Rating scale question · Rating

Rating scale questions

Respondents tap a number, a star or a face on a 1–5, 1–7 or 0–10 scale. Label the ends, add N/A or Don’t know without skewing the average, and get the mean, median and top-2 box for every rating.

Available onFree & up· every plan
The Rating scale question as respondents see it on a laptop and a phone

Live demo

Answer it. Your answer joins the results.

This is the question your respondents get. Pick a point, N/A or Don’t know, and the chart beside it recalculates with your answer counted.

Overall, how satisfied were you with the driver on your last order?

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5

Very dissatisfiedVery satisfied

In action

The rating scale in action

Rating scale in action · One respondent rates the driver, a second picks Not applicable, a third doesn’t know, and the results keep all three in the count.
  1. 0:00A respondent sees a 1 to 5 scale, labelled Very dissatisfied, Neutral and Very satisfied.
  2. 0:03They tap 4. The point fills with the survey’s colour.
  3. 0:05They press the right arrow and 5 is picked. The survey waits for Next.
  4. 0:08A second respondent taps “Not applicable”, the N/A choice under the points.
  5. 0:11A third taps Don’t know. The scale dims until they change their mind.
  6. 0:13All three join the results: the count goes up by three, and the mean moves only for the one who rated.

Every feature

Everything the rating scale can do

Numbers, stars or faces on any range, with the labels, N/A and logic researchers reach for, and data that keeps non-answers out of the average.

On the respondent’s screenWhat people answering see and use.

LiveFree

Numbered buttons

One row of equal buttons, one for each point, each at least 44px tall. The point someone picks fills with your theme’s colour.

LiveFree

Numbers, stars or faces

Show the scale as numbered buttons, as stars that fill up to the chosen point, or as five faces from angry to laughing. The stored value is the point number in every style.

Faces suit five points: on a longer scale, neighbouring points share a face.

LiveFree

End and middle labels

Add a low, a middle and a high label under the scale, such as Very dissatisfied, Neutral and Very satisfied.

The middle label sits on a point when the scale has an odd number of points.

LiveFree

Laid out for phones

The scale is laid out by the question’s own width, not the screen’s. In a narrow space, a scale of 8 or more points shows the chosen number large above the row, and on the narrowest screens the points stack into rows.

LiveFree

Keyboard ready

The whole scale is one Tab stop. Arrow keys move and pick, and wrap at the ends. On one-question pages, number keys pick a point too, and a comment already typed stays put.

On a scale that reaches 10, type 1 then 0 to pick 10.

Try it in the demo above: Tab to the scale, then use the arrow keys.
LiveFree

Show the high end first

Reverse the on-screen order of a numbered scale. The stored value is still the point number, so your data reads the same either way.

LiveFree

Auto-advance

Turn on auto-advance for the survey and a tap moves to the next question after a short pause. Arrow keys never move on by themselves.

LiveFree

Required, soft required or optional

A new rating needs an answer to continue, and N/A or a non-answer counts as one. Or warn once before a skip with your own message, or make it optional.

LiveFree

A comment box

Add an optional or required comment box under the scale for the reason behind a rating.

LiveFree

Translated labels

The question, the low, middle and high labels, the N/A wording and every non-answer label translate per survey language.

N/A, Don’t know and the baseAnswers that count without moving the average.

LiveFree

A Not applicable choice

Offer a Not applicable choice, worded your own way if you like. It sits under the points, in the same group, and the arrow keys reach it.

LiveFree

Don’t know and Prefer not to answer

Add non-answer pills under the scale: Don’t know, Prefer not to answer, Refused or your own, each with its own code. Picking one dims the scale.

LiveFree

In the base, out of the mean

N/A and non-answers count as responses and show as their own rows. The mean, median and top-2 box use only the people who picked a point.

LiveFree

Checked on the server

Answers are checked again when they’re saved. A value outside your range, a non-number, N/A when it’s off, an unknown non-answer code, or a rating sent with a non-answer is refused.

Logic, quotas and pipingRoute and personalise on the number.

LiveFree

Logic on the number

Skip, show or hide later questions when a rating is at least, at most, greater or less than a number, or between two numbers, such as a follow-up for anyone who gave a 1 or 2.

The survey-level skip and branching panel is on Professional+.

LiveFree

Quotas on a rating

Build quota cells on a rating with the same operators, between included.

LiveFree

Pipe the rating

Insert someone’s rating into a later question, or the label of the point they chose.

LiveFree

Rescale or combine it

A computed variable reads a rating as a number, so you can rescale it, flip a 1 to 5 scale with 6 minus the rating, or add ratings into an index.

In the builder and your dataSet-up, imports and cleaning.

LiveFree

Point presets

One click sets 3, 5, 7 or 10 points from 1, or a 0 to 10 scale.

LiveFree

Any range

Type your own minimum and maximum, such as 0 to 6 or 1 to 9. The builder flags a range nobody could answer, and a survey with one can’t be launched until it’s fixed.

LiveFree

Live preview

The editor shows the real scale as you change its style, points, labels and N/A.

Non-answer pills show in the survey preview, not the editor’s.

LiveFree

Import from Excel or Word

Rows typed SCALE or LIKERT in an Excel sheet come in as a Rating Scale with their range, and Word, PDF and text imports pick up a stated range.

In a sheet, the options cell comes in as a label on each point. A Qualtrics agree or disagree item comes in as a labelled scale; other Qualtrics scales arrive as single choice or a grid. Word and PDF imports use AI credits.

LiveFree

Safe edits on a live survey

Changing the range of a live survey is flagged as a risky change, because it changes what earlier answers mean.

LiveFree

Correct an answer

Change a respondent’s rating, N/A or non-answer when cleaning data.

Not part of the rating scale: a draggable slider (use Slider), agree or disagree statements in one battery (use Likert scale), the 0–10 “how likely are you to recommend” question (use NPS), and attention checks.

Build it

Add a rating scale question

  1. 1

    Add the question

    In the builder, add a question and choose Rating Scale as its type. Ask about one thing, such as the driver, not the driver and the food together.

  2. 2

    Pick the style and the points

    Under Display style, choose Numbers, Stars or Emoji. Click a Points preset (3, 5, 7 or 10 points from 1, or 0–10), or type your own Min Value and Max Value.

  3. 3

    Label the scale

    Fill in Low Label and High Label, and Midpoint Label if the scale has a middle point. To label every point, see the Likert scale page.

  4. 4

    Add N/A or Don’t know

    Tick Offer a “Not applicable” choice and word it for your question. Tick Non-answer options for Don’t know and Prefer not to answer. Both stay out of the average.

  5. 5

    Set the order and the rules

    Tick Reverse point order on screen (numeric) to show the high end first. In Rules, keep it required or make it soft required or optional. Under Design, tick Allow a respondent comment on this question if you want the why.

  6. 6

    Preview it

    Check it on desktop and phone. In the phone preview a 0 to 10 scale stacks its points into rows, as it does on the narrowest screens.

The Rating Scale editor for the driver question: the Numbers style, the 5-point preset, Min Value 1 and Max Value 5, the labels Very dissatisfied, Neutral and Very satisfied, Reverse point order unticked, Offer a “Not applicable” choice ticked with “Not applicable”, Non-answer options with Don’t know coded DK, and the preview of the 1 to 5 row with its Not applicable choice
EditorStyle, points, labels and N/A in one place.
The Non-answer options box ticked, with the hint “Kept out of averages; shown in tables.”, a Don’t know row coded DK and the Add option link
Non-answersKept out of averages, shown in tables.
The Points presets 3-point, 5-point, 7-point, 10-point and 0–10, with 0–10 picked and Min Value 0 and Max Value 10 below
PointsOne click for 0 to 10: Min 0, Max 10.

The data you get

One number per rating, with N/A and Don’t know coded apart

Each rating exports as one column holding the point number. N/A and Don’t know get their own codes, and SPSS gets an ordinal variable with its labels.

respondent_idQ1
47762a85-0001-4000-8000-0000000000015
47762a85-0002-4000-8000-0000000000024
47762a85-0003-4000-8000-0000000000035
47762a85-0004-4000-8000-0000000000044
47762a85-0005-4000-8000-0000000000055
47762a85-0006-4000-8000-0000000000064
47762a85-0007-4000-8000-000000000007NA
47762a85-0008-4000-8000-0000000000084

Trimmed to the question’s column. NA is “Not applicable” and DK is Don’t know. Every export also carries the standard respondent columns (status, timing, weight and more).

One column per rating

Each rating is one column holding the point the respondent picked: 5 on a 1 to 5 scale, 0 to 10 on a 0 to 10 one. The column takes your export tag, or the question’s position, Q and its number.

N/A and Don’t know, coded apart

In CSV and Excel, N/A reads NA and a non-answer reads its code, such as DK. In SPSS each gets a labelled code outside your scale, 97 and 96 by default, so it can never be mistaken for a rating.

Labels in SPSS and Excel

Your low, middle and high labels become value labels on their points, alongside the labels for N/A and every non-answer. Tick Declare missing values and SPSS treats the N/A and non-answer codes as missing.

Ordinal, ready to analyse

SPSS gets each rating as an ordinal variable. In Excel the ratings are number cells, so they sum and average straight away.

Missing answers

Someone who never saw the question has an empty cell, which SPSS reads as system-missing. Turning the screen order around never changes the stored number.

Comments and weights

A comment box exports in its own column, the rating’s column name plus _comment, when you include open-ended answers. Weighted exports carry a weight column, and the SPSS syntax sets WEIGHT BY weight. Weighting is on Research Team.

Charts & analysis

Mean, median and top-2 box, compared across groups

Every rating is charted for you as a bar per point, with its mean, median and top-2 box. Crosstab it against any other question, test the differences in the mean and the top box, and track it over time.

The Surveti Results card for the driver rating: Mean 3.9, Median 4 and Top-2 box 75% over the 91 who picked a point, 100 responses, a labelled bar for each of the 5 points in scale order, and Not applicable and Don’t know in a box of their own, counted in the base
ResultsA bar for every point in scale order, with the mean, median and top-2 box worked out from the people who picked a point.

Where it charts

  • ResultsBars, mean, median, top-2
  • DashboardA diverging bar tile
  • CrosstabsIn the rows or the banner
  • Tab booksTop and bottom box, mean
  • Report deckA diverging bar slide
  • Client portalResults, crosstabs, report
A Surveti dashboard: the driver rating as a diverging bar, the dissatisfied points left of Neutral and the satisfied points right of it, a legend of the 5 points, and Not applicable and Don’t know listed under the bar as counted in the base, above Top-2-Box, Mean and Base tiles
DashboardLow points left, high points right, with Top-2-Box, Mean and Base tiles.
A report slide from the PDF export: the driver rating with n = 100 and a Top-2-Box of 75%, the same diverging bar, each point’s share in the legend, and Not applicable and Don’t know listed under the bar
Report deckThe same chart in the PDF export.

Driver rating, by ageColumn %, letters at 95% and 99%

Crosstabs · Solo+Letters · Professional+
The Surveti Crosstabs view of the driver rating by age group: a row per point, the end and middle points with their labels, Not applicable and Don’t know rows, then Top-2-Box and Mean rows, in column percentages with the base for each age band, significance letters beside the cells that differ, and the note that the top and bottom box leave Not applicable and non-answers out
Each point is a share of everyone in that age group who answered, N/A and Don’t know included. The top-2 box and the mean use only the people who picked a point. A letter marks a figure significantly higher than the column with that letter: a proportions test on the points and the top-2 box, Welch’s t-test on the mean. Letters need Professional+. The table itself needs Solo+; on Solo it runs without letters.

Analysis that applies

  • Crosstabs

    Solo+

    Put a rating in the rows, one row per point with its label, plus Top-2 box and Mean rows. Or put it in the banner, one column per point, to cut every other question by satisfaction.

    Crosstabs

  • A means test and a proportions test

    Professional+

    Letters on the Mean row come from Welch’s t-test on effective bases. Letters on each point and the top-2 box come from a two-proportion test. N/A and non-answers stay out of the mean and its test.

    Significance testing

  • Nets of points

    Solo+

    The top-2 box comes built in. Add your own nets, such as the bottom two points, and each person is counted once. A net you add is a share of everyone who answered, N/A and Don’t know included.

    Crosstabs

  • Tab books

    Research Team

    A table for every rating with its points, top-2 and bottom-2 box and mean, with significance letters. Change the box size, or add the median and standard deviation, per table.

  • Trend over time

    Track the mean or the top-2 box of a rating across waves of the same survey. Trends use unweighted counts.

  • Key drivers

    Make a rating the outcome and see which other questions move it, or use ratings as the drivers.

  • Weighting

    Research Team

    Weights carry into Results, crosstabs, dashboards and exports, so the mean and the top-2 box are weighted too.

  • Filter by a rating

    Filter any Results view to the people who gave a 1 or 2, and read what they said everywhere else.

How Surveti compares

Rating scales across the common survey tools

Rating scale capabilities in Surveti, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Typeform and Alchemer, as of 28 October 2026
CapabilitySurvetiSurveyMonkeyQualtricsTypeformAlchemer
Rating question on the free planyesEvery plan, every display styleunclear15, 14Rating types not named for the free planyes39Slider and matrix table on the free accountyes52Rating and Opinion Scale on Freeno76No free plan
Custom start value (0 or 1) or editable numeric codingyesYour own minimum and maximum, and a 0–10 presetpartial1, 2, 5Editable weights; no start value on Star Ratingyes27, 32Slider range; Recode Valuespartial42, 48Start at 0 or 1 on Opinion Scale onlyyes59, 72Slider range; reporting values
Icon styles (stars, hearts, smileys, thumbs)partialStars and faces; no hearts or thumbsyes1, 16Star, smiley, heart and thumbpartial27Stars on Slider; no smileys or hearts documentedyes48, 4717 shapespartial70, 64Star grid; other icons by custom CSS
N/A option kept out of the meanyesN/A and Don’t know: out of the mean, in the baseyes1, 2, 4Star Rating; Matrix with weightsyes27, 38Slider N/A; Exclude From Analysisno42No N/A on Opinion Scalepartial68, 74Depends on the reporting value
Reverse or descending order set by the authorpartialNumbers style only; the stored value is unchangedunclear1, 2, 12Not mentioned for rating typespartial38, 32Reversed suggested choices; recodeunclear42, 43Not addressedpartial59, 54, 61Slider flip; Rating flips at random
Mobile layout documentedyesLaid out by the question’s own widthpartial1, 2Width applies on mobile; matrices may scrollyes27, 26Mobile friendly formatsunclear42, 43, 44Not addressedyes54, 70One question at a time on mobile
Median in resultsyesIn Results and tab booksunclear6Averages page is silent on medianpartial29, 28Reports only; the Results page says noyes46Mean, median and standard deviationunclear68, 59Not in the statistics list
Top / bottom box (top-2-box) reportingyesTop-2 in Results and crosstabs; top and bottom in tab booksunclear7, 23Defined in a guide, with a manual formulayes28, 29Statistics Tableunclear46Not mentionedyes57, 58Answer Grouping; not Slider or star grid
Crosstab showing the rating mean by grouppaidA Mean row on its own base · Solo+no8Rating types not supportedpaid33, 39Averages; not on the free accountunclear46No crosstab documentedyes71, 77Needs numeric reporting values
Significance testing on means in crosstabspaidWelch’s t-test · Professional+unclear9, 14Paid; whether means are tested isn’t statedpaid33ANOVA and a z-test on averagesunclear46, 51Not documentedpartial71Counts and proportions only
SPSS export with value labelspaidEnd, middle and non-answer labels · Professional+paid10Matrix values follow the weightsunclear34, 39Value labels not describedno53CSV and XLSX onlypaid65, 72, 77Full Access only
SPSS measure level set to ordinal or scalepaidOrdinal · Professional+no10Rating items are Nominalunclear34Not coveredno53No SPSS exportunclear65Not covered
Logic on a rating: greater than or less thanyesAt least, at most, greater, less; question-level logic on every planpartial18, 17, 24Per answer option; no operators listedyes35, 39Greater and less than on Slideryes49, 52, 51Integer comparisonspartial67, 66Rating takes “is one of” only
Logic on a rating: betweenyesOne inclusive “is between” conditionunclear18, 24, 20No range operator describedpartial35Two conditions joined with ANDunclear49, 46No between operatorunclear67No between operator described
Piping the rating value into later textyesThe rating, or its point’s labelpartial19Slider as a sender; paidpartial37Matrix piping; Slider not mentionedyes50Recall a ratingpartial73, 76, 77Rating as a source; Professional and Full Access
As of 28 Oct 2026, from each vendor’s public help pages and pricing.yespartialpaidunclearno

Partial means partly built in or possible only with a documented workaround; paid means built in on paid tiers or licences only; unclear means the vendor’s docs don’t settle it. Google Forms, QuestionPro and SurveySparrow were also reviewed. Google Forms’ linear scale starts at 0 or 1 and ends at 2 to 10 with a label on each end, and its rating question shows stars, hearts or thumbs from 3 to 10. QuestionPro scores points by position, offers a custom or inverse scale on higher licences, and can give any single-choice question top and bottom scores. SurveySparrow’s group rating runs from 3 to 10 points.

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What’s different here

N/A that never moves the mean

N/A and Don’t know are their own rows in Results, crosstabs and tab books: counted in the base, left out of the mean, median and top-2 box, wherever they’re shown and with nothing to set up.

Mean, median and top-2 box together

Every rating shows all three beside a bar for every point. Tab books add the bottom-2 box and standard deviation.

A means test in the crosstab

The Mean row gets letters from Welch’s t-test, beside letters on each point and the top-2 box. Crosstabs are on Solo+, letters on Professional+.

Ordinal in SPSS, with its labels

Each rating arrives as an ordinal variable with its end and middle labels and a labelled code for every non-answer. SPSS export is on Professional+.

Logic on a range

Route a follow-up with “is between 1 and 2” in one condition, or with at least, at most, greater or less than. Question-level logic is on every plan; the survey-level skip and branching panel is on Professional+.

Free, in every style

Numbers, stars and faces on your own range, labels, N/A, non-answers, question-level logic, Results and dashboards are all on the free plan.

When to use it

Use a rating scale to measure how much

When to use it

  • You want the strength of one feeling or judgement: satisfaction, ease, quality, effort.
  • You need a number to report and track: a mean, a top-2 box, a change since last wave.
  • You want to compare groups, such as new and returning customers.
  • Respondents are on a phone and should answer with one tap.

When to reach for something else

  • You’re asking how much people agree with statements, or rating a set of statements on one scale. Use a Likert scale.
  • You’re asking how likely people are to recommend you, from 0 to 10. Use NPS, which scores promoters and detractors for you.
  • You need a precise position on a long range, such as 0 to 100. Use a slider.
  • You want items put in order. Use ranking.

Sample wording

“Overall, how satisfied were you with the driver on your last order?” 1 Very dissatisfied · 3 Neutral · 5 Very satisfied · Not applicable · Don’t know

Best practices

  • Label at least the two ends, so everyone reads the scale the same way.
  • Use 5 or 7 points for most ratings. Use 0 to 10 when you want more spread.
  • Pick an odd number of points if people need a true middle.
  • Keep the same length and direction across a survey, with the high number always the good end.
  • Offer N/A when the question may not apply, so people don’t pick the middle instead.
  • Don’t pre-fill an answer. A default point pulls the results towards it.

Accessibility

Usable without the mouse or the screen

Points screen readers announce

Each point is a radio button announced with its number and its label, such as “1, Very dissatisfied”, and whether it’s picked. N/A is part of the same group.

One Tab stop, then arrows

The whole scale is one Tab stop. Arrow keys move and pick, wrap at the ends and reach N/A, and they never move the survey on by themselves.

Room to tap

Every number and star is at least 44px tall. On the narrowest screens a numbered scale of 8 or more points stacks into full-width rows.

Large text and zoom

The layout follows the text size, so at 200% zoom or with large text the points stack rather than squeeze two-digit numbers into tiny cells.

Use it in

Templates and solutions that use rating scales

Template

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

“Overall, how satisfied are you with our product/service?” beside an NPS question.

Template

Post-Purchase Feedback

“How satisfied are you with your recent purchase?” and “How easy was the purchasing process?”

Template

Website Usability Survey

“How easy was it to find what you were looking for?”

Solution

Customer feedback

Measure satisfaction, follow up on low scores, and track it over time.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between a rating scale and a Likert scale?

A rating scale asks how much of something there is, such as how satisfied someone is, on numbered points. A Likert scale asks how much people agree or disagree with a statement, usually with a label on every point and often as a set of statements. Use this page for ratings and the Likert scale page for agreement.

Should I use 5, 7 or 10 points?

Five or seven points suit most ratings and are quick to answer on a phone. Use 0 to 10 when you want more spread between people. In Surveti one click sets 3, 5, 7 or 10 points, or 0 to 10, and you can type any other range.

Is a 0 to 10 rating the same as NPS?

No. NPS is one specific question, how likely someone is to recommend you, scored as promoters minus detractors. For that, use the NPS question, which works out the score for you. A 0 to 10 rating scale is for anything else, such as how easy something was.

How are N/A and Don’t know counted?

They count as responses, so they’re in the base and shown as their own rows, but they stay out of the mean, median and top-2 box. In the example on this page, 100 people answered: 9 picked N/A or Don’t know, and the mean of 3.9 comes from the 91 who picked a point.

What is a top-2 box score?

The share of people who picked one of the two highest points. In the example, 68 of the 91 people who rated the driver chose 4 or 5, so the top-2 box is 75%. Surveti shows it in Results and crosstabs, and tab books add the bottom-2 box.

What does a rating scale look like in an export?

One column holding the point number, such as 5. N/A reads NA and a non-answer reads its code, such as DK. SPSS (Professional+) gets an ordinal variable with your end and middle labels and a labelled code for each non-answer.

How do I compare ratings across groups like age or region?

Use Crosstabs (Solo+) to put the rating against any banner, with a row per point, a top-2 box and a mean. On Professional+, letters mark the means and shares that differ between groups. On Research Team, weights carry into the same tables.

Related question types

Likert scaleNPSSlider

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