Zoho Survey: the API, the free plan and how its polls work
Zoho Survey is an online survey and poll builder from Zoho that turns a written question into a shareable form with options, restrictions and reports. The vendor's own pages state that the free plan allows unlimited surveys with three active at once, ten questions and a hundred responses per active survey, and that participants need no Zoho account to answer through a shared link.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
What Zoho Survey does for a poll
Zoho Survey is Zoho's form and questionnaire builder, and a quick poll is one of the simplest things it can carry. You write a question, attach answer options, and hand out a link; respondents need no account of their own, because the vendor states that participants answer directly through the shared link. That makes the tool a reasonable stand-in for a straw poll, a quiz or a scored form, with the mechanics of a full survey platform underneath.
The catch for contest organisers is that the platform is built for measurement, not for open repeat voting. Every response lands in a report the owner controls, and each restriction the owner switches on tightens the funnel a little more. The sections below walk through those switches, the API that reaches the data, and the rules the vendor publishes around paid responses.
- A public link needs no login from the person answering.
- The free tier allows unlimited surveys, with three active at any given time.
- Restrictions can be keyed to an email address, a unique URL, an IP address or a browser cookie.
- Reports can be published, but only as a deliberate sharing choice by the owner.
The API and what it can reach
Zoho Survey provides APIs, and the vendor's developer pages treat them as the official route for custom integrations with other software. Zoho states that the Survey API can fetch departments, a list of surveys, push responses, pull default reports and pull a survey URL. For a poll that feeds a contest, that list matters: the same pipe that delivers data out can carry entries in, which is why any integration deserves a second look before it goes live.
Documentation is not centralised. Each Zoho product carries its own comprehensive API documentation, so the Survey reference sits beside references for every other Zoho service. The API console is where an application is registered and credentials are managed, and once that is done the Survey-specific pages list the endpoints and the parameters each call accepts.
- Fetch departments and the list of surveys under your account.
- Push responses programmatically, within the rules the platform publishes.
- Pull default reports and a survey URL without opening the builder.
Account, credentials and the requirements list
Three requirements sit in front of the API, and Zoho spells them out plainly. You need a Zoho account, because the developer pages state that Zoho credentials are required to use Zoho APIs. You also need to register your application and obtain the credentials it will use. Registration and credential handling both happen in the API console.
Beyond that, the vendor does not describe a separate approval programme or an enrollment step for the Survey API in the material reviewed here. The login you already use for the builder is the same identity the API expects, so there is no second account to maintain and no extra password to lose.
- A Zoho account, with credentials the API recognises.
- A registered application, created in the API console.
- Credentials issued to that application, managed in the same place.
Free tier, pricing and what a plan changes
The free plan is generous enough to test every mechanic on this list. Zoho states that with the free plan you can create an unlimited number of surveys, though only three can be active at any given time, and each active survey can include up to ten questions and collect up to a hundred responses. Answer validation and anonymous responses come included, and a seven-day Enterprise trial requires no credit card.
Paid tiers raise those ceilings and add features, and Zoho publishes pricing for them on its own pages. The figures move often enough that quoting one here would go stale, so treat the vendor's pricing page as the live number. What a plan does not change is the rule set: the restrictions, the closing dates and the terms described below apply across tiers.
- Unlimited surveys on the free tier, three active at once.
- Ten questions and a hundred responses per active survey before any upgrade.
- A seven-day Enterprise trial with no credit card required.
Response restrictions: email, URL, IP and device
By default one person can give infinite responses. That sentence sits in Zoho's own help centre, and everything after it is the owner's choice. The restriction panel offers four keys, and each one checks something different about the person answering, so the honest question for any poll is which identity a response should stick to.
The email option generates a unique URL for every address, which locks one response to one inbox. The unique-URL option does the same without needing an email list. The IP option requires the Collect IP address checkbox to be enabled first. The device option leans on browser cookies, so it is best treated as a convenience gate rather than a strict one.
- Public access is the default setting, not a paid feature.
- CAPTCHA can be enabled to protect a survey against automated responses.
Closing dates and sharing the tally
A survey ends when the owner says so. The owner can set a closing date and time, and Zoho applies the survey author's time zone to that moment, which is worth checking if respondents span continents. Until then the link keeps accepting responses; afterwards it stops on its own, with no manual switch to flip.
Sharing is equally deliberate. Reports can be made publicly accessible, and a public report can even be crawled by search engines, but Zoho treats that as a sharing choice rather than an automatic running tally. A contest organiser who wants a live public count has to switch it on; the platform never exposes responses by accident.
- The closing date and time run on the survey author's time zone.
- A public report can be crawled by search engines once shared.
- Responses stay private until the owner chooses to publish.
How it compares as an alternative
Judged against the tools this site covers elsewhere, Zoho Survey sits in the middle of the pack on mechanics. SurveyMonkey and Jotform offer comparable restriction sets, Google Forms is looser but free of the three-active-survey cap, and dedicated poll tools trade depth for speed. The comparison that matters for a contest is narrower: how many identity keys the platform offers per response, and whether an API lets data leave cleanly.
On those two tests the platform holds up. Four restriction keys plus CAPTCHA is more granular than most free tiers anywhere, and a documented API is not universal among survey builders. Where it trails is pace: a scored form takes longer to assemble than a one-tap story poll on a social app.
- Count the identity keys per response: email, link, IP and device here.
- Check whether an API exists and what it can pull.
- Weigh the active-survey cap against the tools you already use.
Where the help stops
The platform's rules leave three gaps open, and honesty requires naming them. First, Zoho's terms for its paid responses feature describe completed responses delivered after a purchase request, and those terms never describe the feature as permission to acquire contest votes, so an organiser who treats the two as the same thing is outside the paperwork. Second, the device cookie gate is a convenience, not an identity check. Third, no restriction option verifies that one human equals one respondent; each key checks an address, a link, an IP or a browser, and a group can present more than one of any of those. That gap is exactly what the organiser's own review is for, and no plan change closes it.
- The paid responses terms never extend to contest votes.
- The cookie gate identifies a browser, not a person.
- No restriction option counts humans; each counts an address, a link, an IP or a browser.
| Restriction | What it checks | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| One response per email | An email address on your list | Zoho generates a unique URL for every address |
| One response per unique URL | The link itself | No email list needed |
| One response per IP address | The network the response comes from | The Collect IP address checkbox must be enabled |
| One response per device | The browser's cookies | None, but it is the softest of the four |
| CAPTCHA | Automated submissions | A single toggle in the survey settings |
How to do it
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Start in the builder
Log in with your Zoho credentials and open a new Zoho Survey project. Write the poll question, add the answer options, and keep the form short if you want completion rates to hold up. Ten questions is the free tier's ceiling per active survey.
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Leave the link public
Public access is the default, and it suits a poll: anyone with the address can answer, no account needed. Change it only if the contest rules require respondents to identify themselves.
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Pick the response restriction
Open the restriction panel and choose one key: one response per email, per unique URL, per IP address, or per device. The IP option needs the Collect IP address checkbox enabled first, so tick that before you share anything.
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Enable CAPTCHA
The vendor states that enabling CAPTCHA protects a survey against automated responses from internet bots. One toggle in the settings, and the form stops being the easiest target on the internet.
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Set the closing date
Give the poll a closing date and time, and check the author's time zone setting, because that is the clock Zoho applies. The link stops accepting responses at that moment on its own.
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Share and decide on the tally
Send the link out, watch responses arrive in the report, and decide whether to make the report publicly accessible. A public report is a sharing choice the owner makes, not a default the platform hands you.
Common questions
Is there an official REST API available for Zoho Survey that allows developers to access survey data and functionality?
Yes. Zoho Survey provides APIs that let developers build custom integrations with other software, and Zoho's developer pages treat them as the official route into survey data. Through the API you can fetch departments, a list of surveys, push responses, pull default reports and pull a survey URL, all with the credentials of your own Zoho account.
Where is the complete API documentation for Zoho Survey?
Each Zoho product carries its own comprehensive API documentation, and the Survey reference lives inside that developer space. The API console is where you register your application and manage your credentials, so that is the practical starting point. Once an application is registered, the Survey-specific reference lists the endpoints, the parameters and the responses each call returns.
Are there any specific requirements, approval processes, or developer program enrollments needed to access the Survey API?
Yes, three things sit in front of the API. You need a Zoho account, because the developer pages state that Zoho credentials are required to use Zoho APIs. You also need to register your application and obtain the credentials it will use, both handled in the API console. Beyond registration, Zoho does not describe a separate approval programme for the Survey API.
If a direct API is not available, what are the recommended methods for integrating Zoho Survey data with external applications?
A direct API exists, so integration runs through it rather than around it: fetch data, push responses and pull reports and survey URLs programmatically. Outside code, the built-in sharing options cover simple handoffs, because a report can be made publicly accessible by the owner. Anything more elaborate than that belongs in the API, not in a workaround.
What is a 'user' in Zoho Surveys, and can I have multiple Offline Kiosks running?
A user is an account seat: one sign-in that works on surveys on the website. Zoho counts plans by these seats rather than by kiosks, so whether several Offline Kiosks can run at the same time depends on the seat allowance your plan carries. Check the seat count on your account, or put the question to Zoho's support team before you commit.
Is a 'user' the amount of people that can make and edit surveys on the website?
In practice, yes. A user seat is a login that can make and edit surveys on the website, so a team of several editors means several seats. Sharing one login between colleagues is a poor fit for seat-based plans: edit history becomes impossible to attribute, and the vendor's plans are priced on the assumption that one seat serves one person.
Can anybody help me to build the logic for my requirement please?
Start with the vendor's own routes. Zoho Survey's help centre documents every restriction switch, the developer space documents the API, and Zoho's support team handles account questions. If your logic depends on data leaving the platform, model it on the API's fetch and push operations first, because those are the pieces everything else plugs into.
Where these facts come from
- help.zoho.com. help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/survey/faq/launch/articles/is-there-any-way-to-limit-responses-to-one-response-per-user.
- help.zoho.com. help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/survey/launch/visibility/articles/visibility.
- help.zoho.com. help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/survey/launch/restrictions/response-restriction/articles/response-restriction.
- help.zoho.com. help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/survey/launch/restrictions/response-restriction/articles/response-restriction.
- zoho.com. zoho.com/survey/secure-surveys.html.
This page cannot quote prices, because they change and the vendor keeps the live figures on its own pages. It does not teach vote inflation, proxy tricks or anything that would breach a contest's rules, and it never promises that purchased responses escape review. Zoho's terms do not cover contest votes, and no organiser's approval can be assumed.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.