SurveyGizmo is among the most easy to use, best priced, feature packed internet survey software packages I have seen. And I’ve seen a number of them. I highly recommend it. And if you’re conducting fewer than 250 responses a month, it is absolutely free and includes just about everything you need. And it’s easy…very Web 2.0ish.

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Triexa, a Toronto-based company formerly know as Sensation Designs, is presently beta testing a new web-based survey software system called AskItOnline. Although I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet (the software is in "private" beta with only some screenshots posted), what makes it fascinating is 1) it is a "Web 2.0" type program that utilizes a drag-and-drop web-based interface and a particularly reasonable pricing structure (four levels: "basic" which gives you very little functionaliy but it allows you to collect 100 surveys for free; "standard" which adds themes, some additional survey/design features and a cost of $7 a month for up to 5 surveys with 750 responses each; "professional" which gives you up to 10 surveys and 2500 responses per survey for $15 a month and "enterprise" which allows you to do an unlimited number of surveys with up to 15,000 responses each for $25 a month.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use package that has a very low cost, this pacakge may be for you. Although each level contains different features, the enterprise version allows multi-page surveys, an unlimited number of questions per survey; "star ratings"; randomized responses; the ability to insert images and video; response validation; question piping; skipping/branch logic; and up to a terabyte of data storage. You can also review your results online, download your results, and receive e-mail notification whenever someone completes your survey.

The software is still in "private" beta, but it appears that they are still accepting new testers and it’s always fun to participate in the development of a new program.

Learn more about AskItOnline

SurveyZ is an entirely web-based, self-service internet survey system developed and operated by Utah-based Qualtrics. It offers a variety of advanced capabilities, including unique survey questions, branching, looping, piping, trigger-based responses and form grading as well as an unparalleled collection of pre-written surveys that you can borrow questions from or use as the basis for your own surveys. The design and organization of the SurveyZ survey development environment isn’t particularly impressive (it looks like something out of 1998), and the design options for the surveys themselves are fairly limited — yet the design process is fairly smooth and even the most complex surveys can be created by individuals with very little experience. SurveyZ has a built in e-mail invitation system and a very limited reporting engine. All in all, if you’re looking for a survey system that can do just about anything and you don’t care so much about design or reporting, SurveyZ may have everything you need.

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ResearchExec, owned and operated by the Fairfield, Connecticut based company of the same name, is an entirely web-based survey system that is available either as a hosted solution or as a package you can install on your own server. It offers a tremendous amount of customizability as well as a number of advanced features such as the ability to set quotas for individual questions and advanced survey logic. It has integrated panel management that allows you to send surveys to specific members based on their responses to previous surveys. The survey development system, while elegantly designed and extremely flexible, is tedious to use and does not play well with FireFox 1.5 or Internet Explorer 7 RC1. It offers very little in terms of a reporting system, and you should expect to do most of your analysis in a separate program such as Excel or SPSS. Because of the focus on advanced features, the sharper learning curve and the lack of a reporting engine, ResearchExec is more likely to appeal to users at a professional research firm and not those looking for a quick easy way to produce and report on internet research.

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Grapevine 3.0 is a moderately priced, relatively full-featured online self-service survey solution published by Toronto-based Business.ca. It offers most of the basic features, a few of the advanced features, and a collection of well designed, pre-written surveys and design templates that are sure to appeal to small companies and organizations who aren’t looking to spend a lot of time reinventing the marketing research wheel. The survey design/management interface is fairly easy to master, although the non-Web 2.0 driven survey development environment can sometimes be a little slow and frustrating. The system includes a lovely reporting engine, the ability to add multiple users to one account, the ability to upload lists of respondents (and send out invitations) and a fairly strong help system. While I am not so sure that I would recommend this package for advanced users or firms that intend to do a lot of research, it may be a very appropriate choice for a firm that finds the pre-written, pre-designed surveys worth the cost. 

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