Intro
The world of UX research is evolving fast. With AI-powered tools, remote research capabilities, and quantitative and qualitative methods rolled into one, it’s now easier than ever to conduct research, analyze data, and uncover insights into user behavior.
Unlocking the possibilities of this new reality starts with the right technology. But with so many UX research tools on the market, finding the right solution for your specific needs can be a daunting process.
To help you get there, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best user research tools out there – highlighting what each brings to the UX research process, what each does best, and how you can get started with them. Some are specialized tools that do one thing better than anyone else; others are end-to-end enterprise solutions designed to connect customer data and uncover key insights at scale.
Whatever your UX research needs, here are solutions to help you build the ultimate UX research toolkit in 2026.
Qualtrics User Experience Research
Best for: all-in-one research
Qualtrics XM Strategy & Research is rated 4.4/5 on G2 (2,900+ reviews)*
Qualtrics User Experience Research brings every stage of the UX research process – participant recruitment, usability testing, analysis, and insight sharing – into one solution.
Designed to make user research easier, faster and more scalable, it empowers teams to uncover usability issues, validate designs, and improve experiences through a combination of moderated and unmoderated testing, AI-powered analytics, and integrated participant management. And all from one integrated dashboard that streamlines project management.
Qualtrics User Experience Research is part of the Qualtrics XM for Strategy & Research suite, a single, comprehensive platform that unites UX, product, and market research. By integrating seamlessly across the wider Qualtrics XM ecosystem, UX findings can be connected to brand, customer, and product data – helping organizations not only gain valuable insights into how people interact with experiences, but why those experiences impact satisfaction, conversion, loyalty and more.
When to use it
Use Qualtrics User Experience Research when you need UX research to inform bigger strategic decisions – whether you’re improving a product, validating a new design, or tracking how user experience connects to overall brand perception.
It’s particularly suited to organizations looking to move from fragmented data points and research tools to a connected environment that breaks down silos and turns user insights into action at scale.
Getting started
Qualtrics User Experience Research is available as part of Qualtrics XM for Strategy & Research, with pricing tailored to business size and usage. Request a demo with the Qualtrics team today and see this powerful UX research platform in action.
Maze
Best for: product development
Rated 4.5/5 on G2 (100+ reviews) and 4.5/5 on Capterra (10 reviews)*
Maze is a user research tool that helps teams collect data and analyze feedback across every stage of product development. It supports prototype testing, preference tests, user interviews, online surveys and focus groups, behavioral analysis, and more – making it easier to validate ideas and optimize products before launch.
Its AI features assist with tasks like report generation, transcription, and theme analysis, helping teams move from data collection to actionable insights more quickly.
When to use it
Maze is best suited for teams that want to embed user testing and research directly into their product development cycle. It’s particularly useful for validating prototypes, running concept tests, and conducting quick usability studies during agile sprints or continuous discovery processes.
Getting started
Maze offers a free plan for individuals, including one study per month and basic usability testing tools. Larger teams can choose an Enterprise plan with custom pricing, unlimited seats, and advanced features such as AI-moderated interviews and access to a global participant panel.
Contentsquare
Best for: behavioral insights
Rated 4.7/5 on G2 (400+ reviews)*
Contentsquare is a digital experience analytics platform that helps businesses understand how customers interact with their websites and apps.
It provides a complete view of user behavior, combining qualitative and quantitative data to show what users do, why they behave that way, and how those actions affect outcomes. Using features like heatmaps, session replays, and journey analysis, teams can identify friction points and opportunities to improve engagement, conversion, and satisfaction.
When to use it
Contentsquare is particularly useful for organizations that want to move beyond surface-level analytics to uncover the why behind customer behavior. It helps teams connect behavioral and emotional data, monitor experience performance, and align marketing, product, UX, and IT functions around a shared view of the customer journey.
Getting started
Contentsquare offers flexible plans to suit different business sizes and levels of insight. Users can start with a free plan that includes basic experience analytics, or upgrade to the Growth plan, starting from €40 per month, which adds more advanced analytics and replay features. For larger organizations, Pro and Enterprise plans provide additional scalability, custom integrations, and dedicated support.
UserTesting
Best for: human feedback
Rated 4.5/5 on G2 (700+ reviews) and 4.5/5 on Capterra (100+ reviews)*
UserTesting is a human insight platform that connects companies with real people to capture feedback on websites, apps, and digital experiences. It enables teams to run remote usability testing, surveys, and live conversations, allowing participants to share their thoughts as they complete tasks.
The platform records video, audio, and screen interactions to reveal user intent, friction points, and emotional responses – helping organizations make more confident product and design decisions.
When to use it
UserTesting is valuable for teams that want to validate designs or digital experiences with real users at speed. It’s particularly effective at uncovering the why behind user actions.
Getting started
UserTesting offers several enterprise plans, including Advanced, Ultimate, and Ultimate+, each tailored for different levels of scale and research capability. Pricing is customized based on organization size and usage, and teams can request a demo.
Optimal Workshop
Best for: usability studies
Rated 4.4/5 on Capterra (7 reviews)*
Optimal Workshop is a suite of UX research tools that help teams understand how users navigate, categorize, and experience digital content.
Its platform includes card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing, surveys, and participant recruitment – allowing teams to identify usability issues and structure information more intuitively. Researchers can also capture and analyze qualitative data using tagging and affinity mapping tools, making it easier to turn user feedback into actionable insights.
When to use it
Optimal Workshop is ideal for UX teams seeking user research data to improve website or app navigation, validate content hierarchies, or optimize design layouts early in the process. It’s especially valuable when running large-scale usability studies or testing prototypes before development.
Getting started
Optimal Workshop’s Starter plan starts at $199 per month and includes all core tools, unlimited seats, and up to five studies per year. The Enterprise plan offers advanced features for custom pricing. Teams can explore plans or request a demo.
Ethnio
Best for: participant recruitment
Rated 4.4/5 on G2 (20+ reviews)*
Ethnio is a participant management and recruitment platform built specifically for UX research, helping teams find, screen, and manage research participants from their target audience in real time.
UX researchers can design screener surveys, target specific user groups using 30+ demographic and behavioral filters, and automatically schedule qualified participants. The platform also includes built-in incentive management, allowing teams to send payments in over 140 currencies. Also a user research CRM, Ethnio centralizes participant data, notes, and communications.
When to use it
Ethnio is ideal for teams running continuous remote user research or needing to quickly recruit research participants around a particular niche. It’s especially useful for research teams that want to manage participant pools and incentives within a single secure platform.
Getting started
Ethnio offers an Individual plan that includes one seat and unlimited screeners, alongside a Pro plan for 2-6 seats with added features. Enterprise plans offer unlimited participants and dedicated support for custom pricing. All plans include a free trial.
Loop11
Best for: usability testing
Rated 3.7/5 on G2 (14 reviews) and 4.5/5 on Capterra (2 reviews)*
Loop11 is a usability testing platform that enables teams to run moderated and unmoderated UX tests on websites, prototypes, and competitor sites. Both a quantitative and qualitative research tool, it captures clicks, heatmaps, video, and audio to show exactly where users encounter friction.
Loop11 also supports AI browser agents, which simulate human testing behavior to evaluate whether digital experiences are ‘AI-ready’.
When to use it
Loop11 is a good fit for teams that want to conduct usability testing quickly, remotely, and across multiple devices. It’s particularly effective for validating prototypes, running accessibility or benchmark tests, and competitor analysis.
Getting started
Loop11 offers three pricing tiers, with all plans including a 14-day free trial. The Rapid Insights plan starts at $199 per month, supporting up to three projects monthly. The Pro plan costs $399 per month, adding additional features and up to 10 projects. The Enterprise plan offers unlimited projects and participants, with custom pricing.
Miro
Best for: collaborative synthesis
Rated 4.7/5 on G2 (9,000+ reviews) and 4.7/5 on Capterra (1,600+ reviews)*
Miro is a visual collaboration platform used by UX and product teams to ideate, map user journeys, synthesize research, and present their findings using templates, sticky notes, and diagrams.
A shared online whiteboard that updates in real time, Miro is popular among UX researchers, with AI features – such as clustering, summarization, and ‘Sidekicks’ (AI co-creators) – helping teams accelerate research synthesis, uncover hidden insights and generate ideas directly.
When to use it
Miro is ideal for hybrid or remote teams that want to facilitate collaborative synthesis or conduct virtual research workshops. It’s particularly useful during the early and middle stages of UX research, from brainstorming and journey mapping to turning qualitative data into visual themes.
Getting started
Miro offers a Free plan with unlimited members and up to three active ‘boards’. The Starter plan starts at $8 per member per month, adding unlimited and private boards, while the Business plan starts at $16 per member per month, with enhanced collaboration, security, and guest access. Enterprise plans provide advanced governance and dedicated support.
Dovetail
Best for: research analysis
Rated 4.5/5 on G2 (163 reviews) and 4.6/5 on Capterra (97 reviews)*
Dovetail is an AI-powered research and customer intelligence platform that helps UX and product teams centralize, analyze, and share customer feedback. It aggregates information from user interviews, usability tests, surveys, and support interactions – automatically transcribing and tagging content to surface patterns and themes.
Its AI features – like semantic search, automated summaries, and dashboards – help user researchers quickly turn unstructured data into actionable insights that can inform product, design, and strategy decisions.
When to use it
Dovetail is best used in UX research analysis when managing large volumes of data across multiple research projects. It’s ideal for UX and product teams that need a central repository to organize feedback, streamline collaboration, and maintain a single source of truth for customer insights.
Getting started
Dovetail offers a Free plan for individuals and one project. The Professional plan costs $20 per user per month, adding unlimited projects and additional features. Enterprise plans provide custom pricing with unlimited viewers, advanced features, and dedicated onboarding support. All plans include a 7-day free trial.
PlaybookUX
Best for: multi-method testing
Rated 4.6/5 on G2 (15 reviews) and 5/5 on Capterra (7 reviews)*
PlaybookUX is a user research platform that brings recruitment, remote testing, and data analysis into one streamlined workflow. It enables researchers to conduct unmoderated usability tests, moderated interviews, surveys, and information architecture testing like card sorting.
The platform combines collaborative features and analysis tools, including AI-assisted transcription, highlight reels, and heatmaps – making it easy to interpret the data collected and share meaningful insights.
When to use it
PlaybookUX is well suited for teams that run a variety of UX research methods and want to manage them in one environment. It’s especially useful for product and design teams seeking a single platform for end-to-end research, from recruiting participants to presenting insights.
Getting started
PlaybookUX offers a pay-as-you-go model with no subscription required, starting at $65 per participant for unmoderated tests and $115 per participant for 30-minute moderated sessions. The Scale plan costs $5,400 per year, the Pro plan is $8,800 per year, and Enterprise plans are custom priced – offering unlimited seats, advanced security, and dedicated customer success support.
Turn UX research into action
You’ve got the tools – now see how to make them count.
Our ebook, The Essential Website Experience & UX Playbook, reveals 10 proven ways to capture targeted feedback, understand visitor behavior, and improve every stage of the digital experience.
Download it today and learn how leading brands use insights from the research process to boost engagement, drive conversion, and build loyalty that lasts.