SurveyMonkey vs. Typeform vs. TRACX: which one should you choose?
Table of Contents
Hey everyone, it’s Tom here from TRACX. If you’re looking for the best survey platform, then you’ve come to the right place.
Surveys are a useful and convenient way to gather feedback and insights from customers, employees, and other stakeholders. When choosing an online survey platform, it’s important to consider not only the features and capabilities that are most important to your needs but also the ease of use and design too — you don’t want to find yourself wasting time and effort on a survey that doesn’t engage the people you’re reaching out to.
Today, I want to review two of the most popular platforms, SurveyMonkey (now known as Momentive) and Typeform, and compare them with TRACX so that you can make an informed decision about which survey builder will work best for your needs. So, let’s get right into it!
Side-by-side: SurveyMonkey vs Typeform vs TRACX
SurveyMonkey, Typeform and TRACX each have a slightly different target audience and bring their own take on what a survey tool should do. So, before we take a deep-dive into each survey platform, let’s quickly compare them side-by-side.
SurveyMonkey is well-known and widely used, with a large selection of templates and question types to choose from. It offers many advanced features, including logic jumps and custom branding options.
Typeform is known for its user-friendly interface and visually appealing design. It offers a wide range of customisation options, including the ability to add images and videos to surveys. Typeform also has several integrations with other tools, such as Google Sheets and Zapier.
One key difference between the two tools is that SurveyMonkey offers more advanced features, such as logic jumps and custom branding, while Typeform has a focus on user-friendly design and customisation options. Another difference is that SurveyMonkey has a larger selection of question types and templates to choose from, while Typeform has a more limited selection.
SurveyMonkey | Typeform | TRACX | |
---|---|---|---|
Features | |||
Surveys | |||
Forms | |||
Funnels | |||
Landing Pages | |||
QR Codes | |||
Link Shortener | |||
Chat UI | |||
Reporting & Analytics | |||
Real-Time Results | |||
Data Export | |||
Branding & Customisation | |||
Custom Themes | |||
White Labeling | |||
Pricing | |||
Free Plan | |||
Monthly Plans from | $99/month | $29/month | $15/month |
Enterprise Plan | Custom pricing | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
Now that you’ve got a high-level view of how the platforms differ, let’s look at each aspect in more detail and compare SurveyMonkey to Typeform.
In-depth review: SurveyMonkey vs Typeform
Ease of Use
SurveyMonkey and Typeform offer similar survey-building tools, both claim that their “easy-to-use” form builders will make creating online surveys quick and simple. Let’s put that to the test.
To kick things off, SurveyMonkey. This platform has been around since 1999 and you can tell right away that it is beginning to show its age.
To be fair, the survey builder is incredibly powerful - provided you’re paying for the full range of features. It will allow you to create complex surveys with detailed logic jumps and other customisations. However, the dated interface and clunky UX make building forms a time-consuming and frustrating experience. It takes a lot of clicks and scrolling to get around and create a survey.
In contrast, Typeform is much more user-friendly and intuitive. Here you’ll find a modern form builder with clearly defined areas for setting your survey questions, changing design and logic, and editing survey settings. Plus, the WYSIWYG editor also acts as a kind of live preview, so you can see how your survey will look to respondents.
Verdict: Typeform takes the lead in this round with its modern, intuitive form builder.
Survey Capabilities
Doing a head-to-head comparison based solely on survey capabilities should result in a clear winner, and the clue is in the name! When it comes to creating online surveys, SurveyMonkey has set the standard for the past 20+ years.
As we’ve seen, the SurveyMonkey editor is incredibly powerful and comprehensive - UX issues notwithstanding - it provides a vast range of features to cater for the most demanding use cases.
While the market is catching up with some of SurveyMonkey’s key features - functionality such as Skip Logic, Advanced Branching, and Response Piping are becoming more commonplace in survey tools - there is still a way to go for the competition.
For example, SurveyMonkey’s Question Bank has hundreds of pre-made survey questions written by survey experts which can be easily added to surveys, as well as hundreds of survey templates to get you up and running quickly - more on that shortly.
Typeform, on the other hand, has focused on a broader market than just survey creation. It’s a great tool for building all kinds of forms, from simple registration forms to quizzes and feedback surveys.
The “Logic” features offered by Typeform will meet the needs of all but the most complex surveys, but it can’t stand toe-to-toe with SurveyMonkey’s other survey creation capabilities. The pre-written questions are more limited by both number and use case.
Typeform’s survey experience is wonderful for driving end-user engagement and high response rates, but there are no safeguards (like SurveyMonkey’s Genius) to ensure you don’t make basic mistakes when designing your survey. The quantity of responses you receive matters little if the quality of your survey is poor.
Verdict: SurveyMonkey is the clear winner here - its comprehensive survey capabilities are second to none. Features like Question Bank and Genius can make the survey creation process much faster, and provide valuable support to ensure a successful survey.
Customisation & Branding
When it comes to customisation, SurveyMonkey provides users with the ability to customise the look and feel of their surveys to match their design or brand. This includes options for customising the background colour, font size, text colour, and more. It also allows users to add images, videos, and other multimedia elements to create a more engaging experience for respondents. However, it is not possible to remove the SurveyMonkey branding without subscribing to the “Premier” level plan.
Typeform takes customisation one step further by allowing users to create surveys in a conversational format. This means that instead of having respondents answer questions in a linear fashion, they can interact with the survey in a more natural way. Typeform also offers a range of templates that make it easy for users to create beautiful surveys that match their brand identity.
Verdict: When it comes to customising the look and feel of surveys to match your design or brand identity, Typeform is the clear winner. However, if you’re a fan of conversational forms (and you should be if you love great response rates!), TRACX has the edge on both Typeform and SurveyMonkey.
Reporting & Analytics
If you require advanced reporting and analytics, you need to know that there are some key differences between the capabilities of the two platforms.
SurveyMonkey offers more advanced analytics than Typeform. It has powerful reporting tools that allow users to easily analyse survey results and gain insights into their data. It also allows users to export reports in multiple formats, such as PDFs or Excel spreadsheets.
Typeform is more focused on user experience than analytics. It has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to create forms or surveys quickly and efficiently. However, its reporting capabilities are limited compared to SurveyMonkey’s. While Typeform does have some basic reporting features, they don’t provide the same level of detail as SurveyMonkey’s advanced analytics tools.
Verdict: SurveyMonkey is better suited for businesses that need detailed insights into their survey results while Typeform is better for those who want a simpler solution with fewer features but a great user experience.
Integrations
Moving data between different systems can be a time-consuming and tedious process. Unless you’re using an all-in-one platform, data integrations and API access aren’t a nice-to-have - they’re an essential requirement.
SurveyMonkey offers an extensive range of integrations and API capabilities. These include popular enterprise services such as Microsoft Teams and Eloqua as well as Tableau for deeper data analysis. It also has an API available but it is only included in the Enterprise Plan and must be purchased separately.
Typeform, on the other hand, offers API access as a standard feature and integrates with hundreds of apps, including Zapier, Automate.io, Slack, Mailchimp, and HubSpot. It also supports webhooks and allows users to create custom solutions that adapt to their business needs.
Verdict: Let’s call it a draw. Both platforms have a great range of integrations and offer API access. If you’re able to pay the big bucks for SurveyMonkey’s Enterprise plan, you’ll benefit from its powerful API capabilities. If not, Typeform provides an exceptionally good range of integrations and API access as standard - and that’s more than enough for most users.
Plans & Pricing
This should be easy to compare, but it isn’t. SurveyMonkey and Typeform each offer different pricing plans with a variety of features and limitations.
How much does SurveyMonkey cost?
SurveyMonkey’s plans are broken down into Individual Plans, Team Plans, and Enterprise. The pricing changes depending on where in the world you are, to keep things simple we’ve used USD prices.
Individual
Premier Annual
- $1,428 USD billed annually ($119 USD/ month)
- 1 user
- 40,000 responses/mo
Advantage Annual
- $468 USD billed annually ($39 USD/ month)
- 1 user 15,000 responses/mo
Standard Monthly
- $99 USD/ month
- 1 user
- 1,000 responses/mo
Team
Team Premier
- $75 / user / month - Starting at 3 users, billed annually ($2,700 USD)
- 3+ users
- 100,000 responses/yr
Team Advantage
- $25 / user / month - Starting at 3 users, billed annually ($900 USD)
- 3+ users
- 50,000 responses/yr
Pricing for Enterprise plans is not available online.
Does SurveyMonkey have a free plan?
SurveyMonkey does offer a free plan, but it’s not particularly generous - expect limited features and support for just 10 responses per survey. If you’re looking to collect a meaningful amount of data regularly, you can forget about the free plan and expect to fork out for one of SurveyMonkey’s paid plans instead.
How much does Typeform cost?
Compared to SurveyMonkey, you’ll find Typeform’s pricing is refreshingly straightforward. There are three paid plans to choose from:
Basic
- $29 USD / month
- 1 user
- 100 responses/mo
Plus
- $59 USD / month
- 3 users
- 1,000 responses/mo
Business
- $99 USD / month
- 5 users
- 10,000 responses/mo
As with SurveyMonkey, pricing for Typeform’s Enterprise plan is not available without contacting the sales.
Does Typeform have a free plan?
Yes, Typeform does offer a free plan - and it is even less generous than SurveyMonkey’s. You may be able to create unlimited Typeforms, but you can only ask 10 questions per form or survey. Even worse, you’re stuck with just 10 responses per month - and that’s across all of your forms!
Verdict: It may sound trite, but the platform that offers the best value for you will ultimately depend on what your needs are.
If you’re not collecting a ton of responses, have less than 5 users, and need flexibility, Typeform is the hands-down winner. You can opt to pay monthly with no lock-in, or take advantage of their annual 16% discount.
However, if you plan to collect a large volume of data or need lots of users, SurveyMonkey may be better suited to you - just watch out for the sneaky change in responses per month/year on the Individual and Team plans.
SurveyMonkey vs Typeform vs TRACX: How to choose the best online survey tool for your business?
Ultimately, the survey tool that’s best for your business depends on what type of user you are and the features you need.
SurveyMonkey does one thing really well, and that is surveys. The business has been around for decades and has everything you need to keep your risk and compliance team happy. This is ideal for bigger businesses that can afford to invest in their survey platform.
By comparison, Typeform is modern, easier to use and more user-friendly. It’s also less of a one-trick pony, designed not just for surveys but to create almost any kind of form. The pricing is also more straightforward than SurveyMonkey, with plans that are better suited to budget-constrained businesses.
Finally, TRACX is the newcomer on the scene, and it offers a powerful survey builder as part of an all-in-one marketing toolkit. If you’re looking for more than just survey tools and need a comprehensive platform to support your marketing efforts, then TRACX might be the right choice for you.
With so many options out there, it’s hard to know which one is best suited to meet both your needs and budget. I hope that this comparison of SurveyMonkey vs Typeform vs TRACX has given you some clarity on the pros and cons of each platform and helped you make an informed decision about which one might work best for you.
Now all that’s left to do is try out whichever survey builder works best for you!
Tom Sutton
Co-founder, TRACX
Tom is the co-founder of TRACX, a no-code marketing platform that allows local business owners to collect customer feedback and create engaging marketing campaigns. With over 17 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product development, and marketing for businesses large and small, Tom is currently responsible for developing product and marketing strategies for TRACX.