# Page 3 | Lighthouse Studio Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 3 - Is Lighthouse Studio the right Survey solution for you? Explore 168 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/127963/Lighthouse-Studio/reviews

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Lighthouse Studio

4.6 (168)

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Page 3 - Reviews of Lighthouse Studio

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 51-75 of 168 Reviews

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Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

LT

Luke T.  
Director, Advanced Analysis & Study Design  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Outstaning Customer Support and 1st in Conjoint Design and Analysis"

March 6, 2020

5.0

I've been using their survey software since 2001 and I would not consider using another survey software platform.

Pros

This software is very easy to use and has many built-in features that make programming surveys extremely easy. The tools for conjoint design and analysis are the best in the industry--I wouldn't use any other platform for conjoint. We use Lighthouse Studio for all of our general survey programming needs as well. If you do run into any issues their customer support is the \*best\* customer support I have every experienced in the software industry.

Cons

Some very advanced functions require Java or Perl coding and that can get tricky. But these situations are rare and they give good examples of how to implement those functions. They also have a great user forum that is very helpful in these situations.

Review Source

JR

Jay R.  
Director, Data Services  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great overall product with unbeatable customer service!"

March 6, 2020

4.0

Pros

I like that it is relatively easy to use and customizable for enhanced use. There are a lot of add-on customized scripts available for use as well.

Cons

There are some features that are not available out of the box that I've seen in other similar software. It would be nice to have it offer everything it's competitors do.

Review Source

SK

Scott K.  
Data Engineer  
Consumer Goods  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "A powerful software tool that supports our business"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Global consumer research in a variety of categories. The tool is flexible enough to support that variety.

Pros

Easy to use, very fully featured.

Cons

My only gripe with Sawtooth is that new versions are not tested completely enough. We wait post a release for weeks to see if some other org finds bugs before we use it. A complete test set would eliminate this. Costly but what is a quality reputation worth?

Review Source

JS

Jakke S.  
Associate Manager Programming  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Its just too good. User friendly"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Loving it.

Pros

Just like everything. Options are so good. Even if we do not have any idea of few fuctionalities, there will is a help page which includes everything. So many advanced features and its keeps getting better and better with the new features in new versions.

Cons

Not many for now. So cannot say something as least.

Review Source

JG

Jaclyn G.  
Manager of Advanced Analytics  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Don't know what we'd do without Sawtooth"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

The software has a very user-friendly interface, the customer support is pretty great, they are always releasing updates to the software to fix bugs.

Cons

It can be buggy, each new version released seems to come with some host of new bugs. When reaching out to Sawtooth they try to release a patch to fix it

Review Source

CF

Curtis F.  
Director of Advanced Analytics  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Indispensible"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

We primarily use the analytics portions of Lighthouse. It's easy to use and highly customizable so when we have out of the box needs, we can usually figure out some way to modify things for our needs.

Cons

We don't use the fielding piece often - except when we do ACBC. I don't love having to add in Perl script or modify CSS. As marketing scientists, we would end up spending a lot of time doing trial and error trying to work through aspects that are just not part of our core skill set. That said, to have the customization that I mentioned previously, it's probably necessary to move away from completely templated or drag-and-drop approach.

Review Source

IM

Ishara M.  
Business Consutant  
Management Consulting  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "One of BEST survey programming platform"

March 6, 2020

5.0

I am using Sawtooth software over the last 6 years. I have evaluated other programming platforms. However, Lighthouse Studio has all necessary features to program and share a survey.

Pros

Dynamic flow/piping/looping, Conjoint, find and replace, free format question type

Cons

It is great if you can optimize more look and feel for mobile users

Review Source

RH

Ricky H.  
Data Analyst  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Camorra Research Review of Lighthouse studio"

March 10, 2020

4.0

Lighthouse studio has enabled Camorra to offer choice based analysis to our customers!

Pros

We like the choice exercises, we like that you're taking them forward and are very excited to be using some more Bandit MaxDiff.

Cons

We don't use Lighthouse Studio for our general purpose surveys, We find Survey Gizmo to have an edge in terms of ease of use, customisability scripting, hosting other media etc Must be said though, integration between our platforms, (Lighthouse, Survey Gizmo and Vision Critical's Sparq) has been a breeze!

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

Survey Gizmo does have a maxdiff question type, but the output is crap. You win, hands down.

Review Source

LP

Line P.  
Developper  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Simply love it"

March 6, 2020

4.0

Pros

The sanity checks throughout the application that prevents stupid mistakes The ease of use and diversity of options The ease of customization

Cons

Nothing comes to mind at the moment, sorry!

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

Don't know, but we have been using Qualtrics for about a year for a specific customer and I can say that things are much easier with Sawtooth as per how you can have the control on everything

Review Source

AM

Andrew M.  
Analyst  
Marketing and Advertising  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Powerful, thoughtful, and easy to use"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

I have saved so much time with Sawtooth because it's programming platform and analysis capabilities are so powerful. Many pain points using DIY survey platforms are gone now that I am using Lighthouse more frequently. Many times it feels like the software has read my mind by providing easy solutions and options to fit my needs. At first I thought the software was going to difficult to use because it doesn't look as snazzy and modern as some other platforms, but it is very user-friendly.

Cons

No cons so far. I'm still learning the software though and will be using it for more clients moving forward.

Alternatives considered

[XM for Strategy & Research](https://www.capterra.com/p/72396/Strategy-and-Research/)[Alchemer](https://www.capterra.com/p/72549/Alchemer/)[Forsta](https://www.capterra.com/p/131969/FocusVision/)

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

We are actually using SurveyGizmo and Lighthouse Studio, but I chose Lighthouse over Qualtrics because it was more affordable, more powerful, and I trusted Sawtooth more than Qualtrics. Anytime I deal with Qualtrics I feel like they are just out to make money. It's like going to a car dealership or mechanic. Sawtooth seems to genuinely care about me as a user and helping me do my best work.

Review Source

MM

Mike M.  
Research Director  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Gold Standard for Choice based modeling"

March 6, 2020

5.0

its great. can rely on sound research methods and rigor, customer service is always easy to get a hold of and can competently talk through almost all of our clients' quirky requests and use cases.

Pros

very user friendly, has great customer support and statistical rigor. Sawtooth has great name recognition in the industry and is accepted as a go to software for choice modelling.

Cons

honestly not much, we dont use the scripting or survey hosting as we have our own internal team for data collection and survey scripting so we create designs and generate utilities on our maxdiff and CBC projects with Lighthouse and the tool is great.

Review Source

JJ

Jon J.  
Data Services Manager  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Lighthouse"

March 6, 2020

5.0

We love it!

Pros

This software lets us write surveys. Even the most complicated designs. It is updated frequently and support is fantastic.

Cons

Nothing. Anytime there is something we need or we feel is not working right, support is fantastic.

Review Source

VA

Vijay A.  
Consultant  
Pharmaceuticals  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Great could be greater"

March 6, 2020

4.0

Pros

More user friendly than others to run design and optimizing outputs

Cons

Software glitches and would be great if outputs can be customized (zero centered utilities)

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

Most recommended for specific needs (product conjoint)

Switched from

[SAS-STAT Software](https://www.capterra.com/p/121765/SAS-Statistics/)

More user friendly, able to have people without much programming expertise to make do with analysis.

Review Source

QI

Quentin I.  
Junior Research Analyst  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Easy to Use, But also Powerful"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

This software is easy to use, and you can create surveys that are very simple, or more complicated surveys with Conjoint or MaxDiff. It's customizable and you can add your own code or HTML to make your surveys look or behave how you want it too.

Cons

I wish that that it was easier to debug the code you write, like in a IDE. I'm not the greatest programmer so I'd appreciate if Lighthouse would eventually be able to tell me things like where specifically the error in my PERL or JavaScript code is occurring and why.

Review Source

PS

Praveen S.  
VP  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "User friendly"

March 19, 2020

5.0

Excellent product - keep up your good work!

Pros

Relatively straightforward to use, works efficiently, Sawtooth Software responds when there is an issue.

Cons

CCEA is a bit of a black box. For example, will prefer to see clear description of the differentiation between K Means and ensemble. Also, the approach for CCEA results sounds convincing. However, invariably, my latent class analysis solutions stand out for clients. In choice modeling, will prefer a more clear description of the dual response coding in the software itself rather than having to search in manuals.

Review Source

SS

Samuel S.  
Managing Director  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "."

March 9, 2020

4.0

friendly use

Pros

easy to use low rate of errors work on all kind of tablets

Cons

nothing it is really good we didn't find any issues with the program

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

the team members are familiar with it.

Review Source

EB

Eric B.  
Programmer  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "It's a great product"

March 6, 2020

4.0

Pros

It's easy to use and intuitive. Most of my needs are covered out of the box and for the few things that aren't everything is easily customizeable.

Cons

Better slider support is needed! The semantic differential questions are a step in the right direction but I would love to see that functionality expanded. This is the number one request from clients that I still struggle with.

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

When I started at this company we were using SSI Web. Never felt any reason to switch and it has only gotten better over the years.

Review Source

JC

Jon C.  
CEO  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Streamlined Product with Robust Features"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

Lighthouse Studio has clear interface that allows you quickly create professional surveys that are user friendly for respondents. But, under the hood, this software is incredibly robust and allows for complex programming and survey design that will satisfy even the most demanding research practitioners. The tech support folks at Sawtooth are knowledgeable, patient and exceptionally nice - a rare combination. We are very happy with this product.

Cons

Nothing in particular comes to mind about what I like least.

Review Source

MB

Michael B.  
Sr. Research manager  
Insurance  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Review"

March 6, 2020

4.0

Good overall.

Pros

Best conjoint product out there. More capabilities and user flexibility than other products.

Cons

Tends to freeze up frequently. Choice simulator is glitchy.

Review Source

RM

Rahul M.  
Sr Technical Analyst  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Sawtooth is great"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Great

Pros

Easy to customize anything. Also the sawtooth forum helps us in case of any problem.

Cons

Only one person can do a task at a time. it should be online.

Review Source

JS

Jordan S.  
Research Manager  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Overall, very satisfied with sawtooth"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

The customization that we're able to do with Sawtooth is a huge reason why we continue to use it, other products are much more locked down, which wouldn't allow us to answer all of the research questions that we're able to with Sawtooth.

Cons

Lighthouse Studio can be intimidating at first. I think that the point and click based systems probably have a lower barrier to entry, but the tradeoff is that they're less powerful and less open ended. It's a tradeoff we're more than happy to live with.

Review Source

AW

Anupa W.  
Senior Associate  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Good product "

March 7, 2020

5.0

Great

Pros

Customizability , Functionality , that’s all.

Cons

In certain situations it is complex, that’s all

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

Matches my functionality requirements

Review Source

CO

Ciprian O.  
Survey programmer  
Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Lighthouse "

March 9, 2020

5.0

Pros

It is easy to use, the updates are good, the styles are nice, the studies fit on any screen.

Cons

I would like more Question types, more styles

Review Source

Ramon J.  
Account manager  
Market Research  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Very complète survêt software"

March 6, 2020

5.0

Pros

A lot if options for complex surveys. Randomizations, conjoint, maxdiff. Good output data file.

Cons

Need to improve look and feel for better user experience. Alain et lacks Real Time integration with dashboard or infograph utilities.

Alternatives considered

[XM for Customer Experience](https://www.capterra.com/p/152924/Customer-Frontlines/)

Reason for choosing Lighthouse Studio

Better price

Review Source

SL

Stephanie L.  
Market Researcher  
Computer Games  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Easy to use, customer support is especially great!"

March 6, 2020

5.0

While I can't speak to specific business problems due to confidentiality, Sawtooth has been critical in allowing us the flexibility and ability to improve on our knowledge of the gaming industry / how players make choices in our space. I've been really impressed with the level of support we've been able to receive and how kind and helpful everyone on the support team is.

Pros

Sawtooth makes doing usually difficult to do analyses easy. What was previously cost prohibitive or time prohibitive due to lack of a data scientist or other resources becomes a functional, DIY service provided by Sawtooth.

Cons

I often like to program surveys in Sawtooth but find myself having to supplement with another survey platform for other questions outside of the Maxdiff or CBC flow. It's hard to program general survey questions and display logic in Sawtooth. Additionally, having to use a completely separate program for each language is literal torture. We frequently field global surveys that require 10+ languages and it gets incredibly messy incredibly quickly.

Review Source

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