The Best 21 User Research Tools & Software in 2024

Building an impactful UX research practice requires you to adopt the right set of user research tools. These tools can assist your product team in various ways during research, including participant recruitment, building unmoderated studies, managing insights, and more. Selecting the appropriate tools to empower your UX research team is crucial for improving research operations and maximizing the impact of research insights on the team's decisions. Depending on your team's stage and research requirements, there are several tools available to choose from.

In this guide, we introduce some of the most popular UX research tools out in the market and their use cases.

Overview of UX research tools and software

The ratings are based on Capterra.

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1. Hubble

Hubble is a continuous user experience management platform that provides a unified set of tools for continuous user research. Hubble includes a suite of tools including usability tests, prototype tests, card sorting tests and in-product surveys. With a variety of tools, product teams can collect feedback across all stages of product development.

Hubble offers an integration with Figma so that designers and researchers can import prototypes for testing. Hubble’s unmoderated tool allows for prototype tests, allowing teams to rapidly collect feedback on product concepts. Through Hubble’s usability results, UX researchers can collect quantitative data including heat maps, click data, success paths, completion rates and time spent on each task.

“Hubble has made an immediate impact into our product organization, helping us collect real-time holistic feedback from our distributors."

Adam Klenk
Senior Product Manager at Tactiq
See the full customer story

Through Hubble’s usability tests, product teams can also conduct A/B tests, design preference tests, open card sorting tests, close card sorting tests and many other types of tasks. Hubble usability tests can be shared with anyone through a link and access to 3+ million recruitment panel to reach the desired participant criteria.

• 📌 Key Features: Usability Testing, Figma prototype testing, In-product surveying, Informational Architecture testing, design preference test, access to 3 million participants
• 💰 Pricing: Custom pricing for enterprises and $500 per month for starting organizations
• 💡 Best for: Unmoderated usability testing, in-product surveys, recruiting participants and running studies in a single platform
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.8/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.7/5
  • Value for Money: 4.9/5
  • Customer Service: 5.0/5

Streamline your UX research with Hubble

Run surveys, prototype and usability tests with recruiting panel with 3+ million

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2. Userlytics

Userlytics is a user research platform that helps you conduct user research by testing your live website, prototypes and mobile applications. Userlytics supports usability tests, card sorting, moderated tests, unmoderated tests and many other types of research for teams.

• 📌 Key Features: Moderated and unmoderated usability testing, user experience studies, prototype testing, live conversations, card sorting, tree testing
• 💰 Pricing: Custom pricing
• 💡 Best for: Unmoderated usability testing, surveys
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.6/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5/5
  • Value for Money: 4.7/5
  • Customer Service: 4.9/5

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3. Loop11

Loop11 allows you to conduct both moderated and unmoderated usability tests on various platforms, including live websites, prototypes, and even your competitors' sites. You can begin testing as early as the wire framing and prototyping phases to ensure your design decisions align with user preferences.

Loop11 can also help with other types of tests such as information architecture testing, A/B testing and others.

• 📌 Key Features: Online usability testing, prototype testing, benchmarking, A/B testing, IA testing
• 💰 Pricing: From $199 per month
• 💡 Best for: Unmoderated usability testing, surveys
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5/5
  • Value for Money: 5.0/5
  • Customer Service: 5.0/5

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4. Lyssna

Lyssna (formerly Usability Hub) is a remote research platform that offers a range of testing tools, including first click testing, design surveys, preference tests, and five-second tests. These tests enable you to collect data and validate design decisions.

With Lyssna’s Panel, researchers can recruit test users from a pool of participants based on criteria such as age, gender, education, and more to get feedback from a relevant target audience.

• 📌 Key Features: Remote user testing, first-click testing, design surveys, preference tests, five-second tests, participant recruitment
• 💰 Pricing: From $75 per month
• 💡 Best for: Various research methods including prototype testing, first-click test, and card sorting
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.7/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.7/5
  • Value for Money: 5.0/5
  • Customer Service: 4.9/5

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5. Maze

Maze is a continuous product discovery platform that empowers teams to collect user insights. Maze offers participant recruitment, product research, and reporting, Maze helps teams build the habit of continuous product discovery. If you are looking for Maze alternatives, please check out this blog post.

• 📌 Key Features: Moderated and unmoderated usability tests, card sorting, surveys, and participant recruitment
• 💰 Pricing: $95 per month and custom pricing for enterprise
• 💡 Best for: Running various methodologies and recruiting participants
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.4/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.2/5
  • Value for Money: 4.1/5
  • Customer Service: 3.8/5

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6. Lookback

Lookback is a user research tool that allows you to engage in live user interviews, enhancing the research process through live screen recordings of user interactions. This versatile platform enables you to conduct moderated, unmoderated, and remote research, all while offering a collaborative dashboard to centralize your research and customer feedback, facilitating seamless team collaboration.

One of Lookback's standout features is the automatic recording of sessions, allowing you to revisit them at your convenience. Furthermore, you can create highlight clips to easily share insights with colleagues and stakeholders. Additionally, the team plan offers the flexibility to conduct both remote and in-person research, test prototypes, and invite observers to participate in real-time.

• 📌 Key Features: Remote real-time user research, moderated and unmoderated testing, collaborative dashboard, live note-taking
• 💰 Pricing: From $25 per month
• 💡 Best for: Convenient recording and note-taking functionalities
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 3.4/5
  • Ease of Use: 3.6/5
  • Value for Money: 3.0/5
  • Customer Service: 2.2/5

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7. dscout

dscout is a remote qualitative research platform designed to facilitate the gathering of real-world insights from individuals who use your products. Among its key components, dscout Live enables the execution of remote user interviews and the collection of participant feedback. Additionally, dscout Diary allows you to conduct diary studies, providing a glimpse into users' day-to-day product experiences through video or photo documentation. Furthermore, dscout Recruit simplifies the process of recruiting research participants, eliminating the usual challenges and costs associated with traditional recruitment methods.

One of dscout's notable advantages lies in its ability to streamline the most time-consuming aspects of interviews by offering research-focused features, including participant scheduling, automated transcriptions, the presence of on-call observers, and an interactive timeline for note-taking and creating clips. This comprehensive approach enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the research process.

• 📌 Key Features: Unmoderated research, remote user interviews, participant recruiting, automatic transcriptions, on-call observers, interactive timeline for taking notes
• 💰 Pricing: Available upon request
• 💡 Best for: Streamlining research from recruiting, scheduling, note-taking, and analyzing data
• 🌟 Rating: Not available

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8. User Interviews

User Interviews is a participant recruiting platform that enhances your product decision-making by providing effortless access to high-quality participants. This platform is recognized for its ability to enable you to create your own participant pool or tap into their extensive panel, consisting of more than 350,000 carefully vetted research participants, who can be filtered by their respective professions.

Among its capabilities, User Interviews offers functions such as screener surveys, interview scheduling, and tracking participation from your current user base. The median turnaround time for this platform is approximately 2 hours, although this timeframe may vary depending on the specific project requirements.

• 📌 Key Features: Participant recruitment, screener surveys, scheduling interviews, messaging participants, automatic incentives, participation tracking
• 💰 Pricing: From $40 per session or $250 per month
• 💡 Best for: Recruiting high-quality participants and participant scheduling
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.4/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.1/5
  • Value for Money: 4.3/5
  • Customer Service: 4.8/5

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9. Respondent

Respondent is a participant recruiting platform that provides high quality participants for moderated research, unmoderated research and user interviews. Respondent has more than 3 million participants from 150 different countries, available for any type of UX research participation.

Respondent offers features such as screener surveys, scheduling interviews, integrations with calendars and tracking participation by invited testers. On average, you can find participants in hours. Respondent also offers B2B and B2C services, allowing for a wide variety of participants for recruitment.

• 📌 Key Features: Screener surveys, participant recruitment, moderated studies, unmoderated studies, scheduling interviews, messaging participants, participant incentives, tracking completion
• 💰 Pricing: From $39 per session or custom pricing for enterprise
• 💡 Best for: Streamlining research with participant recruitment and scheduling, recruiting participants across the world
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.7/5
  • Value for Money: 5.0/5
  • Customer Service: 4.4/5

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10. Askable

Askable is a research participant recruiting platform based in Australia. Askable allows you to conduct in-person research, remote video user interviews and online unmoderated tasks. It also offers screener surveys to filter participants based on demographic parameters and you can also select between consumers and professionals.

Askable offers ways to integrate with existing research tools such as Lookback, Loop11, Userzoom, Optimal workshop and many others.

• 📌 Key Features: Screener surveys, participant recruitment, moderated studies, unmoderated studies, scheduling interviews, messaging participants, participant incentives, tracking completion
• 💰 Pricing: $100 for in-person, $80 for moderated interviews and $20 for unmoderated tasks
• 💡 Best for: Recruiting participants along with integrations with other research tools
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 5.0/5
  • Ease of Use: 5.0/5
  • Value for Money: 5.0/5
  • Customer Service: 5.0/5

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11. Ethnio

Ethnio is another user research tool that can be used to find participants. Ethnio allows you to create screeners to intercept people on your website or app so that you can find the right internal research participants. Ethnio offers various ways to screen users and also an automated scheduling options that help streamline the process of getting in touch with users.

Within the platform, Ethnio also includes a tool called Research Incentives, a calculator that helps you reward your participants by instantly paying them using different online services.

• 📌 Key Features: Central participant database, participant recruitment, incentives, participant management screeners, intercepts, scheduling options
• 💰 Pricing: From $12 per seat per month
• 💡 Best for: Recruiting participants and targeting with intercept feature
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 5.0/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.0/5
  • Value for Money: 5.0/5
  • Customer Service: 5.0/5

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12. KardSort

kardSort is an IA testing tool that offers moderated, unmoderated, and hybrid card sorting.

kardSort provides a simple drag-and-drop function which makes card sorting easy for researchers and participants alike. You can start and launch a card sorting session very quickly, it’s platform is simple enough to allow for running effective unmoderated card sorting tests

• 📌 Key Features: Moderated, unmoderated and hybrid card sorting, pre and post-study interviews, tool tips
• 💰 Pricing: Free
• 💡 Best for: A flexible option for a free card sorting platform
• 🌟 Rating: Not available

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13. Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop offers set of user research tools to run information architecture tests. With OptimalSort, you can understand how your testers want to organize and categorize information in your product.

Optimal Work also includes a feature called Treejack, which is a tool helps you conduct tree tests to understand if users are currently getting lost on your site and where they expect to find key information.

• 📌 Key Features: Card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing, IA testing, online surveys, qualitative research, participant recruitment
• 💰 Pricing: From $191 per seat per month
• 💡 Best for: Running various methodologies, including tree tests and card sort
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.0/5
  • Value for Money: 4.4/5
  • Customer Service: 5.0/5

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14. UX Army

UXarmy provides a variety of user testing solutions to help you run information architecture testing via tree tests and card sorting. You can create tests on the platform, or import existing ones.

The platform makes evaluating your layout easy, and in-depth analytics help you uncover insights from tests—including participant analysis, path analysis, and destination matrixes. It’s quick and easy to get started, and provides an intuitive process for your participants.

• 📌 Key Features: Card sorting, tree testing, moderated and unmoderated usability testing
• 💰 Pricing: All solutions are stand-alone, with card sorting costing $79 per month and tree testing $99 per month
• 💡 Best for: Running various methodologies and translation support for international research
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.4/5
  • Value for Money: 4.5/5
  • Customer Service: 4.4/5

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15. Great Question

Great Question is a user research tool that allows you to build a panel and recruit participants, launch interviews and send surveys.

The platform allows for screener questions to filter participants, panel management to build and manage each of your participant profiles and a repository feature to archive and share research results

• 📌 Key Features: Research panel building, recruiting participants and running preferred research methods
• 💰 Pricing: From $49 per month
• 💡 Best for: Running research for qualitative feedback
• 🌟 Rating: Not available

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16. Hotjar

Hotjar is a remote research tool which allows you to view real-time user behavior via heatmaps and screen recordings.

Hotjar also offers a variety of tools including feedback survey sand interviews.

• 📌 Key Features: Heatmaps, screen recordings, unmoderated research, in-product feedback widgets and follow-up surveys
• 💰 Pricing: From $32 per month
• 💡 Best for: Great web analytics tool with heat maps and click maps
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.7/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Value for Money: 4.5/5
  • Customer Service: 4.5/5

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17. Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics is a user analytics platform that helps product teams track user behavior across your site. By providing information about how customers interact with your product, Kissmetrics helps you acquire qualified prospects, convert trials to customers, and reduce churn.

• 📌 Key Features: Event tracking, user identification, custom reports dashboards, segmentation, session analytics, and user funnels
• 💰 Pricing: $0.0025/event or customized plans (starting at $25.99 per month for 10k events)
• 💡 Best for: Event tracking and user analytics with dashboards
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.1/5
  • Ease of Use: 3.4/5
  • Value for Money: 4.1/5
  • Customer Service: 3.7/5

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18. Mixpanel

Mixpanel is an user analytics tool that lets you track your users and understand their journey. Mixpanel provides all the detailed data needed to uncover trends and understand what are improvements you can make onto the platform.

Mixpanel is a great tool for getting insights the whole team can understand and use, offering great UI and easy ways to collaborate.

• 📌 Key Features: Event tracking, user journey analysis, funnels, event, user identification and segmentation
• 💰 Pricing: Free plan with limited features and paid plans starting from $20 per month
• 💡 Best for: Powerful dashboard with various analytics feature
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.0/5
  • Value for Money: 4.1/5
  • Customer Service: 4.2/5

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19. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a widely-used survey tool that simplifies the process of collecting customer feedback through online surveys. Its user-friendly interface allows for extensive customization, ranging from the survey's branding and background to font styles and URL settings.

SurveyMonkey's AI-powered feature, SurveyMonkey Genius, offers valuable guidance and assistance to optimize your surveys, ensuring that you obtain the necessary insights swiftly and efficiently.

• 📌 Key Features: Fully-customizable online surveys, market research solutions, Genius AI solution, online form embedding
• 💰 Pricing: Free plan with basic features, team plans start at $25 per user/month
• 💡 Best for: Quick surveys, CRM integrations, and AI-powered survey generation
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.6/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Value for Money: 4.5/5
  • Customer Service: 4.4/5

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20. Typeform

Typeform is an another online survey builder designed to assist you in creating distinctive forms for efficient information collection.

Typeform seamlessly integrates with your existing workflow, simplifying the process of gathering customer feedback. It offers a smooth and effortless experience for the users you are surveying, making it particularly valuable when prioritizing a seamless user experience to obtain genuine insights.

• 📌 Key Features: Simple form builder, branded forms, key integrations, varied question formats
• 💰 Pricing: Typeform starts at $29 per month for one user and 100 responses per month
• 💡 Best for: Easy to use, focus on creating interactive and engaging surveys to increase response rates
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.7/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Value for Money: 4.4/5
  • Customer Service: 4.1/5

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21. Jotform

Jotform is another survey creation tool, delivering many templates for streamlining your customer feedback procedures. While it shares several essential features with the other survey tools mentioned, Jotform offers additional solutions, including a no-code app creator and an online storefront builder.

Jotform expedites the creation of customized surveys, making it an excellent all-in-one solution, especially when financial resources are limited.

• 📌 Key Features: Intuitive form builder, ample integrations, report generations, workflow automation
• 💰 Pricing: Free plan with survey limits, paid plans from $39 per month
• 💡 Best for: Easy to use, easily customizable themes and diverse widgets
• 🌟 Rating:
  • Overall Score: 4.7/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Value for Money: 4.6/5
  • Customer Service: 4.4/5

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What makes a good UX research tool? 

Having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference in conducting insightful and impactful studies. We've curated a diverse collection of tools available in the market, each specializing in specific stages of research or methodologies to cater to the varied needs of different product teams.

While we've introduced several notable tools, it's important to note that there are numerous others worthy of consideration. For instance, for research repositories, platforms like Notion and Dovetail offer robust features for organizing and analyzing research data. Additionally, for interview transcription, tools like Otter.ai provide efficient and accurate transcription services, streamlining the analysis process.

To explore more about other popular tools, see below: 

• The best survey tools for research in 2024
• The best UX analytics tool in 2024
• The best usability testing tools
• The best Maze alternatives in 2024

Our evaluation process involved drawing from our own experiences using these tools, supplementing with qualitative comments and reviews from online resources and research communities. Furthermore, we examined each tool's website to identify key highlighting features, strengths, and weaknesses. It's important to emphasize that the numbering provided above is not indicative of ranking; rather, it serves as a comprehensive list or collection of tools, each serving its unique purpose.

When selecting a tool from this collection, it's imperative to consider your specific research needs, the types of research methods or stages you'll be employing, as well as your available resources and budget constraints. By carefully comparing and evaluating tools based on these criteria, you can make informed decisions that align with your research objectives and maximize the effectiveness of your studies.

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Selecting the best UX research tools and software

When searching for a good UX research tool, there are several key characteristics to look out for. When evaluating a UX research tool to adopt, consider the following factors:

• ‍Ease of use: The tool should be intuitive and user-friendly, allowing not just researchers but other product team members to easily navigate and utilize its features without extensive training.‍
• Collaboration features: UX research is a team effort that involves multiple stakeholders in the process. Evaluate whether the tool facilitates collaboration and communication among team members, enabling them to work together efficiently and share research findings easily.‍
• Versatility and set of features: When you are looking for a paid tool, the tool should be able to offer the features that you seek. Look for a tool that offers a range of research methods and capabilities, such as surveys, interviews, usability testing, and analytics, to accommodate diverse research needs.‍
• Cost-effectiveness: Assess the pricing structure of the tool and whether it offers value for money based on your organization's budget and research needs.‍
• Integration: Consider whether the tool integrates seamlessly with other tools and platforms commonly used in your organization, such as project management systems, collaboration tools, or analytics platforms.‍
• Data security and compliance: Ensure that the tool prioritizes data security and compliance with relevant regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, to protect sensitive user information. ‍
• Customer support: Consider the quality and availability of customer support provided by the tool's vendor, including documentation, training resources, and responsive customer service.‍
• Scalability: As your team and need for research grows, make sure the tool can support all the team members while ensuring that the collaboration aspect is intact. ‍
• Trial & pilot the tool: Last but not least, make sure to ask for a free trial of the tool. Get a chance to use the tool and validate your use cases for the tool before getting committed.

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Streamlining research with Hubble

If you need a comprehensive tool that can help you run usability tests, recruit internal and external participants, launch in-product surveys with user segmentation, get started now with Hubble.

Hubble provides product teams with a unified platform for participant recruitment, experiment design, and data collection and analysis. It offers a diverse range of research techniques suitable for various stages of product development. Beyond usability studies, Hubble supports additional research methods such as concept testing, card sorting, A/B split testing, and in-product surveys.

You can customize studies and seamlessly import Figma prototypes for user feedback collection. Whether recruiting live users for real-time feedback surveys or utilizing an external recruitment panel, Hubble enables efficient data distribution and collection. Furthermore, the platform automatically summarizes and visualizes results through features like video recordings, task success rates, heat maps, and time spent on each task, facilitating deeper insights into research outcomes.

Setting up studies in Hubble is easy with pre-built templates and dedicated Slack community to share ideas and get customer support. With Hubble, you can continuously manage your user experience, helping collect powerful user insights.

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