Before we jump into the list of our top Dscout alternatives, let’s say a few words about the platform itself.
Dscout is a US-based software company that provides qualitative analysis for unravelling user preferences, behavioural patterns and insights. Simply put, it helps you better understand your customers by reading or listening to what they have to say.
With such knowledge, you can ensure that your product or website efficiently satisfies your client’s needs. And although Dscout does not provide all the possible tools you might require to get this information, we are sure that at least 1 of our Dscout alternatives will.
Dscout reviews
These Dscout reviews are based the on the information provided by G2:
Overall Score – 4.6/5
Ease of Use – 8.6/10
Customer Service – 9.9/10
Ease of Setup – 9.3/10
Dscout features
- Diary studies
- Express research
- 1:1 interviews
- Recruitment panel
Reasons why people may favour Dscout
Video/Image Response
The tools Dscout provides – express feedback, diary and live interviews – allow a quick collection of valuable responses from participants (in the form of a photo, a video or a written text) so you can better understand what feelings your product evokes.
Research panel
Searching for the right people to participate in your survey can be tough and irritating. According to Dscout, their panel connects you to more than 100,000 participants for conducting the surveys, which makes the recruitment effortless and pleasant.
Reasons why you may look for an alternative to Dscout
Limited usability of analysis tools
Many users have criticised the platform for having limited or hard-to-use tools when it comes to processing and analysing the data. In essence, problematic data analysis can lead to lower productivity and increase the costs of your research.
Weak international research capabilities
Even though Dscout has a panel with 100,000+ participants, people have complained about their inability to find target participants for studies. Many have also mentioned the difficulty to recruit people from countries outside the US, UK and Canada.
Video reports limitations
Some customers are also unsatisfied with the limitations on the video reports – Dscout only allows you to record 2-minute videos, which can be a headache if you need to conduct more developed studies.
So what are the top 7 Dscout alternatives?
- UXtweak
- UserZoom
- UserTesting
- Lookback
- Hotjar
- Maze
- Userbrain
Here is also a convenient comparison table based on tools’ reviews from G2:
Rating | Ease of Use | Quality of Support | Pricing | |
4.8 | 5.0 | ✓ Free plan Plus plan - $80/month Billed annually | ||
4.6 | 4.6 | ✗ No free plan Pro plan - $2490/year | ||
4.5 | 4.4 | ✗ No free plan Upon request, starting at $15K/year | ||
3.5 | 2.1 | ✗ No free plan Pro plan - $229/month Billed annually | ||
4.5 | 4.7 | ✗ No free plan Upon request, starting at $50K/year | ||
4.6 | 4.5 | ✓ Free plan Pro plan - $39/month Billed annually | ||
4.2 | 3.5 | ✓ Free plan Pro plan - $75/month Billed annually |
*if you are interested in this topic and want to know more information, we also advise you to check out our overview of UX tools.
1. UXtweak
UXtweak is a powerful platform with UX research tools for all stages of the website’s life and is probably the best out of all Dscout alternatives, especially when it comes to feature diversification. It provides all the features for an affordable price, advanced analytics and custom PDF reports, which makes it the only UX research tool you will ever need.
Features:
Tools that UXtweak provides:
- Card sorting
- Tree testing
- Preference Test
- Five Second Test
- Survey
- Session Recording
- Mobile Testing
- First Click Test
- Prototype Testing (with Invision and Figma support)
- Website Testing
- Moderated Testing
- User Panel
- Recruiting Widget
Pros:
- All tools in 1 place – UXtweak equips users with all the possible tools for multipurpose research – all for organizing content, emphasizing with users, usability testing and recruiting research participants in one platform. Isn’t it the dream?
- Great analytics tools – The platform has a very sophisticated analytics toolkit that allows filtering, sorting and comparing data effortlessly. What is even better, the platform allows you to extract results in a customized PDF for your stakeholders, so they can take a look at your research outcomes as well!
- Participants from any corner of the world – over 155 million candidates
- Flexibility of the subscription plans
Cons:
- Mobile testing only for IOS
UXtweak currently doesn’t have the Android mobile testing feature.
Reviews:
Our reviews are based the on the information provided by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.9/5
Ease of Use – 4.8/5
Customer Service – 5/5
Value for money – 4.9/5
Pricing:
Plans – FREE Starter plan, Plus plan is 80€/month (annual billing), Enterprise solution available
Discounts – The platform provides a 20% discount for annual billing.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, the starter plan is free, unlimited in time and will allow you to try all the features.
2. UserZoom
UserZoom is another good software that has helped many with UX research. The software has 2 complementary services – UserZoom (quantitative tools) and UserZoom GO (qualitative tools) – formerly known as VALIDATELY, so feel free to choose and combine them to fit your needs.
Features:
Tools that UserZoom provides:
- QX score (analytics tools)
- Participant recruitment
- Live intercept
- Card sorting
- Tree testing
- Click testing
- Surveys
- Usability testing
- Live interviews
Pros:
- Great diversity of the tools – Although UserZoom provides considerably fewer tools compared to our previous alternative to Dscout , it still has a solid comprehensive toolkit at its disposal.
- Benchmarking – A great feature that UserZoom has is a benchmarking tool, that allows you to compare your research results with your competitors’, based on the QXscore ranking.
- Good recruitment platform – over 120 million possible participants
Cons:
- Usability issues – According to quite a few reviews on the G2, many customers struggle with the platform’s information architecture or spend too much time trying to navigate among the features.
- No free plan/trial
- Pricey plans
Reviews:
Based on the information provided by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.4/5
Ease of Use – 4.5/5
Customer Service – 4.7/5
Value for money – 4.6/5
Pricing:
Upon request, starting at $15K/year.
Discounts – No
Free trial/ Freemium – No
3. UserTesting
UserTesting is one of the first platforms to provide unmoderated testing on the market. It is focused on gathering rapid customer feedback in either written or media form and will help you get valuable, very detailed consumer insights into your product and your users’ experience with it.
Features:
Tools that UserTesting provides:
- Moderated testing
- A/B testing
- Card sorting test
- Tree testing test
Read our UserTesting vs UserZoom comparison.
Pros:
- Huge participant platform – UserTesting provides a global network of more than 1.5 million participants
- Benchmarking – UserTesting is also able to conduct some benchmarking analysis so you can gain a clear understanding of your competition’s position.
- Good tool variability – Providing tools for both moderated and unmoderated studies, UserTesting platform is quite flexible and suitable for multipurpose projects.
Cons:
- Limited diversity of participants – Even though the platform’s participant panel is quite huge, people have struggled with finding their target focus group if the survey has to be conducted in languages other than English.
- Reports that are hard to read and summarise – Some customers have said that reports provided by this Dscout alternative are not very understandable and can cause problems when presented to people working outside of the research team.
Reviews:
Overall Score – 4.5/5
Ease of Use – 4.5/5
Customer Service – 4.4/5
Value for money – 4.5/5
Pricing:
Upon request, starting at $15K/year.
Discounts – No
Free trial/ Freemium – Upon request
4. Lookback
Lookback is a great feedback platform in case you want to switch from Dscout. It covers both moderated 1:1 interviews with a very developed complementary toolkit and unmoderated tests for information architecture and usability testing.
Features:
Tools that Lookback provides:
- 1:1 interviews
- Usability testing
- Remote ethnography
- Remote card sorting
- Tree testing
- Diary studies
Pros:
- Great flexibility of purchase plans
- Great tools for real-time interviews – Lookback has been praised for the diversity and ease of use of complementary tools to its interviews
Cons:
- No user panel available
- Poor customer support – Clients have regularly complained about having to deal with unskilled or non-existent customer support.
Reviews:
Overall Score – 3.3/5
Ease of Use – 3.5/5
Customer Service – 2.1/5
Value for money – 3.0/5
Pricing:
Lookback pricing depends on the number of sessions that you need each month.
Plans – start from 25 to 582 €/month (billed annually)
Discounts – 25% off for non-profit and educational institutions
Free trial/ Freemium – Lookback provides a trial period of 60 days
5. Hotjar
Although Hotjar is not a direct Dscout alternative, it is still worth a mention. Focused on website usability, it is a great tool if you want to collect very in-depth and detailed information about your customers’ interactions with your website by using screen recordings and heatmaps.
Features:
Tools that Hotjar provides:
- Heatmaps
- Session Recordings
- Surveys
Pros:
- Easy integration and deployment
- Very sophisticated analytics tools for heatmaps
Cons:
- Need to bring your own users
- Very limited usability
Reviews:
Overall Score – 4.7/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.5/5
Value for money – 4.5/5
Pricing:
Plans – $39/month for Plus plan (billed annually).
Discounts – 20% off for annual billing
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, the Basic plan
6. Maze
Maze is another one of Dscout alternatives. Working with Maze lets you conduct various surveys aimed at usability testing, concept or content testing and gathering post-launch feedback.
Features:
Tools that Maze provides:
- Prototype testing
- Tree testing
- Card sorting
- 5-second test
- Surveys
Pros:
- Very intuitive design
- Collaboration with Figma – Ability to work with Figma prototypes
Cons:
- Limited prototype integration – Even though many have praised Maze for having Figma prototype testing, a lot of customers have actually experienced issues when it comes to larger-scaled prototypes.
- No moderated research tools
Reviews:
Based on the information provided by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.0/5
Ease of Use – 4.2/5
Customer Service – 3.5/5
Value for money – 4.0/5
Pricing:
Plans – Free plan available. Pro plan is $75/month (billed annually).
Discounts – The platform provides a 25% discount for annual billing.
Free trial / Freemium – Yes, there is a free plan.
7. Userbrain
Userbrain is a great software if you want to focus on website and prototype testing. Despite its limited usability, Userbrain is a nice solution for those who don’t need a very diverse toolkit and are looking for a simpler Dscout alternative.
Features:
Tools that Userbrain provides:
- Website Testing
- Prototype testing
Pros:
- Automated regular testing – One of the Userbrain’s unique features, that lets you schedule tests’ reruns with the frequency you require.
- Pay-as-you-go model – Another interesting feature of Userbrain, you only pay for the service when you are actually using it, without buying monthly or annual subscriptions.
Cons:
- Poor language support – So far Userbrain only supports studies in English, German and Spanish.
- Limited research toolkit
Reviews:
Based on the information provided by Capterra:
Overall Score – 4.3/5
Ease of Use – 4.6/5
Customer Service – 4.6/5
Value for money – 4.4/5
Pricing:
Plans – $249/month for a Pro plan or $2490/year . They also offer a pay-as-you-go option, where you can pay $39/per tester.
Discounts – If you buy a yearly subscription you get 2 months free.
Free trial/ Freemium – Yes, free trials are available and can be provided for 2 Userbrain testers and 5 sessions, but you have to bring your focus group.
So, have you made the decision?
We hope that our article could help you choose the right UX research platform. And if you are still unsure what to go for, why don’t you just try our most tool-diverse Dscout alternative? Contact UXtweak to book a demo and make your business better today!
