When planning a trial user survey about onboarding experience research, the first question often is: is a survey qualitative or quantitative? This isn’t just academic—it shapes everything you learn about those crucial first steps users take in your product.
Both qualitative and quantitative surveys have their place for understanding freemium plan users, but choosing the right approach can change what you discover—and how quickly you can act on it.
Understanding qualitative vs quantitative surveys for onboarding research
Let’s break it down: qualitative surveys dig deep, asking open-ended questions to explore opinions, motivations, and feelings. They work like a conversation—perfect for discovering how freemium plan users really feel during onboarding. Quantitative surveys are all about your metrics: percentages, completion rates, and hard numbers you can compare over time. They give you broad patterns—like what features trial users engage with or how likely they are to recommend your product.
Qualitative | Quantitative |
|---|---|
Open-ended, conversational questions | Multiple choice, rating scales, checkboxes |
Uncovers motivations, pain points, emotions | Measures what, how many, and how often |
Great for small sample sizes | Ideal for larger groups |
“Describe a challenge you faced during onboarding.” | “On a scale of 1-10, how easy was onboarding?” |
With qualitative surveys, you hear the story behind a freemium user’s onboarding journey. You capture “why” someone felt lost or what made them upgrade. Quantitative surveys, on the other hand, help you track onboarding funnel drop-off rates or the percentage of users who activated a core feature—so you can see problems (and wins) at scale. Both approaches can be powerful, especially when used together for onboarding experience research.
When qualitative surveys excel for trial user insights
Sometimes, numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. I turn to qualitative surveys when I want to:
Explore motivation: Why does a trial user bother to finish onboarding?
Understand confusion points: What tripped people up when trying your product for the first time?
Collect ideas and requests: What did users wish was different about getting started?
Conversational surveys here act like mini-interviews. They catch nuance. And now, with AI-powered follow-ups, you can automatically dig deeper on the spot—asking clarifying questions just like a human researcher would. This makes your onboarding research richer and easier to scale. (Learn more about automatic follow-up questions with AI.)
Three open-ended questions I find work well for onboarding research with freemium plan users:
“What, if anything, felt confusing in your first experience using [product]?”
“Walk me through what helped you get the most value from your trial.”
“If you could change one thing about onboarding, what would it be?”
Emotional insights: Qualitative surveys reveal how onboarding really feels—from moments of delight to points of frustration. This emotional layer is critical for finding friction points or unexpected joys that can’t be captured with a simple rating or checkbox.
Using quantitative surveys to measure onboarding success
Other times, you need structure and data you can chart. Quantitative surveys shine when you’re:
Tracking NPS scores or product satisfaction over time
Measuring completion rates (who completed onboarding vs. who dropped out)
Assessing feature adoption (did they try X or Y?)
Why does this matter? Metrics tell you if onboarding is improving after a change—or if it’s time to step back and rethink. For instance, 77% of users consider the onboarding process of a product as crucial, and a smooth experience can boost trial-to-paid conversions by 50% [1]. Quantitative questions are quick to answer, making it easy to gather data from lots of freemium plan users.
Even better, you can blend some qualitative depth by adding a conversational AI follow-up—“You gave onboarding a 6 out of 10. What would have made it a 10?”
Some practical quantitative questions for a freemium onboarding survey:
“How satisfied are you with the onboarding process? (Very dissatisfied — Very satisfied)”
“Which onboarding resources did you use? (Select all: video, help articles, chat support, none)”
“Did you activate our main feature in your first 7 days? (Yes/No)”
How AI transforms qualitative survey analysis
The classic problem with qualitative feedback is sorting through mountains of text, tagging responses, and figuring out the main themes. That’s where AI, like what we use at Specific, completely changes the game. With AI-driven survey response analysis, you get instant summaries, sentiment analysis, and can ask nuanced questions about your data—no manual grunt work required.
You can chat with your survey data just like you do with ChatGPT. Here are example analysis prompts for trial user onboarding:
Find top onboarding blockers:
What are the most common challenges mentioned by freemium trial users during onboarding?
Summarize user sentiment:
Summarize the emotional tone in trial user responses about their first experience with our product.
Spot upgrade motivators:
What reasons do users give for upgrading (or not) from a freemium plan during onboarding?
Whether you want themes, direct quotes, or granular analysis by user group, AI handles it on the fly—hugely speeding up your onboarding research cycle.
The best of both worlds: hybrid surveys for complete insights
Most onboarding research projects benefit from a hybrid approach—combining structured, quantitative questions to get the big picture, and rich, qualitative follow-ups for deeper context. Modern conversational surveys make this seamless. You can start with a numeric question, then let AI probe for the reasons behind the answer.
With a survey created via the AI survey generator, you might ask:
“On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our product after onboarding?”
Then, use an AI prompt to follow up:
What influenced your rating?
For onboarding specifically: Mixing both methods helps you track how many trial users finish onboarding or activate a core feature, while also uncovering the “why” behind their actions or hesitations. It’s how you get actionable insights that balance metrics with stories—the real key to improving the trial experience for freemium plan users.
This combined method means you’re not stuck choosing: you can capture both the quantitative pulse and the qualitative details in one smooth user flow.
Getting started with your onboarding survey
In the end, deciding “is a survey qualitative or quantitative?” depends on your onboarding research goals—whether you want the numbers, the stories, or both. With today’s AI survey builders, setting up either type is simple, fast, and flexible. You can design and edit your survey easily using conversational tools like our AI survey editor, which lets you build and tweak surveys just by chatting naturally.
Ready to improve your onboarding research? Create your own survey that matches your needs—qualitative, quantitative, or a mix—and let the platform manage the details. No tradeoffs between depth and scale. It’s all about finding what works best for your team and your trial users, with none of the old hassles.