SmartSurvey Review
SmartSurvey is an online survey and feedback platform for creating surveys, distributing them by link/email/web, and analyzing results with reports and dashboards.
TL;DR
SmartSurvey is a capable UK-based survey platform with strong distribution options and higher-tier extras like dashboards, API/webhooks, and sentiment/text analysis. It is best when you need governance/security and multi-channel collection, but many key capabilities are gated to paid tiers and pricing can rise quickly for teams.
Overview
SmartSurvey lets you build surveys and forms with templates, question types like NPS and free text, and logic/branching for more responsive questionnaires. You can distribute surveys via web links, email (and SMS on higher tiers), and embed/pop-up them on websites, then analyze results with charts, dashboards, and text/sentiment analysis. It is UK-based and positions itself for ongoing customer, employee, patient, and citizen feedback programmes, with higher plans adding team features, integrations, and security controls. Plan limits (responses and email invites) and access to advanced analysis and integrations vary significantly by tier.
Ease of Use 4/5
SmartSurvey’s builder feels geared toward getting a “proper” survey out quickly, with templates, AI-assisted build, and clear navigation between build, collect, and analyse. Logic and personalisation are available once you’re on paid tiers, and they cover the common patterns (skip/display logic, piping, carry-forward) without feeling overly technical. For team workflows, Growth adds multiple accounts, roles/permissions, and shared assets, which is where it starts to behave like a platform rather than a single-user tool.
Features 4/5
Feature coverage is broad: strong distribution options (web links, email, embeds and pop-ups, plus SMS on Scale), quotas, tracking links, and a decent set of analysis tools including cross tabs and trend charts. Text analysis and sentiment analysis are positioned as key strengths on Advanced+, and Scale adds thematic analysis and auto-translation for surveys and responses. Integrations are tiered: Growth includes API and webhooks plus native integrations (e.g., Slack, Teams, Monday.com, Google Analytics/Tag Manager), while some ecosystem connectors (like Salesforce) are listed as add-ons.
Key Features
Lacking Features
Looks & Design 4/5
Surveys can be branded with logo and themes on paid plans, and Scale adds removal of “Powered by SmartSurvey” plus white-label options as add-ons. We like that it calls out accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) and mobile-friendly surveys, which matters for public sector and large-audience programmes. The overall respondent experience looks more “professional survey” than “conversational form”, so if you want a Typeform-style flow you’ll likely need a different tool.
Customer Satisfaction 4/5
SmartSurvey positions itself as UK-based, security-forward, and aimed at ongoing feedback programmes rather than one-off polls, which matches the feature set (dashboards, permissions, audit/security logs). Support is advertised across plans, with live chat/phone/email on paid tiers and a help guides/knowledge base. If you’re in a regulated environment, the UK/EU hosting plus ISO27001 and the menu of compliance options (SSO, IP controls, prevent indexing) are the kind of operational details we like to see.
SmartSurvey Pricing 2.5/5
The free Basic plan is usable for very small tests (1 user, 100 responses/month, 15 questions), but most of what teams consider “standard” (branding, logic, exports) is pushed into Advanced. Advanced starts at £70/month on annual billing (or £90 month-to-month) for a single user, then Growth moves to per-user pricing (£100/user/month annual or £125/user/month monthly), which can climb quickly for teams. Scale is custom and includes several important items as add-ons (e.g., case management, full white labelling), so budget forecasting works best if you confirm exactly which extras you’ll need up front.
Basic
- 1 user
- 100 responses / month
- Core question types
- Build with AI
- Accessible & mobile friendly surveys
- 130+ survey templates
- GDPR compliant
- Export results summary to Word
Advanced
- Billed annually £840
- 1 user
- 30,000 responses / year (or 2,000 / month)
- 90,000 email invites / year (or 6,000 / month)
- Advanced question types
- Custom branding (logo + theme)
- Logic & personalisation
- Custom thank you message
- Sentiment analysis
- Trend charts
- Text analysis & word clouds
- Export (XLS, CSV, PDF, Word)
- Live chat / Email / phone support
Advanced
- Monthly, cancel anytime
- 1 user
- 2,000 responses / month
- 6,000 email invites / month
- Advanced question types
- Custom branding (logo + theme)
- Logic & personalisation
- Custom thank you message
- Sentiment analysis
- Trend charts
- Text analysis & word clouds
- Export (XLS, CSV, PDF, Word)
- Live chat / Email / phone support
Growth
- Billed annually £1,200
- 1+ users
- 90,000 responses / year (or 4,000 / month)
- 180,000 email invites / year (or 12,000 / month)
- Multiple user accounts
- Dashboards
- Default answers, pre-population
- Set user permissions & limits
- Share surveys & dashboards
- Shared survey/question templates
- Shared branded assets
- User security logs
- Two factor authentication
- API & Webhooks
- Integrations
Growth
- Monthly, cancel anytime
- 1+ users
- 4,000 responses / month
- 12,000 email invites / month
- Multiple user accounts
- Dashboards
- Default answers, pre-population
- Set user permissions & limits
- Share surveys & dashboards
- Shared survey/question templates
- Shared branded assets
- User security logs
- Two factor authentication
- API & Webhooks
- Integrations
Scale
- Custom users
- Custom responses / year
- Custom email invites / year
- Multiple admins
- Thematic analysis
- Unlimited dashboards
- Auto translate (surveys & responses)
- Conditional email triggers
- Access to SMS invitations
- Prevent search engine indexing
- Hide “Powered by SmartSurvey”
- Add-ons available (e.g., case management, reputation management, full white labelling)
- Security & compliance options listed (e.g., custom contract/DPA/SLA, SSO, HIPAA compliance)
Pros & Cons of SmartSurvey
Pros
- • Permanent free plan (100 responses/month)
- • Good spread of distribution options (link, embed, pop-ups; email on paid tiers)
- • Logic and personalisation available on paid plans
- • Text analysis and sentiment analysis listed on Advanced+
- • Dashboards, permissions, and security logs on Growth+
- • API and webhooks on Growth+
- • UK/EU hosting and ISO27001 mentioned (useful for compliance-led teams)
Cons
- • Free plan is very limited (100 responses/month, 1 user, 15 questions per survey)
- • Key capabilities (branding, logic, exports) are mostly paid-tier features
- • Team pricing can rise quickly (per-user Growth pricing)
- • Top-tier Scale pricing is custom, with several important items as add-ons
The Verdict
SmartSurvey makes sense for organizations that want a UK-hosted survey tool with GDPR-focused positioning, multi-channel distribution (link, embed, pop-ups, email), and a clear upgrade path to dashboards, integrations, and tighter security controls. The free plan is fine for very small pilots, but the response limits are low and you will likely need to upgrade for branding, logic, and analysis features. Teams running ongoing customer/employee/patient/citizen programmes will get the most value from Advanced/Growth and above, especially if they need API/webhooks or dashboards. If you mainly want a generous free tier, or you need advanced analysis without stepping up to higher pricing, it is worth comparing alternatives.
This review has been researched and written following our strictly standardized OnlineSurveyTools methodology. We believe in transparency and consistency.
- We create real accounts and build actual forms.
- We test specific features like logic, payments, and integrations.
- We evaluate the respondent experience on mobile and desktop.
- We verify pricing claims and support responsiveness.