By the Wavefield Research team · Published Sep 2, 2026
Wavefield runs quantitative studies end to end: questionnaire designed from your brief, vetted panel sample arranged from $3.50 per complete, fielding managed, and results delivered weighted with significance testing. The study costs $99 to $299 plus sample — a typical 400-complete project lands near $1,600, not $15,000.
Every market research services page you will find today ends the same way: “contact us for a quote.” This one does not. The prices are below, the scope is below, and so is an honest list of the services we do not offer — because a services page that only says yes is a sales page.
Two components, always: a flat study fee for design, programming, fielding infrastructure, and analysis — and, when the study needs respondents we arrange, sample priced per quality-checked complete. Where the money goes in a traditional quote is decomposed in how much does market research cost; this is what the same work costs productized.
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| Service | Price | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Survey study, your respondents | $99–$299 flat | Questionnaire programmed from your brief (skip logic, quotas, rotations), fielding through your lists or links, weighted toplines, significance-tested crosstabs, SPSS/Excel/Word exports. Unlimited completes. |
| Survey study with panel sample arranged | $99–$299 + sample from $3.50 per complete | Everything above, plus vetted panel respondents screened to your audience. General population runs $3.50–$5 per quality-checked complete; niche audiences $5–$8 or quoted. You pay for quality-passed completes only. |
| Concept test (monadic) | from $99 + sample per cell | Randomized cells, purchase-intent batteries, cell-vs-cell significance. Sample math is per cell: two concepts at n=200 means 400 completes of sample. |
| Brand tracker | $299 setup, $99 per wave | Wave-over-wave trend reports on the identical instrument, with significance tests between waves. Sample arranged the same way each wave, which is the discipline trackers live on. |
| Political district study | $99–$299 + sample | Ballot tests, split-sample message batteries, past-vote weighting. Priced in detail — method by method against pollster quotes — on the political poll cost guide. |
Study-type details live on their own pages: concept testing, brand tracking, political poll costs. Which study type answers which question — segmentation, usage and attitude, pricing — is mapped in market research surveys, type by type.
Quantitative survey research, in its standard commercial forms. Each type below runs on the same engine — quotas, weighting, significance testing — with design details documented in our methodology guides rather than locked in a proposal:
Who uses the category, how often, and what they believe about it — the foundational market study. Typically 10–15 minutes, general-population or category-user sample, weighted to census targets.
Monadic or sequential designs with randomized cells, purchase-intent batteries, and cell-vs-cell significance testing, so the winning concept is a finding rather than a coin flip.
Van Westendorp's four price-sensitivity questions or Gabor-Granger ladders, fielded with the discipline the methods require — monotonicity checks included in the analysis.
Split-sample designs: each respondent sees one message arm, and the arms are compared with significance tests. The same machinery that powers political message batteries works for brand claims.
Awareness funnels and brand health batteries re-fielded on the identical instrument each wave, with wave-over-wave significance testing and sample sourced the same way every time.
Satisfaction studies of your own customers, fielded to your list — the one study type where panel sample would measure the wrong people, so we will say so rather than sell it.
A worked example, since services pages never give one. A 400-complete usage and attitude study of US consumers: the study is $199 (weighting to census targets puts it in the Standard tier), and general-population panel sample at $3.50–$5 per quality-checked complete adds $1,400–$2,000. Total: $1,600–$2,200, brief to weighted report in about a week. The same study from a full-service market research agency is a $15,000–$25,000 engagement on a six-week calendar — a difference explained line by line in the agency quote anatomy.
A page of plain language, or a past questionnaire, or a document — what you need to learn, from whom, by when. The AI agent programs a full draft questionnaire from it the same day, and you review every question before anything fields.
Your lists field immediately. Panel sample takes a quote (audience, incidence, length set the per-complete price) and is typically fielding within days, with screeners, quotas, and quality checks — speeders, straightliners, duplicates, attention checks — running automatically.
Weighted toplines with margins of error on honest effective bases, crosstabs with significance letters, AI-coded open ends, and exports in SPSS, Excel, Word, and CSV. Most single-market quantitative studies report within a week of brief.
The economics work because the expensive parts of full-service market research — questionnaire programming, quota management, weighting, crosstab production — are automated by the platform rather than billed by the hour. What stays human is judgment: study design choices, the sample plan, and a person answering support@wavefieldresearch.com the same day. The analysis conventions — raking, effective bases, significance on honest denominators — are the same ones documented across our methodology guides, because the service runs on the same engine.
That shared engine also means the run-it-yourself line is honest, not a decoy. The traditional advice says outsource once survey programming eats your week; here the agent does the programming either way, so the real dividing line is respondents and reading. Have a list of your own and someone comfortable reading a weighted topline? Build it yourself and pay $99 to field it. Need sample arranged, a screener designed for a tricky audience, or a first study where a second pair of eyes matters? Send the brief.
Full-service market research agencies offer things we deliberately do not. If your project needs them, an agency genuinely earns its fee — here is the line, drawn in advance:
Focus groups, depth interviews, and ethnography are moderated crafts, not software. If the question is why people feel what they feel, in their own words at length, hire a qualitative shop — our map of the methods says when that is the right spend.
The study tells you what is true; a consultant tells you what to do about it. We deliberately stop at the report. If the readout must come with a strategic recommendation and someone to defend it in the boardroom, that is an agency engagement.
Market sizing from published data, industry reports, competitor teardowns — different product, different vendors. What we run is primary research: your questions, fielded to real respondents, analyzed to research-grade standards.
Choosing between these paths — surveys, interviews, focus groups, secondary sources — is its own decision, mapped honestly in market research methods. When the answer is quantitative survey research, this page is the price list.
And whoever you evaluate — us included — four questions separate research vendors from sales operations. What is the price per completed interview, in writing? Who owns the raw response data when the project ends? What happens to respondents who fail quality checks, and who pays for them? And what margin of error convention does the report use — a stated margin on the effective base after weighting, or a flattering one on the raw count? A vendor that answers all four plainly is worth shortlisting, whatever they charge.
Published prices: the study itself is $99–$299 flat depending on complexity, with repeat tracker waves at $99. Panel sample, when we arrange it, adds $3.50–$5 per quality-checked complete for general population and $5–$8 for niche audiences. A typical 400-complete consumer study lands around $1,600 all-in — against the $15,000–$75,000 a full-service agency commonly quotes for a comparable quantitative project.
Yes, when the study needs them. We arrange vetted panel sample screened to your audience, priced per quality-checked complete, and you pay only for completes that pass quality checks — speeders, straightliners, and duplicates are excluded from billing. Studies of your own customers or members field through your lists instead, where buying sample would measure the wrong people.
The questionnaire is programmed from your brief the same day. Fielding is the variable: an engaged customer list can return overnight, general-population panel sample typically fields in two to five days, and low-incidence audiences take longer. Most single-market quantitative studies go from brief to weighted report inside a week — agency timelines for the same scope commonly run four to eight weeks.
It depends on which part you would be paying for. The mechanical parts — programming, quotas, weighting, crosstabs — are automated here, so paying a service for those alone is paying for software you could use directly at $99 a study. The parts genuinely worth paying for: panel sample arranged and quality-controlled for an audience you cannot reach, screener design for tricky audiences where wording mistakes are invisible until the data misleads, and simply not spending your own week on it. That is why the service is priced as the study fee plus sample, rather than a consulting day rate.
Every study includes weighted toplines with margins of error computed on effective bases, crosstabs with significance letters, quality-flagged responses, AI-coded open ends, and exports: SPSS with weights registered, Excel banner books, a Word topline, and CSV. There is no deliverables menu with line-item prices — the analysis layer is the product, so all of it comes with every study.
Related: how much does market research cost · market research methods · market research surveys, type by type · sample size calculator
Email support@wavefieldresearch.com with what you need to learn and we will reply the same day with a sample quote and a draft plan — or build the study yourself, free, and pay only to field it.