10 Best Employee Survey Tools Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 30 tools reviewed.
Get free help from our HR software advisors to find your match.
Employee surveys are a great way to get a read on employee engagement levels and unearth any issues that are prohibiting people from working to their full potential.
However, as you may have experienced, developing effective surveys is easier said than done.
Employee survey tools will help you to increase response rates, get richer responses, and analyze the data to take action.
Based on my experience using similar tools, in this article I review some of the top employee survey tools explaining what they're best for and the standout features of each tool to help you find the best fit for your specific needs.
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Best Employee Survey Tools: Pricing Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes pricing details for my top employee survey tool selections to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Best tool for global, multilingual surveys | Free demo available | Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people | Website | |
2 | Best for real-time actionable feedback insights | 14-day free trial | From $2/employee/month | Website | |
3 | Best for anonymous feedback | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $5/user/month | Website | |
4 | Best for performance and talent development | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
5 | Best for science-backed survey templates | Free demo available | From $11/seat/month | Website | |
6 | Best for connecting feedback with development | 14-day free trial | From $8/user/month | Website | |
7 | Best for real-time employee surveys | Free plan available | From $19/month | Website | |
8 | Best for enterprise surveys | Free plan available | From $34/month (billed annually) | Website | |
9 | Best for customizable pulse surveys | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
10 | Best for eNPS surveys | 30-day free trial + free demo available | From $1/user/month + free plan available | Website |
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HiThrive
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6 -
Guru
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6 -
Absorb LMS
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6
Best Employee Survey Tool Reviews
Here’s a brief description of each employee survey platform to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Deel is a global workforce management platform with employee surveys features as part of their HR operations package.
Why I picked Deel: Deel makes it easy to create effective surveys in the traditional sense and also quick polls in Slack. They have a range of templates to choose from to assess different perspectives and tools to help sort and analyze the responses.
Deel Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a Slack integration to 1) create quick Slack surveys and polls that get 90% response rates on average and 2) automatically nudge people to complete surveys.
Integrations include Ashby, BambooHR, Expensify, Greenhouse, Hibob, Netsuite, Okta, OneLogin, Quickbooks, SCIM, Xero, Workday, and Workable. They also have an Open API that supports additional custom integrations as well.
ThriveSparrow is a straightforward, user-friendly employee engagement and recognition platform.
Why I picked ThriveSparrow: Their employee engagement suite has multiple tools to get a read on employee sentiment including a huge bank of visually appealing and research backed surveys.
ThriveSparrow Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include the ability to quickly create surveys and customize them to your specific needs as well as AI-powered tools to help analyze data and create action plans for improvements.
Integrations include Slack, Bob, BambooHR, ADP Workforce Now, Zoho People, Sage HR, Paychex, ChartHop, Dayforce, Kenjo, Lano, Remote, Ping Identity, Okta, and many others.
Workleap Officevibe is a leading employee experience tool used to monitor engagement and recognize good work.
Why I picked Workleap Officevibe: The platform has a range of surveys and tools to provide HR leaders and managers with real-time employee feedback and insights. This includes a bank of 122 pulse surveys, a custom survey builder, eNPS and DEIB surveys.
Workleap Officevibe Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include the ability to easily filter for engagement metrics, type, tone and the AI-powered real-time reporting feature that helps HR leaders and executives get a more complete view of what employees are feeling.
Integrations are available with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Mitratech Trakstar is a hiring and talent development platform offering a wide range of features and tools designed for attracting and retaining talent, employee development, and workforce engagement.
Why I picked Mitratech Trakstar: With Mitratech Trakstar’s employee engagement survey platform, HR leaders and talent development teams gain the resources they need to create better employee experiences. They can start a company-wide pulse survey using questions from the integrated survey library or create custom questionnaires to match current requirements and the kind of data they want to collect. HR can also send surveys automatically, covering any topic they want.
Mitratech Trakstar Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include an auto-schedule function that helps HR professionals collect employee feedback on a preset schedule, and response tracking that uncovers the true sentiments within their workforce at any given time. Users can also prompt check-ins at any time to maintain employee engagement and make sure individual employees and team members across the entire organization can voice their opinions on the company’s future initiatives.
Other features include 360-degree performance reviews and surveys to support the performance review process. HR professionals can set who has access to the 360-degree feedback, with the employee's manager retaining full control over the type of information that will be shared with the employee, such as constructive feedback or peer feedback.
Integrations include ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Google Workspace, Paylocity, Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, and others.
Lattice is comprehensive people management platform that offers tools for engagement, performance management, and people development.
Why I picked Lattice: Lattice's survey suite includes multiple survey types using science-backed templates. These range from pulse to eNPS, as well as industry benchmarking and AI analysis with actionable recommendations.
Lattice Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include the real-time reporting and analysis function with the ability to leave comments and responses and the feature to automatically send relevant surveys at set period e.g. onboarding and offboarding.
Integrations include Slack, Okta, Microsoft Outlook, OneLogin, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure, Google Workspace, Jumpcloud, ADP, BambooHR, Namely, Personio, Gusto and others. Or you can access the Lattice API for further connections.
Leapsome is a cloud-based HR platform that offers employee performance management, engagement surveys, and personalized learning and development solutions.
Why I picked Leapsome: Leapsome offers a range of survey tools to create, administer, and analyze surveys. This then integrates with the rest of the Leapsome suite to develop and deliver new talent initiatives.
Leapsome Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include customizable survey questions and the ability to create surveys that can be anonymous or identified depending on the business's needs. Once the survey is launched, HR teams and managers can track responses in real-time and use AI to help analyze results including sentiment analysis of open-ended questions.
Integrations include Workday, BambooHR, Personio, Slack, MS Teams, Jira Software, calendar apps, and others.
SurveyLegend is a digital platform designed for creating and distributing surveys, forms, and polls, offering a variety of templates and customization options to suit different needs.
Why I picked SurveyLegend: It supports multilingual surveys, allowing for a broader audience reach, and offers white label surveys for brand consistency. The platform also features advanced options like logic and branching, real-time data analytics, and offers white label surveys for brand consistency.
SurveyLegend Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for creating surveys, and a variety of question types and the ability to add multimedia elements. You can also export your survey data into Google Sheets for further analysis, or enable automated email marketing campaigns based on your survey responses.
Integrations include Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and Salesforce.
Jotform Enterprise is a robust online form builder and survey automation solution focused on ease of use and better collaboration. Its easy-to-use tools make signing waivers, collaborating with coworkers, and collecting form responses straightforward.
Why I picked Jotform Enterprise: HR teams can use Jotform Surveys to conduct employee surveys and then analyze the responses to gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the company in terms of its human resources and culture. Employees have the option to provide survey responses anonymously, while HR personnel are given the ability to share those survey responses anonymously as well.
Jotform Enterprise Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a drag-and-drop form and survey builder that lets you add survey questions and set up conditional logic according to the data type you want to capture. The cloud-based software allows multiple individuals to edit a survey or form simultaneously. Businesses can also access offline forms, surveys for product feedback and reviews, collaboration tools, approvals for automated workflows, and conditional logic for a personalized customer form experience.
Additional features include workflow automations, conditional logic, e-signatures on documents with automated signing orders, webhooks, API, and helpful ways to integrate feedback into your workflow.
Integrations include Box, OneDrive, Airtable, Google Drive, PayPal Business, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Slack, HubSpot, monday.com, and other apps.
Vantage Circle is a comprehensive employee engagement platform designed to improve company culture and boost workforce motivation through a variety of tools and services.
Why I picked Vantage Circle: The platform's survey tool, Vantage Pulse, offers the ability to create and manage surveys that are fully customizable, allowing organizations to tailor questions to their specific needs. This flexibility ensures that the feedback collected is relevant and actionable. Additionally, Vantage Pulse offers real-time feedback and insights, moving beyond the traditional annual surveys. This continuous feedback mechanism enables organizations to make quick, informed decisions,
Vantage Circle Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a robust rewards and recognition platform that allows for automated rewarding, budgeting, on-spot recognition, and peer-to-peer recognition. It also offers a gamified corporate wellness platform, a points-based cashback system, and bulk gifting solutions.
Additionally, its employee perks feature includes exclusive employee discounts with popular vendors, which can help boost employee satisfaction.
Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workplace, Yammer, Okta, Azure, Office 365, People Strong, Zoho People, Freshteam, and SAP SuccessFactors.
The tool has a library of expert-designed surveys you can quickly customize and roll out. These include eNPS, engagement, and employee lifecycle surveys. Employee lifecycle surveys are particularly useful because they allow you to track engagement levels throughout someones time at your company. This could help you spot opportunities to improve employee retention.
There are also plenty of analytics tools to provide insight into how your people are feeling. The tool stands out because it also highlights ways you can increase employee engagement, for example by highlighting when you may benefit from improving employee recognition.
The tool integrates with plenty of tools like Slack, Teams, and many popular HR tools.
Other Employee Survey Tools
Here are a few more worthwhile options to help you collect employee feedback that didn’t make the list of the best employee survey tools list:
- Culture Amp
With a template library
- SurveyMonkey
For prebuilt forms and automated deployment
- IntelliHR
For pulse checks and sentiment analysis
- TINYpulse Engage
With meeting agendas and recognition
- SurveyLab
Drag-and-drop survey builder
- Teamspective
For integration with Slack or Teams
- Beams
For providing recommendations to employees
- Qualtrics XM
For analyzing large amounts of survey data
- Betterworks
For additional employee engagement features
- Zoho Survey
For real-time insights and analytics
- Startquestion
Easy-to-use survey tool
- ChartHop
For contextual survey answers
- Guusto
For targeting specific employee sub-groups
- WorkTango
For identifying survey themes
- ClearCompany
For uncovering employee sentiment
- PerformYard
For integrated performance and engagement
- Motivosity
For modular add-ons
- Sogolytics
For employee feedback analysis
- SurveySparrow
For engaging mobile-first survey designs
- Eletive
For real-time pulse surveys
Related HR Software Reviews
If you still haven't found what you're looking for here, check out these other related tools that we've tested and evaluated:
- HR Software
- Payroll Software
- Recruiting Software
- Employer of Record Services
- Applicant Tracking Systems
- Workforce Management Software
Selection Criteria for Employee Survey Tools
Selecting the best employee survey tool is a nuanced process that hinges on matching your specific needs and challenges with the features and functionalities that will help you address them effectively.
My approach to evaluating these tools is grounded in personal trials and in-depth research, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of each platform's capabilities.
I also drew on my personal experience collecting employee feedback via surveys when I was an HR administrator.
In that role, I was the one preparing and analyzing surveys to improve the employee experience.
This helped me to pinpoint the standout features that will give you the best return on your investment and simplify the process for you.
Here’s a summary of the evaluation criteria I used to make my final selections for the best employee survey tools:
Core Employee Survey Tool Functionalities (25% of total score): To be considered for inclusion in this list, each tool had to cover the following use cases first:
- Pre-set questions, plus tools to design your own surveys or questionnaires
- The ability to collect anonymous feedback to ensure honest responses
- Tools to analyze employee sentiment to gauge workplace morale
- The ability to track changes in employee satisfaction over time
- Tools to identifying specific areas for organizational improvement.
Additional Standout Features (25% of total score): To help me narrow in on the best employee survey tools out of the numerous options available, I also took note of any unique features, including:
- Advanced sentiment analysis techniques that can parse nuanced feedback
- Comprehensive benchmarking tools that offer industry-specific comparisons
- Real-time notifications for immediate action on critical feedback
- Innovative action planning modules that guide effective response strategies
- Deep integration capabilities with broader HR tech ecosystems
Usability (10% of total score): To evaluate the usability of each feedback tool, I considered the following:
- Intuitive design that requires minimal training to use effectively
- Clear, logical navigation paths through the survey creation and distribution process
- Responsive design that works seamlessly across devices
- Visual analytics dashboards that simplify complex data interpretation
- Either dedicated mobile apps or a mobile-friendly user interface that makes participation easy on both Android and iOS mobile devices
Onboarding (10% of total score): To get a sense of each software provider's customer onboarding process, I considered the following factors:
- Quick setup processes and clear guidance for first-time users
- Comprehensive training materials such as videos, interactive tutorials, chatbots, or other documentation
- Pre-loaded templates that you can customize to your specific needs, including adding your company branding, to speed up onboarding
- Support for migrating employee data into the new platform
Customer Support (10% of total score): To evaluate the level of customer support each vendor offered, I considered the following:
- The availability of multi-channel support, including email, phone, and live chat
- The existence of a self-service knowledge base or other self-help resources to speed up troubleshooting
- The overall quality, responsiveness, and helpfulness of the support team during customer onboarding and post-purchase, as inferred from customer reviews
Value for Price (10% of total score): To gauge the value of each software, I considered the following factors:
- The availability of free trials or demos to test the software before purchasing
- Competitive and transparent pricing models that reflect the software's feature depth and explain which features are included at each level
- Tiered pricing plans that cater to different business sizes, from small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) up to enterprise-level organizations
Customer Reviews (10% of total score): Evaluating customer reviews is the final element of my selection process, which helps me understand how well a product performs in the hands of real users. Here are the factors I considered:
- Whether a product has consistently high ratings across multiple review platforms, indicating a broad level of user satisfaction
- Specific praises, criticisms, or trends in customer feedback that indicate the software's strengths or areas for improvement
- Whether customer feedback specifically mentions issues with ease of use, customer support responsiveness, or lacking features
Using this assessment framework, I was able to identify the employee survey tools that go beyond basic requirements to offer additional value through unique features, intuitive usability, smooth onboarding, effective support, and overall value for price.
How to Choose Employee Survey Tools
As covered, the right employee survey tool can help you collect valuable insights to improve the employee experience.
To help you figure out which tool best fits your specific needs, keep the following points in mind:
- What problem(s) are you trying to solve - Start by identifying the challenges you're trying to overcome i.e. creating different surveys types, analyzing and sharing responses, or surveying multi-language groups.
- Who will need to use it - To evaluate cost and requirements, consider who will use the software and how many licenses you'll need. For employee survey tools, you'll likely want to limit admin access to your HR administrators, with a separate level of access for your managers or other key roles. Once that's clear, it's also useful to rank the needs of your different users to identify the key priorities for your power users, managers, and employees, to ensure they're all met.
- What other tools it needs to work with - Clarify what tools you're replacing, what tools are staying, and the tools you'll need to integrate with, such as HR management systems, performance management systems, and communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- What outcomes are important - Review the capabilities you want to gain or improve, and how you will measure success. For example, you may want to collect more comprehensive feedback, give your employees more of a voice, or get feedback on specific issues. You can compare survey features until you’re blue in the face, but if you aren’t thinking about the outcomes you want to achieve, you could waste a lot of valuable time.
- How it would work within your organization - Consider the software selection alongside your existing workflows and systems. Evaluate what's working well, and any problem areas that need to be addressed.
Trends in Employee Survey Tools for 2025
As more organizations recognize the importance of employee feedback for fostering engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, the demand for sophisticated survey tools has surged.
This demand, in turn, drives innovation, leading to the development of features that are more intuitive, comprehensive, and aligned with the needs of modern workplaces.
Here are several trends that are impacting employee survey tools currently:
- Integration with Collaboration Platforms: There's a clear trend towards integrating employee survey tools with popular collaboration platforms like Slack to run quick polls. This integration facilitates real-time feedback and makes it easier for employees to participate in surveys without disrupting their workflow.
- Advanced Sentiment Analysis: The ability to analyze open-ended responses through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies is rapidly evolving. Many tools now offer sophisticated sentiment analysis features that can accurately gauge the mood and emotions behind employee feedback, providing deeper insights into employee satisfaction and engagement levels. This advancement indicates a move towards more qualitative analysis, allowing HR professionals to understand not just what their employees are saying, but how they feel.
- Customizable and Adaptive Surveys: Flexibility in survey design is becoming increasingly important. Tools that offer customizable and adaptive surveys—where questions can change based on previous answers—are gaining popularity. This allows for more personalized survey experiences, which can improve response rates and the quality of feedback collected.
- Actionable Insights and Recommendations: Beyond collecting and analyzing feedback, many employee engagement survey tools now provide actionable insights and recommendations to tackle issues identified and inform strategies and future decision-making.
- Employee Well-being Focus: Another new functionality that's gaining traction is an increased emphasis on employee well-being. Some tools have introduced features specifically designed to assess and support mental health, work-life balance, and overall well-being. This includes well-being surveys, mood trackers, and resources for mental health support. The rise of this feature reflects a broader recognition of the importance of employee health in the workplace.
Overall, these trends highlight a broader evolution towards more integrated, intelligent, and employee-centric survey tools.
As organizations continue to tackle the challenges of modern workplace dynamics, the demand for tools that can provide deep, actionable insights into employee sentiment will only grow.
What are employee survey tools?
Employee survey tools are digital platforms that help collect and analyze surveys to gather feedback on elements such as employee engagement, satisfaction, and performance. They help organizations understand employee sentiment, identify challenges, and make data-driven improvements. Common features include customizable surveys, real-time analytics, AI-driven insights, and benchmarking capabilities.
Benefits of Employee Survey Tools
Employee survey tools will help you collect valuable employee feedback to help you improve the workplace for current and future workers. Key benefits include:
- Identify and Solve Organizational Challenges: Helps pinpoint issues in leadership, workload, work-life balance, and career development.
- Improve Employee Engagement and Retention: Helps identify what motivates employees and what drives dissatisfaction.
Enhance Workplace Culture: Measures alignment with company values and mission and encourages open communication and transparency. - Supports Data-Driven Decision Making: Provides real-time insights into employee sentiment and, in some cases, uses AI and analytics to predict trends and suggest improvements.
- Helps foster a Culture of Continuous Feedback: Pulse surveys and real-time feedback promote ongoing dialogue and an open culture of feedback.
Features of Employee Survey Tools
Beyond the basic functionality of distributing and collecting employee surveys, here are some other key features too look out for that can greatly impact a tool's effectiveness:
- Survey Builder: This feature helps you create custom surveys with multiple choice, sliding scale, and other types of employee survey questions. There may also be a bank of customizable survey templates you can draw from.
- Different Formats: Most systems support different types of employee surveys, like pulse surveys, questionnaires, assessments, feedback forms, or polls. Some platforms provide anonymous survey options and real-time feedback tools, too.
- Benchmarks: Many tools provide benchmark data to help you contextualize your survey results based on factors like your industry, company size, location, and more.
- Survey Reports: Survey reports help you measure key metrics like employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), job satisfaction, employee well-being, response rates, etc. to help you discover insights from your data.
- Real-Time Analytics: This includes dashboards that provide real-time insights on engagement levels, and help you track trends over time to see how new initiatives and changes are impacting your workforce.
- Performance Management: Some platforms also have features to help monitor and manage employee performance, such as 360-degree feedback forms, 1-1 check-ins, and goal-setting tools.
- Anonymity and Confidentiality: Employees are more likely to share genuine feedback if they believe their identities are protected, leading to more accurate insights into workplace sentiment.
- Sentiment Analysis: This feature automatically gauges the tone of responses to help you identify the overall mood of the workforce, highlighting areas of concern or satisfaction without manual analysis.
- Multi-Channel Distribution: By allowing employees to respond through their preferred medium, whether it's mobile, tablet, or desktop, companies can increase participation rates.
- Action Planning Tools: To help you make the most out of the data you've collected, many systems include tools to translate feedback into actionable strategies. This helps organizations make concrete changes that improve employee satisfaction, which is the ultimate goal of collecting feedback.
By prioritizing a survey tool with these features, you'll be able to make informed decisions that boost employee satisfaction and, ultimately, drive organizational success.
Costs & Pricing for Employee Survey Tools
Survey tools come in various plans and pricing options, each designed to meet different organizational needs, from small startups to large enterprises. Understanding the specifics of each plan will help you select the most suitable option for your organization, ensuring you get the functionality you need at a price that fits your budget.
Plan Comparison Table for Employee Survey Tools
Plan Type | Average Price | Price Per User | Common Features |
---|---|---|---|
Free | $0 | $0 | Basic survey functionalities, limited questions and responses, and basic analytics |
Basic | $5 - $40 per month | $2 - $5 per user/month | Enhanced survey capabilities, unlimited questions, advanced analytics, and email support |
Professional | $50 - $150 per month | $5 - $10 per user/month | All Basic features, plus integration capabilities, custom branding, advanced analytics, and priority support |
Enterprise | Custom pricing | Quote based | All Professional features, plus advanced security features, dedicated support, and custom integrations |
When selecting a plan, consider both your immediate needs and potential future requirements. Starting with a basic plan and scaling up as your organization grows and your needs become more complex is a practical approach. Remember, the right employee engagement survey tool can significantly impact your ability to gather valuable feedback and improve employee satisfaction and engagement.
Employee Survey Tools: FAQs
Do you still have some questions about what employee survey tools have to offer? These answers to frequently asked questions should get you sorted out: