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| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Low cost | Potentially low quality of data (low response rate, sometimes questionabel accuracy, incomplete responses) |
| Little chance of interviewer bias | Requirement that the instrument be short |
| Less pressure on interviewee for a fast response | No control over order of answering questions |
| Greater feeling of anonymity | No information about the context of answering |
| No way to help people who misunderstand questions |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Interviewer can correct misunderstandings | Possible interviewer effects |
| Interviewer can probe inadequate answers | High cost |
| Interviewer can establish rapport with the interviewee | |
| High data quality (high response rate, interviewee is put at ease, longer interviews are possible) |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| High response rate | Possible interviewer effects |
| Longer interviews are possible | No visual aids are possible |
| Cheap and quick data collection | Difficulty in asking complex questions (interviewer cannot use body language for cues that the interviewee does not understand a question) |
| Interviewing can be supervised | |
| Data collection can be computerized | |
| PLUS all the advantages of personal interviews |
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(Updated 2014)