Qualtrics vs Medallia: Our Honest Neutral Comparison

If you are evaluating enterprise-grade Voice of the Customer (VoC) or Experience Management (XM) platforms, you’ve inevitably landed on the two "Goliaths" of the industry: Qualtrics and Medallia. Most comparison articles are written by competitors trying to get a slice of the pie but we're a neutral observer as we have customers who ingest and analyze survey data from both of these companies.

Both are perennial Leaders in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™. Both serve the Fortune 500. And both will likely represent a significant investment for your organization. However, despite their overlapping goals, they are built on fundamentally different philosophies.

In this guide, we break down the nuances between Qualtrics and Medallia to help you decide which is the right fit for your specific business needs.

The High-Level Philosophy

Qualtrics: The "Research-First" Powerhouse

Originally rooted in academic research, Qualtrics has evolved into a massive "Experience Management" platform. Its DNA is built on sophisticated data collection and deep analytics. If you have a team of data scientists or research power users who want to slice and dice data in 100 different ways, Qualtrics is often the preferred choice. It positions itself as a system of record for all experience data (Customer, Employee, Product, and Brand).

Medallia: The "Action-First" Operator

Medallia was built with a different goal: operationalizing feedback. Instead of just "studying" the customer, Medallia is designed to help frontline employees (like store managers or call center agents) take immediate action. It excels at "closing the loop" and is widely considered the gold standard for large-scale, real-time operational CX.

Head-to-Head: Gartner Peer Insights Stats

To provide an objective look at user sentiment, we’ve aggregated the latest data from Gartner Peer Insights (as of early 2025/2026 reporting cycles) for the Voice of the Customer Platforms market.

Source: Gartner Peer Insights

Key Takeaway from the Stats: While the two are neck-and-neck, Medallia currently holds a slight edge in Service & Support and Willingness to Recommend. Qualtrics users often praise the platform's power but occasionally note friction in the post-sales support experience.

Core Feature Comparison

1. Data Collection & Surveying

• Qualtrics: Offers arguably the most advanced survey builder on the market. From simple polls to complex conjoint analysis and specialized academic research tools, it can handle any methodology.
• Medallia: While its survey tools are robust, they are often seen as less "flexible" for ad-hoc research. However, Medallia shines in unstructured data capture—it is exceptionally good at pulling insights from voice recordings, video feedback, and social media at scale.

2. Analytics and AI

• Qualtrics: Their "iQ" suite (Text iQ, Stats iQ, Predict iQ) brings high-level statistical analysis to the average user. It’s excellent for identifying trends and predicting which customer behaviors will drive revenue.

• Medallia: Focuses its AI (Athena) on "Risk Scoring" and "Root Cause Analysis." It tells you why a customer is unhappy and alerts the specific employee who can fix it in real-time.

3. Ease of Use & Implementation

• Qualtrics: The interface is modern and intuitive for survey creators, but the sheer number of features can create a steep learning curve for admins.

• Medallia: Often requires a more involved initial implementation. However, once set up, its role-based dashboards are highly praised for being "idiot-proof" for frontline staff who only need to see the data relevant to their specific branch or department.

The "Enterprise Reality": Pros & Cons

Qualtrics

Pros:

• Versatility: One platform for CX, EX (Employee Experience), and Market Research.

• Advanced Analytics: Best-in-class tools for data modeling and statistical significance.
• Market Share: Large ecosystem of partners and trained professionals.

Cons:

• Pricing Complexity: Users often report "hidden costs" or being charged based on high-volume response limits that can be hard to predict.
• Support: As the company has grown, some users report a shift toward "managed services" rather than immediate technical support.

Medallia

Pros:

• Closing the Loop: Superior workflow tools for managing thousands of individual customer follow-ups.

• Relationship Management: Higher scores in Gartner for being a "true partner" and providing better post-launch support.
• Unstructured Data: Stronger native capabilities for analyzing video and call center audio.

Cons:

• Setup Complexity: The platform is "heavy" and can be difficult to reconfigure quickly if your business structure changes frequently.
• Research Limitations: Not as well-suited for deep-dive academic or product-design research compared to Qualtrics.

Pricing: The Great Unknown

Both companies are notoriously opaque with pricing. You will not find a "Pricing" page with monthly tiers on either website.

• Qualtrics typically prices based on the number of "Platforms" (Customer, Employee, etc.) and response volumes.
• Medallia pricing is usually a custom enterprise contract based on the number of users and the complexity of the data signals being ingested.

Budget Tip: Expect to start in the mid-to-high five figures for a single-use case, with full enterprise deployments easily reaching six or seven figures annually.

Final Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?

Choose Qualtrics if:

• You need a tool that can double as a professional-grade market research platform.
• You want to integrate employee and customer data in one highly analytical environment.
• You have a dedicated team of analysts who will spend their day in the platform.

Choose Medallia if:

• You have a large frontline workforce (Retail, Hospitality, Banking) that needs to act on feedback daily.
• You want a partner that focuses heavily on the "closed-loop" process and service-led implementation.
• Your program relies heavily on unstructured data like call recordings or video.

Disclaimer: We are a neutral third party. We recommend requesting a Proof of Concept (PoC) from both vendors using your own data to see which UI fits your team's workflow better.

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