Forsta
Forsta is a comprehensive experience management platform that combines quantitative and qualitative research tools to help you understand your customers and employees through surveys, communities, and data visualization.
Smaply
Smaply is a visual journey mapping software that helps you centralize customer insights, create detailed personas, and map complex ecosystem maps to improve your overall customer experience strategy.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Forsta | Smaply |
|---|---|---|
| Website | forsta.com | smaply.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Freemium |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 14 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2021 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Oslo, Norway | Innsbruck, Austria |
Overview
Forsta
Forsta provides you with a unified environment to gather, analyze, and act on insights across your entire organization. By merging the capabilities of Confirmit, FocusVision, and Dapresy, the platform allows you to manage complex multi-channel surveys, host digital focus groups, and build interactive reporting dashboards. You can capture the 'voice' of your audience through both structured data and unstructured video or text feedback, ensuring you never miss a critical detail in your research projects.
The platform is designed to handle high-volume data needs while remaining flexible enough for specialized research tasks. You can use it to track brand health, optimize customer journeys, or improve employee engagement. Whether you are conducting global market research or managing a local CX program, Forsta gives you the tools to turn raw feedback into clear, actionable stories that drive your business decisions forward.
Smaply
Smaply is a dedicated journey mapping tool designed to help you visualize and manage your customer experience in one central place. Instead of scattered spreadsheets or static slide decks, you get a dynamic environment where you can build detailed journey maps, develop rich user personas, and visualize stakeholder relationships through ecosystem maps.
You can use the platform to identify pain points in your current service delivery and collaborate with your team to design better future-state experiences. It is particularly effective for UX researchers, service designers, and CX managers in mid-market to enterprise organizations who need to transform raw qualitative data into actionable visual insights that stakeholders can actually understand.
Overview
Forsta Features
- Multi-Channel Surveys Design and deploy complex surveys across web, mobile, email, and SMS to reach your audience wherever they are.
- Digital Focus Groups Conduct live online qualitative interviews and focus groups with built-in video tools and real-time chat features.
- Visual Reporting Transform raw data into beautiful, interactive infographics and dashboards that you can share instantly with your stakeholders.
- Insight Communities Build long-term relationships with your customers through dedicated online communities for ongoing feedback and co-creation.
- Text & Video Analytics Use automated tools to uncover themes and sentiment in open-ended responses and video testimonials automatically.
- Mobile Ethnography Capture authentic 'in-the-moment' experiences by having participants upload photos and videos directly from their mobile devices.
Smaply Features
- Journey Map Editor. Create multi-layered journey maps with text, images, and storyboard icons to visualize every step of your customer's experience.
- Persona Editor. Build detailed profiles of your target users to ensure your team stays focused on real human needs and behaviors.
- Ecosystem Maps. Visualize the complex relationships between stakeholders, processes, and technologies that happen behind the scenes of your service.
- Live Collaboration. Invite your teammates to edit maps in real-time and leave comments to speed up your design and approval process.
- Dynamic Data Linking. Link personas directly to your journey maps so you can see how different segments experience the same service differently.
- Export Options. Generate high-resolution PDF, PNG, or Excel files of your maps to share professional reports with your stakeholders.
Pricing Comparison
Forsta Pricing
Smaply Pricing
- 1 active project
- 3 journey maps
- 3 personas
- 1 ecosystem map
- Basic export options
- Everything in Free, plus:
- 3 active projects
- Unlimited journey maps
- Unlimited personas
- Unlimited ecosystem maps
- Premium export formats
Pros & Cons
Forsta
Pros
- Extremely flexible survey logic for complex research
- Powerful data visualization and dashboarding capabilities
- Combines qualitative and quantitative tools in one platform
- Reliable performance even with very large datasets
Cons
- Steep learning curve for the advanced survey builder
- Initial setup and implementation can be time-consuming
- Pricing is high for small teams or simple projects
Smaply
Pros
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for quick mapping
- Professional export quality for stakeholder presentations
- Specialized tools for personas and ecosystem maps
- Generous free tier for individual practitioners
Cons
- Learning curve for complex multi-lane maps
- Limited integrations with external data sources
- Performance can slow down with very large maps