User Research Tools Shortlist
Here are the top 10 user research tools I’d like to highlight out of the 19 I cover in this article:
Customer experience leaders are 3X more likely to exceed their business goals, according to a 2020 Digital Trends report by Adobe. How do you become a CX leader? Simple–by doing comprehensive user research to understand who your customers are, what problems they are facing, and how your product can best help them.
One of the best ways to gather this information is by employing a user research tool. This article explores some of the best user research tools and how they can help you learn more about your customers.
What are User Research Tools?
User research tools are software applications or platforms that support the process of conducting research to understand users' needs, behaviors, and attitudes. These tools come in various forms, including survey platforms, analytics tools, user testing software, and customer feedback tools.
User research tools are designed to help researchers gather and analyze data from users to inform the design and development of products, services, or experiences. The tools can be used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, including user demographics, preferences, opinions, and behaviors.
How I Selected the Best User Research Tools
If you're wondering how I selected the best user research tool, here's where I'll break it all down for you. First of all, I started with user research platforms that have high user review and satisfaction ratings. Then, using my experience with user experience research, I discerned what key criteria were most important for user research software and compared how each of them stacked up against the rest.
I empathize with how much time it takes to source the right software for a job. I do this work so that you don't have to. I've been using and reviewing user research tool for years so you can trust me to do the heavy lifting and compile all the facts you need to make your final decision.
Selection Criteria
After careful consideration, I've determined that these are the most important criteria when selecting the best user research platforms. Here's a brief list outlining the whats and whys of my selection.
User Interface
The user interface of user research tools plays a critical role in selecting the right tool for a research project. A well-designed user interface can enhance the usability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the research process, making it easier for researchers to collect, analyze, and interpret data. A poorly designed user interface can lead to user frustration, errors, and delays, negatively impacting the quality and accuracy of research results.
Usability
Usability is a critical factor to consider when selecting user research tools as it directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the research process. A tool that is user-friendly ensures that researchers can quickly and easily access and use its features, reducing the likelihood of errors and increasing the accuracy of research results. In contrast, a tool with poor usability can lead to frustration, confusion, and mistakes, leading to suboptimal research outcomes.
Software Integrations
Software integrations are crucial when selecting user research tools as they enable researchers to streamline their workflow and improve efficiency by connecting different tools together. Integrations important for user research tools include customer journey software, UX/UI design tools, design thinking tools, beta test management software, and more. Examples of tools you might need to connect to include Zoom (video interviews), Slack (user sourcing), Miro (brainstorming), and Typeform (form creation).
Pricing
The cost of user research tools can vary significantly, with some tools offering a range of pricing plans, including free options, while others require a substantial investment. For software like user research tools, you may be charged on a per-user or per-test basis, which is something to keep in mind as you make your final decision. A free plan is always a bonus but may result in a feature-lite version of the tool.
Key Features
- Unmoderated usability testing: Allows participants to independently complete tasks and provide feedback without the presence of a moderator.
- Session replays: Allows companies to review recordings of how real-world users interact with digital products.
- Survey creation: Allows users to create and send surveys to customers to get their insights on products and services.
- Research insight reports: Visualizations and reports for research data so product developers can glean actionable insights from user research.
- Heat maps: Visual representation of how real users interact with different features to help identify frequently-used features or trouble areas.
- Chat feature: Allows UX professionals to chat with testers for real-time interview sessions.
- Recruit participants: Source research participants according to demographic profiles that match your ideal user.
- Web testing: Test how a visitor to your website perceives and interacts with it.
- Transcription: Convert audio from recording sessions or interviews to text files automatically.
- Tree testing: Evaluates the findability and organization of information in a website or app by presenting users with a text-based version of its navigation structure.
- Benchmarking: Ability to compare the performance of a product or system to industry standards or previous iterations to evaluate its relative level of success.
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Overviews Of The 19 Best User Research Tools & Software
Here's a brief description of each user research system to showcase each tool's best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
UserTesting
Best user research tool with customer journey mapping built-in
UserTesting is a customer insights platform for gathering user feedback from digital and in-person experiences. UserTesting has an online community of testers you can tap into according to demographic categories you set yourself (age, gender, location, etc.). The software automatically generates highlight reels to help uncover patterns from numerous testing sessions.
UserTesting is the best UX research tool with a customer journey mapping feature to understand how customers use your website, product, or mobile app. You can use UserTesting to identify points of frustration that could increase churn rate. UserTesting lets you scrutinize user behavior to uncover existing customer needs you can address in product updates.
UserTesting integrates with other tools like Google Analytics, Survey Monkey, Adobe XD, and Google Calendar.
UserTesting provides pricing upon request.
Survicate
Best user research tool for surveys
Survicate is an online survey tool for measuring NPS, CSAT, CES, and other customer service aspects. It has customizable surveys that allow you to change the colors, fonts, and layouts and brand your survey to make it unique. You can use Survicate to automate surveys using customer behaviors like exit intents, length of website visits, and website scrolling speed.
Survicate has a free forever plan with limited features for up to 25 responses per month, while the pricing for the paid plans starts at $65/month/up to 250 survey responses.
Hotjar
Best user research tool with heatmapping
Hotjar helps you understand how users experience your website. It has live playbacks of user movement to monitor clicks, scrolls, and mouse cursor pathways. It can even determine where “rage clicks” happen, usually marked by multiple high-pressure clicks in one area. Hotjar has a survey tool for creating targeted surveys for users and members of online communities to understand your users better, and receive ideas and suggestions. Hotjar can also create a user suggestions box to get direct customer feedback about your website, mobile app, or product.
Hotjar is the best user research tool for heat maps. Hotjar's heatmaps let you see where users click, move, and scroll while using your website to identify the most used features. It lets you compare user behavior before and after releasing changes to assess their impact. You can also use Hotjar to identify seldom-used features to improve or replace them with better options.
Hotjar integrates with tools like Google Optimize, Segment, Optimizely, and Omniconvert. You can connect Hotjar to a paid Zapier account to access more premium apps.
Hotjar has a free forever plan with limited features, while the pricing for paid plans starts at $31/month/up to 30,000 sessions. Hotjar offers a free 15-day trial of their paid plans.
Userlytics
Best for access to a dedicated QA team
Userlytics is a usability testing platform with a global participant panel for testing your product or app. Userlytics has a custom screener for targeting a specific demographic or customer community during testing. It has UX reports for visualizing user test results, including actionable insights for improving customer experience.
Userlytics is the best user research tool with a dedicated QA team to make sure that you have the quality results you need. With the help of Userlytics' QA team, you can save time because you don't have to scrub test results. This can also help weed out unqualified respondents that might compromise the integrity of test results.
Userlytics pricing starts at $49/month/account and offers a free demo upon request.
Lucky Orange
Best user research tool for comprehensive visitor profiles
Lucky Orange is a user research tool with heat maps to track customer engagement with your website. You can record customer sessions to know how customers use your website—where they are slicking, hovering, and getting stuck. It has live chat to touch base with customers based on page behavior or traffic segmentation.
Lucky Orange is the best user research tool for fleshing out comprehensive visitor profiles. Visitor profiles keep track of customer interactions across their history with your product as well as basic data like chat logs, key events, pages viewed, when they were last online, and what (if anything) they bought.
Lucky Orange has a free version with limited features, while the pricing for paid plans starts at $18/month/account. They offer a 7-day free trial of their paid plans.
Aurelius
Best user research tool for audio-to-text transcription services
Aurelius is a user insights platform for collecting research data to assist in product improvement and prototype testing. It has a report builder feature for automatically creating research reports for customer sessions and user interviews. Aurelius lets you create highlight reels for emphasizing patterns you can share with stakeholders
Aurelius is the best UX research tool for organizing research notes. This platform can transcribe user interviews and research sessions and convert them into text files. This makes user interviews much easier to search for certain keywords; in fact, the program can even pull out highly used terms for your consideration.
Aurelius pricing starts at $49/month/account and offers a 30-day free trial.
BetaTesting
Best for access to a worldwide tester network
BetaTesting is a user research software for customer engagement data and user feedback on iOS and Android apps. You can use BetaTesting to conduct group tests by scheduling multiple users simultaneously. This UX research software has an in-app bug submission feature so participants can report errors and help you improve your tests.
BetaTesting offers access to a worldwide tester network to get feedback from real users in their native environments. They have a network of more than 350,000 testers and allow for targeting of a specific demographic like age, gender, location, education, or tech experience. BetaTesting's screening survey tool lets you refine your targeting by only admitting testers who passed pre-set qualifications.
BetaTesting pricing starts at $650/month for up to 4 tests per year.
UsabilityHub
Best user research tool for feature prioritization feedback
UsabilityHub is a remote user research software for testing how users experience your product prototypes. It has a first-click test feature to see which features a user would click on first to accomplish their task. UsabilityHub also has preference tests for determining which designs your users prefer.
UsabilityHub is the best UX research tool for creating logic-based questionnaires and product surveys. You can send MP3 or MP4 files showcasing the features of your new product and ask for feedback. It uses logic conditions to ask complex questions depending on how a test participant responds to previous questions. UsabilityHub has question filters isolating specific questions to identify specific responses, trends, and patterns within your data.
UsabilityHub has a free version with limited features, while the pricing for paid plans starts at $79/month/account.
Maze
Best user research tool for A/B ad tests
Maze is a product research platform for testing new product concepts or testing the ease-of-use for existing ones. You can use the platform to test product prototypes for usability and identify areas where you need to improve. Maze lets you use a custom domain URL to share tests and results quickly with users and product design team members.
Maze is the best user research software with a 5 Second Test feature for gauging first impressions of advertising materials. You can use this feature to see how your test audience reacts to your advertisement and make changes based on your observations. You can use this test to learn how your audience views your company to see if your advertising materials align with your branding.
Maze integrates with tools like InVision, Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD.
Maze has a free forever plan with limited features for one user, while the pricing for paid plans starts at $75/month/up to 3 users.
LogRocket
Best user research tool for session recordings
LogRocket is a frontend monitoring and product analytics software. This product analytics platform has a session replay feature for reproducing issues encountered during user sessions. You can use it to monitor frontend performance issues like page load times, browser crashes, or component rendering to see how they affect user engagement and conversion rates.
LogRocket has a free forever plan for up to 1,000 sessions. Pricing for the paid versions starts at $99/month/for up to 10,000 sessions. LogRocket offers a 14-day free trial.
The Best User Research Tools & Software Summary
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UserTesting Best user research tool with customer journey mapping built-in | Free demo available | Pricing available upon request | Visit Website |
| 2 | Survicate Best user research tool for surveys | Free plan available | From $99/month (up to 250 survey responses) | Visit Website |
| 3 | Hotjar Best user research tool with heatmapping | 15-day free trial | From $39/user/month | Visit Website |
| 4 | Userlytics Best for access to a dedicated QA team | No free trial | Plans start at $49/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 | Lucky Orange Best user research tool for comprehensive visitor profiles | 7-day free trial available | Plans start at $18/10,000 pages/month. Free forever plan available. | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Aurelius Best user research tool for audio-to-text transcription services | 30-day free trial | From $49/month/account | Visit Website |
| 7 |  BetaTesting Best for access to a worldwide tester network | Not available | From $650/month for up to 4 tests per year | Visit Website |
| 8 |  UsabilityHub Best user research tool for feature prioritization feedback | Free forever plan available | From $79/month/account | Visit Website |
| 9 |  Maze Best user research tool for A/B ad tests | Free forever plan available | Paid plans start at $99/month. Custom plans and pricing are available. | Visit Website |
| 10 |  LogRocket Best user research tool for session recordings | 14-day free trial | $99/month | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Empathetic
Best user research tool for sourcing participants
- EthOS
Best user research tool with a live chat interview feature
- Great Question
Customer research platform for turning customer interviews into research data and reports.
- ProProfs Survey Maker
Tool for creating surveys and online forms.
- Dscout
Research tool for running customer studies.
- Pixis Insights
AI tool for assessing audience pulse and identifying market trends.
- Lookback
Usability testing tool for websites, prototypes, and mobile apps.
- UserZoom
UX research tool for improving digital experiences.
- Loop11
User testing platform for uncovering product insights.
People Also Ask
Here are a few questions I wanted to cover about user research and user experience.
What are the benefits of using user research tools?
There are several benefits of using user research tools in the design and development of products, services, or experiences.
- User research tools enable researchers to gain insights into users' needs, behaviors, and attitudes, allowing them to design products that meet user requirements and preferences.
- User research tools provide data-driven insights that can support evidence-based decision-making, reducing the risk of design or development decisions based on assumptions or guesses.
- User research tools can help identify and prioritize issues or opportunities for improvement, enabling designers and developers to address user pain points and optimize the user experience.
- User research tools can increase user engagement and satisfaction, leading to increased customer loyalty and brand reputation.
Overall, using user research tools can lead to better-designed products, increased user satisfaction, and business success.
What are commonly used user research methods?
There are several commonly used user research methods, including:
- Surveys: A method for collecting quantitative data from a large number of participants, using a standardized set of questions.
- Interviews: A method for collecting qualitative data from a smaller number of participants, using open-ended questions to understand their perspectives and experiences.
- User Testing: A method for testing a product or service with users to identify issues or opportunities for improvement.
- Focus Groups: A method for collecting qualitative data from a small group of participants, discussing their attitudes, opinions, and behaviors around a specific topic.
- Ethnography: A method for observing and documenting user behavior in their natural environment to gain insights into their needs and behaviors.
- Card Sorting: A method for understanding how users categorize information, helping to inform information architecture and content organization.
- A/B Testing: A method for testing two different versions of a product or service to determine which performs better with users.
These methods can be used individually or in combination, depending on the research objectives and the characteristics of the user population.
What is the difference between CX and UX?
CX (Customer Experience) and UX (User Experience) are both terms related to the experience of interacting with a product, service, or brand, but they have distinct differences. CX refers to the overall experience a customer has with a brand throughout their entire journey, including before, during, and after a purchase. CX focuses on how the brand interacts with customers and the emotions that result from those interactions. UX, on the other hand, specifically refers to the experience of using a product or service and focuses on how users interact with the product or service to achieve their goals. While CX and UX share some similarities, such as the importance of customer satisfaction, they differ in their scope and focus.
Read more in our full article: Customer Experience vs User Experience: Explain It Like I’m Five
What do you think about this list?
Knowing what users and customers want and need is important for companies because they can use this information to improve their products and develop new ones. The best user research tools can help companies uncover customer needs and product improvement opportunities. With innovations stemming from customer insights, companies can improve customer engagement and increase their revenues.
Aside from user research tools, there are other tools your company can use to improve your products and services, and you can learn about them when you subscribe to The CX Lead.