LimeSurvey and Qualtrics are both excellent surveying software for conducting market research and understanding customer sentiments.
While LimeSurvey is a highly customizable surveying software with multilingual support, Qualtrics is a robust end-to-end customer experience management (CXM) software for managing mature CX programs.
Both tools have their pros and cons. For example, LimeSurvey supports advanced customization and the tool is very affordable, while Qualtrics helps you take action based on CX data.
But, if you need a B2B CX tool to grow account sizes and revenue, CustomerGauge might be your best option as it’s the only CX management tool built specifically with B2B brands in mind.
So, which software should you choose, LimeSurvey, Qualtrics, or CustomerGauge? Let’s explore how each one checks out.
A Closer Look at LimeSurvey, Qualtrics, and CustomerGauge
LimeSurvey
LimeSurvey is an open source surveying software that supports more than 80 languages and over 30 question types. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-compliant solution is used for conducting market research, collecting customer feedback, and performing academic research.
However, unlike Qualtrics and CustomerGauge, LimeSurvey is exclusively a surveying tool. It’s not a full-fledged customer experience management solution.
LimeSurvey is an excellent option if you need to conduct surveys for either B2C commercial or academic purposes. The tool’s free plan supports skip logic and branching, custom survey design, API access, and more.
It’s one of the most affordable, mature surveying tools available.
Price: LimeSurvey has a generous free plan that supports more than 80 languages.
Best for: B2C businesses and academic researchers.
Top 3 industries: N/A
Customer service G2 rating: 7.8 for Quality of Support.
G2 score: 4.1
Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a leading provider of experience solutions, including platforms to manage and optimize employee, product, brand, and customer experiences. Their CX solution collects customer feedback, analyzes it, and helps CX teams take action based on what they learn.
Qualtrics is a mature CX platform that’s been around since 2002. It has extensive features making it an excellent choice for end-to-end customer experience management. Plus, Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report ranked it in 2nd place for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C needs, suggesting it’s a good choice for all business models.
Price: Qualtrics CustomerXM’s pricing starts at $1500 annually.
Best for: Businesses of all sizes, with its largest market share being enterprise.
Top 3 industries: Financial Services, Retail, B2B.
Customer service G2 rating:: 8.7 for Quality of Support.
G2 score: 4.3
CustomerGauge
CustomerGauge is a B2B CX solution built around the Net Promoter Score (NPS), combined with their proprietary Account Experience™(AX) methodology. Account Experience helps businesses tie CX to revenue, giving teams insights into the effects CX initiatives have on their bottom line.
The CX surveying platform supports omnichannel data collection from different sources, like product usage, live chat logs, and NPS surveys. Its API supports integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) software like Salesforce, eCommerce platforms like Magento, and more.
Price: Contact our team for details.
Best for: Mid-market and Enterprise B2B and B2B2C companies aiming to grow account sizes and reduce churn.
Top 3 industries: High-Tech, Business Services, Manufacturing.
Customer service G2 rating: 9.6 for Quality of Support.
G2 score: 4.6
Gartner’s Verdict: Qualtrics vs CustomerGauge
Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report evaluated the top 14 CX platforms for their B2B enterprise capabilities.
Gartner ranked CustomerGauge in 1st place, recognizing it as the best CX platform for B2B sales enablement. This is because CustomerGauge not only ties CX to financial data, but also gives insights into which accounts are ripe for cross-sells, upsells, and referral marketing.
Qualtrics also scored very well across different categories, consistently scoring in the top 3. The platform was ranked as the third-best for B2B enterprise needs.
However, Gartner didn’t include LimeSurvey in their report, which is likely because LimeSurvey is not an end-to-end CX solution but primarily a surveying tool.
LimeSurvey vs Qualtrics vs CustomerGauge: According to G2
Here’s how LimeSurvey, Qualtrics, and CustomerGauge fare according to G2 reviewers.
CustomerGauge scored in 1st place for all the categories except for “Meets Requirements,” where LimeSurvey performed strongest.
However, LimeSurvey’s overall star rating is quite low at 4.1, compared to Qualtrics 4.4 and CustomerGauge’s 4.6. Although Qualtrics didn’t top any categories, it scored well across the board, only dropping below a score of 8 for “ease of setup” and “ease of admin.”
LimeSurvey vs Qualtrics vs CustomerGauge: How Customers Feel
What do users really think about LimeSurvey vs. Qualtrics? Let’s explore what they have to say.
LimeSurvey Customers Say…
Strengths
LimeSurvey is praised for its extensive customization capabilities and flexibility:
“It offers extensive customization opportunities, from editing the font of a specific question to setting up question branches and validation. This has allowed my organization to tailor surveys to not only be branded but also ensure we are not stymied by system limitations.” (Portfolio Lead, Productivity & Campaigns, Mid-Market)
“LimeSurvey has its roots in the open source scene and this shows through a massive amount of options and flexibility. With LimeSurvey you can do basically any order of questions or flow, re-organise how it sends out, when, [...] who can answer. It's pretty crazy that it has quite so many options to make your survey completely customized.” (Team Lead, Digital Learning, Small Business)
Cautions
LimeSurvey’s feature-richness comes at a cost. Users have pointed out that the tool is quite complex:
“LimeSurvey is pretty damn complicated. It's easily an order of magnitude more complex than the likes of SurveyMonkey and this shows in how long it takes to make changes. Training staff in its use is really complicated as well in comparison to so much of today's software which explains itself nicely as you go along.” (Team Lead, Digital Learning, Small Business)
“As an IT professional, it did not take me long to understand the tool but for everyday users, it can be quite a daunting tool because of the level of customization. I also do not like the way question branches have to be set up, it is unnecessarily complex especially compared to more popular commercial platforms.” (Portfolio Lead, Productivity & Campaigns, Mid-Market)
Qualtrics Customers Say…
Strengths
Qualtrics is loved by customers for its advanced customization capabilities and versatility:
“I really like the features that allow me to customize my survey with skip logic and embedded text. I also love their customer service. There is almost no wait time and the people on the phone are either able to help me through my problem or they log into my account and fix it for me. 5 Stars.” (Senior Data Analyst, Enterprise)
“The number of options to do the same idea is so useful at times. I always tell people that there are many ways to accomplish the same idea, so to never fret and just give me the ideas they want and there will probably be at least one way to accomplish their goal.” (Scientist, Personal Care Products)
Cautions
Some customers have highlighted certain limitations in tracking customers and testing the surveys:
“I was working on a project where I had to connect multiple customers, like a mother and then a child and an optional father. In the end, I was able to get it to work and keep track of the families correctly but it was a big hassle to make sure that the data were all aligned right.” (Senior Data Analyst, Enterprise)
“If you have a large, difficult survey it can take some time to test and assure that the survey is working the way it was intended.” (Assistant Director, Gift processing and Data Management)
CustomerGauge Users Say…
Strengths
CustomerGauge users praise the platform for its advanced NPS and reporting capabilities:
“Great tool for NPS. I enjoy the ability to be able to mark an NPS score in someone else’s name and the ability to mark a case as closed so you can easily monitor where your efforts need to lie when following up during an NPS ask. Reporting was also very good via CustomerGauge, though it takes a while to set up…
It was a very powerful tool for quickly analyzing any themes and patterns found within the data collected from a client NPS ask.” (User in Information Technology and Services, Enterprise)
“I enjoy the ability to be able to mark an NPS score in someone else’s name (aka, distributing to the correct CSM, or bringing an additional person in to support the client) and the ability to mark a case as closed so you can easily monitor where your efforts need to lie when following up in during an NPS ask.
Reporting was also very good via CustomerGauge. Though it takes a while to set up the rules behind a sentiment report it was a very powerful tool for quickly analyzing any themes and patterns found within the data collected from a client NPS ask. The reports were something I could pull together quickly to present to senior members of staff.” (User in IT and Services, Enterprise)
Cautions
According to one customer, CustomerGauge needs to introduce more email reminders:
“I would like email reminders to be a thing when you put a follow up in someone's name. To expand, if a case remained open for a long period with no action, rather than me following the case up by running a report and checking on the status of the case, I'd prefer the CSM got an automated nudge.” (User in Information Technology and Services, Enterprise)
The Pros and Cons of the 3 CX Platforms
LimeSurvey is a powerful, open-source surveying software with advanced customization capabilities and multilingual support. On the other hand, Qualtrics CustomerXM is an end-to-end CX management solution that helps you collect and analyze customer feedback, and take action to improve CX and reduce churn.
Meanwhile, CustomerGauge is a powerful alternative for B2B businesses looking to grow account sizes and revenue. The three tools have very distinct strengths, so let’s learn more about the pros and cons of choosing one.
LimeSurvey
Pros
Affordable. LimeSurvey’s generous free plan offers all its essential features, including multilingual support, support for 30+ question types, skip logic and branching, and customization capabilities. The paid tiers increase your limits and storage, unlock better support, and provide you with white-labeling features.
Extensive customization. As many reviewers pointed out, LimeSurvey has extensive customization capabilities, allowing you to edit fonts, set up branches for validation, and tailor your surveys to meet specific needs.
Panel integration. Whether you’re looking to use in-house personnel or third-party research experts, LimeSurvey’s panel integration makes it easy to manage your panel with quota setting, preset questions with URL parameters, and more.
Support for more than 80 languages, which is much higher than what many competing tools offer.
Cons
Exclusively for surveying needs. LimeSurvey is exclusively for surveying customers and conducting academic or market research. It doesn’t have end-to-end CX management features, like alerts and goal setting to help team members close the loop.
Steep learning curve. LimeSurvey takes a while to learn, and your team will need training to get comfortable with the tool.
Qualtrics
Pros
Supports all business models. Qualtrics is a mature CX platform suited for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C needs. It helps businesses collect customer feedback and take action to close the loop and reduce churn.
Omnichannel data collection. Qualtrics supports data collection for both structured and unstructured data, from different channels. So that includes live chat logs, customer surveys and reviews, support emails, and more.
Reporting and analytics. Qualtrics offers advanced reporting and analytics capabilities to help you interpret customer sentiments and determine the best course of action. The statistical analysis tool also helps tie CX to revenue and understand the impact of CX initiatives on your bottom line.
Dedicated customer support. Qualtrics users appreciate how responsive and helpful the company’s support team is.
Cons
Learning curve. Qualtrics is a powerful tool, but some users find its interface to be overwhelming.
Expensive. Qualtrics targets the enterprise market, which is reflected in its steep pricing plans.
CustomerGauge
Pros
Versatile integrations. CustomerGauge helps B2B businesses interpret, analyze, and take action based on customer feedback across all channels. And to this end, the platform supports integrations via API with CRMs like Salesforce, ecommerce platforms like Magento, and other popular customer-facing software.
Sales enablement. CustomerGauge helps businesses identify their most loyal accounts that are ready for upsells, cross-sells, and referral marketing. CustomerGauge is recognized by Gartner as the best B2B platform for sales enablement.
Dedicated to customer success. As some G2 reviewers pointed out, CustomerGauge’s support team acts like a partner. They work with you to improve your CX, and their partners have achieved response rates as high as 100%.
Tailored to B2B needs. Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report ranked CustomerGauge as the #1 VoC vendor for B2B and B2B2C businesses. The platform helps account, relationship, and customer success managers grow revenue by translating CX insights to action.
Cons
Not suited for B2C needs. CustomerGauge operates on the Account Experience methodology, which is tailored to B2B and B2B2C business needs. The platform isn’t ideal for B2C businesses.
Looking to grow your B2B brand’s account sizes and revenue with the best CX platform for B2B?
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