Discover SurveyCTO features and functionality
In order for data to power better decisions, you need a platform that gives you the tools to do so.
Learn about our features and functionality and see why thousands of leading organizations trust SurveyCTO to power their rigorous and complex data collection needs.
Core functionality
Our core functionality underpins the rest of what our platform can do. Each component facilitates high-quality, secure data collection. When paired together, they go beyond simple collection: they make your data more accessible, more usable, and capable of powering interconnected systems.
From connected datasets that keep information flowing, to adaptive forms that adjust based on previously-collected data, to offline-optimized technology that ensures access anywhere, to end-to-end encryption that protects every step of the way—our capabilities help you turn raw data into real impact.
Adaptive datasets, forms, and workflows
Offline-optimized technology
End-to-end encryption
Proactive data quality controls
Seamless external integrations
Explore more features and functionality
With our robust set of features and functionality, SurveyCTO is more than a data collection platform—it’s a foundational first step for everything you want to achieve with data.
From ensuring quality and security to enabling seamless cross-platform connections and supporting multi-modal data capture, SurveyCTO gives you the flexibility to design, manage, and scale data workflows without limits.
Features & functionality
AI Assistant
The SurveyCTO Assistant is your personal guide for every step of your data collection journey. From designing forms to troubleshooting to navigating the platform, it provides practical, conversational support—always grounded in trusted SurveyCTO resources.
Connected, multi-modal workflows
Advanced offline functionality
Stay connected anywhere—no internet required. With SurveyCTO’s advanced offline capabilities, you can collect and export data, assign cases, and manage processes in low- or no-connectivity environments.
Everything you can do online, you can do offline—so your work is never disrupted.
Case management
Particularly useful for longitudinal data collection or data collection projects with multiple survey rounds, our case management feature makes assigning data collectors, connecting responses across multiple surveys back to the right respondents, and pre-populating forms with previously collected data a cinch.
Datasets
Datasets are powerful core functionality that you can use to create connected, dynamic workflows.
With datasets, collected data can be accessed and referenced across multiple SurveyCTO forms as well as external platforms so you can perform actions like combining multi-form submissions into a single dataset to keep an eye on data quality or pass responses from prior surveys to inform current ones.
Integrations
Our many integration options are design to fit all use cases and budgets.
Choose from native integrations for easy set-up to popular platforms like Google Sheets or Zapier, or use APIs for full customizability over your workflows that help you do everything from pulling data from external databases to inform surveys to instantly updating dashboards without manual imports and exports.
Mobile survey app
With over 500,000 downloads, the SurveyCTO Collect mobile app is the trusted choice for thousands of organizations conducting data collection on the go.
Our industry-leading offline functionality means you can reliably capture data anywhere, with or without an internet connection.
This makes it the ideal solution for fieldwork in even the most remote and challenging environments.
Multi-modal data capture
You can capture all kinds of data types with SurveyCTO, including:
- Images
- Video
- Audio
- GPS
- Barcodes and QR codes
- Signatures
- Metadata and device sensor data
- Drawings
- And more
When your project needs more than just text-based data, our multi-modal data capture provide sthe flexibility to capture the exact information you need.
Data quality and monitoring
Audits and anti-rushing guardrails
SurveyCTO provides text and audio audit options as well as speed limit flags to ensure that surveys are administered correctly and at high standards.
- Text audits capture survey metadata, including how much time a surveyor spent on each question and the order that questions were administered
- Audio audits can capture recordings for surveys administered via SurveyCTO Collect to ensure quality survey administration
- Speed limits can either be set and enforced or be used to monitor any fields that were completed too quickly
Automated quality checks
Automated quality checks allow you to proactively flag incoming data for anomalies and patterns before they enter your database.
With these checks, you can:
- Maintain high-quality data
- Save time by automating error detection
- Identify issues early to prevent costly re-collection
- Enhances data collector accountability with real-time feedback
- Reduce reliance on manual back-checks
Pair automated quality checks with our review and correction workflow feature to ensure that only the highest-risk submissions should be manually reviewed, helping to reduce the burden for reviewers.
Real-time data monitoring
With our Data Explorer tool, you can quickly and easily monitor incoming data in real time, discover relationships between that data, and be able to adjust your data collection efforts accordingly.
Data Explorer allows you to:
- Inspect individual responses for a close-up of your data or look at responses at an aggregate level
- Quickly create relationship summaries between fields
- Save your Data Explorer settings to capture the same summaries for new data
- Share data with external stakeholders
Review and correction workflow
The review and correction workflow feature allows you to review, comment on, approve, or reject submissions so that any issues are caught before data enters your database.
Use the review and correction workflow to:
- Monitor enumerator performance
- Detect fraudulent or fake data
- Quality control data collection projects in real time
Data security and compliance
Compliance and privacy protection
Rest assured that your data is being collected on a platform that is SOC2 certified as well as satisfies GDPR compliance and institutional review board (IRB) standards.
Data residency options
Choose from multiple secure server locations in the U.S., EU, or India and protect your data with state-of-the-art firewalls and penetration monitoring technology.
End-to-end encryption
Our end-to-end encryption ensures that data in forms or datasets is unreadable from the moment it is collected until you decrypt it.
This feature provides the highest level of security, guaranteeing that only the intended recipients can access the sensitive information you collect.
We also provide industry-leading, 2048-bit, public/private key encryption, so that you can control which fields to share access to.
Granular user access controls
SurveyCTO allows you to configure user roles that specify levels of access within the platform.
Quickly use pre-configured user roles or create custom user roles for more fine-grained access.
Robust form design
AI form tools
Our AI form tools are specifically calibrated for survey design optimization. Use it to get best practice recommendations for expression coding and question review as well as intelligent optimizations specific to your unique forms.
Flexible survey logic
From customer feedback forms to market research questionnaires to randomized control trials, our flexible survey logic supports any data collection need, no matter how complex.
Make use of:
- Sophisticated branching logic
- Non-linear navigation
- Linkages to previous survey rounds
- Form version control
Form testing interface
In order to ensure that your forms will function like you need them to, you need to test them properly before deploying. Our native form testing interface makes it easy to:
- Preview how your form looks and works
- Easily toggle between design and test views for quick fixes
- Save and resume testing progress without having to restart your form
- Submit real data to test downstream processes
Multi-language support
With users in over 165 countries, we understand that effective data collection requires robust multilingual support.
That’s why SurveyCTO allows you to translate your entire data collection experience, from survey questions to the user interface on both mobile and web. This ensures a seamless and clear process for data collectors and respondents in any language.
Online and spreadsheet form building options
SurveyCTO offers flexible options to build surveys that match your project’s complexity and your team’s workflow:
- Our intuitive online form designer offers a drag-and-drop interface to building surveys visually and getting started right away
- Our powerful spreadsheet form builder is ideal for long or complex forms. It allows you to efficiently scale survey creation and provides a robust way to configure survey logic.