This is not really a features comparison. Every platform below will build you a questionnaire with branching logic and export a spreadsheet. The decision is made somewhere else entirely: your university has almost certainly already decided which tools you are permitted to use, and using the wrong one can invalidate your ethical approval.
So the criterion here is compliance first, convenience second.
| Jisc Online Surveys | Qualtrics | Microsoft Forms | Google Forms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | UK academic research | Research and enterprise | General purpose | General purpose |
| How students get it | Institutional licence (self-service tiers also exist) | Institutional licence, via university sign-in | Your university’s Microsoft 365 tenant | Personal account, or a Google Workspace university |
| Where data is stored | AWS, Republic of Ireland | Varies by tenant; UK institutions commonly on an EU data centre | Your institution’s tenant | Google infrastructure |
| Typically permitted for research? | Yes, often the mandated option | Yes, where licensed | Often, but frequently restricted by study level | Institution-dependent; banned outright at some |
| Question logic and piping | Strong | Strongest | Basic | Basic |
Start here: read your own university’s rule, not a general guide
UK universities differ sharply on this, and the differences are not cosmetic. A few real examples, quoted from institutional guidance:
- Solent University is prescriptive: staff and students collecting data via online surveys must use the University’s licence for Jisc Online Surveys, and it states that it will be considered a breach of ethical regulations if any other survey tool is used.
- The University of Liverpool splits by study level and names tools to avoid: Microsoft Forms is recommended for undergraduate and postgraduate taught students, while Jisc Online Surveys licences go to research staff and postgraduate researchers. Its guidance places Google Forms and SurveyMonkey on a “do not use” list, stating they “are not suitable for research purposes nor do they meet data protection requirements”.
- The University of Glasgow’s School of Social and Political Sciences also splits by level, but the other way around — Qualtrics is available to undergraduates and postgraduate taught students, while its Online Surveys licence may be used by postgraduate taught but not undergraduate students. It states that SurveyMonkey, Google Surveys and other commercial survey tools are not supported for University work.
- The University of St Andrews recommends Qualtrics, adds that Microsoft Forms via a University Office 365 account is acceptable, and requires you to check with its Data Protection team before using any other platform to process participants’ personal data.
- The University of York, a Google Workspace institution, names Google Forms and Qualtrics as its two main survey tools — the opposite of Liverpool’s position.
The lesson is blunt: a rule you read on a general study-skills site is worthless here. Liverpool bans the tool York recommends. Glasgow permits for postgraduates what it withholds from undergraduates. Find your own institution’s research data management or ethics page before you build anything.
The correction most students need: Jisc Online Surveys is not UK-hosted
Online Surveys, run by Jisc, is the closest thing UK higher education has to a default research survey platform, and it is often assumed to keep data in the UK. It does not. Its own security documentation states that all account and survey data is stored within Amazon Web Services in the Republic of Ireland, with backups stored securely within the EU.
This is not a problem — it is simply a fact you should state accurately if your ethics application asks where data will be held. Ireland is in the European Economic Area, and the Information Commissioner’s Office confirms that all EEA countries have full UK adequacy, so the transfer is lawful. But writing “data will be stored in the UK” on your ethics form when it will sit in Dublin is an inaccuracy in a document you signed.
One further correction worth knowing: Online Surveys is no longer institution-only. Jisc publishes self-service tiers, including a single-user option aimed at individuals conducting their own research. If your university does not hold a licence, the door is not necessarily closed — though check with your supervisor before paying for anything.
What UK GDPR actually requires of you
Your survey responses are personal data whenever they can be linked to an identifiable person — and that includes indirect identification through a combination of demographic answers, not just names and email addresses. A survey of a small department asking for age band, role and years of service can identify people even with no name field.
The framework is the UK GDPR alongside the Data Protection Act 2018. Sending personal data outside the UK is a “restricted transfer” that needs a lawful route: UK adequacy regulations covering the destination, appropriate safeguards, or a specific exception. That is precisely why universities are prescriptive about platforms — the institutional licence has already resolved the transfer question, and a personal account has not.
Note also that this area is moving. The ICO has flagged that its guidance on the research provisions is under review following changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act, so a two-year-old handbook may be out of date. When it matters, ask your institution’s data protection team rather than relying on a document.
The account rule students trip over
Several universities require that a research survey be owned by a named individual institutional account, not a shared or generic one. The University of York states plainly that surveys require an individual owner and cannot be made with non-personal or shared accounts.
The practical consequences: do not build your survey on a personal Gmail account; do not share one login across a project group; and be aware that if the platform is tied to your student account, your access — and your data — may end when your enrolment does. Export your responses well before you graduate.
If your research involves the NHS, stop and read this
There is a hard rule here that catches out nursing, midwifery, allied health and psychology students every year, and no survey platform will rescue you from it.
The Health Research Authority states that standalone research at undergraduate level which requires ethics review and/or HRA and Health and Care Research Wales Approval cannot take place, and that applications from students working at undergraduate level are no longer being accepted for Research Ethics Committee review. “Standalone” means research the student designs, submits for approval and conducts on their own with supervision. Arrangements for doctoral research are unchanged, and master’s-level eligibility is conditional rather than open.
Note that having a supervisor does not solve it. The HRA is clear that for undergraduate and master’s courses the supervisor should always take the role of chief investigator — and a standalone undergraduate project is still ineligible.
The HRA does point to legitimate alternatives: research outside health and social care; health or social care research that does not involve patients, service users or NHS staff as participants; secondary research such as literature, scoping or systematic reviews; and group projects, which are eligible at any level provided the course leader or academic supervisor takes responsibility as chief investigator. If your project is heading towards NHS participants, redesign it early rather than late — and if a review-based project is the pragmatic pivot, our guide to choosing between a literature review and a systematic review sets out what each route demands.
The recommendation
- Use whatever your university mandates. This overrides every other consideration on this page.
- Where you have a genuine choice and the survey collects personal data, prefer Jisc Online Surveys or Qualtrics. Both are built for research, both are covered by institutional agreements that have already answered the data protection questions, and both produce output your supervisor will recognise.
- Use Microsoft Forms via your institutional account for low-risk, non-sensitive surveys where your university permits it — it is widely available and sits inside your institution’s own tenant.
- Avoid personal-account Google Forms and SurveyMonkey for research involving personal data unless your institution explicitly supports them, as York does for Google Forms. Several universities name them as unsuitable.
Get the sequence right
Ethical approval comes before data collection, without exception. Institutional guidance is emphatic on this — the University of the West of England states that you cannot start collecting data until you have full ethical approval for that activity, and that its urgent route cannot be used to support retrospective approval. Data collected before approval is generally unusable, and no amount of good faith recovers it.
So the order is: settle your design, calculate the number of participants you need, choose a permitted platform, get approval, then launch. Working out that number first matters, because it determines how long recruitment will take — our guide to sample size for an undergraduate dissertation covers how to arrive at a figure you can defend. Every one of these decisions then needs writing up and justifying, which is what the methodology chapter is for.
If the fieldwork is done and the write-up is the bottleneck, you can draft your chapters in Tesify around your own approvals and your own data — 100% written by you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Google Forms for my dissertation survey?
It depends entirely on your university. Some, such as York, name it as a supported tool. Others, such as Liverpool, state that it is not suitable for research purposes and does not meet data protection requirements. Check your own institution’s guidance — there is no UK-wide answer.
Is Jisc Online Surveys free for students?
Where your university holds a licence, you access it at no personal cost. There is no free public tier, though Jisc publishes self-service paid tiers including a single-user option and offers a trial period.
Does an anonymous survey still count as personal data?
Only if it is genuinely anonymous — meaning no one, including you, can re-identify a respondent. Surveys that collect no names but do collect a combination of demographic details from a small population are pseudonymous at best, and remain personal data under UK GDPR.
Can I collect email addresses for a prize draw?
Usually yes, with care. Keep the prize draw entry separate from the response data so the two cannot be linked, explain the arrangement in your participant information sheet, state how long you will keep the addresses, and delete them once the draw is done. Your ethics committee will want to see this described.
What happens if I collected data before ethical approval?
Tell your supervisor immediately. In most institutions that data cannot be used and retrospective approval is not available. It is far better to lose a fortnight of recruitment than to submit a dissertation built on data you were not authorised to collect.
Do I need ethical approval for a survey of my own coursemates?
Almost certainly yes. Approval requirements attach to research involving human participants, not to how well you know them. Recruiting friends and classmates also raises a specific issue your application should address: whether participants may feel pressured to take part.
How long should I keep my survey data after submitting?
Follow the retention period you stated in your ethics application and participant information sheet — that is a commitment you made to participants. If you did not specify one, ask your supervisor, and store the data in the institutional location your approval named rather than on a personal device.