Surveys provide valuable information about consumers and employees. Traditionally, they were conducted by phone, by mail or in person. Recently, however, online surveys have become a fast, cost-effective alternative.
What makes online survey tools useful?
- learn about your current and potential clients, as well as their purchasing habits
- detect and resolve unexpressed problems
- generate contacts
- test ideas for new products and services
- strengthen your reputation as an informed leader by sharing your discoveries
- know people’s opinion about your products and services
- measure employee satisfaction and commitment
- compile employee performance evaluations
How do online survey tools work?
The process is easy. Simply open an online account, use an existing survey template or create your own, decide what type of questions you want to ask and integrate them into the survey. Once complete, you can post it online or email it to multiple recipients. Some providers even allow you to post your survey on social networking sites like Facebook.
Online surveys allow you to automate certain tasks and calculations, thereby facilitating and accelerating response gathering and analysis, while reducing errors and omissions.
Free and inexpensive survey tools
Depending on your objectives, you could use online survey tools on their own or combined with more traditional methods. Several providers offer free versions of their services (see options below). These versions are more limited than paid versions, some of which are relatively inexpensive. For the purposes of this review, we found that a French version is offered only if the solution’s interface is in French. Most of the solutions presented can be used to create surveys in French and several other languages, in particular when opting for a paid version.
Revised March 2023
Interceptum
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
Interceptum is a Canadian online survey provider that allows you to send surveys via a web link, email, Twitter or Facebook. In addition, it invites website visitors to participate in online surveys either based on the number of web pages viewed or the amount of time they’ve spent on your website. It stores data in Canada, and you can design surveys and collect responses in both English and French.
JitsuPRO
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
JitsuPRO offers an intuitive interface to build surveys quizzes, questionnaires, quizzes, forms and polls with data hosted in Canada. Being mobile responsive, JitsuPro makes it easy for respondents to answer surveys directly from their mobile devices, thus boosting your response rate. Developed by Jitsutech, a team of Canadian researchers, evaluators and information technology specialists with over 30 years of experience.
LimeSurvey
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
LimeSurvey is an online survey tool that enables you to create a simple questionnaire or sophisticated surveys with complex validation rules, conditional logic and quota management. The list of features and options vary depending on the subscription plan you choose. The company supports the Open Source approach and provides the source code available to download free of charge.
QuestionPro
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
QuestionPro offers the power and capability of high end online software at an affordable price. You can deploy it in a wide variety of ways, such as email, website embeds, social networks, mobile devices and tablets. It also provides a survey data visualization app to analyze data and present them in an engaging way. You can start with a free account and upgrade to a more advanced paid version as your needs evolve.
SimpleSurvey
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
SimpleSurvey offers a bilingual service and a WordPress plugin to create and manage online surveys, questionnaires and forms, as well as data collection and analysis services. Hosted in Canada, the web-based solution is one of the rare solutions that allows you to create multilingual surveys with unified data sets without needing to merge the data collected in different languages.
SurveyMonkey
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
SurveyMonkey is a fast and efficient way to create online surveys in any language. It does not require any technical expertise. The free version offers limited features, but more advanced features—such as randomization options and skip logic—are available for a modest fee. SurveyMonkey lets you share and distribute surveys with Twitter and Facebook, and integrates with many other applications, including Salesforce and MailChimp.
Survtapp
Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration
Survtapp is a survey platform that allows you to create custom surveys on multiple devices. Data can be collected on the web or offline via the Survtapp dedicated mobile app. When you work offline, responses are stored safely in the device and uploaded once you’re connected to the Internet. The head office of the company is located in Toronto, Ontario.
This table lists applications alphabetically and isn’t exhaustive. Hyperlinks to external sites do not constitute endorsement by BDC of those websites or any information, opinions, products or services expressed or described on them.
Furthermore, the list is only a starting point and excludes applications that do not let you set up and manage an online survey either in English or in French, or that are neither low cost nor free. When assessing online survey tools for your organization, you will probably consider many other factors.
BDC will review and edit this list regularly. If you are a vendor and would like us to consider adding your solution, please contact us.
