Skip to content

Ipsos alternatives

Last reviewed . Reviewed every quarter.

The alternatives, line by line

  • Kantar and NielsenIQ are full-service research firms, as Ipsos is. Kantar has 500+ qualitative practitioners in 60+ countries, and NielsenIQ a Qualitative Research & Creative Strategy team.
  • Dynata is first a sample supplier, and Conveo a platform on which a team runs AI-moderated interviews itself.
  • Like Ipsos with its AI-Moderated Interactions, all four alternatives put AI-led questions to consumers. Kantar runs AI-moderated interviews through Kantar Converser, NielsenIQ and Conveo run them as well, and Dynata's Quali-Quant AI holds one-on-one chats inside its surveys.

Ipsos alternatives side by side

Ipsos alternatives side by side
PulseKantarNielsenIQDynataConveo
AI-moderated interviewsYesYesYesPartlyYes
Dynamic follow-up / probingYesYesYesYesYes
Languages (count/list)240+ languages, enabled on requestKantar Converser: multilanguage supportNot checked28 languages (Quali-Quant AI)Not checked
Own panel (size)YesYesYesYesVia integrated providers Respondent.io and User Interviews
Theme / insight synthesisYesYesYesYesYes
Free trial / free tierYesNot checkedNot checkedNot checkedNo

The alternatives, one by one

Pulse

Best for Insights teams that run AI-moderated interviews beside surveys and trackers

Pulse, the AI-moderated research platform, interviews B2B, expert and consumer participants at scale, each recruited to the profile the brief describes, and its analysis groups the themes by what participants actually said.

Strengths

  • Transcripts with personal data redacted
  • Public API access

Verdict Ipsos's AI-Moderated Interactions have a topline ready minutes after fieldwork ends. On Pulse, each interview's full transcript arrives with its recording while the study is still running, so an insights team can read the first conversations before the last are in.

Where another tool fits A team that wants a study's quotas and sequencing set out from its research goal can hand that to Conveo's study assistant. Pulse is built for insights teams that talk with their customers, and with consumers recruited to a brief, in AI-moderated research.

Kantar

Best for Brands that test packs and prices and track their brand with one firm

Kantar is a research firm of about 20,000 employees in over 90 countries. Its LINK+ ad test can be set up self-serve or serviced by Kantar, and its KaiA assistant answers questions asked in plain language.

Strengths

  • LINK+ ad results back in 6 hours at the quickest
  • In-context dynamic probing

Verdict Ipsos's group work includes Ipsos UU focus groups and online communities with live chats. Kantar Live puts 75 to 100 respondents in one expertly moderated online session, with polling alongside in-depth discussion.

NielsenIQ

Best for Consumer goods teams that want AI ethnography

For qualitative work, NielsenIQ's AI moderator holds in-depth interviews with consumers, its questions adapting as each conversation goes, and its Research Communities keep a group of consumers engaged over several days.

Strengths

  • Large language models that speed analysis
  • Optiq for plain-language questions of the data

Verdict Ipsos runs consumer panels of its own, I-Say among them. NielsenIQ's is Homescan, a buying panel whose UK arm it doubled to 30,000 households, and its qualitative work suits a consumer goods team whose purchase data already comes from NielsenIQ.

Dynata

Best for Teams that want a DIY survey platform integrated with their CRM and analytics tools

On Dynata+, a team scopes a study, checks feasibility, approves and launches. Quali-Quant AI holds a simulated one-on-one chat that goes deeper into open ends, and it works in 28 languages.

Strengths

  • A Sample API that connects other platforms to the panel
  • Multi-layered verification with AI fraud detection
  • Interactive dashboards, updated in real time and shareable

Verdict For the SampleOnly side of an Ipsos relationship, Dynata sells its panel with instant pricing in the platform, paid by credit card or through an enterprise account.

Conveo

Best for Studies that read emotion in the face, the voice and the words used

Conveo is a platform for AI-moderated voice and video interviews whose follow-ups build on earlier answers, and it runs B2B studies through Respondent.io's B2B panel. Conveo returns analyzed results within hours.

Strengths

  • API and MCP access
  • Org admin, team and study permissions
  • Reports and slides built for stakeholders

Verdict Ipsos draws on its own panels and other vetted providers it does not name. Conveo publishes the names of its recruitment partners, Norstat, Bilendi, Sago and Rakuten among them, for a team that wants that list before a study starts.

Pulse vs Conveo

How we evaluated

We compared what each tool's own product, pricing and security pages state against the criteria below. Every fact in the table above links to the page it came from, with the date it was read.

  • Range of methods. How much of an Ipsos program, from concept and ad tests to surveys, communities and interviews, the alternative can take on.
  • Who designs and reads the study. Whether the firm's specialists run it end to end, your team runs it on a platform, or the two share the work.
  • Sample. Panel size, B2B reach and the markets covered, and whether sample can be bought without a study.
  • Qualitative depth. Focus groups, in-depth interviews and communities, and whether an AI moderator probes an answer.
  • Evidence behind the findings. Whether a summary links back to the transcript or video it came from.

Which one to choose

  • If the sample should come from a network of 100M research-ready respondents, choose Kantar, whose Kantar Profiles Network is that size.
  • If open ends should come back quickly as coded tables, choose Dynata, whose Quali-Quant AI produces coded tables in under 48 hours and translations in under 24.
  • If the sample should be picked on detailed respondent profiles, choose Kantar, whose Kantar Profiles holds 4,800 profiling attributes.

What an insights team runs on Pulse

Interviews in 240+ languages

Pulse can hold interviews in 240+ languages, enabled on request, so an insights team can put its questions to consumers in languages none of its own researchers speak.

Findings in Notion or Confluence

Through MCP, Pulse sends what a study found into Notion or Confluence, so an insights team's results sit in the pages where the rest of the company already looks for them.

Open to agencies

An agency can use Pulse, white-label if it chooses, to run AI-moderated interviews for its clients and present the platform as part of its own service. Conveo lets agencies run studies under their own brand too.

Pulse and Ipsos

Book a demo