Location-based surveys
Ask the people who are actually there.
A location-based survey is tied to a spot on the map instead of a contact list. You draw an area — a radius around a point, a district, or the whole world — and the people who can answer are the ones inside it.
It's for questions where where matters: a shop testing whether a corner has demand, a council asking the streets a change would affect, someone comparing two nearby options.
Why a normal online survey often isn’t the right tool
Most survey tools ask a list — your email contacts, or an online panel. You get opinions from wherever those people happen to be. That's fine for “what do our customers think of the new logo”. It doesn't help with “would people around this junction use a bike-repair stand”.
For a location-specific decision, a few hundred answers from the relevant area are worth more than ten thousand from everywhere. The people who walk past a place, shop there, or live nearby know things a national sample can't tell you — and a national sample quietly averages the local picture away.
Ortwort exists for that narrow but common case. It is not a general-purpose form builder; if your question has nothing to do with a place, an ordinary survey tool is the better fit.
How it works
From an idea to a live survey takes a couple of minutes. The effort is deliberately on the person asking, never on the person answering.
- 1
Write your question
One clear question and a few answer options — single or multiple choice, a 1–5 scale, a rating, a number, or short text. Three questions are included; you can add more.
- 2
Draw the area on a map
A radius around a point, a district you trace by hand, or global. Only people inside the area are eligible to answer — for example a 400 m circle around a specific junction.
- 3
People in the area answer
They find your survey on ortwort or through a link or QR code you share. Their browser confirms they are inside the area before they can respond — no account needed. Exact coordinates are never stored, only a coarse (~1 km) cell.
- 4
Read the results
Live counts and percentages as answers arrive. Areas with only a handful of responses stay hidden. CSV, JSON and PDF export are on the Pro plan.
What people ask a place
A few concrete examples. Each takes about two minutes to set up.
Would you visit a coffee shop on this corner at least once a week?
A business owner gauging demand for a specific site before signing a lease.
Should this street be car-free on Saturdays?
A council asking only the blocks the change would actually touch.
Would you come to a night market on this square next month?
An organiser measuring local interest before booking the space.
Which of these two locations would you rather we opened in?
Comparing local sentiment for two nearby options, side by side.
Frequently asked questions
What is a location-based survey?+
A survey that only people inside a chosen geographic area can answer. You define the area on a map; eligibility is checked by the respondent's device, not self-reported.
How is it different from a normal online survey?+
A normal survey goes to a list of people wherever they are. A location-based survey goes to a place — the respondents are defined by being physically inside the area you drew.
Who can answer an Ortwort survey?+
Anyone physically inside the target area (or anyone, for a global survey). No account is required to answer. The creator of the survey needs a free account.
How precise is the location, and is it private?+
The browser reports a position with high accuracy, the server checks it against the target area, then discards the exact coordinates. Only a coarse cell of about 1 km and the country are kept. Data is hosted in the EU.
Is it representative of the whole area?+
No. Results are indicative local sentiment, not a statistically representative sample, and shouldn't be presented as official figures. They're a fast, cheap signal to inform a decision.
What does it cost?+
Creating an account is free and comes with a starting credit balance. A survey of up to 3 single- or multiple-choice questions with public results is free to publish — any area. A more detailed survey — more questions, or another question type — uses credits, sold in one-off packs; an optional Pro plan adds exports and private results.
Put a question on the map
Free to start. Draw an area, ask one thing, and see what the people there say.