Free Card Sort vs KardSort: Which Free Tool Is Better?
KardSort and Free Card Sort are both free-to-use card sorting tools aimed at UX researchers who don't want to pay Optimal Workshop prices. If you're choosing between them, here's how they compare.
Quick Summary
Free Card Sort offers unlimited studies and participants on the free plan, with a gamified participant experience and advanced analytics (similarity matrix, dendrogram, AI insights) available on Pro.
KardSort is a simpler card sorting tool with a straightforward free tier, good for basic open and closed card sorts.
Pricing Comparison
| Free Card Sort | KardSort | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Unlimited studies, unlimited participants | Limited studies |
| Paid plan | $29/month (Pro) | Varies |
| Enterprise | Custom | — |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Free Card Sort | KardSort |
|---|---|---|
| Open card sorting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Closed card sorting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hybrid card sorting | ✓ | Limited |
| Tree testing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Unlimited participants | ✓ | Varies by plan |
| Similarity matrix | ✓ Pro | Limited |
| Dendrogram | ✓ Pro | ✗ |
| AI-generated insights | ✓ Pro | ✗ |
| AI test responses | ✓ | ✗ |
| Prolific recruitment built-in | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pro export (Excel/CSV) | ✓ | Basic |
| Real-time results | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile-friendly participant view | ✓ | ✓ |
Key Differentiators
Participant Recruitment
Free Card Sort includes direct integration with Prolific's research panel. You can recruit verified participants for your study without leaving the platform, at approximately $1.50–3.00 per response.
KardSort doesn't offer built-in recruitment — you need to find and manage participants yourself.
Analytics Depth
Both tools provide basic analytics (category breakdowns, card placement frequencies) on free plans. The gap widens at the paid tier:
Free Card Sort Pro adds a similarity matrix (heatmap of which cards were grouped together), dendrogram (hierarchical clustering tree), and AI-generated insights that summarise patterns in plain language.
These are the outputs that professional UX researchers, agencies, and academic papers use to report card sort findings.
AI Test Responses
Free Card Sort's AI response generator simulates realistic sorting behaviour for your study. This lets you:
- Populate your results page before recruiting real participants
- Check your study setup works correctly
- Demo your results to stakeholders without live data
This feature doesn't exist in KardSort.
Tree Testing
Free Card Sort includes tree testing — the natural follow-up to card sorting, where you validate proposed navigation structures. Having both in one platform means you can run the full IA research cycle without switching tools.
When to Choose KardSort
KardSort is a reasonable choice if you want a simple, no-frills card sorting tool for a small project and don't need advanced analytics or participant recruitment. Its interface is clean and it does the basics well.
When to Choose Free Card Sort
Free Card Sort makes more sense if you:
- Need unlimited participants on the free plan
- Want professional IA analytics (similarity matrix, dendrogram)
- Plan to recruit participants via Prolific
- Want tree testing in the same platform
- May eventually need AI-powered insights or stakeholder-ready reports
For researchers doing regular IA work — freelancers, agencies, in-house UX teams — the feature set at the free tier alone is significantly broader.
Verdict
For basic card sorting, both tools work. Free Card Sort has a substantially deeper feature set at both the free and paid tiers, and is the better choice for researchers who want to grow from a quick study to professional-grade IA analysis.