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LimeSurvey

★ 3k

The old guard of open-source surveys: every question type imaginable, quotas, multi-language, exports.

LimeSurvey does the job of SurveyMonkey, self-hosted. It is GPL-2.0-licensed, a copyleft licence, and setting it up is an afternoon, not a weekend. SurveyMonkey bills $30/mo for it.

Open-source replacement for SurveyMonkey.

Licence
GPL-2.0
Self-hosting
Medium
The paid one costs
$30/mo
GitHub stars
3k
view the code →official site →

Is it actually a replacement?

We have written a verdict on what it replaces — what you lose, and why people still pay:

How LimeSurvey runs

Where it runs

LimeSurvey runs on your machine or their cloud.

Installing it

Hosted Cloud signup, or download the Community Edition PHP package and run its web installer.

Where your data lives

Cloud data lives in LimeSurvey's selected hosting region; self-hosted surveys and responses live in MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, with multiple tabular/statistical export formats.

What setup takes

The useful unlimited route is self-hosting, which requires a PHP web server, database, mail, updates and backups; the hosted free plan permits only 25 responses per month.

The catch compared with SurveyMonkey

LimeSurvey has far deeper survey logic than most free tools, but its dense administration and self-hosting burden are much less approachable than SurveyMonkey, while its free cloud plan permits only 25 responses monthly.

LimeSurvey questions

Is LimeSurvey open source?

Yes — it is released under GPL-2.0.

Can LimeSurvey replace SurveyMonkey?

Our verdict on SurveyMonkey is YES. Formbricks (13k stars), HeyForm (9k stars), LimeSurvey (4k stars) are mature open-source replacements for SurveyMonkey — self-host with real ops work and stop paying $39/mo.

Can I self-host LimeSurvey?

Yes — we rate it medium to self-host, and it runs on your machine or their cloud. Hosted Cloud signup, or download the Community Edition PHP package and run its web installer.

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