GESS

What GESS does

GESS Gesellschaft für Software in der Sozialforschung mbH is a Hamburg-based, privately held software and services firm founded in 1991 that specializes in market and social research. The company operates through two sister entities — GESS Software (product development and licensing) and GESS Phone & Field Marktforschung GmbH (field services and CATI operations) — and is led by founders Knut Holzscheck and Christian Janotta alongside managing directors Uwe Stüve, Stephan Struck, and Andreas Kroll. GESS serves research institutions, German federal and state government agencies, media research consortia, and commercial market research institutes with both software and full-service survey execution. Core customers include the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB-Betriebspanel), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Adult Education Survey via Kantar Public), the Bundesverkehrsministerium (Mobilität in Deutschland via infas), agma (MA Print / Medientagebuch), and corporate accounts such as Hamburger Sparkasse AG.

The technology backbone is the "GESS Produktionsstraße" (production line), an integrated suite of four proprietary products: GESStabs (tabulation and statistical analysis with syntax-based scripting and 100+ statistical measures), GESS Q. (questionnaire programming and survey execution for online, offline CAPI on Android/Windows, and mixed-mode designs, with a January 2026 integration of ReDem's AI-powered quality scoring), GESS Cati (browser-based CATI management with open API and dialer integrations for Elsbeth and Authensis), and GESS ChartFactory (automated PowerPoint chart generation from tabulation outputs). All products are documented in German, English, and French and adhere to ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and ISO 20252 standards; the company is a corporate member of BVM and ADM.

GESS monetizes through a hybrid revenue model combining proprietary software licensing (the GESS production line) and professional services — telephone surveys from an in-house Hamburg-Eimsbüttel CATI studio of approximately 100 workstations and ~190 interviewers, online and offline surveys, mixed-mode design, and data processing and analysis. The go-to-market is direct sales from Hamburg supplemented by content marketing via the company blog and webinars, presence at industry conferences (BVM Kongress, Research & Results, WIN/GALLUP), and a self-serve support portal with training and documentation. The company has approximately 40 core employees (IT, software development, sociology, market and social research) and discloses no external funding, parent company, or institutional investors.

Name

GESS

Legal name

GESS Gesellschaft für Software in der Sozialforschung mbH

Website

https://gessgroup.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

GESS is a Hamburg-based market and social research software and services firm, founded 1991, providing an integrated survey production line—GESStabs, GESS Q., GESS Cati, and GESS ChartFactory—together with in-house CATI field services for German government agencies, research institutions, and market research institutes.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Software

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Quantitative Research & Survey Analytics (Survey Design, Sampling, Statistical Modeling) (MPAAALAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Fieldwork & Data Collection (Online Panels, CATI/CAPI, Fieldwork) (MPAAALAD), Survey, Panel & Fieldwork Services (BPAHALAJ), Data, Analytics & AI Consulting (BPAHAEAF)

Keywords

• Survey software
• Market research software
• CATI software
• Tabulation software
• Questionnaire programming

Headquarters

HQ city

Hamburg

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Products: Sale and licensing of proprietary survey software products: GESStabs (tabulation), GESS Q. (questionnaire programming), GESS ChartFactory (PowerPoint charting), and GESS Cati (telephone surveys). Software provides the production pipeline for market research from data collection to presentation
2. Market Research Services: Full-service market research including telephone surveys in own CATI studio (54 places), online surveys, offline surveys on tablets, mixed-mode design studies, and data processing and analysis services. Services are tailored to research institutions, government agencies, and market research institutes

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

GESS provides an integrated survey software suite and market research services for the entire research production line, from questionnaire design and data collection (online, offline, mobile, telephone) through tabulation and statistical analysis to automated PowerPoint charting. Its four core products — GESS Q., GESS Cati, GESStabs, and GESS ChartFactory — work together as a unified workflow, complemented by full-service field research delivered through its own 100-workstation CATI studio in Hamburg.

Product overview

GESS operates as a software-and-services company offering the 'GESS Produktionsstraße' (GESS Production Line) — an integrated suite of four complementary software products covering the full survey research lifecycle. The core software portfolio consists of: GESS Q. (questionnaire programming and survey execution platform for online, offline, and mixed-mode surveys), GESS Cati (browser-based CATI management software for telephone surveys), GESStabs (tabulation and data analysis software — the original product since 1991), and GESS ChartFactory (PowerPoint chart automation add-on to GESStabs). An Android/Windows CAPI module extends GESS Q. for offline mobile surveys. All four products are designed to work together in a unified production workflow: data collected via GESS Q. or GESS Cati flows into GESStabs for tabulation and analysis, with GESS ChartFactory then automatically generating presentation-ready PowerPoint charts. GESS also provides full-service market research survey and analysis services using its own software, covering telephone surveys in its own Hamburg CATI studio, online surveys, offline tablet surveys, Mixed-Mode designs, and data processing and analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GESStabs: Tabulation and analysis software for market and social research, the core component of the GESS production line.
• GESS Q.
• GESS ChartFactory
• GESS Cati

Products and services

• GESStabs High-productivity tabulation and statistical analysis software for market and social research; the original product of GESS since 1991 and core component of the GESS Production Line. Supports syntax-based tabulation, over 100 statistical measures, significance tests for weighted data, and exports to SPSS, ASCII, CSV, JSON, Excel, PDF, and HTML.
• GESS Q. Comprehensive software system for programming questionnaires, conducting surveys, and data provision. Supports syntax-based and menu-driven approaches, online studies, offline/mobile surveys via Android and Windows (CAPI), and mixed-mode designs. Includes ReDem AI-powered automated quality control integration.
• GESS ChartFactory High-productivity software for automatically creating PowerPoint presentations from tabulation outputs of GESStabs. Generates individually designed charts with editable data tables using a single syntax language in one workflow step.
• GESS Cati Web-based, service-oriented management and survey software for conducting and managing telephone interviews (CATI). Features modern browser-based UI, interview forwarding, co-browsing, dashboards, live project monitoring, flexible address and quota management, open API for third-party integration, and dialer support.
• Survey and Analysis Services Full-service market research offerings including telephone surveys in GESS's own CATI studio in Hamburg, complex online surveys, offline tablet surveys, mixed-mode design studies, and data processing and analysis services. Encompasses questionnaire construction, sampling design, data collection, and results analysis.
• GESS Support, Training, and Documentation Comprehensive support services including demo files and videos, tutorials and manuals, supplementary downloads, and software training sessions for GESS products. Documentation available in German, English, and French.

Quantifiable outcome

• 156,420 surveyed households, 316,361 interviewed persons, and 960,619 documented routes in Mobilität in Deutschland study
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BVM (Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher e.V.)coreOthersGESS is a corporate member of BVM, adhering to the association's guidelines and quality standards for German market and social research. Participation demonstrates commitment to industry best practices.
• ADM (Arbeitskreis Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforschungsinstitute e.V.)coreOthersGESS Phone & Field is an ADM member institute committed to the transparency initiative of ADM. Operates strictly according to ADM guidelines for telephone surveys and transparency standards.
• IMSF (Initiative Markt- und Sozialforschung e.V.)minorOthersGESS supports IMSF which provides easily understandable and helpful information about market and social research topics.
• ReDem GmbHcoreTechnology or IntegrationNative integration of ReDem's AI-powered quality control (ReDem Score) into GESS Q. for automated data quality checks including open-ended response analysis, coherence checking, time analysis, grid pattern detection, and behavioral analytics.
• dimap Das Institut für Markt- und Politikforschung GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-located in Waterloohain Hamburg forming a cross-disciplinary competence center. Developed online election portal for SWR using GESS software.
• infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGESS conducts online portion of Mobilität in Deutschland study for infas, one of Germany's leading social research institutes.
• Kantar Public / KantarcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGESS provides software and services for Adult Education Survey (AES) conducted under coordination of Kantar Public.
• German Doctors e.V.minorOthersGESS supports German Doctors e.V. (international medical NGO) with survey services including feedback surveys using GESS Q. and tabulation/charting of results.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos: Global market research firm with significant digital data collection, proprietary platforms, and mixed-mode survey operations. Comparable to GESS in end-to-end survey research delivery, but operating at much larger international scale and with broader service lines.
• SurveyMonkey: Large-scale survey platform expanding aggressively into market research use cases with enterprise tier, panel partnerships, and analytics. Comparable in core survey software functionality but serves a much broader customer base beyond market research.
• NielsenIQ (formerly GfK): German-rooted global consumer panel and market research firm offering proprietary analytics, consumer panels, and survey-based intelligence. Comparable as a German-origin market research incumbent combining software, panels, and analytics.
• Kantar: Global market research giant operating proprietary software, panels, and fieldwork operations across 90+ markets. Comparable in offering end-to-end research services plus proprietary technology, but at vastly larger scale and with broader portfolio reach than GESS's German-focused stack.

Direct peers

• Qualtrics: Major enterprise survey and experience management platform with strong market research features including questionnaire design, multi-mode distribution, and analytics. Comparable to GESS Q. + GESStabs as a survey software platform serving market research use cases, though at much larger scale with broader enterprise focus.
• Forsta (formerly Confirmit): Enterprise feedback management and market research technology platform offering survey design, data collection, and analytics software. Directly comparable as a research-specific software platform serving market research buyers with similar tabulation and reporting capabilities to GESS.
• Sawtooth Software: Specialized survey design and analysis software for market research, including conjoint (CBC), MaxDiff, and ACA tools. Directly comparable as a niche statistical-analysis software provider focused on the same market research buyer segment as GESStabs.
• Toluna: Online panel and survey technology provider for market research, combining panel infrastructure with survey programming and analytics tools. Directly comparable to GESS Q. + GESS Cati as a survey technology provider, with the addition of owned consumer panels.
• infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft: German social research institute that contracts GESS to conduct the online portion of the MiD study. Directly comparable as a German social-research field-services peer and existing client/partner of GESS, operating in the same federal research ecosystem.
• dimap: German market and political research institute headquartered in the same Hamburg Waterloohain competence center as GESS, with whom GESS collaborates on the SWR online election portal. Comparable as a German market research competitor and partner operating in the same Hamburg government-research ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about GESS