How SurveyMonkey makes money
Do you think of SurveyMonkey as a free survey software or as a survey platform with a portfolio of solutions and enterprise offerings? As it turns out, we can be both.
SurveyMonkey operates on a freemium business model. This means we allow users to use our most basic tools for free, while designating our more advanced features and resources to our paid plans. We also offer a suite of solutions to help customers do everything from customer satisfaction to manage grant applications.
So which features are free and which are paid? And how do users decide whether or not to use our paid services?
We’ll answer both of these questions on this page. As a side benefit, you’ll become better informed on the SurveyMonkey subscription(s) that fit your situation best.
So, what’s free?
The free side of our freemium model
Here are some of the core features we offer in our free (BASIC) plan:
- Asking a limited number of questions per survey
- Collecting a limited number of responses per survey
- Applying one filter or crosstab to your survey data
View our plans and pricing page for more information on what you get with each of our plans. Free survey software is useful for two main reasons:
1. It’s a good introduction to collecting feedback
Interested in hearing what your customers are saying about your business? Want to survey your employees to effectively track and improve their engagement over time? Of course, you do!
But maybe you’d like to start small and see what kind of value you can get from surveys first. We get it. The free features give you a taste of the survey design and analysis capabilities our platform offers. After trying them, you’ll know whether or not you want more. And if you do? You’d invest in the advanced features that come with our paid plans.
2. You can get a lot of value out of free surveys
Sometimes, especially if you’re new to surveys, you don’t need to ask a ton of questions before you move forward with a decision.
For example, if you’re surveying customers and want to know if they’re satisfied or not, you can use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question. Follow-up with an open-ended question to find out why they gave that particular rating.
The results of a simple survey like that can do a lot for you and your team. It will help you to understand what’s helping customers, and give you a better idea of the roadblocks that prevent your customer relationships from being more successful. The insights from both of these areas will serve to better guide your team’s efforts.
A lot of the surveys from people using our free plan are more casual. Free accounts are perfect for sending surveys to plan your next barbecue, decide on a vacation spot, or to learn fun facts about your coworkers.
If you’re surveying an audience that you’re close to and aren’t too serious about the responses you’ll get back, you might not need sophisticated survey design or analysis.
The paid side of our freemium model
Here are some of the features that come in our paid plans:
- Different forms of survey skip logic
- Unlimited use of filters and crosstabs
- Customizing surveys with organizations’ branding
- Exporting survey results in various formats
Organizations of all shapes and sizes use our paid survey features.
Why would a small family business all the way to a Fortune 500 corporation pay for advanced survey features?
Because they each have employees, customers, and a target market that they need to understand before they make any critical business decisions.
To get an answer, you use the following 5-point scale purchase intent question:
If the product were available today, how likely would you be to buy it?
- Extremely likely
- Very likely
- Somewhat likely
- Not so likely
- Not at all likely
Interested in learning more about these features? You can read up on each of them in our Help Center.
You’d use these features to…
- Improve the survey-taking experience (leading to more thoughtful responses)
- Analyze responses in more depth
- Enable your organization to deliver a consistent brand experience
- Easily share survey results both internally and externally
Hoping to improve collaboration on future surveys? Need to ensure that your survey data is kept secure? Enterprise licenses allow you to centrally manage and operate your surveys. Learn more →
Solutions beyond our freemium model
To recap, we primarily operate on a freemium business model. This gives you an opportunity to use us either as a free survey software or as a more comprehensive enterprise platform.
Take a step back and reflect on your own needs and wants. How can SurveyMonkey play a role in helping you make the right decisions?