Buyer guide
Best survey software for HR teams
Seven tools for pulse, engagement, onboarding and exit surveys, judged on reaching every employee, protecting anonymity and fitting your identity provider. Public pricing as of October 2026.
What is the best survey software for HR teams?
HR teams need to reach every employee, protect anonymity and sign in through the company identity provider. Claform, our product, sends pulse and engagement surveys by email, SMS, Slack or Microsoft Teams, offers SAML single sign-on on Business, and compares departments with its AI Analyst. Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey serve large programs, Microsoft Forms is free inside Microsoft 365, and SurveySparrow and QuestionPro add 360 and workforce products.
How we chose
The same four criteria as our alternatives pages, weighted for what this kind of team needs most.
Public information only
Each tool is described by what its own public site says it does. We do not run competitor accounts or infer features from reviews.
Public pricing, hedged
Where a tool lists prices, we quote the starting point; where it does not, we say so and link to their pricing page rather than guess.
Breadth of the job
Tools that build the survey, send it to people and analyse the answers rank above tools that only do one of those steps.
Clear plans and a free way to try
A free plan or trial and plans you can buy without a sales call count in a tool's favour, because most teams want to test before they commit.
Checked October 2026. Plans and features change often; a dash in the table means we could not confirm something, not that the feature is missing.
Sources and date: tool descriptions and prices as listed on each vendor's public site, checked October 2026. Claform details come from our own plan catalogue. Tell us if something changed
The 7 best picks for HR teams, ranked
Claform comes first because it is ours. Every tool below gets the same sections, and the pick line says why it fits this audience.
Why we list ourselves first
This is Claform's website, so Claform leads the list. We keep the rest honest: every tool gets the same four sections, competitor facts come from their public pages, and the comparison table marks anything we could not confirm with a dash instead of a cross.
1. Claform
Our product- What it is
- Claform is an AI survey, form and quiz platform. Clue drafts a survey from a prompt, a document or a link; one survey goes out by email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, QR code, kiosk, Slack or Microsoft Teams; and the AI Analyst explains the results and shows the statistic behind each finding.
- Best for
- Teams that want to build, send and understand surveys in one product, with public prices and no sales call.
- Why it fits
- Reaches desk and frontline staff by email, SMS, Slack or Microsoft Teams, with SAML single sign-on on Business, an AI Analyst that compares departments and locations, and workflows that alert a manager when a pulse score drops.
- Standout features
- Eight channels from one survey: email and QR codes on Free, SMS from Starter, WhatsApp and voice from Professional.
- AI Analyst with key drivers, segment comparisons and the test statistic shown next to each finding.
- Workflows that turn a low score into an alert, a ticket or a follow-up, tested with a dry run first.
- Pricing starting point
- Free plan at $0 with no credit card. Starter $25, Professional $55 (7-day free trial), Business $149 per month; Enterprise is custom.
- Which Claform plan you need
- Free covers the AI builder, QR codes, email sharing and basic analytics. Quiz scoring, Stripe payment forms and kiosk mode with offline sync need Professional. SAML single sign-on needs Business.
2. Qualtrics
- What it is
- Qualtrics is an enterprise experience-management suite covering customer, employee, product and brand research, sold through its sales team.
- Best for
- Large organisations running many research programs that need the breadth of a full suite and a managed rollout.
- Why it fits
- The enterprise employee-experience suite for large, multi-program HR functions, quoted by its sales team.
- Standout features
- Customer, employee and market research in one suite.
- Offline app and SMS distribution, as listed on its public pages.
- iOS and Android SDKs for in-app feedback.
- Pricing starting point
- Quoted by its sales team; no public price list as of October 2026.
3. SurveyMonkey
- What it is
- SurveyMonkey is one of the best-known online survey tools, with a large question bank, templates and reporting used by teams of every size.
- Best for
- Teams that want a familiar, widely approved survey tool with a long track record.
- Why it fits
- Familiar to most employees, with engagement templates and an Enterprise plan with add-ons for larger organisations.
- Standout features
- Question bank and templates for common survey types.
- Built-in reporting with filters and exports.
- Enterprise plan with add-ons for larger organisations.
- Pricing starting point
- Free plan and paid plans; check SurveyMonkey's pricing page for current prices (October 2026).
4. Microsoft Forms
- What it is
- Microsoft Forms is the survey, quiz and poll tool inside Microsoft 365. It works with Excel, Teams and SharePoint and is already available to most Microsoft 365 users.
- Best for
- Organisations standardised on Microsoft 365 that need simple internal surveys, polls and quizzes without buying another tool.
- Why it fits
- Already inside Microsoft 365 and Teams, so quick internal polls and training quizzes cost nothing extra.
- Standout features
- Included with Microsoft 365, with a free version for personal Microsoft accounts.
- Results open in Excel; polls run inside Teams meetings.
- Quizzes with automatic grading for classrooms and training.
- Pricing starting point
- Included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions; a free version exists for personal Microsoft accounts (October 2026).
5. SurveySparrow
- What it is
- SurveySparrow is a survey platform known for conversational, chat-style surveys, with products for customer experience, employee experience and 360 feedback.
- Best for
- Teams that want chat-style surveys and recurring CX or employee pulse programs.
- Why it fits
- Chat-style surveys with a dedicated 360-degree feedback product and recurring employee pulse surveys.
- Standout features
- Conversational, chat-style survey layout.
- Recurring surveys for NPS and employee pulse.
- 360-degree feedback product for HR.
- Pricing starting point
- Free trial and paid plans; check SurveySparrow's pricing page for current prices (October 2026).
6. QuestionPro
- What it is
- QuestionPro is a survey and research platform with advanced question types, panel services and dedicated research, customer-experience and workforce products.
- Best for
- Research teams that need advanced question types and respondent panels without an enterprise-only contract.
- Why it fits
- A separate workforce product alongside its research platform, with advanced question types.
- Standout features
- Advanced question types such as conjoint and MaxDiff.
- Access to respondent panels for sampled studies.
- Separate research, CX and workforce products.
- Pricing starting point
- Free plan and paid plans; check QuestionPro's pricing page for current prices (October 2026).
7. Google Forms
- What it is
- Google Forms is the free form builder that comes with a Google account. It covers quick surveys, quizzes and sign-up forms, with answers landing in Google Sheets.
- Best for
- Quick internal polls and simple forms when the budget is zero and your team already lives in Google Workspace.
- Why it fits
- Free with Google Workspace for simple internal surveys when anonymity settings and a basic summary are enough.
- Standout features
- Free with a Google account, no plan to choose.
- Quiz mode with automatic grading.
- Responses flow into Google Sheets.
- Pricing starting point
- Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace plans.
Compared on what matters for HR teams
Only the features this audience asks about. Claform cells show the plan a feature needs; other columns show what each vendor's public pages list, and a dash means we could not confirm it.
| Feature | Claform | Qualtrics | SurveyMonkey | Microsoft Forms | SurveySparrow | QuestionPro | Google Forms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAML single sign-on | Business plan | —(Not confirmed by us) | Enterprise plan(On some plans or as an add-on) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) |
| SMS surveys | From Starter | Listed(Listed) | Enterprise add-on(On some plans or as an add-on) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) |
| WhatsApp and voice surveys | From Professional | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) |
| Quizzes | Scoring on Professional | —(Not confirmed by us) | Listed(Listed) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | Listed(Listed) |
| Free plan | Free forever, no card | —(Not confirmed by us) | Free plan(Listed) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | —(Not confirmed by us) | Free(Listed) |
Survey software for HR teams: common questions
Which employee survey tool supports single sign-on?
Claform offers SAML single sign-on on the Business plan at $149 a month, alongside two-factor sign-in for every account and audit logs on Business. As of October 2026, SurveyMonkey, Typeform and Jotform list single sign-on on their Enterprise plans; Microsoft Forms uses your Microsoft 365 sign-in.
How do I reach frontline employees who do not check email?
Send the survey by SMS, post it in Slack or Microsoft Teams, or print a QR code for the break room. Claform does all of these from one survey: QR codes on Free, SMS from Starter, Slack and Teams through its integrations. A kiosk tablet in kiosk mode on Professional works for shared workplaces.
Can employee surveys be anonymous?
Claform surveys have an anonymous-responses setting that collects answers without identifying the respondent. How anonymity, minimum group sizes and segment comparisons are handled differs by vendor, so check each one's documentation before you promise employees anything.
How often should HR run pulse surveys?
Many teams run a short pulse monthly or quarterly and a longer engagement survey once a year. The tool matters less than the follow-up: Claform's workflows can alert a manager when a score drops and the AI Analyst compares departments over time, so each round leads to an action.
Is there free employee survey software?
Microsoft Forms is included with Microsoft 365 and Google Forms is free with Google Workspace, which covers simple internal polls. Claform's Free plan is $0 with no credit card; SAML single sign-on, needed by most HR programs, is on Business.
Pages for this work
Solution pages, pricing and the other buyer guides.
- HR & PeoplePulse, onboarding, exit surveysRead more
- Employee EngagementPulse, 360, engagementRead more
- Quizzes & AssessmentsScoring, timers, certificatesRead more
- Claform pricingFree, Starter, Professional, Business and Enterprise, with what each includes.Read more
- Best survey software for small businessWhat is the best survey software for a small business?Read more
- Best survey software for nonprofitsWhat is the best survey software for nonprofits?Read more
- Best survey software for market researchWhat is the best survey software for market research?Read more
- All alternatives and buyer guidesEvery ranked list and buyer guide in one place.Read more
Start with the first pick
Claform's Free plan needs no credit card. Take the product tour with sample data if you would rather look first.