Medallia alternatives: where to go and how to exit cleanly
Eight destinations, one per reason for leaving, and a seven-step exit plan built around your renewal date.
The short answer: Qualtrics if you need an enterprise experience management (XM) suite of the same weight, InMoment or Zonka Feedback to keep omnichannel feedback and text analytics, QuestionPro if you want a starting price before the first sales call, AskNicely if your program is really about NPS and frontline teams, and Feedier if you'd rather pay per piece of feedback with no annual contract. Alchemer and SurveyMonkey are enough if Medallia only runs your surveys. One thing first: Medallia publishes no prices, so your renewal date matters more than the name of your next vendor. We compared all eight on their official pages in 2026.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why CX teams leave Medallia, and why it takes a while
Medallia is still one of the broadest platforms out there: surveys, voice, social, text and speech analytics, alerts and case management for unhappy customers, all in one place. People don't leave because features are missing. They leave over cost, weight, and a new question in 2026: who's steering the company. Six reasons, each one checked.
No public pricing, tiered annual contracts
Medallia's pricing page shows no numbers. You buy Experience Data Records (EDRs), where one record holds all the data tied to a single customer interaction, priced in annual tiers. Figures floating around from buyers and competitors are all over the map, and none come from Medallia. Bottom line: you only learn what your program costs by negotiating it.
Renewals that sting
On public review sites, customers describe a contract renewed with a 10% increase they didn't agree to, and support saying it no longer dedicates resources to accounts their size. Those are individual reviews, not a written policy. They point the same way, though: smaller accounts feel deprioritized.
Heavy implementation
User reviews keep coming back to a steep learning curve, skip logic that's hard to set up without help, reports that are powerful but clunky and slow to download, and tough integrations. One user even reports an SMS "STOP" being scored as negative feedback. For a two-person CX team, that weight costs more than the license.
Insights that never turn into action
Vendors who pick up Medallia customers hear three reasons again and again: implementation weight, cost, and findings that never become changes. If your NPS dashboard looks great but nobody calls detractors back, a new tool won't fix that alone. Fix the process too.
A vendor handed over to its lenders
This is press reporting, from Reuters: Thoma Bravo bought Medallia for $6.4 billion in 2021. In 2026 the firm turned the company over to its lenders (Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and Antares, holding about $3 billion of debt), wiping out $5.1 billion of equity. Blackstone said the business was underperforming because of execution, not AI. The product still runs, but an unclear roadmap is a real factor in a multi-year contract.
Leaving takes export prep
Medallia documents an Import API for getting data in, and Agent Connect has a Data Return API for responses. We found no public documentation of a full one-click export. Raw responses come out, but your text analytics taxonomy (themes and tags) and your closed-loop tickets take real work. On the Qualtrics community, Qualtrics support confirms those tickets can't be imported directly.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Medallia alternative depends on what you really use. If it's NPS surveys only, a six-figure suite makes no sense. If you run contact centers and read thousands of comments a month, a survey tool won't cut it. Each card jumps to the full write-up.
The only like-for-like option, with a free account to start rebuilding.
You want to keep omnichannel and text analyticsInMoment or Zonka FeedbackNPS, CSAT and CES across channels, text analysis built in or as an add-on.
You want a starting price before a sales callQuestionProSurvey plans with public prices from $99 per user a month; CX offer by quote.
Your program is NPS for frontline teamsAskNicelyNPS and CSAT on every plan, priced by response volume.
You want usage pricing with no annual contractFeedier€0.08 per analyzed comment, no annual commitment on Business.
Medallia only runs your surveysAlchemer or SurveyMonkeyPublished prices, up and running in days.
Medallia alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why move there, who it's for, its limit, how to get there from Medallia, and what it costs. Prices are the ones vendors publish in 2026. When a vendor publishes none, the card says so.
Qualtrics: the like-for-like replacement
Full XM suiteWhy move to Qualtrics. It's the one platform that covers the same ground as Medallia, from surveys to text analytics to closing the loop with unhappy customers. If leadership wants a peer-level vendor, this is it. It also has a free account that never expires: 500 responses per survey, 3 active surveys with up to 30 questions, 8 question types. That's enough to rebuild your main NPS survey while Medallia is still live.
Who it's for. Mid-market and enterprise teams with a structured CX program, many channels, and people to run it.
Who it's not for. A company leaving Medallia because of price and complexity: you'd walk into the same negotiation.
Its limit. The first listed paid plan, Strategic Research, is $420 a month ($5,040 a year). Enterprise plans go through sales. Read the renewal clause, any price increase and the notice period in your contract, and put those dates on the calendar the day you sign.
How to migrate. Qualtrics takes historical responses by API or SFTP. Closed-loop tickets don't import: Qualtrics support suggests re-importing responses, then recreating tickets with a workflow, which stamps them with the day the workflow ran as their created date. Keep the original date in its own field. Our guide to switching from Qualtrics covers the reverse trip.
- Free
- 500 responses per survey, 3 active surveys
- Paid
- $420/mo (Strategic Research)
- Best for
- enterprise CX programs
- Limit
- enterprise plans by quote
InMoment: omnichannel and text analytics, lighter footprint
Omnichannel CXWhy move to InMoment. InMoment pulls feedback from every channel into one place and leans on natural language processing to read your comments. It offers NPS, CSAT (customer satisfaction) and CES (customer effort) microsurveys, plus conversational intelligence for contact centers. Look here if what you value in Medallia is the analysis, not the logo.
Who it's for. Companies with high volumes of unstructured feedback (reviews, calls, chats) that want it turned into themes.
Who it's not for. Teams that want a budget number before the first call.
Its limit. InMoment publishes no prices: its plans and packages page lists offers with no amounts. Expect a negotiation not unlike Medallia's.
How to migrate. In the RFP, ask exactly how InMoment ingests your response history and your theme taxonomy. Get it in the written proposal, not just in the demo.
- Price
- no published prices
- Metrics
- NPS, CSAT, CES
- Best for
- large comment volumes
- Limit
- budget only via sales
QuestionPro: public survey prices, CX by quote
Stated priceWhy move to QuestionPro. Unlike Medallia, it lists prices for its survey plans, with a free plan to start. Its fuller CX offer is quote-based, so you can rebuild your questionnaires and pin down part of your budget before the first sales call.
Who it's for. Teams that want a full CX platform but a defined budget from day one, and teams that also run market research.
Who it's not for. A team that needs the full CX budget upfront: only the survey side has public prices.
Its limit. The exact CX price is quote-based. Survey plans: Essentials is free (200 responses per survey), Advanced is $99 per user per month billed annually (25,000 responses a year, 10-day trial), Team is $83 per user per month billed annually with 5 users minimum and 100,000 responses a year.
How to migrate. Rebuild your questionnaires on the free plan first, then request the CX quote with last year's real response volume. That number drives the price.
- Free
- Essentials, 200 responses per survey
- CX offer
- by quote
- Surveys
- Advanced $99/user/mo
- Limit
- exact CX price by quote
Zonka Feedback: omnichannel for mid-size teams
OmnichannelWhy move to Zonka Feedback. It measures NPS, CSAT and CES over email, SMS, WhatsApp, offline kiosks and digital, with AI analysis as an option. For a network of stores, clinics or branches collecting feedback on site, it covers a good part of Medallia with a much shorter rollout.
Who it's for. Multi-location businesses (retail, healthcare, hospitality) and CX teams that need several channels without a heavy program.
Who it's not for. A company that needs to analyze call recordings: that's not its ground.
Its limit. No price grid: Zonka offers custom pricing based on your feedback volume. It sells two products, Feedback Management (by responses) and AI Feedback Intelligence (by credits). Make sure your quote covers both if you want your comments analyzed.
How to migrate. Use the 14-day trial to rebuild your main survey and connect one channel. Zonka has a Make integration to push responses into your CRM.
- Price
- custom, by volume
- Trial
- 14 days
- Channels
- email, SMS, WhatsApp, offline
- Limit
- AI analysis sold separately
AskNicely: NPS built for frontline teams
NPSWhy move to AskNicely. If your Medallia use boils down to NPS and getting it in front of the people who serve customers, AskNicely does that with far less structure. NPS and CSAT come with the first plan, Learn; its NiceAI layer is an add-on.
Who it's for. Service businesses with field or frontline staff (home services, clinics, branches) that want feedback after every job.
Who it's not for. A program that mixes research, contact center and social listening.
Its limit. All three plans (Learn, Grow, Transform) are "talk to sales." The vendor only states a start at 500 responses, with price scaling by volume. Annual billing, discounts for multi-year terms, and SSO (single sign-on with your company directory) costs an extra $1,500 a year.
How to migrate. Copy your NPS question word for word, on the same scale. Otherwise your score moves because of the wording, not your customers.
- Price
- by quote, from 500 responses
- Included
- NPS and CSAT from Learn
- Add-on
- SSO at $1,500/yr
- Limit
- annual contract
Feedier: European feedback analysis, paid per comment
Usage pricingWhy move to Feedier. Feedier is a French vendor focused on analyzing customer feedback, and its model is the opposite of Medallia's: public, usage-based prices and no annual commitment. Business starts at €200 a month for 2,500 analyzed comments, then €0.08 each: €400 for 5,000, €800 for 10,000, €2,000 for 25,000. You can import up to 500,000 pieces of feedback.
Who it's for. Teams, especially with European operations, that already collect feedback everywhere (reviews, surveys, tickets) and mainly want it analyzed.
Who it's not for. A program that depends on real-time alerts and case management across hundreds of locations: check those in a demo.
Its limit. Cost tracks volume: 25,000 comments a month is €2,000 a month. Above that, Enterprise is volume-priced on an annual license. The pricing page doesn't mention NPS or hosting, so ask before you sign. Prices are in euros only.
How to migrate. The 14-day trial includes 2,500 comments, no card. Import six months of Medallia comments and compare the themes Feedier finds with yours. That's the real test.
- Trial
- 14 days, 2,500 comments
- Paid
- from €200/mo, then €0.08 each
- Commitment
- none on Business
- Limit
- cost scales with volume
Alchemer: advanced surveys with published prices
Published pricesWhy move to Alchemer. Plenty of teams realize during the audit that they only use Medallia's surveys. Alchemer covers that with deep question logic and prices on the page. It even has a dedicated "switch from Medallia" page.
Who it's for. Small research or CX teams (1 to 3 people) that want rich surveys without an enterprise contract.
Who it's not for. An organization where dozens of managers read results: pricing is per user.
Its limit. Three per-user plans: Collaborator at $55 a month or $315 a year, Professional at $165 a month or $1,075 a year, Full Access at $275 a month or $1,895 a year, with 75,000, 100,000 or 125,000 responses a year. More than 3 users, or open-text analysis (themes, sentiment), means the Platform tier, priced by quote.
How to migrate. Export your Medallia questionnaires and rebuild them: no tool imports a Medallia survey as is. Start with the one that gets the most responses.
- Paid
- Collaborator $55/mo
- Responses
- 75,000 to 125,000/yr
- Best for
- 1 to 3 users
- Limit
- text analysis by quote
SurveyMonkey: simple NPS for a small team
SimplestWhy move to SurveyMonkey. If Medallia mostly sends a quarterly NPS and shows a chart, SurveyMonkey does it after an afternoon of setup. Team plans add AI response analysis and thematic analysis of open comments.
Who it's for. Small and mid-size teams that want a steady NPS without an IT project.
Who it's not for. An omnichannel program with alerts, case management and contact center feeds.
Its limit. Team Advantage costs $30 per seat per month, billed annually, with 3 seats minimum ($1,080 a year) and 50,000 responses a year; Team Premier is $92 per seat per month. Extra responses are $0.15 each. Per-seat pricing adds up fast if many managers need access, as our SurveyMonkey review explains.
How to migrate. Recreate your NPS question exactly, then keep your old scores in a separate spreadsheet so the historical trend line survives: SurveyMonkey won't carry it over.
- Team
- $30/seat/mo, 3 seats min
- Responses
- 50,000/yr on Team Advantage
- Best for
- small teams, simple NPS
- Limit
- no case management
The 8 alternatives side by side
Our take: Qualtrics if you need the equivalent, QuestionPro or Feedier if you need a readable budget, SurveyMonkey or Alchemer if surveys are all you run. Watch the billing unit. Medallia counts interactions (EDRs), with unlimited users and no per-channel charge. Alchemer and SurveyMonkey count seats: with 40 managers reading results, the bill changes shape. Always compare cost per response and per reader.
| How the vendor bills | First published price and strength | |
|---|---|---|
| MedalliaWhere you start | Per EDR (interaction), annual tiers, unlimited users | No published prices; broadest suite (voice, digital, text) |
| QualtricsLike-for-like suite | Usage plans, enterprise by quote | Free 500 responses per survey; Strategic Research $420/mo |
| InMomentOmnichannel and text | Packages with no listed amounts | No published prices; natural language processing |
| QuestionProStated price | Per user (surveys), quote (CX) | CX by quote; free surveys up to 200 responses, Advanced $99 |
| Zonka FeedbackOmnichannel | By response volume, AI by credits | Custom pricing; 14-day trial |
| AskNicelyFrontline NPS | By response volume, annual contract | By quote, from 500 responses; NPS and CSAT included |
| FeedierUsage pricing | Per analyzed comment | €200/mo for 2,500 comments, then €0.08 |
| AlchemerAdvanced surveys | Per user | Collaborator $55/mo; 75,000 responses/yr |
| SurveyMonkeySimple NPS | Per seat | Team Advantage $30/seat/mo, 3 seats min |
Prices excluding tax as published by each vendor in 2026, subject to change. QuestionPro CX, Medallia, InMoment, Zonka and AskNicely: quote-based, driven by volume.
Leaving Medallia in seven steps
Order matters more than the tool. For a mid-size program, plan on roughly 8 to 12 weeks from decision to the last Medallia send. Each step protects something: your budget, your history, your NPS trend, customers waiting on a callback.
Read the contract and plan around the renewal date
Day -120Your Medallia contract isn't public, and it sets everything: term end, auto-renewal, notice period. Exit guides recommend starting your evaluation 90 to 120 days before renewal, because notice periods often run 60 to 90 days. Check yours line by line before you start anything.
Tip: that timeline is also your leverage. A competing quote in hand two months before renewal carries more weight than a threat to leave in the final week.
- When
- 90 to 120 days before renewal
- Risk if rushed
- another year billed
Audit what actually runs
Week 1List every program: surveys and their triggers (purchase, call, visit), channels, alerts, detractor follow-up rules, dashboards, integrations (CRM, contact center, data warehouse) and users. Since Medallia doesn't bill per user, a lot of accounts got created: count the ones that logged in over the last three months.
This is often where the decision gets made. If 90% of usage is three surveys, a survey tool is enough.
- Output
- a sheet, one row per item
Export raw responses before sending notice
CriticalExport raw responses, their metadata (date, channel, location, customer ID) and text analytics tags as CSV or JSON. Not PDF dashboards: they don't import anywhere. Do it before you send notice, while the relationship is good and your access is complete.
Store the files outside Medallia with a data dictionary for every column. In two years, nobody will remember what "Q7_b" meant.
- Format
- CSV or JSON, never PDF
- Risk if rushed
- lost history
Save your theme taxonomy
Your themes and sub-themes ("delivery time", "checkout friendliness") are years of tuning. As one competing vendor puts it, the trapped asset is the analytics layer. Export the list, its rules and sample comments per theme.
Rebuild it at the destination before importing history, then check on a sample that the same comments land in the same themes.
- Export
- themes, rules, examples
Close or recreate closed-loop tickets
Often missedClosed-loop tickets (the callback to an unhappy customer) don't transfer between platforms. Qualtrics support confirms it and suggests re-importing responses, then recreating tickets with a workflow, which gives them today's date.
The cleanest approach: stop opening new tickets in Medallia two weeks before cutover, close what's left, and only recreate tickets that are still open, with their original date in a dedicated field.
- Trap
- created date reset
Run both tools in parallel
Launch the new survey on one channel while Medallia still runs. Keep the same question, the same scale and the same send timing. If your NPS jumps ten points on switch day, the measurement changed, not your customers, and leadership will ask about it.
Move integrations one at a time: CRM, contact center, email alerts.
- Length
- a few weeks
- Compare
- response rate and score
Cut over, then send notice on time
Before the deadlineTurn off Medallia triggers channel by channel, confirm every response lands in the new tool, then send written notice within the contract window and ask for confirmation of receipt.
Also ask in writing what happens to your data after the contract ends and when it gets deleted. That's a privacy compliance question, not paperwork.
- Keep
- written confirmation
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a Medallia exit go wrong
A Medallia exit rarely fails because of the new tool. It fails because of a missed date or a forgotten dataset. These are the mistakes that keep coming up, and how to avoid them.
Missing the notice deadline
A missed auto-renewal means another year to pay, often with an increase. Put the notice date in two people's calendars, not one.
Giving notice before exporting
Once notice is sent, your exports depend on the vendor's goodwill. Export first, check the files, then give notice.
Comparing on per-seat price
Medallia doesn't charge per user or per channel. A $55-per-user tool looks cheap until you count 40 managers. Run the numbers on your real reader count.
Thinking a survey tool replaces closed loop
Alerts, case management and detractor callbacks are what make a CX program pay off. If your destination lacks them, decide who does that work, and with what.
Picking a tool that no longer exists
Lots of lists still recommend Delighted as "Medallia lite." Delighted is gone: its pricing page now redirects to Qualtrics. Always open a tool's pricing page before it makes your shortlist.
Forgetting where the data lives
Ask Medallia in writing where your data is hosted before you leave. Your destination should state in its data processing agreement where it hosts responses and who its subprocessors are. If you want full control, open-source Formbricks can run on your own servers (free Community Edition). For more options, see our best NPS software ranking and our survey tools ranking.
- Term end, notice period and renewal clause reviewed
- Audit of surveys, channels, alerts, integrations and active users
- Raw responses and metadata exported as CSV or JSON
- Theme taxonomy exported with its rules
- Open tickets closed or recreated with their original date
- NPS question and scale copied exactly
- Both tools run in parallel on at least one channel
- Hosting location and subprocessors written into the contract
- Written notice sent, confirmation of receipt saved
Medallia alternatives: frequently asked questions
How much does Medallia cost?
Medallia doesn't publish prices. It bills by Experience Data Record (one customer interaction and all its data) in annual tiers, with unlimited users and no separate charge per channel. Numbers you see online come from third parties and vary wildly. To compare, request a quote based on last year's interaction volume, and send the same request to the alternatives.
Is there a free Medallia alternative?
Not for a full CX program, but you can start for free. Qualtrics has a free account with 500 responses per survey and 3 active surveys, no expiration. QuestionPro Essentials is free up to 200 responses per survey. For on-site surveys, Hotjar's free plan gives 100 responses a month and Survicate's 25; our Hotjar review and Survicate review cover their paid plans.
What happened to Medallia in 2026?
According to press reports, Thoma Bravo turned Medallia over to its lenders, including Blackstone, KKR and Apollo, wiping out $5.1 billion of equity. The product and support continue. The practical impact for you is contractual: avoid multi-year commitments without an exit clause until the roadmap is clear.
Is Delighted still a Medallia alternative?
No. Delighted shut down, and its pricing page redirects to Qualtrics, which positions its own offer as the replacement. For a lightweight NPS tool, look at AskNicely, SurveyMonkey or Typeform (free for 10 responses a month, Basic at $28 a month billed annually). Our Typeform review compares its plans.
Can you export your data from Medallia?
Raw responses and metadata, yes, as CSV or JSON. We found no public documentation of a full one-click export, and closed-loop tickets don't import elsewhere as they are. Export everything before you give notice, and keep a column dictionary.
Medallia vs Qualtrics: which one?
Both cover the same ground. Qualtrics has a concrete head start: a free account and a first listed plan at $420 a month, while Medallia lists nothing. Medallia keeps the unlimited-users, no-per-channel-fee argument. Read both contracts for renewal, annual increases and notice. Our guide to switching from Qualtrics lists its terms.
Which Medallia alternative works for a smaller company?
If you're under a few thousand responses a year, start with SurveyMonkey (Team Advantage at $30 per seat per month, 3 seats minimum) or AskNicely if NPS by frontline staff is the goal. Move up to Zonka Feedback or QuestionPro CX only if you need several channels and text analysis.
How long does a Medallia migration take?
Plan on roughly 8 to 12 weeks for a mid-size program: audit, export, rebuilding surveys, a few weeks in parallel, then cutover. Add the time for vendor selection. That's why the work starts 90 to 120 days before your renewal date.
How do I connect Medallia to other tools during the transition?
Through Zapier, which has connectors for Medallia Agent Connect and Medallia Agile Research. During the parallel run, a zap that copies each new response into a spreadsheet gives you a record you control, whatever tool you land on.
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