Delighted vs SurveyMonkey: Choosing Your Next Survey Tool

Delighted vs SurveyMonkey? 

Like it or not, unfortunately it’s time to choose your next survey tool, considering Delighted will sunset in 2026. You need to assess your options of survey tools that's in the market before making the switch, and SurveyMonkey is a powerful tool to consider. 

SurveyMonkey is a long-standing player in the survey space, offering 183 total integrations with plans starting at $39/month per user. On the other hand, Delighted is your typical budget-friendly alternative at $17/month, but comes with only 22 integrations.

By doing a quick comparison of Delighted and SurveyMonkey, we know that the former scores better in ease-of-use (4.8/5 vs SurveyMonkey's 4.6/5) and value for money (4.7/5 vs 4.4/5). 

There are about 15,000+ organizations like Allbirds, Doordash, and PayPal, who have chosen Delighted. The accessible interface that Delighted has drew a lot of users' attention because that helps create custom surveys quickly. SurveyMonkey packs more advanced features but requires premium plans starting at $139/month.

Let's get into how these platforms match up in survey creation, analytics tools, user experience, and pricing structures. We put together this comparison so it will help you pick the right tool for your business, especially with Delighted's sunset date in June,  2026.

Survey Creation and Customization

First up in the Delighted vs SurveyMonkey is the survey creation and the customization options. Let’s look at in detailed

Survey Types: NPS-only vs Multi-purpose Templates

Delighted specializes in Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys with few customization options. Users can send surveys through email, SMS, and web, but they must stick to basic NPS formats and a couple of follow-up text boxes. Companies that want to track customer loyalty through a single metric will find this focused design perfect.

SurveyMonkey's platform offers over 200+ templates that cover HR, academic research, market analysis, and customer feedback. The platform's question banks and template library help any department create surveys quickly. The trade-off comes from the extra time and expertise needed to find and customize templates for specific customer experience needs.

If you’re wanting the features of SurveyMonkey, but at a fraction of the cost, SurveySparrow is the way to go. It takes a multi-purpose approach like SurveyMonkey but adds conversational survey formats, recurring surveys, and white-labeling even in mid-tier plans; something neither competitor nails as effectively.r

Question Logic and Flow: Basic vs Advanced Branching

SurveyMonkey's platform stands out with its advanced branching logic, which comes with paid plans. This smart system adapts surveys based on multiple conditions and creates unique paths that boost completion rates. To name just one example, you can show product-specific questions only to customers who bought those items while hiding others. Just to compare, SurveySparrow also supports advanced branching but packages it in a cleaner interface. And so making it easier for non-technical teams to set up without endless configuration.

Delighted's simple branching options match its streamlined NPS focus. Users who need more complex feedback collection find this limitation challenging.

AI Questionnaire Builder: Manual Setup vs AI-Generated Surveys

The tools' biggest difference lies in how they use AI. SurveyMonkey's "Build with AI" feature uses Azure OpenAI service to create complete surveys in under 60 seconds with simple prompts. The system picks the best question types, creates answer choices, and works in over 50 languages automatically. Teams can skip the guesswork and create surveys faster. While SurveyMonkey leads with AI-powered survey building, SurveySparrow extends this with conversational AI elements that make surveys feel more personal, often improving response quality. 

Delighted keeps things traditional with its manual setup. While user-friendly, it lacks the speed of AI-powered automation. This kind of gap in features could matter more as AI survey tools keep improving and teams look for faster ways to collect feedback.

Analytics and Reporting Capabilities

Next up in Delighted vs SurveyMonkey is the analytics. Both platforms show a large difference in terms of their survey response processing capabilities.

Text Analysis: Manual Tagging vs AI Sentiment Detection

What Delighted offers is a simple text analysis tool that requires manual tagging and interpretation of open-ended feedback. The platform lacks automatic comment analysis or theme and sentiment identification. Teams waste more time as responses pile up.

SurveyMonkey takes a different approach with its AI-powered sentiment analysis that sorts open-ended answers into positive, neutral, or negative categories. Available to Advantage plan subscribers and above, this feature uses machine learning and natural language processing to process responses efficiently. The system analyzes hundreds of text responses and detects emotional tone automatically.

Open-Ended Feedback: No Summary vs AI-Powered Summaries

Delighted's capabilities end at collecting open-text feedback—without built-in summarization, sentiment detection, or theme extraction. Users must manually review each comment to spot patterns.

SurveyMonkey's AI quickly spots key themes in open-ended text responses. Premium users get AI-generated insights that sort feedback by relevant topics automatically. The platform includes a chat-based tool where users ask questions about survey results and receive instant insights, charts, and summaries.

Dashboard Features: Simple Charts vs Live CX Dashboards

Delighted uses clean, minimalist visualizations that work for simple reporting but lack advanced filters or cross-touchpoint comparisons. Their approach trades analytical depth for ease of use.

SurveyMonkey's customizable reporting system updates data live so teams can fix issues quickly. While non-technical users might find it complex, the reporting system connects with common business tools. This integration helps teams turn customer feedback into applicable business intelligence.

Ease of Use, Support, and Scalability

The user experience plays a crucial role in how satisfied people feel with survey tools, beyond just the features. A closer look at both platforms shows how differently they approach usability and organizational support.

User Interface: Minimalist vs Feature-Rich

Delighted's clean, responsive interface earns consistent praise from users for being easy to use. The platform keeps things simple with a design that makes quick actions possible without too many options. Its colorful yet clear layout catches your eye while making navigation straightforward.

SurveyMonkey takes a different approach with its detailed dashboard. While that’s powerful, it can sometimes feel overwhelming when you just need simple functions. The interface reflects its wide range of capabilities but takes more time to learn properly.

Learning Curve: Quick Start vs Steep Setup

Teams can launch their first NPS survey on Delighted within minutes. The platform keeps configuration simple, which makes it perfect for teams who don't have technical expertise.

SurveyMonkey needs more time investment to learn its extensive features. Users face a steeper learning curve because they need to understand many customization options before they can use the platform effectively.

Customer Support: Self-Service vs Expert Consultation

Both platforms give users standard self-service options through help centers and community forums. SurveyMonkey goes further by hosting annual conferences where industry speakers share insights about survey trends and best practices.

Scalability: Small Teams vs Enterprise Readiness

Small and medium teams who want focused feedback collection work well with Delighted. All the same, organizations tracking complex metrics across multiple touchpoints might find its analytical capabilities limiting.

SurveyMonkey fits enterprise needs better with its reliable customization options and extensive reporting features built for large-scale use. The platform supports complex organizational structures but needs more administrative oversight.

Pricing and Integration Ecosystem

The financial comparison between Delighted vs SurveyMonkey shows clear differences in pricing and external tool support.

Pricing Tiers: $17 vs $39 Starting Plans

Delighted's plans were available at $17 per month, making it a more budget-friendly option than SurveyMonkey's user-based pricing of $39 monthly. The premium features used to come at $224 monthly for Delighted when billed annually. SurveyMonkey's advanced plans start higher at $139 monthly.

Feature Access by Plan: Transparent vs Tier-Locked

Delighted keeps its pricing simple with core features in lower-priced tiers. SurveyMonkey's pricing structure needs users to upgrade for basic functions. You'll need higher tiers to access question logic, data exports, and white-labeling features.

Integrations: 22 vs 183 Tools Supported

These platforms are quite different when it comes to integration options. Delighted connects to 22 external tools and focuses on Slack, Salesforce, and Zendesk. SurveyMonkey stands out with 183 integrations that include Mailchimp, Salesforce, Google Analytics, and HubSpot.

Automation Tools: 5 vs 9 Platforms Supported

Delighted's automation options are limited to 5 platforms. SurveyMonkey gives you more choices with 9 automation platforms. This means better options for data collection and feedback management.

Comparison Table

Conclusion

Your specific feedback needs and team structure will determine whether SurveyMonkey or SurveySparrow (considering Delighted may not be a viable option anymore) works better for your organization. While Delighted offered user-friendly features with higher satisfaction ratings (4.9/5) and cost less at $17/month, its planned shutdown in June 2026 makes it no longer viable.

SurveyMonkey packs extensive features with 200+ templates, advanced branching logic, and AI analytics that spot patterns and themes. Its large integration network (183 connections) makes it ideal for big companies that need to exploit data between multiple systems, though at a higher cost starting at $39/month per user.

SurveySparrow is the clear option for most organizations transitioning from Delighted. It combines the ease of use that made Delighted popular with enterprise-grade features that rival SurveyMonkey, all at a competitive $19/month starting price. The conversational survey format significantly improves response rates while the intuitive interface reduces training time.

While SurveyMonkey clearly wins on raw feature count and longevity, SurveySparrow's combination of conversational design, competitive pricing, and advanced features makes it the most strategic choice for teams transitioning from Delighted. Try it today and see if the platform fits your needs. The platform's 4.7/5 ease-of-use score and superior value proposition show that innovative tools often work better than simply choosing between traditional options.