Turn Paper Surveys Into Insights in Minutes
Paper survey scanning software that automatically recognizes and captures data from paper-based questionnaires.
Here's How It Actually Works
Five simple steps. That's it.
Design Your Survey
Create professional surveys using our intuitive online form builder. Choose from 12+ question types including multiple choice, checkboxes, text fields, and rating scales to capture exactly the data you need.
Print & Prepare
Download your surveys as print-ready PDFs, perfectly formatted for easy scanning. Each form includes clear response areas and proper spacing to ensure accurate data capture when you scan them later.
Collect Responses
Share your surveys wherever your respondents are - in person, by mail, in classrooms, events, or community centers. Participants complete them using any pen or pencil, making data collection accessible to everyone regardless of technology access.
Scan & Upload
Batch scan completed forms using any document scanner. Our AI instantly recognizes handwriting, checkmarks, and printed text with 99.9% accuracy - no manual data entry required.
Analyze Results
View instant analytics or export your data to Excel, CSV, SPSS, or sync directly with Google Sheets or BI tool. Get insights from your data within minutes instead of weeks.
Powerful Features
Built for modern survey collection and faster analysis
Checkbox Recognition
Our optical mark recognition (OMR) technology reads checkboxes, and multiple choice answers with near-perfect accuracy. Works with any type of pen (pencils too).
- Handles partial marks, cross-outs, and corrections
- Reads low-quality scans (may require more manual verification)
- Processes thousands of forms in minutes
Handwriting Recognition
Handwriting Recognition
Advanced AI technology reads handwritten responses in open-ended questions, comments, and text fields. No more manual data entry for written answers.
- Recognizes cursive and print handwriting
- Supports 50+ languages including non-Latin scripts
- Flags for verification if a 100% accurate transcription is needed.
Multi-Page Survey Management
Each survey page gets a unique identifier that ensures pages stay together, eliminates duplicates, and maintains response integrity - even when scanning thousands of forms.
- Automatic page order detection and correction
- Handles mixed batches from different surveys
- Prevents duplicate scanning automatically
Multilingual Surveys
Create surveys in multiple languages and collect all responses in a single dataset. Perfect for international research and diverse populations.
- Print different language versions from one survey
- Responses automatically mapped to the same dataset
- Right-to-left language support (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.)
Dynamic Forms & Pre-filling
Use mail merge to personalize surveys with participant names, IDs, or pre-filled responses. Perfect for longitudinal studies or follow-up surveys.
- Import data from CSV or Excel for personalization
- Pre-fill answers from previous responses
- Generate unique codes and tracking numbers
Flexible Upload Options
Upload scanned forms however works best for you - drag and drop, email, cloud storage sync, or API. Process batches of any size.
- Drag-and-drop multiple files or entire folders
- Email scans directly to your unique address
- Auto-sync from Dropbox
Human Verification System
When scan quality is poor or responses are unclear, easily review and correct them. Invite team members to help verify responses collaboratively.
- AI flags lower accuracy responses for review
- For large surveys, distribute verification work across team members with granular permission controls
Analytics & Data Export
View results instantly with built-in charts and analytics, or export to your preferred analysis tool. All data is available immediately after scanning.
- Export to Excel, CSV, SPSS, PDF or Google Sheets
- Real-time charts, word clouds, and cross-tabs
- Filter and segment data by any variable
API & System Integration
Connect PaperSurvey.io to your existing systems with our REST API and webhooks. Automate your entire workflow from scanning to analysis.
- REST API for uploading and retrieving data
- Real-time webhooks for new response notifications
- Zapier integration for 1000+ app connections
Hybrid data collection
Design beautiful paper surveys that get filled out immediately at events, conferences, and training sessions. Plus, share a web link for remote participants when geography is a barrier. Everything flows into one dataset.
Paper Surveys + Digital Web Surveys = Best of Both Worlds
Still Typing Every Survey by Hand?
Here's what manual entry actually costs you
Manual Entry
- TIME PER SURVEY2-3 minutes
- ERROR RATE2-15%
- LABOR COST$25-100/hour
- PROCESSING TIMEDays to Weeks
- TEAM IMPACTHigh Burnout From Repetitive Tasks
PaperSurvey.io
- TIME PER SURVEY2-3 seconds
- ACCURACY99.9%
- COSTFrom $0.02/page
- PROCESSING TIMEMinutes
- TEAM IMPACTFocus on Insights
For every 1,000 surveys processed save 40+ hours
What our users say
Discover why users love PaperSurvey.io
Revolutionary
"It worked out of the box. No training required, no clumsy configurations, and almost zero trial and error. Brilliant. Over-the-top customer service and expediency to design improvements based on feedback. It's an easy-to-use product that fills a void in the market and takes the sometimes essential paper-based survey work into the 21st century! While there may be some areas that can still be enhanced, by experience with customer service has blown me away..."
— Kate S, Chief Program Officer
So useful for our purposes!
"We are an international NGO that conducts large-scale research and evaluations with participants in our programs. These participants generally do not have access to computers, smartphones, or internet, making data gathering and entry a very onerous process. We used to do paper-based surveys and then manual entry of each survey. This gets extremely time-consuming and pricey when we have thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of participants and multiple time points..."
— Virgil HP, Research and Evaluation Manager and Advisor
Couldn't say better things
"My overall experience was fantastic. I honestly have nothing bad to say. The developer went above and beyond to meet my needs, the product worked exactly as advertised, and it saved hours upon hours of time. I will absolutely be recommending PaperSurvey to my colleages and it will be my go-to for all future research work that I conduct."
— Rebecca W, Research Scientist
Simple & Effective
"Very easy to setup, intuitive UI for creating a questionnaire (similar to Google forms) - plenty of options for question types - form layout is simple and effective, spaced nicely no over crowding - printing versions, can be used to print a version for on location and allocate it accordingly once scanned - dropbox feature works seamlessly, takes a minute to setup - verification is quick and suprisingly pretty accurate ocr - integration with Google sheets is the icing on the cake, perfect for connecting to business intelligence software."
— Adrian K, CEO
Perfect tool for a small organization
"This one tool designs, previews,prepares print survey for mailmerge, scans paper responses including character recognition and handwrtten recognition, and supports online reporting. As a former survey manager for a government agency, I was pleasantly surprised to find a tool with such a robust set of capabilities. Most important, the software developer listens and accommodates most requests."
— Roberts M, Survey Manager
Very good tool to collect data
"I use it to collect data for research, both in paper and online. Very good technical support. It was very easy to design the survey."
— Sandra T, Professor
Amazing Product, Excellent Customer Service!
"I urgently had to find a software to use for paper feedback that could be then be uploaded to extract the responses in an efficient and smart way. Im so glad that I found PaperSurvey. I loved designing the survey as it really made me think about a simple user experience, which PaperSurvey so seamlessly has the capability to do so."
— Shreya V, Design Engineer
Full featured service
"The range of features is great. Ability to email responses to be automatically read is great. We keep finding new ways in which the software fits our needs."
— Jay B, Application Developer
The silver bullet for OMR software surveys
"We are using PaperSurvey to survey the people we serve. Papersurvey lets us survey as many people as we like and then process the data very quickly so we can start digging in!"
— Phil T, Sr. Manager of Research and Program Evaluation
Frequently asked questions
Have questions? We have most common answers
- How accurate is the software?
Our software recognizes 99.99% of the checkboxes correctly. Handwritten text is recognized very accurately in 50+ languages, though accuracy may vary with low-quality scans or difficult handwriting styles. We invite you to try it yourself by signing up for a free 14-day trial.
- Is my data secure?We take your data security seriously. Your data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This means that any data transferred between your device and our servers is securely encoded, making it extremely difficult for unauthorized parties to intercept or access your information. We host your data on servers that meet the rigorous security standards of ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications. These certifications confirm that our servers have undergone thorough security audits and adhere to industry best practices. Our cloud infrastructure is continually monitored and updated to protect your data from evolving threats.
You have full control over your data and can delete it at any time. When you delete your data, it is immediately removed from our production databases. However, deleted data may remain in encrypted offsite backups for up to 6 months as part of our disaster recovery procedures.
For more detailed information on our security measures and data handling practices, we encourage you to review our security statement and privacy policy. These documents provide an in-depth look at how we safeguard your data. Contact support if you need a Data Processing Agreement. - Do you use my survey data for AI training?No. We never use your survey data to train or improve AI models. Your survey responses, personal information, and all collected data remain completely private and confidential.
We use AI technology to recognize handwriting and process your surveys, but your data is never used to train or improve these AI systems. We have strict data processing agreements in place that ensure your data is used solely to provide our services to you.
Your data is processed exclusively to deliver survey recognition services and is never shared with third parties for AI training or any other purposes. - What printers and scanners are compatible?
You can use any standard office scanner or multifunction printer. For best results, we recommend a scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF) to speed up the scanning process.
- What paper size do you support?
You may print your surveys in A3, A4, A5, Legal, and Letter size paper in portrait mode. A4 and Letter are the most commonly used sizes. You may change the paper size in your account settings.
- What is optical mark recognition (OMR)?
Optical mark recognition (OMR) is a process to identify and extract data from paper forms by analyzing marked fields such as checkboxes or 'bubble' fields. We use OMR to automatically detect which options respondents selected, eliminating manual data entry for close-ended questions.
- Do you support optical character recognition (OCR)?
Yes. We support OCR for machine-printed text. For reading the handwriting we use handwriting text recognition (HTR) technologies. If you need, you may choose to recognize the text using OCR engine (e.g. if you plan to insert some text before printing) but it only works on the machine-printed text.
- Can I collect responses on the web?
Yes, you can share a link to a web survey and collect responses online. You will be able to analyze results from a single dataset (from both paper and web surveys)
- What export formats can I download my data?
You can export your data in CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, SPSS, PDF formats.
- Do I need to install or maintain any software?
No, PaperSurvey.io is cloud-based and requires no installation or maintenance. All software updates and new features are automatically available to all customers.
- I need a custom feature. Can you add it?
Yes, we regularly add new features based on customer feedback. Please contact us with your requirements. If the feature benefits our broader customer base, we'll likely add it to the platform. Custom enterprise features can also be developed for an additional cost.
- Do you offer Single Sign-On (SSO)?Yes, Single Sign-On (SSO) with SAML 2.0 is available for Enterprise Plus customers. This feature enables seamless integration with your organization's existing authentication system, allowing users to access PaperSurvey.io using their corporate credentials.
Learn how to set up SSO for your organization.