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Rally vs Ethnio: Introduction

When it comes to Research Operations, choosing the 
right platform makes all the difference.

Rally is a comprehensive Research Operations platform designed to streamline participant management and empower research teams to deliver insights faster.

At its core, Rally is a robust research CRM. With advanced filtering, segmentation, and database management, researchers can easily recruit their own users and manage the entire study process in one place. Rally’s unique integration strategy supports research in any tool of choice. Recruit from your own users or tap into a panel of over 3 million participants powered by Respondent.

Ethnio is a platform that helps researchers and organizations recruit and manage participants for user research studies.

The Ethnio platform was initially built to support incentive management. Since then, their team has expanded the platform to add recruitment functionality. Many Ethnio customers use the platform for a single use case, and supplement their ReOps processes with additional tools and spreadsheets. Advanced features, like panel management, integrations, and participant management, are offered in Ethnio’s Enterprise plan only.

Rally vs Ethnio are two popular platforms in the market, but which is the better choice for your organization? In this detailed comparison, we’re covering how both platforms compare to each other in key points such as:

User-friendliness:
How easy will this platform be to onboard with my team or organization? Will this help democratize our user research?

Quality of support:
How responsive and helpful is the support team? Can they provide timely assistance and resources to resolve issues, onboard teams, and answer questions effectively?

Product direction:
How aligned is the platform’s roadmap with the evolving needs of user research? Are new features and updates driven by user feedback and industry trends to ensure continuous improvement and relevance?

Compare Platforms (Based on G2 reviews)

 
Rally
Ethnio
Overall rating (G2)
4.8/5
4.7/5 out of 800+ reviews
Ease of setup
9.2/10
9/10
Ease of admin
9.1/10
9/10
Ease of use
9.2/10
7.5/10
Quality of support
9.9/10
9.1/10
Product direction
10/10
9.3/10
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?
10/10
9/10

“We’re able to reach some of our harder-to-find participants and it’s not taking us days to do so, like it was before. Rally keeps everything organized and on-track. Rally helps me feel like I’m doing my job both correctly and well. I truly feel like I can ask the Rally team anything."

Heather Ashley
  |  
UX Research Ops at Webflow

The Rally Advantage

For teams doing research, here’s what separates Rally and Ethnio

buildings

Multi Use Case Platform

Rally is designed to support use cases and workflows across the entire study building and participant management process. 

Panel management

Deep integrations to your tech stack

Participant management included in every pricing tier

map

Support & Product Velocity

Our approach is centered around working hand-in-hand with our customers to build Rally together. We release updates weekly, summarizing them in our monthly changelog.

Customizable onboarding

Monthly product releases

Dedicated CSM and Slack channel

link

Powerful Integrations

Rally integrates with your research tools and company data CRMs like Salesforce and Snowflake, to eliminate the need for third-party plugins and custom builds. 

Salesforce & Snowflake

External panel recruitment

15+ integrations and counting

Key Features

The features that help teams get research done fast.

CRM
Integrations
Ease of use
Enterprise
User friendly
Governance
Support
Innovation

Built on a Research CRM

Powerful filtering, segmentation, and database management.

  • Reduce study setup time by 30%
  • Find users without writing SQL
  • Centralized participant data in one place

Extensive Integration Options

Seamless integration with Salesforce, Snowflake, and more.

  • Works with your existing tools
  • Effortless data flow across your organization
  • Align research with broader company insights

Easy to Use, Easy to Teach

Smooth and effortless participant experience.

  • Democratize research safely at scale
  • Quick onboarding for faster results
  • Custom branding for a seamless experience

Built for the Enterprise

  • Self-serve research for multiple teams
  • Consistent, time-saving research templates
  • Scalable security with enterprise-level guardrails

Intuitive Interface

  • Easy scheduling and coordination
  • Modern, user-friendly design—no outdated or complex user interface
  • Full visibility into all research activities

Effective Guardrails & Governance

  • Establish guardrails for democratized research
  • Avoid user fatigue with cool-down and blocklist features
  • Stay compliant with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA

Top-Rated Support

We’re there whenever and however you need us.

  • Custom onboarding with a dedicated team
  • Private Slack channels and on-call engineers
  • Comprehensive resource guides

Rapid Innovation

An ambitious, customer-led product roadmap.

  • Monthly product releases
  • Shape Rally’s future with customer feedback

"Rally has single-handedly taken our confusing and complicated recruitment approach and helped my team build out a well-designed, engaging, and time-saving process."

Steffani Rheault
  |  
Senior User Researcher at Sonos

G2 Reviews from real Rally customers

“Easiest research CRM I’ve used!”

Iryna K.

“Awesome to have in our toolkit.”

Sharon H.

“My favorite UXR tool.”

Kathy S.

“Huge time saver when scheduling interviews.”

Annie M.

“The most robust and flexible recruiting tool for UX research!”

Crystal K.

"Intuitive, flexible and fast recruitment!"

Lauren B.

    Making research happen shouldn’t be a slog.

    That’s where Rally comes in. Spend less time recruiting and 
coordinating, and more time talking to your users.

    Faster recruiting; no tedious admin

    Rally streamlines your research process by automating outreach, scheduling, and incentives. Cut out the tedious manual work of recruiting so you can focus on what matters most: doing meaningful research.

    Complete visibility across participants & studies.

    Rally brings all of your participants and studies together, lets you know when participants are eligible for new studies, and makes it easy for you to launch your next study with confidence.

    You’re the hero, we’re the sidekick

    Grow the impact of User Research across your entire company. Whether your goal is to democratize or centralize, Rally’s CRM platform helps you scale up repeatable research processes for any team.

    "As someone introduced to Rally fairly recently, I was really impressed with it's usability, for such a robust tool. The ability to link unmoderated studies, auto-qualify participants, and customize and filter properties, has accommodated every study I've been able to dream up so far."

    Lauren Beich
      |  
    Design Researcher & Strategist

    FAQs

    Who is Rally for?

    Rally has been co-created by and for leading Research teams that need to manage, protect, and do research with their own users. Rally enables fast, continuous research, ensuring teams spend engineering resources wisely and deliver quality products that people really need. Our primary users are Research Operations, Design Operations, Product Operations, UX Researchers, Product Managers, and Designers.

    Why choose Rally over Ethnio for Research Operations?

    If you're on the hunt for a Research Operations Platform that has the flexibility and strategy to scale with your team, Rally is the proven option.

    Rally has been co-created by and for leading Research teams, offering specific features like custom roles, team workspaces, and seamless integrations with research tools and data warehouses like Salesforce and Snowflake. Plus, Rally makes it easy to recruit participants quickly and run research efficiently with support that's always there when you need it. Whether you’re running global studies or looking for a smooth user experience, Rally provides the flexibility, customization, and guidance to keep your research running smoothly.

    Can I build moderated interview studies in Rally?

    Yes! Build surveys, interviews (1:1, round robin, collective), focus groups and unmoderated tests in Rally. Rally integrates with leading research tools to enable you to run any type of research you need to, while managing the end-to-end operations in one place.

    Can I recruit from an external panel with Rally?

    Yes! Recruit from a panel of over 3 million active participants, powered by Respondent. Learn more here.

    What happens during a Rally demo?

    During our 30 minute Rally demo, you’ll meet with one of our Rally experts who will quickly run through and align on the key problems Rally solves for organizations like yours. We’ll ask you to share specific challenges that you and your team face, and show you how the Rally platform may be able to support you in your Research Operations program. Book a demo here.

    What are some discussion questions I can use during my evaluation of both platforms?
    • What is your integration strategy, specifically with data warehouses like Salesforce or Snowflake?
    • How do you support teams with a democratization strategy?
    • How do you support teams with a ReOps led recruitment strategy?
    • What is your security strategy and what compliance certificates does the platform hold?
    • What types of study projects can we build in the platform?
    • We need to protect participant data. Does the platform have PII/PHI masking?
    • We need to lock up certain participants, their data, and specific actions within the platform for team members. Does the platform have custom user roles?
    • We want to enable stakeholders to watch user interviews. Do you have observer rooms?
    • We need to do research in different languages. How does the platform support global research?
    • We want to save time when building research studies. What kinds of templates can we utilize?
    • Can we customize our studies to provide an on-brand participant experience?