Is LimeSurvey the Best Survey Tool Over SurveyMonkey & Google Forms?

When it comes to collecting feedback or conducting research, tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and QuestionPro are often the first to come to mind. They’re polished and packed with ready-to-go features. However, for many users, particularly those requiring more flexibility, control over data, or freedom from strict pricing tiers, these platforms can quickly become limiting.

LimeSurvey offers a different approach.

As an open-source survey platform, LimeSurvey gives users the ability to build powerful, customizable surveys without being boxed in by rigid plans or locked features. Whether you’re looking to run complex academic studies, internal organizational surveys, or multilingual public polls, LimeSurvey provides the tools and freedom to do it your way.

But how does LimeSurvey actually compare to the big names in the industry?

In this post, we’ll break down how LimeSurvey stacks up against its top alternatives, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and QuestionPro, focusing on key factors like features, pricing, customization, privacy, and use cases. If you’re searching for a survey tool that adapts to your needs, not the other way around, this comparison is for you.

What is LimeSurvey?

LimeSurvey is an open-source online survey tool that allows individuals, organizations, and businesses to create, publish, and manage surveys, quizzes, and polls.

It’s widely used in research, education, marketing, and feedback collection because it’s flexible, customizable, and doesn’t require coding knowledge to build professional surveys.

Key Features of LimeSurvey

What is LimeSurvey VPS Hosting?

LimeSurvey VPS Hosting is a way to run the LimeSurvey application on a Virtual Private Server instead of a personal computer. A VPS works like your own private slice of a powerful online server, giving you dedicated CPU, RAM, and storage. This means your survey platform runs faster, stays online 24/7, and can handle more responses without slowing down.

Hosting LimeSurvey on a VPS offers flexibility and control; you can customize settings, install add-ons, and manage security exactly the way you want. It’s beneficial for organizations, schools, and businesses that handle sensitive survey data and need a reliable environment that won’t be affected by other users.

Which Are the Top Alternatives to LimeSurvey?

1. SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow specializes in creating conversational surveys, chat-like, interactive experiences designed to improve engagement. It supports multi-channel feedback, including email, SMS, social media, WhatsApp, QR codes, and offline surveys.

Features

• Drag-and-drop survey builder, customizable branding, CSS support
• Multi-channel distribution across email, social platforms, SMS, and QR codes
• Real-time collaboration, workflows, webhooks, integrations (e.g., Slack, HubSpot, CRM tools)
• Offline surveys, partial responses, and location tracking

Pros

• Enhances engagement with conversational UI
• Highly customizable design and branding
• Wide distribution methods

Cons

• Design flexibility is still limited; drag-and-drop can misalign
• Custom branding is only available in higher plans
• Reporting lacks depth; some exports omit custom text responses
• The analytics interface may be overwhelming
• Pricing structure is complex; multiple plans can confuse users

Pricing (Annual Billing)

	Price	User	Responses	Custom Branding
Basic	$6.85/month	1	2,500 responses/year	❌
Starter	$17.14/month	1	15,000 responses/year	❌
Business	$51.44/month	3	50,000 responses/year	❌
Professional	$228.65/mo	5	100,000 responses/year	✅

Why Limesurvey is Best:

SurveySparrow focuses on conversational surveys but lacks advanced open-source customization and is costly for high-response limits. LimeSurvey lets you design complex surveys your way, with no restrictions. On our VPS, you get dedicated resources, high uptime, and total control over your survey data.

2. SurveyMonkey

One of the most popular platforms for creating surveys and polls, used widely by businesses and researchers.

Features

• 20+ question types
• Advanced logic (skip, randomization)
• Real-time analytics
• AI for survey creation and analysis, mobile-friendly.

Pros:

• Supports multiple-choice, rating scales, open-ended, and more.
• Extensive templates and integration

Cons:

• Advanced features and responses are gated behind pricier plans
• No White label surveys
• You cannot remove the SurveyMonkey branding from the footer

Pricing (Annual Billing)

	Price	User	Responses	Custom Branding	Multilingual surveys
Standard Monthly	$10.28/month	1	1,000 responses/year	❌	❌
Advantage Annual	$22.85/month	1	15,000 responses/year	✅	✅
Premier Annual	$57.15/mo	–	40,000 responses/year	✅	✅

Why Limesurvey is Best:

SurveyMonkey is easy to use but comes with high subscription costs, limited customization, and no self-hosting options. LimeSurvey offers complete flexibility, open-source freedom, and data ownership. Our LimeSurvey VPS provides complete control and enterprise-level security, eliminating the need for recurring SaaS costs.

3. Typeform

Typeform is a modern survey builder that creates one-question-at-a-time surveys designed to increase engagement and completion rates.

Features

• Advanced conditional branching
• Multimedia support
• Analytics dashboards, drop-off tracking, conversion metrics
• Wide integrations tools, including Zapier, HubSpot, Google Sheets

Pros

• Highly engaging, branded forms
• Visually appealing and easy to build

Cons

• Free plan limited to 10 responses/month; includes branding
• Higher cost-per-response relative to simple tools
• Advanced features (like multi-language forms, reCAPTCHA, and premium themes) are only available in higher tiers

Pricing (Annual Billing)

	Price	User	Responses	Custom Email Domain
Basic	$25/mo	1	100 responses/mo	❌
Plus	$50/mo	3	1000 responses/mo	✅
Business	$83/mo	5	10,000 responses/mo	✅

Why Limesurvey is Best:

LimeSurvey allows you to include video-based questions, giving you more diverse content formats for richer surveys. It also supports import/export of both questions and full surveys, enabling easier reuse, migration, and scaling features not natively offered in Typeform

4. Qualtrics

Qualtrics allows organizations to design complex surveys, gather data at scale, and analyze it using advanced analytics tools. It is especially popular among large corporations, government bodies, and universities that require secure, scalable, and insight-driven survey infrastructure.

Features

• Predictive analytics
• AI text analysis
• Multi-channel distribution

Pros

• Share surveys via email, SMS, apps, websites, and offline
• Integration with Salesforce, Adobe, SAP, and hundreds more.

Cons

• Pricing is not transparent and can run into thousands
• Advanced features require training or onboarding.
• Fully cloud-based; no self-hosted option.

Pricing

• Custom enterprise pricing (often thousands/year)

Why Limesurvey is Best:

Enterprise-grade but often overkill and pricey for most. LimeSurvey offers comparable survey depth with total ownership. With our VPS, you enjoy high reliability, strong backups, and performance ideal for professional research at a fraction of the cost.

5. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a comprehensive survey and research platform used for market research, academic studies, customer experience, and employee feedback. It offers deep analytics, advanced question types, and custom scripting, making it a strong tool for research professionals and corporate feedback systems.

Features

• 80+ question types for versatile surveys
• Logic/piping for personalized flows
• Reporting dashboards with real-time insights
• Integrations (e.g., Salesforce)

Pros

• Multilingual support and global targeting
• Offline surveys & mobile app for field research

Cons

• Advanced logic, exports, and dashboards are often gated behind higher tiers
• slow customer service

Pricing (Annual Billing)

	Price	User	Responses	Custom Branding
Basic	$83/user/month	5	100,000 responses/year	✅
Advanced	$99/user/month	1	25000 responses/year	✅

Why LimeSurvey is Best:

While QuestionPro offers robust features, its free tier limits advanced analytics, and paid plans ($99/month) are costly for small teams. LimeSurvey’s self-hosted version offers similar logic and multilingual support, eliminating response caps and high costs, while providing greater data control.

6. Google Forms

Google Forms is mainly designed for creating surveys, quizzes, and various forms to collect user information.

Features

• Basic question types
• Logic branching
• Google Sheets export
• Themes for customization
• Team collaboration

Pros

• Completely free,
• Easy setup
• Unlimited forms/responses
• Seamless Google integration

Cons

• Limited advanced features (e.g., no deep analytics, payment integration, or custom branding), basic design.
• Free (requires a Google account).

Self-Hosting vs. AccuWeb Hosting’s LimeSurvey: Which Is Right for You?

LimeSurvey is an open-source platform, meaning you have the flexibility to self-host it for complete control over your data and customization. However, setting it up on your own can be time-consuming and demands advanced expertise, ongoing maintenance, and server security management.

Our VPS-based LimeSurvey hosting offers businesses complete administrative control in a ready-to-use, optimized, and secure environment, eliminating the hassle of complex setup.

Conclusion

LimeSurvey is the go-to survey tool for users who demand full control, unlimited flexibility, and budget-friendly operations. Whether you’re conducting academic research, managing internal team surveys, or building compliance-driven data workflows, LimeSurvey equips you with enterprise-level features without enterprise-level costs. Its open-source nature, robust logic, and global language support make it a uniquely powerful alternative to typical commercial survey tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is LimeSurvey free?

Yes. The open-source version can be self-hosted for free with unlimited surveys and responses, but it comes with a technical headache.

2. How many question types and languages does it support?

LimeSurvey supports more than 28 question types and over 80 languages, making it well-suited for complex and global surveys.

3. What about data analysis and integration?

LimeSurvey includes basic dashboards and charts. For deeper insights, you can export data to tools like SPSS or R. Plugins and custom scripts can facilitate custom integrations.

4. What is AccuWeb’s LimeSurvey VPS Hosting?

It’s a VPS plan optimized for LimeSurvey, delivered as a pre-installed environment. You get full control over your surveys with no setup hassle, just launch and start building.

5. Will my LimeSurvey data remain secure and private?

Yes, since it’s hosted on your private VPS, you retain complete ownership and control over your data. AccuWeb Hosting provides robust infrastructure features like high uptime, DDoS protection, and automatic backups.