Qualtrics / REDCap Service Comparison

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REDCap Product Comparison

Comparison of Services

PUBLISHED:

April 22, 2025

Service Comparison at a Glance

This table provides a quick overview of features available in Qualtrics, REDCap Base Projects, and REDCap Premium Projects.
 
  FeatureQualtricsREDCap BaseREDCap Premium
Survey Distribution via Email✅✅✅
Survey Distribution via SMS✅❌✅
Customizable Reporting✅✅✅
Automated Survey Invitations✅✅✅
Longitudinal Project Design❌✅✅
API Access✅❌✅
Mobile-Friendly Design✅✅✅
Randomization❌✅✅
Multi-Language Support✅✅✅
Offline Data Collection✅❌✅
Role-based Data Access❌✅✅
De-identified Data Exports❌✅✅
Data Quality Tools❌✅✅
Cross-Institution Collaboration❌✅✅
Multiple Survey Responses per Subject❌✅✅
Application Customization❌❌✅
Direct Export to Statistical PackagesExcel, SPSSExcel, SPSS, SAS, R, StataExcel, SPSS, SAS, R, Stata
   CostFree$100 per project per yearContact for a proposal
 

Key Takeaways

  • Qualtrics: Great for basic surveys and reports, but lacks features for research like randomization, de-identified data exports, and roles for data-access.
     
  • REDCap Base Projects: A strong option for longitudinal and arm-based studies with built-in data quality tools.
     
  • REDCap Premium Projects: The most flexible, offering extensive customization, API support, and advanced features like external modules and plug-ins.

For more details or to determine the best option for your needs, refer to Qualtrics and REDCap, what’s the difference? and feel free to reach out!

How to decide between Qualtrics and REDCap

REDCap and Qualtrics are two services that have overlapping features in the domain of survey design and delivery. By understanding the similarities and differences, you will be able to choose the service that is most appropriate for your project.

Both have the ability to deliver custom surveys to participants as well as:

  • Multi-Language support
  • Custom reporting
  • Offline collection using a mobile app
  • Scheduled email and SMS invitations
  • User based permissions to control survey access
  • API functionality

Qualtrics is marketed as a Customer Experience product. It has capabilities that improve the creation and delivery of surveys to customers. This includes built in translation tools from Google, a wide variety of question types, and optimized presentation on mobile devices. Reporting tools focus on population level statistics and analysis  If user experience on a single survey is an important aspect of your project, Qualtrics will be a great choice.

REDCap is designed to support data capture within clinical research. This difference allows the definition of a protocol delivering different instruments, at many events, to multiple arms. Data can be entered by project staff or by participants using surveys. Given the sensitive nature of the data involved, user access can be controlled at the instrument level with additional features protecting identifying data. For example, it is simple to grant a user de-identified export permissions where identifying fields will be removed and date values shifted by a random interval.

 

 
 

 

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