Alchemer Review (formerly SurveyGizmo) | PCMag

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) starts at $ 49 per month for the Collaborator plan, billed annually. The vendor changed its name in October 2020 and is a past choice of PCMag editors, although it continues to deliver a great feature set in an intuitive user interface (UI), albeit a bit too modal at times. Those who are comfortable with coding into its scripting system or JavaScript may be able to harness even more power than its many out-of-the-box features. While Alchemer was seen as a great tool in our roundup of online survey tools, it didn’t win our Editors’ Choice this time around, a designation that went to competitor Qualtrics instead.

Creation of surveys

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) supports form creation, including payment forms, quizzes, and surveys. A great shortcut is the ability to import specifically formatted Microsoft Word documents into a survey, assuming basic question types. I’d like to see support for Google Docs added though.

The tool has a few neat templates to get you started, but nothing to SurveyMonkey‘s scale. Starting from scratch throws you into Alchemer’s main six-tab UI which projects just a touch of whimsy with its sky-themed background and blank pages adorned with quotes.

Pages can host questions, text, or other media, as well as actions like sending an email, inserting data into a Google Sheet, or a number of customizable tasks. The questions are built into a somewhat cramped modal dialogue that updates on the main survey page even before a question is saved, but which prohibits scrolling to reference other questions or choices. It’s not as straightforward a user interface as the one offered by Qualtrics, but it does provide more context than that of SoGoSurvey or SurveyPlanet.

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) makes little assumptions about the intent of the creator. For example, like other online survey tools, it allows survey creators to add options like “None of the above” for multiple-select / checkbox questions. However, users should specify that this choice will appear at the end of the answer choices if the other choices are random. At the very least, I’d like to see the possibility of setting this as the default preference, an area of ​​capability where all packages could be improved. Alchemer supports questions with multiple “Other” fields, which is not possible in many other packages, such as Zoho Survey and competitor SoGoSurvey.

One of Alchemer’s main strengths is its logic editor, which, unlike SurveyMonkey and Toluna QuickSurveys, enables display logic based on target questions. In other words, if you want a respondent to skip a question because of a condition, other packages require you to specify that preference before reaching the question. Alchemer allows you to set this rule on the question to ignore, based on the previous questions. This is a more intuitive approach for those who do not have experience designing advanced surveys, although it could lead to inefficient survey programming. Alchemer presents a good number of clues to the designer as to whether the questions have an attached logic and whether the answers must be validated according to a rule (for example, not to choose more than three answers).

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) has several technical ways to customize surveys beyond its main user interface. These include “merge codes” to dynamically extract previous answers and answer options or respondent information, Alchemer’s own scripting language and JavaScript. Beyond the survey building section, the user interface includes a Style section to define colors and other aesthetic aspects of the survey. It also has a Test tab that estimates how long it will take to complete a survey and the fatigue it can cause for users, as well as potential issues like excessively long wording of questions and answers. I would love to see these types of “warning flags” make their way into the question building process while still being less intrusive than using SurveyMonkey.

Alchemer’s Tools menu is a bit of a mishmash that includes a lot of settings as well as options to download surveys, close surveys, and delete test responses. But it also gives access to one of Alchemer’s best features, the Bulk Editor, which provides an overview of a forest-level survey, unlike the question-level view at the forest level. tree structure. It allows you to define whether the questions should be answered by the respondents. It is not as comprehensive as Qualtrics’ Survey Flow viewer, but can be useful in ensuring, for example, that all questions need to be answered.

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) does not offer an app for performing offline surveys, but has allowed surveys to work offline in a browser, including mobile browsers, as it automatically generates responsively coded surveys. . It also offers a kiosk mode.

Reports

Alchemer has strong reporting features. Filters for criteria, such as showing results only for respondents who answered a particular question with a particular answer, can be configured globally or for individual questions. It also supports global crosstabs. Alchemer automatically creates word clouds for free text responses. Sharing controls include requiring a password to view the report or disabling the export of data to recipients.

Reports can also include charts grouping responses by segments, such as different demographics or other custom criteria based on a response, and even the results of multiple surveys, assuming they have the same survey structure. questions answers. The latter is particularly useful for tracking studies that are carried out repeatedly over time.

Price

Along with its name change, Alchemer made some changes to its prices. As mentioned, the product starts with a Contributor level which will cost you $ 49 per month or $ 300 if billed annually. Collaborator has all the basic features you’ll need, including unlimited polls and questions, 25 essential questions, and email support. Next is a professional level which costs $ 149 per month or $ 1,020 per year. This level contains everything you’ll find in Collaborator, but adds more advanced questions, updated reports and other features, as well as support available by email or phone. You will also have access to Alchemer API for all custom integration needs. For all the bells and whistles, you will need the full access plan, which costs $ 249 per month or $ 1,800 per year. This level covers everything in Professional, but adds Alchemer’s most advanced survey design and reporting tools, as well as data cleansing and custom scripts.

Finally, there is an Enterprise level. Like most of its competitors, Alchemer asks anyone interested in this level to discuss it with a sales representative before obtaining specific pricing information. For the most part, the feature set looks like Full Access, but with better support and white-glove implementation and integration services.

Alchemer has discontinued chat support, but paying customers have access to a responsive and enthusiastic support staff who don’t hesitate to code a quick (but not guaranteed) solution to obstacles. The tool also has a rich support library and user community, and often hosts in-person training seminars nationwide, including a two-day event in its hometown of Boulder, Colorado. .

Final thoughts

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) is a powerful and well-designed online survey tool that deserves your consideration. It can compete with other packages in terms of design and reporting options, but it falls slightly behind our Editors’ Choice winners in this category.