Our Story

The Story Behind SurveyCat

Built by researchers who were tired of spending hours manually categorizing survey responses

Why I Built SurveyCat

I used to be a survey researcher conducting research with hundreds of open-ended survey responses. What should have been the exciting part (discovering insights from open text responses) became a nightmare of manual categorization. Eight hours of mind-numbing work just to identify themes and then tag responses into those themes.

I tried existing solutions:

Manual tools (Excel, Google Forms) — Free but soul-crushing. Hours of repetitive work with high risk of human bias and inconsistency.
Enterprise software (Qualtrics, NVivo) — Powerful but expensive (roughly $1,500 to $3,000+ per year, as of November 2026), complex to learn, and overkill for most projects.
Hiring help — Costly, slow, and you still need to QA everything.

The Insight

I realized AI could do in minutes what took me hours—and do it more consistently, and at a fraction of the cost of enterprise tools. So I built SurveyCat: the tool I wish I’d had all along.

Why SurveyCat

What Makes SurveyCat Different

Ridiculously Fast

What takes 6–8 hours manually takes minutes for typical surveys, up to an hour for 5,000+ responses with SurveyCat. Upload your file, review categories, check the codes, export. Done.

Actually Affordable

Credit packs from $25 for 850 credits (1.92¢–2.94¢ each). No subscription required. Optional monthly plans from $100. No contracts, credits never expire, and a fraction of what enterprise tools cost.

Consistently Accurate

Typically 85–95% agreement with human coders, depending on how clear your categories are. AI categorizes the same way every time, eliminating the inconsistency of manual coding.

Dead Simple to Use

No training required. No complex setup. Upload CSV → Get Categories → Export. If you can use Excel, you can use SurveyCat.

Full Control

AI does the heavy lifting, but you’re in charge. Approve the categories before anything runs, then check the codes: low-confidence answers are flagged, and you can recode one response or a whole group, with a review log of every change.

Private & Secure

Your data is automatically deleted (uploads within 30 minutes, results within 1 hour). HTTPS encryption, protected sessions, and your responses are never stored long-term.

Built For You

Who SurveyCat Is Made For

If you work with open-ended survey responses, SurveyCat was built for you

Academic Researchers

Analyzing interview transcripts, qualitative surveys, or open-ended questionnaires for your thesis or publication.

✓ Fast turnaround for tight deadlines
✓ Affordable on research budgets
✓ Consistent categorization

UX Researchers

Processing user feedback, usability test comments, or feature requests to inform product decisions.

✓ Quick insights for sprint planning
✓ Scale with your user base
✓ Export for stakeholder reports

Market Researchers

Categorizing customer feedback, brand perception surveys, or competitive analysis responses.

✓ Handle multiple projects efficiently
✓ Consistent methodology
✓ Client-ready deliverables

HR Professionals

Analyzing employee engagement surveys, exit interviews, or culture assessment feedback.

✓ Confidential & secure
✓ Identify trends quickly
✓ Actionable insights for leadership

Product Managers

Sorting through feature requests, bug reports, and customer feedback to prioritize your roadmap.

✓ Data-driven decisions
✓ Customer voice at scale
✓ Cross-functional alignment

Consultants & Agencies

Delivering faster insights to clients without sacrificing quality or burning budget on manual labor.

✓ Scalable across clients
✓ Professional results
✓ Better margins

Data Security

Your Data Security & Privacy

We take your survey data seriously. Here’s exactly how we protect your information.

Automatic Deletion

Original uploads: Deleted when classification starts, or within 30 minutes
Processed results: Deleted within 1 hour of being ready
Session data: Auto-cleared after 1 hour of inactivity

Encryption & Security

HTTPS encryption: All data encrypted in transit (TLS/SSL)
Secure sessions: HTTPOnly cookies with SameSite protection

What We Don’t Do

Never store responses: Our database keeps only usage history (file name, counts, credits)
Never train on your data: Your responses aren’t used to train AI
Never sell or share: Response text goes only to OpenAI’s API for categorization (not used for training)
No content in logs: Survey content isn’t written to our server logs

Bottom line: Your survey data exists on our servers only long enough to process it. After that, it’s automatically and permanently deleted. We treat your data as if it’s our own.

Demo

See SurveyCat in Action

Watch how easy it is to transform raw survey data into categorized insights

Features

What You Get with SurveyCat

AI-Powered Categorization

Automatic theme detection and response grouping using advanced natural language processing.

Interactive Refinement

Edit, merge, split, or rename categories to match your research framework perfectly.

Scalable Processing

Handle datasets from 50 to 5,000+ responses with the same ease and speed.

Easy Import & Export

Upload CSV, Excel, SPSS or Stata files. Get categorized data back in the same format — labels intact — ready for SPSS, Stata, R, or your reporting tool.

Flexible Credit System

Pay-as-you-go credit packs that never expire, or a monthly plan if you run surveys regularly. No contracts.

Secure & Private

Encrypted upload, secure session tokens, automatic deletion. We never use your data to train AI models.

Get Started

Ready to Save Hours on Your Next Survey?

Join 180+ researchers who’ve already discovered the easier way to analyze open-ended responses

Get 80 Free Credits →

✓ No credit card required • ✓ 80 free credits • ✓ Setup in 2 minutes