Survey vs. questionnaire: Key differences and use cases

Is a survey the same as a questionnaire?

Don’t worry if you’re unsure, because you’re not alone. Even professional researchers often use the two terms interchangeably.

But there’s an important distinction. A questionnaire is simply a set of written questions, while a survey refers to the entire process, from designing and distributing the questionnaire to collecting and analysing responses.

Over 3.5 million surveys are deployed each year via SurveyMonkey. We know that great survey design starts with the basics, and that begins with understanding the difference between a survey and a questionnaire.

A questionnaire is any written set of questions, while a survey is both the set of questions and the process of collecting, aggregating and analysing the responses from those questions.

Let’s review a survey vs. questionnaire more closely and explore how you can excel in executing each of them.

Any set of questions, regardless of how personal or general the subject matter is, is a questionnaire. Whether your questionnaire stands on its own or is part of a survey, to get great results you need to ask great questions. Check our guide to writing survey questions like a pro for more about selecting great questions for your questionnaire.

Also, as you write a questionnaire, bear its length in mind. As the number of questions increases, the completion rate often decreases. In one study, we found that questionnaires with 40 questions have about a 10% lower response rate than questionnaires with 10 questions. People also tend to spend about 10 minutes filling out a questionnaire, regardless of its length. This means that if you ask fewer questions, it’s likely that your respondents will spend more time on each question.

Our two-question NPS survey may be an extreme example (given how short it is), but it’s effective in motivating respondents to answer each question thoughtfully:

The way in which you design, implement and analyse a survey will impact your results as much as the questions you ask. Let’s dive into each of these areas:

There is a limited number of use cases for standalone questionnaires. These use cases include building an email list, accepting payments or donations, or collecting personal accounts for a research project. Wufoo is often ideal for these applications, especially when payments are involved.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for feedback from your respondents, then a survey would be a better option. It aggregates data from multiple respondents so that you can draw broad conclusions about your results.

Now that you can answer the longstanding question “Is a survey the same as a questionnaire?”, you can start to collect actionable feedback today! Start your survey.

NPS, Net Promoter and Net Promoter Score are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.