7 Best User Feedback Platforms for Customer Research in 2024

‍Customer Research in a nutshell

Customer Research – what is it exactly?

Customer research is all about trying to get inside your customers' heads to understand what they want and why they want it. It can take many techniques, from surveys and focus groups to casual conversations with individual customers. In essence, it's an effective way to collect customer insights and improve their customer experience.

Benefits of Customer Research

• It helps businesses to identify opportunities for innovation. Companies can stay ahead of the competition by keeping up with the latest trends and being aware of customer feedback.
• It provides valuable insights that can help businesses improve their offerings. By understanding the needs and wants of their target market, companies can make smarter decisions about what to offer and how to reach their customers.
• It helps companies gather customer feedback. Through customer research, companies can learn about their target market's demographics (age, gender, income level), psychographics (lifestyle, personality), geographics (region, country), behaviors (purchasing habits), and needs.
  This information can segment customers, tailor messaging, and design marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate with target customers.  

The 7 best user feedback platforms in 2024

#1 Survicate – the one that automates what’s needed

Imagine having a tool that could automate all the tedious and time-consuming tasks of customer research for you. That's precisely what Survicate offers.

You can use Survicate to capture user feedback through various digital channels such as email, in-app messages, or on your website (it supports event-triggered mobile surveys for iOS and Android). 

With this online survey software, you can create surveys without requiring programming skills. You can build, try out the survey, and match it to the look of your brand (they are responsive to all screen sizes).

You can then distribute the feedback surveys and analyze the survey responses within its dashboard using filters and respondent-level analytics. Keeping it clear and to the point—Survicate simplifies the process, not complicates it.

And, if you need help with anything, their amazing customer support team is always there to assist you.

📊 Best if

• You want a single customer feedback tool that can handle all types of user feedback.
• You want to create a robust set of integrated tools (Survicate integrates with HubSpot, Intercom, Slack, Mailchimp, and many more).
• You don't want an uphill learning curve to get customers' feedback (we offer drag and drop question types in your targeted surveys).
• You want to implement the customer feedback platform quickly and without any trouble.
• You want to make use of well-designed survey templates (+125 templates made by experts available).
• You want to build, distribute, analyze, and act on – all from one place.
• You want to send micro surveys fast and easy

💵 Pricing

Survicate offers a 10-day free trial that will let you test all of the Best Plan features.

Subscriptions start at $89 a month when billed annually. Each of the three plans accommodates different needs and offers different features, team seats, and native integrations.

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#2 UserVoice

A key feature of UserVoice is its internal feedback system, which facilitates continuous feedback transfer between sales and support teams. Although it is primarily aimed at product management teams, it can be used successfully for basic customer research as well.

UserVoice Validation allows you to employ simple microsurveys to get feedback from your users. The creation process is guided by the templated best practices (which helps ensure no feedback falls through the cracks).

📊 Best if

• Your internal stakeholders need a place to share their feedback with your product team.
• You need a product feedback portal to give users a dedicated place to share, vote on, and exchange ideas for product improvements.
• You need to create and share a product roadmap within the organization. 

💵 Pricing

The UserVoice Pro plan costs $899/year. Monthly plans are not available. The tool provides a 14-day free trial. However, it's pretty expensive if you want access to their whole UserVoice product. You must face the cost of $1,499/year, which can be a bit pricey for most businesses.

A free plan is not available.

#3 UseResponse

UseResponse offers a suite of tools—among them is Feedback Software which allows you to get suggestions and report issues from your customers and use it to improve your product. Among the software features is a feedback widget that can be customized and embedded on any website or service page.

In terms of complexity, it might not be suitable for beginners – the interface is hard to navigate, and setting up some features might be challenging. Even so, it's a valuable tool that can help you get a deeper understanding of the product.

📊 Best if

• You want to get more product ideas with the customer feedback portal.
• You need to create a private feedback community for your team.
• You want to have an intelligent voting feature to build a successful customer engagement platform. 

💵 Pricing

UseResponse offers a free 14-day trial. After that, paid plans start at $49/per agent/month. The price depends on the features you need, consult their pricing page for more information.

A free plan is not available.

#4 Hotjar

Hotjar is a customer feedback software that helps you get to know more about your users' behavior. Do you want to know where website visitors click? Or why do they leave confused?

With Hotjar, you can find out. Just place a simple piece of code on your site, and you're ready to go. You'll see how many people visit each page, where they click, what they're interested in, and more. All of this information will help you make better decisions about your website.

Plus, Hotjar offers a suggestion box that lets your customer leave feedback – and express their frustration or delight, e.g., about a particular part of the purchase process.

📊 Best if

• You want to map out the entire customer journey by creating heatmaps and doing recordings. 
• You need to improve your website feedback and its user experience (UX).
• You want to spot problems, pain points, and bugs.
• You want to get a complete overview of your customers' behaviors.

💵 Pricing

Hotjar offers four packages – from Basic (for free) to Scale ($171/mo – paid annually).

There is a customizable plan available. 

#5 Usersnap

Do you want to know how to improve your product but don't know where to start? Usersnap is a tool that might help you with that.

It's a user feedback software that emphasizes the visual feedback data – screen captures, video and voice recordings, and feedback polls that should help you increase customer satisfaction. 

If something goes wrong and your customers notice it, Usersnap will notify you. Have your customers reported any bugs? You will be the first to know. 

📊 Best if

• You want to do a screen recording or conduct a feature request form. 
• You want to examine feedback trends with theme labels to make an informed investment decision for your product.
• You want to report bugs and fix issues faster with screen captures.
• You want to manage incoming insights from one place to close the feedback loop effectively.

💵 Pricing

Usersnap has four different plans. Starter at $39/mo, Growth at $89/mo, Professional at $159/mo, and Premium at $319/mo (annual fee). All of them provide a good set of features. You can try out the feedback tool for 15 days; a credit card is not required.

A customizable plan for enterprises is available. Unfortunately, Usersnap doesn't offer a free plan.

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#6 Podium

Podium is a feedback management tool for helping the local businesses get actually on the podium. Its easy-to-use interface (designed to be friendly to beginners) enables you to manage your relationships with customers.

This tool lets you manage all your reviews from one place, so you can maintain a good online reputation and provide a personalized customer experience.

📊 Best if

• You want to automate review invites and manage your online reputation across multiple sites. 
• You want to increase customer retention, deliver an exceptional customer experience, and reduce staff stress.
• As a local business owner, you want to capture online reviews instantly and manage them to become more successful.
• You want to analyze customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction.

💵 Pricing

The Podium plans start from $399/mo (limited number of contacts), Pro at $599/mo. For more customized option, you need to reach out to the Sales team. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial without any strings attached.

Free and customization plans are not available.

#7 Productboard

Productboard is a feedback tool that keeps everyone in your team aligned on priorities. By centralizing customer feedback, it helps you predict your next steps and make better data-driven decisions.

It's a tool tailored to teamwork – you can assign feedback to specific team members, add it to your product roadmap, and track progress over time. It helps you to quickly identify the top-requested features and evaluate them according to business criteria. 

📊 Best if

• You want to keep your stakeholders aligned and informed 
• You want to build interactive, live roadmaps that can be tailored to the audience.
• You want to collect customer feedback to understand customers' needs better.
• You want to engage your customer community in your product plans.

💵 Pricing

There are two plans available – Essentials ($19maker/mo) and Pro ($59maker/mo), billed annually. Enterprise plan is also available upon request.

Scalable plans are provided by Productboard. A free plan is available.

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Last quick view of user feedback platforms (comparison table)

Still unsure? The table below compares all user feedback platforms mentioned above so you can make the best choice.

Get to the bottom of why with user feedback platforms

Customer research done right can give you actionable insights into not only what your customers do – but actually uncover the reasons for their behavior.

After all, this understanding is essential for making informed marketing and product decisions.

Look no further – try Survicate today for a 10-day free trial to see that collecting user feedback is effortless and provides an amazing return on investment. Also, you can foster your decision making checking our newst ranking of best customer satisfaction tools.