Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio vs. SurveyMonkey

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Lighthouse Studio
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Sawtooth Software headquartered in Provo offers the Lighthouse Studio survey research tool as an advanced platform for Conjoint Analysis and MaxDiff. With it, users can create balanced experimental designs hand-in-hand with traditional survey questions.N/A
SurveyMonkey
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, and a suite of paid, back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. SurveyMonkey also offers large-scale, enterprise options for companies interested in data analysis, brand management, and consumer focused marketing.
$25
per month (billed annually) per user (starting at 3 users)
Pricing
Sawtooth Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Team Advantage
$25
per month (billed annually) per user (starting at 3 users)
Team Premier
$75
per month (billed annually) per user (starting at 3 users)
Standard Monthly
$99
per month
Individual Plan - Advantage Annual
$468
per year
Individual Plan - Premier Annual
$1,428
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Sawtooth Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Features
Sawtooth Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Survey Format & Appearance
Comparison of Survey Format & Appearance features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
6.5
Ratings
20% below category average
SurveyMonkey
8.6
Ratings
8% above category average
Themes6.00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Custom logo/branding7.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Survey templates00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Survey Content
Comparison of Survey Content features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
9.0
Ratings
6% above category average
SurveyMonkey
8.6
Ratings
1% above category average
Changes to live survey8.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Question design help9.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Multiple question types10.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Survey Logic
Comparison of Survey Logic features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
10.0
Ratings
19% above category average
SurveyMonkey
8.4
Ratings
2% above category average
Survey logic flexibility10.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Survey Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Survey Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
6.0
Ratings
30% below category average
SurveyMonkey
10.0
Ratings
20% above category average
Response tracking6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Data export4.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Standard reports5.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Analytics9.00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Survey Administration & Security
Comparison of Survey Administration & Security features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
10.0
Ratings
14% above category average
SurveyMonkey
10.0
Ratings
14% above category average
Access controls10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Compliance10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Survey Distribution
Comparison of Survey Distribution features of Product A and Product B
Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio
10.0
Ratings
20% above category average
SurveyMonkey
9.9
Ratings
19% above category average
Respondent restrictions10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Vendor-offered crowdsourcing00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
User Ratings
Sawtooth Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Sawtooth Lighthouse StudioSurveyMonkey
Likelihood to Recommend
Anyone wanting to design and analyze advanced studies, particularly those that incorporate discrete choice modeling (such as MaxDiff and / or Conjoint) should be using Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio. The capabilities and flexibility offered by this platform for these choices is far beyond any other platform I am aware of. It is less appropriate where you need the survey tool to 'play well with others.' Two examples: 1) pulling in live data streams so they can be cleaned and visualized. 2) Integrating into any service where an API call is appropriate such as adding / removing people from a mailing list, incentive management tool, or qualitative community tool.
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SurveyMonkey really excels in the survey design aspect of the surveying process. They have so many different question types that you can use to create your questions. The analytics and reporting are basic but ok for those wanting simple insights into their survey answers. Their free plan should suffice for any business that needs the fundamentals of surveying - i.e. survey builder, sharing, and viewing answers.
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Pros
  • Powerful programming capabilities
  • Advanced analysis
  • Fantastic customer and technical support
  • Good documentation
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  • SurveyMonkey's survey programming features are extremely intuitive. Someone who has never used it before can, with little direction or training, easily set up a simple - or comprehensive - survey in a matter of minutes.
  • Real-time reporting and analytics tools are extremely helpful to keep everyone involved informed on an ongoing basis.
  • Virtually any kind of question or answer format can be programmed into your SurveyMonkey survey.
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Cons
  • They could focus on integrating API type functionality
  • I would love if the data came out labeled
  • I am not a fan of the 'limited' time a study can stay up. This causes issues with longitudinal studies.
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  • I think it's becoming pushed to the back-burner as more survey sites come out - it needs to come up with something to keep it more relevant as other survey sites are being more widely used.
  • Give more options to customize the look of your survey.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
Compared to other competitors in the market (including a few I've used internally), if you're looking for a survey application, this one does the job and it's quite inexpensive too. Considering the fact that it comes with a handy mobile application too (on iOS and Android), you also get flexibility thrown in the deal too.
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Usability
It is incredibly powerful, very rhobust and has fantastic support. The only reasons I'm not giving it a higher rating are 1) There is a very steep learning curve when it comes to designing more complex studies. 2) It is difficult to get Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio to 'talk' to other systems as the Perl upon which it is built is not really designed to work with API calls, etc.
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SurveyMonkey should suffice for most simple use cases to collect responses or feedback from clients. The templates that they offer are helpful as well as the guidance on question formulation. If you just need a stand alone software to distribute and collect surveys, then SurveyMonkey will meet your needs.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
still to many limitations for more complex surveys --skips, filtered questions, etc.
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Support Rating
I cannot explain how great the support team is. They are prompt and very thorough in their responses.
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I haven’t used the support function yet, but I have had colleagues that have and the issues they’ve faced have been resolved super quickly. They also have said the support people they have come in contact with have been extremely friendly. Those two things are what made me choose my rating
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Implementation not required.
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Alternatives Considered
While QuestioPro has the capability to build surveys and even do some advanced analysis, it is less powerful (and less intuitive) than Sawtooth Lighthouse Studio. It cannot handle studies with the complexity we are used to designing. The CMNTY Platform was initially sold to us as a combined Quant / Qual platform, but we found very quickly that the quant side of it is extremely limited.
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Outside of creating our own surveys, no other tools have been used outside of SurveyMonkey. I have heard of a few others but would not be able to provide an honest opinion due to my lack of experience working with them.
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Return on Investment
  • Our business is survey data so we rely heavily on sawtooth
  • The advanced design and analytics are incredibly useful
  • Negative - I wish it would work natively with API calls
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  • SurveyMonkey has a positive impact on our organization by allowing us to gain insight to our team through the 360 evaluations.
  • We have had positive ROI from our client polling questions which have directed new products or services that we offer.
  • The analytics were an awesome way to filter and export responses so that our management team could evaluate the information.
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ScreenShots