The honest survey maker, built in Australia.
Pulseware is a small, independent survey maker. We started it because survey tools had quietly become marketing platforms — and the actual job of asking a question and getting an answer had gotten harder.
We use surveys ourselves — at the start of projects, after launches, before pivots. Every time, we ended up writing the questions in a doc first because the popular tools made the simplest workflow feel like configuring a CRM. So we built the small thing we actually wanted: a fast, free online survey maker with a mobile-perfect runner and a CSV export that ships on the Free plan.
Pulseware is what survives if you take a survey tool and aggressively remove anything that is not about asking a clear question, sharing a clean link, and getting honest answers back. Ten question types, layout blocks, a mobile-friendly runner, a dashboard that does not lie to you, an AI builder when you want a starting point, and a CSV export when you outgrow us.
We are a small team based in Australia. We do not train AI models on your survey content, we do not sell respondent data, and we do not send you a 12-step onboarding sequence after you sign up. We try to earn your trust by being useful and getting out of the way.
Founder
Michael Hodge
Founder · Pulseware
Michael directs assessment design and content quality at Pulseware. The approach combines formal psychology training at the University of Wollongong with hands-on expertise in questionnaire methodology, item construction, and the practical psychometrics of online survey design.
Outside Pulseware, Michael also runs myiqtested.com — a free, research-backed cognitive assessment built on the open-source ICAR framework. He writes about how to read a single test score honestly: what it does say, what it cannot, and how to keep a number from doing more work than it is meant to.
Credentials
- Bachelor of Science (Psychology), University of Wollongong
Areas of expertise
- Psychometric assessment design
- Item-level scoring and norming
- Online assessment methodology
- Survey questionnaire design
- Plain-language communication
The straightforward alternative to SurveyMonkey, Typeform & Google Forms.
Pulseware is built as a deliberate SurveyMonkey alternative. SurveyMonkey is the legacy giant — a heavy UI, a signup wall before you can see the product, and paywalls on the basics like CSV export. We do the survey-maker job faster, freer, and without the upsell parade.
Pulseware is also a Typeform alternative. Typeform looks lovely, but the response cap arrives fast on the free tier and the feature creep into "conversational AI agents" leaves the survey-maker job under-served. Pulseware stays small, sharp, and free during early access.
And Pulseware is a Google Forms alternative. Google Forms is free and reliable, but the runner looks like 2008 and the editor experience has not kept up. We give you the same "free and reliable" with a runner respondents actually want to finish, themes that match your brand, eight embed styles, and an AI builder.
We do not want to be everything to everyone. We do not do quizzes, scoring engines, HRIS integrations, or AI personalities. If you need those, use the giants. If you just need a fast, free, mobile-perfect survey today, Pulseware is the right tool.
Founding principles
Three things we keep coming back to.
- Fast
Your survey should be live before your coffee gets cold. We obsess over keystrokes, page weight, and time-to-first-response.
- Honest
No popups, no upsell mid-flow, no AI personality assigned to your data. We tell you what we collect and what we do not.
- Mobile-first
Most people answer surveys on a phone. We design the runner for that first, and adapt up — not the other way around.
Try the survey maker built for the survey you actually need.
Free, mobile-perfect, no signup to start drafting. Build your first survey in 60 seconds.