SmartSurvey makes creating surveys simple with its intuitive layout and smart design features. The software is run entirely online, meaning you can create your survey in your web browser, without the need to download any additional software.
If this is the first survey you are creating, the Dashboard will show a welcome message with a green Get Started button. Click this button to start creating a survey. If there are already surveys on the account, you’ll see a list of recent surveys. Click Create a Survey to create a new survey. When you do so, you'll see a wizard showing you the four ways to get started:

These are:
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Create from scratch - creates a brand new, blank survey. This is the process we will explore in this guide
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Copy an existing survey - creates a copy of a survey that you have previously created
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Use a survey template - creates a new survey from one of our approved templates. See Using a Survey Template for more information.
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Create a survey using AI - creates a new survey from a prompt, e.g. "Build me a customer satisfaction survey". See Create Survey Using AI for more information.
All four options will create a new survey in your account.
Creating a new survey from scratch
- Click Create from scratch
- Type a descriptive Survey Title
- Under Language, the default language is English. To change the survey language, click on the drop-down menu. If your preferred language is not listed, please raise a support ticket to request the language you would like to use. SmartSurvey supports all languages, it's just that those listed have built in templates with the core functionality already translated (such as the Next Page button, Submit, etc.) Our Enterprise Plan allows you to customise all the text for the language used in your survey, including these elements
- If you want the survey to exist in a particular folder, use the Select a folder drop-down to choose your desired folder. The Folder dropdown will only be present if you have a folder setup already.
- Click the green Create Survey button
From here you can start adding questions to your survey by following our Adding & Editing Questions help guide.
Make a Copy of an Existing Survey
- Click on Copy an existing survey.
- Use the Survey: drop-down to choose a survey in your account.
- Enter a Survey Title for the copied survey.
- If you want the survey to exist in a particular folder, use the Select a folder drop-down to choose your desired folder. The Folder dropdown will only be present if you have a folder setup already.
- Click the blue Create Survey button.
Make a New Survey Using a Template
- Click on Use a Template.
- The available templates are sorted by category, so choose the category you want. By default the templates will be displayed in tiles, however if a list is preferable for you, you can toggle this using the buttons located in the top right of this screen.
- Clicking on any of the templates will bring up a preview of what it can look like. On the left of this preview page you can see some information about the template, blurb, number of questions etc. On the right is the survey itself. Note in list form this works slightly different, and when hovering over each template in the list you will be presented with 2 buttons: Use and Preview. Selecting preview will take you to the preview page mentioned above, selecting Use will create the Survey.
- You can change your template selection by clicking the Back to templates button at the top right of the preview page. When you're happy with your selection, scroll to the bottom of the left side of the preview page and click the blue Use this template button.
- On choosing a template, you will be taken through to the Build page for you to start customising the template to your liking.
To create your own custom theme, click here to go to the Custom Survey Themes page
Let us create your survey for you: need a little extra help or don't have the time to create your survey? If you have already decided on the questions you would like to use in your survey, simply send them to us and we can create it for you. Please note, this is part of our Managed Services offering and will be subject to additional costs. For more information visit our Managed Service page