The short answer
An insight community platform is the software you run a research community on: it holds your members, lets you ask them questions in several ways, and turns their answers into findings and files. To choose one, test each candidate on a real study of yours against eight criteria: logic, question types, qualitative tools, AI, exports, white-label, data protection and languages.
Under each heading we list what to ask any supplier, then say what Survizo does.
How to use this checklist
- Bring a real study. Ask the supplier to build a script you have already fielded.
- Open the files yourself. Look at the demo study's workbook, statistics file and slide deck.
- Write down how, not yes. "Yes, we do quotas" tells you little. "Each response is checked against the quota on our servers before it is stored" tells you what happens when two people finish at once.
- Ask what your plan includes. Which of these your Survizo account includes depends on your plan; ask on the fit call.
1. Survey logic and quotas
Ask:
- Can a rule combine conditions with AND and OR, and can you nest them?
- Does the builder flag a broken jump while you write, or only when someone answering hits it?
- Are quotas enforced on the server when a response is submitted, so two people finishing together never push a cell over its limit?
- Can you import a script you already wrote, and does the import tell you what it missed?
Where Survizo stands. Rules use eleven operators with nested AND/OR conditions, jumps, show and hide, screen-outs and variables, and a Logic check panel flags problems as you edit. Quotas are checked on our servers, and places go one at a time, so a full cell never overfills. A Word script import keeps your question codes, counts the questions against your script and names any it missed.
2. Question types
Ask:
- What is the full list, and how does each type report on the results screen and in the files?
- For MaxDiff, is the score a simple count or a modelled estimate? Both are used; the supplier should say which.
- Does a grid give a base for every row?
Where Survizo stands. There are twenty-one types in seven families, including MaxDiff, card sorts, image heat maps, grids, sliders, video answers, file uploads and signatures. A MaxDiff score is a count: the times an item was chosen most minus the times it was chosen least, with the times shown as its base. If an imported script uses a type outside the twenty-one, such as conjoint, the import names it rather than swapping in another.
3. Qualitative tools
Ask:
- Can discussions run for days in private rooms with chosen members?
- Is each person told about recording, and do they agree, before they join?
- Do recordings come with a timestamped transcript, and who can replay them?
Where Survizo stands. Discussion rooms are private and invite-only. Live sessions run in the browser for up to fifty invitees, everyone accepts the session's notice before joining, and you can have a recorded session transcribed with timestamps, in eleven spoken languages. Recordings play only for the community's owner, or a moderator given that right.
4. AI you can check
AI can produce confident text from too little data. Ask:
- Does every AI report say what it read and what it left out?
- Does it flag findings that rest on a small number of people?
- Can anything the AI writes reach members without a person choosing to use it?
- What does it never read, such as private messages?
- Does it name people when it quotes them?
Where Survizo stands. Every saved report lists what it read and what it left out, and a warning comes first whenever a source was only partly read. When the AI writes up a cut, it marks a finding that rests on fewer than thirty people as directional. Nothing it drafts reaches members until your team publishes or sends it. It never reads private messages or complaints, and speakers in a call transcript are numbered, never named. See AI across the study.
5. Exports and data files
Ask:
- Does the Excel workbook come with a codebook that turns every code back into its label?
- Does the SPSS file arrive with wording, labels and measurement levels set?
- Does an unanswered question stay missing, or does it turn into a zero?
- Does every chart slide show its base, and does the number on a slide match the workbook?
- If a file was built from only part of the data, does the file say so?
Where Survizo stands. Yes to each, on the plans that include exports. The workbook, the SPSS file and the deck are built from the same numbers, on the same question codes. See analysis and exports.
6. White-label
Ask:
- Does each community get its own web address, and can it be your own domain?
- Do the logo and colours carry onto the sign-in and sign-up pages and into every email?
- Can invitations come from an email address of your own, and from your own WhatsApp number?
- Where does the supplier's own name still appear? Ask for the list in writing.
Where Survizo stands. Each community has its own address in the form yourname.survizo.com, with HTTPS set up for you. You design the sign-in and sign-up pages, and eighteen kinds of email go out in your colours. Email invitations can come from an address of your own once you confirm it, and invitations can also go out from your own WhatsApp Business number to people who have opted in. Our branding page lists the five set places where the Survizo name appears.
7. Data protection
Ask:
- How is one community's data kept apart from another's, and is that checked on the server or only in the app?
- Is each member's consent recorded against the exact wording they saw?
- Can members download their data and ask for it to be erased?
- Can the supplier's support staff see your data without your permission, and is their access logged?
- Where is data hosted, can you choose, and which independent certifications or audit reports can the supplier show you?
Where Survizo stands. Each community stands alone, checked on our servers. Consent is stored with a fingerprint of the exact wording shown. Members can download their data or ask for it to be erased after seeing the plan. On an account you create yourself, support access stays off until you switch it on, and every look and change appears in your audit log. Your community's data is hosted in the United States and encrypted in transit and at rest, and the database is backed up continuously. Our security page sets out who can reach it, and if your security team has a questionnaire, bring it to the fit call.
8. Languages
Ask:
- Which languages do members and your team see, including right-to-left scripts?
- Does a person approve every machine translation before members see it?
- Are answers in every language stored on one base label, so one rule, one quota and one export column serve them all?
Where Survizo stands. The member portal and the console come in twelve languages, including right-to-left scripts. The AI drafts each survey translation and a person approves it. Answers are stored against the base wording, so one export column serves every language.
A one-page version
| Criterion | A good sign |
|---|---|
| Logic and quotas | Errors flagged while writing; quotas checked on the server |
| Question types | Every type reports with its base |
| Qualitative tools | Consent before joining; a transcript you can check against the recording |
| AI | It says what it used and what it skipped |
| Exports | Labels set; blanks not turned into zeros; bases on slides |
| White-label | A written list of where the supplier's name shows |
| Data protection | Written answers on hosting, staff access and certifications |
| Languages | A person signs off every translation |
If you run research in-house, Survizo for insight teams has the short version. To run this checklist against Survizo on your own study, book a fit call.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an insight community platform and a survey tool?
A survey tool asks people questions once. An insight community platform keeps the people you recruit in a private space and lets you ask them again, through surveys, polls, discussions and interviews.
Should I test a platform on a real study?
Yes. Ask the supplier to build a script you have already fielded, then open the workbook, statistics file and slide deck yourself. Logic, quotas and file layouts are hard to judge from a slide, and a real script shows them quickly.
What should an AI report show?
What it read and what it left out, a flag on any finding that rests on few people, and no names in quotes.
What should I ask about data protection?
Ask how communities are kept apart, how consent is recorded, how members get or erase their data, whether support staff can see your data without permission, and which independent certifications the supplier holds.