Choosing the Right Unmoderated Tools

The testing tools you use directly influence the quality, efficiency, and relevance of your research, so it’s important to choose the right tools for the job. Leaning into open, unbundled, best-in-class tooling (as opposed to legacy all-in-ones) often proves to be the smartest choice for researchers who value adaptability, precision, and affordability over the long haul.

You may already use a number of unmoderated testing tools at your organization. In many cases, the best option will be to stick with the tools you already have, but not always. In this lesson of Unmoderated Research with User Interviews, we’ll discuss: 

• Why an open, mix-and-match tooling approach is often the best way to go
• How to choose the right tools for your unmoderated research

Why a mix-and-match tool stack is often the best option 

No single tool can do it all. The best research happens when you have the freedom to build a tech stack that’s tailored to your unique needs, combining strengths from specialized tools with the flexibility to scale, pivot, and adapt to different research needs over time—that’s why User Interviews strives to be the most open and connected recruiting platform for every kind of research. 

Unbundled tools let you pay for exactly what you need, often with more transparent pricing and the ability to scale up or down as required. Plus, a mix-and-match approach to tooling allows you to take advantage of new integrations, features, or emerging tools without waiting for an all-in-one provider to catch up.

The downside to building your unmoderated tool stack in this way is that you’ll need to spend more time upfront evaluating each tool individually. To make things easier for you, User Interviews has a list of preferred integration providers that we often recommend to customers—more on these in the next section. 

Considerations when choosing an unmoderated testing tool

When you’re evaluating different tools for unmoderated research, there are a few key questions you should ask yourself:

• What are your research goals and necessary tooling capabilities (e.g. do you need to do a think-aloud task? Do you require the ability to collect both structured and open-ended data?)
• What testing tools does your company already use?
• Which unmoderated tools have native integrations with User Interviews (more on this in the next section)?
• If the tool integrates with User Interviews, are there any special offers or discounts for using it in tandem with UI?

Almost always, we’d recommend using one of our preferred integration partners as your chosen testing tool for unmoderated research. By using one of our integration partners, you can more easily track participant progress and manage your unmoderated study end-to-end.

For reference, check out our integrations cheat sheet below with a list of common testing tool integrations, offers, and availability. 

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🛠️ To explore more unmoderated tools, check out our 2024 UX Research Tools Map.