20 Best UX Research Tools for User Researchers [2024]

Are you trying to level up your UX research game?

With the right tools in your arsenal, you can uncover game-changing insights faster and create products that truly resonate with your users.

In this article, we've compiled a list of the 20 best UX research tools that every researcher should know about. From conducting interviews and surveys to analyzing data and recruiting participants, these tools will help you streamline your research process and get the answers you need.

We’ll cover:

But before we dive in tooling, let's take a step back and look at the different methods of UX research.

Not sure which research method is right for you? Check out this guide on UX Research Methods.

UX research is the process of understanding your customers, their needs, motivations, and how they  interact with your product or service. By leveraging user research tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights about user behavior, preferences, and pain points, enabling you to create experiences that resonate with your target audience.

How do I prepare for UX research?

First, figure out what you want to learn about your users. Think about who you want to study and how you'll find them. Pick the right ways to do your research (we'll talk about those later) and get your questions ready.

Make sure all your tools are set up before you start. It's no fun to be fixing things when people are waiting to help you!

How do you collect user research?

Collecting user research involves using a mix of user experience research tools to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Researchers often start with surveys or questionnaires, then conduct in-depth interviews or focus groups. Usability testing, where users interact with a product while researchers observe, is crucial.

Field studies or contextual inquiries involve observing users in their natural environment. Digital tools like analytics software and heatmaps provide data on user behavior. The key is to use a combination of the best tools for user research that fits your goals and resources, including online user research tools and free UX research tools.

What are the research methods for UX?‍

There are two main types of UX research: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods, such as interviews and usability testing, provide in-depth insights into user experiences, while quantitative techniques, like surveys and A/B testing, offer broader, data-driven perspectives. To conduct your own UX research, you’ll need to define your goals, select the appropriate UX research tools, recruit participants, and analyze your data to identify actionable insights. 

Not sure where to get started? Create a research plan in 7 easy steps

What is a user research tool? ‍

A user research tools are apps or platforms that helps UX researchers gather and analyze data on how people use products. These tools make it easier to collect information about what users need and want, as well as how they behave when using a product.

There are different kinds of user research tools for different parts of the research process. You may use recruiting products to get access to users, tools to run your research session, survey, or test, and tools to analyze and store your research findings in one place.

In this article we’ll give you an overview of the best of each type of user research tool.

In this section, we'll explore the best quantitative and qualitative tools for UX research in 2024. This includes:

• Participant recruitment solutions
• Survey platforms
• UX research tools for usability testing
• Product analytics tools
• Information architecture testing tools for UX
• Unmoderated testing tools
• UX research repository tools

Here’s an overview of the 20 of the most popular and best UX research tools in 2024 for you to consider:

I. UX Research Platforms

What is a UX research platform?

A UX research platform is like a toolkit that has everything a researcher needs. It's one place where you can do many different research tasks. These platforms usually help you find people for your research, create studies, collect information, analyze it, and share what you learned. Many let you test products remotely, make surveys, and do video interviews. Some even use smart computer programs to help make sense of all the information you collect. The great thing about these platforms is that they make it easier to manage your research, work with your team, and keep all your findings in one place.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one qualitative research platform that can handle everything from recruitment to running moderated and unmoderated tests, and generating transcripts in one place, you may want to consider the options below.

1. UserZoom

Customer Rating: 4.2/5

This platform is a UX research tool designed for UX researchers, marketers, managers and UX designers to get insights on websites, apps, products, and prototypes by conducting studies like 1:1 live interviews, moderated and unmoderated usability tests, click tests, surveys, tree tests and card sorts. 

‍Looppanel’s Review

UserZoom has now been acquired by UserTesting.com, which is an interesting case of the two biggest user research platforms merging. In our view this is the value you’ll get from UserZoom:

• Ability to recruit users
• Run unmoderated tests
• Get transcripts & videos

If you don’t have a budget constraint and want one tool to handle multiple parts of the research flow, UserZoom is a good option.

Keep in mind, you will need to use other tools for analysis so it’s not really an all-in-one platform. Also, with great options like UserInterviews.com, Maze and Looppanel (self-plug, we know 😂), UserZoom is an incredibly expensive alternative with limited additional value.

‍Pricing

UserZoom has custom pricing—you will need to get in touch with the sales team to learn how much a subscription will set you back.

Pros

• It auto-generates transcripts in the language you choose. Check the UserZoom’s study languages here!
• You can make clips and add notes to your transcripts.
• It lets you conduct mixed methods research since it supports quantitative as well as qualitative research. 

Cons

• The study limit is 40 per year (for Quick Start Plans), which might not be enough for mature UX teams. The Enterprise plan does let you run unlimited studies. 
• UserZoom comes with a hefty price tag—if you’re considering the product, be prepared to cough up at least 5 figures for access.

2. UserTesting

Customer Rating: 4.5/5

UserTesting is an end-to-end research platform that lets you conduct everything from live interviews to brand and messaging testing, usability testing, tree testing, card sorting and clickstream tracking. 

‍

Looppanel’s Review

Similar to UserZoom, UserTesting’s main value is in recruiting participants for you, as well as bringing multiple research processes to one place. Their moderated tests are now run on Zoom, which makes you wonder whether it’s worth paying their high price tags just for recruiting users.

Pro Tip: We’ve heard they have a problem with “professional testers” who are so used to testing for $ that they’re zipping through your tests and leaving bad data behind. If you’re trialing UserTesting.com—watch out for this!

If you’re looking for a tool that manages multiple processes in one place, UserTesting.com may be for you, just bring a big check book.

Pricing

UserTesting pricing is based on factors like the number of users who need access to the product, business needs and the specific features you want to include. Like UserZoom, they offer custom pricing plans based on your requirements. To understand the price of each plan, you will need to contact their sales team. 

Pros

• It is easy to recruit participants from all over the world. As a bonus, they eliminate users not paying attention to surveys/questions etc.
• The platform seamlessly conducts moderated interviews and unmoderated research, all in one place.

Cons

• Ironically, the platform can be clunky to use at times.
• The screener function is not diverse enough to add a variety of questions. 
• Once again, UserTesting.com comes with a significant price tag. Unless you have a significant budget to spend on tooling, UserTesting may not be a viable option for you.
• In some cases, customers have reported the presence of “professional testers” in their panel (people who are randomly answering questions on your tests, just to get paid). This of course can deeply bias your results.

II. Participant Recruitment Tools for UX Research

Recruiting research participants is easily one of the hardest parts of UX Research. It’s probably the most boring part as well.

The easiest way to recruit research participants is by using an existing research panel.

A research panel/participant recruitment tool is a UX research tool that gives you access to potential research participants, offering them compensation in exchange (usually in the form of money or Amazon gift cards). The benefit of using a panel is that you can recruit the right “persona” of users within a very short amount of time (often within 24 hours), with limited scheduling efforts on your side.

💡 Pro-tip: While research panels reduce the amount of scheduling work you’ll have to do, there are a couple of flags with these kinds of products:

1. Some panels are prone to “professional testers”—people who are joining studies just for the money and often lying about what they actually do/their experience with a product
2. It can be challenging to find niche participant types via these panels. If you want to recruit paediatricians in Papua New Guinea, you may struggle with the panel’s ability to provide this type of user!

To identify the right participant out of the “panel”, it’s recommended to “screen” the participants—you’ll ask participants to answer some questions that help you identify if they’re the right fit.

For example, if you’re looking for middle school teachers, your screener may look like this:

• What’s your job?
• If you have been a teacher in the last 3 years, which classes have you taught?
  1. K through 5th-grade
  2. 5th through 12th-grade
  3. College
  4. Masters/PhD
• What region do you work in?

Here are some of the best user research recruiting tools to help you find the right participants!

3. User Interviews

Customer Rating: 4.7/5 on G2

User Interviews is a UX research tool that connects user researchers and participants.

You can filter out potential participants based on different parameters like age, location, industry, etc., to find the right participants for your studies. In exchange, participants are compensated fairly, incentivizing them to contribute to the research.

User Interviews lets you:

1. Use their pre-existing panel: Their “Recruit” product provides you with a pre-existing panel of potential participants. You can then filter and recruit participants from the panel.
2. Make your own Panel: You can use their “Research Hub” product while recruiting your existing customers whose contact information you already have. Research Hub will manage emailing, scheduling, and follow-up reminders to users for you. With automated scheduling, their Google and Outlook calendar integration will help you monitor the upcoming sessions. Automated emails are sent to participants when you approve them to participate in your studies.

‍

Research Hub

Userinterviews also serve those who want to manage a panel of their own participants for research studies. Let’s say you run a lot of research with existing customers of your product—you can use User Interviews’ Research Hub to store the data of these people and simplify the painful scheduling activities (emailing users, reminders, etc.).

There are multiple tiers to the ‘Research Hub’ product, based on how many contacts (participants) you have in your panel. The price of the product varies by the number of contacts in the panel as well.

Looppanel’s Review

UserInterviews is one of the most established and well-loved recruiting products in the industry. They ensure their panel of participants is reliable and their turn-around times for scheduling calls are amazing (often 24-48 hours!). This is definitely one of our favorite research panels to turn to in a pinch, but they can get pricey if you're on a small budget.

Pricing

For Recruit (panel to recruit participants), the Pay As You Go plan is $45 per session and includes automated scheduling, incentive distribution, and research tool integrations. The Starter plan costs $175 per month and covers 60 sessions per year, adding features like custom onboarding, a screener library, customer support, and rollover sessions. The Essential plan is $325 per month for 150 sessions per year, including all Starter features plus the ability to invite previous participants.

For teams with large research volumes or custom needs, the Custom plan offers tailored pricing and includes additional support, security reviews, and project coordination, along with all Starter and Essential features.

‍For Research Hub, the Free Forever plan is for individual researchers and includes up to 100 contacts with automated emails, scheduling, research tool integrations, and messaging tools, all for free. Essential is for small teams and adds custom branding, support, and templates, starting at $250/month for up to 1,000 contacts or $500/month for up to 5,000 contacts. Premium is designed for large teams, offering everything in Essential plus unlimited custom email themes, priced at $1,250/month for up to 5,000 contacts or $1,417/month for up to 10,000 contacts. Enterprise offers all Premium features along with custom onboarding, security reviews, and API integrations, with pricing based on custom agreements.

Pros

• For Recruit, it is quite easy to contact a large number of potential participants and if any participant drops out before the session, the software connects the next participants on the list you approved.
• Automated screening, scheduling and incentive distribution. This means you get to skip all that painful back and forth setting up a time, following up to confirm the call, and making sure your incentives are paid out (phew!).
• You can schedule the meeting through Google or Outlook 365 calendars. 
• The customer support team is great— they help researchers with any issues without delay. 

Cons

• The screener needs to be more adaptable, with rating scale questions and arrays.
• The screening capabilities lack the sophistication of non-DIY options e.g. "must say 3 of the 6 options." You have to do that manually. 

4. Respondent

Customer Rating: 4.6/5 on G2

Respondent is another participant recruiting platform that helps researchers conduct research with verified participants in person or online. This platform sources professional participants from different social networks like LinkedIn.

Looppanel’s Review

From everything we’ve heard, Respondent can be a more cost-effective alternative to UserInterviews.com. If you are budget constrained, try recruiting with incentive amounts lower than those suggested by the Respondent website and you may still be able to get participants.

Pricing

Respondent offers two pricing options, 1) Pay As You Go and 2) Credit Bundles. 

In Pay As You Go, the service fee is 50% of your chosen incentive fee (e.g., if you are offering a $100 incentive, $50 of that goes to the Respondent). If you buy a credit bundle instead (credits can be used to “buy” a session with a participant) you pay a smaller percentage fee to the Respondent. 

Pros

• You can post your project for free and pay after the participants participate in the study. 

Cons

• It's not user-friendly and can be hard to navigate when you get started.

III. Survey Tools

Survey tools help in collecting data online from your potential audience.

How to analyze a UX survey?

First, clean up your data by removing any incomplete answers or odd responses. For questions with numbers, look at averages and how spread out the answers are. For open-ended questions, try to find common themes in what people said. Many survey tools have features to help you understand your results, but sometimes you might need to use other tools to dig deeper. Look for patterns that answer your questions, but also be open to surprising findings.

The following are the best survey tools to run studies.

5. SurveyMonkey

Customer Rating: 4.4/5

SurveyMonkey is a UX research tool that helps users and researchers conduct surveys through emails, web links and embedded forms on their website or via social media. You can conduct your surveys in multiple languages and easily collect the data in one view. 

‍Looppanel’s Review

SurveyMonkey is easy to get started with and comes ready with templates you can use to set up your study. If you’re dealing with a simple study, their analytical capabilities will be fine, but for a more complex one, you may end up spending a ton of time analyzing your data in an excel sheet.

‍Pricing

SurveyMonkey has multiple plans you can choose from based on your team size and the scale of your survey.

The basic plan is free which is best for individuals who wish to conduct surveys on a small scale.

The Individual Plans include the Standard Monthly at $10.98/month for unlimited surveys and 1,000 responses per month, and the Standard Annual at $24.42/month for unlimited surveys and 15,000 responses per year with advanced features like data exports and A/B testing.

The Team Plans offer the Team Advantage at $18.94/month for up to 50,000 responses per year with app integrations, and the Team Premier at $46.43/month for up to 100,000 responses with advanced survey tools and machine learning analysis.

Note: All the plans are billed annually.

‍Pros

• Intuitive User Interface.
• Able to conduct surveys in various languages.
• Variety of survey templates and integration with tools like Google Sheets, SPSS, Mailchimp, Displayr, Zendesk and more.

Cons

• The free version is best to conduct surveys on a small scale, but the cost of paid plans can go up quickly.‍‍

6. Google Forms

Customer Rating: 4.7/5

If you are looking for an easy-to-use research tool for surveys, Google Forms is the best fit. 

Looppanel’s Review

For basic surveys on a limited budget, Google Forms is a convenient and cost-effective option. It does lack advanced customization options, but it’s easy to get up and running with very quickly!  

Bonus: It syncs really well with Google sheets so it’s easy to port your data into a spreadsheet view and start analyzing. 

‍Pricing

Not much to say—it's free!

Pros

• Free for use!
• No learning curve

Cons

• Doesn’t offer fancy templates. 
• No display customization options (you can’t customize font size, etc.)

IV. Moderated User Interview tools

These tools are great for 1-on-1 moderated research methods, such as user interviews and usability tests, without a huge price tag. In all likelihood, your company has access to one of them already, or you can get your hands on one for free.

7. Google Meet

Customer Rating: 4.5/5

People with a Google Account can use Google Meet and invite up to 100 participants for 60 minutes for free (although your focus groups probably won’t get that large!). Purchasing a business or enterprise plan lets you avail additional paid features like live streaming, recording and administrative control.

Looppanel’s Review

Google Meet is a favorite for many reasons—it is often already part of your company plan or is free for access and it doesn’t require participants to download additional software to join a meeting.

On the flip side, the quality of video and audio is okay at best, so depending on how tech savvy your audience is you may want to switch to Zoom. You also need to be on the paid plan to record calls directly on GMeet. 

‍Pricing

Google Meet offers a Free Plan for 1-on-1 meetings or up to 100 participants for 60 minutes at no cost. Business Starter at $1.67/user/month includes 30 GB storage, standard support, and security controls for up to 100 participants.

‍Business Standard at $8.99/user/month adds 2 TB storage, 150 participants, and video recording, while Business Plus at $16.78/user/month offers 5 TB storage, 500 participants, advanced security features, and attendance tracking.

‍Pros

• Cost-effective and compatible with businesses of all sizes.
• No plugins or software is required (aka your participants won’t have to install new software to join you on the call)
• Familiar option for users around the world (this tends to make your users more comfortable and less nervous to join an unknown link)

Cons

• The free plan doesn’t come with recording and transcription capabilities, but you can plug in a product like Looppanel to record and transcribe calls for you
• Audio and video quality can vary (we prefer Zoom for this reason)

8. Zoom

Customer Rating: 4.5/5

Zoom is a video conferencing app that you can repurpose for focus groups, moderated user interviews and usability tests. Although it's not a built only for researchers, we think it's one of the most useful options across this list of UX research tools.

Looppanel’s Review

Zoom has high-quality audio and video streams (yay!), which makes it a popular choice for research sessions. 

But it does have some really strange UX, so if you’re new to it expect it to take a few days to get settled in.

Pro-tip: you can record sessions to your computer even on the free plan (unlike with GMeet), but free sessions will get cut off after 40 minutes so you may want to upgrade anyway.

Pricing

Zoom's basic plan is free, but it caps calls at 40 minutes, which can be very awkward if your interview runs anywhere over 30 minutes. No one likes to get kicked off the call mid-interview.

Their basic paid plan comes for $150 / year which doesn't break the bank and does give you high quality conferencing capabilities and the ability to record your calls.

To get high quality recordings, transcripts, and AI-powered notes for Zoom based user interviews, you can also use a tool like Looppanel which plugs into Zoom and makes research analysis 5x faster.

Pros 

• An easy-to-use, familiar option for your participants
• High-quality audio and video streams (very reliable)
• Works with great tools like Looppanel (again, very reliable)

Cons

• Zoom’s basic plan can be limiting if you’re running moderated research. Forty minutes (the limit for free calls) may not be enough to conduct an interview, for example. 
• 5GB of free storage on the paid plan runs out pretty fast. Downloading/deleting these recordings can be a pain.
• Paid plans come with transcription in English, but the quality of transcripts is moderate.

V. Unmoderated Research Tools

Unmoderated research tools are a category of UX research tools that do not require you to intervene during the actual research session. They provide instructions to users, record their actions, and should ideally be able to ask them predetermined follow-up questions.

This type of research takes less time as participants do not have to be physically present, so you can provide questions to a large number of participants at the same time to complete the test.

Let’s explore the best unmoderated research tools out there.

9. Maze

Customer Ratings: 4.5/5

Maze allows you to run unmoderated research on your new product or prototype. It supports tests like unmoderated usability tests, website testing, prototype testing, tree testing, surveys, and card sorting.

Looppanel's Review

Maze is pretty easy to set up and get started with. It also integrates with major prototyping tools like Figma, AdobeXD, and Invision—so you can bring your prototypes into Maze with ease.

One issue we have personally faced—Maze limits the number of prototype links you can test in a project to 1, which limits our ability to test alternatives against each other easily.

Bonus: Maze automatically creates a shareable report from your unmoderated tests which is super handy to share directly with your team, without spending a ton of time creating it.

Pricing

Maze offers free features for small-scale testing, including 300 responses per year, 1 active project, and up to 10 blocks. The Professional plan at $75/month increases to 1,800 responses, 10 active projects, and unlimited blocks with access to pro templates. The Organization plan includes all professional features plus unlimited responses, projects, and custom templates, with pricing available upon request.

Pros

• Easy to link Figma prototypes for user testing purposes
• Easy to set up and launch a test in minutes
• They have a panel of participants as well, so you can skip the pain of recruiting
• Maze automatically generates a shareable report with your findings from tests—this is really nice to be able to quickly share the results with team members.

Cons

• Heatmap features don’t work perfectly. 

• Simple prototype works well, but a prototype with advanced features loads slowly for users. 
• You can only use 1 prototype link for the entire study which is limiting if you have multiple prototypes to test in a single study. 
• Their participant panel isn’t great, so you may get “professional testers” who are just trying to finish the task in order to get compensation.

10. Useberry

Customer Ratings: 4.9/5

Useberry is an unmoderated research platform that allows you to run tests across a variety of methods.

An amazing feature of Useberry is the integration of tools like Protopie, Adobe XD, Sketch, Marvel and InVision (other than a Figma integration, of course). This allows you to test more complex, realistic prototypes with your users, aside from basic Figma prototypes.

UseBerry also offers a wide range of testing methods, you can use your favourite testing methods including usabiity testing, card sorting, tree testing, 5 second tests, firstclick tests, preference tests and online surveys.

Looppanel's Review

We have personally adopted UseBerry for unmoderated tests at Looppanel and we find it easy to use and effective. One challenge we have had is around recruiting: you can't get very granular with who you'd like to conduct your tests and based on the results, we've sometimes been suspicious of the quality of their panel.

Pricing

Useberry's pricing plans start with a Free plan offering 10 responses per month, 1 seat, 1 project, and unlimited collaborators. The Basic plan at $33/month (billed annually) provides 100 responses, 3 projects, and CSV export. The Pro plan at $67/month includes unlimited responses, projects, versions, and screening questions. The Team plan at $84/month adds a shared team library, team workspace, and 3 seats, with additional seats available for $17 each.

Check out the detailed pricing here.

Pros

• Participant recruiting is included (one less thing on your plate!)
• Aside from integration Figma, you can also integrate prototypes from other prototyping tools like Protopie, Adobe XD, Sketch, Marvel and InVision.
• Heatmaps and basic reporting (completion rates) are automatically calculated for you.

Cons

• If you’re looking for a specific persona of users, sometimes it’s hard to find them on UseBerry. For example, we tried to recruit User Researchers and although they had a category “researchers” the results seemed to indicate that the category was murky.
• Participant filtering criteria are preset and you can’t add screener questions

VIII. Qualitative Data Analysis & Research Repository Tools

Once you’ve collected data from a user study, a research repository or user research analysis tools can be used to organize and analyze it.

What is a UX research repository?

A UX research repository is like a digital library for all the things you learn about your users. It's one place where you keep all the valuable information from your research. This can include survey results, notes from interviews, descriptions of typical users, maps of how people use your product, and final reports. The great thing about a repository is that it keeps all your insights in one place where people can easily find and use them. This helps your team build on past research, see how things change over time, and make sure user insights are helping guide decisions across your company.

How do I create a UX repository?

Start by picking a tool that works for your team - this could be a special UX research platform or even a well-organized set of folders in your company's cloud storage. Decide how you want to arrange your research - maybe by project, type of research, or user group. Come up with clear rules for naming files and adding tags so things are easy to find later. Think about who needs to see or edit different types of information. As you add research to your repository, include details like when the research was done, how it was done, and what the main findings were.

What are the different types of research repository?

Research repositories come in different shapes and sizes to fit different team needs. Some teams use simple file systems like Google Drive or Dropbox to organize their research. Others might use a wiki-style tool like Confluence, which makes it easy to connect related pieces of information. There are also special UX research tools like Dovetail or Looppanel, which are designed just for this kind of work. Some teams even create their own custom databases.

What are the research analysis tools for UX?

UX researchers use various tools to analyze data and extract insights. For qualitative data, tools like Looppanel, Dovetail NVivo or ATLAS.ti help with coding and theme identification. Quantitative analysis might use statistical software or more user-friendly tools like Excel.

AI tools for UX research like Looppanel are increasingly popular, offering advanced analysis capabilities and insights.

Here’s a beginner’s guide to Research Repositories.

VI. Information Architecture testing tools

Information Architecture (IA) testing tools help researchers understand how users navigate and find information, ensuring a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

11. Optimal Workshop

Customer Rating: 4.5/5

Optimal Workshop is an online platform specializing in testing website information architecture and usability.

Looppanel's Review

Optimal Workshop is really good at card sorting and tree testing, which helps make website navigation better. It's easy to set up and gives detailed analysis to improve usability. However, it can be a bit tricky to use during actual testing activities.

Pricing

Optimal Workshop offers three pricing plans. The Individual plan is $107/month billed annually, ideal for solo researchers, and includes 2 live studies, tree testing, and card sorting, with optional upgrades for surveys and prototype testing. The Teams plan, with custom pricing, adds features like qualitative insights and is designed for small teams. The Enterprise plan, also with custom pricing, includes advanced security, multiple workspaces, and dedicated support, making it suitable for larger organizations.

Pros

• The setup process is easy to follow.
• It's great for exploring how people connect different ideas.
• The card sorting and tree testing features are very strong.

Cons

• The pricing is expensive and not very flexible.
• It costs a lot to recruit test participants.
• Some people finish tests too quickly, so you have to spend extra time checking which responses are real.

12. UXtweak

Customer Rating: 4.8/5

UXtweak is a complete user research tool that offers many features to improve user experience through testing and analysis.

Looppanel's Review

UXtweak provides a wide range of testing options, including tree testing, first-click testing, and card sorting. It’s easy setup and robust analytics allow for quick configuration and in-depth insights. However, the user interface for study setup could use modernization.

Pricing

The Starter Plan is free and suitable for small-scale projects, while the Plus Plan costs $99 per month per seat, providing additional features for solo researchers. For larger teams and businesses, the Business Plan is available at $179 per month per seat, and customizable Enterprise Plans can be arranged by contacting their sales team. 

Pros

• It offers many different types of testing features.
• The setup is user-friendly.
• The analytics are powerful and let you filter results in many ways.
• You have flexible options for building tree tests.

Cons

• There can be delays when bringing in designs from other tools.
• It doesn't have its own pool of testers, so you need to find your own.

13. Miro

Customer Rating: 4.7/5

Miro is a versatile whiteboarding tool that can also be adapted for card sorting and visual organization of user research data.

Here’s a Miro template you can use for card sorting, for example.

Looppanel's Review

While not specifically designed for card sorting, Miro offers great flexibility for organizing and analyzing user responses. Its collaborative features and templates make it a valuable tool for creating affinity maps and user stories.

Pricing

Miro starts with a free plan, with paid plans from $10/month.

Pros

•  Supports open, closed, and hybrid card sorting
•  Real-time collaboration features
•  Flexible visual organization options

Cons

•  Not specifically designed for UX research
•  May require more setup time compared to dedicated tools
•  Limited analytics for card sorting activities

VII. Product analytics tools

Product analytics tools help businesses understand how users behave, track how much they use a product, and make decisions based on data to improve their digital products and user experiences.

14. Hotjar

Customer Rating: 4.6/5

Hotjar is a remote research tool that provides real-time user behavior insights through heatmaps and screen recordings.

Looppanel's Review

Hotjar offers many features to understand user behavior, including heat maps, recordings of user sessions, and surveys within the product. It's easy to use and fairly priced, making it accessible for businesses of different sizes.

Pricing

Hotjar offers a free plan for up to 35 daily sessions, with paid plans starting from $39 per month.

Pros

• The interface is easy to use.
• The heat maps show a lot of information.
• The recordings of user sessions are insightful.
• It has built-in tools for getting user feedback.
• It's affordable for small businesses.

Cons

• It doesn't work well with many other tools.
• It can't predict user behavior.
• The advanced features are expensive.
• It doesn't work well with some website frameworks.
• Some users have complained about customer service.

15. Kissmetrics

Customer Rating: 4.2/5

Kissmetrics is a platform for analyzing events that focuses on tracking user behavior and helping businesses get and keep customers.

Looppanel's Review

Kissmetrics provides person-based analytics, allowing businesses to track individual user behavior across devices and sessions. Its features for analyzing user journeys and groups of users are particularly useful for understanding the customer experience and finding areas to improve.

Pricing

Kissmetrics is billed per event ($0.0025/event) or offers custom plans starting at $25.99 per month for 10,000 events.

Pros

•  Person-based analytics for detailed user tracking
•  Funnel and cohort analysis capabilities
•  Multi-channel attribution
•  Wide range of integrations
•  Unified view of customer data

Cons

•  Poor data retention policy
•  Confusing user interface at times
•  Limited features in basic funnel reports
•  Relatively high pricing
•  Dated UI and management issues

16. Looppanel

Looppanel is a research analysis & repository product that records your user interviews and generates transcripts and AI-powered notes in minutes. On top of that, we auto-create affinity maps and excel-like views where you can analyze your user interviews with ease.

Not to brag, but if you’re wondering what’s the fastest and the most inexpensive UXR tool, we've had customers tell us Looppanel saved them 10 days analyzing user interviews!

‍

‍Looppanel's Review

Bit biased to review your own product, I suppose?

But here's the gist of it: if you care about speed to insight and want to leverage everything AI can do for you, Looppanel is the tool for you.

Pricing‍

Looppanel has pricing plans to meet all budgets. If you're starting out with a small team, you can get going for as little as $30 / month.

Check out our complete pricing here.

Pros

• Looppanel’s transcription is one of the best on the market, with over 90% accuracy across accents and regions.
• Our AI-powered notes are 🤌 So if you don't have a note-taker, try Looppanel's AI notes and watch them shave off hours of analysis time.
• You can use Looppanel to collaboratively take notes with your team during user interviews.
• Instantly create and share clips of your user rage-clicking (much better than writing about it in a report)
• You can also get Looppanel to automatically tag data into common themes and issues.
• Most exciting? It lets you run Google-like search across your workspace to find any data snippet or quote!

Cons

• Looppanel does not solve recruiting today (but we have it on our minds for the future!), so you’ll need to recruit participants through some other means like User Interviews or your own panel.
• Only support audio and video recordings as data input at the moment (e.g., you can’t upload a CSV to the product)
• As one user told us, you might be overwhelmed by how easy we make your job.

If you’d like to try it for free, sign up here!

17. Dovetail

Customer Ratings: 4.4/5

Dovetail is a popular web-based platform that lets you organize research data, generate and tag transcripts, and collaborate with team members. It is built on the academic approach of qualitative data analysis.

Looppanel's Review

Dovetail takes a very academic, time-consuming approach to research involving complex tagging taxonomies and manual analysis of transcripts. If you're expected to run project in a matter of weeks (or if you don't love re-reading transcripts), it can slow you down significantly.

However they do support multiple types of data if you're looking to store user interviews, excel sheets, and docs in one place.

Pricing

Dovetail's pricing plans start with the Starter plan at $50/month for 5 users, offering 10 transcript hours, 50 GB storage, unlimited projects and viewers, and integrations like Google Drive and Zoom. The Team plan costs $375/month for 5 users, with 50 transcript hours, 100 GB storage, project templates, and global tags. The Business plan at $1,200/month for 10 users provides unlimited transcription, storage, custom branding, and security features.

The Enterprise plan at $4,200/month for 20 users includes all Business features plus custom data retention policies and dedicated support.

Pros

• Easy transcription of videos and audio.
• Ability to create complex tagging taxonomies and tag your transcripts with them.
• Ability to store participant data in Dovetail, allowing you to build a database of people you’ve spoken with.
• Import multiple kinds of data, from audio/video recordings to Excel sheets with survey results.

Cons

• There are some serious limitations on the way you can use the product—you can’t add notes on your transcript or analyze your data by questions in your discussion guide.
• Tagging taxonomies are complex and Dovetail requires you to build them and use them across your team of researchers, and across projects for the product to be useful.
• The starting plan has a limit on the transcriptions that you’ll quickly hit. Subsequent plans can be pricey (and their pricing plans keep changing!) 

18. EnjoyHQ

Customer Ratings: 3.8/5

This research repository tool enables UX researchers to store and organize data. With the EnjoyHQ tool, you can do unlimited transcriptions, upload files of all sizes and formats with no limit, get metrics insights from your team while using the research repository, and collaborate with multiple teams.

Looppanel's review

We are yet to find someone who truly loves EnjoyHQ. Almost no one we've spoken to actually uses it for analysis. Instead, teams seem to analyze in Miro or excel and use Enjoy purely as a repository.

It's not bad for storage, but it will require manual tagging to make data discoverable, which is additional work to add to your plate. It's also quite pricey if you don't use it for analysis.

One good thing though: Enjoy has a ton of integrations—UserTesting, UserZoom, Slack, email and more.

‍Pricing

EnjoyHQ's starter plan is free, which is great! But as soon as you need to scale you have to speak to their sales team to get a quote (we all know that means $$$$).

EnjoyHQ's Start plan that includes unlimited transcription, 2 admin seats, data visualizations, video editing, unlimited research projects, and various integrations, all for free. The Grow plan, at $1,000/month (billed annually), expands to 10 seats, adds premium integrations, user management, and data export capabilities. The Scale plan provides all Grow features with 25 seats, unlimited integrations, API access, and personalized onboarding, with pricing available upon request.

‍Pros

• Variety of integrations—everything from UserZoom to Jira, to Typeform—this makes it easy to move data in or out of EnjoyHQ. 
• They start with a generous free plan which works well for a small team.

Cons

• Ironically, EnjoyHQ can be a bit clunky to use—the everyday experience of using the product can become frustrating for some users.
• Once you scale past the free plan, pricing gets expensive quickly.

19. Google Sheets

Customer Ratings: 4.7/5

Google Sheets is the default data analysis and storage platform for organizations around the world. In addition to systematically organizing your data, you can add graphs, use formulas, filter out irrelevant data etc.

One of the OG default tools—if all else fails, you’ve got Sheets (or Excel if you’re still there for some reason) .

‍Looppanel's review

We love excel sheets. Really, truly.

However, they aren't built for user research so they come with some drawbacks:

1. You can't link data in a cell to your recording or transcript. So if a team member took a note and you need to find out why, you'll have to start digging through transcripts and video recordings, hunting for the right quote.
2. Creating an analysis view in excel takes a lot of work. You have to re-watch every call and take notes question by question, person by person. This is literally one of the reasons Looppanel was born—you have better things to do with your time than copy-pasting data into excel sheets!
3. Your data is everywhere. Initially it may feel fine to analyze in excel but as you run more studies you're going to struggle to manage them. You'll recordings in a drive, transcripts (maybe) in another tool, notes in docs, excels for analysis, PPTs for presentations! Finding any historical data will start getting difficult very quickly.

Pricing

Google Sheets offers a Personal plan with 15 GB of secure cloud storage and the ability to include up to 100 participants in video and voice conferencing, all for free. The Business Standard plan provides 2 TB of cloud storage and supports up to 150 participants in Google Meet, priced at $12 per user per month.

Pros:

• The easiest tool to pick up because of its familiarity and flexibility. Your company is probably already paying for it, too!
• The ability to create graphs or quickly edit data is a plus
• Everyone on your team already knows how to use it—this makes collaboration easy

Cons:

• Although Excel / Google Sheets are great, they’re not actually built for research. This means things break quickly when you’re trying to remember why you took a note (it’s not linked to your transcript!) or review data across calls.
• If you’re using Google Sheets, your data is being split across multiple tools—your recording is probably stored elsewhere, notes here, transcripts in a third place. This makes it hard to review calls because you have a jigsaw puzzle of apps and windows open at any point in time.
• It can be overwhelming for collaborators to jump into. They’ve not been analyzing the calls for days. Seeing rows and rows of data in Google Sheets can make their heads spin.

20. FigJam

Customer Ratings: 4.6/5

FigJam lets you create and organise ideas on a canvas in sticky notes. In addition, you get to leverage a  range of templates, widgets and plugins as well as their integrations with Jira, Github and Asana to streamline your research analysis workflow. 

Looppanel's Review

Sticky notes are beautiful. So pretty. So easy to visualize.

But much like excel, whiteboards like FigJam weren't built for User Research. And much like excel, you'll run into some recurring challenges with FigJam boards:

1. You can't link data to your recording or transcript. So if a team member took a note and you need to find out why, you'll have to start digging through transcripts and video recordings, hunting for the right quote.
2. Creating an analysis view in excel takes a lot of work. You have to re-watch every call and take notes question by question, person by person. This is literally one of the reasons Looppanel was born—you have better things to do with your time than copy-pasting data into sticky notes!
3. Your data is everywhere. Initially it may feel fine to analyze in FigJam but as you run more studies you're going to struggle to manage them. You'll recordings in a drive, transcripts (maybe) in another tool, notes in docs, FigJam for analysis, PPTs for presentations! Finding any historical data will start getting difficult very quickly.

‍Pricing‍

Figma's Starter plan is free and includes 3 Figma and FigJam files, unlimited professional files and collaborators, and access to most plugins, templates, and widgets. The Professional plan, at $3 per editor per month, offers unlimited FigJam files, open sessions, audio conversations, and voting. The Organization plan, priced at $5 per editor per month, includes all Professional features plus plugin management and single sign-on.

Pros

• A great canvas for your team to collaboratively work on. It’s particularly good for visual people—you can see your data on stickies and move them around as needed. 
• You get a set of fun features like stamps, stickers, voting, and audio conversations so you can chat with teammates while you’re analyzing. 

Cons

• Not directly built for research, FigJam comes with its limitations. For one, your data is in a separate place compared to your recordings & transcripts, making it hard to jump back to moments or double-check a note.
• It can be overwhelming for users, especially in large studies. Imagine you’re faced with 500 sticky notes—it gets daunting pretty fast!

Better research ahead! Looppanel is an AI-powered product that makes user research 5x faster
Try it for free by signing up here.

When it comes to UX research platforms, researchers are often faced with a difficult choice: should they opt for best-in-class tools that excel in specific areas, or go with an all-in-one solution that covers the entire research process? On one hand, using specialized tools for tasks like transcription, analysis, and recruiting can ensure that you're getting the highest quality results in each area. These tools are often more advanced and offer more features than their all-in-one counterparts.

However, using multiple tools can also lead to a disjointed workflow and make it harder to get a comprehensive view of your research. All-in-one platforms, on the other hand, offer a more seamless experience by integrating all of your research tasks into a single tool. The trade-off is that these platforms may not excel in any one area, providing a more generalist approach. As the market for UX research platforms continues to evolve, we can expect to see more tools that strike a balance between specialization and integration, offering the best of both worlds for researchers.

FAQs

Are UX research tools suitable for small businesses?

Absolutely! UX research tools come in all shapes and sizes, and there are options suitable for businesses of any scale. For example, if you're running moderated studies, Looppanel offers transcription, analysis and repository features for as little as $30 / month. For unmoderated tests, you can start with Maze or UseBerry’s free plan. Whether you're a scrappy startup or a well-established small business, there's a UX research tool out there that can help you gather valuable insights without breaking the bank.

What are the most common user research methods?

Some commonly used UX research methods include interviews, surveys, usability testing, card sorting, and A/B testing. By incorporating these user research tools and techniques into your design process, you'll be well-equipped to create exceptional user experiences that set your product apart from the competition.

Is data privacy a concern with UX research tools?

Data privacy is always a top priority when it comes to user research. Reputable UX research tools take data privacy seriously and have robust measures in place to protect user data. Specific security measures to look out for: GDPR compliance (especially if you’re in the EU), SOC2 compliance, and privacy policies that ensure your data will not be used to train AI models.  

Is Hotjar a UX tool?

Yes, Hotjar is a powerful UX research tool that allows you to track user behavior on your website or app. With features like heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback tools, Hotjar provides valuable insights into how users interact with your product. You can see where usability issues come up and users rage click most often! 

How to do UX research without users?

While it's always best to involve real users in your UX research, there are times when it's not possible or practical. In these cases, you can still gather valuable insights through methods like customer reviews, support tickets, competitive analysis, and heuristic evaluations. These techniques involve analyzing your product or competitors' products through the lens of established UX principles and best practices. It's not a perfect substitute for user feedback, but it can still provide actionable insights.

How do I get better at UX research?

The key to becoming a UX research pro is practice, practice, practice! Immerse yourself in the world of UX research by reading articles, attending workshops, and participating in online communities. Most importantly, get hands-on experience by conducting your own research projects, even if they're small-scale. The more you practice, the more confident and skilled you'll become. 

Can you do UX research remotely?

Absolutely! In fact, remote UX research has become increasingly popular, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to UserInterviews.com State of User Research Report 2023, 87% of people conduct a majority of their research remotely. Tools like Looppanel, UserZoom, dscout, and Maze make it easy to conduct remote user interviews, usability tests, and diary studies. With remote research, you can gather insights from users all over the world without ever leaving your home office.

Can AI replace UX Designers?

While UX research tools are incredibly valuable, can a UX research tool replace the need for skilled UX designers? Short answer: No. They cannot replace the need for skilled UX designers. These user research tools provide the data and insights, but it's the UX designer's expertise that transforms them into actionable strategies. As the market continues to grow, there are endless opportunities for innovation in UX research tools. By embracing the power of these tools and combining them with the skills of UX designers, businesses can unlock new levels of user understanding and create extraordinary experiences. 

What are UX research artifacts?

UX research artifacts are tangible outputs created during the research process using various user research tools and UX research tools. These include user personas, journey maps, affinity diagrams, usability test reports, and interview transcripts. Other common artifacts are survey results, site analytics reports, and prototype designs.

These artifacts, often created with the best user research tools, help researchers and designers communicate findings, track insights, and make informed decisions throughout the design process. UX research repository tools are essential for organizing and storing these artifacts effectively.

What is the difference between Dscout and Maze?

Dscout and Maze are both popular UX research tools, but they serve different purposes. Dscout is primarily a remote research platform for collecting in-the-moment insights through video, photos, and text responses. It's great for longitudinal studies and gathering rich, contextual data.

Maze, on the other hand, focuses on rapid testing of digital prototypes. It allows researchers to create task-based tests and collect quantitative data on user flows and success rates. Both are considered among the best tools for UX research.

What is UX research vs CX research?

UX research and CX research are related but focus on different aspects of user interaction. UX research concentrates on how users interact with a specific product or feature, looking at usability, accessibility, and overall experience. It often employs specialized user research analysis tools.

CX research takes a broader view, examining the entire customer journey with a brand. It might look at customer service interactions, brand perception, and loyalty. Both use various user experience research tools, but UX tends to be more product-focused while CX is more holistic and brand-focused.

How do you conduct UX research online?

Conducting UX research online has become common, offering many advantages. Start by using online survey tools for quantitative data. For qualitative insights, conduct remote interviews or focus groups using video conferencing tools. Many online UX research tools, such as UserTesting or Maze, allow for remote usability tests.

Card sorting and tree testing can be done online using specialized tools. For ongoing feedback, use website feedback widgets or intercept surveys. Don't forget to analyze existing data from web analytics tools. The key is to choose the right mix of online user research tools that align with your goals and provide a good experience for remote participants.

How much does a UX researcher cost?

The cost of a UX researcher varies based on experience, location, and employment type. In the US, entry-level researchers might earn $60,000-$80,000 annually, while experienced researchers can command over $150,000. Freelancers might charge $50 to $250 per hour.

For outsourced research, agencies typically charge $10,000 to $80,000 per project. While good research can be expensive, it often pays for itself by preventing costly design mistakes. Investing in the best UX research tools and AI tools for UX research can also impact overall costs and efficiency.

Where can I find users for UX research?

Finding the right users for UX research can be done through various channels. For existing products, start with your current user base. Online platforms like UserTesting or Respondent.io connect researchers with participants. Social media ads can target specific demographics.

For niche audiences, industry forums or specialized online communities are valuable. LinkedIn is useful for B2B products. Traditional methods like local community outreach can also work. Some companies maintain their own user panels. The key is to find participants who represent your target users, often using a combination of free UX research tools and paid platforms.

How do you measure user research?

Measuring user research involves both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative measurements might include task success rates, time-on-task, error rates, or satisfaction scores. You can also track metrics like the number of usability issues identified and cost savings from early problem-fixing.

Qualitative measurements might assess the depth of user understanding gained or the impact of findings on design decisions. It's also important to measure business impact, such as increased user engagement or improved conversion rates. User research analysis tools and UX research AI tools can help in this process, providing deeper insights and more efficient analysis.

What is the best equipment for UX design?

The best equipment for UX design includes both hardware and software. Hardware typically involves a powerful computer with a large, high-resolution display, possibly a graphics tablet, and good quality audio-visual equipment for remote work.

Software tools are crucial and include design tools like Figma or Sketch, prototyping tools like InVision, and various user research tools. UX research repository tools are important for organizing findings. The "best" equipment often depends on specific needs and workflows, but investing in quality tools for UX research can significantly improve efficiency and output quality.

How do you organize UX research data?

Organizing UX research data is crucial for accessibility and actionability. Start with a clear folder structure in cloud storage or a dedicated research repository. Use consistent naming conventions and tag data with relevant categories for easy searching.

Keep raw data separate from analyzed insights, but ensure they're linked. Create standardized templates for research reports. Use collaborative tools to share insights across the team. Regular data audits help maintain organization. UX research repository tools are invaluable in this process, offering specialized features for organizing and accessing research data efficiently.

What software do user researchers use?

User researchers employ a wide range of software throughout the research process. This includes project management tools, survey platforms, remote user testing software, video conferencing tools, and data analysis software. Popular choices include UserTesting, Maze, Zoom, NVivo, and SPSS.

For creating and sharing research repositories, tools like Dovetail or EnjoyHQ are gaining popularity. Prototyping tools and analytics platforms are also commonly used. The specific combination often depends on the researcher's needs and preferences, but typically includes a mix of user research tools, UX research tools, and increasingly, AI tools for UX research.

How do I choose the best UX research method?

What you want to learn? Are you trying to understand how people behave, what they think, or if a specific feature works well? Also, consider where you are in your design process. At the start, you might want to do interviews or watch people use similar products. Later, you might test your own designs or do surveys. Remember to think about how much time and money you have. Often, it's good to use a mix of methods to get a full picture of what your users experience.

What is an example of user research in UX?

Let's say a team is working on a banking app for phones. They might start by talking to people about how they handle money and what problems they have with their current bank apps. Then, they could ask people to group banking features to see how users think they should be organized. As they make early versions of the app, they'd probably watch people try to do things like send money or pay bills. They might use surveys to get feedback on new features from lots of users. They could also use tools that show where people click most often or track where their eyes look on the screen. All of this helps them understand what users need and how they use the app.

What are the most common user research methods?

User researchers employ various methods, each suited to different goals and design stages. Common methods include interviews, surveys, usability testing, card sorting, tree testing, contextual inquiry, A/B testing, focus groups, and diary studies. Analytics and heatmaps offer quantitative data on digital product interactions.

The best user research tools and UX research tools support these methods, offering features for data collection, analysis, and reporting. Online user research tools have made many of these methods more accessible and efficient. The best research often combines multiple methods, leveraging both traditional approaches and newer techniques enabled by advanced tools for UX research.