Survey vs. Questionnaire: What’s the Difference?

A survey is a research process used to collect insights from a target group, while a questionnaire is the set of questions used inside a survey. In short:
👉 All surveys contain questionnaires, but not all questionnaires are surveys.
Surveys measure trends, behaviors, and opinions at scale.
Questionnaires simply gather information often without statistical analysis.
If your business wants cleaner data, better response rates, and automated workflows, you should know when to use each one.
Survey vs Questionnaire: The Key Difference
Both terms are often mixed up especially in marketing, HR, UX research, and customer feedback workflows.
But the difference is simple:
| Feature | Survey | Questionnaire |
| Definition | A research method/process | A list of questions |
| Purpose | Understand patterns, measure results | Collect data or input |


