I’ll be the first to say that there is nothing “sexy” about data collection.
But in all reality growing your business without accurate data is nearly impossible.
So with that out of the way…
What can the right data collection tools do for your business?
They can help you:
Increase your website traffic.
Build a segmented email marketing campaign while saving you time.
Produce better products and services for your customers.
Collect data necessary for payments, client work, etc. in an easy and seamless way.
Basically, choosing the right data collection tools can be the solution to a TON of your marketing and customer development problems.
Here is our list of the best data collection tools of 2021.
What are the Best Data Collection Tools?
- Interact – Best data collection tool that uses custom quizzes to market your business
- Survey Sparrow – Best data collection tool using survey as the primary method
- JotForm – Best online form builder for every business’ unique data collection demands
- Thrive Quiz Builder – Best WordPress plugin data collection tool for WP sites
- Typeform – Data collection tool that uses forms, quizzes, and surveys
- Mouseflow – Best data collection tool that uses mouse tracking and heat maps
- Hotjar – Data collection tool for start-ups to enterprises that want to use recorded visitor sessions and heat mapping for solving processes and marketing strategies
#1 Interact.
Overview
Interact’s quiz product focuses on data collection for lead generation.
Interact increases your website traffic when a customer sees your quiz in an ad campaign, as a shared post on social media, or embedded on a website (WordPress, Shopify, Leadpages, etc.)
Simple, right?
Then, your quiz from Interact uses collected data and information to segment your audience and target them in different, specific ways.
Let’s see what else Interact can do for you by checking out the highlights below.
Highlights
- Design a commonly used Personality quiz, Scored quiz, or Assessment quiz to collect data about your respondents and overall audience interests
- Use Interact’s premade templates to save you time during your busy days
- Edit quizzes with your own words, images, and customizations to match your branding
- Opt-in form collects emails and increases conversions
- Integrate quizzes with your email marketing system (Zapier, MailChimp, Thinkific, ClickFunnels, Drip, and more)
- GDPR compliant
Pricing
Interact does have a free plan, but it doesn’t do much to help gather leads.
You can save 40% just by choosing to bill annually.
From there, you have three plans to choose from. We love the Growth plan for email data collection, conversion tracking, and analysis tools.
Click HERE to see exactly what each plan covers.
Bottom Line
Interact is the best data collection tool that uses quizzes as its primary data collection method to grow businesses online.
You can use Interact to create custom quizzes that collect information from respondents, increase leads, recommend products, and drive audience engagement.
Read through Interact’s case studies for an example that inspires you.
Let Interact make collecting data fun and simple by signing up for a free 14-day trial.
#2 Survey Sparrow.
Overview
Survey Sparrow is high up on our list of best data collection tools, because it is a full fledged experience management tool that uses surveys as its primary method to collect data.
Create custom surveys for different types of data collection, such as product experiences.
Use Survey Sparrow for marketing and sales data collection where customer engagement increases, customer leads turn into conversions, and you gain feedback and insight.
Let’s move on to the highlights below.
Highlights
- Get more information and data by using templates and full customization features, CSS included, to draw in respondents time and attention
- Connect your surveys with Survey Sparrow’s extensive list of apps and integrations to make gathering data convenient and easy
- Mobile-first surveys, because most survey data is collected on mobile devices
- White label surveys, so your branding is present from beginning to end
- Make collecting data different with embedding options, recurring survey set up, and conversational forms
Pricing
Survey Sparrow has plans for Personal use and Business use (plus 360 Assessments).
The Basic plan option may be the best option to start with if you are new to the data collection process, and you expect to receive no more than 1000 responses a month.
The Premium plan can receive up to 10,000 responses a month and includes more features.
Survey Sparrow has 4 different Business plans to cover the data collection tools needed for small businesses to elite data collection companies.
Bottom Line
Survey Sparrow is the best data collection tool for using online surveys.
Check out the case studies on the site to see an example or two on how online surveys always have a home in marketing and market research.
Are you a SaaS start-up? Survey Sparrow has a program for you to help you collect data and information needed to get your start-up growing faster than others.
Click the button below to sign up for a 14-day free trial.
#3 JotForm.
Overview
JotForm’s data collection forms make gathering data from customers easier.
Create pre-sales questionnaires that help customers decide if your product or service is right for them. This saves you the hassle of answering preventable questions in time consuming emails.
Mini Subscribe forms and Opt-in forms collect leads by growing your email subscriber list.
SEO Content Request forms make generating business and client work simpler and faster.
These examples I just mentioned are only a few of the hundreds of form templates that JotForm has (plus survey templates and quiz templates!)
JotForm is your one-stop shop for collecting data via business forms, marketing forms, membership sign up forms, e-commerce forms, and literally anything you can think of for your business.
Highlights
- Thousands of templates for forms, questionnaires, and surveys
- 100+ CRM, CMS, blogging, payment processor, email app integrations, and more
- Save, import, and organize qualitative data and quantitative data with new JotForm Tables, so everything is easy to use in one place
- Turn your business’ PDF data collection forms into HTML web forms
- Avoid time consuming data collection tools like paper forms by using Mobile Forms
- JotForm widgets to make your forms stand out to customers
Pricing
JotForm has four plans you may choose from for your data gathering journey.
The Silver plan includes HIPAA compliance, custom branding, and up to 1,000 payment submissions for $29/month.
Versus the Gold plan that includes unlimited forms, more monthly submissions, and unlimited payment submissions for $79/month.
The Bronze plan includes only a fraction of the number of submissions and payments compared to the Silver plan, so paying only $5 more per month may be worth it depending on your sites’ traffic.
Bottom Line
No matter the specific area or niche your business may be in, you will need some kind of online form in your set of data collection tools.
JotForm has a non-profit 50% discount for you if your business runs as a nonprofit.
Click the button to try JotForm free for 14 days, and with a 30 day money-back guarantee.
#4 Thrive Quiz Builder.
Overview
Thrive Quiz Builder is our second favorite data collection tool that uses quizzing with the intention to create conversions.
Quizzing is one of the most popular and engaging data collection methods to segment your audience.
Gather data, study what your audience’s interests are, and take on the spot action.
Quiz results pages can be used to create separate mailing lists, send targeted recommendations and affiliate links, and as a result, increase conversions.
Highlights
- Opt-in gates to capture customer data, collecting more emails for your list
- A/B Testing and Quiz Analytics to make strategizing for conversions easier
- Easy Quiz Builder with a Setup Wizard so every quiz is configured to perfection
- Dynamic Content for result pages that match the quiz taker’s interests
- Mobile-friendly designs
- Build from Scratch tool for custom questions, images, and videos
- Create social media sharing widgets and badges
Pricing
Thrive Quiz Builder comes specially wrapped inside a set of all of Thrive Themes tools called Thrive Suite.
And it only costs $228 annually.
So if you are in the market for a theme builder, course creator, and other data collection tools, then Thrive Quiz Builder is the one.
Bottom Line
Thrive Quiz Builder is best for data collection on WordPress websites, as it is a WordPress plugin.
Thrive makes the necessary data collection process manageable and effective.
Get Thrive Quiz Builder by purchasing Thrive Suite. Just click below!
#5 Typeform.
Overview
Typeform’s product focuses on data collection through questionnaires, surveys, online forms, and quizzes.
If you are selling a product or service, you’ll need an online order or lead generation form.
Grow your customer base by starting with a freelancer form template.
Use your data collected to process client orders, answer questions that you or your audience may have, gather leads, and collect information for your research.
Check out the highlights below on what Typeform can do for you.
Highlights
- Build from scratch or use a premade template, such as the digital marketing quiz and questionnaire templates, or remote working and market research survey templates
- No coding skills needed
- Built-in photo and video libraries
- Integrations with Slack, Canva, Salesforce, HubSpot, and more
Pricing
Typeform has 3 different paid plans on top of their basic free plan.
The Professional plan drops from $50/month to $35/month when billed yearly.
Let’s talk about that.
The Professional plan’s set of collection tools include unlimited typeforms, questions, and logic jumps. You can also integrate with HubSpot, customize what happens when a typeform is completed, and add code snippets from Google Tag Manager.
The Premium plan for branded companies drops to $59/month when billed yearly. It includes Typeform branding removal, Salesforce integration, and more.
Bottom Line
So, you might be comparing Typeform to JotForm.
A couple of key differences is that JotForm has the option to use more advanced customization features like HTML, Javascript, and CSS which could be a learning curve for some, but a dream for others. It also has more templates than Typeform.
JotForm is also slightly more affordable and has a mobile app, however it doesn’t have A/B Testing. You’ll have to use your choice of an A/B Testing tool.
Either way, Typeform can help you with all kinds of data gathering on or for your website.
#6 Mouseflow.
Overview
Take observation as a data collection method to another level with Mouseflow.
Mouseflow is one of two data collection tools on our list that records real time visitor activity on your website by using a mouse tracker.
Analyze recordings to see exactly how visitors engage, or don’t engage, with your site. Visually observe exactly where your visitors fall off your page, or where they became happy, paying customers.
Let’s learn more about what Mouseflow can do in your collection tools box.
Highlights
- Sort and filter recordings to narrow down your collected data for easier specific analysis
- Replay recorded sessions
- Collects quantitative and qualitative data and places it into heat maps
- Tracks visitor movement and activity throughout your website
- Use interactive surveys to gain feedback data
- Monitor how visitors interact with your website’s forms in real time
Pricing
Take Mouseflow for a test run with the free plan.
Now let’s take a closer look at Mouseflow’s Starter and Growth plans.
Starter only costs $24/month when paid annually. You get all of the basic features and benefits for one website and can record 5,000 visits per month.
Growth only costs $79/month when paid annually and covers 3 websites, doubles the storage capacity, and can record up to 15,000 visits per month.
For even more data collection and recordings, Mouseflow has a Business plan, Pro plan, and Enterprise plan available.
Bottom Line
Mouseflow’s primary goal is to get you to see exactly why your customers are not converting (and why they ARE).
Take control of your site’s conversion rate by trying Mouseflow for 14 days free.
#7 Hotjar.
Overview
Hotjar is the second data collection tool on our list that turns data and information from visitor session recording into heat maps.
Again, here you are using observation as a data collection method to answer your questions on how users interact with your website in real time.
Heat maps provide a visual representation and analysis of the data.
And watching recorded sessions helps you study your visitors intentions, desires, and needs.
Highlights
- Captured sessions generate heat maps so you can improve your website’s marketing
- Recorded sessions show all of your visitors’ mouse movements and clicks in real time
- Take notes, filter, share, and tag recordings
- Include surveys in your data collection so you get the full story of your visitors’ actions
- Instant Visual Feedback so you can identify strategies and changes that lead to growth
Pricing
Hotjar’s free plan is a great option to start with if you’re unsure how this tool will work for you.
Hotjar has paid plan options for start-ups in their early stages all the way to businesses ready to capture data from up to 15,000 sessions per DAY.
The pricing scale is based on data capture rate. For 500 captured sessions a day, the plan costs $99/month. For 1,500 sessions, it will cost $189/month, and so on.
Hotjar’s Personal Plus plan is best for your start up company. It will capture 100 sessions per day for only $39/month.
Bottom Line
Hotjar’s data collection methods help bring the solutions and answers to your most critical marketer and website designer questions.
Different types of data collection is necessary to see how customers view your website online and use your product.
Get Hotjar doing the hard research for you by clicking the button below.
What Are Data Collection Tools?
Data collection tools are tools designed to use various data collection methods for data gathering and storage. Also known as data collection software, it has the ability to electronically organize the data for quick analysis and immediate usage for marketing and research purposes. Data collection becomes more efficient and effective.
What Are Data Collection Methods?
Data collection methods are techniques that a researcher uses to collect data. Data collection methods include using focus groups, case studies, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, audio and video recordings, observation, and documents and records.
What Is Data Collection?
Data collection is defined as the process of gathering, analyzing, and storing data to establish theories, answer research questions, and develop new solutions. Qualitative data is collected through open-ended questions and refers to themes, characteristics, and other non-numerical information. Quantitative data is collected through close-ended questions and provides us with statistical data and information.
Wrap Up.
Collecting data can be straightforward, purpose-built, and time-saving.
Let’s wrap this up with a quick review.
Interact and Thrive Quiz Builder collect data mostly through engaging quizzes.
Survey Sparrow is best used for collecting data via surveys.
JotForm and Typeform use different types of online forms.
Mouseflow and Hotjar both use mouse tracking and heat mapping.
Take your pick on at least one or a combination of our best data collection tools.