My favorite thing about dscout compared with other research platforms I've used is its robust capabilities for participant recruitment. You can create screeners that have logic, quotas, etc., as well as open-ended written and video questions. Furthermore, you can manually select from eligible participants rather than having to accept all eligible participants on a first-come, first-served basis, which, while time-consuming, helps to ensure you get a diverse pool of high-quality participants. It's also easy to communicate with participants, including to recontact them for future research. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
dscout requires you to have screeners vetted by a dscout staff member before they can be launched, which significantly slows down the process of recruiting for and fielding research.
I've also encountered other limitations that get in the way of crafting research studies exactly as I would like to. For instance, dscout limits how many times you can use certain types of questions in a screener or mission. Also, researchers cannot screen-share or message participants during a mission conducted on mobile.
I also don't love that dscout has so many tiers of acccess to the platform, with somewhat arbitrary permissions for each (e.g., your tier might allow you to create a "mission" but not a screener). This complex permissioning makes it difficult for researchers to do their jobs properly if their employer isn't willing to shell out for the highest permissions for every employee. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Video Reviews
Great for doing research and being a research participant
163 out of 164 Total Reviews for Dscout
Overall Review Sentiment for Dscout
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The interface is very intuitive to use and it's easy to setup studies. I appreciate that they are evolving features and investing in improvements that will help our global business reach testers outside the US. The responses are organized in an easy to manage way and I appreciate the tools to manage and tag across all phases of the studies. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I've found some limitations with the study types but the team has been helpful in trying to work around to achieve what is needed. The testing pool is definitely biased towards the US but there seems to be investment in expanding the Scout pool and making it easier for researchers to target specific countries outside the US. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Recruitment and data collection are the two hardest parts of the research process. I really enjoy having a platform that does both, and makes it so simple. I've also enjoyed having personalized support from survey designers on the Dscout team who will review my survey and give feedback before launch. It makes me feel very supported and I always appreciate having an extra set of eyes on my work as it is easy to forget things or make a mistake. Outside of the product itself, and more so on the branding side of things, Dscout has lots of visibility in my network as a trusted tool--I see Dscout hosting learning events and conversations, and as a partner at UX conferences--which makes me feel good about using the product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Two things: Dscout is costly--especially for small teams and non profits! Secondly, Dscout is not yet optimized for quantitative research. I would kill for a platform that can execute mixed methods; it would make the return on investment better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
After extensive issues with UserTesting's pool and a very poor experience with their customer service, dscout gave us the best flexibility and management over the participants we chose for taking part in research. The initial surveying of participants allows for picking individuals that perfectly suit our needs rather than wasting time within a research project to confirm if the participant was honest in their screener. Additionally, dscout opened the door for different resarch projects, such as surveys and diary studies. Support in dscout is exceptional. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
With the superior experience does come some tedium. Research timelines need to include an approval period for screeners and studies as the dscout team will not allow you to publish a screener or study without reviewing it (except for express studies, aka surveys and unmoderated studies after you launch your first test). Additionally, the clip creation process is clunky. There are multiple steps that feel extraneous, such as having to "render" the video every time you add new clips. This function feels outdated, but the positives outweight these complications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Platform makes it easy and quick to program and launch screeners/studies, large panel of engaged participants that provide detailed rich, feedback. I typically use dscout for longitudinal diary studies but have recently used for Express missions (kinda like a quali-quant surveys) and Live interviews and have had great experiences. The scouts' selfie videos where they describe experiences and provide feedback are excellent for including in read-outs and debriefs to bring the customer to life for my stakeholders. All of the account leads, research managers, etc. I've worked with at dscout have been great - they are always responsive, helpful, and kind! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Pretty expensive, and most of my analysis happens outside the platform (as opposed to using analysis tools they offer in the platform) so I wonder if they could build and provide more tools for that. I honestly don't have a lot of bad things to say. Love working with dscout! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I'm really happy with dscout!
Their pool is very big and stratified
The UX / UI of their site is overall very weel built
There are many different question types you can use in all research categories (diary, express, etc.)
I also find their customer support very efficient and friendly Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
With the beta bank of questions, they are addressing one of my biggest pain points so far.
However, I believe it’s crucial to implement a more robust randomization system. While the current folder system is helpful, it doesn’t fully solve the issue of presenting sections in a randomized order. Ideally, they should introduce a feature that randomizes both the order of the folders and the content within them for a more effective and dynamic experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
We use dScout for our continuous evaluative programs - we can set up a study, launch it, and have great quality responses overnight. It's empowering our team to move faster and do more.
The support team at sDcout is fantastic - they always have great suggestions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I'm looking forward to the ability to create templates - that will make it even easier and more efficient to do these quick-turn-around evaluative projects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Dscout has been a game-changer for my team. Diary studies were a significant gap in our research methods, but with Dscout, we can now run them much more frequently. One standout feature is the ability to seamlessly transition diary study participants into live missions within the same project, greatly streamlining the process of collecting necessary data. Since adopting the platform, we’ve benefited from frequent updates and new features that have significantly enhanced efficiency and ease of use. The Dscout team is fantastic—highly receptive to feedback—and they don’t just listen; they act on it. Unlike some tools where feedback seems to disappear into a void, Dscout ensures concerns are not only heard but addressed directly in the platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I don’t have many dislikes about Dscout, but I’d love to see future updates focus more on app/mobile features. As my team shifts its focus in that direction, we’re looking for enhanced capabilities in this area. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I am thrilled to see how much dscout has expanded to. This is not just a tool for diary studies anymore, it truly is a one-stop shop for qual research. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I do expect a bit more templates to follow for different scenarios. That's what I used to find super helpful from userzoom. They used to have templates for very specific scenarios (comparative vs evaluative, etc) and would be a bit more efficient to work off of for me, as the uxr. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The dscout platform is crisp and easy to use. The functionalities are good and always expanding, and dscout does a nice job of keeping users up to date on what fixes and additions are coming down the pipeline. Their research advisors are quite helpful in providing valuable suggestions for study set up. I've found the respondent quality to be far superior to that of other unmoderated research platforms. Further, customer support is quick to help with technical issues when they occur. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Researchers need to plan a couple extra days for studies to be reviewed by a research advisor before launch - which I find helpful, but necessary to keep in mind in the planning process. The complexity of question types / logic / etc. is not always available (for example, within surveys, piping is limited and there are no matrix style questions) so you sometimes need to be creative or find workarounds. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
A generally high quality responses, and quick turn around research tool!
I most appreciate that you can have participants upload screenshots and vidoes of them talking, which helps get around the AI generated content issue in UXR. It also has smart analysis tools (e.g. automatic transcription of video) that are actually pretty decent!
I have largely moved away from UserTesting.com and have replaced it with DScout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
DScout is focused on US based research. There's no really way of targeting to countries outside the US without using screener questions, and even then you're really just trusting people. There's also no way to auto translate missions into other languages.
While they've made some improvements here in the last year, it's still hard to target an even spread of respondents per study. Often requiring somewhat complex screeners and targeting to make sure that your responses don't just come from those who happen to be first online (often younger and more tech savvy folks).
The interface can take a little getting used to, especially in an organisation, it requires you to choose names for everything, and . Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
