Best Of
Data Collection Tools: Our Top Picks for 2024
Article written by Kate Williams
Product Marketing Manager at SurveySparrow
32 min read
19 July 2024
Best Of
Article written by Kate Williams
Product Marketing Manager at SurveySparrow
32 min read
19 July 2024
Data collection is the process of gathering, measuring, and analyzing data using data collection tools to answer research questions. Consequently, the insights from the data collection forms can help us evaluate outcomes, predict trends, and understand possibilities.
For any organization, getting data right is crucial. It’s the foundation for making informed business decisions and ensuring quality outcomes. To do this effectively, researchers need to carefully consider what types of data they’ll use, where it will come from (sources), and how they’ll collect it (aka data collection methods). Just like a detective needs the right clues to solve a case, researchers need reliable data to draw accurate conclusions.
In this article, we will learn about:
Data is, and will be, the most important aspect in the decision making process of an organization.
Data collection is the process of gathering the information from various sources, and further, measuring, and analyzing it using multiple methods. And, it is crucial for your growth.
Now imagine doing all this on your own! Daunting, isn’t it?
Studies show that data scientists and analysts spend the most time cleaning and clearing up the collected data. And, more than 60% feel that gathering data is the most tedious part of their job!
Data collection tools take even the slightest hassle away from this process. They automate the routine task of collecting, organizing, visualizing and analyzing the data. The best part? It saves a ton of your time!
Before you invest your time and money in any tool, ask yourself this set of questions…
Once you have the answers to these questions, it’s time to choose a tool. Invest in data collection tools that are…
Again, as I said, there’s no hurry. Take your time, go through each feature, compare it with your needs and make a move!
Choosing the right tools for data collection is crucial because the quality of the data directly impacts the analysis and outcomes. It’s like using the right tools for a job – they need to be reliable and effective.
With that in mind, let’s look at the top data-gathering tools in the market.
Here are the features at a glance…
| Data Collection Tool | Primary Focus | Free Version |
|---|---|---|
| SurveySparrow | Omnichannel data collection, AI Surveys | Yes |
| Fulcrum | Field data collection in areas with limited connectivity | No |
| Teamscope | Research of a sensitive nature | No |
| Kobo Toolbox | Non-profit organizations and humanitarian projects | Yes |
| Magpi | Mobile data collection at the ente rprise level | No |
| Jotform | Ease of use and flexibility | Yes |
| FastField | Construction, manufacturing, and logistics | No |
| Zonka Feedback | Customer data collection | No |
| Forms on Fire | Mobile data collection with real-time insights | No |
| GoSpotCheck | Retail and field teams | No |
| Zoho | Data collection, CRM, and analytics | Yes |
| Paperform | For beginner-friendly surveys | No |
One of the best mobile data collection apps in the market, SurveySparrow comes with a host of advantages, such as ease of collection, high data quality, flexibility, and more. It offers wide range of features such as chat surveys, conversational forms, NPS surveys, and more, which makes the data collection process highly efficient.
From survey creation and design to sharing and analysis, everything’s within your reach. Moreover, SurveySparrow is also a solid mobile data collection software, and has an offline survey app as well.
Oh wait, there’s more! It does not stop at survey creation and data collection, but gives you advanced analytics tools. This includes, an executive dashboard and wordcloud for visualization, sentiment and text analytics!
Here’s a sample template you can try out. Feel free to customize it the way you like.
Customer Feedback Survey Template
Use This TemplateG2 Rating: 4.4/5 (1000+ Reviews)
Capterra: 4. 4/ 5 (100+ Reviews)
Ease of use and exceptional customer support are two of the most appreciated aspects by users. A long-term user shared on G2 that the advanced integrations, and the ability to tweak the surveys even after you send them are what makes them love the platform.
SurveySparrow’s paid plans starts at $19 per month. Additionally, they offer specialized plans targeting customer experience (CX) and reputation management. For custom requirements, get in touch.
But, you need not invest right away. Start with a 14-day free trial and get a feel of the advanced features. You can always switch to the forever-free plan whenever you want!
Why don’t you give it a try? Sign up today!
A personalized walkthrough by our experts. No strings attached!
Let’s quickly move on to the next tool…
For businesses that are looking for a mobile data collection tool, Fulcrum is one of your best options. It can collect data offline and sync it seamlessly when connected to the internet, making it ideal for field data collection.
Moreover, you can quickly design custom forms and collect field data on the Android or iOS app. In addition, you can use street, satellite, hybrid, and terrain base maps as they are built on Google Maps. It even supports custom map layers from Mapbox, Esri, OpenStreetMap, and others.
G2 Rating: 4.8/5 (200+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.8/5 (5 Reviews)
Over to the next one…
Teamscope is a secure and easy-to-use data collection and analysis platform for businesses that are into collecting sensitive data. Teamscope provides the ability for researchers to collect qualitative and quantitative data offline, helps visualize it, and even creates powerful mobile forms. The data in the app is stored in an encrypted manner.
G2 Rating: 4.2/5 (20+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.6/5 (20+ Reviews)
Kobo Toolbox was developed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which is why its biggest users happen to be nonprofits. The free and open-source tool is generally used for mobile data gathering. The data entry can be done through the web browser or from Kobo Toolbox’s KoboCollect, an Android application. The software can be installed on any server.
G2 Rating: 4.9/5 (9 Reviews)
There are no reviews on Capterra or TrustRadius.
Found the tool you were looking for? If not, don’t worry, there’s more!
Magpi is a mobile data recording app that allows users to create online and offline mobile forms. The users of this app belong to various niches, especially the health, agriculture, and environmental sectors. In addition, Magpi allows businesses to conduct rapid and low-cost surveys.
The software allows you to do mobile surveys, get automatic updates, perform GPS stamping, and even gather photos. There are fully integrated workflows that let you add the customers’ data into any web-accessible system.
G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (15+ Reviews)
Jotform is a popular form builder that allows businesses to collect various types of data, including bar codes, voice recordings, geolocations, electronic signatures, etc. Jotforms function online, too, and you can also send push notifications. Its mobile-friendly form builder helps you create and edit forms in seconds.
G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (3000+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.7/5 (2000+ Reviews)
Over to the next one in the lot…
Every process in the data gathering techniques becomes easy for you with Fastfield. It has advanced features that make collecting and sending data a simple affair. As soon as you log in to FastField, you can access a tutorial that tells you how to create your form.
G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (100+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.8/5 (20+)
They also offer add-ons like Anonymous Forms and White Label Branding, with specific rates for additional services.
This is one of the most popular data-gathering and feedback-collection tools. With Zonka, you can create engaging surveys within minutes, thanks to its WYSIWYG editor. Zonka is also used extensively to analyze customer interviews or surveys – you can perform NPS, CES, and CSAT surveys too.
Moreover, you can capture the customers’ website experience using popups, feedback buttons, embeds, and links. It has excellent features such as answer piping, conditional branching, survey redirection, themes, languages, etc.
G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (60+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.6/5 (60+ Reviews)
Hold on! We’re almost there!
One of the easiest and most effective ways to collect data is through the Forms on Fire software. It is a cloud-powered digital tool that helps you streamline the process of your data collection tools in research. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to collect data. Forms on Fire has more than 750 advanced integrations possible, thereby making it easy for different systems to share data efficiently.
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (100+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.7/5 (100+ Reviews)
If you are collecting field data, this is one of the best tools out there. By collecting data in real time, you can help users complete tasks. The mobile app makes it easy to collect data in an efficient manner. Also, GoSpotCheck’s built-in content distribution system makes the sharing of information pretty easy. Moreover, they provide real-time analytics for the business.
G2 Rating:4.7/5 (60+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.8/5 (20+ Reviews)
Zoho Forms is a highly-reliable front-end software for data collection systems that works with various applications. It helps you create beautiful and functional forms for all your needs. You can create forms to collect data, share them online, and receive instant alerts. Moreover, there are 30+ field types, customizable themes, situation-specific templates, and a simple user interface.
G2 Rating (Workplace): 4.5/5 (2000+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating (Forms): 4.5/5 (100+)
We’re almost there! There are two more to go…
With Paperform, you can collect more than 20 types of data online, from emails, text, addresses, and images to files, eSignatures, and emails. It is a highly reliable data collection platform that allows anyone to create forms or product pages with ease. The question fields automatically format your data too, thereby making it simple to review, export, and analyze it.
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (40+ Reviews)
Capterra Rating: 4.8/5 (90+ Reviews)
Phew! Was that a lot? But, we’re not done yet. There’s something you need to understand before you leave…
There are two main types of data collection techniques.
It is the type of data that is collected by researchers directly from main sources with the help of interviews, surveys, focus groups, etc. Primary data is usually collected from the source and is regarded as the best kind of data in research
Let us look at the different primary data collection methods:
In this type of data collection, the researcher will ask questions to a specific set of people, either directly or by means of phone or email. It is one of the most common forms of data gathering.
It is a great option to ask questions directly to customers. There was a time when you had to hand in paper questionnaires, wait for the respondents to complete the survey, and collect and analyze each of them manually. Thankfully, there are online survey tools such as SurveySparrow that make the entire process simple.
With online survey tools, you can create surveys within a few minutes, get responses in real-time, and even analyze the answers with the help of the reporting dashboard. The survey can be shared via emails, social media, or web forms.
Here, a group of anywhere from six to a dozen are interviewed at the same time. A moderator will discuss the topic and take the discussion forward. The presence of many relevant people at the same time can foster healthy discussion on the subject.
Moreover, a focus group helps the moderator and the researchers unearth information that they might not have thought of earlier. The researchers also get a balanced perspective as they get ideas from different people.
When you want to have a quick pulse of the audience, you can choose polls.
Polls can either be single or multiple-choice questions. Since they are usually short and don’t take up time, you can easily get a lot of responses. Just like surveys, you can also embed polls into various platforms.
After you gather the responses, you can share the results with the respondents to see where they stand when compared with others.
Suggested Reading: 11 Best Online Poll Apps
Your website and mobile app are excellent tools to collect customer data.
In fact , there are more than 40 data points that you can collect from your website visitors. This data will tell you how long they were on the site, the pages that they visited, which parts of the website they clicked on, and so on.
Another source of excellent customer data is social media.
Find out the other brands your customers follow, their common characteristics, the kind of interactions they have on forums, and so on. You can find out what their interests and motivations are based on their engagement on the platform.
Most social media platforms have an in-built analytics engine that gives detailed and organized insights from multiple sources.
There is a lot of valuable data that can be collected through your marketing campaigns. The marketing tool that you use will give you data about who clicked on the ad, the device they used, at what time they clicked, where they came from, and so on.
Here, market experts are provided with the estimates and assumptions of forecasts made by experts in the niche. These experts may revise their estimates and assumptions based on the information they are exposed to.
The final consensus of all experts on demand forecasts constitutes the final demand forecast.
Making direct observations is also a cost-effective way to collect data. It would be best if you established the right mechanism for making the observation. When you are doing simple observation, non-responsive subjects are not an issue. If the observation doesn’t require any type of interpretation, then the model doesn’t require an extensive training regimen for the observer.
Unlike primary data collection, there are no specific methods for secondary data. The researcher gathers information from various data sources, including the following:
A personalized walkthrough by our experts. No strings attached!
Suggested Reading: Desk Research 101: Definition, Methods, and Examples
Data collection tools allow you to store and analyze information about various things that could help make changes to your business. There are a number of reasons for researchers to collect data; let us look at some of them.
Data collection apps are integral to secure and reliable research. Make sure that you choose a feature-rich data collection software that gives you accurate reports and a comprehensive review so that you can refine the data to gather information. Make your data collection process simple by choosing the best data collection software.
Do remember that the purpose of collecting data is to work on it. For that to happen, you need to convert the data gathered into insights. Work on the improvements and make your offering better, irrespective of the nature of the data collected. Thank the audience for responding to your data collection survey.
If you are looking for data collection software, why choose a random one? Go for one of the best data collection tools in the market- SurveySparrow. Its appealing UI, share options, audience management feature, advanced reporting system, and many more features make it the most compelling tool. Get on a call with us to understand how we can help with your data collection strategy.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Thousands of brands trust SurveySparrow to turn feedback into growth. Try it free today!
Best Of
14 MINUTES
19 October 2020
Best Of
3 MINUTES
24 October 2018
Best Of
14 MINUTES
8 September 2020
Alternative
13 MINUTES
25 November 2021
14-day free trial • Cancel Anytime • No Credit Card Required • No Strings Attached
