Diary Studies Without the Diary Hassle
Or the $50 participant incentives
dscout recruits real people for mobile ethnography and diary studies. TestSynthia simulates mobile-native personas with contextual memory — no recruitment, no $50 incentives, no week-long study timelines. 1M+ stateful AI personas. $2.99 to start.
Compare with dscout
time to first result
demo run
stateful personas
The Comparison
Real ethnography vs. simulated context.
TestSynthiaThe Grind
Real ethnography is expensive theater.
The Incentive Bill
dscout studies require $50-100 per participant in incentives. A 20-person diary study costs $1,000-2,000 before platform fees. For directional product insights, that's luxury pricing.
The Timeline Tax
Diary studies unfold over days or weeks. You wait for participants to complete entries, upload media, and answer follow-ups. In startup time, that's an eternity. Your sprint ends before the study does.
Recruitment Fatigue
Finding the right participants for contextual inquiry is hard. Screening, scheduling, reminding, and managing dropouts consumes research ops time that most startups don't have.
When to Choose
Which Method Fits Your Timeline?
Use Both If...
Use TestSynthia to identify contextual hypotheses rapidly. Use dscout to validate the most surprising findings with real participants in authentic environments.
Choose dscout If...
You need real in-the-moment photos, videos, and authentic contextual artifacts. You have budget and time for genuine ethnographic depth.
Choose TestSynthia If...
You need fast, affordable contextual insights without recruitment overhead. You're iterating rapidly and can't wait for week-long studies.
The difference
Week-long diaries vs.
instant simulation.
Before
Recruit, incentivize, wait, analyze
After
Filter, run, analyze in 10 min
Pricing
Simple pricing. No incentive budget
Flat fee, unlimited context
TestSynthia
- ✓1M+ stateful AI personas
- ✓500 responses per month
- ✓Priority generation (~10 min)
- ✓Top-ups available
- ✓No contract
dscout
- ✓Mobile diary studies
- ✓Real participant recruitment
- ✓Photo/video capture
- ✓In-the-moment feedback
Pricing starts around $10K/year. Participant incentives ($50-100 each) are additional. Enterprise plans significantly higher.
Frequently asked questions
Compare with other tools
See how TestSynthia stacks up against more market research platforms
Voxpopme collects video responses from real people and uses AI to analyze them. TestSynthia generates rich text responses from 1M+ stateful AI personas — no recording, no transcription, no video production. Same thematic depth, 100x faster. $2.99 to start.
UserTesting connects you with real humans. TestSynthia simulates them — a living market simulation with 1M+ stateful AI personas. Get directional signal in 10 minutes. Validate before you invest in traditional user research.
Outset moderates video interviews with real people using AI. TestSynthia eliminates real people entirely — 1M+ stateful AI personas respond instantly in text. No recruitment. No scheduling. No $50 incentives. No no-shows. $2.99 to start.
Skip the diary wait.
Get context now.
Real diaries are rich but slow. Simulated context is fast and directional. Get the signal you need without the timeline you can't afford.