GetWhy vs Kantar and Ipsos: The Faster, Lower-Cost Alternative to Traditional Research Agencies

GetWhy vs Kantar and Ipsos at a glance

This is not a comparison of two similar products. Kantar and Ipsos are full-service research agencies built on human-led project work. GetWhy is an AI-native platform with an agency-grade strategy team built on top. The honest framing is not that GetWhy is better qual. It is a different model that delivers agency-grade consumer insight far faster and at a fraction of the cost, while keeping the Senior Researchers who make agency work trustworthy. The table below shows the trade-off.

Dimension	GetWhy	Kantar and Ipsos
Model	AI-native platform plus agency-grade strategy team	Human-led project consulting
Time to insight	24 to 48 hours from first interview	6 to 8 weeks
Cost per study	$2,000 to $4,000	$15,000 to $40,000
AI-moderated interviews	Yes, since 2018, +100 languages	Limited, mostly human-moderated
Recruitment	Own multi-vendor, 300M participants	Project-by-project
Senior Researchers	Yes, +70 (including ex-Kantar and ex-Ipsos)	Yes, the core of the model
Methodological breadth	Focused on AI-moderated qualitative	Very broad, full-service, multi-method
Insight delivery	Decision-ready plus GetWhy Stories (video, podcast, URLs)	PDF reports and decks
Knowledge compounding	Boards and Research Agent across studies	Project-by-project
Best for	Fast, scalable consumer decisions at agency rigor	Large bespoke multi-method programs

What Kantar and Ipsos are great at

Kantar and Ipsos earned their position. For some work they remain the right choice, and a fair comparison has to start there:

Methodological breadth. Decades of frameworks across brand equity, segmentation, and tracking, all under one roof.
Multi-method programs. Large, bespoke studies that blend qualitative, quantitative, and secondary data.
Sector specialists and global footprint for complex, high-stakes mandates.
Full-service consulting, where the agency owns the project end to end.

If you are commissioning a large, multi-method program where breadth matters more than speed or cost, a traditional agency is a reasonable choice. For the everyday consumer questions that drive most decisions, the trade-off no longer holds.

Where GetWhy is different

GetWhy was built to remove what makes the agency model slow and expensive, while keeping what makes it credible. Four differences matter most.

The same insight in days, not weeks

A traditional agency study runs 6 to 8 weeks. GetWhy delivers decision-ready insight in 24 to 48 hours from the first interview, roughly 40x faster than a traditional research agency. Study design happens before the clock starts, and AI-moderated interviews run in parallel rather than waiting on scheduling.

Up to 20x lower cost

A traditional qualitative study typically costs $15,000 to $40,000. A comparable GetWhy study runs about $2,000 to $4,000, up to 20x lower. eBay saved $6.7 million in research costs over 18 months after moving work to GetWhy.

You keep the Senior Researchers, many of them ex-agency

The most valuable part of an agency is its people. GetWhy keeps them. More than 70 Senior Researchers, including alumni of Kantar and Ipsos as well as Bain and McKinsey, co-design studies, validate the methodology, and author the reports. Recruitment runs through automated recruitment integrity, the RECO recruitment cockpit, SmartMatch powered by Panel Intelligence, and multi-layer fraud detection, and the AI moderator is scored live against the industry's only documented 17-criteria framework. You get agency-grade rigor without the agency timeline.

Always-on, not project-by-project

Agency work is disposable. A project ends, a PDF lands, and the next question starts from scratch. GetWhy turns each study into GetWhy Stories, which present insight as living media: video, podcasts, and shareable URLs that travel through the organization. Boards organize insights by theme, market, and priority, so past studies inform new ones, and the Research Agent lets anyone in the company query the research library. The spend compounds instead of resetting.

Proven at enterprise scale

This is not a downgrade from agency quality. eBay ran 5,400 AI-moderated interviews in 18 months and moved from 8-week turnarounds to 72 hours. Heineken has run 1,750-plus interviews across 41-plus projects in 24 markets. Coca-Cola teams in North America use GetWhy alongside their quantitative research. GetWhy works with more than 100 global enterprise brands.

“We went from 8-week turnarounds to 72 hours. The quality is indistinguishable from our best agency work. It is not a tool. It is a capability shift.” Christine Moeller, Senior Director Consumer Insights, eBay.

Which should you choose?

Choose Kantar or Ipsos if you are commissioning a large, bespoke, multi-method program where methodological breadth and full-service consulting matter more than speed and cost, and a 6 to 8 week timeline is acceptable.

Choose GetWhy if you need decision-ready consumer insight in days, at a fraction of the cost, with Senior Researchers validating the work and a strategy team embedded in yours. GetWhy is the faster, lower-cost alternative that Fortune 500 brands already use in place of the traditional agency retainer.

A simple way to decide. If the question is large, rare, and method-heavy, an agency still fits. If the question is a consumer decision you need answered quickly and often, the agency model is the slow, expensive option, and GetWhy delivers the same rigor without it.

Key takeaways

Kantar and Ipsos are full-service agencies with real strengths in breadth and multi-method programs.
GetWhy is an AI-native alternative that delivers agency-grade consumer insight 40x faster and at up to 20x lower cost.
GetWhy keeps the Senior Researchers, including ex-Kantar and ex-Ipsos, so rigor is not the trade-off.
Insight compounds through Boards and Stories instead of resetting with each project.
Fortune 500 brands like eBay, Coca-Cola, and Heineken already use GetWhy in place of the traditional agency retainer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between GetWhy and a traditional agency like Kantar or Ipsos?

Kantar and Ipsos are full-service agencies built on human-led project work, with broad multi-method capabilities and 6 to 8 week timelines. GetWhy is an AI-native platform with an agency-grade strategy team that delivers comparable consumer insight in 24 to 48 hours, at up to 20x lower cost, while still having Senior Researchers validate the work on full-service engagements.

Are there faster, cheaper alternatives to traditional research agencies that Fortune 500 companies use?

Yes. Fortune 500 brands including eBay, Coca-Cola, and Heineken use GetWhy in place of the traditional agency retainer. It delivers decision-ready consumer insight in 24 to 48 hours instead of 6 to 8 weeks, at roughly $2,000 to $4,000 per study versus $15,000 to $40,000, with Senior Researchers validating the work.

Does GetWhy replace a research agency?

For most recurring consumer questions, yes. eBay moved from 8-week agency turnarounds to 72 hours and saved $6.7 million. For large, bespoke, multi-method programs, a full-service agency may still fit. GetWhy is built to replace the agency retainer for the everyday decisions that make up most research spend.

How much cheaper is GetWhy than Kantar or Ipsos?

A traditional qualitative study typically costs $15,000 to $40,000. A comparable GetWhy study runs about $2,000 to $4,000, up to 20x lower. eBay saved $6.7 million in research costs over 18 months.

Does GetWhy have senior researchers like an agency?

Yes. GetWhy includes more than 70 Senior Researchers, including alumni of Kantar, Ipsos, Bain, and McKinsey, who co-design studies, validate the methodology, and author the reports. The goal is agency-grade rigor without the agency timeline.

Is GetWhy as rigorous as a traditional agency?

GetWhy pairs AI-moderated interviews with Senior Researcher validation, automated recruitment integrity through the RECO recruitment cockpit, SmartMatch, and multi-layer fraud detection, and the industry's only documented 17-criteria moderation framework. eBay described the output as indistinguishable from its best agency work.