15 of the Best Market Research Tools To Use in 2025

Knowing what to look for in your market research tool is a great starting point, but sometimes you might not even know where to start. Based on the collaborative experiences of our classically-trained researchers, below is a list of some major players that check the boxes when it comes to rigorous, insightful, online market research tools. Some allow you to create your own online surveys, while others collate data that already exists to present it in a way that’s useful for your particular business situation.

Whatever your market research needs are, chances are you’ll be able to solve those needs with one of the tools below. 

Table of Contents: 

• Importance of market research 
• Benefits of leveraging market research tools
• Market research vs. market tracking tools
• Features to look out for when selecting market research tools
• Best tools for market research
• Emerging technologies in market research
• Best practices for approaching market research with the help of tools
• Conducting market research with quantilop

Importance of market research

Market research should form the foundation of any business. Of course, you need to have a great product or service, a clear strategy, effective distribution, and committed staff, but the best way to grow your brand is to focus on consumer needs uncovered through market research.

Understanding your market - what your customers like, what they need, and what makes them buy one product over another - is the key to creating an offer that is relevant.
Back to Table of Contents

Benefits of leveraging market research tools

Market research tools provide businesses with hands-on insights into elements such as their core audience, potential new customers, missing customer needs, competitive threats, and new opportunities. They can help with a variety of business objectives from new product improvements, target audience profiling, competitive landscaping, marketing strategy, pricing, and so on. 

By leveraging tools that provide real-time data analytics and automated trending, businesses can make strategic decisions that they feel confident are aligned with actual market demand and customer preferences - ultimately leading to long-term success. 
Back to Table of Contents

Market research vs. market tracking tools

Market research and market tracking tools are both great ways to understand your market, but it's important to note they serve slightly different purposes and use different methods. 

Market research is a project-based approach that focuses on answering specific business questions. It involves collecting primary data directly from customers or potential customers through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. This type of research is often used to understand customer needs, preferences, and pain points, as well as to test new product ideas or marketing campaigns. Market research can be done for one-off research needs (ad-hoc studies) or for longer-term tracking studies to monitor consumer feedback over time. 

Market tracking tools, on the other hand, provide ongoing monitoring of market trends and competitor activity. These tools (such as Statista) collect data from a variety of sources, such as industry reports, news articles, and social media. This data can be used to track changes in market size, share, and trends, as well as to identify emerging threats and opportunities. Businesses can refer to market tracking data alongside their primary market research efforts for more comprehensive insights around their brand and category. 
Back to Table of Contents

Features to look out for when selecting market research tools

Searching for a market research tool can be overwhelming - with so many research agencies and platforms offering different features and capabilities. To help in your search, narrow contenders down to those that offer the following features: 

• Real-time data access
  Without real-time access to your data, you're left relying on other teams to extract, clean, and send insights over - which could take weeks. You don't have that kind of time when it comes to making real-time decisions that keep you ahead of (or in line with) competitors. All researchers should have the ability to be hands-on with their own insights, slicing and dicing findings as often as they need, even if it's just to monitor the progression of fieldwork.
• Advanced methods
  Advanced methods separate surface level insights from those that go more in depth to uncover the 'why'. These are methods like MaxDiff analysis which can prioritize long-list items through tradeoff decisions, Segmentation which can automatically group your target audience into actionable sectors based on their needs, TURF analysis which allows businesses to prioritize features or products that maximize audience reach without duplicating their efforts, and Conjoint analysis which helps brands finalize individual elements of a larger initiative (such as a new product offering or service feature details).
• Panel choice 
  Researchers should have their choice in who they reach with their insights study, rather than be limited to a particular panel provider or audience source. Look for research tools that are panel agnostic (i.e. allow you to choose from any panel source such as third-party vendors or your own list of contacts).  
• AI features  
  Artificial Intelligence continues to expand its capabilities in all industries - market research included. The use of AI in market research allows teams to do more, with less. This includes helping brands quickly generate question text or answer option inputs, generate inspiring chart titles or descriptions at a glance, and summarize entire reports or dashboards in just seconds. Compare this to more traditional ways of working - requiring teams to comb through data files, pull out relevant insights, manually chart the findings, and try to come up with the best possible headlines for stakeholders. AI not only speeds up these processes, but also provides a new perspective to come up with actionable insights for even the most complex data. 
  Back to Table of Contents

Best tools for market research

Below are 15 research tools to consider when in need of in-depth, data-backed market insights to arm your business strategy: 

1. quantilope

• Best market research tool for: real-time, automated, advanced method insights with an AI co-pilot 

• The feature we love: our largest suite of advanced research methodologies 

quantilope's platform is built by researchers, for researchers. Its team of classically-trained research professionals and behavioral science experts know the frustrations of traditional research: long turnaround times, complex questionnaires, version control issues, and lack of flexibility. 

quantilope's fully automated Consumer Intelligence Platform bridges that gap between frustrating research processes and actionable market research insights – for users of any skill set. Its intuitive online survey builder allows for full customization using drag & drop modules, or the option to start with customizable survey templates for even questionnaire creation. Whichever route you take (building from scratch or starting with a template) you’ll easily capture valuable insights from your target market through the use of built-in platform guardrails, automated advanced methods, and several AI features and tools from the platform's integrated AI co-pilot, quinn. 

quantilope‘s suite of 15 automated research methodologies is designed to address a variety of advanced research needs. Whether you want to fine-tune your product development using Conjoint Analysis, use a MaxDiff analysis to determine which factors potential customers consider most important in products or communication, conduct a brand tracking study over a duration of time, monitor and track general market trends, or research any other area of your customer experience, quantilope has a solution. 

Alongside its quantitative methodologies, quantilope also offers a qualitative video research solution: inColor. Respondents are served question prompts through the form of video, and respond back through video as well, creating a deep sense of authenticity through consumers‘ own words and mannerisms. quantilope's inColor solution provides the perfect format for shareable, engaging consumer insight videos – with the ability to compile individual clips into comprehensive showreels to share with stakeholders. Additionally, facial emotion, sentiment analysis, and keyword trend analysis create an even deeper understanding of consumer insights.

Whether using quantilope’s quantitative or qualitative survey options, all responses are available in real-time. This means you can get started right away on creating your showreel video clips or building your quantitative dashboard. Any new data that become available after you start working on these deliverables will updating automatically as it comes in (i.e. as more respondents complete your survey or submit their video feedback).

Brands that leverage quantilope's platform are able to make real-time changes based on advanced consumer insights so they can feel more confident in their business decisions. 

2. Google Trends and Think with Google 

• Best market research tool for: exploring how online activity reflects behavioral and social trends

• The feature we love: good user experience with visual representations of trends based on search terms 

Google Trends (as the name implies) crawls its own Google search engine and social media platforms for trends or mentions of particular terms. To put this into context, say you have a flower business and you’d like to know the time of year that people are most likely to purchase them. Typing the search term ‘flowers’ into Google Trends will give you a wealth of online behavioral information, including:

• The frequency of search term ’flowers’ vs. Google’s total search volume during a set period
• The location of users typing the term in (with the option to limit your search to specific locations)
• How global and local events affect online search activity for the term (i.e. if there is a shift in weather patterns like a drought, people may search how to best care for their flowers)
• Comparisons between different search terms in the category (i.e. lilies vs. roses)
• The context of search terms (e.g. flower care, flower watering, flower meanings/symbols)

Google Trends uses line graphs to illustrate trends over time and gives the terms a score based on interest in the term. Google Trends is free, quick, and highly visual, providing accessible insights into how internet users are searching over time.

Similarly, the tech giant's 'Think with Google' is a resource hub where businesses can tap into valuable consumer insights around trends, behaviors, preferences, and patterns. The data comes from Google's multiple platforms such as Search, YouTube, and Analytics and is packaged up into reports that businesses can leverage to adapt their own strategies around what's going on in the market. 

3. Statista

• Best market research tool for: making the most of existing data sources 

• The feature we love: creative data presentation, including industry forecasts and ready-made reports

Statista is a paid service that specializes in secondary research (i.e. data that already exists) and packaging it into a digestible format tailored to business areas and research needs. Statista obtains its data from reliable online sources and uses straightforward, customizable data visualization to present its findings. Some of its advantages include:

• A huge array of metrics to choose from
• Data from over 150 countries 
• Outlook reports that forecast how industries will develop
• A variety of ready-made reports across business areas including digital trends, politics and society, and specific companies and brands

In addition to its data-gathering capacity, Statista also has a tailored research function, so you can launch your own online surveys based on your business's unique needs.

4. Pew Research Center

• Best market research tool for: understanding how broader social trends tie in with consumer behavior

• The feature we love: fascinating online articles about society in the past, present, and future

The Pew Center is a non-profit organization that specializes in research and data analysis for many different areas, such as US politics, opinion polling, social and demographic information, trends, news and media, science, religion, and technology (including social media, online privacy, and more).

Pew’s research is thorough and its website contains some fascinating articles that provide a window into how humans think and behave, with subjects like ‘The Metaverse in 2040’ and ‘10 Facts about Americans and Twitter.’ Wherever your business interests lie, you’re likely to discover thoughtful information through this market research resource.

5. Keyword Planner by Google

• Best market research tool for: understanding the words people use when searching for online content

• The feature we love: keyword search volumes and how keywords differ by devices used

Google‘s Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads, and one of many great tools for keyword research. Knowing which keywords your customers use when searching online can be extremely valuable when planning your marketing strategy, sales tactics, or launching a new product. Keywords mirror consumer language so you can reflect that in your communications. Plus, the tool can also indicate which keywords you should include for SEO - ensuring your content appears high in the list of many online search results.

Keyword Planner's forecasts are refreshed daily and adjusted for seasonality trends. The tool shows keyword search volume, how competitive keywords are, and the relationships between keywords - all valuable information for content marketers and advertising teams. You can filter results by various criteria, including by a language or geographical area, and by those searched only on mobile (or other) devices. In short, it's a free tool that tells you how your target audience is searching for specific content to inform your ad and marketing campaigns, all with a user-friendly interface.

6. Social Mention

• Best market research tool for: exploring generally how social media reflects and shapes brand perceptions

• The feature we love: keyword monitoring across major platforms 

Social Mention offers a free service with a focus on how social media creates and impacts brand awareness and perceptions. It monitors over one hundred social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more, to establish how many times a keyword or brand has been mentioned. Social Mention keeps tabs on the types of mentions - whether positive or negative, counts how many people are talking about your brand (or competitive brands) in real-time, and produces an overview of brand perceptions. Alerts can be set up to update users on keyword mentions as well.

Social Mention is a great platform for providing context into which brands or keywords are being talked about and the platforms where they get the most attention through social media monitoring. This type of competitor analysis helps businesses direct their brand activity to certain channels. 

7. Brandwatch

• Best market research tool for: digging deep into social media data and analytics  

• The feature we love: robust sentiment analysis capabilities that provide insights into the overall tone of conversations about a brand

Brandwatch is another social listening tool that's useful for understanding public sentiment and brand perception. Like Social Mention, it allows you to monitor mentions of your brand, track conversations related to your industry, and identify emerging trends on social media. This particular tool offers breadth and depth into social media analysis, with sophisticated sentiment analysis, historical data context, image recognition, influencer identification, crisis management tools, and reporting capabilities. Social listening tools like Brandwatch are particularly useful for large brands who need to monitor vast amounts of social conversation. 

8. Tableau

• Best market research tool for: connecting and visualizing existing data sets

• The feature we love: Data Cloud, allowing users to integrate data from any source  
  

Tableau’s premise is that there’s a lot of data out there and it could be presented a lot better. It is a paid-for business intelligence service that focuses on using analytics for clear, accessible data visualization that better informs business decisions.

Tableau takes data from a number of formats, including PDFs, Excel, Text, Python, R, Hadoop, and SAS, and other market research tools like Salesforce. Its interactive dashboard displays the data using graphs, tables, charts, and heat maps. Data can be shared across teams, making for easy collaboration. 

Emerging technologies in market research

It's an exciting time to work in market research. Aside from the rapidly-expanding AI tools in the industry, there's also virtual reality and augmented reality, machine-learning tools, automation, and other immersive/interactive ways of bringing a new layer to traditional market research. 

These emerging and expanding technologies help create a more detailed understanding of businesses' research objectives - whether that's to understand consumers, launch successful new products, develop impactful marketing campaigns, or predict behavior patterns for future strategies. These kinds of tools can do far more than humans can alone (or at the very least, much faster). As a result, business leaders feel confident and empowered to make informed decisions. 
Back to Table of Contents

Best practices for approaching market research with the help of tools

Though there are many emerging technologies and tools that make it such an exciting time to work in insights, it's fair that some traditional researchers might worry about what this means for them. Below are some final takeaway tips for any researcher or research team thinking about switching up their research tool this year (or beyond). 

1. Use automation strategically. AI and machine-learning tools should be used as a collaborative partner, not a replacement for your expertise. These technologies and tools are incredible resources to speed up and streamline a market research process, but nothing can replace human insight and intervention. Use these tools as a way to inspire your starting process that you then further customize and make your own; such as using an automated platform to instantly collect and chart findings so you can dedicate your valuable time to actually crafting unique takeaways. 

2. Iterate. Research platforms and tools make it easier to get more done faster, so use that to your advantage. Once you've collected data, don't stop there. Use those insights to run either another wave of the same study for trended insights, or to inspire a new type of study that dives into a particular finding in more depth.  While iteration isn't very simple (or affordable) with traditional means of research, it's a key feature and benefit of modern-day market research platforms and tools.

3. Leverage advanced methodologies. Market research platforms like quantilope no longer require you to be an expert in behavioral science or statistics in order to leverage advanced and complex insights. With features like pre-programmed survey templates and drag & drop modules, research platforms are empowering users of any skillset to generate impact for their business through rich and actionable findings. 
   Back to Table of Contents

Conducting market research with quantilope

There are many online tools on the market, with a variety of different capabilities. For real-time, automated, advanced insights around your business or consumers, quantilope's variety of methods and solutions can help you achieve your research objectives - and fast, especially with the help of the platform's AI co-pilot, quinn.

To learn more about how quantilope‘s Consumer Intelligence Platform can help with your market research goals, big or small, get in touch below!