Hercules Works FAQ: Straight Answers About the Platform, the Panel and the Price

Several unrelated products use the name Hercules, including ones marketed as Hercules AI and a site at hercules.app. Hercules Works is the research platform at hercules.works, and the SuperJ app is where its respondents answer surveys. If you searched for one of the others, this is not it. If you want to survey Indian consumers, read on.

1. Brief. You describe the decision in plain language. The platform turns it into research objectives and a design.
2. Questionnaire. AI drafts the questions, routing and screener, and checks them against a quality rubric. You edit before anything is fielded.
3. Fieldwork. The survey is shown in our app to members who match your targeting. Responses are screened for speeders, straight-lining and inconsistent answers.
4. Report. The analytics engine computes the statistics in SQL over the response data and writes the report, which exports in Markdown, HTML and PDF.

Two ways in. Quick Insights skips the survey builder: you type one question and answers from real people arrive as they come, with automated screening. Guided Workflow is for a bigger question. You pick a use case such as product testing, brand health or pricing research and choose the metrics. A survey is generated, ready to launch. Question types include single and multi-select, rating scales, grids, ranking, open text, MaxDiff, and image, video and audio stimuli. Routing covers skip logic, screen-outs, quotas, carry-forward, loops and piping.

The step-by-step version is in how to run a study and the technical version in the 7-step survey pipeline.

Members of our consumer research app. It has 2 crore Indian respondents, and the verified, survey-eligible panel is a subset of them. Members span many consumer categories and include professionals; for a specific professional audience, ask for a feasibility count. Most members are in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi, and any Indian city can be targeted.

Each member completes Aadhaar-based KYC once, so one person cannot hold several accounts. For each study the platform receives a zero-knowledge proof that the respondent is verified, not their identity documents. A record of the verification is stored on JMDT, Jupiter Meta's own blockchain. Respondents stay anonymous to researchers. The limit: it is app-based, so it reaches smartphone users; offline households need face-to-face fieldwork. Details are in the panel methodology.

Members answer in the app, which is on Google Play and the App Store. Researchers use the web platform; there is no separate researcher app.

Any Indian city, gender (male or female), age bands from 18 to 90, NCCS A1 to C1 and behavioural segments, with interlocking quotas. Region is not a single field; reach a region by naming its cities. Buyers or users of a category or brand are found with a screener question inside the survey. Surveys run in as many Indian languages as the study needs; confirm a specific language when briefing. Income bands are not a targeting field.

See NCCS classification explained and survey audience targeting in India.

Members are everyday consumers across many categories, and they answer surveys in exchange for rewards. To reach the buyers or users you need, a study combines targeting with a screener question. Ask for a feasibility count for your exact audience. Guides by audience:

• Car buyers and owners
• Makeup and skincare users
• Smartphone buyers
• Food and beverage
• Travellers
• OTT and gaming
• Users of a specific brand
• South India
• All audiences

Not sure which study to run? Match the decision to a method first; the questionnaire follows from it.

Free to start with 30 responses. Plus costs ₹150 per response from 100 responses. Pro costs ₹120 per response in bundles of 400 to 1,000. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds a dedicated research team, custom study design and qualitative work such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. Respondents and analysis are included in the per-response price.

Plans are on the pricing page. Worked budgets for concept tests, ad pretests, trackers and usage studies, and how survey tools and agencies charge instead, are in what market research costs in India.

What we would do. We would run the exact questionnaire on the Free plan first and read the open answers before paying for anything. One audience, one read: Plus is enough. Comparing cells: go straight to a Pro bundle and size each cell for the comparison, not the total.

It does not guarantee response quality, representativeness or a particular outcome; quality checks remove flagged responses, but a study can still be badly designed. Nor does it replace professional, legal, academic or domain judgement. The report should be read by someone who understands the decision. There is no standard turnaround time, because fill speed depends on how narrow the audience is. Choice-based conjoint is not a product feature, although the method is explained in the conjoint analysis guide. Offline households are out of reach.

The pages people look for most, in the order a first-time researcher needs them.

• About us: who makes it and why
• How to run a study: brief, questionnaire, fieldwork, report
• Pricing: plans and per-response prices
• What a study costs in India: worked budgets for six study types
• Panel methodology: how members are verified and checked
• Analytics engine: how the analysis and report are produced
• Research reports: published studies with charts and takeaways
• Research use cases: concept tests, trackers, ad tests and more
• Market research guides: the full library
• Which study fits your decision: start here if you are new to research
• Market research companies in India compared
• Consumer research companies in India
• Consumer panels in India
• Consumer insights platforms in India
• Best online survey tools
• AI survey tools compared
• Market research tools
• Hiring a market research agency in India
• Researching Indian consumers
• Pricing research in India
• Survey methodology
• NielsenIQ alternatives in India
• Help centre: account, credits and product questions

The research section carries full reports with charts. These are the study write-ups published as guides, each describing the design, the sample and what the report did and did not show:

• Brain fog and sleep supplement concept test
• Surf Excel ad testing: a design with no results
• Vim vs Beco brand switching
• Hotel booking app ad pre-test
• Six-pack bread packaging test
• Skincare brand blind test
• When Indian professionals scroll
• Relocation housing study
• Urban sports participation
• Haldiram vs Bikaji bhujia
• Cultural hooks for festive campaigns
• Chai-time snacking
• Toothpaste flavour concept test
• Trust in Indian supplements

Client case studies on the research pages:

• Amul: charting a new category entry
• ICICI Prudential: brand ambassador search
• SBI Mutual Fund: what first-time investors want
• Greenply vs the market: perception across India
• Kotak: testing a life insurer's health app concept
• Imperial Blue: a 3-hour dipstick study

If your job is a consumer survey in India among a defined audience, this is the pilot and main study at list price, with respondents included.

Pro is sold in bundles of 400 to 1,000 responses and costs 20% less per response than Plus. Enterprise plans come with a dedicated research team and are priced on request.

The SuperJ network has 2 crore Indian respondents. The survey-eligible panel is a subset, and availability depends on your targeting. Members complete Aadhaar-based KYC once, and each study receives a zero-knowledge proof of verification. Surveys run in as many Indian languages as the study needs. Quality checks flag speeders, straight-lining and inconsistent answers. Read /panel-methodology and pricing.

The limit: the app reaches smartphone users only, so offline households need face-to-face fieldwork.