LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey is a German open-source survey platform founded in 2003 that has become one of the longest-running and most feature-rich survey tools available. Headquartered in Hamburg, LimeSurvey GmbH develops and maintains the platform that enables researchers, businesses, and organizations to create complex online questionnaires with full control over their data. As a free and open-source alternative to SurveyMonkey and Google Forms, LimeSurvey has built a large global community of users and contributors over more than two decades.

The platform offers over 30 question types including multiple choice, matrix, ranking, and open-ended formats, with powerful branching logic and conditional display rules that adapt the survey experience based on respondent answers. LimeSurvey supports multi-language surveys, participant token management for controlled access, quotas for limiting responses, and comprehensive data export in formats including CSV, SPSS, and R. Users can fully customize survey themes, add GDPR compliance tools like consent pages and data anonymization, and extend functionality through plugins.

LimeSurvey can be self-hosted on any web server for complete data sovereignty, or used through the official cloud hosting service with data stored in Germany. The self-hosted Community Edition is entirely free with no limits on surveys, questions, or responses. The cloud plans add convenience features like automatic updates, backups, and technical support. LimeSurvey is fully GDPR compliant and provides built-in tools to help survey administrators meet European data protection requirements.