Compare
Helm Express vs SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is survey software: you build a questionnaire and send it to your own contacts, or buy responses from real people on its built-in research panel. Helm Express asks simulated twins of a US place. One measures what real people say; the other gives a fast direction.
As of September 2026, from each company’s public site and documentation.
| SurveyMonkey | Helm Express | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Real people: your own customers, staff or list through a survey link, or respondents bought from its built-in research panel (SurveyMonkey Audience). | In a reading, simulated twins of a place’s residents or businesses; no real person is contacted for a reading. Interviews and short studies with the public and credential-checked experts are run by arrangement, labelled as real people and kept separate. |
| Where | Your own list, wherever it is. The panel targets by country and by age, gender, income, job function, region and more, with your own screening questions; it asks you to reach out to its team for a niche audience. | Any of 12,759 US places — cities, counties, metros and states — with a neighbourhood map for most of them. US only. |
| Questions you can ask | A full questionnaire: multiple choice, matrix and rating scales, ranking, sliders, open text, image choice, click maps, and text or image A/B tests, with branching and skip logic. | Yes/no, a pick among up to 12 options, or a belief question; an A/B of two messages or two pieces of news; an interview with up to five twins from a reading. |
| What comes back | Real responses in a results dashboard with filters and crosstabs; paid plans add statistical significance and AI analysis of open-ended answers. LaunchPad studies add scorecards and industry benchmarks. | Which way the place leans, breakdowns by group and neighbourhood, and an interval and a read-quality grade on every poll result. |
| How you start | Sign up free. Team plans start at $30 per user per month (3+ users, billed annually). Panel responses are sold separately, from $1 each, and LaunchPad studies are priced per study, from $1,000. | Book a call, or sign in. Planning a question and previewing its cost come before anything runs. |
| Best when | You are running your own survey, to your own people or to a bought panel audience, and you need real answers to a full questionnaire. | You need a fast, low-cost direction on a local question, with its cost shown before it runs — which way the simulated place leans, and among whom — before spending on real fieldwork. |
Choose SurveyMonkey when
You are surveying people you already have: customers, employees, members or a mailing list.
You need real people's answers and their own words, with measured shares you can report.
You need a full questionnaire, with matrices, sliders, open text and branching, or a bought audience screened by demographics.
Choose Helm Express when
Your question is about one specific US city, county, metro or state, down to a neighbourhood.
You want a direction on several options before paying per response for fieldwork.
You want breakdowns by group and neighbourhood on a map, or a read on the businesses of a place.
What we say about SurveyMonkey is taken from its own public site and documentation. Check the current version at surveymonkey.com, and tell us if anything here is out of date.
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