Don’t want to get caught up in the long-winded bureaucracy of corporate purchase decision making process? You might opt to stay on the free plan just to avoid the hassle. The most frustrating experience is when the free plan offers little to no value and is hardly usable unless you pass the paywall.
We’ve done a comparison of the free plans available on all form builders so you can skip the research and start building your survey with Smore today.
TL; DR
What every free form builder should have
The product should be usable in practice, even if the user is on the free plan. These four elements are what we believe a good form builder should have.
Unlimited Responses
Most survey tools put limits on how many responses you can get with their free plans. Some even cap it at just ten responses a month! But getting as many responses as possible is really important for any survey to be useful. You need lots of good data to get meaningful insights and feedback. If you can't freely communicate with your customers because of these limits, your survey won't be able to do its job properly.
Intuitive Design Functionality
Designing surveys takes a lot of effort, from coming up with the right questions to analyzing the responses. That’s why it’s so important for the survey creation process to be efficient. Survey tools should have an easy-to-use design environment that doesn’t need technical know-how or constant reference to guides. This way, you can create surveys quickly and effortlessly.
Extensive Template Library
Templates make creating surveys super efficient by cutting down on time and eliminating design worries. When you need responses fast, you can just tweak a suitable template with your specific details and send it out right away.
Engaging user experience that communicates brand identity
The biggest reason for low survey response rates is a poor customer experience. Surveys that are bland, rigid, and lack character can turn off respondents and lead to high drop-off rates. Surveys should be more than just data collection; they should be a two-way conversation between the brand and the customer. Brands should use surveys to convey their philosophies and values. That’s why having customizable interfaces and interactive survey UIs that reflect your brand's identity is so important. This includes things like customizable fonts, theme colors, transition effects, and embedding features.
Smore VS SurveyMonkey
✔️Comparison Point 1: Response Limit & Quota
Smore: Unlimited Responses and Questions
Smore doesn't place any limits on the number of responses you can gather, even with our free plan. You're also welcome to create as many questions as you need. This reflects our commitment to fostering valuable conversations between businesses and customers.
Moreover, managing your data for meaningful use is made easy with our in-house analytics tools, eliminating the need for separate data extraction.
Having the flexibility to gather more responses and craft unlimited questions allows for deeper engagement with customers across various aspects. Plus, robust data analysis from ample responses helps businesses uncover insights in numerous ways. Smore is dedicated to continuing to offer these unrestricted opportunities moving forward.
SurveyMonkey: Only 10 responses and 10 questions per month
SurveyMonkey's free plan restricts users from receiving more than 10 responses per month. Its cheapest plan, costing almost $400 per year, has a quota of only 1,000 responses per month. If your company plans to conduct multiple surveys throughout the year, this is nowhere near enough, and it will pose a significant constraint on actively listening to customer voices.
Additionally, SurveyMonkey limits the number of questions you can include in a survey to 10. Conducting more in-depth satisfaction surveys or identifying and collecting hot leads requires incorporating various types of questions. Limiting this to 10 questions makes it difficult to adequately inquire about the personal information and opinions of the respondents, thereby hindering the effectiveness of the survey.
When your survey aims to generate leads, having ample, high-quality data right from the start is key to not only securing plentiful leads but also pinpointing hot leads. If you're conducting surveys to listen to VOC, having too few responses makes it challenging to gain clear insights. Insufficient results from the questions naturally limit how meaningful your analytics can be.
✔️Comparison Point 2: Ending Page
Smore: Customizable Ending Pages
With Smore's free plan, you have the freedom to design the ending page that respondents see when they submit their survey. A simple "Submission completed" doesn’t fully express gratitude for their time. Smore lets you embed images, videos, and web pages into the ending page, allowing you to share additional information related to the survey. This feature is designed with a deep understanding of enhancing customer experience.
Using these design options, you can deliver a more sincere thank-you message and guide respondents to take further actions. Keeping genuine interaction throughout the respondent’s journey can help convert them into loyal customers.
SurveyMonkey: Generic, Fixed Ending Page
SurveyMonkey’s free plan doesn’t allow for any changes to the survey completion page. Respondents are redirected to a page promoting SurveyMonkey’s services, with a simple "Thank you for completing this survey" message at the top.
Even with paid plans, you can only edit the thank-you message. You can’t design a unique ending page or display content that reflects your company’s values..
A well-designed ending page can significantly influence the respondent’s perception of the brand. Simply displaying "Thank you for your response" might not suffice. If a customer took the time and effort to complete a feedback survey, it means that they are a truly loyal customer with high level of affection towards your brand. They deserve your time and effort too. Thoughtfully crafted ending pages will convey the brand's genuine intent to communicate, fostering positive impressions and customer loyalty.
✔️Comparison Point 3: Design Customizability
Smore: Rich Customization Options
Smore stands out among survey tools for offering the most extensive customization options, even in its free plan.
Smore allows access to all types of questions even on the free plan, 21 different data collection formats in total. SurveyMonkey keeps some question types locked behind paid plans.
With Smore, you can really make your survey stand out. Add your logo, change button shapes, customize theme colors, and choose cool transition effects. You can also create unique designs for the cover and ending pages to make the whole survey experience more engaging.
Each question can have its own colors and backgrounds. This not only makes your survey look great but also helps highlight important questions and keep respondents focused.
SurveyMonkey: Limited Customization
SurveyMonkey’s free plan severely restricts customization options:
It only offers basic text formatting. The free plan does not allow changes to font styles or text colors, and background themes and layouts cannot be altered. Many useful question types, such as star ratings, sliders, and file uploads, are not available. Dropdowns and multiple text boxes are also restricted. There is also no logo insertion. Brands cannot insert their logos, limiting the ability to reflect brand identity.
Surveys that are minimally designed and lack character hinder respondent engagement. Without reflecting the brand's identity, such surveys fail to convey the company’s philosophy or values. Respondents might form a negative survey experience, leading to dropouts.
When surveys are designed with extensive customization options, they create an engaging atmosphere akin to a five-star hotel, encouraging higher response rates and more sincere answers.
Smore offers an excellent free plan that unlocks unlimited possibilities for customer conversations. If you're looking for a survey tool for your customer surveys, why not start with Smore right now?😀
