Understand Your Museum Visitors.
Grow Your Impact.

Professional museum visitor research trusted by 250+ museums across Europe. Make evidence-based decisions with confidence. Backed by 7 universities.

Full professional audience study free for all museums. Optional upgrades available.

View membership plans
250+ MUSEUMS
7 UNIVERSITIES
PERSONALISED SURVEY
BENCHMARKING
MEASURE IMPACT

Academic partners

University of Antwerp
Université de Bordeaux
Universitat de València
Universität Hildesheim
University of Groningen
Ca' Foscari Venice
FH Kufstein Tirol

Sentomus: free museum visitor research and audience study for European museums

Connect with your visitors through the Sentomus museum audience study.

Sentomus is a large-scale independent audience study designed specifically for museums. It is a widely adopted international visitor research programme.

Sentomus enables museums of all sizes and types to collect in-depth, actionable insights about their visitors and non-visitors, through dynamic, multilingual surveys. The study combines methodological rigour and scientific foundation with practical usability, allowing museums to conduct professional visitor research in an accessible way.

Sentomus offers a wide range of visitor insights — from visitor satisfaction and experience evaluation to impact on visitor wellbeing, Net Promoter Score (NPS), visit motivations, visitor profiles, and non-visitor research.

The study is based on a standard questionnaire, allowing benchmarking with comparable museums and cross-museum learning. The questionnaire is fully adapted to the local context and research needs of each participating museum, including the possibility to add local questions — so every museum gets a fully personalised version of the standard questionnaire. Your museum's data and results are confidential and shared only with you — benchmarking is based on anonymised data.

The study is suited for the smallest to the largest museums, regardless of their type of offer and organisation. Already over 250 museums have successfully implemented this study.

Young boy engaging with a museum exhibit
Children exploring a museum
Friends visiting a museum together
Museum visitors viewing artworks
How museums rate Sentomus
4.3/ 5overall
Quality of the questionnaire
4.5
Ease of use
4.3
Dashboard & insights
4.2
Support & guidance
4.4
Feasibility & workload
4.1
Value for investment
4.4
Based on 46 verified ratings from participating museums

See Sentomus museum visitor research in action

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Membership plans

Free and paid museum visitor research plans

Sentomus has a history of successful audience studies in over 250 museums. To enable all museums to participate, since 2026 the study has also been available for free. The free membership plan contains a full audience research study, without compromising on quality.

Choose a plan depending on the level of scale, reporting and support you need.

Feature Member Free Pro Add-on Ambassador Premium
Full personalised visitor survey✓✓✓
Live dynamic dashboard✓✓✓
Multilingual (up to 6 languages)✓✓✓
Personalised communication materials✓✓✓
European benchmarking report + webinar✓✓✓
Survey respondentsUp to 100UnlimitedUnlimited
Study duration6 months12 months12 months
Extra helpdesk support—✓✓
Trend measurement over time—✓✓
Group participation + group report—✓✓
Individual museum research report——✓
Benchmarking with peer museums——✓
Executive summary for board——✓
Raw visitor data access——✓
Contact us

Participation fees per year

Museum size (FTE) Member Free Pro Add-on Ambassador Premium
Less than 5 FTEFree€295€590
5 to 19 FTEFree€445€890
20 to 49 FTEFree€600€1200
50 to 75 FTEFree€750€1500
More than 75 FTEFree€975€1950

Prices per year, based on museum staff size (FTE). Groups receive reduced fees.

Exchange rates are approximate and updated periodically.

Sentomus Member

Free participation with a complete museum visitor study

Timeline

  • Duration: 6 months
  • Can be renewed after 12 months

Survey

  • Access to the Sentomus platform
  • Full survey with all topics, personalisation and extra questions
  • Personalised interactive dashboard
  • Up to 100 respondents
  • Clear manuals, roadmap and short videos
  • Multilingual questionnaire (up to 6 languages)

Communication

  • Target groups: visitors and non-visitors
  • Personal survey link and QR code
  • Personalised communication materials
  • Incentives: 1 m² rainforest and prizes
  • Museum logo added to the survey

Results

  • Live dashboard
  • Filters, flexible charts and crosstabs
  • Results confidential to the museum

Reporting

  • European report
  • Webinar

Groups

  • Only individual participation
Foundation plan. Pro and Ambassador add services on top.

Sentomus Pro

Everything in Member, plus:

Timeline

  • Duration: 12 months

Survey

  • Unlimited number of respondents
  • Additional modifications to the questionnaire
  • Extra support via helpdesk

Results

  • Trend measurement (comparison over time)

Group participation

  • Registration as a group
  • Group-level questions possible
  • Group report available
  • Group structure on the platform
  • Group communication
Suitable for museums that want to survey more visitors and for museum networks.

Sentomus Ambassador

Everything in Member + Pro, plus:

Timeline

  • Duration: 12 months
  • Report delivered in June or December

Results

  • Raw data available

Reporting and benchmarking

  • Tap into a rich and growing benchmark database
  • Personalised research report
  • Benchmarking with peers, national and international results
  • Executive summary

Groups

  • Individual reports per location
  • Additional benchmark with group-wide results
  • Raw data available at group level
Full option for museums that need an individual research report including benchmarking.

What museums say about Sentomus

Laurine, Van Gogh Museum

"The report feels valuable from the very first read. It surfaces insights on themes we do not measure ourselves, and the benchmarking gives the results the context we need to act on them."
"It was very quick and easy to set up the questionnaire."

Antje Lehmann, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

"We found the dataset and reports extremely useful. The study is rich, engaging, and full of actionable information, especially for a network of museums that needs shared insights and clear comparisons."

Amsterdam Museum

"Sentomus provides meaningful input for our own audience research approach. The results help sharpen our internal research model and translate visitor feedback into clear learnings."

Bart Ooghe, Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent

"A great result thanks to the link with our e-ticketing!"

Martijn Steinebach, Forteiland Pampus

"I truly appreciate this enormously — many thanks for your flexibility!"

Academic team behind the museum visitor study

Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme

Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme

Master in Cultural Management, University of Antwerp, Antwerp Management School

Prof. Dr. Johan Kolsteeg

Prof. Dr. J.A.C. (Johan) Kolsteeg

Art Sciences, Organisation and Communication in the Arts; Cultural Democracy, University of Groningen

Prof. Dr. Bridget Mandel

Prof. Dr. Bridget Mandel

Audience Development, Cultural Participation, Cultural PR and Marketing, University of Hildesheim

Dr. Raphaëlle Bats

Dr. Raphaëlle Bats

Curator, URFIST Bordeaux & STI Reference, University of Bordeaux

Prof. Dr. Juliette Passebois-Ducros

Prof. Dr. Juliette Passebois-Ducros

Head of Master's Programme in Marketing Strategy and Communication, University of Bordeaux

Prof. Dr. Manuel Cuadrado García

Prof. Dr. Manuel Cuadrado García

Associate Professor of Marketing and Market Research, University of Valencia

Prof. Dr. Verena Teissl

Prof. (FH) Dr. Verena Teissl

Cultural Management and Cultural Studies, Festival Studies, Cultural Tourism, FH Kufstein Tirol

Prof. Dr. Francesco Casarin

Prof. Dr. Francesco Casarin

Professor of Marketing Strategy, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Giulia Cancellieri

Giulia Cancellieri

Researcher in Economics and Business Management, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about museum visitor research

Sentomus is a large-scale independent audience study designed specifically for museums. It enables museums of all sizes to collect in-depth, actionable insights about their visitors and non-visitors through dynamic, multilingual surveys. The study is backed by 7 European universities and trusted by over 250 museums across Europe.

Yes. Since 2026 the Sentomus Member plan is completely free, including a full personalised survey, live dashboard, multilingual questionnaire (up to 6 languages), communication materials, and up to 100 respondents. Museums can optionally upgrade to Pro or Ambassador plans for additional features like unlimited respondents, benchmarking reports, and raw data access.

Over 250 museums across Europe have successfully implemented the Sentomus study, including institutions like the Van Gogh Museum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Amsterdam Museum.

Sentomus is developed in collaboration with 7 leading European universities: University of Antwerp, Université de Bordeaux, Universitat de València, Universität Hildesheim, University of Groningen, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and FH Kufstein Tirol.

Sentomus provides insights into visitor satisfaction, visitor profiles, visit motivations, experience evaluation, Net Promoter Score (NPS), non-visitor research, benchmarking with comparable museums, trend measurement over time, and board-ready data for evidence-based decision-making.

Each participating museum can offer its Sentomus survey in up to 6 languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian). The questionnaire is fully adapted to the local context and research needs of each museum.

For every fully completed Sentomus survey, 1 m² of rainforest is preserved in partnership with World Land Trust. So far, over 85,000 m² of rainforest has been preserved. Respondents also have a chance of winning attractive prizes.

Based on 46 verified ratings from participating museums, Sentomus scores 4.3 out of 5 overall. The highest-rated aspects are quality of the questionnaire (4.5/5), support and guidance (4.4/5), and value for investment (4.4/5).

Yes, you can start for free and upgrade to Pro or Ambassador at a later stage. Sentomus is flexible and adapts to your museum's needs and timeline.

Incentives

World Land Trust rainforest partnership

World Land Trust logo

World Land Trust partnership

For every fully completed Sentomus survey, 1 m² of rainforest is preserved in partnership with World Land Trust.

In addition, respondents have a chance of winning attractive prizes, to encourage participation.

Sentomus selects winners automatically and anonymously at the end of each survey completion. There is no extra workload or investment for museums.

Rainforest preserved
85,000m2
and counting
Certificates