In this guide, we review the 9 best survey tools of 2025. Each one is assessed for its features, strengths and ideal use cases, so you can choose a platform that delivers trustworthy insights, fast.

The 9 best survey apps in 2025

1. Attest
2. Typeform 
3. Google Forms
4. Survey Monkey 
5. SurveySparrow 
6. Qualtrics 
7. Pollfish
8. Jotform 
9. Quantilope

Best survey tools at a glance 

Choosing the right platform can feel overwhelming with so many options on the market. To help you compare, here’s a snapshot of the nine leading survey tools covered in this guide. We’ve included their best use cases, standout features and G2 ratings.

1. Attest: Best for fast, high-quality consumer insights

Attest is a research platform designed to help you make business decisions with confidence by prioritizing data quality, tailored research and robust insights for brands like Reddit, Interflora and Premier Foods.

With access to over 150+ million consumers across 59, Attest makes it easy to reach your target audience , whether that’s a broad consumer group or niche segment.

Instead of relying on a single survey panel, Attest connects to hundreds of sample providers. This means your surveys fill up to 3× faster and avoid the bias that comes from asking the same people over and over again.

To keep results trustworthy, every survey response passes through three layers of quality control — impossible, improbable and behavioral checks — so you can be sure the insights you see are both genuine and reliable.

On top of this, Attest uses AI to make analysis faster and sharper. Boards automatically select and visualise key insights, AI data analysis digs deeper into segments and variables, and AI summaries speed up the review of qualitative responses which means less time spent sifting through data and more time acting on it.

Attest helps businesses understand customer preferences and trends to enable informed decision-making throughout sectors like food and beverage, financial services and media and entertainment.

As one G2 reviewer notes: “Attest offers an impressive and intuitive platform for gathering consumer insights swiftly and accurately. The ease of use, combined with detailed analytics, makes it an invaluable tool for data-driven decisions.”

Standout features:

• Global audience reach: 150+ million consumers across 59 with precise demographic and behavioural filters.
• Dedicated research team: A dedicated Research Manager supports you with planning, unlimited survey reviews and analysis guidance to ensure reliable results.
• Data integrity guaranteed: Built-in safeguards reduce bias and low-quality responses to ensure trustworthy results. 
• Interactive results dashboard: Build custom charts and interactive Boards that automatically surface and visualise key insights using AI which transforms complex data into clear, shareable stories. 
• Simple, transparent pricing: Fixed rates per audience type make research costs straightforward and predictable.
  

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2. Typeform: Best for brand alignment

Typeform is a survey and form-building platform best known for its sleek, conversational survey design. The platform focuses on creating engaging experiences that feel more like a conversation than a questionnaire. This design-first approach helps increase response rates which makes Typeform a popular choice for marketers, UX researchers and startups who want surveys to reflect their brand personality.Instead of overwhelming respondents with a full list of questions, Typeform presents one question at a time in a clean, interactive format. This keeps surveys lightweight, approachable and enjoyable to complete.

Many G2 reviewers have commented on the platform’s ease of use, with one user remarking, “I love how easy it is to create professional-looking forms that people actually enjoy filling out.”

Typeform also integrates with essential tools like Slack and Salesforce and features an AI know-pilot that helps you build more effective forms, ask relevant follow-up questions and analyze data.

Standout features:

• Custom branding: Choose fonts, colors, images and videos to match your brand identity.
• Advanced conditional logic: Create dynamic question paths that adapt based on responses to enable more targeted and relevant responses.
• Integrations: Connect with 100+ apps including HubSpot, Slack and Salesforce and Zapier.

3. Google Forms: Best for quick, no-cost surveys

Google Forms is a free, browser-based tool that’s perfect for simple surveys, quizzes and feedback forms with no special software required. Its biggest strengths are simplicity and accessibility: anyone with a Google account can create and share a form in minutes.

It seamlessly connects with Google Sheets, delivering instant results and visual summaries like charts and graphs. This ease of use makes it especially popular with small teams that need fast, straightforward data collection.

As one Capterra reviewer remarks, “It integrates well with Google Sheets and provides real-time responses. What’s more, it’s completely free with several templates and themes readily available to choose from.”

Standout features:

• Free to use: Zero subscription fees and virtually no response limits.
• Real-time collaboration: Multiple users can edit and manage forms together.
• Question variety: Use multiple choice, dropdowns, file uploads and more.

 4. SurveyMonkey: Best for all-purpose survey research

SurveyMonkey is a leading survey platform trusted by over 260,000 organizations worldwide, including brands like Uber, Adidas and Samsung.

Users can choose from 500+ expert templates or use its AI-powered builder to quickly create polished forms and surveys. SurveyMonkey has a global audience panel with respondents in 130+ countries.

The platform makes it easy to turn feedback into actionable insights with automated charts, filters and crosstabs. Users can quickly see both summary and individual responses, generate visual reports and apply advanced logic to hone in on nuanced insights that drive better outcomes.

It also features integrations with over 200 platforms, like Mailchimp and Salesforce. One G2 user notes, “It’s a really intuitive, easy-to-use tool and can be integrated with various systems, including Microsoft applications, emailing solutions, and even third-party databases to load and store data and responses.”

Standout features:

• AI-powered survey creation: Build surveys faster with smart question suggestions.
• Global reach: Access a panel of 335M+ respondents across 130+ countries.
• Advanced analytics: Use filters, crosstabs and sentiment analysis for deeper insights.

5. SurveySparrow: Best for conversational and recurring surveys

SurveySparrow is a survey platform that delivers chat-like experiences and supports recurring feedback collection.

The platform’s conversational surveys mimic real dialogues, helping respondents feel more relaxed and boosting completion rates compared to traditional forms. Beyond web and mobile, SurveySparrow also allows surveys to be distributed via platforms like WhatsApp, Slack and Microsoft Teams which makes it easier to reach people where they already spend time.

As one G2 user puts it: “SurveySparrow’s conversational interface makes surveys feel like natural chats, boosting engagement and response rates.”

SurveySparrow also supports NPS surveys which enables organizations to reliably measure customer sentiment. Alongside this, the recurring surveys feature, makes it well-suited for continuous feedback programs such as employee pulse checks or customer satisfaction tracking. This combination of conversational design, NPS measurement and multichannel distribution makes SurveySparrow a strong choice for HR, marketing and customer experience teams.

Standout features:

• Conversational surveys: Chat-like survey design that feels more natural to respondents.
• Recurring surveys: Automate regular feedback cycles for employees or customers.
• Ticket management: This feature allows you to convert customer feedback into actionable support tickets to close feedback loops in real time.

6. Qualtrics: Best for enterprise-level research

Qualtrics is an enterprise-grade research and experience management platform used by organizations worldwide to understand and improve customer, employee, brand and product experiences.

Known for its advanced functionality, Qualtrics offers a flexible survey builder, distribution options and advanced analytics capabilities. It also provides robust reports and dashboards, with over 30 graph types and easy export options to formats like CSV as well as Excel and SPSS files.

The platform is especially well-suited for large organizations running complex research programs across multiple markets. As one G2 user puts it “Qualtrics improves the quality of research and feedback, which is critical for the growth of enterprise learning.”

Standout features:

• Advanced survey builder: Create complex surveys with a wide choice of question types, branching logic and customizable workflows.
• Enterprise-level analytics: Analyze results with tools like text analysis, crosstabs, regression and predictive insights.
• Global reach: Run multilingual surveys and distribute them through multiple channels, including email, SMS and social media.

7. Pollfish: Best for flexible audience targeting

Pollfish is a mobile-first survey platform built for immediate consumer insights.
Pollfish delivers surveys via its own global respondent network, rather than third-party panels to ensure fast, high-quality responses. Using Random Device Engagement (RDE) sampling, Pollfish reaches respondents organically through mobile apps to provide access to diverse audiences worldwide.

Users can take advantage of advanced targeting, with access to over 7,000 verified audience filters. The platform also supports research collaboration with team-focused tools like single sign-on, folders and one-click survey duplication which makes it easier to manage large projects.

In addition, Pollfish is easy and intuitive to use, as one G2 user explains, “It’s got an intuitive layout that allows me to create surveys as simple or complex as I would like them to be, quickly and easily.”

Standout features:

• Owned audience network: Access Pollfish’s global respondent pool via a wide network of mobile app partners to reach millions of smartphone users without third-party panels.
• Advanced audience targeting: Choose from nearly 7,000 filters to find exactly the people you want to survey..
• Easy research management tools: Supports features like single sign-on, organized folders, team sharing and one-click survey duplication.

8. Jotform: Best for customizable online forms and surveys

Jotform is an online form builder that doubles as a survey tool that offers a highly customizable way to collect data.

With drag-and-drop functionality, users can create surveys, registration forms, quizzes and more without coding. Jotform also integrates with over 150 third-party apps, including Google Drive, Slack and HubSpot which makes it easy to connect survey data to existing workflows.

As one G2 user notes: “Jotform is incredibly user-friendly and versatile. It allows us to build everything from simple contact forms to more complex workflows like internal requests, patient check-ins, surveys and event RSVPs.”

Jotform is widely used by small businesses, healthcare providers, government organizations and nonprofits for a range of tasks from customer satisfaction surveys to event registrations.

Standout features:

• Customizable surveys: Drag-and-drop form builder with extensive design options.
• Integrations: Connect with 150+ apps, including CRMs, cloud storage and messaging tools.
• Templates library: 10,000+ free templates for surveys, forms and questionnaires.

9. Quantilope: Best for advanced research

Quantilope is an end-to-end research platform designed to automate sophisticated survey methods that usually require specialist expertise.

With 15 pre-programmed methodologies, including Maximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff) and Net Promoter Score (NPS), businesses can run advanced studies on brand tracking, concept testing, pricing research, segmentation and more, with just a few clicks.

The platform analyzes and visualizes survey responses in real time. An intuitive survey builder and AI-driven analytics give both research experts and non-specialists easy access to insights. It also connects to a global panel of over 300 million consumers which makes it well-suited for large-scale market research.

As one G2 user states: “It is user-friendly, and it allows you to learn more about other methodologies. Its tutorials are clear and helpful, plus their research team is always there for you if you need more assistance!”

Standout features:

• Automated methodologies: 15 advanced survey question types that includeMaxDiff, NPS, Price Sensitivity Meter and Implicit Testing.
• Real-time insights: Responses are processed and visualized in under a second to enable rapid learning and adjustments.
• Extensive reach: Tap into a trusted panel of over 300 million consumers worldwide.

How to choose the best survey tool for your business

With hundreds of survey tools promising perfect insights, how do you know which one’s worth your time? The right platform should feel effortless to use, while giving you confidence that the results you see are robust and actionable. Here are six features to look for when comparing your options:

Advanced question types

Basic multiple-choice or text fields only get you so far. Look for question formats like NPS, MaxDiff and even image or video-based questions. These unlock richer feedback, from gauging brand sentiment to prioritising new product features, that simple forms can’t capture.

Logic and audience routing 

Not every respondent needs to see every question. Branching logic ensures respondents only see the questions relevant to them, while quota-setting and targeting controls keep your sample balanced. Together, these features minimise survey fatigue, improve completion rates and deliver cleaner data that better represents each segment of your audience.

Built-in audience access

 If you don’t already have your own list of respondents, consider a platform that comes with its own verified panels. These allow you to filter by age, location, or behaviours and reach specific groups on demand, whether that’s US pet owners or Gen Z gamers. Built-in audiences save you the time and cost of separate recruitment, with incentives and screening handled for you.

Real-time analysis and segmentation

Collecting data is just the start. Tools with live dashboards, filters and crosstabs let you see patterns as responses come in, rather than waiting for a data analyst. Some even use AI to flag key findings automatically, making it easier for non-researchers on your team to understand results at a glance.

Customization and branding

Surveys should feel like a natural extension of your brand. Choose a tool that lets you add your logo, apply your colour palette, and, if needed, white-label the entire experience. A professional, consistent design builds trust with respondents and keeps your brand front and centre.

Ease of use

The best survey platform is the one your team will actually use. Drag-and-drop builders, ready-to-go templates and intuitive dashboards reduce friction so anyone — whether a seasoned researcher or a first-time user — can design, launch and analyse surveys confidently.

Create your first survey with Attest 

Choosing the right survey tool can shape how confident you feel in every decision that follows. A strong platform gathers feedback you can trust and presents clear insights to help you understand your audience and act quickly in a changing market.

If you’ve been thinking about running your first survey, now’s the time. Even a simple project can surface insights that shape smarter strategies and unlock growth.

How Attest helps businesses unlock better insights

Brands across industries already use Attest to make research more actionable. For example, Suntory America used Attest to explore US drinking habits and uncover new opportunities in ready-to-drink beverages. Ocean Bottle used Attest’s segmentation tools to identify new customer groups and launch a more affordable range. And Reddit regularly taps into Attest’s multi-market capabilities to prove its competitive value to advertisers worldwide.

Whether you’re tracking brand performance, testing creative or validating a new product idea, Attest makes it simple to get reliable insights from the audiences that matter most — quickly and at scale.

Ready to see what better research could do for your business? Start your first survey today and turn insight into impact.

Found your survey tool? Now it’s time to test it.

With Attest, you can start running smart, targeted surveys in minutes. Reach real people, collect clean data, and turn curiosity into confident decisions.

Get started with Attest

Sources
¹Deloitte. (n.d.). Quality management in data governance. Deloitte Central Europe. Retrieved August 29, 2025, from https://www.deloitte.com/ce/en/services/consulting/perspectives/bg-quality-management-in-data-governance.html

The post  9 Best survey tools for collecting meaningful data appeared first on Attest.

We surveyed 500 UK adults to understand their views on this potential change, including how often they use contactless, how secure they feel, and what controls they’d like to see in a future without caps.

Quick Summary

• 77% of UK consumers use contactless card payments at least weekly
  
• Only 45% were aware of the FCA’s proposal to remove the £100 limit
  
• 53% feel positive about removing the limit, while just 20% are opposed
  
• The most popular option (51%) is for individuals to set their own limit
  
• 61% worry cards would become more valuable to steal without a limit
  
• Preferred safeguards include setting personal limits (50%), receiving instant notifications (49%), and requiring extra authentication (49%)
  

Contactless is the new normal

Contactless payments have moved from novelty to necessity in record time. Today, 77% of UK consumers use contactless at least weekly, with 30% using it daily. The most common purchases made via contactless are groceries (86%) and dining out (73%), clearly signalling that it’s firmly embedded in everyday routines.

The rise of mobile wallets has further accelerated the shift to contactless. With 75% of respondents using services like Apple Pay or Google Pay, smartphone wallets are now as mainstream as credit cards, which are held by 65% of respondents. Among younger consumers, smartphone wallets have overtaken debit cards as the most-used payment method. 

Currently, there’s no upper payment limit for mobile wallets – you can make payments above £100 without needing to enter a PIN. However, device payments are typically protected by biometric authentication (such as fingerprint or facial recognition), reducing the risk involved.  

Support for change – but with conditions

The majority of consumers (64%) are aware of the existing £100 limit on contactless card payments, but only 45% of respondents to our survey had heard about the FCA’s plan to scrap it. While knowledge of the proposed changes is limited, sentiment is generally positive: 53% of consumers feel good about the potential removal of the £100 cap (27% somewhat positive, 26% very positive), this is driven by feelings of greater convenience, speed, and flexibility when they are shopping. Just 20% are against it. However, this support is not without caveats.

When asked what they’d prefer, most consumers (51%) said they’d like to set their own transaction limit. Only 33% want to keep the £100 limit in place. Importantly, support for personalisation cuts across all age and income groups, though it’s most popular among younger adults (58% of 18-30 year olds).

Still, security is top of mind. 61% of consumers are concerned that cards would become more valuable to steal if limits are removed, while 40% worry about overspending. To address this, half want to set per-transaction limits, 49% want instant notifications when a contactless payment is made, and another 49% want PIN or biometric authentication for larger purchases.

Notably, only 23% favour daily or weekly spending caps, suggesting consumers prefer targeted, flexible security over blanket restrictions.

Attitudes vary by age, gender and income

Support for removing the limit is far stronger among younger consumers. Just over 65% of 18-30 year olds are positive about the change, compared to just 37% of those aged 50-67. Older adults are more than twice as likely to have negative feelings about the change (29% vs 11%), largely due to theft concerns.

Despite using contactless more often, younger people are also less aware of the current £100 limit and proposed changes. Only 47% of 18-30s correctly identified the limit, compared to 75% of those aged 50-67.

There are also clear gender differences. Men are more likely to be aware of the FCA proposal (49% vs 42% for women) and are slightly more in favour of removing the limit (55% positive vs 50%). Men are also more likely to favour customisable security features such as setting personal limits (56% vs 43%).

Income plays a role, too. High earners (£75k+) are more likely to be positive about removing the cap: 47% say they would feel ‘very positive’ about it, versus only 19% of those with a household income below £35k. Lower-income respondents are more concerned about overspending and more likely to prefer keeping the current limit in place.

What this means for financial services brands

The future of contactless isn’t just about convenience, it’s also about control. Consumers are comfortable tapping to pay, but they want the freedom to define how that works for them. Financial services brands that offer customisable limits, real-time alerts, and secure authentication options will be able to strike the right balance.

Awareness campaigns will also be critical. With nearly half of consumers unaware of such a significant regulatory proposal, brands have an opportunity to educate their customers and position themselves as transparent, consumer-first providers.

Crucially, 56% of consumers believe banks are ultimately responsible for preventing fraud on contactless purchases, and 53% say the same of card providers like Visa and Mastercard. This underscores the need for brands to take a proactive role in fraud prevention and clearly communicate what protections are in place.

Ultimately, contactless is only going to become more prevalent, and with the right tools in place, consumers are ready to tap into the next phase of digital payments.

The post Tap or Cap? What Consumers Really Think About Removing the £100 Contactless Limit appeared first on Attest.

In our latest research with 2,000 working-age consumers across the US and UK, energy emerged as the dominant driver behind functional beverage purchases. But it’s not just about the buzz. Consumers are also prioritising taste, low sugar content, and scientific backing, meaning brands need to deliver on multiple fronts to win loyalty in this fast-evolving category.

Quick summary

• 56% of US and 55% of UK consumers regularly purchase functional beverages.
• Energy is the top functional benefit in both markets, chosen by 60% in the US and 56% in the UK.
• 92% of US and UK consumers say taste is important – making it the most decisive purchase factor.
• 73% of US and 81% of UK consumers want clinical research to back functional claims.
• Sugar content matters more with age: 72% of older US consumers and 83% of regular UK consumers prioritise low/no sugar.
• Only 56% of US and 60% of UK consumers consider sustainability important, making it the lowest-rated factor.

US results

Functional drinks go mainstream

Functional beverages have become a staple in American shopping baskets. A significant 83% of US respondents say they consume these drinks at least sometimes, and over half (56%) do so ‘often’ or ‘very often’. Younger consumers and men are particularly engaged, with energy emerging as the dominant driver. Among regular consumers, 67% look for energy-boosting options, followed by sports performance at 39%. This preference aligns closely with gender: 67% of men prioritise energy, compared to 53% of women, while men also show stronger interest in sports performance (43%) [view US survey dashboard].

Age also shapes preferences. Consumers aged 31-49 are the most likely to value energy benefits (68%), while cognitive health matters more to this group than to younger or older cohorts. Women show higher interest in beauty, body support, and weight management. Overall, energy is the functional attribute with the broadest appeal, acting as a key entry point for brands to connect with consumers across age and gender.

Taste, sugar, and science: the decision trifecta

Despite the focus on function, US consumers won’t compromise on flavor. Taste is the top priority, with 90% of respondents saying it’s important or very important when choosing a functional beverage. Among frequent buyers, this rises to 92%. Taste outranks even price (82%) and low/no sugar content (64%) in importance, showing that sensory satisfaction remains critical to success.

Health concerns also play a central role. Sugar content becomes increasingly important with age: 72% of those aged 50-67 consider low or no sugar important, versus just 53% of 18-30s. Meanwhile, 34% of younger consumers are indifferent to sugar levels, suggesting that functional benefit still outweighs dietary concerns for this group.

Another key factor is trust. Consumers want proof that functional claims hold up. Across all US respondents, 73% say clinical research backing is important, rising to 78% among regular consumers. The middle age group is especially science-driven, with 36% rating clinical evidence as “very important.” For brands, substantiating claims with research could significantly improve trial and loyalty.

Price and sustainability: still in the picture

Price is the second most important factor after taste, with 82% of US consumers citing it as important or very important. Even regular buyers, despite their higher engagement, remain price-conscious: 83% say cost influences their purchase decisions. This indicates a strong need for perceived value, even in premium-positioned products.

Sustainability, on the other hand, lags behind. Only 56% of respondents rate eco-consciousness as important, and nearly a third are neutral on the topic. Among frequent buyers, interest in sustainability rises slightly to 64%, but it still trails far behind other considerations like taste, function, and price. Notably, the 31-49 age group is the most eco-conscious, while older consumers (50-67) are the least concerned about environmental factors.

The takeaway? Functional beverage brands in the US must deliver on energy and taste, support claims with science, and remain competitively priced. While sustainability isn’t a leading driver yet, it may be a useful differentiator for targeting specific consumer segments.

2025 US Spending Trends Report

Get a complete picture of US consumer spending health right now – from disposable income and purchase intent, to debt, savings, and credit usage.

Download now!

UK results

Strong demand across the board

Functional beverages are firmly embedded in UK shopping habits. A hefty 85% of UK respondents say they purchase these drinks at least occasionally, with 21% doing so ‘very often’ and 34% ‘often’. Younger consumers are the category’s power users: 67% of 18-30 year olds consume functional beverages frequently, compared to just 36% of those aged 50-67 [view UK survey dashboard].

Energy is the leading functional benefit, chosen by 56% of all UK consumers and 60% of regular buyers. It’s especially popular with the youngest age group, where 66% cite it as their top functional need. Older consumers (50-67) prioritise digestive health (44%) and immune support (38%) more than energy (48%), highlighting an opportunity for brands to tailor benefit-led messaging by age group.

Gender splits also emerge: men lean towards energy and sports performance (38%), while women favour beauty and body support (24%) and immune support (40%). Overall, functional beverages are viewed as something that can play a role in a healthy lifestyle, with most UK consumers interested in obtaining benefits from their drinks.

Flavour-first, but health-conscious

UK consumers may be looking for benefits, but taste remains their primary motivator. A massive 92% say taste is important or very important, and more than half (51%) rate it as “very important”. Among regular consumers, this figure rises to 97%, showing just how vital palatability is to product success.

Price is the next most important factor, with 86% of all respondents rating it as important. However, the link between value and health is clear: 75% of UK consumers prioritise low/no sugar options, and 83% of frequent buyers say sugar content plays a key role in their decision-making.

Scientific validation also matters. 81% of all UK consumers want to see clinical backing for functional claims, and this rises to 84% among regular drinkers. Millennial and younger Gen X consumers are especially motivated by research, with 36% of 31-49 year olds saying it’s “very important.” This mirrors US trends and points to a growing desire for evidence-led products in the UK market.

Innovation welcomed, sustainability secondary

UK consumers are open to trying new products, especially younger ones. An impressive 86% of 18-30 year olds say they are likely or very likely to try new functional drinks, compared to just 69% of those aged 50-67. Among frequent buyers, 93% say they would try something new if it offered a functional benefit they want. This appetite for innovation signals clear opportunities for brands to expand product ranges or experiment with novel ingredients.

Yet, as with US consumers, sustainability trails other concerns. Only 60% of UK respondents consider eco-consciousness important, making it the least valued of all purchase factors. However, interest is higher among regular buyers of functional beverages: 70% rate sustainability as important, while 21% are neutral and 9% say it doesn’t matter. Younger consumers are the most sustainability-minded, while older shoppers remain the most disengaged on this front.

For UK brands, the formula for success involves energy-led innovation, clean ingredient lists, competitive pricing, and exceptional taste. Sustainability may still be a secondary concern, but for certain segments, it can offer an added edge.

2025 UK Spending Trends Report

Get a complete picture of UK consumer spending health right now – from disposable income and purchase intent, to debt, savings, and credit usage.

Download now!

What this means for drinks brands

While energy remains the most in-demand functional attribute, this research shows there’s growing interest in benefits tied to digestive, immune, and cognitive health. This offers plenty of scope for innovation, but brands that lead with benefits must also back them with science. Consumers increasingly see clinical evidence as essential.

Taste is non-negotiable. Even the most beneficial beverage will fall flat if the flavor doesn’t appeal. Product development must therefore prioritise palatability alongside performance. Pricing, too, remains a sensitive area. While many functional drinks carry a premium, consumers still expect value. Clear communication of benefits and product quality can help justify higher price points.

It’s also important to remember that different age groups want different things. Younger consumers are more adventurous and open to new products, while older consumers are more discerning and driven by specific health outcomes, so brands should segment their marketing and product lines accordingly.

The post Fueled up: how energy became the must-have benefit in functional beverages appeared first on Attest.

For example, “How much do you agree with the statement: I feel empowered to try new things at work?” or “Finish the sentence: I feel the most engaged when…”. 

These two simple questions present you with diverse types of survey data. The first captures structured, quantitative data. The second provides unstructured, qualitative insight. Together, they reveal not just how people feel but why.

To get this kind of depth and clarity, it helps to understand which types of questions to use and when. In this article, we explore 11 different types of survey questions. For each one, we’ll cover when to use it, what to watch out for and examples.

Types of survey questions

1. Multiple choice questions
2. Rating scale questions
3. Likert scale questions
4. Ranking questions
5. Open-ended questions
6. Dichotomous (yes/no) questions
7. Matrix questions
8. Dropdown questions
9. Slider scale questions
10. Image choice questions
11. MaxDiff questions

Summary of survey question types

Here’s a brief overview of the 11 different types of survey questions covered throughout the article.

11 types of survey questions 

Survey data can be structured or unstructured, qualitative or quantitative, depending on the type of questions you ask. Keep this in mind when you create surveys, as each is analyzed differently and offers diverse insights. Let’s explore each question type in detail:

1. Multiple choice questions

Definition: 

A Multiple-choice question is a closed-ended format where a respondent selects one (or more) answer from a list of options. 

They are popular because they are easy for people to answer and for you to analyze. This format works especially well for gathering demographic survey questions such as age, income or location.

Best for:

• Collecting structured and quantitative data you can easily count and group into categories. 
• Personalising the user journey based on responses. For example, you ask about user goals in the welcome survey to then trigger a specific onboarding flow based on particular answers.
• Doing a quick quantitative analysis, like a pulse assessment of your target audience.

Use cases:

• Assessing brand awareness: Use these types of questions to see how familiar your prospects are with your brand. For example, ask survey respondents to mark all the brands in your market segment that they’re familiar with.
• Identifying purchase decision drivers: Ask multiple-choice questions to identify which factors most influence a customer’s buying decision, such as price, quality or reviews. 

Watch out for:

• Overlapping choices: Each option should stand on its own and measure one key aspect. For example, avoid this: “What’s the main reason you signed up for X?” “Option 1: To access survey templates. Option 2: To simplify survey creation. Option 3: To use templates and cut time.”
• Forgetting the ‘Other’ option: You may know your audience, but you should always include an “Other” option if applicable. This prevents respondents from dropping off before finishing the survey.

2. Rating scale questions

Definition: 

Rating scale questions collect structured and quantitative data and invite people to give only one answer by using a numerical scale (e.g., 1 to 5 or 1 to 10). These types of questions allow you to measure intensity, satisfaction or likelihood.

Best for:

• Measuring attitudes and sentiment over time, which makes them ideal for recurring surveys, like comparing employee satisfaction year-on-year. 
• Comparing satisfaction levels across different stages and touchpoints of the customer journey. For example, contrast customer satisfaction after purchase and after product delivery.

Use cases:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Ask customers to rate their satisfaction levels on a scale of one to five or one to 10.
• Employee engagement: Gauge how your employees feel about different aspects of their job and the company. 

Watch out for:

• Cultural differences in scale interpretation: Explain what you mean by each endpoint to reduce misinterpretation. For instance, “Rate your satisfaction with these features from one to 10 (one being very dissatisfied; and 10, very satisfied). 
• Central tendency bias: It’s common to see respondents gravitate toward neutral answers, so take this into account when analyzing the data. Also, use even scales to avoid this bias in questions where you need respondents to take a stance.

 3. Likert scale questions

Likert scale questions invite respondents to answer by choosing an option on a rating scale. This is a type of rating scale, but with more nuance, as scales can go from four to eleven points. An odd-numbered scale includes a neutral middle option (such as “neither agree nor disagree”), while an even-numbered scale removes that midpoint and encourages respondents to take a definitive stance.

Best for:

• Measuring opinions, attitudes and perceptions by asking direct questions and offering structured statements as answers. For example, “Strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree.”
• Tracking changes in sentiment from one period to another. For example, through a net promoter score (NPS) survey

Use cases:

• Employee engagement surveys: Invite employees to rate their opinions regarding different aspects of the company by choosing an option on a scale.
• Brand perception tracking: Ask customers to rate how they feel about your brand and track the results over time.

Watch out for:

• Central tendency bias: Respondents sticking to the middle answer (We explained this in more detail in the previous section).
• Survey fatigue: Asking too many Likert-type questions with similar response options can cause fatigue and lead to respondents giving random answers. 

 4. Ranking questions

Definition: 

Ranking questions ask respondents to rank the answers in order of preference or importance. This helps you identify which choices matter most to your audience and how each one compares to the rest.

Best for:

• Understanding relative preferences or importance of certain factors. For example, asking people to rank the influence of certain factors when purchasing a product, including: Price, service, features, customer support effectiveness and reviews. 
• Prioritizing features or benefits according to the top-ranked answer and modifying your product or service offer to improve customer satisfaction.

Use cases:

• Product feature prioritization: For example, if your respondents rank one item highly in your feature request survey, you can use this information to modify your product roadmap.
• Marketing message testing: You can also use ranking questions to assess your audience’s relatability to certain messages for marketing campaigns, UX/web copy or crisis management statements.

Watch out for:

• Survey fatigue: Like in the previous section, asking customers to rank too many items may cause cognitive overload.
• Ranking fatigue skews results: A high cognitive load could lead to respondents answering without reading and hurting data reliability.

5. Open-ended questions

Include a screenshot of an open-ended question on the Attest platform 

Definition: 

Open-ended survey questions let people answer in their own words, rather than choosing from a list. They help to uncover detailed feedback and understand why someone gave a certain rating in a previous question or feels a particular way. While the responses take longer to analyze, they often reveal deeper insights.

Best for:

• Uncovering rich, qualitative insights by following up on previous answers by asking an open-ended question to understand “Why?”.
• Capturing verbatim customer language, as 50% of customers expect brands to mirror their speech. Reading the answers in their own words lets you see how they talk, so you can emulate it later.

Use cases:

• Identify customer pain points: Give your customers the chance to express themselves freely and see if there are any unexpected pain points that come to light.
• Emotional responses: Open-ended questions allow respondents to let you know exactly how they feel about a certain aspect. This makes the feedback more meaningful.

Watch out for:

• Low response rates if overused: Ask open-ended questions sparingly to avoid respondents from skipping them or dropping off, as these require more thought.
• Resource-intensive analysis at scale: Consider that analyzing qualitative data is time-consuming. So, rely on sentiment and text analysis AI-powered tools to simplify this step.

6. Dichotomous questions

Include a screenshot of a yes/no question on the Attest platform 

Definition: 

These are closed-ended questions that offer binary answers, e.g., yes/no, this/that. They’re often used to gather factual or binary feedback which allows researchers to classify or filter respondents based on a set of criteria.

Best for:

• Screening and qualification by asking a dichotomous question. For example: “Are you over 18 years old?”
• Collecting simple factual data without room for interpretation. For instance: “Do you own a car?”

Use cases:

• Eligibility screening: Determine early on whether or not a person is an eligible respondent, e.g., “Have you bought a smartphone online in the past 3 months?”
• Behavioral confirmation: Confirm certain actions or behaviors from the respondent, e.g., “Do you follow our Instagram account?”
• Quick quick binary opinions or product market fit checks: E.g., “Would you pay for an app that can do X?”

Watch out for:

• Oversimplification of nuanced topics: Complex attitudes, preferences or motivations may require scaled or open-ended formats to avoid misleading results.
• Limited actionable data: These questions are easy for respondents to answer and you to analyze, but they lack depth. Complement them with open-ended questions to assess certain topics.

7. Matrix questions 

Definition:

A matrix question groups related questions together in a table format, where respondents rate each item using the same scale(usually a Likert scale). Respondents need to read across the row and select an answer for each item.

Best for:

• Comparing attitudes across multiple variables. For example, ask how respondents feel about specific product features, service touchpoints or brand attributes. You can then compare their responses to spot patterns, preferences or pain points across each area.
• Measuring consistency and patterns across statements or experiences. This allows you to conduct a deep analysis and customer segmentation.

Use cases:

• Touchpoint evaluations: Measure how satisfied customers feel at each stage of their journey. This helps you identify opportunities, spot patterns and establish benchmarks across key interactions..
• Multi-product satisfaction studies: If you’re a company with different brands, services, or products, use matrix questions to quickly gauge how your customers feel about each of them.

Watch out for:

• Survey fatigue if you include too many rows: Long or repetitive matrices can overwhelm respondents, which may cause them to drop off or select the same answer across all items..
• Scale interpretation inconsistency: If the answer scale isn’t clearly defined or is too long, respondents may get confused or inconsistent in their answers which affects data quality.
• Poor mobile usability: Matrices can be hard to read on a mobile phone, especially if you’re asking long questions or have an extensive scale.

8. Dropdown questions  

Definition: 

Similar to multiple-choice survey questions, dropdown menus present respondents with a list of pre-written, mutually exclusive answers in a collapsed menu format. These are particularly helpful when there is a long list of answers. 

Best for:

• Simplifying long lists of mutually exclusive options (10+ answers), keeping the survey clean and organized.
• Conserving visual space, especially if people will be answering from a mobile phone.

Use cases:

• Country selection: Ask people where they’re from and allow them to choose from a long list of answers.
• Job title or industry classification: Allow people to share their professional information by simplifying the options. 

Watch out for:

• Harder to review answers visually: Dropdown questions work great for asking questions people already know the answer to (e.g., country of birth). It gets tricky when people need to read each of the answer options to make a decision.
• Accessibility issues on mobile devices: While dropdowns spare visual space, a long list of answers could have certain usability issues when opened from mobile devices, given the reduced screen space.

9. Slider scale questions

Definition: 

Slider scale questions invite respondents to answer a question by moving a slider along a range with a numbered or labeled scale (usually from 0 to 100). 

Best for:

• Measuring continuous variables and data beyond fixed categories, such as exact degrees of interest, satisfaction or likelihood.
• Gathering high-precision survey responses that offer more granularity than a traditional Likert or rating scale.

Use cases:

• Assess price sensitivity: Ask respondents how much they would pay for a product by using a sliding price scale. For example, $5 to $25.
• Measure intensity of preference: Understand how strongly someone feels about a feature, message or product by letting them rate it on a fluid scale.

Watch out for:

• Precision challenges on mobile: Choosing an answer on a big scale becomes harder on smaller screens.
• Confusion over scale endpoints: Even when both ends are clearly labeled, people may have trouble giving an exact answer on such a long scale.

10. Image choice questions

Definition: 

Picture choice survey questions prompt respondents with different visual answer options. Rather than choose from text labels, participants respond by clicking on the image that best represents their preference or opinion. 

Best for:

• Determining which visual design, layout or style resonates most with your audience. 
• Doing early concept validation of visual assets. For example, testing color palettes, logo styles and fonts.

Use cases:

• Packaging design feedback: Show multiple packaging options and ask which one feels more representative of your product.
• Assessing logo preference: Present different logo versions and assess which one aligns best with your brand’s positioning.

Watch out for:

• Image bias: If one image is sharper, better lit or more colorful, people may choose it for aesthetic reasons unrelated to the actual content or message. Make sure all your images follow the same standards to avoid this issue.
• Slow load times for images: Avoid using large files, as they may take too long to load, causes people to abandon the survey.

11. MaxDiff questions

Definition: 

MaxDiff (Maximum Difference Scaling) questions involve showing respondents a set of items and asking them to select the most and least important ones. This helps uncover not just what people prefer, but how strongly they feel about their preferences. 

Best for:

• Identifying what features, benefits or messages matter most for your target audience.
• Prioritizing options when everything seems important.
• Going beyond simple preference to understand the relative strength of said choice, not just the direction. In plain English: Find out what they want and how much they want it.

Use cases:

• Feature prioritization in product development: Determine which functionalities should be prioritized in roadmaps based on actual user value. For example: Which of these features should be prioritized and which shouldn’t?
• Value proposition testing: Evaluate which benefits resonate most with your audience to refine product positioning.

Watch out for:

• Repetitiveness if you overuse the same sets: When you ask respondents to evaluate too many sets can lead to survey fatigue.
• Complexity in analysis: MaxDiff questions require data to be modeled using specialized techniques like hierarchical Bayes or multinomial logit models which adds a layer of complexity.

Want to write better survey questions?

Learn how to craft clear, unbiased survey questions that deliver accurate, actionable insights every time you run research.

Read the guide

Create more effective surveys with Attest 

Writing survey questions and choosing the right type for each topic is key to getting clear, actionable insights. Whether you’re measuring sentiment, assessing preferences or segmenting your audience, using the wrong type of question can lead to confusion, bias or irrelevant data.

To make it easier for you, check out our survey questionnaire templates for common use cases like customer satisfaction, employee engagement, market research, product testing and brand tracking. Explore all the templates here.

The post The 11 types of survey questions and when to use each one appeared first on Attest.

But is that score actually telling you what your customers think? Or what they need?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is useful, but it’s not a silver bullet. It’s a single number, built on one question:

“How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

Promoters are loyal, but detractors aren’t. The real insights come from digging deeper.

In this guide, we’ll help you:

• Understand what a net promoter score is and how to calculate it
• Know what’s considered a good NPS (and what’s not)
• Recognise NPS’s limitations and learn how to work around them
• Build an NPS survey that actually drives action

What is NPS (Net Promoter Score)?

Net Promoter Score is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely someone is to recommend a company, product or service to others. NPS is based on a single question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” 

Customers rate you on a scale from 0 to 10, and businesses typically collect these responses through online, email or app-based surveys. Once the data is in, customers are grouped into three buckets: 

🟢 Promoters (9–10): Fans who love your brand and want others to know

🟠 Passives (7–8): Customers who are satisfied but not sold (they might switch is a better offer comes along)

🔴 Detractors (0–6): Unhappy customers who could actively damage your reputation 

The score itself is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. 

While a high NPS score is a positive sign of customer loyalty, the number alone doesn’t tell the full story. What really matters is why customers gave you that score. When you dig into the reasons behind the feedback (what’s working, what’s not and what customers are really saying), that’s when NPS becomes truly valuable. The number gives you a signal, but the insights behind it help you take action.

What can you do with your NPS score?

Your NPS score isn’t just a number to report. It’s a tool to help you understand your customers and take meaningful action. Here’s how you can put it to work in your business.

Align your team around customer feedback 

Make sure your teams know what the score is telling you. By sharing NPS results with customer-facing departments like support, sales and product, you create alignment around customer feedback. This helps everyone stay focused on improving the experience where it matters most.

Measure progress over time

Tracking NPS at regular intervals gives you a way to monitor how changes affect customer sentiment. As you launch new features or improve processes, your score can show whether those efforts are making a real difference. It becomes a benchmark for progress, not just a one-time metric.

Act on what you learn

NPS responses often highlight recurring issues or unexpected wins. Take time to dig into the comments behind the score. If detractors rate the same thing repeatedly, address those pain points directly. If promoters praise certain features or experiences, consider how to amplify those across your offering.

Inform your business strategy 

Because NPS reflects the customer’s perspective, it’s a useful input when setting strategy. Use it to support roadmap decisions, refine your positioning or shape retention efforts. When combined with qualitative feedback, it can surface trends you might otherwise miss.

How to calculate Net Promoter Score

It all starts with the score, but how exactly do you get there? Here’s how to do it, step by step:

Step 1: Survey customers 

Start by asking your customers the classic NPS question via a survey tool: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” They’ll answer on a scale from 0 to 10.

Step 2: Group responses

Once you’ve collected the responses, group your customers based on their scores:

• Promoters (9–10)
• Passives (7–8)
• Detractors (0–6)

Step 3: Calculate the percentage of Promoters and Detractors

Work out the percentage of your total responses that are Promoters and Detractors. Passives aren’t included in the final calculation, but they’re still worth paying attention to because they’re on the fence: not loyal and not leaving. With the right nudges, they could become new fans.

Step 4: Apply the formula

Next, subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. 

📈NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors

For example, let’s say you surveyed 200 customers. You received:

• 120 Promoters
• 50 Passives 
• 30 Detractors 

That means:

• % Promoters = (120 ÷ 200) × 100 = 60%
• % Detractors = (30 ÷ 200) × 100 = 15%

📈NPS = 60% – 15% = 45

Step 5: Interpret your score

The final result will be a number between -100 and +100. A positive score means you have more promoters than detractors. The higher the score, the more likely your customers are to recommend your business.  If you look at our example above, an NPS of 45 is a strong signal that your customers are more likely to recommend you than not.

What is a good NPS score?

As we mentioned above, your NPS score can fall anywhere between -100 and +100. At -100, every customer is a detractor; at +100, every single one is a promoter. Generally, scores break down like this:

• -100 to 0: Not great; there’s serious room for improvement.
• 0 to 30: Okay, but you’re just getting started.
• 30 to 70: Solid; customers are happy and recommend your products or services.
• 70+: Outstanding; your brand has world-class loyalty.

But what feels like a “good” score depends a lot on the sector you’re in. Industries like retail, SaaS, or healthcare have very different customer expectations. The best way to interpret your NPS is to see how you stack up against similar industries. Without that context, the number alone doesn’t tell the full story.

Here’s a quick look at average scores across some key sectors: 

Important note: Your NPS score is something you track over time to see how your customer loyalty evolves, and not a one-time result. 

Where NPS falls short (and what to do about it)

NPS is a useful starting point for understanding customer loyalty, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Before you put all your faith in that single score, it’s worth understanding where NPS can fall short and how to make sure you get the full picture.

Challenge 1:  NPS Doesn’t tell you why customers feel the way they do

NPS gives you a score but no context. For example, a customer rating your business a 4 or a 9 doesn’t explain why they feel that way or what could make their experience better. 

✔️ The solution: Pair the NPS question with open-ended follow-up questions. 

Open ended questions help you dig deeper into what’s driving customer sentiment.A good follow-up question invites customers to share their thoughts in their own words, and ideally, it should be tailored based on their score:

• Promoters (9–10): “What do you love most about [our product/service]?”
• Passives (7–8): “What could we do to improve your experience?”
• Detractors (0–6): “What was missing or disappointing in your experience?”

You can also use a general qualitative question like, “What’s the main reason for your score?” to uncover pain points, motivations and what drives loyalty. When to ask these questions matters too, usually immediately after the NPS rating, while the experience is fresh, to get honest, actionable feedback.

💡Pro tip: Need help crafting better survey questions? Check out our guide on how to write survey questions that get clearer, more actionable responses.

Challenge 2: NPS scores can be skewed by timing or context

Sometimes your NPS score dips, and it’s not because your whole experience is broken, it might just be bad timing. That’s because NPS can be thrown off by the context in which you ask the question. If you trigger it right after a single interaction (like a late delivery or a call with support), you might get a low score that reflects that moment, not the customer’s overall perception of your brand.

✔️ The solution: Use NPS relationally, not transactionally. 

Relational NPS is sent at regular intervals (e.g. quarterly or biannually) to track overall brand sentiment over time. It’s designed to measure the strength of your customer relationships and not once-off experiences. 

For feedback on specific touchpoints, use Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) or Customer Effort Score (CES) surveys instead. That way, you can isolate friction in the journey without contaminating your loyalty metric.

Challenge 3: NPS doesn’t reveal which customers are at risk

One of the biggest limitations of NPS is that it treats all responses equally. But not all customers are equal in terms of impact. A low score from a long-term, high-value account is very different from a detractor who just joined.

✔️ The solution: Segment your NPS responses 

Break them down using factors like how long a customer’s been with you, what plan they’re on, where they’re located, or how often they use your product. These insights help you spot trends, zero in on at-risk groups and tailor your responses.

Challenge 4: Customers don’t always understand the scale

Not everyone uses the 0–10 scale the same way. What’s a 7 to one person might be a 9 to another. People interpret numbers differently depending on cultural norms or personal habits. A 7 might feel like a high rating to one customer and an average one to another. This can distort your results and make cross-segment comparisons unreliable.

 ✔️ The solution: Calibrate internally and consider regional context

Rather than focusing on a single number, look at how your score changes over time within a specific group. Benchmark against your own past performance and factor in regional or cultural context. 

Most importantly, pay attention to the written feedback that comes with the score (it’s often more revealing than the number itself).

💡Pro tip: If you’re looking for a more flexible way to measure sentiment or satisfaction, you might also consider using a Likert scale in your surveys.

Challenge 5: NPS can become a vanity metric

It’s easy to get fixated on your NPS score, especially when leadership is looking for one simple number to rally around. But that simplicity can be misleading. Chasing a higher score doesn’t always mean you’re improving the customer experience. In some cases, it just means you’re getting better at asking for good ratings.

✔️ The solution: Treat NPS as one input in a larger CX strategy

To really understand how customers feel, combine it with behavioral data like churn rate, repeat purchases, or product usage. 

Layer in metrics like CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), which measures how happy customers are after a specific interaction, and CES (Customer Effort Score), which tells you how easy or difficult it was for them to complete a task. Together, these signals give you a more complete (and actionable) view of customer experience.

Challenge 6: It’s not actionable on its own

NPS can easily become a box-ticking exercise. You collect the feedback, look at the score, maybe skim a few comments… and then move on. But without a follow-up process, even great insights get lost and customers are left feeling ignored.

✔️ The solution: Build a “closed-loop” NPS process

Put a closed-loop process in place. Start by analysing your responses; both the scores and the comments. Next, route the insights: pass unhappy customers to your support team, share positive feedback with marketing and log recurring issues for your product or UX team. Then close the loop: follow up with customers to let them know their feedback made an impact. 

Want to improve your NPS follow up questions?

Learn how to write clear, bias-free survey questions that get better results. Our step-by-step guide covers wording, structure and common mistakes to avoid.

Read the guide

How to run an NPS survey 

If you want your NPS program to really help your business, it needs to be part of a bigger feedback system. Here’s how to do that:

1. Define your goals: Know what you want to achieve, whether it’s boosting loyalty, cutting churn or improving brand reputation.
2. Choose relational surveys: Send surveys regularly, like every few months, to get a clear, consistent view of customer sentiment.
3. Add open-ended follow-ups: Include open ended questions that ask customers to explain their scores so you understand their reasons.
4. Segment your responses: Divide your data by customer group, product or journey stage to uncover useful trends.
5. Analyze feedback themes: Look for common patterns by grouping similar comments or using text analysis tools.
6. Build feedback workflows: Make sure feedback reaches the right teams so they can take meaningful action.
7. Close the loop: Reach back out to customers to let them know their feedback matters and what you’re doing about it.
8. Track trends over time: Watch how your scores and feedback evolve to measure real progress.

💡Pro-tip: If you’re still getting to grips with different types of surveys and how to use them effectively, this guide on what surveys are offers a great overview.

Ready to start measuring your NPS?

In this article, you’ve learned what NPS is, how to calculate it, what a good score looks like and why it’s important to look beyond the number. You’ve also seen common challenges and how to run an effective NPS program that drives real change. 

The next step is getting your NPS program off the ground. Attest’s easy-to-use NPS templates make it simple to get started. Use them to open the door to honest, actionable customer feedback and take your customer experience to the next level.

The post Net Promoter Score (NPS): What it is and why it matters appeared first on Attest.

In a recent survey conducted using the Attest platform, we asked 2,000 US and UK adults how well informed they felt about savings products, and then put their knowledge to the test. The results reveal a significant gap between consumers’ perceived understanding, and their actual knowledge of savings products.  

This knowledge gap is an opportunity for finserve brands to educate consumers about things like tax advantages, savings limits, interest rates, and returns. A better understanding could lead to a higher uptake of savings products, especially the lesser-known ones. 

Quick summary

• 50% of US consumers and 54.5% of UK consumers believe they are well informed about savings products.
• Most cannot identify the best and worst products for returns.
• 5 in 10 Americans and 4 in 10 Brits can’t correctly calculate interest.
• Only 35% of Brits know the annual £20,000 savings limit for ISAs.
• Consumers in both markets are most likely to have a traditional savings account, despite offering the lowest interest rates.

US results

Most Americans are familiar with traditional savings – but few go beyond

The first thing the data highlights is a big discrepancy between awareness of savings products and likelihood to be using them. Traditional savings accounts were the most recognised among US respondents (77%), while Certificate of Deposit (CD) and High Yield Savings Accounts (HYSA) also both enjoy relatively good awareness (61% and 54% respectively).

Just over half of the respondents were aware of Money Market Accounts (MMA), but awareness dropped off for bonds. Only 38% had heard of Series E or I U.S. savings bonds, while 45% had heard of municipal bonds. Cash management accounts had the lowest awareness, at 34% [view US results dashboard].

When it comes to the actual uptake of savings products among US consumers, the figures are significantly lower. Behind the traditional savings account, which 66% of Americans have, less than a quarter have a HYSA or CD. Only around 16% have an MMA or a cash management account, and around 11% have bonds. This suggests that barriers to entry – whether logistical, educational or behavioral – remain significant.

Consumers (wrongly) consider themselves well informed about savings products

One challenge finserve brands may face in educating consumers about savings products is that they already consider themselves pretty well informed. Overall, 50% of consumers said they are well informed about what’s available to them to help grow their money (although only 15% said they are “very well informed”). 

Less than a quarter of respondents said they were poorly informed on savings products, but 27% did admit to being somewhere in the middle when it comes to their knowledge.

Despite this self-confidence, when we asked respondents to identify the savings products with the highest and lowest Annual Percentage Yield (APY), a lack of understanding became apparent. For example, only 21.5% identified Certificate of Deposits as offering a high APY when, in reality, they yield some of the highest fixed rates, typically in the 4.5%–5% APY range.

Meanwhile, although half of respondents correctly identified traditional savings accounts as offering the lowest APY, 13% thought they provided the highest. Only 13% thought municipal bonds offered a high rate of return, however, top-rated 30-year municipal bonds are yielding about 4.56%, and are tax-exempt federally making a tax-equivalent yield above 7% possible. 

Confusion around how interest rates work

A lack of numeracy skills among the American public may explain the continued reliance on low-interest savings accounts. Many big-name banks offer virtually no interest – for instance, Bank of America’s Advantage Savings account pays just 0.01% APY, but but basic savings accounts remain the most popular savings vehicle. 

Our data shows the problem is that many people simply don’t understand how interest rates work. When we asked them to calculate how much interest they would earn in a year if they deposited $1,000 at a fixed annual interest rate of 3%, just over half correctly answered $30. 

Nearly 16% of respondents said $300, while around 9% answered $3 and $33. Only 15% admitted they didn’t know how to calculate interest. These results should serve as a reminder to finserve brands that financial literacy isn’t just about access to information, but the ability to apply it.

2025 US Spending Trends Report

Get a complete picture of US consumer spending health right now – from disposable income and purchase intent, to debt, savings, and credit usage.

Download now!

UK results

Ownership of savings products lags behind awareness

British consumers have reasonably high awareness of the different savings products on the market but when it comes to actual ownership, the figures are much lower. For example, while 75% of respondents had heard of a Cash ISA (making it the product with the highest overall awareness), a lesser 47% of people have one [view UK results dashboard]. 

Likewise, 60% of the respondents had heard of Premium Bonds (NS&I), yet only 24% have them. And while 55% are aware of Lifetime ISAs (LISAs), a tiny 13.5% of consumers use them. This suggests that while awareness of financial tools may be pretty high, finserve brands need to do more to translate that knowledge into action.

Meanwhile, there’s an opportunity to promote products that are less well known among UK consumers, including the Help to Save account for people receiving Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit (recognised by 33%), and the Innovative Finance ISA, which allows people to invest in peer-to-peer lending or crowdfunding debt-based investments (17%). 

Both of these products have a small uptake (12% and 8% respectively), showing large scope for growth – especially the Help to Save account. Following a change in eligibility criteria introduced in April 2025, approximately 3 million people are now eligible to open a Help to Save account.

Awareness doesn’t equal understanding

Our research shows that while a large percentage of consumers have heard of various types of ISAs,  knowledge about them is much lower. Only 35% of Brits could correctly identify the annual £20,000 savings limit for ISAs.

While 30% of respondents admitted they didn’t know how much they could save into an ISA each year, 15% incorrectly answered £9,000, 11% thought it was £15,000, 6% said £18,000, and 5% answered £24,000, highlighting the scale of the confusion. 

This is despite recent media coverage of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ proposal to lower the annual Cash ISA limit to £4,000-£5,000. Her aim is to encourage a shift toward Stocks & Shares ISAs, but our data suggests the government will need to launch a higher profile education campaign to achieve the goal.

Although 68% of respondents in our survey were aware of Stocks and Shares ISAs, only 30% have one. This suggests they are unaware that Stocks and Shares ISAs can offer much higher returns than Cash ISAs. According to the Guardian, investing £10,000 in a FTSE All-Share tracker over ten years could grow to nearly £18,000, versus around £11,500 in a Cash ISA. 

4 in 10 Brits failed a basic interest rate calculation

Core to any education campaign should be explaining how interest rates are calculated, since Attest’s data uncovered a notable lack of understanding. We asked respondents to calculate how much they would earn if they invested £1,000 at a 3% annual interest rate. 

While the correct answer – £30 – was selected by 62% of people, 14% thought it was £300, 8% said £33, and 6% answered £3. A further 10% said they didn’t know. These responses suggest that understanding of even basic financial maths remains limited among a significant proportion of the population.

The inability to calculate interest rate is no doubt contributing to confusion among UK consumers about which financial products offer the best returns. Only 10% of Brits think Regular Saver Accounts/Building Society Monthly Savers provide high interest, yet these accounts offer some of the best fixed returns – up to 7.5% AER for limited monthly deposits.

Similarly, only 13% of respondents think NS&I fixed-rate bonds are among the best products for returns, but these provide a solid 4.18% AER (slightly below the top market rates but government-backed for security). Despite these clear misconceptions, 54.5% of consumers believe they are well informed about savings products (only 20% think they are poorly informed).

Meanwhile, although people are most likely to rate traditional savings accounts as offering the lowest rate of return, it remains the savings product they’re most likely to own (55%). With traditional easy‑access savings account AER currently standing at around 2.3%, millions of savers stand to benefit by moving to a different savings vehicle. 

2025 UK Spending Trends Report

Get a complete picture of UK consumer spending health right now – from disposable income and purchase intent, to debt, savings, and credit usage.

Download now!

What this means for financial services brands

In both the UK and the US, financial services brands face a common challenge: bridging the gap between recognition and informed usage.

Consumers know the names of products, but often struggle to compare them or calculate returns. Messaging that focuses on rates or technical features may miss the mark if people don’t understand the fundamentals.

Brands that position themselves as educators and simplifiers, breaking down the what, why and how of savings, stand to drive adoption.

The post The savings knowledge gap – and how finserve brands can help close it appeared first on Attest.

You don’t know how to answer. On one hand, you’re happy about having seen your favorite artist live, but overall, it wasn’t a good experience. 

This is a great example of when using a Likert scale comes in handy. It’s one of the simplest, yet most effective tools for capturing people’s opinions, behaviors, or attitudes when answers are more nuanced than a binary yes or no. 

In this article, we’ll get into what a Likert scale is, its benefits and limitations, examples from real surveys, and tips for designing effective scale-based questions. Let’s get started.

What is a Likert scale?

A Likert scale is a type of closed-ended question that allows respondents to answer by choosing an option from a rating scale. These questions usually contain four to eleven answer options. 

For example: 

• Very unlikely
• Unlikely
• Neutral
• Likely
• Very likely 

Here is an example of Likert scales you have likely seen before :

Who created the Likert scale?

The Likert scale was created by Rensis Likert, an American socialist, economist and psychologist, in 1932. He first introduced this concept in an article called: “А Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes.” 

He continued expanding on this idea in 1934 in an article published by the Journal of Social Psychology titled “A Simple and Reliable Method of Scoring the Thurstone Attitude Scales.”

According to Likert, the biggest problem with research was that people can have an infinite number of attitudes, but these can be grouped together in a range. Therefore, he created the Likert scale. 

Why is the Likert scale controversial?

The Likert scale is controversial because the data can be compromised by assumptions, biases and misuses, especially during analysis. Reasons include:

Assuming equal intervals

Some people see Likert scale responses as interval data when they’re actually ordinal. This means assuming the gap between “Agree” and “Strongly agree” is equal to the one between “Neutral” and “Disagree”. 

In reality, people’s interpretations of these points can vary significantly. So, instead of viewing this scale as intervals, consider each response as a unique ordinal value. 

Falling into biases

Likert scales can contribute to central tendency and acquiescence biases. The first one happens when people avoid extreme response categories and gravitate toward the middle (e.g., choosing “Neutral” or “Somewhat agree”). 

The acquiescence bias, on the other hand, happens when people agree with statements regardless of their content. These factors make Likert scales controversial since biases can mask true opinions, skew data and create the illusion of consensus or positivity where none exists.

Cultural and language interpretations

If you’re surveying a global audience, consider explaining the meaning of each answer beforehand, as the perception of certain words (e.g., “neutral”) can vary across cultures or languages. This makes cross-cultural or multilingual comparisons tricky, and relying on a Likert scale without proper explanation could skew your data.

The pros and cons of Likert scales

Likert scales are a great technique to understand slight differences in people’s sentiments, but aren’t the right choice for all cases. Let’s explore the benefits and drawbacks of using Likert scales in questions.

Benefits of using Likert scale questions

Using Likert scale questions in your surveys is beneficial because these are:

Easy to understand and complete

According to Pew Research, respondents give more honest answers when they easily understand the question. 

Likert scale survey questions require little cognitive load for people to choose an option. They also offer a clear structure, help reduce survey fatigue and limit acquiescence bias.

Ideal for focused surveys

Likert scales allow you to measure one concept at a time by asking diverse questions with scale-based answers. 

For instance, if you want to measure how satisfied your users are with a new feature, you can ask different questions using Likert scales to gauge their true opinion on this particular topic. 

Versatile

Present these types of questions in multiple formats, such as site intercepts, pop-ups, long-form surveys or email-based questionnaires. Respondents can simply pick an option and share their opinion from wherever they’re interacting with the survey. You can also adopt different scales depending on your research goals (more on this below!)

Non-polarizing

Unlike yes-or-no questions, Likert scales allow respondents to express degrees of opinion, making feedback more detailed and less forced. For example, if you want to know if respondents care about sustainability, a yes or no question doesn’t give you enough information. A person can say yes because they only buy cruelty-free brands, but they only drink mineral water. Likert scales give color to these types of nuanced answers.

Good for trend and sentiment analysis

Scale-based answers are easier to quantify and analyze, especially over time. For instance, you can compare last quarter’s customer satisfaction vs. this one without hassle.

Limitations of using Likert scale questions

While Likert scales are easy to complete and analyze, they come with some limitations. We’ll discuss these below.

Lack of “why”

Scale-based questions alone don’t reveal what’s driving a sentiment. Pair them with open-ended follow-ups to get context.

Subjectivity and bias

People interpret scale points differently depending on culture and background, which introduces bias. That said, Likert type questions can reduce other types of survey bias, such as:

• Binary thinking: Forcing respondents into overly simplistic yes/no answers.
• Cognitive overload: Asking too much from respondents, tiring them out, and getting random answers.
• Interviewer influence: Swaying the respondents through the interviewer’s tone, body language, or wording.

💡Pro-tip: For more on how to avoid misleading responses and overclaiming in surveys, check out this guide on five common survey mistakes.

Neutral answers can skew results

 Some respondents overuse the midpoint to avoid taking a stance. To balance this, try rephrasing the same question in different ways and include open-ended follow-ups.

Survey fatigue and patterns

In long surveys, people may fall into response patterns without reading carefully, e.g., choosing “Strongly agree” repeatedly. Mix up the wording or order of questions to keep them engaged.

Not for multi-topic questions

Likert scales work best for single-focus questions. Avoid using them to assess multiple ideas at once, or the data will be muddled.

Types of Likert scales

Now that you’re familiar with the pros and cons of Likert scales, let’s explore the reasons why these questions are so versatile: their length and format. Here are different scales you can choose from based on your needs:

4-point Likert scale 

4-point Likert scale questions present the respondent with four different options to choose from on a point scale. These questions tend to skip the middle option so respondents are compelled to give a positive or negative response. For example:

How satisfied are you with our customer service?

• Not at all satisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

However, forced choices (i.e., skipping the middle option) could lead to false responses, especially from those who genuinely feel neutral.

5-point Likert scale 

A 5-point Likert scale includes two positive, two negative, and one neutral option. Unlike the previous example, it allows people to feel neutral about a question. Here’s an example:

How satisfied are you with the onboarding program?

• Not at all satisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

A 5-point Likert scale enables people to choose from a balanced range of responses. This helps capture more accurate attitudes and reduce respondent frustration. However, it can contribute to central tendency bias (i.e., preference for neutral response options) as people may overuse the middle option.

6-point Likert scale

A 6-point Likert scale gives respondents even more options to choose from, but like in the four-point scale, it doesn’t give a neutral option. An example of a 6-point Likert scale is: 

Rate your agreement with this statement: The customer service at Attest is quick to respond.

• Fully disagree
• Disagree
• Somewhat disagree
• Somewhat agree
• Agree
• Fully agree

Similar to the 4-point one, but a 6-point Likert scale gives more chances for people to express how they truly feel. However, it may force respondents to choose a side when they genuinely feel neutral about a question.

 7-point Likert scale 

Like with the 5-point Likert scale, this offers seven options for respondents to choose from, with the middle one being neutral. Here’s an example: 

How easy was it to navigate the new feature? 

• Very difficult
• Difficult
• Somewhat difficult
• Neither difficult nor easy
• Somewhat easy
• Easy
• Very easy

A 7-point Likert scale provides greater nuance than 5- or 6-point versions, allowing respondents to choose an option that more accurately reflects their views. This can lead to more precise data and improved scale reliability. However, the added options can increase cognitive load.

10-point Likert scale 

The 10-point Likert scale gives respondents 10 different options to choose from, increasing the precision of each answer. In this case, the scale is mostly based on numbers and not descriptors.  

Here’s an example:

How likely are you to recommend our product to others?

• 1 = Not at all likely 
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5 
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10 = Extremely likely

A 10-point Likert scale offers a highly granular view of respondents’ attitudes, often preferred in quantitative research or finer statistical analysis. 

On the downside, the increased range can overwhelm participants, making it harder to choose a precise option. Also, without clear anchors or labels for each point, people may interpret numbers differently, which can compromise the consistency and validity of the data.

Frequency Likert scale 

This is a regular Likert scale, but instead of using qualifiers, it uses time measures. 

Frequency scales are useful for capturing how often a behavior or event occurs, offering broader context than agreement scales. For example: 

How often do you go to the gym?

• Never
• A couple of times per year
• Once a month
• Every week
• Every day

These questions help quantify habits or usage patterns, making them ideal for behavioral research. However, vague or unevenly spaced options can be interpreted inconsistently across survey respondents, causing the data to lack reliability or comparability.

💡Remember: Likert scale questions are ordinal, not nominal. This means the answers help classify people in response categories based on a meaningful order, for example: Satisfied customers. Whereas nominal data groups people based on categories that don’t have an inherent order such as gender or race.

When to use each type of scale (plus Likert scale examples)

Different types of Likert scales can be used for different goals. For example, to address how strongly someone feels about something (intensity), how often they attempt to do it (frequency), or how likely they are to do it (likelihood). Here are examples for you to get inspired when building your next survey.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) 

When assessing your customer loyalty, use an 11-point Likert scale ranging from 0-10. Use it to measure how likely it is for a customer to recommend you to others.

ℹ️ Example: “How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend?”

➡️ Answers: 0 (Not at all likely) – 10 (Extremely likely)

[H3] Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Use a five or seven-point Likert scale to measure customer satisfaction with your general product, a particular feature or the performance of your customer support team.

ℹ️ Example: “How satisfied were you with your recent support experience?”

➡️ Answers: Not at all satisfied, dissatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, satisfied, very satisfied.

[H3] Employee engagement survey 

Capture how your employees feel about the company by asking them to rate different factors that add up to overall engagement. Use a 7-point Likert scale to gain more in-depth insights. 

ℹ️ Example: “I feel valued by my team.” Or, “I feel supported by the company.”

➡️ Answers: Extremely disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, agree, extremely agree.

Consumer profiling 

Ask questions to understand your customer habits or behaviors for segmentation purposes. You can then use the data to tailor offers to their desires. Use a frequency response scale in this case. 

ℹ️ Example: “How often do you shop online in a typical week?”

➡️ Answer: Never, rarely, sometimes, often, always.

Brand sentiment survey

Gauge your customers’ opinion towards your brand. Since you want to identify whether they have a positive or negative opinion, use a 6-point Likert scale with no neutral option. 

ℹ️ Example: “This brand aligns with my values.”

➡️ Answers: Extremely disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat agree, agree, extremely agree.

Designing effective Likert-scale questions

Here are some best practices to follow to write a customer survey and get actionable insights.

1. Determine the scale 

Likert scales are flexible and there’s not a single right choice. However, there are some things to keep in mind before choosing your response scale: 

• Pick a scale that you can apply to most of your survey questions. Having a consistent scale makes it easier for respondents to answer without making mistakes.
• Consider that less answer options are easier to analyze and also easier for your respondents to answer (less survey fatigue). However, these also have less nuance. So, consider the length of your scale depending on the amount of detail you need from each question.
• Using larger scales with more points gives you more granularity, but a higher cognitive load. So, stick to these when you have short surveys.
• Determine if you want to include a neutral midpoint. Odd scales allow respondents to neither agree nor disagree with your statement, but even point scales help avoid fence-sitting and force people to take a stance. We recommend removing the neutral option in opinion-based questions. However, the choice is ultimately yours. 

2. Write specific questions

As with any survey question, focus is key. Asking about two things at once is confusing and unhelpful.

For example, if you want feedback on your support team’s speed and politeness, don’t ask: “Rate your agreement with this statement: The customer support team was fast and polite.” What if they were fast but rude?

Instead, stick to one idea per question and use clear, neutral wording to avoid leading your respondents. For example:

❌ “Was the onboarding process quick and helpful?”

✔️ “Was the onboarding process easy to follow?”

3. Use clear and balanced response options

When creating your scales, ensure they use simple language and are symmetric to avoid skewing the data. Here are some recommendations:

• Start with extremes like “Not at all” or “Extremely” to anchor responses and build a full, clear range.
• Borrow from others and use the language you see in popular surveys. Move away from using jargon or novel scales. If your customers are used to certain ratings or qualifiers, stick to what they know to avoid confusion. 
• If your scale has a midpoint, make sure it reflects true neutrality (e.g., “Somewhat”, “Neither agree nor disagree”, “Neutral”).
• Avoid vague or overlapping terms like “a little” vs. “somewhat”, or “sometimes” vs. “a few times.” These can confuse respondents, and remember: Confused respondents give unreliable answers.
• Keep both ends of the scale symmetrical so each side carries equal weight. For example: “Completely agree,” ⇄ “Completely disagree,” or “Extremely satisfied” ⇄ “Extremely dissatisfied.”

4. Choose between bipolar and unipolar scales

Bipolar scales measure a person’s attitude or opinion across two opposing ends, such as good vs. bad. For example: “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree.” They capture both direction and intensity of opinion.

Unipolar scales, on the other hand, measure the intensity of a single attribute without an opposite end. For example: “Not at all helpful” to “Extremely helpful.” These show degrees of an attribute, like interest or satisfaction.

Usually, the question signals which type to use, but here’s a quick decision guide:

• Use bipolar scales when you need to measure direction and intensity (e.g., how positive or negative someone feels).
• Use unipolar scales when you’re measuring intensity only (e.g., how helpful or clear something was).

5. Ask questions rather than making statements

To write better survey questions and avoid getting biased answers, frame items as questions, not declarative statements. This invites people to think about how they truly feel about your question, rather than quickly agree or disagree with a statement. 

For example:

❌ “The customer support was helpful.”
✔️ “How helpful was the customer support?”

Want to improve your Likert-scale questions?

Learn how to write clear, bias-free survey questions that get better results. Our step-by-step guide covers wording, structure, and common mistakes to avoid.

Read the guide

Analyzing Likert-scale data

People filled out your Likert scale questionnaire; it’s now time to analyze the responses. Before you jump in, take some time to refresh your research goals. This will guide the type of insights you look for in your data and give you a blueprint on how to analyze survey results.

Then, interpret and present Likert scale ordinal data by following these tips: 

Avoid using the averages

Circling back to why Likert scales are controversial, it comes down to how people do data analysis. 

As we mentioned above, likert responses are ordinal, not nominal or interval. Meaning that the options have a meaningful order, but the distance between points isn’t necessarily equal. 

Therefore, using the average (mean) to analyze Likert scale survey question data isn’t reliable because it assumes equal spacing between responses. Instead, focus on the mode (most common response) or median (middle response) to understand the overall trend.

For example, let’s say this is your data set: 

This makes:

• Mean: 2.83 (skewed)
• Mode: Extremely satisfied
• Median: Satisfied  

Calculate the percentage of each response

Whenever you’re analyzing data, count how many respondents chose each answer option, and convert that into percentages. For example, using the same previous data set, we can say:

• Extremely dissatisfied: 5 [(5/42)*100)] = 11,9%
• Dissatisfied: 12 [(12/42)*100)] = 28,57%
• Satisfied: 10 [(10/42)*100)] = 23,8%
• Extremely satisfied: 15 [(15/42)*100)] = 35,71%

This makes it easier to spot patterns, like how many people agreed vs. disagreed. Comparing those percentages helps teams spot trends or gaps, such as users who are satisfied but not strongly satisfied. From there, you can dig deeper to understand what would move those users toward a more positive experience.

Group similar responses

If you’re looking to gain broader insights about your respondents’ feelings, try combining scale point answers into bigger categories. For example, you can group “somewhat satisfied,” “satisfied” and “very satisfied” together to show total positive sentiment. 

This kind of grouping gives a high-level view that’s much easier for you to act on, especially in an employee feedback or customer satisfaction survey. Sometimes, understanding that 40% of customers are unhappy is more powerful than analyzing each group individually.

Use charts to visualize the data

We recommend using bar or pie charts to show the data distribution. Bar charts are great for comparing categories side-by-side. For instance, if you want to see customer satisfaction across attributes, such as: Satisfaction with onboarding, customer support, new features or the overall product. 

This example below shows public opinion on three climate-related policies, broken down by level of support or opposition: 

Source

Pie charts, on the other hand, help you view proportions at a glance and make quick, broader comparisons. For example, gauging what percentage of your total users are satisfied with your product: 

Source

The goal of using charts is to make the data clear and accessible, especially for presentations, stakeholder updates or reports. Also, data visualization simplifies decision-making. 

In fact, according to a study by the International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews (IJRPR), “Visual representation transforms numerical data into comprehensible and meaningful insights, leveraging the human brain’s ability to process visuals faster than text.”

Be aware of response bias

Remind respondents throughout the survey that their answers are anonymous and that there are no right or wrong responses. This helps reduce social desirability bias, where people respond in ways they think are more socially acceptable.

By encouraging honesty, you’re more likely to avoid inflated neutral or positive scores, especially on sensitive topics. Still, even with those reminders, be mindful of bias when interpreting results that lean heavily toward the middle or positive end of the scale. 

To get a fuller picture, complement your survey findings with additional research, such as industry benchmarks, behavioral data or one-on-one customer interviews. You can also add open-ended questions in your survey to identify the “why” behind rating-based answers.

Ready to create your own Likert-scale questions?

Likert scales are powerful tools for gathering quantitative data and understanding customer attitudes. However, like all other research methods, these need to be used and analyzed thoughtfully, considering potential biases that may have affected the data.

Be mindful of how you design your scales. Choose between unipolar or bipolar formats and analyze the results using appropriate statistical methods (remember this is an ordinal scale and answers represent an order!) Avoid relying on averages and instead focus on patterns, medians, and modes to uncover meaningful insights. 

When done right, Likert scale data can guide smarter, more empathetic decisions. Need help building your Likert scale questionnaires? Explore and get inspired by Attest’s survey template library.

The post What is a Likert scale and how should you use it in surveys? appeared first on Attest.

Growth in the RTD category has far outstripped others, with UK canned alcoholic beverages expected to hit $1,365 million by 2030, at an exceptional CAGR of 36%, and US RTD cocktails and canned spirits rising 16.5% in value to reach US $3.3 billion in 2024, becoming the second-largest spirit category by volume. 

To learn more about who is driving the growth in RTD, we carried out a nationally representative survey of 2,000 consumers in the UK and US*. The research digs into who is buying pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, where they are being consumed, how often, and what makes them attractive to consumers. See the full survey dashboard. 

*a total of 3754 respondents were recruited for the survey in order to qualify 1,000 RTD buyers in each market

Quick summary

• 41% of UK consumers and 27% of US consumers shop in the ready-to-drink category.
• Cocktails are by far the most popular type of beverage.
• Consumers aged 30-49, and those with a higher household income, are the biggest buyers of RTDs.
• RTDs are typically consumed once or twice a week, and overwhelmingly at home.
• Health isn’t a major driver for shoppers, who are focused on taste, and show little interest in low alcohol varieties.

UK results

Millennials are the leading RTD consumers

How popular are ready-to-drink beverages among UK consumers? While 77% of British consumers say they purchase carbonated drinks, 41% say they buy pre-mixed alcoholic beverages – a relatively high figure, although less than the 58% who purchase yoghurt drinks/milkshakes, the 54% who buy energy drinks, and 50% who buy prepared coffee drinks. But it does exceed the 31% of survey respondents who purchase in the ginger beer/ginger ale category. 

Looking at the age breakdown of RTD buyers, it’s led by consumers aged 31-49 (49% of Brits in this age group purchase them), followed by 18-30-year-olds (41%), and 50-67-year-olds (34%). And in terms of gender split, women are slightly more likely to buy pre-mixed alcoholic beverages than men (45% versus 38%). 

Notably, ready-to-drink consumers are also heavy purchasers of other packaged drinks, particularly yoghurt drinks/milkshakes (74%), and prepared coffee (69%), suggesting opportunities for cross-category marketing or collaborations.

RTDs consumed once or twice a week

While consumers aged 31-49 are the most likely to purchase pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, when it comes to consumption frequency, they’re on a par with their younger counterparts. We asked self-reported RTD consumers how often they drink them, with around 37% of both age groups saying they drink them once or twice a week, and around 20% drinking them more often. 

Overall, among those who consume pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, 51% do so at least weekly, and only 8% consume these beverages less than once a month, suggesting these are regular consumption items rather than occasional treats.

Brits aged 50-67 are the lowest consumers. They’re most likely to say they drink pre-mixed alcoholic beverages a few times a month (37%), with only 29% drinking them once or twice a week, and 10% more than twice a week. And despite women’s higher preference for RTDs, men are more frequent RTD consumers: 20% of men drink them more than twice a week, in comparison to 13% of women. 

Income level also has a bearing on frequency of consumption, with around a third of respondents with a household income in excess of £75k drinking pre-mixed alcoholic beverages more than twice a week, compared with 13% of those earning less than £35k. 

It’s curious that the ready-to-drink category has boomed during the cost of living crisis – with shoppers ostensibly willing to pay more for the convenience of having their drinks mixed for them. This might be down to RTDs being viewed as an affordable luxury – a small indulgence, permissible even during financial strain (it’s a theory that warrants further research).  

Pre-mixed cocktails dominate the market

Cocktails are the number one most popular type of ready-to-drink, consumed by 77% of the survey respondents, followed by long drinks and alcopops (both around 58%). Newer innovations like hard seltzers (26%), hard coffee (20%), and hard tea/kombuchas (around 13% each) have gained notable market share despite being relatively recent entrants.

Looking at gender preferences, women over-index for choosing cocktails and wine-based drinks, while men over-index for consuming long drinks and hard seltzers. Age also influences preference, with Brits aged 18-30 more likely than others to favour cocktails, alcopops and wine spritzers, and those aged 31-49 being the demographic most likely to choose long drinks, hard seltzers and hard coffee.   

Home consumption is overwhelmingly the most common setting for pre-mixed alcoholic beverages (81%), highlighting their role in the “at-home drinking” occasion. A much lower – although still significant – 44% say they order RTDs when out at pubs and bars, and 22% buy them in clubs. This is not necessarily reflective of a preference for conventional drinks when attending venues, rather that many consumers don’t frequently visit such venues.

Under 30s are significantly more likely than other age groups to purchase RTDs on-trade  – presumably because they go out on the town more. Consumers aged 31-49, on the other hand, over-index for consuming pre-mixed alcoholic beverages at barbecues and picnics (50%).

Brands shouldn’t overlook the consumption of RTDs on-the-go, which is actually higher than in restaurants (29% versus 27%), with under 30s being the most likely age group to consume them while mobile (39%). Gaining a better understanding of these consumption patterns (i.e. on the train, lunch break) could prove valuable. 

It’s all about flavour

Flavour is the primary purchase driver for RTDs, with exciting flavours/blends (53%) slightly outperforming classic flavours/blends (48%), indicating consumer interest in both innovation and tradition.

Premium quality (47%) ranks higher than low price (40%), suggesting consumers value quality over cost savings in this category, although only 32% of consumers say they look for top alcohol brands when choosing pre-mixed alcoholic beverages. This might mean there is more scope for new players to enter the category. 

One thing the data shows is that the growth of RTD in the UK isn’t driven by health conscious consumers – only 12% of Brits are looking for low alcohol drinks, 22% want low sugar/calorie drinks, and 12% desire functional ingredients such as probiotics. In fact, 27% are specifically looking for a high alcohol content. 

Convenience is important, with 32% of consumers concerned about portability. In terms of packaging priorities, Brits are more likely to want it to be attractive (25%) than eco-friendly (19%), but if brands can find a way to fulfill all three objectives it will be a win-win. 

Splitting the data by age throws up a few interesting titbits: older consumers have a higher preference for classic flavours than younger ones. Meanwhile, under 30s are likely to look for a low price, while 31-49-year-olds are more focused on quality. Brits aged 18-30 also over-index for seeking out high ABV varieties. 

Get the latest UK media consumption data

The 8th annual edition covers television, audio, news, and social media, offering you a detailed breakdown of how Brits spend their time.

Download now!

US results

Millennials are the biggest purchasers of RTDs

How popular are ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages among US consumers? Nearly 27% of Americans say they buy them – a meaningful share, though still behind energy drinks (51%), ready-to-drink coffee (47%), yogurt drinks/milkshakes (38%), and ginger beer/ginger ale (35%).

Ready-to-drink purchases are highest among consumers aged 31-49 (32%), followed by 21-30-year-olds (29%) and 50-67-year-olds (23%). However, men and women are equally likely to buy pre-mixed alcoholic beverages.

RTD consumers tend to be heavy buyers of other packaged drinks: 71% purchase energy drinks and 70% buy ready-to-drink coffee, showing clear potential for cross-category marketing and collaborations.

A regular habit: over 60% consume RTDs weekly

While RTDs may not top overall beverage purchases, their consumption frequency is high: just over 60% of RTD buyers drink them at least weekly, and only 6% consume them less than once a month, showing that RTDs are often part of a regular routine.

Consumers aged 31-49 are the most frequent users: 37% drink RTDs more than twice a week, compared to 25% of 21-30-year-olds and 19% of 50-67-year-olds. Younger adults (21-30) are more likely to consume RTDs once or twice a week (36%), while older adults lean toward a few times a month (33%).

Men and women purchase RTDs at similar rates, but men drink them more frequently: 35% of men have pre-mixed alcoholic beverages more than twice a week versus 21% of women. Income also matters: 38% of respondents with household incomes over $100k drink RTDs more than twice a week, compared with 22% of those earning under $50k.

RTDs are booming during a period of high inflation, suggesting they’re seen as an affordable luxury: a small indulgence consumers are willing to keep, even under financial pressure, which might be a trend worth exploring further.

RTDs are most commonly consumed at home 

Home is the top setting for enjoying pre-mixed alcoholic beverages, with 88% of respondents consuming RTDs at home. However, 44% enjoy them at restaurants, 36% in bars or pubs, and 25% in clubs – showing a presence in on-trade occasions, even if venue visits are less frequent.

Younger consumers are more likely than those over 50 to drink RTDs in bars and clubs – no doubt a reflection of more frequent social outings. Around 25% of ready-to-drink consumers enjoy them on-the-go, rising to 32% for those aged 31-49 – an opportunity for brands to explore consumption in transit.

Cocktails dominate the format, consumed by 68% of respondents. They’re followed by hard seltzers (60%), wine spritzers/coolers (54%), and hard tea (52%). Even newer formats like hard coffee (22%) and hard kombucha (16%) have found a foothold.

Women over-index for cocktails and wine-based drinks, while men favor long drinks, hard tea, and hard seltzers. Age plays a role too: 21-30-year-olds lean toward hard seltzers, while 31-49-year-olds over-index for cocktails, long drinks, hard tea, and kombucha.

Flavor, not health, is the main driver

Flavor wins: 56% of consumers say exciting blends influence their purchase, slightly ahead of classic flavors (45%), showing demand for both innovation and familiarity.

Premium quality matters more than price: 44% prioritize quality over 38% who say low price is key. Yet only 31% specifically look for named alcohol brands, which suggests room for challenger brands.

Despite wellness trends, health isn’t a major driver here. Just 11% look for low-alcohol options, 25% want low sugar/calorie drinks, and 15% seek functional benefits like probiotics. Meanwhile, 39% specifically look for high alcohol content.

Portability also matters: 35% cite convenience as a purchase factor, while 24% want attractive packaging, and only 14% prioritize eco-friendly design – brands that can nail all three will have a competitive edge.

Finally, age reveals differences: older consumers lean toward classic flavors, under-30s are more price-driven, while 31-49-year-olds prioritize quality. The youngest consumers also over-index for high-ABV varieties. 

Get the latest US media consumption data

The 6th annual edition covers television, audio, news, and social media, offering you a detailed breakdown of how Americans spend their time.

Download now!

The post Defying the decline: what’s driving growth in ready-to-drink alcohol? appeared first on Attest.

In 2024, US spirits sales saw a 0.9% decline in volume, wine sales dropped by 8%, and beer sales decreased by 0.6% [source: WSWA]. It’s a similar story in the UK, where analysts expected to see alcohol volume and value declines of 1% CAGR over the next five years [Source: IWSR].

Our own research shows that 42% of UK consumers and 31% of US consumers have cut back on alcohol purchases to help manage the cost of living. For the survey, we qualified-in those respondents who said they had scaled back on booze to find out how much they’re spending now, how else they’re economizing in the category, and how committed they are to their alcohol purchases [view the survey dashboard].

Quick summary

• 54% of Brits and 44% of Americans are going out less often to save money.
• More than a third of consumers in both markets have started consuming alcohol at home instead of going out.  
• Around half of consumers are drinking less often to cut back on spending.
• 24% of Americans and 12% of Brits have given up alcohol completely to help manage the cost of living.
• A quarter of shoppers are buying cheaper alcohol brands.

UK results

More than a third of over 50s no longer buy alcohol at venues

Bad news for operators of bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants: 54% of Brits say they are going out less frequently. Consequently, they’re now more likely to buy alcohol for home consumption than go drinking in venues. 

A significant 23% of those who have scaled back their spending on alcohol typically spend nothing on buying drinks when going out, while 23% spend just £1-£19 per month (which won’t go far unless you’re in Wetherspoons). A further 23% spend £20-£39, while the percentage spending in excess of £40 stands at 31%.

Older Brits are significantly more likely to have stopped buying alcoholic drinks on-trade: 36% of over 50s spend nothing, in comparison to 14% of 18-30s and 20% of those aged 31-49 (although it’s consumers in the 31-49 age bracket who are most likely to have reduced their attendance at bars and restaurants: 60% are going out less). 

There’s a clear gender divide too: 27% of female consumers have curbed their spending on drinks in venues to zero versus 19% of men. On the other hand, 36% of men are committed to still getting the drinks in, spending over £40 per month, versus 26% of women. 

Brits typically spend less than £20 per month on alcohol at home

Despite drinking at home being the new going out, Brits aren’t spending huge amounts on it. The majority spend less than £20 per month on off-trade alcohol. Just over 38% spend between £1-19 per month, while 11% typically spend nothing. But a quarter spend between £20-£39, and 26% spend in excess of this amount. 

Consumers aged 31-49 are the most likely to say they have swapped going out for drinking at home (39%), and this is reflected in their higher spending compared to other demographics: 30% spend in excess of £40 per month on home drinking. Consumers aged 50-65 spend the least: 43% spend less than £20 and 12% make no outlay at all, while only 16% spend in excess of £40. 

Interestingly, women are more likely to say they have started drinking at home instead of going out (37% versus 33% of men), yet men still spend more on alcohol for home consumption (25% spend in excess of £40 per month versus 20% of women).  

Is Alcohol an industry in overall decline?

One of the core themes of this research is that drinking is becoming less important for Brits – a trend that clearly has big implications for alcohol brands. Half of the respondents in our survey say they’re “generally drinking alcohol less frequently” in order to save money, and 46% say that buying alcohol is a low priority (12% have given up drinking altogether). 

This sentiment is highest among older, more seasoned drinkers, with 55% of over 50s deeming alcohol a low priority, and the same percentage having reduced their consumption. Young Brits aged 18-30 are more committed to drinking, being most likely to rate buying alcohol a high or medium-high priority: 21% (versus 10% of 31-49 year olds and 8% of over 50s).

But despite this ray of light, younger drinkers are taking other measures to manage their spending on alcohol – all with possible drawbacks for drinks brands. Just over 27% say they have started drinking cheaper alcohol brands, while 25% are drinking cheaper types of alcohol, for example switching spirits for beer. And on-trade will be affected by the 28% who are purchasing smaller measures, and 33% who put a limit on the amount of drinks they buy on a night out. Under 30s also over-index for buying soft drinks instead of alcohol (38%). 

One quirk of this demographic is that they’re not the most motivated by promotions on alcohol: 23% look out for them versus a third of their older counterparts, so keeping RRPs down will be more important than deep discounting. 

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US results

A third of Americans no longer spend on-trade

Operators of bars, pubs, clubs, and restaurants face a challenge as 44% of Americans report going out less often. This shift means consumers are now more inclined to purchase alcohol for home consumption rather than drinking at venues.

Avoiding alcohol when visiting hospitality venues appears to be a key way of cutting back, with nearly a third of respondents making no outlay on it. Of those still enjoying a drink when out, 30% spend less than $40 per month, a further 14% spend between $40-$59, while a total of 24% spend in excess of $60.

Older Americans are significantly more likely to have stopped buying alcoholic drinks on-trade: 45% of 50-67 year olds spend nothing in comparison to 26% of their younger counterparts. 

Consumers in the 31-49 age bracket are the highest on-trade spenders, with 31% spending in excess of $60 per month in comparison to 24% of 18-30 year olds and 16% of over 50s.

Drinking at home trend boosting off-trade sales

A third of American consumers say they have swapped going out for drinking at home, so how much are they typically spending off-trade? It’s fairly evenly distributed, with around 20% in each of the first three spending brackets ($1-$19, $20-$39, $40-$59) but spending in excess of $60 per month is less common. 

Meanwhile, 17% of respondents say they now don’t make any expenditure on alcohol for home consumption. Those aged 50-67 over-index for saying this: 25%, compared to around 15% of their younger counterparts. 

As well as being the highest on-trade spenders, consumers aged 31-49 are also the biggest off-trade spenders: 33% spend in excess of $60 per month on home drinking. Only 20% of under 30s spend this much, and 16% of over 50s. 

And while men and women are equally likely to say they have started drinking at home more instead of going out, men are higher spenders on alcohol for home consumption (30% spend in excess of $60 per month versus 19% of women).   

Millennials at the vanguard of alcohol changes

This research points to one thing – drinking culture is on the decline in America. Just under half of the respondents in our survey say they’re “generally drinking alcohol less frequently”, while a significant 24% have given up drinking altogether. Critically, 47% say that buying alcohol is a low priority (12% ). 

One segment in particular stands out for having changed their behavior in relation to alcohol, and that’s consumers aged 31-49. While they remain the biggest spenders overall, they’re most likely to say they’re drinking alcohol less often to save money (50%), and they over-index for employing money-saving tactics.

To manage costs when visiting bars, clubs and restaurants, 31% are limiting the number of drinks they purchase, while 28% are buying smaller measures. This age group is also most likely to opt for soft drinks instead of alcoholic beverages when out (27%). Additionally, over 27% have switched to cheaper alcohol brands, and 22% are choosing less expensive types of alcohol, such as beer instead of spirits.

Despite this, consumers aged 31-49 remain the most committed to drinking, being most likely to rate buying alcohol a high or medium-high priority: 25% (versus 17% of under 30s and 11% of over 50s). 

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But recent headlines reporting declines in sales (US McDonald’s outlets that have been open at least a year sank 3.6% in the first three months of 2025 compared to a year earlier) and our fresh consumer survey suggests the brand is slipping with its core audience.

We surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers to dig into how they feel about McDonald’s today, and what changes would reignite their loyalty. The insights are clear, candid, and a wake-up call.

TL;DR summary of McDonald’s shopper survey

• 1 in 3 Americans are visiting McDonald’s less often, citing price, quality and nostalgia.
• “Too expensive” was the most common complaint — with many saying they get better value elsewhere.
• Inconsistent food quality and a loss of iconic menu items have hurt the brand’s appeal.
• 75% of respondents said value deals influence their decision to visit.
• Health trends and GLP-1 usage are shifting fast food habits — over 80% of users say they’ve cut back.
• Consumers still want to love McDonald’s — but they expect more consistency, value and care.

McDonald’s shopper survey results

The decline is real: one in three visit less often

When asked how their McDonald’s visit frequency has changed over the last six months:

• 32% are visiting less often — with 19% saying much less
• 34% are visiting more often
• The rest (30%) said their habits haven’t changed

This isn’t an exodus, but it’s enough of a shift to dent revenue- especially with higher input costs and tighter consumer wallets.

What’s behind the drop? Consumers say it’s not just the food

We gave respondents the chance to answer openly about what’s turned them off. Their answers paint a vivid picture of shifting expectations — and where McDonald’s may be missing the mark.

1. “It’s too expensive now”

Value was once McDonald’s cornerstone. Today, it’s the most common complaint.

“$15 for a meal? I can sit down and eat somewhere better.”

Consumers repeatedly mentioned that prices have outpaced what they’re getting in return. With inflation still biting, customers expect more from every dollar.

2. “Quality and consistency are lacking”

This wasn’t just about taste — though that came up a lot. Respondents to our survey noted:

• Lukewarm or messy orders
• Burgers that feel smaller or “thrown together”
• Inconsistency across locations
• “The quality isn’t there anymore — and you never know what you’re going to get.”

It’s not that McDonald’s food has radically changed. It’s that in a world full of upgraded fast-casual options, bland and inconsistent just doesn’t cut it.

3. “I miss the old McDonald’s”

Nostalgia was an unexpected — but strong — theme. From the McRib to 2-for-1 deals, many respondents brought up beloved past offerings they wish would return.

• “Bring back the fajitas and the dollar menu!”

This speaks to an emotional connection consumers had with the brand — one that’s faded in recent years. McDonald’s is already addressing one aspect of this, by bringing back the Chicken Snack Wrap as a permanent addition to the menu. 

Using Attest’s AI Summary tool, here’s a concise readout of these insightful open-text responses:

What would win them back?

Bring back value

With rising inflation and continued economic uncertainty, consumers want to feel like their money stretches further. 

• A whopping 75% of consumers said that value or promotional deals are important in their choice to visit McDonald’s. 
• Of those surveyed, over half are reporting that their household’s disposable income is influencing their decision whether or not to eat out at fast food restaurants. 

Focus on quality and care

Of those visiting McDonald’s less frequently, 43% cited a desire for healthier meals as a key reason. As GLP-1 weight-loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy become more mainstream, this trend is only accelerating. Among the 20% of respondents who either take these medications or live with someone who does, over 80% have cut back on fast food visits.

This presents a clear opportunity: McDonald’s can better serve this growing health-conscious segment by offering lower-calorie, high-protein, nutrient-dense menu items tailored to GLP-1 users’ changing appetites and goals. Introducing thoughtfully crafted meals with lean proteins, fiber-rich sides, and clean ingredients could position the brand as both convenient and compatible with modern health journeys.

Innovate around nostalgia

Ironically, one of McDonald’s best paths forward may be behind them. Reintroducing iconic items (even in limited runs) or celebrating classic menu moments could rekindle that connection.

Consumer sentiment in a snapshot:

Final thoughts

The data tells a simple but urgent story. Consumers still want to love McDonald’s — but the experience isn’t matching up to the price or the memory. 

The good news? This isn’t a brand with a loyalty problem — over half of respondents reflect no change in the perception of McDonald’s brand image, despite the drop in sales. It’s a brand with a value and consistency problem — and those are fixable. If McDonald’s can realign with what made it iconic while innovating to meet modern tastes, it may not just rebound — it could reignite.

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The post Why McDonald’s is losing ground and what consumers say will bring them back appeared first on Attest.