Let’s face it—finding the right UX research tools can feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack. As a UX researcher, you know that the right tools can elevate your projects from good to great.
But with so many options out there, it’s tough to know where to start.
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Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro looking for a little extra help, you want tools that make your life easier and give you solid results.
In this blog, we’ve simplified your search by organizing the best user research tools & software into easy-to-navigate categories. You’ll find everything from usability testing and survey tools to documentation and collaboration tools—all designed to make your life a little easier.
Remember, UX research isn’t just about gathering data; it’s about connecting with your users and enhancing their experiences. So let’s dive in and discover the best tools to help you do just that!
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Start with the essentials! Usability testing tools are the bread and butter of UX research. Whether you’re refining a website, mobile app, or prototype, these tools help you understand real user experiences and improve them with actionable insights.
From remote usability testing tools to the best free user research tools, we’ve got you covered.
UXArmy offers a full suite of remote unmoderated testing tools for testing mobile apps, websites, and prototypes. The platform simplifies gathering user feedback across different stages of design, development, and marketing. It’s flexible enough to meet the needs of designers, developers, and marketers alike.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Apart from UX researchers, this tool is perfect for UX designers who want real-time feedback from Figma files, developers eager to test app usability, marketers aiming to optimize website experience for users, as well as teams needing specific regional users for tailored feedback
Pricing
A free plan is available with custom pricing options tailored to your team’s specific testing needs
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Best for companies who need tailored audience testing with robust analytics to back up findings.
Pricing:
Subscription-based, with enterprise options for in-depth user studies
Known for its research-centric tools, Optimal Workshop offers unmoderated usability testing designed to reveal insights into how users navigate your site or app content.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Great for content strategists and UX researchers aiming to optimize website or app navigation.
Pricing
Offers flexible plans for individuals and teams, including a free trial
Lyssna is all about first impressions and quick feedback, helping you collect unmoderated insights fast. It’s ideal for iterating on design and testing usability in smaller, digestible bits.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Best for UX researchers & designers needing rapid user feedback to refine visual elements and usability.
Pricing
Flexible options with pay-per-response or monthly subscriptions
Maze is a rapid-fire testing tool perfect for getting unmoderated usability insights directly from your design prototypes. Its integrations with design tools make setup a breeze
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Designed for product teams and designers needing quick, actionable feedback on prototypes.
Pricing
Varies by plan, including a free tier for smaller projects
Now that you’ve explored usability testing, let’s move on to gathering valuable feedback and insights from your users.
Surveys give you a direct line to user opinions. Survey tools help you ask the right questions and capture insights to refine your product, whether it’s live or still in the design phase.
SurveyMonkey is a well-known survey tool that helps teams quickly gather structured feedback from audiences. It’s great for everything from product feedback to employee surveys.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Perfect for companies needing a versatile survey tool with analytics to help refine products and understand user needs.
Pricing
SurveyMonkey offers a free plan with limited features and paid plans starting at $25 per month for enhanced capabilities.
Typeform makes surveys feel more like friendly conversations, with a focus on design and user experience that encourages higher completion rates.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Best for brands looking to create visually appealing, conversational surveys that stand out.
Pricing
Typeform offers a free plan, and paid options start at $25 per month for additional features
With Jotform, you can create detailed surveys with advanced form-building capabilities, suitable for both small teams and large enterprises.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Ideal for companies needing versatile form-building options for surveys, payments, and customer feedback.
Pricing
Jotform offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $34 per month for additional storage and functionality.
Qualtrics is known for its advanced survey capabilities and is often used for large-scale research and customer experience initiatives.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Perfect for enterprises needing detailed feedback tools and analytics for customer and employee experience.
Pricing
Pricing for Qualtrics is customized based on the organization’s needs. Contact Qualtrics directly for detailed pricing.
Google Forms is a free, straightforward tool perfect for quick feedback collection and smaller surveys.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Best for small businesses, educators, and individuals who need a quick, no-cost survey option.
Pricing
Google Forms is free to use, with all features available to anyone with a Google account.
SurveySparrow offers conversational surveys and a user-friendly interface to gather feedback that feels more interactive.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Great for businesses that want to create engaging, ongoing surveys for customer or employee feedback.
Pricing
SurveySparrow offers a free trial, with paid plans starting at $19 per month.
With user feedback in hand, you’ll need platforms that make collaboration and remote research a breeze.
Note: UXArmy can also help you create quick, targeted surveys for gathering user insights alongside usability testing. Perfect for those moments when you need fast, focused feedback!
Research is a team effort, and these platforms ensure everyone’s on the same page, no matter where they’re located. Keep the ideas flowing, collaborate in real-time, and make remote teamwork effortless.
Miro is a powerful digital whiteboard built for visual collaboration, letting teams brainstorm, plan, and create together—even when they’re miles apart.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Perfect for design, product, and remote teams looking for a dynamic, interactive way to collaborate.
Pricing
Free plan available; paid plans start at $8/user/month
Mural takes digital collaboration to the next level with an emphasis on creativity and problem-solving, helping remote teams brainstorm and innovate together.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Great for remote teams and facilitators in need of a collaborative space that supports brainstorming and innovation.
Pricing
Free trial available; paid plans start at $12/user/month
Join countless professionals in simplifying your user research process and delivering results that matter
From the creators of Lucidchart, LucidSpark provides a virtual whiteboard designed to make team ideation and collaboration simple and effective.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Ideal for teams needing a collaborative, organized space to brainstorm and develop ideas together.
Pricing
Free trial available; paid plans start at $7.95/user/month
Stormboard is a versatile digital workspace that keeps ideas organized, making it easier for teams to brainstorm, prioritize, and act on insights.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Great for project managers and teams who need a mix of brainstorming and project tracking.
Pricing
Free plan available; paid plans start at $5/user/month
More than just a note-taking app, Evernote serves as a powerful organizational tool for teams looking to collect, share, and track ideas in one space.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Perfect for teams looking for a reliable tool to organize research, brainstorm, and store information.
Pricing
Free basic plan; paid plans start at $7.99/month
Google’s Jamboard is a collaborative digital whiteboard made for quick, simple brainstorming sessions that work well within Google’s ecosystem.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Great for teams already using Google Workspace who want an intuitive way to brainstorm together.
Pricing
Free with Google Workspace; physical Jamboard device sold separately
As your team collaborates, organizing those insights is key. That’s where research repositories come in!
A research repository is like your UX treasure chest, where all insights are stored and easily accessible. With these tools, you’ll never lose track of an important finding again.
Dovetail is a go-to research repository for UX teams, making it a breeze to store, organize, and analyze user insights all in one place.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Perfect for UX and product teams needing an organized, visual way to manage their research findings.
Pricing
Free for small projects; paid plans start at $15/user/month
Airtable combines the power of a database with the flexibility of a spreadsheet, making it a great option for storing and categorizing UX research.
Top Features
Who Should Use It
Ideal for UX teams looking for a flexible, highly customizable way to organize and access user insights.
Pricing
Free plan available; paid plans start at $10/user/month
Condens is a research repository that prioritizes UX-friendly features, helping teams organize, analyze, and share insights without the extra clutter.
Great for UX researchers who need a structured, yet flexible tool to organize qualitative data and share it across teams.
Free trial available; paid plans start at €29/month
EnjoyHQ helps teams centralize all research data into one repository, making it easy to store, find, and analyze insights from multiple sources.
Perfect for companies with large volumes of user research that need centralization and advanced analysis features.
Free trial available; contact for pricing on enterprise plans
Atlassian’s Confluence is a knowledge management tool that doubles as a solid research repository for UX teams, especially those already using Jira.
Ideal for teams that need a straightforward repository with seamless integration into their existing workflows, especially if using other Atlassian tools.
Free plan available; paid plans start at $5.75/user/month
ResearchHub is a repository designed specifically for UX and product research, helping teams keep all their insights in one well-organized place.
Perfect for UX teams looking for a dedicated research repository with solid organizational features and sharing options
Creating intuitive structures is essential to guiding users through your product smoothly. With these tools, you’ll be well-equipped to craft a navigation experience that’s user-centered and frustration-free!
UXArmy offers robust card sorting tool and tree testing features that make it easy to gather user insights on your product’s structure, so you can optimize navigation and make content more discoverable.
UXArmy’s moderated research platform DeepDive® lets you conduct user interviews and focus groups remotely, with capabilities tailored for real-time engagement and collaboration.
Ideal for UX researchers, product teams, marketing teams and designers seeking a fully remote, interactive research tool with full control
Ideal for UX researchers, product teams, marketing teams and designers seeking a fully remote, interactive research tool with full control
Discuss.io supports live moderated interviews and focus groups, tailored for real-time user insights and market research
Customized subscription plans based on features and usage frequency
Ideal for design and product teams seeking an interactive, collaborative research environment.
Plans start at $99 per month, with discounts for teams
Maze lets teams validate product decisions with interactive prototype testing and live interviews, making it a versatile tool for UX and design research.
Starts at $75 per month, with custom plans based on project requirements
UserZoom is a versatile platform for both moderated and unmoderated studies, offering a range of tools for gathering user insights.
Custom pricing available; contact for more details
InVision’s LiveShare tool allows teams to conduct moderated interviews while simultaneously sharing prototypes, making it ideal for real-time design feedback.
Product designers and UX teams seeking to collaborate on prototypes and gather user insights in real time.
Basic plans start at $7.95 per month; advanced features available in premium plans
UserTesting provides live moderated sessions, allowing teams to conduct real-time user interviews and get actionable insights.
Best suited for product teams, UX researchers, and marketers who need feedback from diverse user groups.
Subscription plans start at $49 per month, depending on features and project size
These tools help you connect with users in real-time, capturing valuable insights that shape your product’s user experience, navigation, and overall usability. With live feedback, you can ensure your design resonates with users’ needs and expectations.
The right participants make all the difference. These platforms help you reach the right audience, so you can test with users who represent your real-world customer base.
UXArmy leads in recruiting participants from Asian markets, offering a diverse, culturally attuned panel for UX research. Now, UXArmy is broadening its reach to offer participant insights in additional global markets, empowering research teams to connect with a more extensive, targeted audience.
Ideal for UX researchers, product teams, and designers who need localized insights in Asia and beyond, with customizable options for specific demographics and regions.
Custom pricing options are available for broader global and specialized participant requirements
Respondent offers a robust platform for recruiting specialized professionals across various industries, making it perfect for B2B and industry-specific research.
Perfect for teams targeting industry-specific participants.
Fees start at 5% of the incentive per participant, with a minimum fee
Prolific is known for its rigorous participant vetting, delivering high-quality responses ideal for academic and research-focused testing.
Ideal for academic research and teams requiring high-quality, reliable data.
Starting at $6.50 per participant with custom incentives
PlaybookUX combines recruitment with usability testing tools, creating a seamless solution for conducting studies from start to finish.
Great for product teams looking for a combined platform for recruitment and usability testing.
Starts at $49 per participant; fees vary for premium targeting options.
FocusGroup.com specializes in connecting researchers with U.S.based participants for focus groups and in-depth interviews.
Perfect for companies in the U.S. needing participants for qualitative studies.
Contact for pricing based on project requirements
ResearchMatch is a free tool primarily used by researchers in health and social sciences to recruit volunteers for studies.
Ideal for researchers conducting studies in healthcare or social sciences.
Free for academic researchers; other pricing details depend on project requirements
With these platforms, you can easily connect with participants who reflect your target audience, ensuring that your UX tests are both relevant and insightful
Keeping track of insights, feedback, and notes is crucial in UX research. These tools help you stay organized, collaborate with your team, and easily access project documentation whenever you need it.
Notion is a powerhouse for organizing research. It combines databases, notes, and project management tools into one flexible platform, making it easy to create custom documentation systems that fit your needs. Use it to store notes, create tables for participant data, track project timelines, and even collaborate on feedback in real time.
Ideal for UX researchers, product teams, and designers who need localized insights in Asia and beyond, with customizable options for specific demographics and regions.
Trello’s visual board system is great for organizing tasks and tracking research progress in a structured way. Researchers can use it to create separate boards for different projects or phases of research, keeping tasks, notes, and feedback all in one easy-to-navigate location.
A strong choice for teams who prefer a visual, board-based way of organizing and tracking research tasks
Google Docs is a straightforward tool that’s widely used for collaborative documentation. It’s great for taking notes, writing detailed reports, and sharing files within the team or with stakeholders, offering a simple yet powerful platform for real-time editing.
Perfect for teams that need a simple, reliable way to share notes and reports without a lot of extra features
Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook designed for detailed, organized notes. It’s especially useful for creating separate sections within notebooks, allowing researchers to keep each study or phase in its own organized space. Plus, it integrates well with other Microsoft Office tools.
Great for researchers who prefer structured, sectioned notes with the option for handwriting and stylus support
Evernote offers a user-friendly note-taking experience with the ability to clip web content, attach files, and create organized notebooks. It’s a versatile choice for researchers who want to gather and store a variety of content in one place.
Ideal for individual researchers or small teams looking for a versatile note-taking app with web-clipping capabilities
In addition to these five, there are several other effective options:
These tools ensure that every note, insight, and document stays organized and accessible, making your UX research process smoother and more productive.
Understanding user behavior is key to improving your website or app’s user experience. Advanced UX analytics and heatmapping tools provide insights into how users interact with your platform, enabling you to make data-driven decisions that enhance usability, optimize design, and reduce friction.
Essentially, these tools allow you to track where users click, how far they scroll, where they drop off, and more, offering a clear, visual representation of your UX performance.
Hotjar is one of the most popular tools for tracking user behavior through heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys. It allows you to see exactly where users click, scroll, and hover, and also lets you view recordings of actual user sessions to understand the journey and identify pain points.
Ideal for product teams, marketers, and UX designers who want to understand user interaction and optimize user flows
Crazy Egg provides tools to see exactly how visitors are interacting with your website using heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing tools. Their platform includes features like scrollmaps and confetti maps that give insight into user interactions in great detail.
Best for marketers and UX/UI designers who want granular insights into website performance and to run experiments to optimize user experience.
UXArmy goes beyond traditional heatmapping by offering integrated features like video and screen recording, AI-generated summaries with sentiment analysis, and heatmaps, making it an all-in-one tool for comprehensive user experience research.
UXArmy’s AI Summary feature helps you get instant insights (with timestamps) from your usability testing sessions by analyzing sentiment and summarizing key user feedback, saving you time on manual analysis.
Perfect for UX researchers, designers, and product teams looking for an advanced, AI-enhanced approach to usability testing and user feedback.
Custom pricing based on user needs and project requirements
MouseFlow offers heatmaps, session replay, and conversion tracking, allowing you to analyze user behavior in-depth. With its ability to capture and replay user sessions, MouseFlow helps to identify usability issues and track drop-off points in your customer journey.
Great for teams seeking detailed interaction tracking and form optimization tools.
Plans start at $24 per month
FullStory offers powerful session replay and analytics tools to help you understand every aspect of user behavior. Its intuitive dashboard provides heatmaps, session replays, and automatic issue tracking, making it easy to pinpoint problem areas.
Ideal for product managers, developers, and UX/UI designers looking for high-level insights into user behavior.
Smartlook is a session replay and analytics tool that gives you a clear picture of how users interact with your website or app. It provides heatmaps and event tracking features to better understand users’ journeys.
Best suited for UX teams who want an easy-to-use tool for tracking session data and understanding user behavior.
Lucky Orange combines heatmaps, session replays, and form analytics to provide a full suite of tools for understanding user behavior. Its real-time monitoring capabilities allow you to see user interactions as they happen.
Best for marketers and UX teams looking for an all-in-one user experience optimization tool.
These tools are excellent for gaining valuable insights into user interactions on your platform. Whether you’re using heatmaps, session recordings, or behavior tracking, you’ll find that each tool brings unique capabilities to enhance your UX testing
These tools give you the ability to directly gather feedback from users on what’s working and what’s not, helping you shape future iterations and improvements based on real user experiences.
UserVoice allows you to collect, prioritize, and manage user feedback with ease. It’s a great way to build a more user-centric product by listening to your customers and getting them involved in the decision-making process.
Starts at $499/month with a free trial available
Canny helps you capture feedback in a simple, organized way. Users can submit ideas, and the team can track, prioritize, and communicate the status of those ideas all in one place.
Plans start at $50/month
Qualaroo lets you collect on-the-spot feedback from your users while they are engaging with your site. It uses intelligent survey prompts that adapt based on user behavior to capture relevant insights.
Plans start at $80/month
ProductBoard is designed to help you understand customer needs and prioritize what to build next. It organizes feedback into actionable insights, making it easy to align your product roadmap with user demand.
Starts at $99/month with a free trial available
FeedbackHub is a simple and efficient tool that allows you to collect and track user feedback. It’s perfect for teams that want a straightforward platform for organizing and acting on user insights.
Contact for custom pricing
Beyond these top five, there are additional options like Survicate, Usabilla, and GetFeedback, each offering unique ways to capture and prioritize user insights through surveys, NPS tracking, and other customizable feedback methods.
Whether you’re collecting on-site feedback, running surveys, or tracking feature requests, these tools can help you better understand your users and keep your product aligned with their needs
These tools bring AI into the mix, helping you automate repetitive tasks, analyze data, and even personalize user experiences. It’s like having an extra set of hands to boost your research efficiency!
UXArmy lets you get the most out of unmoderated usability tests. Powered by AI, it analyzes user feedback and organizes it into easy-to-read insights. Here’s what it lets you do:
Available for unmoderated usability tests in English
You can opt in or out of AI processing anytime via your account settings, giving you full control over your data.
Usetiful’s AI-driven features provide insights into user onboarding and interactions. It helps you identify issues in user flows, measure user engagement, and streamline the design process by improving touchpoints
Chalkmark uses AI to analyze user clicks and attention, pinpointing exactly which parts of your design grab the most attention. This insight allows you to optimize elements that matter most to your users.
Zappi simplifies market research by using AI to automate consumer feedback collection and analysis. It turns customer behavior data into actionable insights, helping you tailor your design based on user preferences.
Smaply’s AI tools help visualize user journeys and segment feedback. AI makes it easier to track user touchpoints, identify pain points, and enhance the overall experience based on direct user feedback.
These tools bring AI to your research, helping you understand user behavior on a deeper level and make more informed design decisions.
Don’t leave anyone out! Accessibility tools help you ensure your designs are usable for everyone, regardless of their abilities, while staying compliant with important regulations.
These tools make it easier to ensure your design meets accessibility standards and is usable by everyone, helping you create a more inclusive user experience while staying compliant with regulations!
Choosing the right UX research platform isn’t about picking the latest tool that everyone is raving about – it’s about finding the perfect fit for your team’s needs and research goals.
Here’s how to go about it in a simple, step-by-step way that makes it feel less like a daunting task and more like an exciting decision.
Start by asking yourself: What do I need to learn?
Your goal will shape what features are non-negotiable, so don’t rush this step. The clearer you are on your research needs, the easier it’ll be to narrow down your choices.
You want a platform that can scale as your team grows, and your research needs evolve.
A scalable tool saves you the hassle of switching platforms down the road.
No one wants to get bogged down with a complicated platform when you’re trying to get insights fast. Go for tools that:
If the platform is too complex or requires long learning curves, it might just be more of a headache than a help.
No one wants to get bogged down with a complicated platform when you’re trying to get insights fast. Go for tools that:
If the platform is too complex or requires long learning curves, it might just be more of a headache than a help.
Look for the key features that are essential to your workflow. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Pick the platform that has what you need now—but don’t get sidetracked by every shiny new feature!
Great customer support can make or break your experience. Look for platforms that:
You don’t want to get stuck mid-research with no one to help out.
You likely already use some tools for project management, communication, or analytics. Make sure the platform you choose integrates well with the ones you already rely on, like:
Having everything connected means less time toggling between apps and more time focused on your research.
Bottom line: Choose a UX research platform that meets your current needs, scales with your team, stays within your budget, and offers the support and features that’ll keep your research running smoothly.
The right platform makes it easier to get the insights you need without getting bogged down by complexity. So take your time, test out a few options, and soon you’ll have the perfect match for your UX research goals!
Ready to take your UX research to the next level? UXArmy makes it faster and easier with intuitive tools for usability testing, AI-driven insights, heatmaps, and sentiment analysis. Whether you’re running unmoderated tests or analyzing data with AI summaries, our platform simplifies the process.
With UXArmy, you get access to a diverse user base, especially in Asia markets, and flexible pricing plans to suit businesses of any size. Streamline your research, get valuable insights, and make decisions faster.
Sign up today and experience how UXArmy can boost your research and make it more impactful!
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