The 10 Best Qualtrics Competitors to Watch in 2026

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Engagedly
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Qualtrics is an experience management platform that lets teams build surveys, collect feedback, and turn responses into reports without writing code. It covers customer, employee, product, and brand experience programs through a single suite. For teams that find its interface complex, its learning curve steep, or its pricing out of reach, a smaller and more focused tool often gets the same feedback job done for less money and less setup time.

What are the best Qualtrics competitors in 2026?

The strongest Qualtrics alternatives in 2026 are SurveyMonkey, Engagedly, Zonka Feedback, Survicate, Typeform, SurveySparrow, Jotform, Customer Thermometer, Medallia, and Forsta. Each one trades away some part of Qualtrics’s enterprise research depth in exchange for a simpler interface, faster setup, or clearer pricing, so the right pick depends on whether the priority is customer feedback, employee engagement, or general-purpose survey building.

Quick comparison: Qualtrics competitors in 2026

PlatformBest forStarting price (official)
SurveyMonkeyGeneral-purpose surveys and market researchFree plan; paid plans from $39/month (individual), $30/user/month (team, 3+ seats)
EngagedlyEmployee engagement and performance management$2–$10/user/month, billed annually; $7,500/year minimum
Zonka FeedbackMultichannel customer and employee feedbackCustom pricing based on response volume and data credits
SurvicateWebsite, product, and in-app feedbackFree plan; paid plans scale with response volume
TypeformConversational, one-question-at-a-time formsFree plan; paid plans from around $25/month (annual)
SurveySparrowChat-style surveys plus NPS and CX programsPlans from $7/month (annual)
JotformForms with built-in survey and payment logicFree; paid plans from $34/month (annual).
Customer ThermometerOne-click, high-response-rate feedbackCustom/usage-based pricing
MedalliaEnterprise customer and employee experienceCustom pricing, contact sales
ForstaMarket research combined with experience managementCustom pricing, contact sales

Top Qualtrics competitors: find the right feedback tool for your needs

1. SurveyMonkey (Momentive)

SurveyMonkey, now operating under parent brand Momentive, remains one of the most recognized names in the survey space. It started as a simple feedback tool and has grown into a full experience management platform with AI-assisted analysis built in.

Why it’s a strong competitor: The interface stays approachable even as the feature set has grown, and the platform now leans heavily on AI for survey creation and results analysis, which shortens the distance between collecting responses and acting on them.

Pricing: Team Advantage: $30/user/month; Team Premier: $92/user/month; Enterprise: Custom pricing. Individual plans range from Free to $139/month.

2. Engagedly

Engagedly is an AI talent management platform built to help organizations connect performance, engagement, learning, growth, and recognition in one unified experience. Powered by Marissa, its AI SuperAgent, Engagedly helps leaders turn people strategy into intelligent actions, reduce talent silos, and drive measurable business outcomes. Trusted by organizations worldwide, Engagedly supports stronger engagement, better retention, and the development of high performing teams.

In practice, that means continuous feedback, 360-degree multi-rater reviews, and OKRs and goal tracking live inside the same platform as engagement surveys and learning tools, rather than sitting in separate systems HR has to stitch together by hand.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Where most names on this list are built for external customer feedback, Engagedly is built for the internal side of the equation, combining performance management, engagement pulse surveys, and workforce analytics so HR teams are not stitching together three separate tools to run a single review cycle.

Pricing: Modules range from $2 to $10 per user per month, billed annually, with a $7,500 per year minimum. Bundles and enterprise plans are available on request.

3. Zonka Feedback

Zonka Feedback is an AI-powered customer feedback and intelligence platform built to unify scattered feedback sources such as surveys, tickets, chats, and reviews into a single view, then turn that data into role-based insights teams can act on.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Zonka now runs two connected products, Customer Feedback and AI Feedback Intelligence, and it can be bundled with Engagedly’s growth hub style continuous-feedback workflows for teams that want survey data and development planning in one place.

Pricing: The company now quotes custom pricing for both products, based primarily on the number of responses for Feedback Management and on data credits for Feedback Intelligence, with the option to bundle both under one custom quote.

4. Survicate

Survicate takes a channel-first approach to feedback, letting teams collect input through websites, in-app prompts, and email without needing a research team to run the program.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Survicate is genuinely flexible for product and CX teams, with native integrations into HubSpot, Intercom, and Zapier that make it easy to trigger surveys based on real user behavior instead of a fixed send schedule.

Pricing: Survicate offers a free plan, and paid tiers scale up based on monthly responses, topping out at several hundred dollars per month for higher-volume plans. Current tier details are on Survicate’s own pricing page.

5. Typeform

Typeform began as a form builder and became known for its conversational, one-question-at-a-time format, which tends to produce higher completion rates than a traditional long-form survey.

Why it’s a strong competitor: The visual, interactive design is still Typeform’s biggest draw. For teams that care about respondent experience as much as the data itself, that design edge often outweighs a smaller feature list compared to Qualtrics.

Pricing: Typeform offers flexible plans starting at $25/month when billed annually, with higher tiers providing more responses, users, customization, analytics, and automation. Enterprise plans offer custom limits, dedicated support, advanced security, and features such as SSO, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance.

6. SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow replaces Delighted on this list following Delighted’s shutdown. It offers the same conversational, chat-style survey format Typeform is known for, plus dedicated NPS, CSAT, and CES programs built for ongoing customer experience tracking rather than one-off surveys.

Why it’s a strong competitor: SurveySparrow covers both ends of the feedback spectrum, quick single-question NPS checks and longer multi-page research surveys, inside one platform, which suits teams that outgrew a single-metric tool like Delighted.

Pricing: SurveySparrow offers flexible survey plans ranging from a Forever Free option to Enterprise, with paid plans starting at $7/month when billed yearly. Higher tiers add more responses, users, integrations, automation, advanced analytics, customization, and enterprise features such as HIPAA compliance.

7. Jotform

Jotform has grown well past basic form building into a tool with genuine survey and feedback capabilities, built around a fast, drag-and-drop form editor.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Jotform integrates with Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, and dozens of other platforms, so teams can automate what happens after a response comes in instead of just collecting it. Its mobile app also makes it practical to gather feedback on the move.

Pricing: Jotform offers flexible pricing plans, from a free Starter plan to customizable Enterprise plans, with increasing limits for forms, submissions, storage, and advanced features. Paid plans start at $34/month when billed annually, with nonprofit and education discounts available.

8. Customer Thermometer

Customer Thermometer built its name on one-click feedback: a single click from the customer captures satisfaction data with almost no friction, which keeps response rates high.

Why it’s a strong competitor: The one-click format is the differentiator here. It works especially well for support and service teams who want a fast pulse check rather than a full survey, and it integrates with tools like Salesforce and HubSpot to route results automatically.

Pricing: Customer Thermometer offers usage-based pricing with unlimited users, rollover responses, reporting, and flexible upgrades or cancellations. Advanced plans add features such as NPS reporting, embedded surveys, and email-footer Thermometers, with 10 surveys available free to get started.

9. Medallia

Medallia has long been positioned as an enterprise leader in experience management, built around collecting real-time feedback from customers, employees, and other stakeholders so businesses can act on it quickly.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Medallia’s AI and machine learning tools are built for large organizations that need to estimate future trends and understand sentiment across many channels at once, rather than run a single survey campaign.

Pricing: Medallia does not publish self-serve pricing on its site.

10. Forsta (formerly Confirmit)

Forsta formed in 2021 from the merger of Confirmit, Dapresy, and FocusVision, and it focuses on blending traditional market research with day-to-day experience management.

Why it’s a strong competitor: Forsta pairs advanced survey logic with text analytics that goes beyond multiple-choice data, which suits research and consulting teams that need to make sense of large volumes of open-ended feedback.

Pricing: Forsta does not list public pricing. Quotes are custom and depend on the scope of the research program, so a conversation with their sales team is required to get exact numbers.

Conclusion

The market for experience management tools keeps expanding, and the list of realistic Qualtrics competitors has shifted even over the past year, with Delighted’s shutdown being the clearest example. Each platform here is still built for a different job: SurveyMonkey and Typeform for general survey work, Medallia and Forsta for enterprise-scale research, Zonka Feedback, Survicate, and SurveySparrow for ongoing CX programs, Jotform and Customer Thermometer for lightweight, fast feedback collection, and Engagedly for the employee side of the equation.

If the priority is bringing performance management, continuous feedback, and engagement surveys into one connected platform instead of stitching several tools together, Engagedly is worth a closer look.

Request a demo of Engagedly →

Frequently asked questions

Is SurveyMonkey cheaper than Qualtrics?

For most small and mid-sized teams, yes. SurveyMonkey’s published team plans start at $30 per user per month, and its individual plans start free, while Qualtrics generally requires a custom enterprise quote regardless of team size.

Which Qualtrics competitor is best for employee feedback specifically?

Engagedly is the strongest option on this list for employee-focused programs, since it combines performance reviews, engagement surveys, and workforce analytics rather than treating pulse surveys as a standalone feature.

Do any of these tools offer a free plan?

SurveyMonkey, Jotform, Survicate, and Typeform all offer usable free tiers with limited responses or questions. Medallia, Forsta, and Engagedly are enterprise tools quoted through sales, with no self-serve free option.

What is the main difference between Qualtrics and Engagedly?

Qualtrics is built primarily around research and experience data collection across customers, employees, and products. Engagedly is built specifically for the employee lifecycle, connecting performance reviews, goal tracking, and engagement surveys into one workflow rather than treating each as a separate module.

Which Qualtrics competitor is easiest to set up?

Typeform, SurveySparrow, and Jotform are generally the fastest to get running, since each relies on a visual, template-driven builder rather than the configuration layer research platforms like Qualtrics or Forsta require.

How often should companies re-evaluate their feedback platform?

An annual review is a reasonable baseline, since pricing, features, and even product availability change: Zonka Feedback shifted from flat tiers to custom quotes, and Delighted shut down entirely within the same year. Checking each platform’s own pricing and status page before renewal avoids budgeting around information that is no longer current.

Can a small business afford a Qualtrics alternative?

Yes. SurveyMonkey, Survicate, Typeform, and Jotform all publish self-serve pricing that starts free or under $50 a month, which makes them realistic options for small teams that do not need enterprise-scale research tools.

Author
Abhishek Ghosh
Growth Marketing Manager

Abhishek is an HR expert writer and growth marketing professional at Engagedly, with over 7 years of experience covering the HR tech space. His work focuses on creating well researched, practical, and authoritative content that helps HR leaders understand performance management, employee engagement, talent development, and workplace transformation.

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