Free and low-cost online survey tools for your business

3-minute read

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 May 2024

Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration

Interceptum

Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration

Interceptum a Canadian online survey provider, enables you to create and distribute surveys in multiple ways. You can share them on social media, send them via email or invite website visitors to participate based on the amount of time they’ve spent on your website. Interceptum stores data in Canada and supports designing surveys and collecting 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 lets you build surveys ranging from simple questionnaires to more complex surveys with advanced features like validation rules, branching logic and quotas. You can either subscribe to one of their paid plans for the cloud-hosted version or download the free, open-source version on your own server.

QuestionPro

Free English French English support French support Data stored in Canada iOS app. Android Social integration

QuestionPro helps you gather feedback from customers or employees through surveys sent via email, website embeds and social networks. Its unique AI assistant, QxBot, simplifies survey creation, streamlining the process and getting you the insights you need faster. 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 user-friendly platform that lets you create online surveys in any language. You can start with the free version, then upgrade for more advanced features like question skipping and customized response displays as your business grows. Its AI-powered features can help you write better questions and identify any issues before you send your survey out. Plus, SurveyMonkey integrates with popular tools you already use, minimizing the need to switch between platforms.

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.