If you’re looking to run employee surveys, there’s a big decision to make – should you use internal survey software or bring onboard a market research consultancy to do the heavy lifting?
Both options have their place, and depending on your team’s size, budget, and goals, one might suit you better than the other.
But if you’re after something that’s flexible, easy to use, and helps you take action quickly, survey software is becoming the go-to choice for lots of forward-thinking HR teams.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the key differences between survey software and employee research consultants, weigh up the pros and cons of each, and explore which is the best fit for your organisation.
Whether you’re running your first survey or looking for a better way to do things, this article will help you make a confident choice.
At a glance, survey software and market research consultants might seem like they do the same thing – help you gather feedback from your people.
But how they go about it (and what you get at the end) can be very different.
Survey software is a digital tool that gives you everything you need to run surveys in-house.
You can create questions, send out surveys, track responses in real-time, and analyse results through a dashboard – all in one place. Tools like Stribe are built to be flexible and easy to use, even if you don’t have a dedicated insights team.
Market research consultants, on the other hand, are external experts who design and run surveys for you.
They’ll often help you decide what questions to ask, manage the process, and deliver a detailed report of the findings – sometimes alongside workshops or presentations for your leadership team.
In short: Software gives you the tools to run surveys yourself. A consultancy does it for you. Both can be helpful, but which one works best depends on how often you want to survey, how quickly you need results, and how hands-on you want to be.
More and more HR teams are choosing survey software over traditional consultancies, and it’s easy to see why.
With workplace culture and employee expectations changing fast, teams need tools that are flexible, fast, and easy to manage in-house.
Survey software lets you run regular check-ins, spot issues early, and take action quickly, without waiting weeks (or months) for a consultant’s report.
You get instant access to results, clear visual dashboards, and tools like sentiment analysis or benchmarking to help you make sense of the data.
And unlike one-off consultancy projects, software gives you a way to keep the conversation going all year round.
It also gives you more control – you can customise your surveys to fit your culture, ask questions that really matter, and build trust through features like anonymity and free-text feedback.
Survey software puts the power to listen, understand, and act straight into your hands. That’s why more HR teams (especially those with limited time or budget) are swapping consultants for modern platforms like Stribe.
HR teams want to act quickly and respond in the moment, not wait for the next big survey or external report. That’s why software is such a game-changer, it puts feedback and action in the hands of the people who know the organisation best.
If you’re looking for a simpler, more effective way to run employee surveys, Stribe is a smart alternative to traditional consultancies.
Our platform has helped over 1,000 senior HR leaders ditch clunky processes and overwhelming data with easy-to-use anonymous surveys that reach every employee – whether they’re in the office, remote, or on the frontline.
With Stribe, you’re not just sending out surveys. You’re creating an ongoing feedback loop that helps you understand what your people need, spot problems early, and take meaningful action, all without drowning in spreadsheets or waiting for external reports.
We’ve built Stribe to be lightweight, powerful, and genuinely helpful.
That means clean dashboards, customisable questions, and smart analytics that make sense of your results in seconds, so you can spend less time analysing, and more time making change happen.
If you want to be more agile, more responsive, and more in tune with your people, Stribe gives you the tools to do just that.
About the author
Starting out her early career as a journalist, Jade Madeley is an accomplished content writer with 8+ years’ experience across business, personal finance, SaaS, human resources and employee engagement. Working with Stribe, she crafts insightful content that brings complex HR topics to life and drives meaningful action.
