--- title: "Why do Survey counts differ between Guidance Analytics and Product Analytics?" slug: "mismatch-in-survey-guidance-analytics-and-product-analytics" tags: ["guidance analytics", "Product Analytics", "Survey Responses"] updated: 2025-11-19T05:26:10Z published: 2025-11-19T05:26:10Z --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.whatfix.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why do Survey counts differ between Guidance Analytics and Product Analytics? ### Introduction While analyzing a Survey, a data mismatch may appear between the Guidance Analytics (GA) and Product Analytics (PA) dashboards. The difference is between the following metrics: - The submitted **Responses** count on the Survey GA dashboard - The **Survey Submit** events count in Trend Insights on the PA dashboard > [!NOTE] > Note: > > Whatfix recommends using each analytics dashboard for the following use cases: > > - Use the GA dashboard to view Survey responses. For more information, see [Survey Analytics](/studio/docs/survey-analytics#summary-of-all-the-responses). > - Use Trend Insights on the PA dashboard to view end-user engagement with Surveys using events, such as **Survey Shown**, **Survey Closed**, and **Survey Submit.** For more information, see [How can I see analytics of Survey using Trend Insights?](/product-analytics/docs/how-can-i-see-analytics-of-survey-using-trend-insights) The following GIFs show an example of the difference in the Survey data:**** **Responses******count on the GA dashboard: ![survey guidance analytics response count](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/Survey%20Guidance%20Analytics%20Count.gif) **Survey Submit**events count in Trend Insights on the PA dashboard: ![survey count guidance analytics](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/Survey%20PA%20Count%20Spotlight.gif) For a given Survey, these GIFs show the Survey **Responses** count is 33 in GA, while the **Survey Submit** event’s count is 34 in PA. ### Causes ****Stage filter does not apply to the Responses metric on the Guidance Analytics dashboard**** In both GA and PA, Whatfix enables you to view data from the **Ready** or **Production** stages. For more information, see [Get Analytics Data across CLM Stages](/studio/docs/get-analytics-data-across-clm-stages). **Stage filter on the Guidance Analytics dashboard:** ![Stage Filter_Guidance Analytics](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/Guidance%20Analytics_Stage%20Filter(1).png) **Data source filter on the Product Analytics dashboard:** ![](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/trend_insight_data_source_option.png) PA separates Survey engagement data by stage (Data source filter): - **Ready** shows only Ready stage submissions - **Production** shows only submissions made after the Survey is published GA behaves differently. The **Stage** filter is only used to filter and view the available Survey reports by **Ready** or **Production** stages. The **Stage** filter does not apply to the **Responses** metric. GA always shows the total cumulative responses across both **Ready** and **Production** stages. > [!NOTE] > Info: > > If you publish the Survey and it receives responses, the Survey report appears in the **Production** stage. If you unpublish the Survey, its report then appears in the **Ready** stage. ![GA response column](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/GA_Responses.png) To understand how **Survey Submit** event counts in PA and **Responses** counts in GA behave across stages, refer to the following example which covers the different possible scenarios: **Example:** 1. A Survey is created on August 1, 2025. It receives 5 user responses in the **Ready** stage from August 1, 2025 to August 2, 2025. > [!NOTE] > Note: > > - While testing Surveys in a non-production environment before it is published, Whatfix records Survey responses in the **Ready**stage. > - Whatfix does not record Survey responses submitted using [Preview Mode](https://support.whatfix.com/studio/docs/en/preview-a-survey?highlight=preview%20mode%20survey). 2. The Survey is published on August 2, 2025, and then receives 50 additional responses in the **Production** stage from August 2, 2025 to August 9, 2025. 3. Later, the Survey is unpublished. Use the following table to understand how the **Survey Submit** event count and **Responses** count are calculated for each scenario: | Scenario (sequential) | Description | Survey Submit event count in PA | Responses count in GA | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Users submit responses when the Survey is in **Ready** stage from August 1, 2025 to August 2, 2025 | Ready | Production | Ready | Production | | 5 | The Survey report does not appear because there is no data available | 5 | The Survey report does not appear because there is no data available | | 2 | Users submit responses when the Survey is in **Production** stage from August 2, 2025 to August 9, 2025 | 5 | 50 | The Survey report does not appear because it is pushed to Production | 55 (Cumulative count of Ready and Production) | | 3 | You unpublish the Survey | 5 | 50 | 55 (Cumulative count of Ready and Production) | The Survey report does not appear because it is unpublished | In PA, after Scenario 3 is completed, the **Survey Submit** event count is 5 and 50 in **Ready** and **Production,** respectively. In GA, for both Scenarios 2 and 3, when you set the **Stage** filter as **Production** or **Ready**respectively, the number of Survey **Responses** is 55 (cumulative count of all Survey responses regardless of the selected **Stage** filter). ****Date filter does not apply to the Responses metric on the Guidance Analytics dashboard**** In PA, the date filter enables you to view the count of the **Survey Submit** event within your selected date range. However, in GA, the date filter does not apply to****the**Responses**count, which always shows a cumulative count across both **Ready** and **Production** stages. **Date filter on PA:** ![](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/Date Filter_Product Analytics(1).png) **Date filter on GA:**![date filter guidance analytics](https://cdn.document360.io/a268766e-d74d-4619-9613-e2472f809ffb/Images/Documentation/Date%20Filter_Guidance%20Analytics.png) To understand how **Survey Submit** event counts in PA and **Responses** counts in GA behave based on the date filters, refer to the following example: **Example:** 1. A Survey is created and then published on August 2, 2025. 2. The Survey receives 50 responses in the **Production** stage from August 2, 2025, to August 31, 2025: 1. Users submit 25 responses from August 2, 2025 to August 9, 2025. 2. Users submit 25 responses from August 10, 2025 to August 31, 2025. Consider you set the date filter from August 10, 2025 to August 31, 2025. PA shows **25 Survey Submit** events (responses submitted during this time period). In GA, irrespective of the date filter, the **Responses** count is 50 (cumulative count of all Survey responses). > [!NOTE] > Note: > > Use the following table to understand how the **Survey Submit** event count and **Responses** count are calculated: > > | Date filter | Survey Submit event count in PA | Responses count in GA | > | --- | --- | --- | > | August 10, 2025 to August 31, 2025 | 25 | 50 | > | August 1, 2025 to August 31, 2025 | 50 | 50 | ****Multiple Survey Submit events logged due to network issues**** If users face network issues while submitting a survey, PA may record multiple events for a single user. GA displays only the latest response from each user. For example, for a given Survey, GA shows 50 **Responses**, while PA shows the **Survey Submit** event count as 51. This behavior may be due to PA logging a user’s submission twice. ### Conclusions For Surveys, GA and PA serve different purposes and therefore aggregate and display data differently: - To analyze responses for different Surveys, use the Survey GA dashboard. For more information, see [Survey Analytics](/studio/docs/survey-analytics#summary-of-all-the-responses). - To analyze engagement data for Surveys by data source (**Ready** or **Production**), with the option to narrow **Survey Submit** events by date filter, use Trend Insights on the PA dashboard. For more information, see [How can I see analytics of Survey using Trend Insights?](/product-analytics/docs/how-can-i-see-analytics-of-survey-using-trend-insights) and [Get Analytics Data across CLM Stages](/studio/docs/get-analytics-data-across-clm-stages). Trend Insights turns your engagement-related queries, such as the number of users who have completed Flows or the number of users who have clicked the button on your Pop-up, into actionable insights.