Refiner vs Survey Solutions

Refiner provides surveys for software companies across in-app and mobile experiences, websites, email, and shareable links. Survey types include NPS, CSAT, CES, product-market fit, user research, onboarding and UX feedback, user profiling, and in-app messages or calls to action. Teams can target respondents by traits, behavior, device, language, or prior responses, then trigger surveys after events or delays. Dashboards include NPS, CSAT, and CES trend charts, response segmentation, filters, and AI-assisted tagging of open-text answers. Listed integrations span analytics, CRM, messaging, and automation tools, as well as a REST API and webhooks. Refiner also offers AI translations and an MCP server through which AI assistants can access survey data. The company states it has SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA compliance frameworks. It says data is hosted in Ireland within the EU by default and encrypted in transit and at rest. The free plan allows 25 responses per month; the 30-day trial allows 100 responses and requires no credit card.

Survey Solutions is free survey data collection software developed in the World Bank’s Data group. Its Questionnaire Designer supports multilingual forms, collaboration, online and tablet testing, compiler guidance, and formatted PDF output. Survey questions can include nested rosters, answer piping, linked or cascading questions, barcodes, pictures, audio, and external sensor data. Macros, calculated variables, lookup tables, validation, and paradata monitoring provide ways to control interview flow and check data quality. Survey modes include offline tablet interviews, browser-based surveys, phone interviews, and mixed-mode studies. GIS tools support collecting location, distance, and area data, geofencing, and offline interviewer guidance using satellite images and GPS. REST APIs support custom dashboards, reports, external database connections, and automated quality controls; its R package covers almost all API calls. Server components can be deployed on premises or in the cloud using documented Docker, AWS, Azure, and Windows Server options. The free server and tablet components are available as downloads, with no use restrictions for public or private companies. Users provide their own tablets and server hosting. Self-hosted administrators handle backups, updates, and ongoing maintenance. The software is listed for Android, API, Linux, self-hosted, web, and Windows.