15 Best UX Research Tools for Startups

Building your UX research tool stack is crucial for establishing an effective research practice. Here are some essential user research tools to drive progress in your organization.

Maze is a comprehensive user experience tool designed to facilitate continuous product discovery for product teams. It offers a range of solutions including participant recruitment, product research, and reporting, empowering teams to collect and utilize user insights effectively. With Maze, teams can easily incorporate the practice of continuous product discovery into their workflow, thanks to its user-friendly platform. One of the key features of Maze is the ability to create and conduct in-depth usability tests at any stage of the research plan. By utilizing this feature, teams can quickly obtain actionable insights within minutes. The usability testing solution offered by Maze includes task analysis, multiple path analysis, heatmaps, A/B testing, guerrilla testing, and more.
CoNote ia an AI-based tool that streamlines the manual process of organizing and linking transcription data, allowing you to focus on the work that matters. The platform helps to transcribe and link ideas within datasets, enabling you to solve problems more efficiently without losing any important parts of the solution. It provides automated action items and video clipping, making insights more tangible. This allows you to create narratives that cater to each of your target audiences.
Ethnio is another user research tool that facilitates participant selection. It allows you to create screeners to intercept individuals on your website or app, ensuring you find suitable participants for user research. Ethnio offers a range of filters for screeners and automated scheduling options, streamlining the process of connecting with users. Additionally, Ethnio's platform includes Research Incentives, a tool that calculates and instantly pays participants using various online services.
Loop11 offers a comprehensive range of usability testing services, including moderated and unmoderated testing on live websites, prototypes, and competitors' websites. By starting testing at the wireframing and prototyping stage, Loop11 ensures that your designs are on the right track. In addition to usability testing, Loop11 also assists user researchers with competitive benchmarking, A/B testing, and IA testing.

Userlytics

Userlytics is a comprehensive user testing platform designed to facilitate large-scale research on various digital assets such as websites, applications, mobile apps, and prototypes. It enables the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, along with the ability to establish advanced metrics and generate graphical reports. Utilizing Userlytics, users can seamlessly conduct a wide range of user experience studies, usability tests, card sorting, and tree testing, employing a diverse set of features.

UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub is a comprehensive remote user research tool that provides a variety of testing tools, encompassing first click testing, design surveys, preference tests, and five-second tests. These tests facilitate data collection and validate design choices. UsabilityHub's Panel allows researchers to enlist test users from a participant pool, selecting based on criteria like age, gender, education, and more. This ensures feedback from a pertinent target audience.
Lookback is a user research tool that provides live user interviews with screen recordings. It supports moderated, unmoderated, and remote research, and has a collaborative dashboard for syncing research and feedback. Lookback automatically records sessions for convenient review and allows for creating highlight clips. The team plan enables remote or in-person research, prototype testing, and real-time observation.
Userzoom is a comprehensive tool for user research that offers remote usability testing capabilities. It provides a range of features, including participant recruiting, heatmap and analytics recording, and more. With Userzoom, you can gather quantitative and qualitative feedback, conduct A/B tests using mock-ups, and engage users before product development. Utilizing Userzoom, you can effortlessly conduct unmoderated task-based studies with test participants from various locations worldwide. This includes testing on websites, prototypes, wireframes, or mock-ups.
dscout is an advanced remote qualitative UX research tool that enables you to gather valuable insights from users of your products in their natural contexts. One of its key features is dscout Live, which facilitates remote user interviews and feedback collection. Additionally, dscout Diary allows for diary studies, capturing participants' everyday product experiences through videos or photos. Moreover, dscout Recruit simplifies the process of recruiting research participants, eliminating the usual hassles and costs. Furthermore, dscout offers research-centric features that streamline the most time-consuming aspects of interviews. These include participant scheduling, automatic transcriptions, on-call observers, and an interactive timeline for note-taking and clipping.

Wondering (ex-Ribbon)

Ribbon is a comprehensive participant recruitment and screening solution that enables you to effortlessly discover users, evaluate them, and seamlessly schedule user interviews. If you desire a straightforward recruitment tool that delivers on its promises, Ribbon is an excellent option. Additionally, they are actively developing additional features such as interview transcripts and participant incentives.
kardSort is an efficient online card sorting tool that offers moderated, unmoderated, and hybrid card sorting options. With its user-friendly interface, kardSort simplifies the card sorting process for both researchers and participants by utilizing a drag-and-drop function. Compatible with all browsers, setting up and conducting a card sorting session is quick and easy with kardSort. Its simplicity and the ability to include pre or post-study questions make it particularly suitable for asynchronous sessions.
UXarmy offers a range of user testing solutions for conducting information architecture testing using tree tests and card sorting. Whether you prefer creating tests on the platform or importing existing ones, our platform simplifies the evaluation of your layout. With in-depth analytics, you can gain valuable insights from participant analysis, path analysis, and destination matrixes. Getting started is quick and easy, and our intuitive process ensures a seamless experience for your participants.

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics, an event analytics platform, enables you to effectively monitor user behavior on your website. By providing valuable information about customer interactions with your product, Kissmetrics aids in acquiring qualified prospects, converting trials into customers, and minimizing churn. With Kissmetrics, you are equipped with powerful tools to gain valuable insights into user interactions, particularly if your main objective is revenue generation.

Looppanel

Looppanel is a cutting-edge research analysis and repository solution powered by AI technology. It revolutionizes the process of discovering and sharing user insights by making it 5 times faster. With Looppanel, you have a virtual research assistant at your disposal. It effortlessly records, transcribes, creates notes, and organizes your data, simplifying the analysis process. Leading companies such as PandaDoc, Huge Inc., Airtel, and more rely on Looppanel to streamline their research analysis and build a comprehensive insights repository.
Hotjar, a remote UX research tool, offers real-time insights into user behavior through heatmaps and screen recordings. With its extensive data and in-app surveys, Hotjar is an ideal choice for those seeking to prioritize heatmapping as a research technique and gain a deep understanding of user behavior nuances.
Reframer, an essential component of the Optimal Workshop suite of UX research tools, is a distinctive tool designed to consolidate all qualitative research notes into a single location, facilitating analysis and comprehension. Acting as a qualitative research companion, it brings order to the typically chaotic process of qualitative research.