryption, secure storage, and anonymization of collected data.

6. Can I trust the information collected through anonymous survey tools?

Trust in the information collected through anonymous survey tools depends on the reliability and privacy measures implemented by the specific tool.

7. Are there any limitations to using anonymous survey tools?

Limitations of using anonymous survey tools may include limited ability to follow-up with respondents, difficulty in analyzing demographic data, and potential response bias from not being able to tailor questions to individuals.