Comparison

ScoreStory or SurveyMonkey: which suits your research?

SurveyMonkey is one of the best-known survey tools: lots of question types, templates and integrations, for almost any questionnaire. ScoreStory is narrower: one score, followed by a conversation about the reasons. Here is how they differ, and how to choose.

What we say about SurveyMonkey was checked against the vendor's own pages in October 2026. Sources and corrections

What each one is for

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a tool for online surveys and forms. You build questionnaires with more than 25 question types, from hundreds of templates, with logic that decides who sees which question. You send them by link, email or through your website, and with SurveyMonkey Audience you can also buy respondents. For customers in the EU, the contracting party is SurveyMonkey Europe in Dublin.

ScoreStory

ScoreStory asks one question, an NPS, eNPS, CSAT or CES score, and then holds a conversation about the answer. Vox, the AI interviewer, asks for reasons and examples. The answers are sorted into themes and sentiment automatically, with a short conclusion and the quotes behind it. No questionnaire to design, and no pile of open answers to read through yourself.

ScoreStory and SurveyMonkey side by side

ScoreStory and SurveyMonkey point by point, based on each vendor's own documentation (October 2026)
Aspect ScoreStory SurveyMonkey
What it is for One score (NPS, eNPS, CSAT or CES) and a conversation about the reason behind it. Online surveys and forms for almost any purpose.
Question types and logic Partly. One score question, participant attributes and one closing question of your own. No question logic. Yes. More than 25 question types, hundreds of templates, skip and branching logic, depending on the plan.
NPS, CSAT and CES Yes. All four as metrics, with the score and its trend in your results. Yes. An NPS question type with automatic calculation, and templates for CSAT, CES and eNPS.
Follow-up on the answer Yes. The AI interviewer asks every participant for reasons and examples. Not documented. Follow-up questions run on fixed skip and branching logic.
Analysis of open answers Yes. Themes, sentiment, a short conclusion, and questions you can ask about your results. Yes. Thematic analysis and an AI chat about your results on paid plans, for surveys in English. Sentiment in 57 languages.
Spoken answers Yes. Participants type or speak their answer; speech is converted to text. No. No audio or video question in the list of question types.
Languages Yes. Interviews in 8 languages. The interviewer talks in the participant's language, without you translating anything. Yes. 57 languages. For multilingual surveys (Premier) you supply the translations yourself.
Inviting people Yes. Personal and public links, QR code, website pop-up, mailings from your own domain, import and API. Yes. Link, email, QR code, website, social media, plus SMS and offline on Enterprise. More than 200 integrations.
Respondent panel No. You invite your own customers or employees. Yes. SurveyMonkey Audience, with respondents in more than 130 countries.
Where the data is Partly. Application and stored data in the Netherlands. The language model runs at Anthropic in the US. Partly. In the US by default. An EU data centre for Enterprise only, and even then some data goes to the US.
Certifications No. No ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Yes. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701.
Price Per participant per month. Your first 10 interviews are free. A free basic plan. Paid plans per person or per user, with a cap on responses.

Where your data is

SurveyMonkey has data centres in the US, Canada and the EU, on AWS. Accounts sit in the US by default; according to SurveyMonkey, the EU data centre is for Enterprise customers only. Even on an EU account, de-identified response data and prompts to the AI features may go to the US. SurveyMonkey offers a data processing agreement with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications.

ScoreStory runs on its own infrastructure at Leaseweb in the Netherlands, on every plan, the free one included. The language model that holds and analyses the conversation is Anthropic's, in the US, so the conversation text leaves the EEA for that step, under the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. ScoreStory does not hold an ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification. See our privacy page.

What it costs

SurveyMonkey has a free basic plan, with up to 10 questions per survey and no exports. Paid plans are per person or, for teams, per user, with a cap on responses per month or per year. On 22 October 2026 we saw, in euros, among others: Advantage at €36 a month and Premier at €99 a month, both billed annually, and Team Advantage at €30 per user per month, for at least 3 users. Prices may vary by country.

ScoreStory charges per participant, not per user: up to 5 users are included. Essential costs €50 a month excl. VAT for 10 participants a month, Plus €125 for 50 and Pro €475 for 250. Your first 10 interviews are free, with no end date. See pricing.

To be fair: per response, SurveyMonkey is cheaper. The difference is in what you get back from each participant: with ScoreStory, a conversation, already analysed.

When to choose which

SurveyMonkey is the better choice if you

  • need questionnaires with many questions, question types and logic;
  • build forms, registrations or evaluations that don't revolve around a single score;
  • want to buy respondents through a panel;
  • want to collect large numbers of responses at a low cost per response;
  • want to connect your results to one of more than 200 other tools;
  • require an ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certificate from your suppliers.

ScoreStory is the better fit if you

  • measure an NPS, CSAT, CES or eNPS score and want to know what lies behind it;
  • want someone to follow up with every participant, in Dutch, German or French as well as English;
  • would rather not read and code open answers yourself;
  • want your research data stored in the Netherlands, without an Enterprise contract;
  • want an anonymous employee survey in which names are not stored.

Switching, or using both

If you run other questionnaires besides your NPS, it makes sense to keep SurveyMonkey for broad surveys and forms, and move the recurring score, with the conversation behind it, to ScoreStory.

How to move an NPS measurement

  • Choose NPS as the metric and keep the same question wording, so your score stays comparable. You can edit the score question yourself.
  • Import your contacts as a CSV or Excel file, with the attributes you want to compare, such as location or customer type.
  • Replace a survey link on your website with ScoreStory's website pop-up, or put the score question with buttons straight into your invitation email.
  • Export your old SurveyMonkey results (on paid plans this can be Excel, CSV or SPSS) and keep them for comparison. ScoreStory doesn't import them.

Curious about the principle behind it? Read conversational survey or traditional survey, or see the product page.

Frequently asked questions

Can ScoreStory take over my SurveyMonkey surveys?

Only if your survey revolves around one score, such as an NPS or CSAT measurement. A long questionnaire with different question types and logic, a form or a quiz doesn't move to ScoreStory. Those are better kept in SurveyMonkey.

Does SurveyMonkey have AI too?

Yes, mainly for building and analysing: having a survey drafted, thematic analysis of open answers, and an AI chat about your results. According to its help centre, thematic analysis and the AI chat only work for surveys in English, and the AI chat only in the US data centre. We found no AI that asks participants follow-up questions in its documentation.

Which is cheaper?

Per response, SurveyMonkey is cheaper, especially if you send lots of short surveys: the paid plans include thousands of responses a year. ScoreStory charges per participant, and every participant gets an interview that is analysed for you. Which works out better depends on what you want back from each response.

All comparisons

Sources

Everything this page says about SurveyMonkey comes from the vendor's own public pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Prices and features change, so check the current situation there before you decide.

What we say about ScoreStory itself is on these pages of ours: Product, Pricing, Privacy.

Spotted something that is out of date or wrong? Email welcome@scorestory.eu and we will check it and correct the page.

Product names belong to their respective owners. ScoreStory is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of the products compared here.

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