# Sawtooth Software review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Survey software for conjoint and MaxDiff market research Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Sawtooth Software makes survey tools for market researchers. Discover runs in the browser, and Lighthouse Studio is a Windows application for more customized surveys. Both are built around choice-based conjoint and MaxDiff studies, with the analysis done in the same product. - **Category:** Forms & Surveys - **Made by:** Sawtooth Software - **Website:** https://sawtoothsoftware.com - **Runs on:** Web, Windows - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you run real studies, as the free plan stops at 50 respondents per survey. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Sawtooth Software has a free plan. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Free plan on Discover: unlimited surveys and questions, choice-based conjoint and MaxDiff, up to 50 respondents per survey. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Discover with up to 50 respondents per survey, unlimited surveys and questions, and choice-based conjoint and MaxDiff. | | Professional | Custom | Discover with unlimited respondents per survey. Price is by quote; annual subscriptions only. | | Premier | Custom | Lighthouse Studio for Windows with advanced conjoint and MaxDiff and more customization. Price is by quote. | Read from https://sawtoothsoftware.com/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Sawtooth Software before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Academic pricing for students and educators** (Education): Sawtooth lists discounts for students or educators using the software for non-commercial use. Source: https://sawtoothsoftware.com/pricing ## Key features - **Choice-based conjoint:** Design and field conjoint studies to see which features and prices people pick. Advanced conjoint types are in the Premier plan. - **MaxDiff (best-worst scaling):** Respondents pick best and worst from small sets of items. Up to 120 items per exercise on Discover and up to 2,000 on Lighthouse Studio. - **Standard survey question types:** Multiple choice, grids, open-ends, ranking, constant sum and numeric questions, with skip logic and quotas. - **Built-in analysis:** Real-time reports, crosstabs, key drivers and cluster analysis, with export to SPSS and Excel. - **AI follow-up and open-end analysis:** Smart follow-up questions and open-end analysis are listed in the plan comparison as AI features. - **Respondent panel:** Sawtooth says its panel service reaches over 200 million verified respondents worldwide. ## Good for - Market researchers running conjoint or MaxDiff studies - Teams that want to pay per subscription rather than per respondent - Researchers who need advanced choice modeling beyond basic surveys ## Worth knowing - Only the free plan has a published price; Professional and Premier are sold by quote. - Only annual subscriptions are sold; monthly payment is not offered. - The free plan stops at 50 respondents per survey. - Lighthouse Studio (Premier) is a Windows-installed application. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Sawtooth Software runs conjoint and MaxDiff studies, with a free plan up to 50 respondents a survey. Paid plans are quote-only and annual, and the top tier is a Windows program. - **Value for money: C.** Only the free plan has a published price; paid plans are by quote, so value sits at C. - **Free plan and trial: C.** Free Discover plan: unlimited surveys and questions, conjoint and MaxDiff, up to 50 respondents per survey. - **Features: B.** Choice-based conjoint, MaxDiff, standard questions, analysis, AI open-end help and a respondent panel. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in this narrower job. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. Conjoint design has a learning curve. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web plus a Windows program (Lighthouse Studio), with two integrations listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Sawtooth Software's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among form and survey tools - Sawtooth Software's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 88 of the 148 other form and survey tools we grade, and level with 27. - It stands best on features (B, above 96 of 148) and worst on ease of use (C, above 7). The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/forms ## Keep it, or make your own? **Your call.** A form at its plainest is questions, a button and a table of answers. You could make the core of Sawtooth Software for yourself: surveys and reports. What you would give up is listed below. Whether that is worth the price is your call. - You could make: Surveys and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: A real app for Windows. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with SPSS, Excel **Tags:** Surveys, Reports, AI features ## Alternatives - [Conjointly](https://toolgpa.com/tools/conjointly): Survey platform with built-in conjoint, MaxDiff and pricing tests. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/conjointly-vs-sawtooth-software) - [Qualtrics](https://toolgpa.com/tools/qualtrics): Survey and experience research platform with a free account. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/qualtrics-vs-sawtooth-software) - [Alchemer](https://toolgpa.com/tools/alchemer): Survey platform with advanced logic and market research questions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/alchemer-vs-sawtooth-software) - [QuestionPro](https://toolgpa.com/tools/questionpro): Survey and market research platform with a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/questionpro-vs-sawtooth-software) - [Forsta](https://toolgpa.com/tools/forsta): Enterprise research and experience platform for surveys. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/forsta-vs-sawtooth-software) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://sawtoothsoftware.com/ - https://sawtoothsoftware.com/pricing Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/sawtooth-software Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).