See how users build with SurveyCTO
We give our users the building blocks to create exactly what they need—no matter how complex or unique their goals.
See how organizations can create unique applications for research, fieldwork, healthcare, M&E, and more on a platform that gives them the flexibility to do so.
A powerful platform on its own.
A foundation for app building when you need more.
SurveyCTO was founded on the belief that technology should be both accessible and adaptable. At its core, our platform delivers secure, high-quality data collection. Additionally, because we’ve intentionally designed SurveyCTO to be extensible and interoperable, it can also serve as the foundation for building more.
Our users have shown just how far this flexibility can go. Some have layered full applications on top of SurveyCTO, like survey management tools or electronic medical record systems, while others use our platform to build mobile applications.
We’re highlighting users who’ve done incredible things with our platform—from building database applications to mobile apps for field surveys—so that you can see what’s possible when you build with SurveyCTO.
SurveyCTO's tools for app building
To build effective apps specific to your workflows and processes, our features and functionality let you adapt and extend our platform as needed. You can use our features and functionality individually or in combination with each other to get the results you want.
Here are some of the key tools to get you building with SurveyCTO.
Build using our API
SurveyCTO’s REST API enables the flow of data between our platform and other systems you already use. With automatic data transfers in place through the API, you can:
- Clean, analyze, and update data in external systems, then automatically sync it back into SurveyCTO to inform downstream data collection
- Operate fully offline to manage distributions, inspections, and other projects in remote areas
- Auto-create SurveyCTO users with information from your own system, eliminating the need for manual user creation
- Build custom, branded applications auto-populated by data from SurveyCTO, helping to strengthen your brand with your clients
We also provide many other integration options to help you build custom, connected applications.
Build through datasets
Our datasets act as embedded relational databases, giving you the ability to pull in, store, and access data collected from SurveyCTO and external systems alike, for downstream use.
As a foundational building block, datasets are both flexible and versatile—connecting forms, supporting data sharing and monitoring, and streamlining operational management. For anyone building with SurveyCTO, datasets are an essential part of the digital toolbox!
Besides basic server datasets that store any type of data you collect in SurveyCTO, we also provide these usage-specific datasets:
- Enumerator datasets designed to store data collector-specific information for in-person projects like face-to-face interviews, patient appointments, and interactions with program participants.
- Case management datasets that organize information into cases to facilitate longitudinal research and other entity-based data collection projects.
Build with field plug-ins
Extend core SurveyCTO functionality using our field plug-ins! No similar data collection tool offers this type of extensibility, giving you the freedom to shape both the functionality and appearance of your forms and applications.
Our field plug-ins let you:
- Automatically create events, like appointments or interviews, in Google Calendar and populate it with all the important details (even offline!)
- Send SMS or WhatsApp messages directly from mobile devices to customers, employees, or survey respondents
- Launch phone calls directly from your app
- Use clickable images to design interactive apps for inspectors, clients, patients, and others
- And much, much more!
Besides our always growing catalog of native field plug-ins, teams with technical talent can put their skills to work by creating their own custom field plug-ins for truly limitless possibilities for your SurveyCTO-based apps. We even have a guide to using AI for custom field plug-in creation to open up even more ways to customize your app.
How users are building applications with SurveyCTO
IDInsight’s SurveyCTO-built application SurveyStream streamlines survey operations at scale, from hiring enumerators to deploying training materials and implementing data quality measures.
Reviewing expense receipts through SurveyStream saved 5 hours per day of a field manager’s time compared to the existing review system over a 10 week survey, with knock-on effects for overall efficiency of team task allocation and closer monitoring of field processes.
PowerSolve Technologies empowers carbon developers with digital monitoring, verification, and reporting (DMRV) solutions built with SurveyCTO.
PowerSolve relies on SurveyCTO to ensure a seamless digital system that supports our clients in scaling up their cookstove and water filter distributions whilst maintaining rigorous data quality controls. Together we ensure every device is properly tracked and that the carbon credits generated by these projects are traceable and auditable.
Uganda-based organization Nyaka used SurveyCTO’s integration with Google Sheets to build an EMR system that delivers optimal care to patients in rural Uganda.
Our reports are now automated. What we used to do in two or three weeks is now done in less than 10 minutes. That’s a huge improvement! Our health workers’ time has been given back to them, to let them do what they do best: Take care of patients.
Oxfam built a flexible Feedback Complaints and Response Mechanism (FCRM) with SurveyCTO—and scaled it to more than 12 countries (and counting).
When we used SurveyCTO's API with PowerBI to create interactive dashboards, this was a powerful moment for our field teams, that they now have this feedback data available at any time.
NORC at the University of Chicago used SurveyCTO’s datasets to implement snowball sampling and measure hidden sexual exploitation in Kenya.
Our sampling method involves giving people cash stipends. We’re able to use QR codes on the coupons. As a respondent comes in, we scan their coupon using SurveyCTO. The dynamic database can determine whether or not that coupon is valid or registered in the database. That avoids counterfeits.