Whether in business, education, or personal scenarios, asking questions is a great way to gain more insight from your target audience. If you want to know how your customers feel about your business or what your students want to learn about most in the next unit, asking your audience questions using online surveys can help you get the data you need to make decisions.
Microsoft Forms and SurveyMonkey are two leading solutions for creating online surveys and forms. Your decision about which one to use — or whether to choose another tool entirely — may come down to familiarity or price, but there are also other aspects to consider. In this comparison of Microsoft Forms vs SurveyMonkey, we point out the strengths and weaknesses of each to help you choose the right one for you.
Benefits and drawbacks of Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is a web-based app that is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. It is widely used in business and educational settings and is also available for personal use. The app is free to use for anyone with a Microsoft account (though you get more features with paid plans) and enables you to create forms, surveys, polls, and quizzes.
“With Microsoft Forms, you can identify potential new clients, find brand-new opportunities, conduct market research to boost new strategies, and assess and solve your business concerns,” says Cindy Corpis, CEO of SearchPeopleFree. While other form builders can help you achieve these goals, Microsoft Forms has some unique features worth noting.
One of the key benefits of Microsoft Forms is the ability to add branching questions, presenting only relevant information to the user. The form can skip or switch questions based on the user’s previous answers. And once the data is gathered, it’s easy to export the responses into Microsoft Excel, which is ideal for organizations that use the Microsoft suite of products.
In terms of drawbacks, Microsoft Forms only offers six different types of question formats, while other form builders provide more flexibility in this area. In addition, Microsoft Forms templates are not as customizable as other options.
Another disadvantage is the lack of save and update functionality. “Users can’t save a form to finish later or update a submitted response,” says Corpis.
Pro Tip
Jotform offers an extensive list of question formats and form elements, from rating scales to fill-in-the-blank and file upload options. It also allows users to save their progress in surveys and edit their responses at a later date.
Benefits and drawbacks of SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a leading survey builder used in business, educational, and personal settings. It offers tiers of personal and business plans and custom enterprise-level plans.
SurveyMonkey is commonly used to conduct market research on target audiences and evaluate companies’ customer experience strategies.
“If you’re doing a market research survey about your website’s user-friendliness, you’re not the first,” says Corpis. “One of the supreme benefits of using SurveyMonkey is the company’s years of experience. You can do bespoke surveys, but a lot of hard work has already been done for you.”
SurveyMonkey has a question bank feature with several built-in questions you can use as a starting point, then customize for your needs.
Another key benefit of SurveyMonkey is its ability to process the data received from respondents so that you can gain insights from the information more quickly. In terms of drawbacks, Corpis points to the survey invitation design: “Users can’t preview the invitation, and they can’t add the sender’s name. Hence, it doesn’t look very professional.”
Pro Tip
Jotform’s Report Builder lets you easily visualize and present data from your survey. You can also customize email invitations and include a sender’s name.
Microsoft Forms vs SurveyMonkey: The bottom line
To make your choice, consider your needs for surveys and online forms and how they align with the feature set of each application.
If you’re looking for an app that integrates well with the Microsoft suite of products, for example, Microsoft Forms is the clear choice. If you want an intuitive app that comes with a bank of survey questions for every scenario, then SurveyMonkey might work better for you.
After examining Microsoft Forms vs SurveyMonkey, you can review the pros and cons of each tool to determine which app is best for you. Choose the one that meets your needs and start gathering data to glean more insights from your target audience.
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