A custom app for pulse surveys, NPS measurement, market research, patient PROMs or panel research. Use it when SurveyMonkey or Typeform fall short, for example because you want to own your data, because it needs to work offline, or because your routing logic is too complex for a SaaS template. We build it to measure, native for iOS and Android, GDPR-compliant and connected to your own analytics layer.
The average survey tool, whether SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, Qualtrics or one of the dozens of variations, is fine for a one-off study with thirty respondents and a few simple questions. But once the work grows, the target group changes, or the answers need to land somewhere other than an Excel export, those tools reach their limits. A serious survey app does more: it goes into the field, works without a network connection, adapts based on what the respondent has already answered, and sends the data directly to your own warehouse or CRM instead of the vendor's account.
We have been building survey apps for years for organisations that find their research question doesn't fit a SaaS template. Healthcare researchers who need to administer patient PROM questionnaires on a tablet at the bedside, with encrypted storage and integration with the EHR. HR departments that want to run a monthly pulse survey among thousands of employees without the data leaving the premises. Marketers who want to build a panel with deeper segmentation than a SaaS provider offers. Research agencies running field research where interviewers go out on the street with a tablet and only have a connection in the evening.
In between sits the organisation that could get by with Typeform or SurveyMonkey, but faces one of three problems a standard package cannot solve: their routing logic is too complex (for example, a patient PROM with conditional skips based on earlier answers plus a previous measurement), their answers must be exported in a custom format for a specific integration, or they simply do not want their respondent data stored on a server in the United States. For those scenarios, custom software pays off, because the flexibility and data ownership gained quickly recover the extra investment.
A custom survey app adapts to you, not the other way round. Together we map out which questions are asked, to whom, in what context, and what follow-up or aftercare is attached. On that basis we design an app that gives respondents a pleasant experience, because low drop-out is exactly what your research or pulse measurement depends on, and that gives you, as the client, full control over the data, the schedule and further development. If you first want a broader orientation on what a custom app involves, see our page on app development for the general approach.
Depending on who needs to respond, in what context and what needs to happen with the data, the approach differs. In the first conversation we advise which format suits your research.
For HR and customer success teams: short questionnaires repeated regularly with the same group. Employee pulse, customer NPS, pupil evaluation or supplier satisfaction. Push reminders at agreed intervals, anonymisation where needed, and a dashboard in which trends by team or segment are visible at a glance. Often connected to an HRIS or CRM so that respondent segmentation is automatically correct.
For market researchers, panel research agencies, event organisers and inspectors who conduct surveys on location. A fully offline app running on a tablet or phone: interviewers administer questionnaires in shopping centres, at events, in deprived neighbourhoods or in care facilities without wifi, and answers sync as soon as a connection is restored. Includes photo and video questions, geolocation capture and interviewer instructions within the same flow.
A more complex platform for longitudinal research with multiple measurement moments per respondent, intricate branching logic and sensitive data. Patient Reported Outcome Measures in healthcare with EHR integration, longitudinal panel research with respondent incentives, or academic research with REDCap export. Includes an informed consent flow, role-based dashboards for researchers and optional end-to-end encryption at respondent level.
The technical building blocks that appear in virtually every survey app, however different the content of the research. We build this layer afresh each time, tailored to your questionnaire, target group and compliance context.
Not every study needs its own app. For a one-off short questionnaire, the familiar SaaS tools are perfectly adequate. Here are six signals that prompt our clients to move to custom development.
For research in healthcare, government or HR contexts involving personal data, you may not want respondent data stored on the servers of a US SaaS provider. A custom app on your own infrastructure or a European cloud solves this in one go, including clear data location agreements that you can point to in discussions with the data protection authority.
Your interviewers administer questionnaires in a care facility with poor wifi, out in a polder, at an event in a large hall, or during a sample survey at respondents' homes. SaaS tools perform poorly or not at all offline, and you lose responses the moment the connection drops. An offline-first app handles that entirely.
Your questionnaire uses routing based on earlier answers, scores from a previous wave, demographics and behavioural data from a connected system. SaaS tools offer if-then skips on a single answer but fall short on multi-factor logic or cross-wave routing. Custom software lets you model that routing exactly as your research design requires.
You no longer need to manually load Excel exports into a data warehouse or import them into a CRM. The answers should land directly in HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo or your own data pipeline, with the right fields and transformations. SaaS integrations are often generic and call for custom middleware. That custom app already includes this layer.
You carry out a fixed measurement monthly, quarterly, or with every new employee, customer, or patient. SaaS tools make you set up the questionnaire and export the data again each time; a custom app automates that rhythm completely and builds up a longitudinal dataset that you can analyse for years to come.
Whether the respondent is a customer, employee, patient, or panel participant, the app is the face of your research to them. A SaaS template with a vendor logo at the bottom gives a different impression from an app in your own corporate identity, with your own welcome text and the right tone of voice. That demonstrably makes a difference to response rates.
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →A conversation in which we map out your research goal: who your respondents are, how often you measure, which questions are asked, what compliance applies, and what needs to happen with the data on the other side. We immediately establish what a standard package can do and where custom development pays off, honestly, including if the outcome is that Typeform is perfectly adequate for your case.
Together with you and, where relevant, a methodologist, we design the respondent flow: what the opening text is, what the logical order of questions is, where the risk of drop-out lies, and what the informed consent flow looks like. We test wireframes with two or three end users before writing a single line of code, because low drop-out starts with a pleasant first impression.
Every two weeks we deliver a working version of the app on your tablets and phones. You test it, a small pilot group of real respondents tests it, and we adjust continuously. A first working version is ready after a few sprints, and a production app after a project of several sprints, depending on the number of question types, integrations, and compliance requirements.
We test integrations with HRIS, CRM, EHR or data warehouse systems first in a staging environment using synthetic respondent data, then with a pilot wave of a few dozen real respondents, and only then across the full population. This includes training for researchers or HR staff who want to set up waves themselves.
After go-live we provide support with monitoring, OS updates for iOS and Android, security patches, and further development. Many survey apps grow organically: a second language, a new questionnaire module, an expansion to another country or a new target group, and the maintenance contract keeps that running smoothly.
What clients usually want to know before starting a custom survey app.
A half-hour introductory call, with no obligation. We listen to your research question, ask about your respondents, target group and current tooling, and give you direction you can use, including if the advice is to try an existing SaaS tool first or to choose a hybrid approach. For related variants, you can also look at our pages on app development, customer data platforms, AI development and data engineering platforms.
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