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Votense documentation

Everything a survey can ask, everywhere its answers can go, and how to check they arrive.

Start here

Four steps take a survey from empty to delivering answers into your own systems. Each links to the guide that covers it in full.

  1. Build it

    Choose Poll or Survey, then add questions from the picker or by pressing /. Matrix, ranking, NPS, Likert and constant sum sit alongside the standard inputs.

    Survey question types →

  2. Set the rules

    Decide how many times one person may answer and who may see the results — live, after voting, after closing, or only you.

    One vote per person →

  3. Put it where people already are

    Share the link, or paste two lines of HTML and the survey lives on your own site — resizing itself, with no Votense chrome around it.

    Embed a survey on your website →

  4. Send answers where you work

    Responses are always saved in Votense. On top of that, POST each one to your own endpoint or post it into a Slack channel.

    Webhook payload and testing →

Surveys, polls and votes

What makes a survey more than a survey: structured questions, a counted result, and rules about who may answer and when.

Survey question typesMatrix, ranking, NPS, Likert and constant sum — what each stores.The stored shape of every answerHow each one is exported to CSVWhen ranking beats points, and the reverseLive resultsThe results page, who can see it, and what it never shows.Four visibility settingsHow each question type is chartedWhy written answers stay privateQuizzesAnswer keys, points and the score each person sees.Four question typesHow a typed answer is matchedKeeping the answers privateHosting a live quizPlayers on phones, a countdown, speed points and a leaderboard.Running a game step by stepHow speed is scoredWhat keeps it fairOne vote per personThree ways to limit voting, and what each can and cannot stop.Browser, network or accountWhy it is enforced on the serverWhat is stored about a voterConditional logicShow a question only when an earlier answer matches.Which questions can drive a conditionHidden questions are never requiredWhat a condition cannot expressOpening and closingStart on a time, stop on a date or at a number of responses.What a visitor sees before and afterWhichever limit comes firstResults that publish on close

Building a survey

What you can ask, and what you can turn on.

Field typesThe standard inputs, choices and content blocks, and what each stores.The exact phone number ruleWhy required dropdowns behaveAttachment size limitsFeaturesPassword protection, themes, and how responses are handled.What a private survey withholdsAccent presets for light and darkEmail collection and CSV exportSpam protectionEvery public survey is checked for automated submissions. Nothing to switch on, and almost nobody sees a challenge.What a respondent actually seesWhy it stays free on every planWhat it does not stopEmbed it in your sitePut the survey on your own page instead of behind a link.A live demo of both methodsWhy an embed shows as an empty boxReacting to a submission in your own code

Getting responses out

Both destinations are additional — nothing replaces the copy in Votense.

WebhooksPOST every submission to a URL of yours, as JSON.The full payload, field by fieldOptional authentication headerTesting with webhook.siteSlackPost submissions into a channel, labelled by question.Creating the app and scopeFinding the channel IDThe invite step everyone missesDiscordPost submissions into a channel with one webhook URL.Creating the webhookWhy the URL is a credentialLong answers and skipped questionsEmail notificationsBe emailed when a response arrives, capped so a busy survey cannot flood you.Turning them onThree an hour, and the backlog that followsWhy one has not arrivedTelegramSend every response to a chat, on every plan including Free.Creating the bot with BotFatherFinding the chat ID, minus sign and allWhy a valid bot still says "chat not found"Microsoft TeamsPost submissions into a channel as an Adaptive Card.Workflows, after the connector retirementCopying the whole signed URLWhy "accepted" is not "delivered"Google ChatPost submissions into a space as a card.Creating the webhook in the spaceThe admin policy that hides the menuWhy a short URL fails as 401AirtableTurn every response into a row in one of your bases.Token scopes and the two IDsMatching labels to column namesWhat never arrives, and whyNotionTurn every response into a page in one of your databases.Connecting the database to the integrationHow column types are matchedReading a 404 that is not about the ID

Planning

Before you build, what this is good at — and what it is not.

What people buildSix shapes that cover most of what surveys are for.Hiring, events, feedback, bugs, leadsHow to wire each one upWhat the product deliberately does not doOrganizations and billingShare surveys with a team, and what each plan includes.Seats, invites and who can see whatSwitching plan or billing periodWhere your invoices liveCompared with other survey buildersWhat Votense does not do, and what to use instead.Dated pricing for every productWhere the alternative is the better choiceWhat actually happens if you switch

What is true of every survey

Two guarantees worth knowing before you design around anything else, because they hold no matter which settings or destinations you use.

Your responses are the record

Every submission is stored in Votense, readable in your dashboard and exportable as CSV for as long as the survey exists. No destination can lose you an answer, because none of them is where the answer lives.

Destinations are attempted once

Each gets five seconds, and there are no retries. If your endpoint is down when a response arrives, it will not be re-sent — the response is still safe, but you will need to export rather than wait.

Somewhere else to look

The templates are complete, working surveys — a job application, a feedback survey and more — if you would rather read a finished thing than a reference. Privacy covers what is stored and for how long.

Common questions

Do respondents need an account?
No. Every survey has its own link, and anyone with it can answer without signing up or installing anything. Only the person building the survey needs an account, via Google or GitHub.
How do I password-protect a survey?
Password protection is a paid feature. Turn on "Make survey private" in settings and set a password. Until the correct one is entered the survey returns nothing but a lock screen, so its questions cannot be read by guessing the link. Passwords are stored as a salted scrypt hash and are never returned by any API.
Where are responses stored?
Every response is stored in Votense and stays available in your dashboard and as a CSV export for as long as the survey exists. Webhooks and Slack are additional destinations, never a replacement.
What happens if my webhook is down?
The submission still succeeds and the response is still saved. Each destination gets five seconds and there are no retries, so a delivery that fails is not sent again — treat destinations as notifications and Votense as the record.
How do I test a webhook without building an endpoint?
Open webhook.site, copy the URL it generates, paste it into your survey settings, and submit an answer. The request appears there immediately, headers included, so you can confirm both the payload and your authentication header.
Why are my webhook keys named component-1787692637208?
That is the ID generated when a field is created. Hover the field in the editor, click the gear, and set the ID to something like firstName. Do it before collecting answers: existing responses stay under the old key and will not merge with new ones.
How do I put a survey on my own website?
Paste two lines of HTML: an empty div carrying your survey ID, and a script tag loading embed.js. The script finds the div and injects the survey, then resizes it as fields expand so there is never an inner scrollbar. If your host strips scripts, a plain iframe works instead with a fixed height. You do not need to configure anything first — a freshly pasted snippet works immediately.
Can respondents upload files?
On a paid plan, up to 200 KB per file. File fields are not available on the free plan. Attachments are stored inside the response rather than uploaded separately, so larger files are refused with a clear message. For anything bigger, ask for a link using a URL field.
Why is my Slack integration silent?
Almost always because the bot has not been invited to the channel. Slack accepts the message with 200 OK and posts nothing. Send /invite @your-app in the channel, or add the chat:write.public scope.