Top 5 Qualtrics Alternatives for Creating Effective Employee Feedback and Engagement Programs

There's no denying that Qualtrics has built one of the top-ranking employee feedback and survey solutions available today. 

Although Qualtrics has a lot of good things going for it, it's still a single-point solution built solely for gathering feedback. So HR and People managers will still have to go shopping for more tools to manage other aspects of their employee enablement process.

In this post, we'll:

• Consider the pros and cons of Qualtrics EmployeeXM. 
• Explore some of the best Qualtrics alternatives with a more comprehensive suite of employee-centric features that you should look into.

📝 What is Qualtrics used for?

Qualtrics is an experience management platform that provides survey templates and tools that you can use to collect and analyze feedback from your employees. You can collect insights at different stages of their lifecycle to uncover challenges and improve your employee experience.

With Qualtrics, you can find out:

• How employees feel about your training programs. 
• How engaged they are. 
• When their satisfaction levels drop. 
• What they think about your latest policies. 
• Where they'd like to see improvements in your culture. 

You can take the feedback employees share with you and use it to diagnose existing or potential problems. 

You should fix them before they affect morale, productivity, and retention.

🔍 Qualtrics overview

The secret to creating happier, highly engaged, and well-rounded employees who stick around for a long time? The secret is anticipating their needs and giving them the support they require to do their best work.

You're not a mind reader and can't always depend on employees to come to you with their thoughts, feelings, issues, opinions, and needs without prompting. 

So you need a tool like Qualtrics to help you figure out what's going on with your workforce.

🌟 Best use cases

Qualtrics is an industry-agnostic software, so organizations across all sectors can use it to optimize employee experience and dig into topics affecting the business. 

Qualtrics caters to the feedback collection and management needs of small, mid-sized, and large businesses. Think 50 to over 1,000 employees.

However, its price point and complexity make it tough for smaller organizations to justify investing.

👀 Main features

Here are some notable features offered by the platform:

• Pre-built and custom surveys that you can tailor to suit your unique processes.
• 360-degree feedback for automated multi-rater review gathering.
• Multiple anonymous feedback options.
• Automated exit interview surveys to understand what's driving unwanted attrition. 
• Data access management based on groups, users, or user roles.
• Analytics and reporting tools to track performance and success metrics.
• Mobile accessibility so employees and administrators can get things done on the go.

💸 Pricing

Qualtrics does not publicize its pricing information. However, most reviews suggest that the software is quite expensive compared to other options on the market.

To find out exactly how much the service would cost your business, you'd have to contact Qualtrics' sales team to obtain a custom quote.

⚙️ Integrations 

To streamline your workflow, you can integrate Qualtrics EmployeeXM with various external systems and apps your team uses. Some notable examples include Slack, Hubspot, Google, Jira, Zapier, Contentsquare, and Microsoft.

💬 Customer support 

You can reach the Qualtrics customer support team via chat, email, or phone. 

However, many customers have complained about experiencing ridiculously long wait times and getting no responses to their inquiries or complaints.

If your problem is urgent, Qualtrics offers support options like online guides, video tutorials, and community forums that you can consult for assistance.

🟢 Pros & 🛑 Cons of using Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a great tool with much to offer, but it's not without flaws. 

Let's look at the draws and drawbacks of using this employee survey tool based on what its users say.

Pros

• A library of ready-to-use pre-designed surveys.
• Allows for anonymous feedback. 
• In-depth reporting of employee performance and engagement data.
• Hassle-free integrations with dozens of third-party applications. 
• An assortment of survey options for different purposes, frequencies, and preferences.

Cons

• Pricing information is not readily available.
• Customer support can be inefficient and unresponsive at times.

• Solely designed for employee feedback and surveys and nothing else.
• A complex user interface with a steep learning curve that is not so easy to surmount without technical assistance. 

• Historical analysis of survey data can be difficult and inaccurate because adding new changes to a survey will alter the previously submitted answers. 

• Reports are difficult to format and often require intensive manual editing to get them to look right.

💡 3 Key reasons you might need a Qualtrics alternative

Not every tool is suitable for everyone, and Qualtrics is no different. 

In addition to the cons of using the platform, there are other reasons to consider an alternative platform that's more aligned with your company's needs.

1. It's more expensive to buy single-point solutions

Qualtrics EmployeeXM is a software built for one purpose—collecting employee feedback. But that is just one aspect of your employee engagement and enablement needs.

You'll still require another software for onboarding, training, role clarification, performance reviews, designing growth programs, etc. Buying a separate tool for each of these purposes will eat a giant hole through your budget. 

It makes more financial sense to choose a multi-feature tool that combines all of these functions seamlessly in one comprehensive package. 

2. Introducing a new tool can be challenging and disruptive

The more tools your employees have to learn and adopt, the harsher the impact it will have on their engagement. They will constantly have to switch from app to app to leave feedback, complete a course, collaborate with their coworkers, and get their work done.

Each switch will constitute a break in their attention and flow of work that they'll now have to rebuild. 

However, by minimizing the number of tools employees need to navigate and choosing an app that does it all, they'll be more engaged and less likely to be distracted in their work.

And you only have to get buy-in once for your chosen tool from all the different stakeholders, rather than multiple times for single-case solutions like Qualtrics. 

3. Significant time and energy savings

Using multiple single-case solutions means different UIs, logics, and dashboards. 

But you can save everyone's time and effort by using a software suite with a unified UI and dashboard that serves multiple purposes.

Say goodbye to app-hopping and having to navigate or master a dozen different interfaces to check off tasks. 

💻 5 Top Qualtrics competitors & alternatives

Check out these great alternatives to Qualtrics that can offer you a lot more functionality for less.

Disclaimer: We've put in the effort to dig into the details and give you a balanced view here. But, to be honest, we're also pretty excited about how far our product has come. So, while we aimed for fairness, it's worth mentioning that our love for what we've built might peek through a bit.

Zavvy

4.7/5 user rating (G2)

Zavvy is a full-service employee enablement that empowers People teams to: 

• Efficiently and seamlessly onboard new hires, 
• Train employees at different levels, drive engagement, 
• Collect meaningful feedback to improve performance and growth.

👀 Main features 

What makes Zavvy particularly appealing is its multi-feature offerings. It's a one-stop shop for all the tools you need to engage and enable your workforce. 

With Zavvy: 

• You won't have to introduce multiple platforms to your team. 
• You'll diminish the risk of losing the motivation to complete your engagement programs
• You'll avoid wasting time getting everyone up to speed on each new tool you adopt.

Zavvy helps PeopleOps teams deliver structured, positive, and fun onboarding and training experiences using personalized journeys, trackable tasks, social learning, micro-courses, playful nudges, and learning in the flow of work.

The platform offers powerful and extensive automation capabilities. You can say goodbye to manually managing feedback and performance review cycles.

You can use Zavvy's 360 feedback tool to run processes like engagement surveys, performance reviews, offboarding surveys, 1:1 check-ins, leadership development surveys, and more. And with our analytics features, you will get skills matrices for your teams and uncover skill gaps.

Zavvy has pre-built templates you can use or fully customize to your needs. So you won't have to build anything from scratch.

We have the template for your needs: role cards, career progression frameworks, onboarding programs, training courses, employee surveys, and more.

Zavvy plays well with all your favorite HR management software and collaboration tools, including BambooHR, Workday, Lever, Slack, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. So you can integrate them and enjoy a seamless workflow.

👍What users liked

• Anonymous feedback options.
• Customizable automation options.
• Reliable, eager-to-help customer support.
• Intuitive user experience and interface.
• Engaging content and task reminder notifications.
• Custom and ready-to-use templates for surveys, onboarding, learning, and development.
• Interactive onboarding, training, and development journeys. 

👎 Cons

• The starting price for a package is $/€300. This price might be too high for very small teams.
• As the product is under constant development, some bugs will peek through from time to time.

💸 Pricing

Subscription prices for Zavvy start at 6€ per user/month. 

You'll get an adjusted price according to your needs. So you only get to pay for the solutions you want and nothing more. 

You can request a free custom quote to find out how your preferred plan will cost your business.

⏳️ Free trial

You can test Zavvy for free. First, you will discuss your specific case and needs with our learning experts. Then, they will customize the trial account for you.

Medallia

4.5/5 user rating (G2)

Medalia is an experience management platform designed to help HR teams in large companies engage and empower their workers throughout their employee journey.

👀 Main features 

Like Qualtrics, Medalia offers online survey tools to help you: 

• Keep an eye on your employee experience. 
• Find out what your people need, and give them the proper support at the right time.

However, Medalia's feedback options go beyond surveys alone.

The platform also offers video feedback for employees to share their thoughts at crucial moments in their journeys, like work anniversaries or when they get promoted.

Medalia allows you to run speech and text analytics on video messages or free-form comments left by your employees across email, social media, and within the app. This feature helps pick up on trends and topics that don't make their way into formal employee feedback.

Additionally, Medalia provides onboarding to help your new employees acclimate better and faster to your company culture, workflows, and the demand of their role.

👍What users liked

• Alternative non-survey feedback collection methods.
• Robust text analytics features.
• Excellent user experience and simple interface for end users.

👎 What users disliked

• Messy reporting and data management.
• The cost is quite steep and inaccessible to many.
• Implementing changes is very difficult without additional tech support from Medallia.

💸 Pricing

To get access to Medalia's pricing, you'll need to contact the company directly and request a quote.

⏳️ Free trial

Medallia does not offer a free trial, but you can get a product demo.

SogoEX

4.5/5 user rating (G2)

‍

SogoEX is best for large and small businesses that want to fine-tune their employee experience and feedback management processes to increase engagement and talent retention.

👀 Main features 

With this tool, you can easily create engaging online surveys. You will be able to get a sense of your employee sentiment at any given time and identify and resolve potential problems before they become part of your culture. 

SogoEX gives you access to a rich library of survey templates and questions that you can draw from to set up your own surveys. 

Plus, there are different levels of anonymity to help you raise response rates and get more honest responses.

After gathering feedback, SogoEX makes it easy for managers to follow up with employees where necessary, drive engagement and motivate them through personalized responses. 

SogoEX also offers advanced analytics to ensure your engagement programs work as planned and optimize them for better results.

👍 What users liked

• Powerful security features.
• Quick, easy, and visually engaging reports.
• Impressive variety of survey types and formats.

👎 What users disliked

• Lack of flexibility in creating survey questions.
• The software takes its sweet time to run processes.
• Data gets mixed up when running multiple surveys simultaneously.

💸 Pricing

SogoEX pricing lets you pay for only what you need. Still, you have to schedule a consultation to determine how much the solution will cost your company. 

⏳️ Free trial

You can try out your preferred SogoEx plan for free for ten days, with no credit card required. 

WorkTango

4.5/5 user rating (G2)

WorkTango's employee experience software is ideal for businesses of all sizes looking to gather actionable feedback to support the growth of their workforce and drive organizational change.

👀 Main features 

WorkTango is excellent for creating surveys to measure engagement and gain insights into your employees' needs. 

You can use the pre-made questions on the platform or customize your assessment according to your needs.

With WorkTango's role-based dashboards, you can manage access to your surveys with advanced permissions and allow managers to view sentiments from their direct reports.

Based on submitted responses, WorkTango uses predictive analytics to recommend actions that each leader can take to:

• Improve engagement.
• Champion professional development goals across their entire team.

Other non-feedback features that WorkTango offers include employee recognition and rewards for celebrating achievements and helping your people feel motivated and valued.

👍 What users liked

• Easy to configure and share surveys.
• Real-time results and the ability to monitor response rates on live surveys.
• Great employee peer-to-peer recognition system.

👎 What users disliked

• Customer support can be slow to respond.
• The data analysis tool doesn't offer in-depth reporting.
• Bug errors often interrupt processes and cause inaccuracies. 

💸 Pricing

Woktango uses a quotation-based pricing model that's only available on request.

⏳️ Free trial

You can request a demo, but WorkTango does not offer a free trial.

Applauz

4.6/5 user rating (Capterra)

Applauz is an employee engagement tool for companies looking to connect and communicate better with their workers and ensure they're constantly embodying the organization's values.

👀 Main features 

Applauz allows you to scoop up insights into your organizational culture and employee experiences using pulse surveys. 

With the platform's 360 feedback function, cultivating stronger professional relationships between peers, managers, and direct reports.

You will enjoy access to various advanced features beyond gathering feedback, such as rewards and recognition programs. You can also create challenges or keep track of your top performers and gift them something nice to show appreciation for their efforts with Applauz. 

Applauz supports integration with HR systems and communication apps, including BambooHR, Sapling, Microsoft Azure, and Slack, to simplify your workflow.

👍 What users liked

• The ability to get rewarded and recognize their colleagues.
• Option to connect to the in-app rewards marketplace or create custom perks.

👎 What users disliked

• The platform is prone to bugs and crashes and is not very intuitive.
• Limited features and lack of personalization options.

💸 Pricing

Applauz has:

• A Business plan for companies with 10-500 employees, starting at $4 per user/month. 
• A scalable Enterprise plan with custom pricing for larger enterprises.

⏳️ Free trial

Applauz does not offer a free trial, but companies with less than ten employees can use the platform for free.

🆚 Qualtrics alternatives: Feature comparison table

➡️ Enable your workforce with Zavvy

Boosting performance and helping your employees be the best and happiest they can be will require you to do more than just gather feedback. 

You must adopt a multi-pronged employee enablement approach that begins before new hires join your company and lasts until their watch ends.

To accomplish this, you'll need tools to help you plan, manage, and execute effective onboarding, training, growth, and development programs. 

Zavvy is an all-in-one solution that considers your employee experience needs.

Ready to create a continuous feedback culture, power up your employee engagement efforts, and make the bigger picture a reality with Zavvy? 

Get your free demo today!