Four tools that run MaxDiff (Best–Worst scaling), side by side on price, scoring, data quality and what else they do. Sawtooth Software and Conjointly are the specialists for conjoint and pricing research; QuestionPro is a broad survey platform; SortedResearch pairs MaxDiff with card sorting. We make SortedResearch, so every claim about the others links to their own pages.
The cheapest way each vendor sells MaxDiff with no response cap, as their public pages showed it.
| SortedResearch | Sawtooth Software (Discover) | Conjointly | QuestionPro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan you need for MaxDiff | $49 a month (Individual), or $99 for a team of three | Professional: price on request1 | Professional: $2,895 per team per year4 | Research Suite: contact sales7,8 |
| Monthly billing | Yes, cancel any time | No: “We only sell annual subscriptions”1 | No: annual only4 | Annual on the pricing page7 |
| Free option | One trial study, up to 10 participants, no card | Free Discover plan, up to 50 respondents per survey1 | Free Basic plan; MaxDiff limited to 20 responses4 | Free Essentials plan does not include MaxDiff7 |
| Recruited participants | From $5 per completed response, price shown before you pay, no minimum | Quoted per project2 | Self-serve sample from $0.55 a response, average $1.554 | Priced per complete, by bid9 |
Prices in US dollars. “Price on request” and “contact sales” mean no price is published.
All four estimate item scores from best and worst choices. The specialists go further on modelling; SortedResearch focuses on a clear answer.
| SortedResearch | Sawtooth Software (Discover) | Conjointly | QuestionPro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scores | ✓0–100 importance per item, anchored by a short rating so the numbers mean something on their own, with a ± range | ✓Hierarchical Bayes; scores that sum to 100, with anchored scaling1,3 | ✓Hierarchical Bayes; relative preference scores with best, worst and net %5 | ✓Logit model; scores on a 0–100 scale and share of preference8 |
| Must-have line | ✓Yes | ✓Anchored scaling1 | –Not found | ✓Anchored MaxDiff8 |
| Items per study | Up to 200 | Up to 120 on Discover; 2,000 on Premier1 | –Not found | Suggested up to 308 |
| TURF and segments | ✓Both | ✓Both1 | ✓Both5 | ~Segment filters8 |
| Conjoint, pricing and market simulators | –Not offered | ✓Conjoint and simulators1 | ✓Conjoint, Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger5 | ✓Conjoint7 |
This is where the four differ most. SortedResearch judges every response automatically; the others give you tools to judge it yourself.
| SortedResearch | Sawtooth Software (Discover) | Conjointly | QuestionPro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic checks | ✓On by default for every response, including participants you recruit yourself: speeding, tapping the same position, and more | ~A fit score (RLH) per respondent; removing people is manual3 | ✓Speeders, bots and AI-checked open ends; a quality score flags the rest for review6 | ~Speed traps, patterns and bots, switched on per survey, mostly flagging; on Team and Research editions10 |
| Bad panel responses replaced free | ✓Yes, automatically, and refunded | –Not found | ~On predefined panels6 | –Not found; panel sales are final9 |
“Not found” means we could not find it on that vendor’s website or help pages on 20 October 2026, not that it cannot exist.
If your MaxDiff list comes from a card sort, or ends up as a menu, the other methods matter.
| SortedResearch | Sawtooth Software (Discover) | Conjointly | QuestionPro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card sorting | ✓Open, closed and hybrid, with dendrogram and similarity matrix | –Not found | ~Closed only5 | ~Open and closed, on Research Edition11 |
| Card sort becomes a MaxDiff in one click | ✓Yes, groups and descriptions carried across | –Not found | –Not found | –Not found |
| Tree testing | ✓Findability, with first clicks, paths and confidence ranges | –Not found | –Not found | ~Named in a product list, no documentation found11 |
| Importance against satisfaction | ✓Pairwise study with an opportunity matrix | –Not found | –Not found | ✓Gap analysis12 |
| Surveys and other research | –Not offered | ✓Survey platform1 | ✓Survey platform5 | ✓Survey platform7 |
See also card sorting and MaxDiff in one tool.
All pages read on 20 October 2026. SortedResearch facts come from our pricing page and help centre. Sawtooth Software, Conjointly and QuestionPro are trademarks of their owners. SortedResearch is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
Run one study free with up to 10 participants, no card required. Every response is checked, and you only pay for the ones that pass.