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The best Android antivirus apps not only keep your smartphone or tablet safe from malicious apps and other malware but they can also help protect you from falling victim to fraud or even identity theft.

In addition to excellent malware detection and prevention, the best Android antivirus apps also include useful privacy and anti-theft features. While some like Google Play Protect are completely free, there are others you have to pay for but they often include extra security features like a VPN or password manager to help keep you safe online.

Weve rounded up the best Android antivirus apps from the biggest names in the mobile antivirus business Avast, Bitdefender, Lookout, McAfee, Norton and even Google itself and rated them based on their ease of setup, interface, usability, extra features and of course, their ability to protect your Android smartphone from the latest threats.

Below you'll find everything you need to know about the best Android antivirus apps at a glance. Whether you're looking for a comprehensive mobile security solution and willing to pay for it or you want something free to add a bit more protection to your Android phone, there's something here for every budget.

Best overall

1. Bitdefender Mobile Security

The best Android antivirus app overall

Bitdefender Mobile Security provides excellent malware protection with a light impact on performance. It also includes tools like an app lock, a Wi-Fi scanner, anti-theft features and data breach notifications.

Read more below

Best for apps

2. Norton Mobile Security

The best Android antivirus app for securing apps

Norton Mobile Security provides great malware protection and has an intuitive design. Its App Advisor feature checks for apps that are using too much data or acting suspiciously which could indicate they're malicious.

Read more below

Best performance

The best Android antivirus app for performance

Avast Mobile Security provides good malware protection with minimal impact on system performance. It also packs in additional anti-theft features, an app locker and tech support with its paid plan. You can also get access to Avast's SecureLine VPN as an add-on to either paid plan.

Read more below

Best on a budget

4. Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus

The best Android antivirus app on a budget

Kaspersky Mobile Security provides great malware protection with a small system impact and there's even a call blocker. Its free version doesn't have any ads and there's only a little bit of nagging to get you to upgrade to a paid plan. The paid version of Kaspersky Mobile Security automatically scans news apps, blocks known phishing sites and adds an app lock feature.

Read more below

Best for identity

5. Lookout Security & Antivirus

The best Android antivirus app for identity protection

Lookout Security & Antivirus has a clean interface and comes with identity protection. While the free version just scans for malware, the paid version blocks malicious websites, scans Wi-Fi networks and comes with a VPN.

Read more below

Best for simplicity

6. McAfee Mobile Security

The best Android antivirus app for simplicity

McAfee Mobile Security provides decent malware protection but lacks many features it once had. The free version includes app data usage tracking and a Wi-Fi security scanner. The paid version adds a URL screener, 24/7 tech support and removes ads.

Read more below

The best Android antivirus app overall

Price per year: $15; free alternative is separate app

Minimum Android support: 5.0 Lollipop

Ads: No

App lock: Yes

Anti-theft: Yes

Top malware protection

Many useful features

Small system impact

Affordable premium version

Expensive unlimited VPN option

Bitdefender's Android security app has nearly flawless malware protection, a very light performance impact, Android Wear watch integration, a VPN client and a malicious-website blocker that works with most Android browsers.

It also has robust privacy-protection tools, including an app lock, a Wi-Fi scanner, anti-theft features and data-breach notifications.At the same time, Scam Alert flags possibly malicious links in SMS text messages, messaging apps and screen notifications.

Bitdefender Mobile Security offers a 14-day trial period, but this is not a freemium app. The separate Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Android app (which is indeed totally free) only scans for malware.

The built-in VPN client gives you only 200MB of free data per data just enough to check your email while traveling. If you want more data, you'll have to pay $7 monthly or $50 yearly.

But at $15 per year for the first year ($25 on renewal), Bitdefender Mobile Security is well worth the expense. It's our choice for the best Android antivirus app.

Read our full Bitdefender Mobile Security review.

A one-stop shop for securing your Android devices

Price per year: $15, $50 or $105; no more free version

Minimum Android support: 8.0 Oreo

Ads: No

App lock: No

Anti-theft: No

Intuitive design

Flawless malware detection

App Advisor beats the competition

Lacks free tier

No more anti-theft functions

Norton Mobile Security, aka Norton 360, offers the best malware protection of any of the Android antivirus apps we tested. Unfortunately, it no longer has anti-theft functions, nor its contacts backups and Link Guard malicious-link blocker.

Norton also killed Norton Mobile Security's free tier, which was the best among all the Android antivirus apps we've tested. That's been replaced with a security-only app for one device that costs $15 a year for the first year ($30 on renewal).

For $50 a year, a medium-priced tier called Norton 360 for Mobile adds unlimited VPN service and "dark web" monitoring of your personal information. The most expensive plan, Norton 360 Deluxe, $105 per year, is actually part of Norton's antivirus lineup and lets you protect up to five Android, Windows, Mac or iOS devices.

All of these subscriptions can be paid for right through the Norton app, which has a 14-day free trial period.

Norton's killer feature is the unique App Advisor, which checks apps on your device for heavy data usage and unusual behavior. It also checks apps in the Google Play Store for security and privacy risks even before you install them.

Read our full Norton Mobile Security review.

An Android antivirus app with low system overhead

Price per year: Free; $20, $40 premium versions

Minimum Android support: 6.0 Marshmallow

Ads: Free version

App lock: Premium only

Anti-theft: Partly premium

Lots of features for free

Inexpensive premium version

Unreliable anti-theft features

Too many ads in free version

Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus is one of the most full-featured of the best Android antivirus apps, offering everything from a privacy adviser to a system optimizer to a customizable blacklist.

While Avast's malware protection is good, it's far from perfect. Some of Avast's anti-theft functions didn't work for us, and its call-blocking feature didn't work at all. (It's since been removed.) And the free version's ads and constant nags to upgrade are annoying and intrusive.

Those ads go away if you pay for either of Avast Mobile Security's paid tiers, Premium ($2 monthly or $20 yearly) or Ultimate ($7 monthly or $40 yearly). Users of either paid plan also get additional anti-theft features, an app locker and tech support.

The built-in client for Avast's SecureLine VPN is just a tease, and the only way to use it is to pay for an Ultimate tier. Since the stand-alone price for SecureLine is $60 per year, paying an extra $20 on top of the premium Android antivirus tier for unlimited VPN data is not a bad deal.

Read our full Avast Mobile Security review.

Great malware detection with minimal system impact

Price per year: Free; $20 premium version

Minimum Android support: 5.0 Lollipop

Ads: No

App lock: Premium only

Anti-theft: Yes

Call blocking works

No ads in free version

Strong malware protection

Limited features overall

Free version won't auto-scan new apps

Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus, also known as Kaspersky Antivirus for Android, offers nearly-perfect malware protection, a small system impact and a call blocker that actually works.

There are no ads in the free version, and not much nagging to upgrade to the paid plan. Free users get call filtering, Wear OS support and a strong set of anti-theft functions, but you have to scan each new app manually.

Paying users get automatic scans of new apps, an app lock and blocking of known phishing websites. And that's about it. There's no Wi-Fi network scanner and none of the privacy tools that other Android antivirus apps now offer.

If you're just looking for malware protection, you can't really go wrong with Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus's free tier. But while the paid version is inexpensive, it feels stripped-down, and you can get more from Bitdefender's rival paid app for $5 less.

The rest is here:
The best Android antivirus apps in 2024 - Tom's Guide

Best photo editing software: Quick Menu

Picking the best photo editing software can be a headache. There are lots of options out there, so which one is right for you?

A lot depends on the gear youre using, your technical knowledge of photography, and your existing experience using image editing software. If youre just shooting a few snaps on your camera phone for social media, you probably dont need a powerful and complicated application like Photoshop or Lightroom. Thats where more streamlined programs like Photoshop Elements or PaintShop Pro are so effective.

But if youre an avid photographer using one of the best mirrorless cameras around, youll definitely want something more in depth, that will allow you to edit and fine tune your images to make them the best they can be. All in one programs like ON1 Photo RAW are perfect for this, offering creative inspiration and professional-quality results.

Budding influencers, meanwhile, or content creator, may be more interested in impact, immediacy and shareability. Programs like Skylum Luminar Neo take AI effects and reality enhancement to a new level for your social channels, while Adobe Lightroom uses cloud storage so you can edit photos on any device.

Pros will obviously need in-depth editing control, advanced image organization and search tools, and professional workflows designed for editing at pace and meeting client demands. This is where Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Capture One come up trumps.

To help you compare them all, weve compiled and tested a list of the best photo editing software applications around. Weve also included a list of the best free photo editing software below, which are perfect for those on a tight budget or who only edit images occasionally.

Read on to find out which software is best for you.

Best overall

1. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024

Best overall Adobe Photoshop Elements is our best overall pick for most people, thanks to its underlying power, ease of use, strong tool set and cross-platform compatibility. For serious editing work, though, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Read more below

Best for AI effects

Best for AI effects Luminar Neo is a constantly evolving editing platform that uses AI technologies throughout to produce spectacular reality enhancements perfect for social media. Its recently introduced its own generative AI tools.

Read more below

Best all in one editor

3. Best all in one editor

Best all in one editor ON1 Photo RAW combines image browsing and cataloging, raw processing, extensive preset image effects and filters, and even image composites via layers and masks. It also uses AI extensively for masking and enhancement.

Read more below

Best for pros

Best for pros Photoshop is the ultimate image editing software if you're a professional user. It offers everything you'll need in a reasonably affordable package. It's primarily aimed at pros though, and doesnt offer quick fix effects or image cataloging tools.

Read more below

Best for photographers

5. Adobe Lightroom Classic

Best for photographers Lightroom Classic combines professional-level organizing tools with editing features powerful enough that you may not need a dedicated photo editor like Photoshop. Lightroom (CC) is a stripped-down version that uses cloud storage.

Read more below

Best Photoshop alternative

6. Best Photoshop alternative

Best Photoshop alternative Affinity Photo is one of the cheapest programs here, but is actually a powerful dedicated photo editing tool on the same professional level as Photoshop. It is also subscription free, coming with a one-off perpetual license.

Read more below

Best photo editing software all round

Effective Organizer app manages your photo library

New AI tools bring the latest editing tricks

Guided edits help you learn

Lacks tools for more serious photography

Novice-friendly approach can grate

Photoshop Elements is aimed squarely at beginners and intermediate users, so it wont suit experts and professionals, but it does have more advanced tools in its Expert mode, and can suit the widest range of photographic needs and user levels.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 is the latest version. Adobe updates Elements every year, and this time around its added more of Adobes Sensei AI technology, so that you can now select skies and backgrounds with a single click. You can also create movie Photo Reels from still photos, add animated movement effects to still images, apply one-click fixes for dehazing, background removal, colorizing and more.

Theres so much to explore, however, including no fewer than 62 guided edits in the latest version, that it could all get a little overwhelming, and while Elements is terrific for all sorts of projects, including social media graphics, photo gifts and more, its not really geared towards serious photographers. It does have an Expert mode and it can open and edit raw files, but without the more advanced options in other programs.

But Photoshop Elements is subscription free, and if you shoot videos too, you might want to take a look at the Photoshop Elements + Premiere Elements bundle. Premiere Elements does for video editing and sharing what Elements does for photos.

The best photo editing software for reality-bending effects

Platform: Windows, MacOS, mobile

Excellent sky replacement

Time-saving AI effects

Constant evolution of features

Relies on paid extensions for some tools other editors include as standard

Ever-changing bundles, pricing and offers

Skylum Luminar Neo is the latest version of the Luminar photo editor and has evolved into a modular software platform built around Luminar Neo itself and a growing set of Extensions for additional effects. It is still possible to buy a lifetime license, but the pricing is clearly driving subscriptions.

Billed as the photo editor for photographers who want results not technicalities, Luminar uses a set of Essential, Creative, Portrait and Professional filters (and Extensions, where installed) that can be used individually or together to create anything from simple photo enhancements to spectacular reality bending. The results are often excellent, particularly the AI Sky Replacement, which was the first such tool and is still the best.

Luminars GenErase tool is the first of its new Generative AI options, where its now catching up with Photoshop, and while its not especially quick at removing objects from scenes, the results are often quite remarkable.

Luminar Neo is ideal for photographers and content creators who want to make regular photos spectacular with minimal know-how and effort. Its probably less useful to more technically minded photographers, and Skylums constantly changing deals and offers can be confusing.

The best photo editing software for features and scope

Platform: Mac OS, Windows, iOS, Android

Extensive library of presets and effects filters

Support for layers

Can be used as a standalone app or plug-ins

Optional cloud storage and mobile app

HDR effects are somewhat poor

It does so much theres a lot to take in

Its difficult to describe ON1 Photo RAW without resorting to superlatives. Where other programs in this list specialize in particular areas, such as image cataloging, preset effects and in-depth layers-based editing, ON1 Photo RAW does all of this in a single-window workflow. You can use it as a standalone program or use its component tools as plug-ins for Lightroom, for example, and you can get it for a one-off fee or with a cloud-enable subscription theres even a mobile app with editing tools and its own camera.

Because it does so much, its a little thinner in some areas than specialized software. Its layers, for example, dont offer the same depth as Photoshop or Affinity Photo, and its HDR merge results are not as good as those in rival programs. And while its cataloging tools are very effective (you can simply browse photos if you dont want to import them into the catalog), theyre not in the same league as Lightroom Classics, or Capture Ones.

But ON1 Photo RAWs effects presets are varied and inspiring, its effects filters offer endless permutations and its AI masking is both fast and, more often than not, highly effective. ON1 Photo RAW 2024 brings a new Brilliance AI feature that automatically analyzes and enhances images based on their content.

This new feature and ON1 Photo RAWs preset effects do offer an easy entry point for novices, but theres a lot here to take in, and ON1 Photo RAW is probably best suited to more advanced photo editors who already know the basics.

The best photo editing software for beginners using Windows

Simplified, Photography and Complete modes

Value for money

Windows only

Old-fashioned approach

In many ways, Corel PaintShop Pro is superior to Photoshop Elements, as it's a powerful program, yet is easy for novices to grasp, and has some additional tools, such as 360-degree photo editing. It's also touch-screen compatible.

It does do all the jobs that photographers need up to an enthusiast/intermediate level, while catering for outright beginners too. PaintShop Pro does include AfterShot Lab for processing raw images, and more extensive and powerful tools than Photoshop Elements, but its organizing tools are not especially advanced and its workflow feels old-fashioned. And while the Ultimate bundle offers excellent value with a further 7 different add-ons, including PhotoMirage, Corel Painter Essentials and Highlight Reel amongst others, these are separate tools and utilities rather than an extension to PaintShop Pros own features.

PaintShop Pro does have appeal for beginners, long-time PaintShop Pro users or anyone who likes to get as much as possible for the least outlay, but this Windows only software does feel rather like a surviving relic thats doing just enough to stay current. It carries out traditional photo editing tasks perfectly well, but if youre looking for AI inspiration, in-depth layers and masking or professional-level image cataloging and raw processing, you need to check out the other options on our list.

The best photo editing software for photographers

Powerful photo organization

Seamless non-destructive raw editing

Powerful AI masking tools

Subscription only

Still needs external editors or plug ins for some effects

Adobe Lightroom Classic, as its now called, is the original Lightroom, and is for photographers who like to store, organize and edit photos on their own computers rather than using Adobes cloud storage. Its powerful image organizing tools Lightroom Classic the perfect complement to Adobe Photoshop and, indeed, both are included with Adobes good-value Photography Plan.

To work with photos in Lightroom Classic you first have to import them into a catalog, though they can stay in their current location you dont need to copy or move them. Once imported, you can apply practically every kind of photographic enhancement and adjustment though you will still need a regular photo editor like Photoshop to combine images in layers or create more advanced effects.

Lightrooms editing tools are terrific and its new AI subject masking tools make local adjustments and enhancements a breeze. Its non-destructive approach means you can go back at any time to change the settings, and you can even create multiple Virtual Copies of the same photo but with different adjustments.

Adobe Lightroom Classic now has the same status amongst expert and professional photographers as Photoshop itself, and is probably the default photo organizing and editing software for serious users.

The best photo editing software for mobile photography

Platform: Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android

Cloud-based storage access all your photos on any device

Slick and streamlined interface

Lots of help for all user levels

Needs 1Tb of Creative Cloud storage at around $10/month

No support for external editors except Photoshop

You have to be very careful when talking about Adobe Lightroom because there are actually two versions. Lightroom Classic is the regular version for photos stored on your computer, while Lightroom (previously called Lightroom CC) is the web-first version, where all your photos are stored on Adobes servers. The advantage of this is that you can view, organize and edit your photos anywhere, on any device.

Lightroom has the same editing tools as Lightroom Classic, but in a stripped-back interface thats a lot cleaner and more modern. Its image organizing tools are not as powerful, though, so you can create albums but not smart albums.

Perhaps its two biggest drawbacks are that you really need an Adobe subscription plan that includes 1TB cloud storage, and that you can only use Photoshop as an external editor.

That said, the fact that you can use it on desktop computers, mobile devices and even using a web browser makes Lightroom the perfect tool for photographers on the move. The mobile app even includes a camera with powerful manual shooting controls. Lightrooms Discover panel brings expertise and inspiration from a huge Lightroom community, and there are plenty of beginner resources to get you started.

The best photo editing software for professionals

Read this article:
Best photo editing software in 2024 - Tom's Guide

BYD will upgrade the software for the recalled vehicles free of charge via OTA to ensure that the reversing image is displayed properly.

(BYD Seagull. Image credit: CnEVPost)

BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) is recalling some of its electric vehicles (EVs) in China over a software issue, the first time it has done so in the last few years.

BYD will recall 16,666 Seagull EVs manufactured between April 7, 2023 and May 31, 2023, starting May 20, according to an announcement on China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) website today.

Due to a software issue with the camera driver in the multimedia display assembly, some of the vehicles within the recall may experience a problem where the reverse screen cannot be displayed, according to the announcement.

This may affect the driver's field of vision when backing up, increasing the risk of a vehicle collision and posing a safety hazard, the announcement said.

BYD will upgrade the software for free for the vehicles within the recall through OTA (over the air) technology to ensure that the reversing image is displayed properly.

For vehicles that cannot implement the recall through OTA, BYD will contact users and upgrade the software for the vehicles free of charge to eliminate potential safety hazards, the announcement said.

The Seagull is by far the least expensive model under the BYD umbrella and one of the highest selling BYD models. The model is known as the Dolphin Mini in some overseas markets.

The model initially went on sale in China on April 26, 2023, when it had a starting price of RMB 73,800 ($10,200).

On March 6 this year, BYD launched the Seagull's Glory Edition with a starting price of RMB 69,800, which is RMB 4,000, or 5.42 percent, lower than its predecessor.

Currently, the Seagull Glory Edition is offered in three variant, like its predecessor, with starting prices of RMB 69,800, RMB 75,800 and RMB 85,800 respectively.

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) remains unchanged in terms of key specifications, with length, width and height remaining at 3,780 mm, 1,715 mm and 1,540 mm respectively, and a wheelbase of 2,500 mm.

The model continues to be powered by a blade battery based on lithium iron phosphate chemistry, with the two least expensive versions having a pack capacity of 30.08 kWh and the most expensive 38.88 kWh, as before.

These three versions have a CLTC range of 305 kilometers, 305 kilometers, and 405 kilometers, respectively.

The Seagull is one of BYD's best-selling models, selling 280,217 units in 2023, contributing 9 percent of BYD's annual sales of 3,024,417, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.

BYD sold 302,459 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in March, with the Seagull selling 34,830 units, the third-highest selling BYD model.

By the end of March, the Seagull had sold a total of 1,232,450 units, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.

($1 = RMB 7.2397)

Tesla recalls 8,700 cars in China as reverse camera image may fail to display

Continue reading here:
BYD recalls 16666 Seagull EVs in China due to software issue that may prevent reverse camera image from displaying - CnEVPost

The upgrade is for 2011 to 2021 models with turn-to-start ignition systems.

ST. LOUIS KIA owners have continued to fall victim to theft and break-ins across the country and an effort in St. Louis will work to help this weekend.

The manufacturer will hold drive-through clinics to install free anti-theft software on some models.

These pop-up clinics have become common as thieves continue to break into KIAs that use a steel key and "turn-to-start" ignition system.

Fueled by a social media trend, the theft rate of certain Kias and Hyundais increased by 1,000% between 2020 and 2023, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute.

'It's horrible. It's horrible. We work hard for these cars, and this happens," said Toni Little John, who was first in line for the repairs on Friday.

It takes technicians 30 minutes to install software on the vehicle. That'll essentially stop it from starting if your locked car gets broken into or stolen without the key.

Capt. Harry Dilworth of the Ferguson Police Department said the department receives dozens of reports about stolen Kias and Hyundais every month.

"I'm glad to see the auto manufacturers getting out there and being proactive," the police captain said.

Dilworth added that in addition to increasing patrols in hard-hit areas and watching out for suspicious activity, the police department has given out wheel locks to people in the Ferguson area and is teaching the public how to use them.

"The last probably year or so, we've probably given out close to 200 wheel locks. We're working on getting more," he added.

KIA owners who attend the clinic also walk away with wheel locks.

Here are the impacted Kia models:

View post:
KIA installs free anti-theft software this weekend in St. Louis area - KSDK.com

The best survey tools make it simple and easy to gather feedback from customers, to help improve services and provide business insights.

Best survey tool of 2024: Quick menu

There are always ways to improve your business products or services, but knowing how and in what way can be difficult to know. Choices that may seem intuitive within the business can seem alien and off-putting to customers, so it's important to ensure any significant changes are tested first.

Additionally, while it's easy to imagine that customers want the lowest price over every over consideration, more likely they will pay more for a better experience - a key mantra of Apple.

There may also be better ways in which to handle customers, or learn further interests to potentially cross-sell into. All of which is moot if you don't have a way to properly gauge and measure what customers want.

Analytics can provide working data on the customer journey, which can be essentil for providing business insights, but even then the data must be interpreted and customer intentions presumed, so it's always best to try and hear back from the customer directly.

Forms and survey tools are one way in which to do this, and while some of the best CRM software may have feedback options built into them, they aren't always configurable or contain bias that makes it difficult for a customer to provide the feedback they want to give. Similar applies with simple email questionnaires.

Forms allow you to better configure and analyze responses, without having to make the experience so complicated as to put off users giving their feedback.

Here then are the best survey tools, to allow you to reach out to your customers and improve your understanding not just of what they want, but how to deliver a better business experience to them.

We've also highlighted the best business intelligence tools.

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure youre buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

The leading survey tools provider

Free to start

100 expert templates

Can collate online, or on mobile

Has seen successive price hikes

One of the most successful survey solutions around with over 40 million registered customers, SurveyMonkey offers a comprehensive questionnaire building solution and metric analysis tools.

It allows those without any coding skills to create complex question sets and then process the responses easily and efficiently.

You can sign up for free and create a survey within minutes. However, you cant access the data collected in CSV or Excel XLS until youve signed up for a paid option. And the price goes up more if you expect more than 1000 responses per month or want to use any of the sophisticated branching and pipeline features.

A number of pricing tiers are available, with Team Advantage being the cheapest. This allows control over survey sharing, team analysis, shared asset library, custom graphics, as well as easy data exporting.

The next tier, Team Premier, adds features such as benchmarks, industry tools, and multilingual surveys. The Enterprise plan offers extra security and compliance features, as well as admin management and migration as required.

Read our full SurveyMonkey review.

Personalized customer survey tools

Customers love it

Scalable pricing

Excellent customer service

Where other survey tools focus on how complicated a questionnaire can be, or how much data you can extract, Typeform takes a wholly different approach.

Its focus is user interaction, believing that the way to get the best responses is to engage the end user and through that get better responses. The Typeform methodology appears to work well, getting on average four times the completion rate over what the industry considers standard.

Service begins with the Essentials package, which offers a basic range of features. Upgrade to the Professional plan and not only do you get up to 5,000 responses but also unlimited logic jumps as well as conversion tracking and HubSpot integration. However, if paid yearly the Professional plan is discounted.

Each of these is restricted to a single user, though Enterprise deals are available.

Read our full Typeform review.

An easy to use form builder

Easy to use

Inexpensive

Limited technical support

JotForm is an online web and email survey building solution that aims to undercut Typeform while being even easier to use.

A coding-free solution that most marketing people should be able to master quickly and generate the leads or feedback that they need.

In the past 12 years, JotForm has built a customer base of 2 million regular customers, creating forms in 177 countries and 12 languages.

A Start plan is free to use, and offers up to 100 submissions, 100MB of online storage, as well as 5 forms and 1,000 form views. Paid plans - when paid yearly - start with the Bronze and increases monthly submissions to 1,000, and as well as storage space to 1GB, as well as 25 forms and 10,000 views.

The Silver plan introduces HPIAA compliance as well as increasing views to 10,000, storage to 10GB, up to 100 forms, and unlimited views. The Gold plan increases submissions to 100,000, 100GB of storage, and unlimited forms and views.

Read our full JotForm review.

Survey tools with built-in NPS

Integrations

Good support team

NPS solution

AskNicelys unique selling point is that it can collect live information based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is an excellent way to gauge the strength of customer relationships for a business, and this tool was designed to track that dynamic.

It also integrates with many customer workflow options that include Salesforce, Hubspot, Slack, Zendesk, MailChimp and Zapier amongst many others.

With these connections, surveys can target specific customer groups, and their reaction to new products and services can be collected to present real-time to live dashboards.

AskNicely used to advertise plans which were expensive but packed with features - however, the website no longer displays pricing information and instead asks for potential customers to contact them directly for a quote.

Read our full AskNicely review.

Simple and affordable survey tools

Very limited template types

Cant easily track users

Many business people dont need anything exotic or complicated. Maybe a simple form to ask their customers if they enjoyed the last seminar and how to make it better is sufficient.

For them, the free to use Google Forms is a perfectly adequate tool that requires little skill or experience to use, and is available for free as a personal edition or as part of the G Suite for business platform.

Responses are stored automatically into Google Sheets, allowing them to be easily transferred to an Excel spreadsheet or a database later.

The key weakness of Google Forms is that unless recipients have a Google Account and are willing to log in with it, they can fill out a survey multiple times.

As it is free before you spend big, it might be worth seeing if it will do enough, or at least hint what bought product features you might want.

Read our full Google Forms review.

A jack of all trades of form creation

User-friendly

Flexible solution

Formstack is a good example of a survey product with a very wide remit. The online form tool allows the creation of sophisticated surveys and their responses to be data harvested. But it can also be used for straightforward customer feedback panels on websites and social media.

Many companies use it to process leads and analyze their rate of conversion by integrating it into other sales management solutions. It works with MailChimp to enable targeted information gathering and feedback from existing customer databases.

As a survey tool, it works well enough, though it doesnt have the templates that some competitor products offer.

Costing has four levels; Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The Bronze package offers a single user solution with basic forms and no application integration. At the other end of this scale, the Platinum plan has a multi-user license with the scope for multiple forms and thousands of submissions per month.

Read our full Formstack review.

We've listed the best online form builders.

This section was authored by...

Rasto Ivanic, co-founder and CEO at GroupSolver

A major difference between traditional market research platforms and the latest generation of online surveys is the amount of information they can extract from open-ended questions and unstructured language data. Such data is critical for capturing the kinds of free-flowing thoughts from the respondent that yield the most relevant customer insights. Online surveys that use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) have streamlined delivery of these kinds of high-value insights and make them available immediately, without any post-processing or further data manipulation.

Historically, to hear the voice of customer at scale, researchers have asked closed-ended multiple-choice questionsin surveysrather than open-ended ones. The former is easier to tabulate than having to read and organize free-text answers, but it dramatically reduces the depth of the resulting data. As an example, a streaming musicservicewanted to understand consumer behavior but could only glean minimal information by using traditional close-ended survey approach. Only when the companyconverted the surveyto open-ended questions about why respondents listened to music could itstart describing their customers in more meaningful behavioral and attitudinal terms rangingfrom the deeply spiritual (I connect with God through music) to the practical and behavioral (Music allows me to focus while Im working).

Without AI technology,projects like this music survey with 10,000 participants might requiredaysof manual data review, cleaningand organizing and still come up short on insights.In contrast, the next generation online surveys use AI and NLP to automatically perform a first-pass clean-up of text answers, in real time.Some platforms even userespondents collective intelligenceto furthervalidateandclassify language data by interacting with it while it is being collected. Within a few minutes, researchers have a treasure trove of unfiltered and organic sentiments in respondents own voice, and in real-time.

An important added benefit of such a gamified interactive process is that respondents enjoyit more. More engaged and attentive respondents in turn result in higher-quality responses. Furthermore, the statistically validated qualitative data can be used in quantitativemodels,such asnet promoter score (NPS), segmentation, or pricingstudies, wherenatural text datacan nowbecome categorical variables in quantitative models.

The combination of AI and NLP technologies that smartly integrate into online surveys is making lasting inroads into the traditional market research toolkit. They are moving the insights industry toward free-flowing natural conversations with respondents, at speed and at scale. This is creating an opportunity for researchers to integrate unstructured customer data more directly into insights and statistical models that support them.

When deciding which survey tool to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are, as sometimes free platforms may only provide basic options, so if you need to use advanced tools you may find a paid platform is much more worthwhile. Additionally, higher-end software can really cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may require in your surveys.

To test for the best survey tools we first set up an account with the relevant platform, then tested the service to see how our surveys could be used for different purposes and in different situations. The aim was to push each survey platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced tools.

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Best survey tool of 2024 - TechRadar