Market research tools for small business budgets

Market research tools do five different jobs: asking people questions, finding people to ask, measuring demand, spotting trends and understanding an audience. A small business can cover most of them for under $100 a month, and the first round for nothing. This page names the best tool for each job, what it costs and where it falls short.

How we chose

We favoured tools a small team can start using today without a sales call, with prices on the page. Each one had to be the best value for its job, not the most powerful. Enterprise research platforms are covered separately in market intelligence tools.

Prices below were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 4 October 2026, in US dollars from a US view. SurveyMonkey changes its prices by country, so check yours.

The best market research tools at a glance

Asking people: survey tools

Google Forms, the free default

If you are surveying your own customers or email list, start here. It is free with a Google account, answers flow into Google Sheets, and nobody has to learn anything. Its branching and design are basic next to paid tools, which matters less than writing good questions.

SurveyMonkey, for templates and analysis

SurveyMonkey's strength is its large library of question templates and the reporting on top. Basic is free with limited questions and responses per survey. Advantage is $39 a month billed annually ($468 a year) for one user and 15,000 responses a year. The monthly Standard plan is $149 a month, which makes annual billing the sensible choice if you will run more than one survey.

Limits. Prices vary heavily by region, and buying respondents through SurveyMonkey Audience costs extra.

Typeform, for short surveys on phones

Typeform shows one question at a time, which suits phone users and short consumer surveys. Free allows 100 responses a month. Basic is $39 a month or $28 billed annually, still 100 responses; Plus at $79 ($56 annually) lifts that to 1,000 with 3 users.

Limits. Response caps are tight on the cheap plans, so a survey that goes well can hit the ceiling in a day.

Finding people to ask: panels

Pollfish, for quick consumer answers

When you have no list, a panel supplies respondents. Pollfish charges from $0.95 per response with no subscription. Screening questions cost extra: from $0.50 per response for one up to $5.75 for six.

Limits. Cheap per answer, not cheap per useful answer. Budget for screening and for discarding low-effort responses.

Prolific, for longer studies

Prolific suits longer studies, where paying people by the hour is fairer than paying per answer. You set the participant reward (minimum $8 an hour, $12 recommended) and pay a platform fee of 42.8% on top for companies.

Limits. It is a participant pool, not a survey builder. You bring your own survey tool.

Measuring demand: search data

Google Trends

Trends shows how interest in a term changes over time and across regions, on a 0 to 100 scale relative to all searches in that place and period. It does not give absolute volumes, and Google warns that low-volume terms are noisy. Use it to compare, such as two product names or two cities, and see how to compare terms in Google Trends for the method.

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner gives search volume for specific phrases and suggests related ones. It costs nothing, but Google requires a Google Ads account with billing details entered before you can use it. If you would rather not, Semrush's free plan allows 10 reports a day.

Spotting trends early

Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics lists topics and products whose search interest is rising, and aims to catch them before they become obvious. Entrepreneur is $39 a month for 100 tracked trends; Investor at $99 adds forecasts. There is a 7 day free trial.

Limits. It tells you what is growing in general, not whether your customers want it. Treat a find here as a question for your survey, not an answer.

Understanding an audience

SparkToro

Type in a topic, a website or a social account, and SparkToro shows what that audience reads, watches, follows and searches. It answers "where do I reach these people", which surveys handle badly. Free gives 3 previews a month; Personal is $450 a year (annual only, one user); Business is $150 a month or $1,344 a year for up to 10 users.

Limits. It works best for audiences that are active online. A local trade with little online footprint returns thin results.

Sizing up competitors

Similarweb

For "how big is each player in this market", Similarweb compares websites' estimated traffic and its sources. Its pricing page metadata says self-serve plans start at $125 a month; larger plans go through sales. The figures are estimates, often wrong on any single site; how accurate traffic estimates are explains how far to trust them.

If your real question is what your named rivals are changing week to week, that is monitoring rather than market research, and competitor monitoring tools is the better list.

What a small business actually needs

A first project, $0. Trends and Keyword Planner for demand, government statistics for market size (the ONS in the UK), Google Forms to your customers, and an evening reading competitors' reviews.

A survey of strangers, $200 to $500. Pollfish or Prolific for respondents, with a free survey builder.

An ongoing habit, under $100 a month. One of Exploding Topics or SparkToro, depending on whether your question is "what is growing" or "where are my buyers", plus the free tools.

Skip anything that promises to replace talking to customers. Five 20 minute calls with recent buyers will tell you more than most dashboards, and AI market research tools are best at the desk research around those calls, not instead of them.