The List of 11 Best Market Research Tools in 2025

Market research software is a platform that helps businesses gather, analyze and interpret information about their customers, competitors and markets. It gathers feedback from customers, tracks competitor activity, monitors cultural and industry trends and organizes it all into insights leaders can act on.

Instead of leaving teams with scattered data points, it connects the dots — revealing patterns, risks and openings that shape strategy. The most advanced platforms bring in AI, real-time dashboards and integrations with sales or marketing systems, so decisions are informed by context, not just numbers. For product launches, brand positioning or exploring new markets, market research software gives organizations a sharper lens to see what matters and the confidence to move in the right direction.

Why is it important to use a market research tool?

A market research tool matters because it gives businesses a clear, structured view of their environment. Customers, competitors, and markets are constantly sending signals, but without a way to capture and interpret them, the picture stays incomplete. A research tool makes those signals usable.

Here’s what it brings to the table:

• Clarity on customer needs — It shows how people think, feel and act, helping companies design products and services that fit real expectations.
• A single source of truth — Feedback, surveys, social mentions and competitive data are no longer scattered across channels. Everything is gathered and interpreted in one place.
• Foresight into change — Subtle shifts in demand or competitor activity appear early, allowing teams to adjust before they become obvious.
• Decisions grounded in evidence — Leaders can move forward with confidence, knowing choices are backed by data rather than assumptions.

The importance of a market research tool lies in how it turns fragmented information into direction. It doesn’t overwhelm teams with numbers. It gives them a clear sense of where to focus, how to respond, and what opportunities deserve attention.

What are types of market research tools?

Market research tools serve different needs. Each type opens a different window into customer behavior, competitive moves or market dynamics. When used together, they create a clearer, more layered understanding of what’s unfolding.

• Survey platforms: These are the pulse checkers. They capture unfiltered opinions from customers, showing satisfaction levels, unfulfilled needs and reactions to new ideas. When done well, surveys buoy up patterns that raw numbers alone can’t explain.
• Focus group and interview tools: These tools recreate the intimacy of in-person conversations in a digital setting. They bring the emotions, motivations and subtle cues behind customer choices to light — the kind of insights that rarely show up in data tables.
• Social listening tools: Markets speak in real time through social channels, reviews and forums. Social listening platforms tune into those conversations, showing up sentiment shifts, cultural trends and the narratives shaping brand perception.
• Competitive intelligence tools: Acting as a watchtower, these tools track how competitors price, position and move in the market, helping businesses identify threats and find openings for differentiation.

Each tool type delivers a distinct lens. The real advantage comes from weaving them together to capture both the measurable signals and the human currents beneath them.

11 best market research tools in 2025

Based on our 2025 round-up, here are 11 top market research tools that should be on your radar.

Sprinklr Insights

Sprinklr Insights gives enterprises a complete view of their brand, customers and competition. It combines powerful social listening with AI-driven customer feedback management and competitive benchmarking at scale. Track conversations across 30+ social and digital platforms, hundreds of thousands of media outlets and over a billion websites. Go beyond text with the ability to analyze images, videos, and multimedia mentions for a richer picture of brand perception.

Unlock a 360° view of customer feedback by unifying survey data with insights from social channels, review sites, and service interactions — cutting through silos and manual workflows. Compare survey findings against real-time feedback to validate insights instantly. At the same time, benchmark your performance against competitors, track influencers across eight social platforms and see exactly where you stand. With depth, speed, and scale, Sprinklr Insights makes it easier to listen, measure and act.

Top features

Broad coverage of digital conversations

Sprinklr captures signals from 30+ social channels, 400,000+ media outlets and over a billion websites. This scale ensures that whether a brand mention appears in a niche forum, a breaking news article, or a viral TikTok, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

AI that interprets nuance Its generative AI engine can pick up emotions like frustration, excitement or disappointment, identify key entities mentioned with your brand and classify conversations into meaningful categories.

Real-time situational awareness With direct firehose access to major social platforms, Sprinklr records data without loss. Brands can see conversations unfolding as they happen, which makes it possible to react during the moment, not after the fact.

Organized themes and topics

Instead of leaving teams with scattered mentions, Sprinklr groups related discussions into themes and sub-themes. A product launch, for example, can be broken into themes such as design, pricing and customer support, giving clarity on which areas draw the strongest reactions.

Live and historical trend tracking

The platform provides trending topics directly from social platforms, showing not only what is spiking right now but also how discussions have evolved over time. This makes it easier to compare past campaigns with current momentum.

Smart alerts for early warnings

Sprinklr analyzes anomalies in conversation volume and tone. If an unexpected surge of criticism appears, or if praise suddenly spikes, the system alerts teams instantly, giving them a chance to act before reputational stakes rise.

Accelerated time-to-value with out-of-the-box dashboards

Sprinklr Insights comes with 10+ pre-built dashboards designed to help you hit the ground running. Whether you’re measuring content performance, analyzing influencer strategy or tracking executive mentions, these dashboards let you benchmark brand KPIs — like engagement, reach, and follower growth — directly against competitors.

AI-powered conversational surveys for high response rates

Sprinklr helps you move beyond static forms with interactive, conversational surveys designed to engage. AI dynamically adapts questions in real time based on previous answers, probing deeper where it matters to surface richer insights. Visually engaging designs keep respondents invested, driving higher completion rates while uncovering feedback traditional surveys often miss.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“As a user of Sprinklr Insights, what I appreciate most is its powerful social listening and analytics capabilities. The platform excels at gathering and analyzing data across multiple channels simultaneously, which gives us a really comprehensive view of brand sentiment and market trends. The AI-powered analytics are particularly impressive - they help us spot emerging trends and potential issues before they become major concerns. It is also easy to integrate and implement, and the customer support is also excellent.” Source

What could be better

“Although Sprinklr Insights is an innovative platform, new users not acquainted with such a feature-packed tool may find the experience somewhat challenging at first. Certain abilities, such as advanced customization options, may need more user-friendly ways of getting around. Nevertheless, the customer support team is amazing and offers great assistance, which makes dealing with these difficulties a lot easier indeed. Once you manage to figure the tool out, it really is worth your money, delivering the value you expect.” Source

Verdict: Sprinklr delivers breadth and depth that few platforms can match, making it a strong choice for enterprises that want to actively manage brand health and reputation. Its AI-powered insights, multimedia analysis and real-time crisis detection are invaluable at scale. That said, smaller businesses may find the platform complex and resource-heavy. For organizations ready to invest in advanced listening and proactive reputation management, Sprinklr is among the most comprehensive solutions available.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is built to help businesses bring meaning from the vast noise of online conversations. With access to more than 100 million online sources, spanning news outlets, blogs, forums and social platforms, it interprets both historical and real-time activity and gives brands a panoramic view of how they are being discussed across markets.

Top features

• Geolocation and image recognition: Tracks mentions tied to specific regions and identifies brand appearances in images, offering clarity on both geographic influence and visual presence.
• Advanced Boolean search: Supports 48 Boolean operators, allowing teams to refine searches with precision and tailor queries to complex research needs.
• Vizia visualization: Transforms raw data into clear, real-time visuals, helping teams share insights across departments in an accessible format.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Allows us to analyze brands to monitor online conversations effectively, and any changes in conversation. Customizable charting allows us to create tailored charts and analyze data in-depth. The flexibility of charting options sets Brandwatch apart.” Source

What could be better

“At first it can be a bit intimidating to write the queries, but there are educational videos that can help, and you can also reach out to customer support. In some cases, I've seen that dashboards can take some time to update if you make changes to the queries. One limitation for us is that TikTok is not part of the media platforms included.” Source

Verdict: Brandwatch distinguishes itself with its massive data library, strong AI integration, and standout visualization capabilities. It’s particularly effective for enterprises and agencies managing large-scale, multi-market projects. While its Boolean query system may require a learning curve, the payoff is highly precise insights. For teams that need breadth, depth and clarity in their listening efforts, Brandwatch is a reliable choice.

Meltwater

Meltwater is a full-scale media intelligence platform. It gathers conversations and coverage from across social channels, news outlets, blogs, forums, podcasts and review sites, giving brands a wide-angle view of their presence online. The platform is built to help teams track reputation, follow emerging narratives and connect insights from both media and social conversations in one place.

Top features

• Live and historical insights: Surfaces real-time social trends while offering a 15-month archive of data, making it easier to compare campaigns and behaviors over time.
• Visual content analysis: Goes beyond text by using OCR, logo detection, and emotion recognition to interpret images, videos, and non-verbal content across digital channels.
• Influencer mapping: Identifies influencers with genuine reach and engaged audiences, avoiding false signals from inflated follower counts.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“It helps centralize social listening and media monitoring, which is critical for spotting trends and crises early. It saves a lot of manual work by automating alerts, reporting, and data pulls, which is especially useful for ongoing reporting.” Source

What could be better

“The sentiment analysis can be inaccurate at times, especially for sarcasm, slang, or multilingual mentions. Exported reports could be more customizable and visually polished.” Source

Verdict: Meltwater earns its place in the social listening space by combining social and traditional media monitoring within a single platform. Its unlimited keyword searches and integrated news tracking give it an edge for teams that need to explore large volumes of data without restrictions. That said, the platform’s pricing can feel steep for smaller organizations. Meltwater is best suited for agencies and larger in-house teams that need depth, breadth and proactive monitoring capabilities — and have the resources to make full use of them.

Talkwalker

Now part of Hootsuite, Talkwalker is built to help brands listen at scale. It captures conversations across social networks, news sites, blogs and forums, offering both real-time monitoring and access to years of historical data. This makes it possible to track immediate reactions while also studying long-term shifts in customer sentiment and cultural trends. With strong global coverage and advanced AI, Talkwalker gives businesses the tools to see how their brand is being discussed across markets and in multiple formats, from text to visuals.

Top features

• Global conversation tracking: Covers discussions in 187 languages across 150 million websites and 10+ major social platforms, giving brands a truly international perspective.
• Trend and virality analysis: Features like Conversation Clusters, Virality Maps and automated theme detection reveal how topics spread and which themes dominate over time.
• Visual listening: Recognizes 30,000+ logos, scenes and objects in images and videos, giving brands visibility into how they appear visually across digital platforms.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Talkwalker helps our brand monitor trending topics and mentions across the web. Our social media team is able to quickly and seamlessly pull reports, look at dashboards, and keep informed.” Source

What could be better

“One of the downsides of the version I use is that you can only search conversations from the last 30 days.” Source

Verdict: Talkwalker shines when brands need a wide-angle, global perspective. Its language coverage, AI-driven sentiment analysis, and visual recognition make it a strong choice for companies managing reputation across multiple markets. The platform’s depth and real-time monitoring features are especially valuable for large enterprises, though its complexity and cost may be more than smaller teams require.

Qualtrics

Qualtrics Voice of Customer is designed to weave customer feedback directly into daily decision-making. It gathers input from across channels and delivers insights through dashboards tailored to each role, whether it’s executives shaping strategy or frontline teams handling interactions.

Top features

• Real-time predictive insights: Uses predictive analytics to assess customer experiences as they happen, trigger automated workflows and guide teams toward the moments that have the biggest impact.
• Language-driven analysis: Applies natural language processing to find themes, categorize open-text feedback and track how customer sentiment evolves over time.
• Feedback-to-action automation: Converts customer feedback into cases and routes them automatically to the right teams, ensuring follow-ups and resolution at scale.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“I personally felt using the Qualtrics platform is hassle free and easy to learn by exploring the features of it. I have mostly used the platform to develop the dynamic surveys by using the multiple question types the multiple question types provided in this tool will help the analyst to ask the various kind of questions to the customer to get the absolute experience of the product...” Source

What could be better

“At times [it is] difficult to remember the UI and integration options. However, with frequent use, it becomes easy and one can implement integrations.” Source

Verdict: Qualtrics is widely praised for its survey creation capabilities — intuitive design, flexible logic and a wide range of visualizations make it a strong choice for capturing voice of customer data. The charts are polished and easy to interpret. However, while it’s powerful as a standalone tool, integrations can be complex and some users find the API restrictive. It works best when used as the central platform, not as one part of a broader tooling mix.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a global platform for online surveys and forms, built to help organizations gather feedback quickly and at scale. Every day, it supports millions of questions being answered worldwide, making it one of the most widely used tools for research and decision-making. The platform emphasizes ease of use, pairing a simple interface with flexible options for designing surveys, reaching respondents and analyzing results.

Top features

• Quick survey creation: Build polished surveys in minutes with AI assistance or start from a library of 500+ expert-designed templates.
• Targeted audience reach: Distribute surveys through multiple channels or tap into a global respondent pool across 130+ countries.
• Seamless integrations: Connect survey results to over 200 business applications, with automation and enterprise-level security to support scale.

What works best

“The visual analytics were so helpful, we didn't have to do much beyond create the survey to receive reporting we could easily share with senior leadership. The frontend of the surveys, what respondents would see has always been great, simple, mobile or desktop. The simplicity ensured our constituents were able to fill this out quickly, likely increasing our response rate. The variety of question types and views was helpful too. Some tools limit the kinds of formats you can use, but SurveyMonkey always had what we needed.” Source

What could be better

“At first, the backend was incredibly simple to navigate, but as SurveyMonkey added more and more features, it became a maze. It took so much more time to build the surveys, trying to find the right spot to go to. Over time, features that we had access to then ended up under a price wall.” Source

Verdict: SurveyMonkey’s strength lies in how easy it makes survey creation and distribution, which is especially valuable for market research teams that need quick turnaround on feedback. Its drag-and-drop interface lowers the barrier for anyone to design and launch surveys without technical expertise, making it accessible across departments. For exploratory research, customer feedback loops or rapid testing of ideas, it works well. However, more advanced analytics and customization are tied to higher-tier plans, which may feel restrictive for smaller teams or independent researchers.

Alchemer

Alchemer is built for teams that want more control over how they collect and act on feedback. It’s flexible enough to support targeted market research with strong voice-of-customer programs. With its survey logic, real-time reporting and automation features, it helps businesses move from feedback to action without unnecessary complexity.

Top features

• Market research at scale: Run studies across multiple languages and markets, reach large respondent pools and view results in real time with access to expert support when needed.
• Automated workflows: Route responses directly to the right teams using smart triggers, ensuring faster issue resolution and less manual handling.
• Granular controls: Assign permissions for survey creation, workflow edits and data access so sensitive information is always secure.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Support is quite fast across all channels (chat, email, phone), and the setup to replicate survey IDs and personalize the survey forms (adding logos, colors, formats, etc.) is quite easy to use and user friendly.” Source

What could be better

“The UX of the tool can definitely be updated, as there are some things/features within the platform that are still quite old looking. This also applies to the data reports, as they could be more customizable.” Source

Verdict: Alchemer strikes a balance between affordability and functionality, which makes it attractive for teams that want strong feedback and VoC capabilities without a heavy price tag. It delivers on the essentials of market research and workflow integration, though users note that its interface and reporting tools could use a refresh. For organizations seeking practical research tools at a reasonable cost, Alchemer remains a solid option.

SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is a digital intelligence platform designed to give businesses a clear view of how their markets and competitors perform online. The platform spans 190 countries and 210 industries, offering a global dataset for market analysis and competitive benchmarking. Users can access market insights and consumer trends on demand and react quickly to shifts in industry performance, geographic activity or marketing spend.

Top features

• Real-time insights: Track 5 billion search terms and millions of display ads in real time to understand how audiences and competitors are shifting online.
• Market trend analysis: Access up to 36 months of historical data to run month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year comparisons

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Similarweb is an incredibly powerful tool for gaining digital insights into both your own website and your competitors'. It offers detailed traffic analytics, keyword performance, and audience demographics, while also helping you discover referral sources and advertising strategies. With its real-time trends and industry benchmarking, Similarweb enables smarter marketing decisions, competitive edge, and strategic growth—all from one intuitive platform.” Source

What could be better

“However, I’ve noticed some discrepancies in the traffic data when I compare it to Google Analytics, which makes me question its accuracy at times. That said, it’s still a very powerful tool for understanding market trends and competitive insights.” Source

Verdict: Similarweb is valued for its ease of use, especially with its browser extensions that make quick checks simple. For market research, its global coverage and breadth of data are strong advantages, but users should remember that many metrics (such as conversions or engagement) are modeled estimates rather than exact figures. The platform’s more advanced features come at a premium, which may be out of reach for freelancers or small businesses.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO and competitive research platform that helps businesses understand how audiences search, discover and engage with content online. It tracks web pages and keywords, giving researchers visibility into search demand, traffic patterns and backlink profiles across industries. For market research, Ahrefs supports competitor benchmarking, content gap analysis and audience intent mapping, showing not only what people are searching for but also how competitors are capturing that demand.

Top features

• Keyword and search analysis: Explore billions of keywords to understand search demand, discover audience intent, and track keyword trends across regions and industries.
• Competitor benchmarking: See which keywords, content, and backlinks drive traffic to competitor sites, helping you figure out gaps and opportunities.
• Traffic and content insights: Analyze which pages bring the most visitors to any site, show top-performing content and study engagement patterns.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Ahrefs gives really detailed information about what’s working for your website and your competitors. It’s great for finding good keywords, seeing who is linking to your site, and getting ideas for content. I really like the Site Explorer, which shows you what pages are getting the most traffic and links. The keyword tool is also super helpful for planning what to write about. The dashboard is easy to use and fast...” Source

What could be better

“Their pricing plans can take a little getting used to but reaching out to customer support help clarify that. Looker studio being behind their top tier plan also makes it hard to implement on limited budgets.” Source

Verdict: Ahrefs offers one of the most complete toolsets for search-driven market research, with powerful insights into keywords, backlinks and competitor strategies. Its depth makes it especially valuable for understanding how audiences discover content and where competitors gain traction. That said, some users note that backlink and keyword data can lag behind real-time changes and the sheer number of features may feel overwhelming at first. For teams willing to climb the learning curve, Ahrefs provides a robust dataset and analytical power that can shape both digital strategy and broader market research.

Kantar

Kantar is a consumer research platform that connects businesses with one of the world’s largest and most trusted panel networks. With programmatic access to over 170 million respondents across 100 markets, it enables teams to collect reliable, targeted feedback at scale. The platform offers customizable research services and survey solutions, supporting everything from quick data collection to large-scale consumer studies.

Top features

• Flexible survey design: Run both ad hoc and longitudinal studies with expert support for every stage — from questionnaire design and programming to fieldwork, data processing, dashboards and reporting.
• Global panel access: Reach 170M+ respondents across 100 markets through Kantar’s trusted panel network, with robust sample-building to meet even hard-to-reach quotas.
• Fraud prevention with Qubed AI: Uses proprietary AI and machine learning to detect and block fraudulent respondents in milliseconds, safeguarding the integrity of collected insights.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“The AI adoption done by the team to drive analytics in the platform. It helped us specifically to analyse how the non-alcoholic beverage segment in the US is rising as compared to alcoholic beverages for a market study.” Source

What could be better

“Pricing plans - More flexible plan can be introduced by the company” Source

Verdict: Kantar Profiles is one of the most established names in consumer research, backed by Bain & Company and supported by decades of fieldwork expertise. Its specialty panels span sectors such as financial services, healthcare, B2B, automotive and family, while also offering custom panels to meet unique client needs. With access to millions of respondents across 100 markets and a history of executing large-scale studies— including more than 20 million online surveys in 2007 alone — it provides both scale and reliability. That said, its enterprise focus and breadth of services may be more than smaller teams require, making it best suited for organizations running complex or global market research programs.

NielsenIQ

NielsenIQ is a consumer intelligence firm that studies buying behavior to help businesses understand where growth opportunities lie. In 2023, it merged with GfK, combining two established research companies and expanding its global footprint. Today, NIQ operates in more than 100 markets and covers over 90% of the global population. With its analytics platforms and retail measurement tools, it provides a detailed view of consumer activity and market trends across industries.

Top features

• Market measurement solutions: Combines omnichannel commerce tracking, growth strategy analysis and market trend insights to show where consumers shop today and where opportunities will emerge tomorrow.
• Consumer behavior & insights: Offers a full view of buying patterns, trends, customer journeys and audience segments through panels, surveys and custom research.
• Analytics & activation: Uses AI-driven analytics to optimize e-commerce activation, pricing and promotions, supply and distribution and assortment strategies.

Customer testimonials

What works best

“Communication. They have a great team that whenever we have a question, they are able to answer us right away via email or give us a call. This is one of the biggest reasons as to why we keep renewing our contract with them. The sense of urgency and prioritization that they give us is second to none.” Source

Verdict: NIQ gives you a broad, detailed view of how people shop and how markets move. Its analytics have been linked to revenue gains of 10–20% through improved store-stocking and assortment strategies. With one of the largest e-commerce panels in the world, it also brings depth to understanding online buying behavior. The company is even preparing for a potential IPO valued at around $10 billion, which signals the weight it carries in the market research industry. For larger organizations that need scale and global coverage, NIQ offers a dependable lens into consumer behavior.

How can market research tools help you grow your business?

Growth depends on how well you read your market and how quickly you adapt. Market research tools give you that edge by bringing real-world evidence into your decisions. They show you what customers actually do, not just what they say, and where competitors are gaining traction. That level of visibility changes how you plan and how you act.

These tools help you find openings that are easy to miss in the noise of day-to-day business.

• It could be a small rise in interest around a new category,
• a shift in sentiment tied to a competitor’s launch
• or the point in your customer journey where engagement quietly drops away.

All of these are signals that can guide growth if you catch them early enough.

Market research platforms also let you test a strategy in safer ways. Instead of rolling out a new product or campaign blindly, you can run targeted studies to see how different audiences respond. That feedback tells you whether to double down, adjust or move in a different direction before resources are wasted.

Perhaps the most underrated benefit is alignment.

When leadership, product teams, and marketers are all looking at the same set of data, it reduces friction and creates momentum. Everyone pulls in the same direction, guided by insights that have been tested against reality.

Your Market. Unfiltered. In Real Time. With Sprinklr Insights.

Sprinklr Insights is designed to give you a full picture of your market—what customers are saying, how competitors are moving, and where your brand stands in the mix. It listens across millions of sources every day, from social platforms and news sites to forums and even images and videos, and distills that noise into insights you can actually use. With advanced AI and generative AI, those insights come with accuracy that consistently reaches over 90%.

Here’s where it makes the difference:

• It captures the voice of your customers, pulling in feedback and sentiment so you can act on what really matters to them.
• It keeps an eye on brand health, spotting trends early and benchmarking your KPIs against the competition.
• It strengthens crisis response, flagging risks in real time and routing alerts to the right people before issues escalate.
• It sharpens competitive intelligence, comparing products and campaigns side by side to reveal gaps and differentiators.
• It extends into product and location insights, helping you understand what drives satisfaction both online and in-store.
• It goes beyond words with visual and media analytics, detecting brand mentions in videos, photos and press coverage.

If this sounds like it could rock your boat, we’d love to chat with you.