# Blue Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Blue the right 360 Degree Feedback solution for you? Explore 50 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/125028/Blue-Surveys/reviews --- Blue 4.6 (50) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Blue Ease of use 3.9 Customer Service 4.8 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews AM Anne M Academic Affairs Officer and FOIPOP CoordinatorEducation Management, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Integration with existing business was implemented with the professional, courteous consultants at Blue Explorance, who took us through the set up process, provided guidance on setting up projects, and provided checklists from which to launch our projects independently.“ October 12, 2021 cs crystal s Suvey administration clerkEducation Management, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It is complex, and if not for Blue Admin training, most of the help guides would be useless since they only cover the 'how to do this', not why or what else it impacts.“ October 7, 2021 JC Jessa Andrea C Project CoordinatorHigher Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The software is very flexible and all of its features (questionnaire, reporting, etc.) can be customized to the University's needs.“ October 12, 2021 GH Greg H Manager, Institutional ResearchHigher Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “I find this challenging as I've often had to recreate complete projects in order to take advantage of certain project/reporting features. “ October 19, 2021 PW Paula W Policy, Planning Research AnalystEducation Management, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “We have used Blue for several years, it has enabled us to assist our clients to gain a greater understanding of their departments.“ October 15, 2021 JK Josh K LMS Administrator & Instructional DesignerHigher Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “A little too techy in managing settings for those not inclined. “ November 3, 2021 MB Mette B Data managerHigher Education, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The LMS integration is helping us increase response rates“ October 13, 2021 AA Amber A Senior AnalystHigher Education, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The documentation is hit and miss as far as whether it is helpful.“ October 13, 2021 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 50 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use VR Verified Reviewer Assistant Director of Student Affairs (Student Life Specialist) Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "For a non-programmer, learning curve has been huge BUT customer service is always on point!!" April 17, 2018 4.0 Pros The reports and evaluations look great and the ease of accessing the information is second to none. Cons It doesn't integrate with our records system and it is a complicated system for those without technical experience Review Source BM Bongani M. Facilitator Higher Education Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "So far so good" March 13, 2019 5.0 My overall experience is good, the adoption of Blue has since alerted me that the university needs to rethink its filing systems like linking people to departments and modules that they teaching. This will in turn makes reporting on academic activities easy and enhance alignment with the university's teaching community. Pros At the University of Johannesburg (UJ) we began using Blue Course Evaluation this year, 2019 after a trial in 2018. Compare to our previous Course Evaluation mechanism, Blue is in a class of its own. Personally, I like the fact that it is simply to manage once it is set up, it organizes the whole evaluation experience. For example, after loading an evaluation, a lecturer can track the progress of his/her evaluation, have an accurate number of students enrolled in the programme, how many have completed the survey, how many in progress and how many still outstanding. With this information one can work towards improving the response rate. Linked with the University's ITS system, the data is very accurate as only registered students can complete the evaluation. Blue does not only provide course feedback, the system can do way more. For example like providing depth analysis as to which browser used, when the evaluation was completed, the channel used. This information is helpful because we get to know what needs to be done for students to respond positively and to improve so to get constructive feedback from these evaluations. Cons Setting up Blue Course Evaluation is not easy. It needs lots of system and information which the university had but not organized in a manner that Blue wanted it. Currently, we do not have a data base that links academic staff to the module that they teach. Without this information there was a little bit of confusion and we ended linking wrong people to modules as we relied on Blackboard information. Perhaps Blue must have a ready made template which institutions can used to sort their data before administration of Blue. This will help as institutions have their own filling systems which are sometimes in conflict with Blue requirements. Review Source II Ike I. Data Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue Review" October 18, 2021 3.0 Pros It covers the whole spectrum of survey research/analysis with a range of capabilities Cons many of capabilities are not self explanatory; difficult to use for example, retrieving comments responses Review Source AK Amber K. Administrative Specialist E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue Review" October 15, 2021 5.0 This product has been a great asset to our university for student evaluations, student surveys, etc. Pros What I like most about the software is that it is very easy to set up a project, as well as make a report from each project. Cons I'm not great with making Excel spreadsheets or .csv files to upload information into the program. Review Source JAC Jessa Andrea C. Project Coordinator Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Using Blue: From paper-based survey to online survey" October 12, 2021 4.0 We used Blue to transition the paper-based survey to a fully online survey. We had a great collaborative interaction and discussion with our PS Consultant to implement the solution in our University. Mots of the requirement in our online survey (i.e. Questionnaire Framework, customization of FO tasks, customization of report distribution, etc.) were addressed by Blue. Pros The software is very flexible and all of its features (questionnaire, reporting, etc.) can be customized to the University's needs. It is also a plus that it was easily integrated to our SIS and LMS. Cons The look of the questionnaire interface for the students can be improved. I also would've liked if the links for QP and SVM can be piped separately in the email notification instead of together. Reason for choosing Blue It was the only solution which had its data center in Canada. The location of the data storage was critical in selecting the product. Review Source cS crystal S. Suvey administration clerk Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Excellent reports" October 7, 2021 4.0 If there's a problem, the techs are willing to help, and if it's a missing/removed feature, they're ready to listen. It may not get fixed for 3-5 years, but they're willing to listen. I love the reporting ability, but the fact that we'd have pay over a thousand dollars a year to create simple surveys in addition to what we currently do has my management starting to look farther afield. Pros Anyone can build a survey, but few have powerful multi-tiered or customizable reporting abilities. Cons It is complex, and if not for Blue Admin training, most of the help guides would be useless since they only cover the 'how to do this', not why or what else it impacts. Customer service varies widely depending on the individual. Some are very knowledgeable, but some... well, my current ticket has been 2 months of back and forth and running in circles. I'm frustrated and about ready to pull in our Blue liaison to get this mess sorted out. Reason for choosing Blue Had Canadian servers. Ability to upload csv files as opposed to link to databases - for both reports and projects. Flexible and powerful reporting. Review Source BP Becky P. Exec. Director, Institutional Research & Planning Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue - 1st Rate Survey Software!" March 2, 2017 5.0 The University of Louisville (UofL) has used Blue Enterprise Surveys since February 2008. It is a pleasure to work with eXplorance. The customer support team is outstanding and support staff members are truly interested in helping the customer get the most benefit from their product. The survey software is easy to use. The overall quality of application is 1st rate and a welcome improvement over products used previously. The reports are easily customized with many options from which to select. Blue Surveys has all of the features UofL needs to send hundreds of surveys each year. UofL uses Blue Surveys to gauge campus climate, assess student satisfaction, request feedback regarding events on campus, gather information from faculty and staff who exit the university, and much, much more. With all of the features in Blue, the surveying possibilities are endless. Blue Surveys completely integrates with other platforms (such as Blackboard, PeopleSoft, Canvas, Moodle, Banner, etc.) to provide a seamless integration with existing business practices, allowing users to leverage data stored in other databases. Mobile device compatibility makes providing feedback easier and more convenient than ever before. Blue Surveys is definitely a great value. Pros The product is easy to use, has many great features, and integrates with existing platforms. eXplorance as a company listens to the needs of their customers. The ability to customize the "look and feel" of the interface by using our own logos allows us to customize the experience for each user. The response rate monitor allows users the ability to track the day of the week and hour of the day that responses are received so marketing efforts and automatic reminders can be scheduled for maximum impact. The "drag and drop" user interface allows for quick survey creation and administration. Review Source EB Emily B. Institutional Research Analyst Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Explorance Blue is robust" November 8, 2021 5.0 Very happy with Blue Pros There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to Blue but it's fast and effective software that makes surveys and evaluations easier to conduct. Customer service is always attentive and eager to help. Cons There is a steep learning curve and importing questions and responses could be easier Review Source JM Joshua M. Research Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Continuously Improving" October 18, 2021 4.0 Pros Specifically with the Blue 8 version a lot has shifted my views to a more positive outlook. The user interface is drastically improved and quite a lot of quality of life enhancements were made for Blue administrators such as re-organizing project options. Another feature of the Blue software I appreciate is the ability to view the status' of the responders of a project and being able to identify if a survey email was successfully sent or not to a responder. Cons There are a fair amount of limitations that this software is restricted. The way filters are approached within Blue are very lacking and tedious when attempting to add multiple filters in the same project. The datasource import functionality is a little bit lacking in that it does not stop importing if a different datasource is already in that process. Review Source SH Scott H. Research Facilitator Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Administered course evals for many programs, including low-literacy and immigrant populations." April 20, 2018 4.0 Transitioning from paper scanning and online survey providers to a professional outfit specifically intended for course evaluations was an overall positive experience. While there are some pain points, without question the implementation of Blue was a time saver for our team. Pros UI improvements were prioritized by eXplorance. The interface improved dramatically in my time using the software, becoming more intuitive over time. Though a lot of the complex functionality may only be easily navigable by power users, the support staff typically did a fine job of providing walkthroughs, phone support, and email instructions as needed. Customer support was also invaluable for working through all the "ifs" and "buts" of our student population. Working with a range of literacy levels and familiarity with English language - as well as different course types like labs, practicums, continuing education, etc. - we needed frequent support and check-ins and were always able to reach a successful outcome. Cons I get they are an 'online first' company and a software above all else, but I was disappointed by Blue's inability to reliably process and integrate data from paper forms. They used a third party software (ABBYY) to generate forms, and no matter how meticulously our printer was calibrated, there were always problems in the scanning and upload into Blue. Because it was third party, Blue did not provide support for this process and could not refer us to someone at ABBYY. We ended up processing our (thankfully limited number of) paper forms manually. Review Source PC Peggy C. Associate Director Enterprise Systems Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue is excellent for delivery of course evaluations that can be highly customized and automated." June 26, 2017 5.0 Pros Fabulous software vendor, flawless delivery to students, mobile friendly, ada compliant, great performance, hosting, great customer support. Cons The report interface to create customized reports from scratch is not intuitive for novice users. I think the upcoming changes in this area in the next version will address these concerns. Review Source DP Devendrudu P. IT Analyst Oil & Energy Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The blue survey/360 review features are excellent, the customer support team is exceptional. " April 22, 2018 5.0 Pros The blue survey is software is very user friendly and easy to use. The analysis reports are well structured. Cons The UI could be enhanced and more analysis could be provided in the reports, like stack ranking feature in 360 reviews. Review Source JC John C. Training Manager Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great HR support system" October 12, 2017 5.0 Always do your research, many times something this can be done in house. This all depends on your HR staff and your goal. Otherwise i'd recommend it. Pros The great thing about Blue is that you have various ways of using it. You can use it as an HR tool when doing completely wide evaluations on anything from employee wellbeing to overall company wellness. Cons It does take a bit to learn all the functions and depending on the individual this could be an easy or hard endeavor either or its a great tool. Review Source LAT Lea Ann T. Manager, Education Services Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Automaticity is Worth the Effort" October 12, 2021 4.0 Pros The automaticity of the processes make Blue a win at our college. I can touch it once or twice a semester and know that the process is going to run fairly seamlessly for us. Cons It is a complex setup with lots of procedures I still don't completely understand. However, additional training is pricey. Review Source JS Junaid S. Unit Coordinator Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A good value as a institutional evaluation system" June 1, 2019 5.0 We are satisfied the with our implementation of Blue Course Evaluation. It has been a good value in addressing all our institutional evaluation needs. Pros The flexibility in data organization for a multi-subject multi-rater survey system is a strength of the system. The personalized support Explorance support team provides is excellent. Cons The software is adequate but can improve in the interface and features it provides in the development of survey form. The reporting similarly is adequate but can improve. Review Source ES Erika S. Office of the CEO/ Customer Care Used the software for: ### "Customer Satisfaction Surveys " January 25, 2016 5.0 Explorance is an excellent company to work with and their BLUE system has no comparison when it comes to survey tools to capture the customer experience and satisfaction. An in addition to the tool being efficient is it is also user friendly. Explorance's customer service is excellent on all levels. Whether you are working with their professional services team or customer support their response is excellent and without a glitch. I would not hesitate to recommend them and their products. Review Source GH Greg H. Manager, Institutional Research Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Higher Ed review of Blue - +10 years and still going!" October 19, 2021 5.0 Overall I've had a positive experience working with Blue. Their support team is fairly knowledgeable and hands-on. Their development team is also fairly responsive to 'feature requests' which is great. My team uses the product almost daily where it satisfies most (if not all) of our survey requirements. I've enjoyed seeing Blue evolve over the past 10+ years and look forward to working with it in the future. Pros I've been a blue user for 10+ years and work with the product almost daily. We use it primarily for student surveys such as Student Satisfaction, Course Evaluations, and Graduate Outcomes. We also use Blue to collect information from other stakeholders (i.e. Industry, Employees, Employers, Alumni, etc). Creating surveys is easy and intuitive for my small research team. We typically do not have any down-time with this product besides the occasional maintenance shutdown to our onsite hosted environment. Cons Blue is a great product for surveying stakeholders at our institution however the way they deploy features to only certain blue products makes using the software challenging. A feature available in a course evaluation survey for example may not be available in another survey 'product'. I find this challenging as I've often had to recreate complete projects in order to take advantage of certain project/reporting features. The products should be seamless and integrated across all surveys in blue... For example, DRA - Dynamic Report Access is a great feature for dynamically assigning reports to a role (vs. an individual user), however is not available for use with a standard survey. Review Source AA Amber A. Senior Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Steep learning curve and limited out of box reporting capabilities" October 13, 2021 3.0 Onboarding is fairly difficult. The product is complex, even to set up a basic project. It is easy to make mistakes and not enough safe-guards built in. Training new users is either very time consuming or expensive depending on whether you train in house or purchase training from Blue. The interface is not very aesthetically pleasing and the survey layouts are also difficult to make visually appealing and tend to need a lot of tinkering to make things line up and look nice. The documentation is hit and miss as far as whether it is helpful. Customer service is good with simple issues. Complex problems tend to drag on and require a lot of time commitment on the client-end to sort out. Pros Projects are highly customizable as far as questionnaire content is concerned. Cons Easy to make mistakes. Error logs usually do not provide useful information. Project set up takes more time than it should. Text export includes residual html characters that need to be converted/cleaned up before text analysis in external software. Reporting is limited and the visuals are very unattractive. Modifying the visuals is labor intensive. Much easier to export data and use an external tool. Data source set up and intermediary relationship tables unnecessarily complicate the process. The product does not take into account that more than one department in an organization may use the product i.e. a default email address that is required by the system but may result in sensitive information being shared from reports if the to/from/cc fields are not filled out properly on a report that is being disseminated via email. Reason for choosing Blue Brightspace Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Course Evaluation Coordinator Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Robust Product with Excellent Support" March 8, 2019 5.0 We use Blue to manage the course evaluation process across the entire university. I am one of about a dozen users who each manage an individual school within the university. Mine is the largest (comprising about 60% of courses offered and closer to 75% of courses evaluated). Our university has been using Blue for about three years now. We chose this software after negative experiences with our last vendor, and we were specifically looking for something that could provide all of the below: 1) Automated data feed from our student information system (SIS) to Blue. 2) Customization for each school using the software. 3) Unified email messaging (one email per student per school regardless of number of courses involved). 4) Ability to handle large and complex questionnaires with built in triggering to ask the right questions for each individual course and instructor. 5) Ability to customize opening and closing dates for evaluations down to the course level. 6) Ability to manage both mid-term and end-of-course evaluations. 7) Ability to evaluate multiple instructors for a single course with a seamless experience for students (course and all instructors on a single questionnaire) and automatic distribution of data to separate reports per instructor (all receive course responses but each sees only their instructor responses). I am the most advanced user on our campus, both based on training and based on the extensiveness with which I use the software. For most users here, the cour Pros The robust amount of features. Ability to copy setup from one term to the next. Ability to extensively customize evaluation process. Ability to correct an error, add a course, or otherwise update data after evaluations have started. Commitment of Explorance to improving the software based on customer feedback. Variety of training options and levels, including customer and Explorance staff led monthly webinars. Cons High learning curve for new users. Some of the limitations in reporting (less direct control of size/layout of displayed graphics, inability to do certain calculations in export to excel reports). Review Source RA Ramzan A. Statistician Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue Course Evaluation" June 1, 2019 5.0 Our organization is with Explorance since 2009-2010. It has been a long journey and demonstrates the product effectiveness to us. We have been extensively using BLUE for feedback surveys, commonly, for us as well, the most important survey is the course evaluation survey. We have been conveniently deploying the course evaluation survey to the students and then successfully publishing the reports to the relevant faculty accessible online. Our overall experience is extremely satisfactory with this product in terms of what it generally offers, and in particular with its excellent customer support center and people, who are 24/7 ready and available to answer and resolve customers' queries. Pros It's ease of use. Additionally, it is very handy to publish the course evaluations to the students, which I reckon is the most desirable feature to the Higher Education Institutions. BLUE gives one a robust control over the project even after it is published, it smartly and intelligently allows the users to handle the project subjects (courses) and members (instructors). Apart from the course evaluations one can conveniently execute and publish hundreds of feedback surveys to the intended audience privately or publicly. Report creating features using the survey response data are excellent and are sufficient enough to suffice the institutional reporting features. The most valuable thing is there customer support - no doubt it's one of the best I have ever experienced, staff responsiveness and effectively resolving the queries is unmatchable. Cons There is nothing such as the least one. Instead, I believe that there is always a room for improvement, in this era of Business Intelligence. Explorance understands, knows and has always been continuously endeavouring to optimally improve its product to address the market and customer needs. Review Source KM Katherine M. Evaluation Support Associate Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blue Explorance Product" October 8, 2021 4.0 Pros The integration process between our college and the software was easily streamlined systematically. The course evaluations really do make a huge difference on how courses get improved upon and further better the educational experience for our learners. Cons The product is not intuitive. It definitely takes time to understand and grasp the computer language and format that is being used. Review Source DS Darren S. I.R. Coordinator Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "BLUE is a great tool for our university." October 14, 2021 5.0 We are using BLUE for our course and advisor evaluations and could potentially use it for some other surveys down the road. The implementation team did a great job of putting this software into production and it has been very well received by our university community. Pros The software works well and is very customizable. The interface is well received and out of the several products we reviewed, this one was the faculty favorite. One thing that stands out is their technical support and how prompt and knowledgeable their techs are. I appreciate that they are available by phone and video as well as email. I also like the integration with Blackboard and Active Directory. Cons The software is complex and you can't just sit down and start using it without some training. It's also one of the more expensive products we looked at. I'm not a fan of managed systems where everything is offsite but there weren't any options we reviewed that allowed for an onsite server and software installation. Reason for choosing Blue We chose BLUE because of the features available, the reports shown, the interface and it was the one our faculty liked the best. Review Source MM Matthew M. Assistant Director Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Exceeding expectations and solving business needs" October 15, 2021 5.0 Pros This software allowed us to transition from paper based to electronic reviews. It provided a large community of experienced users from which to learn best practices. It created a safe, reliable platform to maximize our evaluation process. Cons when a subject changes their evaluation dates, they are not reflected in all the related data tables. dynamic dates do update when reminder emails are sent. course questions vs. instructor questions and how to configure in reports. Alternatives considered [XM for Strategy & Research](https://www.capterra.com/p/72396/Strategy-and-Research/) Reason for choosing Blue Because blue has a better design for course evaluations Review Source cG candace G. ed tech specialist Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "great product - great company" November 3, 2021 5.0 Blue is a great product - eXplorance is a great company. Pros Blue has a lot of features and integrates well with our other systems. Cons Blue is somewhat complicated to administer. Reason for choosing Blue Functionality was comparable, but look and feel and user experience was better. Switched from [Sakai LMS](https://www.capterra.com/p/124698/Sakai-CLE/) We were retiring our previous LMS and needed a new enterprise course evaluation system. Review Source Shirimpaka J. Data Coordinator Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Blue Evaluation software" May 30, 2019 4.0 Actually, The overall experience is very good. In my Organization, we have managed to receive enough feedback from the students and we make changes to the course as well as the teacher based on the feedback received from our students. Pros I like the way it is quick, and I can easily track the progress of the students who responded to the survey and those who did not respond. I like also the way I can send any information as the email to the group of students assigned to any task. Cons Sometimes it is challenging to wait for the system to be synchronized. This is a serious issue when it comes to the time I may choose to block the course of the students who do not respond to the evaluations, and when some of them see the course blocked and they respond the survey, I takes me again to be informed and synchronize manually, which I think it could be automated, because in case I am busy in other tasks, It can be a challenge for the students who filled the evaluations to get access on the Canvas page (for my case as we use Canvas). Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [360 Degree Feedback](https://www.capterra.com/360-degree-feedback-software/)[Employee Engagement](https://www.capterra.com/employee-engagement-software/)[Performance Management System](https://www.capterra.com/performance-appraisal-software/) ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.